Thousand Dollar Soul is a 2010 Visual Novel/Interactive Fiction game by Greg McClanahan.
Todd is about to graduate from high school, when he's suddenly visited by a man claiming to be his future self. The reason for Future Todd's trip to the past? To help Todd hook up with his former crush, Angela. But what are Future Todd's true intentions? Finding out will require you to find most of the game's 35 endings.
You can play it on Newgrounds here
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Due to the complicated nature of the story, spoilers will be unmarked.
Tropes
- 20 Minutes into the Future: By 2043, small earpieces capable of creating an accurate replica of the past, complete with fully sentient AI recreations of people, exist.
- All Just a Dream: The entire world is a virtual reality simulation Future Todd (the only real person) uses to satisfy his lust for Angela.
- Better as Friends: Some of the endings, including what the endings list calls the happiest ending, Todd abandons his romantic pursuit of Angela, against Future Todd's wishes.
- Brain Uploading: In one ending, Angela gets a brain scan to check for tumors, which is used to recreate her in the earpiece's virtual simulation of the past.
- Fan Disservice: Ending #24: Todd gets to watch Angela come out of the shower... while in Future Todd's 60-something body. And it's a virtual reality simulation Future Todd used so many times, his earpiece has an option to quickly access it.
- Fantastic Drug: Angelfire, a powerful aphrodisiac made by microwaving and blowtorching foods and chemicals including Twinkies, paint thinner, and battery acid.
- Fingore: On December 24th 2043, (Future) Todd breaks into Clint's residence and cuts off his ring finger. If (past) Todd ends up at that point in time and tries to fight Angela, he gets the same fate.
- Future Me Scares Me: Todd can fight back against Future Todd when it becomes clear he's a Yandere for Angela.
- Holodeck Malfunction: Future Todd's "time travel" is actually a simulation created by his earpiece. If someone from the simulation gets their hands on the earpiece and puts it on, then they'll take over Future Todd's body and overwrite his mind.
- Intangible Time Travel: Downplayed. Future Todd does have a physical body, but it can only be seen or heard by past Todd. Other people can only acknowledge Future Todd when he's physically manipulating things.
- The Internet Is for Cats: Todd's hobby is posting captioned cat photos on the internet. Future Todd gives him the suggestion of misspelling words, but Todd doesn't understand why he should do that since it's 1998, before LOLCats became a thing.
- Interface Spoiler: The choices are always visible. Some scenes have a Wall of Text, so seeing the choices before you're done reading might hint at things before you're completely done reading.
- Multiple Endings: 35 of them, and you'll need most of them to get all the Story Breadcrumbs. Many of them are very abrupt, although in most cases this is justified due to Future Todd stopping the simulation.
- Noodle Incident: If Angela wins the lottery and Todd comes with her to do charity work in Sudan, Todd will have done something while drunk during the three-year Time Skip that destroyed his chance at Angela loving him, although she's still willing to have him as a platonic friend.
- Story Branching: Each scene has two choices, which each have two choices of their own, and so on until you reach an ending.
- Story Breadcrumbs: Each ending only reveals a tiny portion of the story. Putting the pieces together is left up to the player.
- Time Travel: Future Todd claims time travel creates a different timeline, so time travelers don't have to worry about messing up their own present by changing the past. In reality, it's just a virtual reality simulation created by Future Todd's earpiece.
- Title Drop: Ending #16 has Clint tell Angela (who has unwillingly taken over Future Todd's body after being given his earpiece) "Live your life. Enjoy every moment of your thousand-dollar soul."
- "Truman Show" Plot: In one route, Todd and Angela watch the trope-naming movie and discuss this trope, which turns out to be some not-so-subtle foreshadowing. Todd's entire universe is actually a virtual reality simulation created by Future Todd to live out his sick fantasies of Angela.
- Yandere: Future Todd became obsessed with Angela to an unhealthy degree after she married Clint.
