Sound of Drop - fall into poison - is a visual novel released by Aiueo Kompany in 2014.
The story follows two middle school girls named Mayumi Nakanobe and Himeno Tamagawa who visit the Manten Aquarium one day in order to investigate the morbid rumors surrounding it. While there, Mayumi catches sight of her little sister, Mari, who had disappeared at the aquarium five years prior. After chasing her into the depths of the aquarium and leaving her friend behind, she suddenly finds herself in a mysterious new version of the aquarium where strange things are happening...
An English translation was published to Steam by Sekai Project on October 30, 2015, adding updated graphics and new endings.
Provides examples of:
- Abandoned Area: Aside from a few people, Red Manten Aquarium is pretty barren.
- Apocalyptic Log: Mayumi and Sayo find a diary owned by an employee of the aquarium before they died due to the curse.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Kenji is the one responsible for luring so many people to their deaths at the aquarium.
- Blood-Splattered Innocents: In the bad endings where Kenji is decapitated in front of Mayumi, she ends up drenched in his blood.
- Brains and Brawn: Mayumi is fascinated by the information she finds at the aquarium, but is incapable of carrying anyone anywhere. Himeno doesn't have the patience for all the facts about fish, but is in a sports club and carries Sayo to safety in one ending, even when she's ill herself.
- Broken Pedestal: In the -The Limited Ocean of the Life- ending, Mayumi discovers Kenji was a murderer who killed her sister and was luring people to their deaths while Sayo discovers how cruel her father was to Reiko.
- But Now I Must Go: In every true ending, Mari moves on. Being dead doesn't give her many other options.
- But Thou Must!: When Kenji first asks you to call him by his first name, you're presented with three choices, all of which read his last name, Hiyoshi-san.
- Character Development: Mayumi starts the game off as rather timid and uncertain, a very typical "shy girl" protagonist. However, once things get weird she quickly learns to adapt to her unusual situation (provided you don't get one of the many bad ends) and grows stronger and more sure of herself as a result. Mayumi herself and some of the other characters notice her changed demeanor as the game progresses.
- Collapsing Lair: Whenever the malevolent spirits are defeated, the Red Manten Aquarium begins to disappear. If you're still alive, you really don't want to be there when it disappears.
- Crash-Into Hello: The first time Mayumi and Sayo meet it's due to the former running into the latter at the aquarium.
- Despair Event Horizon: After finding Himeno, Mayumi has the option to lose all hope and let herself become infected and die as well in a bad ending.
- Developing Doomed Characters: The first hour or so focuses on Himeno's and Mayumi's friendship, all just to set up the horror later down the road.
- Due to the Dead: The -Himeno- ending concludes with Himeno leaving a blue rose for Mari in the aquarium and promising to take care of Mayumi.
- Entitled to Have You: Mari, after being corrupted by Reiko. Even though it's only for a moment in the -fall into poison- route.
- Everything Trying to Kill You: The majority of the game is basically this. Especially when it comes to water.
- Exploding Fish Tanks: In the jellyfish exhibit, all of the tanks break and all of the poisonous jellyfish pool around Mayumi's feet.
- Eye Scream: In one bad ending, Mayumi attacks an orca with a mop, taking out its eyes.
- Foreshadowing: Both the director and Kenji say they have dubbed the pocket dimension the Red Manten Aquarium. This comes off as quite the coincidence until you find out one is possessing the other.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: Assuming they all escape and become friends.
- Himeno: Cheerful, passionate, can be insensitive. (Sanguine)
- Sayo: Task-oriented, determined and sometimes cruel (Choleric)
- Mayumi: Detail-oriented, punctual, shy and insecure. (Melancholic)
- Miku: Calm, elegant, patient, quiet. (Phlegmatic)
- Golden Ending: -The Limited Ocean of the Life- isn't explicitly labeled as such, but it's one of two endings where everyone who can live does so, and it's also the only ending where you learn everything about what's going on.
- Guide Dang It!: At a few of the choices, being indecisive or making the seemingly obvious wrong choice is actually the right thing to do, even though every other choice punishes you harshly for faltering.
