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Welcome to Greenvale.
Artwork by semsei used for the Director's Cut.

"At times we must purge things from this world, because they should not exist. Even if it means losing someone that you love."

I'll let you describe Deadly Premonition here, Zach.

Greenvale. Just your typical unassuming small American town. Certainly not the kind of place you'd expect to find the mutilated body of a young girl, stripped and bound to a tree as if crucified, left to be found by two young boys.

Francis York Morgan (just call him York, that's what everyone calls him) is an agent of the FBI with a special interest in murder cases involving young women. He works alone, save for the company of his invisible friend and confidant Zach (don't ask). Neither of them have seen anything quite like the events unfolding in Greenvale, and all of the horrendously-mutated monsters are a bit of a warning sign too.

But even the best agent can't deduce anything without information, so York sets to work gathering clues and profiling the eclectic residents of Greenvale, any of whom may be the culprit behind the "Red Seed Murders". But as the bodies pile up, and York comes closer and closer to the truth, he begins to discover that the murders aren't as normal as they seem...

That's the basic gist of it. What that doesn't cover is the town's incredibly quirky citizens, and the mostly funny, always weird situations York finds himself in.

Definitely does not resemble (or infringe upon the creative property of) Twin Peaks.

Deadly Premonition is a game by Access Games, written and directed by Swery65, originally for the Xbox 360 (and PlayStation 3 in Japan, called Red Seeds Profile) released in 2010. An Updated Re-release Deadly Premonition: The Director's Cut for the PlayStation 3 (in all regions) was released in 2013, with Multiple Endings and other bonuses. It received a PC port via Steam later in 2013.

A Nintendo Switch port was released in 2019 (under the name "Deadly Premonition: Origins"), alongside the announcement of a sequel titled Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing In Disguise, which sees Swery returning as writer and director.

See also D4, its Xbox One exclusive Spiritual Successor.


This game provides examples of:

  • Abandoned Hospital: The hospital in the "red world" is only inhabited by the shadows, but that could be said of the "red world" in general.
  • Abusive Parents:
    • George's mom, who was mentally unstable and regularly whipped her son.
    • To an extent, Harry "Stewart", George's father. He abandoned his son with the full knowledge that his wife was mentally unstable and did nothing about it for years.
  • Affectionate Parody: Of the Police Procedural genre.
  • Alien Geometries: Several areas have this. The earliest, most obvious example is probably Becky's house- specifically, the bedroom.
  • All There in the Manual: The developer's blog details a few key points not explained in the game, such as the relation between the Red World and Forest.
  • All Women Love Shoes: Discussed. When investigating the scene where Anna's body was found, York finds a broken stiletto heel and asks George and Emily if they know anyone in town who wears such shoes. Emily replies that she's sure every girl in town owns at least one pair of stiletto heels, including herself.
  • Alone with the Psycho: Several Red World stages see York cornered by the Raincoat Killer and being forced to hide in a closet or under a desk in order to save himself, taking advantage of the latter's inability to detect him for so long as he holds his breath, often followed by a frantic Escape Sequence. Emily is left in a similar situation when she unwittingly goes with Kaysen at the end of the story, which unfortunately ends with her in a much worse condition.
  • Alphabetical Theme Naming: With a few exceptions, the major citizens of Greenvale represent an entire alphabet. The case begins with the murder of Anna, which leads to the arrival of York and Zach, and everyone in between is a suspect. In case you miss it throughout the game, the end credits literally spell it out for you.
    • With the exception of Thomas, every character vital to the plot is between A and H.
    • All of the characters A through G die (except for Fiona), and Thomas is the only person outside that range who dies.
    • The Ingram family are clustered together (Isaach and Isaiah, Jim, Keith and Lilly make I-J-K-L).
    • Married couple Nick and Olivia Cormack are next to each other on the alphabet, as are father and son Quint and Richard Dunn.
  • Alternative Character Interpretation: In-Universe. The game begins with York providing his interpretation of Tom and Jerry's relationship as being both codependent and sadomasochistic in nature.
  • Always Murder: York muses that he always seems to get stuck with the very unusual 1% of crimes that involve serial murderers. Then again, he does work for the FBI, and solving serial murders happens to be part of what they do.
  • Amazing Freaking Grace: Plays during the original Raincoat Killer sequence. The game's version even includes some rarely-sung verses.
  • Amazing Technicolor Battlefield: You fight giant Kaysen, the final boss, in one.
  • Ambiguously Gay: Thomas, who has rather effeminate movements and is a surprisingly great chef. This is either confirmed later on, or he's actually a trans woman.
  • American Kirby Is Hardcore: While the Japanese version gives you an honest idea of what to expect with a clear shot of York and a preview of the Profiling mechanic, the American boxart is more suggestive of a Darker and Edgier game. Considering how much York adores old B-movies, this is unintentionally fitting.
  • And Now for Someone Completely Different: One chapter has you playing as Emily, and another as the original Raincoat Killer in the fifties. Later, the final boss fight has you playing as Zach.
  • And the Adventure Continues: At the end of the Director's Cut, York and Zach seem to be headed out to investigate a mysterious occurrence in New Orleans.
  • And Your Reward Is Clothes: Various sidequests have suits as rewards. Some of them do something, like extend your life bar, some don't.
    • The Directors Cut releases several new suits for York, and even some for Emily.
  • Anti-Frustration Features: The explosive barrels cannot be set off by hitting them with a melee weapon.
  • Anyone Can Die: Anyone. It's scripted as to who dies when and where, but there's a reason you can backtrack to earlier chapters in this game; you wouldn't be able to get all the sidequests otherwise. In fact, it's possible to get all the sidequests done on one playthrough provided that you put off the story as long as possible.
  • Arc Words: "At times we must purge things from this world because they should not exist, even if it means losing someone that you love." Is the very first line of the game, and gets repeated by multiple characters throughout the story.
  • Armies Are Evil: Harry reveals that the US Army gassed the entirety of Greenvale back in the fifties, inciting its citizens to kill each other. The gas then seeped into the soil, and is released whenever it rains in the town.
  • Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: All the victims of the New Raincoat Killer, plus Thomas (pressured/abused into becoming his accomplice) and Emily (killed by Kaysen) become Goddesses of the Forest. York ascends similarly, as does Zach in the Director's Cut.
  • The Atoner: Mr. Stewart became this after he failed to protect his son George from his abusive wife, turning George into a twisted powermonger.
  • Attack Its Weak Point: George can only be hurt by attacking the scars on his back or his face; Kaysen's third phase can only be hurt by attacking the doll of himself.
  • Audience Surrogate: As mentioned in Fridge Brilliance, Zach is a stand-in for the player.
  • Battle in the Rain: In the fight against George.
    • The final boss fight also, though not as noticeable.
  • Belated Happy Ending: In the original release, only Francis York got a truly happy ending; Francis Zach's fate was left hanging, and was much more open-ended, ambiguous, and melancholy. In the Director's Cut, however, he gets an unambiguously happy ending: It reveals that he gets married and has a family, eventually having an adorable granddaughter named Louise whom he has a close relationship with. York was Always With Him and watched over him his whole life, even when they couldn't speak, and after living a long and fulfilling life, he ascends to the Woods of the Goddesses to finally be reunited with his two best friends... and to once again join York in investigating Red World-related mysteries, this time presumably as a divine protector just like the Goddesses.
  • Big Bad: George Woodman, the man responsible for Greenvale's murders. While Kaysen may be the bigger, badder threat in the story, he has no direct involvement in the murders.
  • Big Eater: York, probably due to whatever ridiculous metabolism causes him to be so hungry after a short nap.
  • Bishōnen Line: Sort of. The final boss goes through a couple of grotesque transformations only to turn into a larger, creepier version of his normal self at the end.
  • Bittersweet Ending: Mainly in the original. The case is finally resolved, but several characters are still dead including Emily and York. On the other hand, Zach is finally freed from the Red Room.
  • Bland-Name Product: The Milk Barn's shelves are stocked with such favorites as Choorios cereal, Wescafe coffee, and Cress and Colgala toothpaste. Inexplicably averted in the case of Maxwell House coffee and Trix cereal, however.
