History VideoGame / DustATaleOfTheWiredWest

** This character flaw is very helpful to beating the game and getting some more backstory. You can buy him a drink at the Hard Drive saloon when you meet him later in the game but also [[spoiler: give him a sip from a full bottle of rotgut as Mrs. Macintosh hints at]] to [[LooseLips get helpful information] that can't be attained through normal dialogue.

** It's also possible to meet Cobb early on before this event. If you do, he'll reveal he's not a fan of Native Americans either by insulting your rumored MixedAncestry to them. [[spoiler: As it turns out later on, they're not rumors at all and you actually are part Native America due to being born into the Yunni tribe.]]

* DyingTown: As players will find out, Diamondback, though once considered quite a vibrant town, has turned into this due to its rampant lawlessness, corruption but

* PracticalCurrency: As was also common during the days of the wild west, people you meet during the game utilized this as an alternative payment method by accepting practical items. In fact for most of the game you'll have to pay with practical items instead of money to advance the game.
** Other times you can resort to practical currency as an alternative solution. An early example of this involves the ring Help gives you early on. [[You can give it to Miss Oona Canute to get upstairs rather than paying her money. Doing this also has the bonus of avoiding Sophie from stealing it and demanding you pay $75 to get it back from her.]]

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Choosing to share the gold with Marie, Nate and Cosimo all end this way as a way of shaming you for not giving back the treasure to the Yunni tribe as you're strongly urged to.]]

* FunnyForeigner: Buick Rivera is a pretty blatant French variant of this trope.

* HonestyIsTheBestPolicy: Watson, the town chemist, runs his pharmacy on this policy and is not hesitant to admit that he knows most of the drugs he sells are poison. Unsurprisingly his business doesn't get much money and even the Stranger tells him this but ultimately [[ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules doesn't affect Watson in the least.]]

** However this trope is finally subverted during the game's final act. [[spoiler: The protagonist's birth name is revealed to be "Ahote" by the mysterious guardian of the Devil's Breath Mine]].

** It's also possible to meet Cobb early on before this event. If you do, he'll reveal he's not a fan of Native Americans either by insulting your rumored MixedAncestry roots to them. [[spoiler: As it turns out later on, they're not rumors at all and you actually are part Native America due to being born into the Yunni tribe.]]

* BittersweetEnding: The endings involving you investing money into Nate Trotter's ranch and living in luxury with Marie
* CorruptPolitician: Mayor Cosimo P. Macintosh is firmly established as one as soon as the Stranger becomes sheriff as he immediately sets him to work in serving as a hired thug for his personal interests.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Oona reveals this is what's happened in the final scene to [[spoiler: Mayor Cosimo P. Macintosh. This happens due to Cosimo giving much of his family fortune to both Radisson Bloodstone-Hayes and trying to acquire the Devil's Breath Gold mine for his own selfish gain. The result: he's brought himself and his family to borderline poverty.]]

* ManipulativeBastard: [[spoiler: Radisson Bloodstone-Hayes does a minimum amount of manipulating to qualify for this trope. As he reveals in the game's finale, he admits to manipulating with the emotions of Marie Macintosh so he becomes engaged to her. He does this as a way to not only gain favor with the mayor but manipulate him to give up most of his family's fortune into investing towards locating and buying the Devil's Breath Mine due it to being full of pyrite. As he non-chalantly admits, this was a lie made up specifically to fill his own pockets with the mayor's money but finding the Devil's Breath Mine to take its treasure.]]

* ShoutOut: The town doctor's name is [[UsefulNotes/HillaryRodhamClinton Hillary Rodham]] and is even modeled to look, sound and sometimes act like her. If you pause long enough during a dialogue with her she'll say you're acting just like [[UsefulNotes/BillClinton Bill]].

* {{Greed}}: [[spoiler: The mysterious guardian in the Devil's Breath Mine reveals this is why the Yunni Tribe is in shambles. Spanish colonists massacred many of its members simply to possess their treasure.]]

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Oona reveals this is what's happened in the final scene to [[spoiler: Mayor Cosimo P. Macintosh. This happens due to Cosimo giving much of his family fortune to both Radisson Bloodstone-Hayes and in trying to acquire the Devil's Breath Gold mine for personal financial gain. The result: he's brought himself and his family to practically nothing.]]

* CorruptPolitician: Mayor Cosimo P. Macintosh is firmly established as one as soon as the Stranger becomes sheriff.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: This happens to Mayor

* SomedayThisWillComeinHandy: By talking and listening into conversations of the townsfolk, players should always pay attention to information that appears unimportant. Much of it is in fact very cleverly information needed to beat the game.

* CorruptPolitician: Mayor Cosimo P. Macintosh.

* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: Miss Oona Canute and Ruby.

* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: The Belcher brothers really doesn't like Chinese people and the Stranger has to confront them when they try to burn down the local chinese owned store. And in the final confrontation, The Kid tries to [[spoiler: get the Stranger of balance by mocking him for his MixedAncestry]].

