History VideoGame / TheMessenger2018

** If you complete the Tiki Mask in ''Picnic Panic'' and carry that file over to a New Game Plus, you can sacrifice Quarble to it in return for doubling your health and tripling your attack. But since Quarble isn't there for you anymore, it means that the next death you suffer is permanent with nothing to stop it.

* DirectionallysolidPlatforms: Some platforms are solid from above. You can drop down from them.

* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: If you complete the Tiki Mask by getting all of the collectibles in ''Picnic Panic'', you can offer to sacrifice Quarble to it in return for doubling your health, attack and defense. [[spoiler:It's less cruel than it sounds because the mask just needs to use Quarble's fear of genuine mortal peril and doesn't actually kill him, but Quarble is so furious and upset at the Ninja being willing to do it that he refuses to rescue you from then on, meaning death is death.]]

** The Ninja gets it hard should he agree to sacrifice Quarble to the Tiki Mask for a Stat-PowerUp at the cost of starting FinalDeathMode. Quarble lives, but he's so angry at the Ninja that he flat-out refuses to save him anymore. Compared to his sarcastic commentary he makes on every other death, his quote for you right before the game over is so calm it feels like TranquilFury.

** If you complete the Tiki Mask in ''Picnic Panic'' and carry that file over to a New Game Plus, you can sacrifice Quarble to it in return for doubling your health, defense and attack. But since Quarble isn't there for you anymore, it means that the next death you suffer is permanent with nothing to stop it.

* TenMinuteRetirement: [[spoiler:After the Ninja finishes his duty as the Messenger and passes it along to someone else, he becomes the new Shopkeeper... until ''his'' Messenger dies and he has to pick up where he left off, ''literal'' minutes later (at least to him, since he spent those minutes in the shop which exists outside of time)]].

* FracturedFairyTale: The shopkeeper does tell stories, which often seem similar to fairy tales found outside the game. Some stories seem either legitimate or plausible, but some are changed such as a gender-flipped version of ''[[Literature/ThePrincessAndThePea]]''.

** If you die during the EscapeSequence in [[spoiler:the Corrupted Future, the game immediately takes you back to the start of the sequence, skipping the usual death screen with Quarble]].

** In NewGamePlus runs, reviving after death required paying Time Shards up front, so keeping enough on hand still serves a purpose.

* BigLittleMan: As you make your way through the Catacombs, a mysterious necromancer twice your height regularly harasses you with his minions. When you finally face him, he turns out to be a short little pipsqueak, and was using a combination of levitation and a very long cloak to make himself look taller.

* EmptyRoomPsych: Discussed. There's a literal MoneySink in the game that allows players to dump excess Time Shards into. However, dumping money down the drain does absolutely nothing. The Shopkeeper repeatedly explains this to the Ninja should the player keep doing it, but the Ninja stubbornly refuses to believe that there's no reward for it.

* GagDub:The game includes all the requisite language options, including standard french. However, in addition to these, it also includes a seldom-seen "Québécois" version (Sabotage Studios is based in Québec City). This makes an already funny game that much more hillarious by giving every single character an exagerated french-canadian accent, rife with FunetikAksent and TotallyRadical. There are even a few Québec-specific pop culture references that are absent from all other versions of the game.

** There's a [[LiteralMetaphor literal sink]] in the shop that you can dump your Time Shards into. It does absolutely nothing other than literally flushing your money down the drain. The Shopkeeper repeatedly tries to explain to the Ninja, who [[EmptyRoomPsych stubbornly refuses to believe there is no reward for putting enough money in]].
** Continues in the DLC too, where you actually CAN "fix" the Money sink via a side-quest so that it actually leads somewhere when examined... and it turns out it's the place where you can buy toys of your enemies for ridiculous prices.

* SequelHook: The game ends on a "To Be Continued" screen, [[spoiler:after the Cowboy asks to hear a second story]].

Originally released for the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch and UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}, the game would later be released for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 and UsefulNotes/XboxOne.