    • Even extends to the Legendary Guitar Grecotch, which is a rip of the real guitar brand Gretsch.
  • "Blind Idiot" Translation: Just one instance, but a very glaring one. Examining a certain painting will have York note that it has a blue apple on it, while the player can clearly see it is green on the graphics, and as the color is relevant to a puzzle, it is very obvious it is supposed to be green. This mistake most likely comes from that Japanese uses the same word (ao) to mean both blue and green, with the specific color deduced from the context (obviously no one would claim the grass is blue and the sky is green).
  • Blipvert: Each and every profiling sequence.
  • Body Horror: The red trees growing out of people. It isn't just the trees that grow out of the victims, it's also the creepy visual of seeing their corpses immediately shrivel up into a near-rotten state.
  • Bookends: George introduces himself to York at the beginning of the game with the words "Welcome to Greenvale". In George's final scene late in the game, York confronts him after exposing him as the killer and he greets York with the words "WELCOME TO GREENVALE! AGENT FRANCIS YORK MORGAN!"
  • Boom, Headshot!: "Bullseye! Great. Great. Amazing! Headshot." Gives you extra Agent Honor after a kill.
  • Bootstrapped Theme: The actual theme tune of the game? "The Woods and the Goddess," the title screen music. The song everyone actually associates with the game? "Life is Beautiful," AKA "The Whistling and Kazoos Song." For the Updated Re-release, Rising Star Games used "Life is Beautiful" for some of the promo material outright.
  • Boss Rush: The "Psychic Spot C" sidequest.
  • Breakable Weapons: Only melee weapons, though this is balanced by them being much more powerful than the guns. You can earn unbreakable versions of melee weapons through side-quests though.
  • Break Them by Talking: George gives a speech to York on power before his boss fight.
  • Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Agent York is clearly more than a little unhinged, from the way he's always talking to the unseen Zach, the way he fixates on memorizing the directors and years of release for many movies, to the bizarre way he reacts to certain phenomena such as cracking inappropriate jokes during a grisly autopsy. However, he's also a surprisingly competent detective and his ability to fixate upon minute details to create scenarios in his mind is impressive.
  • Bury Your Gays: Played straight with the only confirmed gay person in town: Thomas. Who goes insane first. Of course, this game has a huge death toll for major characters, so it isn't that obvious. There is a reason that multiple people in the second game refer to it as a mountain of corpses.
  • But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Played with. Kaysen seems like he forgot who George was, before remembering that he was a part of his plans and insulting how simplistic it was to get him to join his cause, though it would make sense that Kaysen would forget who George is, considering his modus operandi.
  • Camp: Filled with it, and lampshaded almost every time.
  • Canine Companion: Willie, Kaysen's pet. And, according to Word of God, the interpretor for the force that was giving Kaysen orders.
  • Catchphrase: Aside from York's trademark introduction, he also has "Zach, they're here" whenever he enters the Other World.
  • The Chanteuse: Carol.
  • Cerebus Syndrome: Gruesome deaths aside, the game is still light hearted and funny in the non-horror bits. That is until the reveal that Forrest Kaysen's the one behind all of this. After that, the tone pulls a 180 into drama all the way to the end credits. The horror bits stay horrific though.
  • City Mouse: York's got a bit of a city mouse thing going on at the start of the game, acting like traveling to the countryside equals going among cavemen. He's wrong though, it turns out they're as far as the Middle Ages!
  • Climax Boss: The battle against George, the axe-wielding murderer that's been haunting you since the beginning.
  • Clock Tower: Emily fights Thomas in one.
  • Cloudcuckoolander:
    • York, as you will realize when he starts casually informing Zach of the omens he finds in his coffee. Pretty much reaches Bunny-Ears Lawyer-status.
    • There are several townspeople with similar quirks. Sigourney comes to mind.
  • Companion Cube: Sigourney's pot. It mustn't get cold.
  • Cool Car: York's car, before he totals it in the prologue. And after it gets fixed up.
  • Covers Always Lie: The American Xbox 360 cover art makes out the game to be a complete horror gore-fest when it's instead part detective work, part action survival horror, the cover art for the PS3 directors cut version of the game is more accurate.
  • Creator Cameo: Sort of. A bar is named after him, the "SWERY '65". He also appears in a trading card.
  • Creepy Crossdresser: Thomas. Partially subverted in that Thomas is no more a villain than any of the other women in A-D, and is explicitly classed with them at several points in the story.
  • Creepy Twins: Isaach and Isaiah.
  • Creepy Jazz Music: Whether it's thematically appropriate or not is up for debate. Have a listen.
  • Cruel and Unusual Death: The murder that brought York here.
  • Cutscene Incompetence: Both York and the Raincoat Killer, who seem to have more fun playing with each other than actually wanting to take each other out.
  • Dark World: The Red World sections. Whether or not they take place in "reality" or are some sort of illusion or hallucination is left murky for quite a while.
  • Depraved Homosexual: Thomas is a tad obsessed with George. Really, his "G" tattoo should have been a big giveaway.
  • Decoy Protagonist: York. Well for 90% of the game that is. Afterwards Zach is a permanent Player Character.
  • Defiled Forever: A played straight undercurrent of one of the cutscenes with Emily preempting the final fight with Kaysen. Present mostly in ambiguous dialogue and in Emily's condition (being mostly undressed and having a Red Tree sapling inside her abdomen). Subverted in that Zach still considers her beautiful, that she manages to pull the tree out herself, and that she lives on happily with York in the afterlife.
  • Detective Drama: A very closed one.
  • Developer's Foresight: Certain events will only occur at certain times of day. For instance, the famous "sinner's sandwich" scene will only occur if you go to the event around lunch time. Otherwise, Harry Stewart won't be there. After all, who would get lunch at 3AM for instance?
  • Did Not Get the Girl: Somewhat—York does, but the player-character does not.
  • Die, Chair, Die!: The only fences you can get past are the ones that can be broken down by smashing. Ditto for the crates. You often get a little reward money for this, too.
  • Disappeared Dad: York, Emily and George all lost theirs one way or another at young ages. Two of those have highly sinister reasons.
  • Disc-One Nuke: It's possible to obtain an infinite-ammo SMG early on from a sidequest, making combat go by a lot faster.
    • Even earlier than this, the infinite durability wrench can be obtained from a sidequest, which is far better than the initial pistol.
    • Just as early as the wrench is the Legendary Guitar Grecotch. All you need to do is play the Lilly sidequest, complete the level, exit the game, replay the second chapter, rinse and repeat, and there you go. Now hard mode is a total cakewalk until the last level, which still isn't too hard.
  • Diving Save: York employs this to rescue Diane who's hanging from the ceiling of the Muses Gallery. And then George renders said rescue useless.
  • The Dog Was the Mastermind: Forrest Kaysen, the giddy tree salesman, is actually some sort of otherworldy demonic entity that's been literally planting seeds of chaos through Greenvale. Also, this is done literally with Kaysen's dog, who has been relaying orders to his "owner" from the Red World, a kind of alternate, hellish dimension. Seriously.
  • Doing In the Wizard: The existence of the Shadows, the Raincoat Killer and the Red World that manifests when it rains have all the bells and whistles of a Silent Hill-esq supernatural explanation, but Harry Stewart reveals to Frank that these are hallucinations brought on by an experimental gas the government tested on the town years ago. The Raincoat Killer was just one of many citizens who were driven homicidally insane from the incident, and what remains of the gas is dispersed into the air from the soil whenever it rains. Harry Stewart wears his gas-mask to protect himself from its effects, and it's implied that everyone else in town also suffer from similar hallucinations but are forbidden from sharing them due to a government gag order, hence why everyone in town acts eccentrically.
  • Double Entendre: "Rosy Lips" Gina. Think about it. Naturally, almost everything that comes out of her mouth is this as well.
  • Driven to Madness:
    • Poor, poor Thomas. Witnessing Becky's and Diane's deaths was just too much for him.
    • The townsfolk of Greenvale that got into contact with the purple fog released by Kaysen and the military.
  • Driven to Suicide: Zach's father puts his gun to his head after failing to shoot his wife before the sapling planted in her sprouts.
    • The player is given the option of direct suicide in the end.
