The Marionette
The Marionette is an independent Point and Click Horror-themed Adventure Game. It centers around Martin, a distant, cynical man, who, after receiving a disturbing envelope, suddenly finds himself and his car at an unfamiliar house with no recollection of how he arrived. With his keys missing and no other apparent choice, Martin enters, and finds a mysterious man who calls himself Giuseppe. He warns Martin to be wary of a woman named Alice.
After going through an odd door, Martin discovers himself locked inside a museum—the Geimann art gallery, with whichs he holds a connection. The two places, however, have no apparent relation, and are in entirely different locations. Things are beginning to dive into madness.
Tropes used in The Marionette include:
- Big No: the fake corpse doll screams this when you kill it.
- Creepy Doll: Two of them, actually. The first, more easily missed doll is inside the television cabinet, complete with a birthday card for Alice. The second is the marionette in her bedroom, posed to to have its arms be a five, and its legs be a four; combined, those numbers unlock the door to the museum.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Alice's father disappeared, and while her mother was loving, she really wanted Alice to be a model.
- Disappeared Dad: Alice's vanished under unknown circumstances.
- Driven to Suicide: implied with Eshana/Alice, if you tell Giuseppe “She killed someone” over the phone.
- Dysfunctional Family
- Evil Former Friend
- Flash Back: The photos obtained in Hotel Court Royale are of nearby objects, which, when examined, trigger different instances of the night Eshana confessed her love to Martin. After all four have been seen, the door unlocks, and trying to leave shows the aforementioned evening.
- High Octane Nightmare Fuel: Oh you best believe it. A few choice examples include:
- Seeing Alice's reflection in the glass shower, with the words “Please hide me” written on its door. For bonus points, try asking her why she's doing all this}}.
- Looking inside the Hotel Court Royale's closet to find a fake corpse, faintly resembling Eshana. At least, one hopes it's fake.
- Discovering Giuseppe stabbed, blood sprayed over his latest toy, and Eshana/Alice's deranged writing all over the walls.
- The life-size version of Giuseppe's unfinished game, wherein Martin is pitted against what appears to be the hopefully-fake corpse from earlier. Failing to kill it in time has it appear right up on the screen and scream “DIE, YOU DOG, DIE!”
- Jerkass Woobie: Alice's life kind of sucked.
- Journey to the Center of the Mind: Giuseppe says that Martin is being lead through where his world intersects with Alice's, but it's closer to being lead through her memories.
- Lady in Red: Eshana, in the rope room. It's the exact same dress she wore to the Bayer Foundation party.
- Lost Forever: your sketch book, the scraps of it hidden on the sofa and in the locked desk, the keys to said desk, the photograph, the blue folder, the to-do list, the knife, and the bear traps. Some of those are necessary to reach the Golden Ending.
- Love Makes You Evil
- Marionette Master: if the attacking Perverse Puppet is any indication.
- Mind Screw: left and right, up and down—everywhere.
- Multiple Endings
- You fail to show Eshana that she was loved, and she turns Martin into a Person Puppet to have him walk into oncoming traffic.
- You don't even bother trying to soothe Eshana, and instead attack. She dies, but not before strangling Martin with the ropes binding him.
- Bittersweet Ending: Martin stays with Eshana in the world she's crafted.
- Golden Ending: Martin successfully convinces Eshana of how she was loved by both her mother and himself, and that Robert wasn't as despicable as she thought. She then releases him back into the real world.
- Non-Standard Game Over: you can die while fighting the fake corpse.
- Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Eshana/Alice.
- People Puppets: one of the two Bad Endings.
- Perverse Puppet: as a result of Marionette Master.
- Point of No Return: whenever you leave one location to go to another, e.g. from the house to the art gallery.
- Room Full of Crazy: the room Martin finds Giuseppe murdered in:
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- Spooky Photographs:
- The original, received at the start of the game, which depicts an array of nooses.
- The four found inside Hotel Court Royale, which depict objects scattered around the room. Examining them causes Martin to see Eshana and her friend, Meg, talking on the night of the Bayer Foundation event.
- Stage Mom: Alice's mother, as a less malicious example of the trope.
- Woman Scorned: Alice, A.K.A. Eshana.