Nancy Drew (video game): Difference between revisions

* [[Canon Welding]]: ''Alibi in Ashes'' does this with a few of the different book series. Brenda Carlton is exclusive to the ''Files'' spin-off series, and Deirdre Shannon is exclusive to the ''Girl Detective'' series (Simon and Schuster considers ''Girl Detective'' an official continuation of the original Nancy Drew Mystery Stories; however, in reality, they fit better somewhere between [[Series Reboot]] and Spin Off.) However, they're both suspects in ''Alibi in Ashes,'' which effectively weld both the ''Files'' and ''Girl Detective'' series to the original Nancyverse. It's especially interesting because they're pretty much Expies of each other (both are the [[Alpha Bitch]] that functions as a jealous nemesis to Nancy, although Deirdre is a more straightforward example, while Brenda is more an [[Alpha Bitch]] all grown up.)

* [[Calling Your Attacks]]: Played realistically. At the end of ''Danger By Design'', the culprit's insistence in calling their attacks makes them easier to defeat.

* [[Captain Obvious]]: Nigel's memoirs in ''The Curse of Blackmoor Manor'', which Nancy must transcribe, contain statements like "I was very small when I was born." Well, duh...

* [[Changeling Tale]]: In ''The Curse of Blackmoor Manor'', it's rumored that one of the Penvellyns {{spoiler|(specifically, Elinor Penvellyn)}} was a changeling.

* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: Where to begin...?

* [[Clear My Name]]: In ''Alibi in Ashes'', this is basically what Nancy has to do... {{spoiler|when she's accused of arson!}}

* [[Comic Book Time]]: Time passes, yet Nancy apparently stays the same age and is ''still'' referred to as a "silly American teenager" ten years after the first game supposedly began.

** Especially amusing in that the exact same voice actors and silly-teen references are used in ''Secret of the Old Clock'', which is a 1930s period piece!

** Also played straight on occasion, when the proper response is to step ''back'' immediately upon hearing the cue that something's about to fall on you.

* [[Death Trap]]: Nearly every game features a form of a death trap.

** Holt will have you arrested if you bring him a female crab. Yeah, catching them are illegal, but...

* [[Dumb Blonde]]: Lori Girard of ''Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon''.

* [[Easter Egg]]: Constantly, if you know where to look.

* [[Elegant Gothic Lolita]]: Yumi Shimizu in ''Shadow at the Water's Edge'', though her favoring of the color pink makes her more of a Sweet Lolita.

* [[Even Evil Has Standards]]: {{spoiler|Deidre in ''Alibi in Ashes'' hates Nancy since she's going out with Ned. But she states that although she hates Nancy, she doesn't ''hate'' Nancy enough to accuse her of burning down Town Hall.}}

* [[The Faceless]]: Nancy, as the games are in first person perspective. Bess and George were faceless until Ransom of the Seven Ships.

* [[Fictional Counterpart]]: The Koko Kringle bars.

** Danger by Design has Pricsy Colors, the cases of which look a lot like Prisma colors.

** [[The Hero]]: Nancy Drew

** [[The Lancer]]: Ned Nickerson

** [[The Chick]]: Bess Marvin

** [[Sixth Ranger]]: [[The Hardy Boys|Frank and Joe Hardy]]

** [[The Big Bad]]: Il Dottore aka {{spoiler|Helena Berg}}

** [[The Dragon]]: Il Capitano aka Antonio Fango

* [[Giant Space Flea From Nowhere]]: The culprit in ''The Haunting of Castle Malloy'' seems to be a banshee, but we all know banshees aren't real! Instead, {{spoiler|it's a feral old woman flying around on a jet pack}}. ''Duh.''

** Surprisingly, there's not ''as'' much a "culprit" as in other games.

* [[Gory Discretion Shot]]: Because you're playing in first person, you don't get to see the details in the more gruesome Game Over scenarios, which is actually a good thing, considering the more horrific ways to die--for example, one way to die in ''Treasure in the Royal Tower'' is by not pre-setting the elevator, not solving a puzzle in time, and thus ''getting crushed by an elevator''.

* [[Goth]]: Mel from ''Warnings at Waverly Academy'' and Henry Bolet from ''The Legend of the Crystal Skull''.

* [[Hell Hound]]: The eponymous dogs in ''Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake.''

* [[How We Got Here]]: ''Phantom of Venice'' starts off with Nancy getting locked in a room that is [[Drowning Pit|filling with water]]. The rest of the game is a flashback leading up to that scene - and you'd better figure out how to stop that water once you get there.

** Played ''painfully'' straight at the end of ''Ransom of the Seven Ships'' without the player having to do anything (or in this case, not being able to do anything). So Nancy, {{spoiler|that bum whom you've been helping}} turns out to be {{spoiler|a former culprit out for revenge, not to mention a culprit who proved to be [[Ax Crazy|unstable and dangerous]] in the past}} and is about to trap you. So what do you do? {{spoiler|Stand there and ''do nothing'' apart from whimpering "Oh no" when he launches a trap ''that you have been aware of since you first arrived on the beach.''}} What makes it ''really'' outrageous is how the past games at least gave you a ''chance'' to out-run the culprit.