  • Drives Like Crazy: Oh dear God, York. His first scene in the real world has him talking on his cellphone, looking at files on his computer and trying to light a cigarette while speeding down a rainy road in the middle of the night. Surprisingly, it's only when the raincoat killer darts in front of him that he actually crashes.
  • Drop Dead Gorgeous: Anna. Lampshaded by people remarking on how beautiful she looked, and possibly subverted by Isaach and Isaiah practically worshiping her in death.
    • Emily gets this as well.
  • Eccentric Townsfolk: Not that the outsider isn't just as eccentric.
  • Eldritch Abomination: Forrest Kaysen after Emily dies.
  • Eldritch Location: The Red World. It's radically different than reality.
  • Emergency Weapon: The pistol York starts out with that cannot ever be dropped.
  • Everyone Is a Suspect: York says this to Emily and George in front of the Lumbermill, stating that he considers everyone a potential suspect, until he can honestly clear someone.
  • Evidence Scavenger Hunt: As part of the profiling game mechanic.
  • Expy: York bears more than a passing resemblance to Agent Dale Cooper, quirky mannerisms and all.
    • Several of the other townsfolk have passing resemblance to characters from Twin Peaks. Thomas is Andrew the Sheriff's deputy. Quint is Bobby with elements of James. Becky is Donna.
    • Forrest Kaysen is directly imported from a previous Swery game, Spy Fiction. There, though, he was a scientist based off of Dennis Nedry in Jurassic Park.
  • Eye Scream: The American box art depicts such a picture.
  • The Faceless: York's father's face is always shrouded in shadow from the nose up, despite the rest of the room being adequately lit.
  • Failed a Spot Check: You can visit the back of the graveyard all you like, but York somehow never notices that there are red seeds strewn all about the place until the plot tells him to go there.
  • Fan Disservice: The last time you see Emily alive she's wearing nothing but an open shirt and panties...and has a tree growing out of a gaping hole in her stomach.
  • Fast-Forward Mechanic: York can smoke cigarettes to make time pass more quickly. Also, any bed will allow him to sleep for three, six, nine, or twelve hours at a time. The amount of time you let pass will take its toll on your hunger, though.
  • Fat Bastard: Forrest Kaysen.
  • Fetish Retardant: In-universe - Gina's "sexy dance" while washing York's car leaves a bad taste in his mouth.
  • Fetus Terrible: Despite not being children, Kaysen's red trees fit the bill.
  • Fishing Minigame: Available at various locations throughout town once York has purchased a fishing rod. Interestingly, fish only make up a part of what you can catch, as you can also fish up random items such as candy, ammo, useless junk, and some trading cards which can only be obtained by fishing in specific locations.
  • Fog of Doom: The purple fog coming from the red trees causes anyone who is exposed to it long enough to be driven insane.
  • Former Teen Rebel: Emily is surprised to learn that York was a bit of a punk rocker in his youth.
  • Foreshadowing: Being based on Twin Peaks, this game is chock full of it.
    • The foreshadowing begins in the very first chapter, in the very first room, where you have to examine a number of items to proceed. All of them are appear irrelevant... until you begin the final boss fight and recall that one was a doll of a fat man. The final boss, which is a horrific version of Forrest Kaysen (the man represented by the doll), actually has the doll in his hands, and it's his weakpoint.
    • One of the very first scenes in the game hints that something is wrong about George through the music. Once George is introduced and his name is shown, the music turns dark and somber. He's the killer. Similarly, during the very same scene, soothing music plays while Emily is being introduced. Considering George seems like a bit of a jerk and Emily seems nice, it's not too odd. However shortly after, the dark and somber music is reused during Thomas' whimsical introduction and doesn't fit the scene... except for the fact he is also involved in the murders and working with George.
      • Speaking of George, there's only one side quest available for him, and he is the only character who doesn't invite York inside their house. Later, you enter George's house and it's full of evidence pointing out that he's the killer.
    • York's very first profiling sequence rapidly flashes forward throughout the entire game and contains some images that are quite significant and spoilertastic when you know to look out for them, including shots of both Becky and Diane's deaths, Zach's dead mother with the sprout growing out of her belly, and the scene where Emily is united with the other victims.
    • Perhaps the most damning piece of foreshadowing, that is probably the most easily overlooked, is the glimpse of several red raincoats you can find in the police station storage room.
    • Also, if you look closely, you'll notice that George's scar gradually becomes more open and featured with each murder. The game even calls attention to this on your second trip to the museum - York notes that "something's different" about George, but he brushes it off as having a little alcohol.
    • "The excessive loss of blood from her internal organs is what actually killed her", as the camera pans onto a squirming Emily...
    • When York was talking about the Sinner's Sandwich, he said that Mr. Stewart was atoning for his past sins.
    • During one scene, York has dinner with Thomas, George and Emily. He says something that seems unimportant during a first playthrough but it's clear foreshadowing once examined closer after repeated playthroughs. York mentions that the killer is probably having dinner right now as well. And he is. Because the killer is George. Thomas is also involved in the murders, too.
    • Gameplay mechanics are responsible for this one. It's possible to, through the in-game map, see where all the Non Player Characters are at any given moment. At some points during the story the player can see that George is in the Galaxy of Terror, but is nowhere to be seen once you enter, meaning he's in the bar's secret room, which is opened up later in the game and contains some evidence involving George with the murders. Also, after visiting the Lumber Mill, George claims he is tired and is going home, but he can be spotted wandering around the Greenvale forest at night instead.
    • Blatant foreshadowing, but there is something in Harry's Mansion. A large image depicting 'The Goddesses of the Forest' and observing it does indicate they look familiar. They are Anna, Becky, Carol, Diane and Emily, the last who is also wearing a black dress and not a red one. And one other, who looks remarkably like Thomas on second glance. It's flat out talked about when entering Harry's Mansion in Chapter 18, but visible before this moment.
    • One of the murder victims, Becky, slowly points her hand in George's direction just before she throws up the safe key and dies. This also explains why George rushes to try to "save her"; he was finishing the job.
    • George has a red tree in his front yard. Once you realize it is there, it sticks out like a sore thumb. His license plate is also a giveaway, and during one scene the camera actually focuses on it for a second. His house is also the only one in Greenvale you can't peek into. The Sheriff Station also has a red tree. George is the sheriff.
      • Similarly (and somewhat bizarrely), just before the town meeting starts York mentions only being on stage once in elementary school, in the "tough role" of a bright red tree.
    • The murder victim names start the alphabet. Anna, Becky, Carol, Diane and finally Emily. It would not be important if there was only one character per letter, except for "I" which has two characters (and they are identical twins Isaac and Isaaiah). Also, all of these characters are female. The game makes a big deal about the victims being all female. Who comes right after Emily? Forrest, who is the first male character and also heavily involved with the current situation.
    • Right from the start, we are told the initials of the one behind it all: "F.K... in the coffee!". This even makes the non-Japanese title forwarding as it is literally a deadly premonition.
    • Just after meeting Diane, York tells Zach that she will likely lead him to the killer. He then looks up and sees Kaysen in her office.
    • During one of the "coffee fortune" scenes, York tells Zach that a colleague of his once had his hair turn completely white from stress. The colleague is in fact Zach himself.
    • While incredibly funny at first, George's logic about going to Velvet Falls to find lost files that are important to the case, saying that if they don't find them, they'll become more powerful, becomes more meaningful near the endgame. George has a very big obsession with "power", due to his mother beating him with branches when he was younger.
    • invoked This little exchange after the death of Diane becomes very much Harsher in Hindsight:
      George: It's almost as if [Becky and Diane] died because of me...
      York: You're out of your mind.
    • York is told that his scar is the talk of the town. While York's scar is nothing to write home about, Zach's is quite impressive.
    • There's a jolly fat man amongst the soldiers in Harry's flashback story. His mask doesn't cover enough of his face if you look carefully, and there's a potted sapling on a crate nearby. This is before he's properly revealed during the original Raincoat Killer sequence.
    • York's response to Emily meeting him all dolled-up is to say she's "already a goddess of the forest." No, York, but she will be by the end of the game.
    • In the Other World version of Harry's mansion, Brian Xander Morgan gives his speech about having to kill someone you love... while pointing his gun at a hallucinated Emily.
