History VideoGame / EternalDarkness

* KillEmAll: Almost no one gets to die of natural causes in this game. Even most of the survivors are implied to be hunted for the rest of their lives.

* OurDemonsAreDifferent: Trappers, Bonethieves, Horrors, lesser guardians and Gatekeepers are all minor {{Eldritch Abomination}}s aligned with the head Blasphemous Alien God they represent. Chattur'gha Gatekeepers even look like steteotypical demons.

* RareGuns: Elephant Gun and OICW, anyone? The OICW would be even ''rarer'' by 1991 standards.

** "Should [Character] claim the Tome of Eternal Darkness?" No. No, he really shouldn't, especially considering what happened to everyone else who did it. But since your other option is to wander around the mausoleum of creepy statues suspended in a void of blackness with a floor that has a habit of screaming, you might as well.

* CameraAbuse: Sometimes, when someone has low sanity and is carrying a gun, he will randomly fire it. Once in a blue moon, he will turn to face you and then fire his gun, putting a "bullet hole" in the "screen."

** Likewise, having infinite sanity means that no enemy in the game can ever make you lose your mind, and will prevent any health damage from having lost all your sanity... ''but'' you'll no longer be able to enjoy triggering any sanity effects again. This means that for players who enjoy the randomness they can offer, to have them suddenly missing can be mildly disappointing.

** Likewise, having infinite sanity means that no enemy in the game can ever make you lose your mind, and will prevent any health damage from having lost all your sanity... *but* you'll no longer be able to enjoy triggering any sanity effects again. This means that for players who enjoy the randomness they can offer, to have them suddenly missing can be mildly disappointing.

* DarkerAndEdgier: ''Easily'' the darkest game Creator/{{Nintendo}} has ever made, which [[CosmicHorrorStory says a lot]] considering their usual penchant for [[SurpriseCreepy unexpected creepiness]] in their other, more family-friendly stuff. In fact, even their darkest games like ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'', ''VideoGame/Mother3'' and ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion'' being nowhere near as dark or frightening as this.

* DarkerAndEdgier: ''Easily'' the darkest gsme Creator/{{Nintendo}} has ever made, which [[CosmicHorrorStory says a lot]] considering their usual penchant for [[SurpriseCreepy unexpected creepiness]] in their other, more family-friendly stuff. In fact, even their darkest games like ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'', ''VideoGame/Mother3'' and ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion'' being nowhere near as dark or frightening as this.

* DarkerAndEdgier: ''Easily'' the darkest gsme Creator/{{Nintendo}} has ever made, which [[CosmiicHorrorStory says a lot]] considering their usual penchant for [[SurpriseCreepy unexpected creepiness]] in their other, more family-friendly stuff. In fact, even their darkest games like ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'', ''VideoGame/Mother3'' and ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion'' being nowhere near as dark or frightening as this.

* WarIsHell: The chapters that take place near battlefields (i.e. "A War to End All Wars" and "Ashes to Ashes") play up the horrors of modern warfare for all they're worth, and Peter's and Michael's sanity is below average even before they encounter the Ancients.

* ItemGet: Taken UpToEleven, as each location has its own fanfare music.

* ADeadlyAffair:Chandra is punished ''dearly'' for not waiting patiently for Karim to return (from a quest ''she'' sent him on). However, compared to what might have happened to her or Karim if either of them had touched that artifact, and considering that Chandra's ghost just barely stopped Karim from touching it, it's not ''that'' bad.

* AnachronicOrder: There is a bit of an order to the chapters. While they do tend to jump around a lot, all the chapters that take place in the same location happen in the correct chronological order. {{Justified|Trope}} when you consider that [[spoiler:Mantorok can manipulate time. Every person got the book with the spells that they would need when they needed it in order to further his GambitRoulette.]]

* LoreCodex: ''Sanity's Requiem'' has the [[TomeOfEldritchLore Book of Eternal Darkness]], which not only has a section for explanations of lore but is the ''game interface''.