- However, the game does throw you a bone in clearly showing which choices can get you killed so you can save beforehand. Choices that affect the current scene, or occasionally, the current route, are blue. Choices that can lead to a (usually immediate) bad end are colored red.
- Hammerspace: Himeno's survival bag for when her and Mayumi go to explore the rumors surrounding Manten Aquarium. It contains a flashlight, insect repellent, a first aid kit, matches,snacks, and a blanket. This is lampshaded by Mayumi, with her stating how she's not exactly sure that all fits in her friend's Boston Bag...
- Hollywood Acid: The poison from some frogs in one room is enough to eat away even bone.
- Human Shield: Mayumi uses her own body to protect Mari against the blue whale in -The Limited Ocean of the Life- ending.
- "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: In two of the true endings, Mayumi gets the director to stop trying to kill her by showing him a photo of his daughter, which helps bring him back to his senses.
- In Love with Your Carnage: Mayumi catches Rieko and Kenji making out.
- Loss of Identity: Dying in the Red Manten Aquarium often leads to this, as the person's soul becomes assimilated. Some people are able to maintain their individuality like Mari and Rieko.
- The Many Deaths of You: With a whopping total of 27 bad ends in the Steam release there are no shortage of ways for Mayumi (and most of the other characters) to die.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: The director's attempted murder of Rieko in a hit-and-run and Kenji's successful murder of the director via drowning.
- Multiple Endings: Four True endings and twenty-seven bad endings.
- Multiple Route Mystery: In order to really understand what's going on you need to play through all the routes of the game. Each one holds a piece of the puzzle, but the New Game Plus routes reveal a lot more than the first two "main" routes.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Lampshaded in a Bad Ending when Mayumi realizes she's been stung by a Man of War jellyfish.I notice the name without much of a reaction, but it had to be poisonous to be called that.
- New Game Plus: After getting one of the first two True endings, starting a new game will unlock an introductory scene with Sayo and Miku that is necessary to seeing the other two True endings.
- No Holds Barred Beat Down: Rieko is driven to a rage against Sayo and relentlessly bashes her head in over and over again.
- Off with His Head!: A couple of the many bad ends have Mayumi and Kenji losing their heads to cutlassfish.
- If Mayumi shoves her sister away from the attacking whale, another fish will decapitate Mari instead.
- One of the first things Mayumi encounters in the Red Manten Aquarium is a severed head on the ground.
- Old Maid: The director belittles Rieko when, as he shoots down her ideas to save the struggling aquarium, he adds that at her age she should really be married by now.
- One Degree of Separation: Everyone seems to be connected in some way. While a lot of this is down to the aquarium drawing in people connected to it, others can't be chalked up to it, such Mari and Sayo meeting each other as children since that occurred before the Red Manten Aquarium even existed.
- Pocket Dimension: All versions of the Red Manten Aquarium are essentially this.
- The Power of Hate: You'd be surprised how powerful the Red Manten Aquarium can get with two angry spirits, a sociopathic adult, and possibly three despairing teenagers powering it.
- Ret-Gone: In the -drop of poison- ending, no one in the real world remembers Mari anymore.
- Sadistic Choice: In -The Limited Ocean of the Life- ending, Mayumi has to decide whether to carry an unconscious Sayo to safety or go after Mari when she's been kidnapped by the director. If the player chooses to be indecisive, Himeno arrives and takes care of Sayo which leaves Mayumi free to go after Mari (unequivocally choosing to abandon one or the other leads to a bad ending).
- Seeking the Missing, Finding the Dead: Mayumi spends most of the game trying to find Mari, only to find out that she's been a ghost the entire time.
- Spotting the Thread: Mayumi realizes that Mari is a doppelgänger when she says that the fight they had over the keychain doesn't matter, as it's something Mari would never say.
- Unfortunate Item Swap: During their Crash-Into Hello, Sayo and Mayumi accidentally swap their keychains.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: In endings where they both survive, Himeno and Sayo become friends who bicker all the time.