    • During Anna's autopsy, There's a surprisingly long POV shot of George staring at Anna's body.
    • When York is examining Anna's body he says: "George, the perpetrator is just like you." It is George.
    • Very noticeable on the second playthrough, impossible to notice in the first go: When you first meet George and Emily, George says that 'you don't have to be a TREE WORSHIPPER' to like Greenvale.
    • During Anna's autopsy, Ushah theorizes that the killer has a deep traumatized past concerning women, can't converse with them normally, and is either lonely or a hardcore sadist. Though York tells Ushah to leave the criminal profiling out of his analysis, these all end up being accurate descriptions of the killer: George (horrifically beaten by his mother, has nothing but dysfunctional relationships with the women (and woman-like man) in his life, harbors an unrequited crush on Emily, and is the leader of a depraved sex cult implied to be sadomasochistic in nature).
    • The details on Thomas's trading card include the line "Hates dogs." When Emily fights him in the clock tower, Willie's intervention causes his death.
    • York is introduced sharing his theory that Tom and Jerry are actually living in a codependent, sadomasochistic relationship. When he meets Thomas (which is the typical unshortened version of "Tom", for good measure), he describes his contrast with George as "almost a good setup for a cartoon".
  • For the Evulz: Kaysen was already immortal and had no real need for any of the murders, and it is very clear that he torments the citizens of Greenvale and plants the red trees in women all over the United States purely for his own amusement. He's just that much of an utter bastard.
  • Framing Device: The Updated Re-release adds one in the form of a narrator, explaining the story to someone else. Word of God is that this was chosen in order to help make the ending make more sense.
  • Freudian Excuse: George, George, George, George, George, George, and George.
  • Full-Name Basis: Michael Tillotson seems to insist on referring to York as "Mr. Francis York Morgan". Once York is gone, he calls him "Francis Zach Morgan".
  • Game-Breaking Bug:
    • Replaying chapters before completing the game can cause important keys to disappear from your inventory, making it impossible to progress past certain points (such as in chapter 9 and chapter 23), as there's no way to get the keys again without restarting the game.
    • On some PCs the Director's Cut has a bug which limits how far up and down you can aim your gun. Frustratingly, this isn't really a problem until the very end of the game where you won't be able to aim down far enough to hit Kaysen's doll in his breast pocket while standing on his shoulder.
  • Gameplay and Story Integration: When playing as Emily trying to view the profiling sequences will be full of static. Only York can do that.
  • Garden of Evil: The 'red world' that York occasionally visits is covered in strange red vines. In some cases, Greenvale itself is a Garden of Evil in the making, thanks to the red seeds scattered about that can drive the entire town insane.
  • Genre-Busting: One of the reasons this game isn't Trope Overdosed despite its popularity is the fact that it's so difficult to completely classify in a few words.
  • Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: Those giant dobermans who rise from the ground whenever York is exploring the town late at night. It's implied Willie might be somehow responsible for their manifestation, but nothing is made clear.
  • Glasgow Grin: The enemies in the nightmare world sport them.
  • Glowing Eyes of Doom/Red Eyes, Take Warning: The Raincoat Killer.
  • Godiva Hair: On Anna's corpse. From what few flashbacks we see, she wore her hair that way normally even when she did have clothes.
  • Going Through the Motions:
    • George's compulsion for throwing his hands out in exasperation can seem threatening after a while.
    • Emily's ability to pose with her hands on her hips even while sitting down is almost frightening.
    • York sticks his finger up in the air and taps his tie so often that if a drinking game were to be based around them you'd have to make sure to use half-shots.
    • When you talk to some people, they'll shove whatever they were holding into their back pocket, even if it's a large object like a broom or a jug. After talking to you, they'll proceed to remove it from their pocket and continue on with their business.
  • Golf Clubbing: Golf clubs serve as reliable weapons throughout the game.
  • Good Scars, Evil Scars:
    • York has a small scratch under his eye, and an older scar going through his left eyebrow and up his head (mostly all healed now). Zach has a much more heroic (and obvious) one down through his eye.
    • George's back is riddled with them, which obscures the ONE tree-shaped back-scar York is looking for. George's facial scar also slowly becomes more pronounced with each murder, something most people don't realize until way after the game is over.
  • Gorn: The town's deceptively friendly atmosphere makes it really shocking when someone dies in such a violent manner.
  • Government Conspiracy: The US military deliberately released the purple fog onto the populace of Greenvale for an unrevealed reason and quickly covered it up, wiping it clean off of any official records.
  • Greater-Scope Villain:
    • Forrest Kaysen. He technically has no direct involvement in Greenvale's murders, but he enabled it through George, and by the time you confront him, the whole conflict has grown from a small countryside killing spree to an evil conspiracy of interdimensional scope.
    • There's also the Red Tree, the physical origin of the red seeds. Forrest is supposedly one of its emissaries, which implies it's a sentient being.
    • Likewise, Kaysen's dog, Willie, is actually Kaysen's handler, and the messenger between Kaysen and the Red Tree.
  • Guide Dang It!: If you start "A Snack for Willie" (which can be done without even intending to) without all seven bones, you only get a regular item, as opposed to an infinite-ammo .357 magnum. The game gives you absolutely no reason to suspect this to be the case before or after the fact, making it easy for this item to be Permanently Missable. You get only one save file per game and reverting to an earlier chapter doesn't help, so it's permanent as soon as you save unless you restart completely.
  • Guns Are Worthless: Zig-zagged. Guns are very useful throughout the game, but a melee weapon will do much more damage than a pistol or machine gun.
  • Hands-Free Handlamp: York has a handheld tactical light, as can be seen in the morgue when he's examining Anna Graham's corpse. During gameplay, however, the beam just projects out of his chest with no source.
  • Hate Plague: Caused by the purple gas, which was distilled from the red seeds themselves.
  • Hellhound: Those giant rottweilers that appear if you stay out too late. Willie is also this by Word Of God, being Kaysen's "handler".
  • Here We Go Again!: At the end of the remake; York asks Zach if he wants to go solve mysteries with him again.
  • Hope Spot:
    • When Becky is found in her house all strung up. She's alive, but soon dies due to the trap being set off.
    • When York dives off the balcony to save Diane. She's saved from being impaled on a pointy sculpture. Five minutes later, that same sculpture falls on top of her.
  • Humanoid Abomination: Judging by his dialogue and mutations, either Forrest Kaysen was never human to begin with and just spreads violence and chaos For the Evulz, or he's been alive for a very, very long time, to the point where he no longer sees himself as human and just spreads violence and chaos For the Evulz.
    • If you attempt to kill him at the wrong time he will mention that he was "always more than human", and is "A messenger from the Red World".
  • Hypercompetent Sidekick: Harry isn't stupid by any means, but damn, Michael can do everything! He also frequently displays an enormous amount of knowledge about Greenvale's past and current events, even when Harry isn't feeding him information. This makes a lot more sense, though, after he reveals that he's Harry's adopted son during his sidequest.
  • Idiot Ball: York near the very end, completely failing to notice the most obvious hints in the game that point to Kaysen's guilt as well as the "peace sign" being a tree. Possibly justified by the fact that Zach's mental block concerning Kaysen probably doesn't allow for clear thinking when he's involved.
    • The game also forces you to hold it if you visit the graveyard before the plot leads you there. York simply refuses to comment on the large amount of red seeds and red trees you can find there, mostly because investigating this properly would make the case a lot shorter.
  • I Have You Now, My Pretty: Kaysen with Emily. He actually goes all the way.
  • Immortality Seeker: George committed the murders hoping to become immortal.
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Thomas's gruesome death scene. In the head, even!
    • Diane nearly suffers this before being saved by York. Then it happens anyway.
  • Improbable Weapon: Some of the melee weapons York can wield include a wrench, a weed whacker, and Keith's guitar.
  • Infinite Flashlight: Without the flashlight, even!
  • Innocent Inaccurate: The Ingram twins, not quite grasping the concept of death, believe that Anna has become a goddess of the woods. Subverted in that the victims have in fact become "goddesses of the forest", as the twins can see them in the forest (along with York) during the epilogue.