** Real-life journalist Chet Flippo plays Mr. Chet Flippo, the owner of Diamondback's only newspaper.

* SomedayThisWillComeinHandy: By talking and listening into conversations of the townsfolk, players should pay attention to information that appears unimportant. Much of it is in fact very cleverly hidden information needed to beat the game.
** However, the most important pieces of information [[spoiler: involve The Kid. You can use the information to figure out what insults to use on him before you have a gun duel with him. This makes it much easier to beat him.]]

* YouFightLikeACow: The stranger and the Kid resort to this kind of verbal joust during their final confrontation. If the player can deliver the right insults to the Kid then his reaction time slows down when the time comes to draw.

* HighVoltageDeath: [[spoiler: Radisson Bloodstone-Hayes is offed this way when you program the ancient Yunni device to kill him as opposed to opening the portal back to Diamondback as he expects.]]

* CreepyMortician: Hiram Sidewinder

* MixedAncestry: [[spoiler: The Stranger turns out to be the son of a native American mother and a white father. That is basically the only piece of background information we ever get on him]].

* TwoLinesNoWaiting: There are basically two main story-lines in Dust, the first concerning the upcoming confrontation between the Stranger and the Kid. [[spoiler: The second is the Strangers involvement in the quest for the mysterious Devil's Breath Mine]].

* YouFightLikeACow: The stranger and the Kid resort to this kind of verbal joust during their final confrontation. If the player can deliver the right insults to the Kid his reaction time slows down when the time comes to draw.

* TalkingThroughTechnique: ThePianoPlayer at the Saloon, Isao, talks through his piano playing.

* YouFightLikeACow: The stranger and the Kid does this during their final confrontation. [[spoiler: Before drawing their guns, both tries to get the other one of balance by insulting him. The more personal insults the player can deliver to the Kid, the more his reaction time slows down when time comes to draw. This makes it important for the player to do research on the Kid during the previous days, listening to rumors and gossip about the outlaw.
** The Kid, on the other hand, [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain mostly mocks the Stranger's ancestry]].

** The Kid, on the other hand, PoliticallyIncorrectVillain mostly mocks the Stranger's ancestry]].

** The Kid, on the other hand, [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain mostly mocks the Stranger's]] MixedAncestry.]]

* HookerwithaHeartofGold: Miss Oona Canute and Ruby.

* HookerwithaHeartofGold old: Miss Oona Canute and Ruby.

* ManipulativeBastard: [[spoiler: Radisson Bloodstone-Hayes does a lot of manipulating to the point he embodies this trope. As he reveals in the game's finale, he admits that he's manipulated the Mayor Macintosh's daughter Marie to marry him. He does this as a way to not only gain favor with the mayor but to manipulate him to give up most of his family's fortune into investing into the Devil's Breath Mine claiming its full of pyrite. In truth he does this specifically to help fund his own selfish quest to locate the Devil's Breath Mine to take its treasure.]]
* TheManyDeathsOfYou: It's the wild west. If someone with a gun (that is, most people) doesn't get you first, some of the local venomous fauna probably will.

* TalkingThroughTechnique: ThePianoPlayer at the Saloon, Isao, talks through his piano playing.

* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: The Belcher brothers really doesn't like chinese people and the Stranger has to confront them when they try to burn down the local chinese owned store. And in the final confrontation, The Kid tries to [[spoiler: get the Stranger of balance by mocking him for his MixedAncestry]].

* ThoseTwoBadGuys: The Belcher brothers, Dale being the stupid, relatively HarmlessVillain and Cobb the somewhat less stupid, definitely NotSoHarmlessVillain.

* YouFightLikeACow: The stranger and the Kid does this during their final confrontation. [[spoiler: Before drawing their guns, both tries to get the other one of balance by insulting him. The more personal insults the player can deliver to the Kid, the more his reaction time slows down when time comes to draw. This makes it important for the player to do recearch on the Kid during the previous days, listening to rumors and gossip about the outlaw. The Kid, on the other hand, [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain mostly mocks the strangers]] MixedAncestry.]]

* Greed: [[spoiler: The mysterious guardian in the Devil's Breath Mine explains that this is the reason the Yunni tribe is in shambles. The perpetrators infected by it were Spanish colonists who massacred most of its members to possess its treasure.]]
* Additionally, [[spoiler: this is the prime motivation of Radisson Bloodstone-Hayes who has no problems killing either to get it, most specifically you when you find it.]]

* OpeningNarration: The game and every chapter starts with a monologue from the anonymous {{Narrator}} whose character never appears in the game phsyically.

* AngryGuardDog: One of the very first and arguably easiest game puzzles you must immediately solve is getting past a big, angry dog blocking your way into town. Once you pick up a nearby StockFemurBone and give it to the dog it has the textbook effect of turning it into a BigFriendlyDog so you can enter.