Nightmare Realm - TV Tropes

This could get ugly.

A point and click adventure, this is the first in the Nightmare Realm series. The premise starts with a healthy amount of parental worries where you race to find your daughter, Emily, who has been spirited away by a dark shadow who had been following your family for the past 6 years to accomplish said aforementioned goal.

There are currently two games in the series: Nightmare Realm and Nightmare Realm: In the End.

---

This HOG provides several examples of:

• 100% Completion: While you can't fail, there is an unlockable game that can only be obtained by finding all 33 origami pieces hidden in the game.
• Body to Jewel: While it doesn't heal per se, the stone Spirit cries amber tears which you need to collect for a quest after the Witchdoctor is murdered.
• Cool Uncle: Peter. In The End reveals that he died of illness in the time between the games.
• Children Are Innocent: Emily and all the children that appeared in the second game. Also, Kjuu. Subverted with Jeff and Philip.
• Company Cameo: There is one origami in the shape of Felix the Fish, the mascot for Big Fish Games.
• Continuity Nod: Emily as a teenager still has dreams of her experience in the nightmare realm and her paintings occasionally reference them as well.
• Creepy Doll: You see the picture of your daughter turn into this. Complete with a scrawled 'Help me' on the frame. Then, once your reach the final cutscenes, it turns out that the Extractor that took your daughter is trying to turn her into a doll to harvest her creative energy.
• Disappeared Dad: David dies in the opening sequence of the game.
• Evil Is Deathly Cold: The Dark City itself is full of darkness and everlasting snowfall.
• Fate Worse than Death: Mary's fate for breaking the laws of Dark City is to watch her son imprisoned forever in the golden sarcophagus.
• Featureless Protagonist: Averted. You play as Emily's mother, Katherine.
• Fountain of Youth: Apparently, the demonic crown grants one this as Philip still remain the same while both Jeff and Kjuu become old men.
• Freudian Excuse: Philip has been abused and abandoned by his mother for entire life and Jeff just wants to be special, fueling them for hating "family warmth" and "special people" respectively.
• Hint System: Unlimited too! Apart from cool down time.
• Jump Scare: In the beginning. It's annoying because you were expecting it, but it still managed to catch you off guard.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Apparently everyone past the age of seven.
• Left Hanging: Was Jeff just Philip's imaginary friend who assisted/manipulated him? Or was he was once a misguided real boy?
• Memory-Wiping Crew: The Extractors could be considered this, since it is the only way to save a child from being stuck as a doll and it's also hinted that the process of extracting creative energy results in this.
• Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition: Were you expecting anything less?
• No-One Could Have Survived That: Peter. Although, to be fair, the archway collapsed by the time we got there.
• Mama Bear: As Emily's mother, you are traversing through the hellish realm in order to find and save your daughter. Also Mary.
• Memento Macguffin: The googly-eyed lizard. Can also double as a Tragic Keepsake. After all, it is stated that when Emily hits the age of 7, her childhood is gone including her memories of the magical realm as well.
• Mind Screw: If the plot twist wasn't one, this troper doesn't know what is.
• Plot Twist: You know that Extractor who's been following you and making life an emotional hell? That's your husband.
• Randomized Title Screen: In In The End.... On the main menu, glowing graffiti fills in what will happen "in the end", switching between different possible grim ("love must die"), hopeful ("light will be shed"), or ambiguous ("who will prevail?") outcomes.
• Rule of Seven
• Scenery Porn: Once you fix the Spirit's heart.
• Sickly Green Glow: Used only twice in the beginning actually.
• Swiss-Army Tears: While it doesn't heal per se, the stone Spirit cries amber tears which you need to collect for a quest after the Witchdoctor is murdered.
• Take Your Time: Honestly. It's an HOG. Even in the end where, the Extractor is chasing you and gets closer, and closer. He never really catches you because the game automatically loads up the next screen.
• Unfinished Business: Turns out, David hung around for six years so he could tell Emily that even if she grew up, she wouldn't forget him.
• Taken for Granite: David's punishment for disobeying the Rule of Dark City.
• Time Skip: In The End takes place 10 years later, with a 17-year-old Emily preparing for a holiday vacation when a mysterious letter shows up at your door.
• The Power of Love:
  • In the first game, its family love that saved Emily from her fate.
  • And in the second, its what saved David from Taken for Granite and move on to the afterlife.
• When the Clock Strikes Twelve: To be fair, it was 11:59.
• You Can't Go Home Again:
  • All Kjuu wanted is to go home, a huge Tear Jerker when you knew that he never can.
  • Also, poor poor David.

---