  • Insistent Terminology:
    • The men of the Morgan family seem to identify mainly by their middle name, since not only is York rarely called Francis, his father Brian Xander Morgan is mostly known as Xander (and even calls his son by his middle name).
    • The Director's Cut implies that every member of the Morgan family carries on this tradition, as the full name of Zach's granddaughter is revealed to be Michelle Louise Morgan, but her mother simply calls her Louise.
  • Insufferable Genius: York isn't shy about letting rural cops George and Emily know he's a much better detective than them. He lightens up on it a little later on though.
  • Insurmountable Waist-Height Fence: Played straighter than straight. You can't stray off of clearly marked paths in forest areas, even with a car. For that matter a lot of chain-link fences are surprisingly sturdy and won't budge even if you slam your car into them. And let's not forget the part where you have to fight your way through a building in order to get to the other side of some couches.
  • Interesting Situation Duel: Emily gunfights Thomas in the town bell-tower, whilst he uses a revolver. Things stop sounding normal from there as he's wearing a dress, on a clock wheel, and using a hook as his second means of harming Emily.
  • Interface Spoiler: Though optional, the descriptions for some of the trading cards can contain important plot details which have not yet been revealed by the earliest time in which they can be acquired. This can be seen with Becky's card, which can be obtained as early as Chapter 2 (the point at which the game world first opens up), but mentions that she was "Miss Stiletto Heels", the third party who showed up to the scene where Anna's body was found and altered it before it was reported to the police, something that isn't properly revealed until the end of Chapter 10. Much more egregious are Carol and Diane's cards, which outright state that they're the third and fourth murder victims, even though they're obtained from sidequests that can only be completed during chapters where they are still alive.
  • In-Universe Game Clock: Time progresses at nearly a real-time rate (25 seconds to every minute). It fast-forwards if you smoke cigarettes or sleep, though doing so will cause your hunger meter to decrease greatly.
  • Jack the Ripoff: Subverted. The new Raincoat Killer is nothing like the original Raincoat Killer, despite aping his appearance. The most ironic part of all this is that they're unknowingly related by blood too.
  • Karma Houdini: Willie gets away scot-free despite being Kaysen's link to the Red Tree.
  • Large Ham: George and Kaysen, preceding their boss fights.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
    • York mentions that his investigation technique involves dividing people into three categories: investigators, victims and suspects. Everyone else is just "vegetables known as 'other people'". This matches neatly the game's division between important individuals and background characters you can't interact with. Until you learn a person's name, they are all labeled simply as "suspect".
    • The way York talks to Zach often comes across like Zach is the player themselves. In a sense, he is, given that he's the actual Francis Morgan.
  • Lethal Chef:
    • Attempting to describe Emily's cooking, York at one point starts describing a mission which had him going down into the sewer, and inspecting the trash compactor in Emily's kitchen leads him to comment on whether or not that constitutes illegal dumping of hazardous waste. Thomas refers to Emily's attempts as "amazon cooking." Peeking in Emily's house, the charred stovetop really says it all.
    • Subverted with the turkey, cereal, and strawberry jam "Sinner's Sandwich" - York initially thinks it's supposed to be awful so as to be a form of penance for the eater's past sins, but after he tries one he finds it to be so delicious that he immediately changes his order to it.
    • Thomas is easily one of the better chefs in the game, but when he messes up, he messes up HARD. No, seriously, who mistakes peanut butter for mustard?
    • The General apparently knew one of these guys during his tour in Vietnam. The guy's cooking was supposedly so bad it almost decimated the entire platoon, nearly making him a LITERAL Lethal Chef.
  • Limited Wardrobe:
    • Nearly all the NPCs wear only one outfit for the entire game regardless of time, location, or weather; the ones that do have different outfits change them only for plot reasons (Emily changing into a slinky black dress for dinner, the "goddesses of the forest" changing into red dresses, etc...).
    • Averted with York, as you can have him wear any of a number of suits and have it reflected in the cutscenes. Played straight with Zach, who cannot change suits.
  • Locked into Strangeness: Young Zach's hair turns white after witnessing his mother's brutal death and his father's suicide, then getting scarred by Kaysen.
  • Long Song, Short Scene:
    • "Pillow Stain", which was in the original "Rainy Woods" trailer, can be heard nowhere else in the game but Thomas's apartment and in the Sound Test.
    • The song "Crucial Moment" is an atmospheric string piece that only plays once when you find Thomas's badge in the Galaxy of Terror. However, you can easily miss it since a profiling segment starts immediately afterword, meaning you might only get to hear a few seconds of the song before you skip past it forever.
      • The very beginning plays at other spots in the game as a suspenseful sting, but it's always cut off before the melody comes in.
  • Loves My Alter Ego: Emily eventually falls for York who is revealed to be Zach's Split Personality.
  • Make My Monster Grow: No spoileriffic description here. You just have to see it to believe it for yourself.
  • The Man Behind the Man: Forrest Kaysen, who's actually an inhabitant of the Red World posing as a tree sapling salesman that spreads rumors about his seeds granting immortality. George murdered people as sacrifices because he believed that story. There's also Kaysen's dog, Willie, who's actually a creature capable of transmitting orders from the Red World to Kaysen.
  • Marathon Boss: Forrest Kaysen, Phase 3. And if you screw up the last bit, he regains all of his health and you have to start over. George's final form may count as well, if you get too used to attacking its weak point.
  • Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: For the majority of the game, it is questionable whether York is actually psychic or just getting hallucinations and talking to himself. The combat segments are clearly not occurring in reality, and his first premonition, "FK" in the coffee, seems to go nowhere. However, this is clarified in Chapter 17, when he divines the location of the files from his coffee cup, something that unambiguously clarifies his abilities as supernatural.
  • Meaningful Echo: General Lysander, who runs the junkyard, keeps going on and on about the importance of speed and having a fast car. Harry Stewart, the only other person the same age as him in town, keeps saying that haste makes waste. "Some people think speed is the only thing that matters. They rely on speed, and are satisfied with what speed brings, but they miss sight of the important details."
  • Meaningful Name: George Woodman. This also counts for the original Raincoat Killer, AKA Harry Woodman's father. And then there's Forrest Kaysen who goes around selling saplings.
  • Mercy Kill:
    • Zach's mother begged his father to kill her before the sapling planted inside her sprouted.
    • At the endgame Emily begs York (now Zach) to do the same.
    • The original Raincoat Killer killings may be considered mercy kills as well.
  • Mind Screw: How much of the action sequences were actually real? Were the enemies civilians who had been caught in the rain, ghosts of the original victims, or figments of York's imagination? Why could Emily see them? How much of Harry's story was true? Was the military really responsible, or was Kaysen acting alone? Why was Kaysen in the military at all? Did the final boss fight even happen? Why does everyone intuitively know to call you Zach after The Reveal? Does that mean that you only thought you were calling yourself York? Why can Isaach and Isaiah see dead people? Why were they in the Red Room? What was the Red Room? Why did Kaysen know about it? What did he mean when he said that he was from the "Red World?"
    • According to Word of God, the White Room is a Mental World representing the user's healthy subconscious, while the Red Room is a subconscious that has been "tainted by evil".
    • With the new scenes in the Director's Cut it could be that "Grandpa Zach" was dressing the story up a bit and that most of the Red World stuff didn't happen.
    • And to a lesser extent, SWERY's graphic on his director's blog that points out that Greenvale's borders are the outline of a dog... specifically, Willie.
  • Mobile Maze: Harry Stewart lives in one. The entrance room rotates when Michael taps some keys on the piano, and the door behind him leads to a different place each time.
  • Money for Nothing: You get pocket change for a ridiculous number of actions. Shaving, changing your suit regularly, driving at top speed for as long as you can, checking the weather, and so on. You'll likely get most of your money from defeating enemies, but it's still amusing to get paid to go about your daily routine.
  • Mood Whiplash: Every few minutes. You'd best wear a bracer when playing this game. "Hahaha—WHAT THE?!" sums it up.
  • Mummies at the Dinner Table: George keeps his abusive, dead mother in the basement just like a certain motel owner.
  • Mundane Made Awesome: York's reaction to trying out the "Sinner's Sandwich".
  • Necro Cam: Starts off terribly blurry. Finding more clues allows York to get a "clearer picture" of what really happened.