** Sometimes, the suspects themselves can be prone to this. For instance, towards the end of ''Warnings at Waverley Academy'', one of the characters has her term paper erased by the Black Cat. The player has the option of asking if she kept a hard copy, and her answer is...[[Face Palm|"No! It would've been like printing out a book!"]] Anyone who has gone to college and written a term paper can tell you why this reasoning is just plain stupid.

** Prop Master of DEATH!

** The announcer of PUNCHYYYY LARUUUUUEE!

* [[Lethal Chef]]: In ''Danger on Deception Island'', if you use any expired or blatantly inedible ingredients (such as baking soda and fresh jellyfish) to make a sandwich and give it to either Nancy or her hostess, one or the other gets food poisoning and the game ends. Likewise, in ''Secret of Shadow Ranch'', overbaking a cake can result in Nancy getting fired. [[Video Game Cruelty Potential|It's funny]].

** The former game is a strange example of this--it is not the combination of ingredients themselves that can make Nancy or her hostess sick; rather, it's the individual ingredients by themselves (such as the aforementioned baking soda). As long as you use ingredients that are fresh and are actual food, you can make any kind of combination of different ingredients for a sandwich and it won't make Nancy or her hostess sick, no matter how incredibly disgusting it would be in real life (such as an ice cream and mustard and peanut butter sandwich).

** The Remastered version of it, while still keeping certain plot elements from the original, looks like it ''might'' be Lighter and Softer than the original... {{spoiler|and then this is ''massively'' subverted at the end when the culprit ''holds Nancy up at gunpoint.''}}

* [[Love Makes You Evil]]: {{spoiler|In ''Shadow at the Water's Edge'', Rentaro scares away guests from the ryokan in hopes that he can convince Miwako, his childhood sweetheart, to move away with him to the city.}}

** There's one mentioned in passing in ''Secret of the Old Clock'' when you deliver a telegram to the [[Shout Out|nursery to]] [[Pet Shop of Horrors|a bloke called Seymour]]. It only bites, but merits a mention.

* [[Memento MacGuffin]]: Nancy mentions that Ned gave her a locket just before she goes to Italy. [[Trailers Always Spoil|There's a picture of the phantom thief holding a locket on the cover of the game.]] Was there ever any doubt that the locket would become this? {{spoiler|Interestingly, the cover's locket looks nothing like Nancy's. She ''does'' manage to retrieve it, at least.}}

* [[Never Live It Down]]: In-universe example: Alexei in ''Alibi in Ashes'' is this way whenever somebody breaks one of his antiques. Also, Alexei himself suffered from this. {{spoiler|He was a detective as a teenager, just like Nancy, and was accused of theft by a man he'd busted.}}

* [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]]: Lori Girard, Nancy's hostess in ''Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon'' is an obvious stand-in for Paris Hilton.

** Also Miles the Magnificent Memory Machine is this for Joy.

* [[Nothing Is Scarier]]: The secret passages in ''The Curse of Blackmoor Manor'' seem to invoke this - dark, dank tunnels with ambient background music that sounds like dripping water. The only light source is a green glowstick that illuminates a small patch of the hallway at a time, leaving everything else pitch black. Even if you ''just'' checked the shadows, and you ''know'' there’s nothing there... you’ll wonder.

* [[Soft Water]]: Averted in one of the Game Over scenarios in ''Haunting of Castle Malloy'' during the "Good News Bad News" segment, which explains the flaw behind this trope perfectly.

* [[Solve the Soup Cans]]: The more recent games have become fond of using this, though the earliest example can be traced back to ''Stay Tuned For Danger'' which, on top of everything else, ''imposed a time limit.'' Fortunately, the game makers took mercy on the players still screaming in frustration [[Nightmare Fuel|(or fear)]] and created a downloadable patch to give the player an infinite amount of time.

* [[Strawman News Media]]: Brenda Carlton of ''Alibi in Ashes'' falls into Type IV {{spoiler|especially when you she turns out to be the actual arsonist.}}

* [[Story Arc]]: This has begun to appear in the most recent games. After solving ''Trail of the Twister'', you are rewarded with a trip to Japan. While solving a mystery in Japan, a ghost expert mentions a frightening castle in Germany. . .

** [[Video Game Cruelty Punishment]]: Hm, I think I'll make a sandwich with mayonnaise...Koko Kringles Ice Cream...jellyfish...mustard...baking soda...tomatoes...Eat that sandwich, Nancy! Awww darn it I got a game over.

* [[Viewers Are Geniuses]]: Hope you're up to date on your WWII codebreaking trivia!

* [[Woman Scorned]]: {{spoiler|In ''The Captive Curse'', Anja dresses up as the monster of Finster Castle in a ploy to get back at the castle's owner, her ex-boyfriend.}}

* [[Xanatos Roulette]]: {{spoiler|The culprit tricks Nancy into helping them with their plans in ''Ransom of the Seven Ships''. Would have been a Gambit, were it not for the fact that there are literally ''too many damn ways to die''. If Nancy had reached one of the many possibilities to get a game over, if she hadn't gotten past the carefully-set traps, or if she had figured out the true identity behind Johnny Rolle/Poole too early, the culprit's plan would have failed}}.