  • Nerves of Steel: York most definitely has these. Milder situations include waking up from what seems, by all accounts, to be a standard Catapult Nightmare with nothing more than a small sigh and staring down crowds of monsters with a wry grin. Truly amazing examples include chatting idly with Zach when he is captured by Thomas after he knocks him out, and shrugging off the penultimate boss's Freudian Excuse with a few well-placed wisecracks. Which, being Zach's alter ego created to protect him from harm, makes perfect sense.
  • Never One Murder: Anna's murder is the only murder to happen for the first third of the game. Then you get more victims.
  • New Game Plus: You can replay any completed chapter with all your current inventory items intact. Considering certain sidequest givers die at certain points in the game, this kind of backtracking is vital. Ultimately subverted, as starting a new game will undo all of your progress, since you can have only one saved game.
  • Nice Guy: Forrest Kayson, a jolly, fat man who cares for the Ingram twins, is good friends with everybody in the entire town, and serves as the quirky comic relief. Majorly subverted in Episode 6, where he's not only a possible rapist and the main villain, but is also a sadistic monster from another dimension who committed his crimes out of nothing but sheer boredom.
  • Nightmare Face: The Shadows of course have their vile grins (which are the only things vaguely frightening about them), but the real show stealer is York with the hilariously terrifying wide grin he pulls at bizarre moments.
  • Nonstandard Game Over:
    • In the lumber mill or the Museum, failing to solve the tree-of-hands puzzle will lead to York going Laughing Mad. Alternatively , killing any townsfolk before entering the theatre or choosing to give up if you make the wrong choice before fighting Kaysen will also result in this scene.
    • If you decide to have Zach kill himself or shoot Forrest Kaysen rather than (attempt) to Mercy Kill a begging Emily, you're treated to York telling you that you made the wrong choice with a shriveled up Emily with parts of the red tree that Kaysen planted sticking out from her.
  • Nostalgic Narrator: Zach as an old man is telling the story to his granddaughter in the remake.
  • Nothing Is Scarier: York talks about his previous cases involving extremely grisly and twisted murders without the slightest hint of unease. But there is one case he discusses with Zach where he just ends it by saying he doesn't even want to think of what he saw. Given the things he can easily stomach, one can only imagine what this very, very bad stuff might have been.
  • Notice This: Deadly Premonition leans more heavily upon this than most modern games — any object that can be interacted with has a huge glowing pool of light in front of it, whether it's a switch or an item to be collected. About the only thing that doesn't glow are doors (though plot-relevant doors will have a red pool of light in front of them).
  • Not Using the "Z" Word: The zombie-ghost enemies aren't given a proper name. York simply refers to them as "Them," though some of the profiling photos of them call them "Shadows."
    • This might just be because most characters never acknowledge the creatures' existence, let alone discuss them. George uses the zed word near the climax to refer to something not unlike the zombie-ghosts.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity:
    • George kills Becky and Diane right in front of you, and to everybody it looks like he's just a tragically inept klutz.
    • Kaysen plays the roles of Big Fun and Fat Idiot right up until the reveal.
  • One-Winged Angel: Both George and Kaysen take on freakish mutated forms for their boss fights.
  • Ominous Latin Chanting: The music for Kaysen's final form.
  • Only Sane Man: Emily considers herself this. She's the only main character, besides York, who didn't grow up in Greenvale, so she doesn't seem to have any of the other townfolk's eccentricities.
  • Optional Traffic Laws: While you can get penalized for mowing down too many lampposts or driving too close to any townsfolk on foot, it barely dents your wallet. That said, the only non-monetary penalty for hitting other drivers is that your vehicle gets damaged.
  • Orifice Invasion: Some of the enemies like to shove their hands down York's mouth. Given the chance, these enemies will shove their entire bodies down York's mouth, which will definitely kill him.
  • Parental Abandonment: A recurrent theme throughout the game.
  • Permanently Missable Content: The game's Chapter Replay system means that this is largely averted, but there is one major exception: The Infinite .357 Magnum, which can only be obtained as a possible reward from the Snack for Willie sidequest, which is initiated by approaching Kaysen and Willie while having any of the bones in your inventory. There are a total of seven bones, which are found scattered around remote, off-track areas of town, and they are also linked to another sidequest where they can be given away to Brian the gravekeeper, one at a time, at any time. In order to obtain the weapon in question, York must have all seven bones on him when he initiates the sidequest (which, to reiterate, can be done by complete accident). Then and only then will he find the infinite magnum when he searches Willie's doghouse; any less than this and the reward for the quest will be an ordinary, breakable weapon. Since sidequests cannot be restarted even on replays, the only way to get the gun at that point is to reload a save before the quest was triggered, or, failing that, start the game all over with a fresh save. This is somewhat alleviated by the fact that Kaysen and Willie don't come into the picture until Episode 2, and it's impossible to give the bones away to Brian by accident, meaning you have plenty of time to collect them before then.
  • Phony Veteran: York makes out Lysander to be one of these, noting that the old man wears a sergeant's uniform despite calling himself The General. Inverted, as it turns out that Lysander actually was promoted to general but out of guilt during the Vietnam War continues to think of himself as a sergeant.
  • Pipe Pain: Lead pipes are found pretty much everywhere and can be used as weapons.
  • Playable Epilogue: After defeating the final boss, you can continue to bum around Greenvale as Francis Zach Morgan.
  • Point of No Return: The game warns you about it before you walk through the door to the final battle, but without going back to previous chapters, the actual point is going to Harry's mansion with the Raincoat Killer files, after which the game becomes strictly linear and you will not be able to deviate from the plot until the epilogue, much later.
  • Postmodernism: Lampshaded when Fiona talks about a book she's reading that eerily resembles the plot of the game.
  • Posthumous Character: Anna, the victim whose death kicks off all the ruckus.
  • Power Trio: York, George, and Emily during many case missions, with Emily often acting as the mediator. (Or at least, quicker to give up fighting York's eccentricities, leaving George alone until he gives up as well.)
  • Press X to Not Die: Used whenever running from the Raincoat Killer or during a boss fight.
  • The Profiler: This is York's entire schtick. His sole method of investigation is to find a few items of evidence and use them to concoct a scenario.
  • Quirky Town: Part of what causes the Mood Whiplash is how goofy some of the folks are in town.
  • Railroading: While you have a generally lax schedule (see Take Your Time below) for much of the game, there are points where you immediately have to go to a target, usually by car, which won't allow you to get out of them, and even give you unlimited gas and make your car completely invulnerable, almost as if they wanted to make sure you don't try anything funny. After discovering Thomas is likely a criminal, the game becomes much more linear, with red vines stopping you from fully exploring.
  • Raincoat of Horror: One of this horror game's antagonists is even called the Raincoat Killer.
  • Rain of Blood: A cutscene halfway through the game in the Red World has an aged tree crack apart and shower the camera with blood.
  • Reading Tea Leaves: Francis York Morgan sees omens in his morning coffee, looking for images in the foam after he adds cream. On his first morning in Greenvale, he sees the letters F and K in his coffee, which turns out to be completely accurate. F.K. are the initials of The Man Behind the Man in the case York's investigating.
    York: Did you see that, Zach?! Clear as a crisp spring morning! "F K"... in the coffee! I knew I could count on it. It never fails.
  • Record Needle Scratch: While it isn't accompanied by the sound effect, Emily and York's conversation in his hotel room following their conversation in the bar is backed up by "Life is Beautiful", which abruptly stops when Emily asks York about Zach.
  • Red Herring
    • During the very beginning of the game, York casually mentions being scratched by a hysterical woman on a recent case. This is to cause you to assume that the townsfolk are simply spreading rumors over the little mark on your cheek, when in fact they're talking about the much more dramatic scar sported by Zach.
    • At one point Michael blocks you from getting to Harry while doing the RK's trademark finger-wag, while the killer's theme plays. It has no relevance whatsoever.
    • Another big one would be The General. He asks you to visit him so he can tell you about the story of the Raincoat Killer, and he's one of the few people in town who's old enough to have been around during the incident. In fact, being a soldier, he was likely standing on that clock tower gassing the town with the others. Instead, when you get to him, he just tells you war stories from 'Nam. Once you finish his sidequest line, York even lampshades it, stating that he doesn't think Lysander actually knows anything about the Raincoat Killer.
    • When investigating Anna's murder site, York finds evidence of a small round object, later revealed to be a locket, that was gripped tightly by Anna, but removed from the scene. The search for this locket spans the entire game, as it passed hands through the other victims trying to keep it away from its original owner, the killer, who identifies it as proof that they're the Chosen One, linking it with a ritual to gain ultimate power. What makes it fit this trope is that, When York finally confronts Kaysen, Kaysen gleefully taunts that the locket and the ritual were nothing more than lies used to tempt the killer into committing the murders.
  • Red Sky, Take Warning: The sky becomes reddish and tornado-like whenever there's enemies abound.
  • Respawning Enemies: A few missions have sections where one or two enemies respawn endlessly until you complete some task or just leave the area. Ranges from frustrating to just puzzling (with the exception of the very first mission, which turns it into That One Level due to the amount of frustration it introduces to someone unfamiliar with the rest of the game).
  • Rhymes on a Dime: Michael Tillotson often speaks this way. Why he does this, who's to say? So says Mr. Stewart. And then it turns out Harry himself doesn't actually speak that way.
    • He'll stop rhyming when York does something incredibly shocking like, oh, reading Michael's diary and then fessing up to it.
  • Room Full of Crazy: George's basement, complete with a Stalker Shrine dedicated to Emily.
    • And what's in the room next door to top the icing on the cake?
  • Rule of Three: Multiple sidequest chains and other activities have three parts — there are three races around Greenvale, York helps Emily with her cooking three times, the Milk Barn's storage room needs to be sorted thrice, the General offers three upgrades for your cars, and so on.
  • Running Gag: Emily's cooking and York's bizarre smoking habits, among others.
  • Running Over the Plot: At the beginning, Agent York crashes his car, startled by the Raincoat Killer that just appeared out of nowhere on the road.
  • Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Harry.
  • Sequel Hook: Considering the fact that Willie (who is from the Red World) is still around, and the fact there's more than just one town with red trees.
    • Don't forget that Swery said that there are "other agents of the Red Tree" like Kaysen...
    • In at least one ending of the Director's Cut, York tells Zach about a series of strange reports in New Orleans of people losing control of their bodies. Zach disappears from his home, presumably to pursue this lead.
  • Serial Killer: Kaysen is heavily implied to be a mobile version of this. In the Red Room on the map of America you can see dolls of a fat man on it wearing different clothes and standing on different states. George is this too to a lesser extent.
  • She Cleans Up Nicely: Emily, who is apparently already a goddess of the forest.
  • Shout-Out:
    • York name-drops many old movies and bands during his car rides with Zach.
    • The whole game is a big one to Twin Peaks.
    • Psycho gets a good one when York finds George's dead mother in the basement.
    • George has two dumbbells - named Arnold and Sylvester.
    • Spy Fiction (2003), SWERY's directorial debut, is referenced via Keith's "Back in the Hole" jacket and Emily's vanity plate.
    • The logo for "the pickles" is the same as the logo for The Pillows.
  • Shovel Strike: A few shovels can be used as weapons. Oddly, this doesn't apply to a shovel found early in the game inside a building that can't be interacted with for some reason. (You'd think York would want any weapon he could get his hands on at that point...)
  • Shown Their Work:
    • The monkeys-for-squirrels sound effect mentioned above notwithstanding, this game does get a lot of visual details for Smalltown, USA right. One of the post-game bonuses is looking at all the photographs the developers took of rural US areas to get the right appearance for diners, streets, people and so on.
    • York is a secondary personality created to protect Zach from psychological harm during a childhood incident. This is, in fact, one of the only reasons split personalities are developed in Real Life.
      • While that is true, it goes back into artistic liberty, as people with DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder) cannot communicate directly with their other personalities; but this is the entire premise between Zach and York. Granted, some degree of magic is involved in this case.
  • Shut Up, Hannibal!: Done numerous times by York in the following end game sequences preceding major boss battles.
  • Single Tear: Zach drops one near the ending.
  • The Sleepless: Brian the Insomniac.
  • The Stinger: After the credits, you see York and Emily, holding hands and kissing, in a spectral version of the diner while hanging out with all of the other victims.
  • Smoking Is Cool:
    • And it makes time fly!
    • York's chain-smoking is a Running Gag, and characters around him cough in annoyance the first time he does it.
    • On the other hand, Zach doesn't smoke.
  • Soundtrack Dissonance:
    • Serial killers? Gruesome murders? Time for wacky whistling!
    • The flashback sequence where you play as the original Raincoat Killer, is a semi-example. Two songs play, the first is Amazing Freaking Grace, which doesn't suit the chaos of the scene, but damn sure fits the tragedy of it. The soundtrack eventually changes to 'The Woods and the Goddess', which usually plays during tranquil scenes.
  • Split Personality: York, which is to say that he's Zach's. Unlike most Split Personalities in fiction, this one actually was developed for reasons that are tenable in psychology: taking on another identity to spare yourself from trauma.
  • Sprint Meter:
    • Used for exhaustion, holding your breath and blaring a police siren(?!)
    • It also rises when you're looking in people's windows. It's so slow, however, that most people aren't aware of it.
  • Stalker Shrine: George has an Emily one in his basement.
  • Stalker with a Crush: George is a little bit too obsessed with Emily.
  • Stripperiffic: Gina's outfit.
  • Stupidity Is the Only Option: Very early on, York sees a particular sign in his coffee that gives away one of the final plot twists. The sign is "F.K." and York correctly guesses that this refers to Forrest Kaysen upon meeting him. He also lampshades that Kaysen is obviously hiding something, and Kaysen indeed turns out to be the game's main villain. However, if York were to take this sign more seriously, the game would be a lot shorter, and so this plot thread is pretty quickly dropped until the story needs to pick it back up.
    • You can explore the graveyard pretty early in the game, long before it becomes relevant to the plot. It contains a large number of red trees that bear a striking resemblance to the saplings that Kaysen carries around, and the red seeds all over the ground are the same ones found on all the murder victims, not just in Greenvale but in cases all around the United States. Not only that, but the red seeds are the main reason York was assigned to the case in the first place, meaning he has no reason not to know what they are. However, York will not comment on or acknowledge this until you make your plot-mandated visit to the graveyard. He even lampshades it once you do finally get there, saying that it was right under his nose the whole time.
  • Supernaturally-Validated Trans Person: It leaves the exact gender identity of Thomas somewhat ambiguous, but they suffer a similar fate to the cisgender women victims, and at the end their spirit joins the rest of the "Forest Goddesses" in whatever afterlife York inhabits.
  • Supreme Chef:
    • Thomas, whose biscuits are considered absolutely amazing. They're also the best healing/restorative item in the game, hands down. York is very particular about his biscuits, he'll have you know.
    • Nick Cormack. According to Emily, he's the real deal and no visit to Greenvale is complete without a visit to the A & G Diner
  • Take Your Time:
    • Play darts, go fishing, stare into coffee, and do whatever. Just remember to get back to the investigation at some point. Amusingly, though, if you're driving with the local law enforcement, they expect you to go straight to the next plot point and if you fail to do so, they give York a severe tongue-lashing while York basically shrugs and says "I had stuff to do."
    • You have the ability to sleep in some of the dungeons in the game, which is a cost-effective way of restoring your health, and you'll usually see an infinite supply of lollipops nearby to keep yourself from going hungry. Time is meaningless in the Dark World, however, as you can see from your clock and the "clean time" on your suits. For people who aren't in the Dark World, it probably appears that York is just gone for a few minutes.
  • Through the Eyes of Madness:
    • One possible explanation for York's travels through the nightmare world.
    • Also applies to the townsfolk of the past and the original Raincoat Killer who, affected by the purple fog, most likely saw each other as horrible monsters and were driven to slaughter.
    • After the reveal that York is Zach's split personality and not the other way around, the townsfolk all call him Zach, as if it had always been that way. Not to mention the constant references to a very large scar, which York doesn't have, but Zack does.
  • Together in Death: York and Emily.
  • Token Romance: A minor but seemingly-important example. Emily is the only Greenvale resident who didn't grow up there, and ends up together with York, who is also an outsider to the town.
  • Tomato in the Mirror: York's the alter persona of Zach, not the other way around.
  • Tongue Trauma: The Raincoat Killer cuts out (or bites off) the tongues of each of the murder victims.
  • Too Clever by Half: York. It doesn't win him any points.
  • Too Much Information: Over dinner one night, Emily asks York about older cases he's worked on. He gladly details a particular case in which a serial killer finds... practical uses for human skulls. Great dinner conversation!
  • Town with a Dark Secret: In the past Greenvale was the site for government experiments that drove the townsfolk into murderous frenzies.
    • There are also the incidents York is told about when buying the spiritual maps. They involve a man who accidentally ran his girlfriend down with his car, a crew of miners who were burned alive in what was likely a mass murder by the mine foreman and a girl who is implied to have committed suicide by throwing herself in a water turbine. They all seem like just an average bunch of ghost stories until York actually visits the locations himself and finds out that they really are haunted.
  • Trailers Always Spoil: The trailer for the U.S. release flashes the identities of several victims as well as the endgame bosses and Big Bad.
    • Despite being a trailer released in 2007, with many details removed, the "Rainy Woods" trailer showcases Becky's death.
    • One of the Directors Cut trailers uses dialogue and footage from much later in the game, such as Thomas wearing a dress and acting as a villain and Zach's mother telling her husband to shoot him.
  • Trauma-Induced Amnesia: York can't remember much about when his father shot his mother. Which is an incredible mercy compared to the memories of what actually happened. Subverted in that York wasn't technically present, but played straight with Zach, who forgot he even existed.
  • Trauma Inn: Sleeping in a bed will restore York's health whether its in a nice warm hotel room or a decrepit red world dungeon. The Shadows and Raincoat Killer don't seem to mind letting York catch up on his rest and will leave him alone.
  • Twist Ending: York is the imaginary friend. You've been playing as Agent Francis Zach Morgan. To be precise, you were playing as York. York simply happens to not have been the original personality.
  • Unflinching Walk: Zach turns around and walks away as the monstrous Kaysen explodes into chunky meaty gibs.
  • Unreliable Narrator: Near the end of the game, you discover that not only has he been introducing himself as Francis Zach Morgan all this time, but he doesn't look like we thought he did. This explains why the townsfolk think Zach's scar is a big deal, when York seems to have only a few small cuts.
    • Lampshaded by Lilly at the end of the game, when she asks "Who's York?" while talking to Zach.
  • Updated Re-release: The Directors Cut is supposed to add new endings and story content, a narrator to explain the story more adequately, HD and Move support, and slight playstyle changes (no tank controls, the camera has much wider range, and slightly fixing the shooting controls) presumably meant to fix complaints. The graphics don't seem to have gone through any significant change aside from the removal of the green filter present in the original release.
  • Useless Useful Stealth: York can hold his breath to temporarily become invisible to the enemies. This slows his walking speed and makes his stamina meter run out, and there's not a lot of situations that call for stealth in the first place, so you will most likely forget about this option after it's introduced.
  • Unwilling Suspension:
    • Becky in her own bathroom above the shower.
    • Diane in the Muses Gallery above a very pointy sculpture.
  • Vanity License Plate: All of the named townsfolk have these on their vehicles.
  • Video Game Cruelty Potential: You can attack, or at most threaten the civilians of Greenvale, with violence.
  • Video Game Cruelty Punishment: Threatening the townsfolk in this fashion, or destroying public property, crashing or wrecking your vehicle, or failing to periodically change into a clean suit will earn you a small cash penalty.
  • Villain Episode: At the beginning of Episode 6 you get to play as the original Raincoat Killer, axe and all.
  • Villainous Breakdown: George and Kaysen, both in awe that a mere human was able to bring them down.
  • Virtual Paper Doll: York can change suits at any time; however, the longer he continues to wear a suit, the dirtier it becomes to the point of attracting flies. Zach doesn't have any suit, however.
  • The Voiceless: Mr. Stewart speaks only through his aide, Michael Tillotson. Later on he decides to drop it and speak directly to York himself.
  • Vomiting Cop: Thomas barfs in the toilet after Becky is found out to be dead. When the results screen comes up, a still shot of it is shown.
  • Wake-Up Call Mini-Boss: The machine gun is very ineffective against Crawling Shadows; the first one the player fights will either be That One Boss, or teach them to vary up their weapons more. invoked
  • Warp Whistle: The radio obtained from one of the quests which lets York travel to any previously visited locations.
  • Wide-Open Sandbox: Even though the actions that have to be taken to progress the story are always clearly defined, there is no in-game day counter and so Take Your Time is in full effect; any main quests that can be done today can be done tomorrow, with plenty of time in between to go shopping for shiny new clothes or vehicles, explore the town's byroads in search of extra cash or collectibles, do sidequests where you hang out with the Eccentric Townsfolk, and take part in minigames such as fishing, darts, or checkpoint races. The exceptions to this come in specific chapters where you're locked into following the plot, including a long chain of Railroading towards the end, but it ultimately leads to a Playable Epilogue where you're free to collect anything left for you to find in the world.
  • Wham Episode: Episode 6 in general, but Chapter 25 especially.
  • Wham Line: "When the time comes and you have to make that decision, make the right one. OK, Zach?" It's even printed in giant letters that are about five times larger than the rest of the dialogue in the entire game.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: The Ingrams don't seem to care about the disappearance of Forrest Kaysen at the end of the game, despite the fact that they were good friends.
  • Whole-Plot Reference: A somewhat harder example to notice owing to the obscurity of the earlier game, but the plot is heavily inspired by Mizzurna Falls, a pioneer of the "open world exploration-adventure" genre (beyond both games also obviously owing a lot to Twin Peaks):
    • As in the already mentioned show, the setting in both games is a sleepy small town in the USA rocked by the murder of a young girl. Focusing more on gameplay, both games involve the protagonist getting around the rather large game world by driving a car which requires regular gas refills, advancing the story by going to specific places for time-sensitive events.
    • One of the main characters is a Girl Friday who works with the hero to try and solve the mystery, helping to obtain useful information and resources. The hero also works closely with the town's chief of police. In Deadly Premonition, the former character also echoes the role of a Distressed Damsel character from Mizzurna Falls whom the hero unwittingly leaves in the mastermind's care, leading her to be placed in mortal danger right at the story's end.
    • A centrally featured Jerkass character becomes a prime suspect for the murder. While this character is involved in some shady activities, his involvement in the murder of course turns out to be a complete Red Herring.
    • A secondary character is a young woman who works singing at a bar and is secretly involved in the Big Bad's circle, ending up betrayed and victimized by him.
    • Most notable are the antagonists' nature and motivations. The Heavy is someone whom the hero first meets early on in the story and acts inconspicuously, if callously, towards him. The true villain's plan ultimately revolves around seeking immortality through a ritual involving the sacrifice of multiple humans, which appeals to a nebulous Cosmic Entity to whom the mastermind acts as a devotee. Both times, the hero is aware of this having been attempted at least once before, and also learns about a US Government Conspiracy to sacrifice human lives in an effort to learn more about the mysterious Spirit World in which these entities dwell, as well as a tragedy that befell the town decades before the story's events which the mastermind is trying to reenact. In both games, the hero has a climactic Rooftop Confrontation with The Heavy, only to have the wind taken out of his sails afterwards when it swiftly becomes clear that he's still got the mastermind to deal with.
  • Wild Wilderness: The outskirts of town near the railroad tracks, the two large empty forest trails, and the random location of the town itself count.
  • Worthless Treasure Twist: The locket that Anna was holding when she died was supposedly part of the ritual that the killer needed to become immortal. It passed through the hands of the other victims trying to keep it away from the killer, and York spends the whole game searching for it. Right before the final battle, Kaysen reveals that the locket doesn't actually do anything and was just part of the rumor he made up to get the killer to commit the murders.
  • Wrench Whack: An indestructible wrench is unlocked after completing a sidequest.
  • Younger Than They Look: Anna Graham recently graduated high school making her around 18, but looks closer to 35.

"Well. That was one heck of a trope list. But we can always keep going on our Wiki Walk, right Zach?"

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