* TomeOfEldritchLore: The semi-eponymous Tome of Eternal Darkness, an ancient text made from human skin and bones. Inside is the knowledge of millennia which includes eldritch spells and the fates of all who have ever come to possess it. Also, it seems to be able to hop across time and spontaneously appear to prospective recipients while at the same time having a physical form. You spend most of the game reading it and most of the time not reading it trying to find more pages.

Despite Silicon Knights' eventual bankruptcy, founder Denis Dyack has long-wanted to create a sequel known as ''Shadow of the Eternals'', and has attempted several times to crowdfund it under multiple different new companies. Due to several setbacks, including the aforementioned bankruptcy, the initial crowdfunding campaign's very unpopular terms and the arrest of the co-designer, it seems increasingly unlikely that it will ever get made, but Dyack has yet to give up.

Impressively, the game's Japanese website [[https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ngc/gedj/index.html is still online]], although some aspects of it don't run properly since the death of UsefulNotes/AdobeFlash.

''Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem'' is a horror-themed action-adventure game released for the UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube in 2002. Developed by Creator/SiliconKnights (creators of ''VideoGame/LegacyOfKain''), it holds the distinction of being the first [[UsefulNotes/MediaClassifications M-rated]] game ever published by Creator/{{Nintendo}}.[[note]]While Nintendo supplied the marketing funds for ''VideoGame/ConkersBadFurDay'' and ''VideoGame/PerfectDark'' on the UsefulNotes/Nintendo64, Creator/{{Rare}} actually self-published those titles.[[/note]] The game contains {{psychological horror}} elements and is influenced by, and features numerous nods to, the works of Creator/HPLovecraft, Creator/EdgarAllanPoe, Creator/AlfredHitchcock, Creator/StephenKing, and other similar authors, making it something akin to ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' meets ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu''.

''Eternal Darkness'' brought several things to the table that no game before it had managed to pull off. A versatile magic system allows the player to create new spells using runes[[note]]technically closer to sigils or glyphs, as the symbols in the game represent words while real runes are single letters[[/note]] in a system much like grammatically creating new sentences. The game also includes a "sanity system." In addition to health and magic meters, the game's SanityMeter drops every time an undead creature sees you. You can regain sanity by decisively finishing the creatures off, though the recovered amount will always be less than that taken away in the initial shock. If the Sanity Meter drops low enough, players will experience random in-game hallucinations: Books spontaneously fly from one bookshelf to another, footsteps follow Alex despite nothing being behind her, and Alex's dead family members might even make telephone calls or show up as ghosts. More devious hallucinations involve body parts exploding during unsuccessful magic casting, screaming voices and bleeding walls, random paintings turning from idyllic scenes to hellish environments, and statues and busts watching Alex as she walks by. The worst of these effects are the [[InterfaceScrew hardware tricks:]] The controller ceases to work in a room full of enemies, the video signal cuts out, the audio volume changes on its own, and the game leads you to believe ''it has erased your memory card''.

''Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem'' is a horror-themed action-adventure game released for the UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube in 2002. Developed by Creator/SiliconKnights (creators of ''VideoGame/LegacyOfKain''), it holds the distinction of being the first [[UsefulNotes/MediaClassifications M-rated]] game ever published by Creator/{{Nintendo}}.[[note]]While Nintendo supplied the marketing funds for ''VideoGame/ConkersBadFurDay'' and ''VideoGame/PerfectPark'' on the UsefulNotes/Nintendo64, Creator/{{Rare}} actually self-published those titles.[[/note]] The game contains {{psychological horror}} elements and is influenced by, and features numerous nods to, the works of Creator/HPLovecraft, Creator/EdgarAllanPoe, Creator/AlfredHitchcock, Creator/StephenKing, and other similar authors, making it something akin to ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' meets ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu''.

''Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem'' is a horror-themed action-adventure game released for the UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube in 2002. It was developed by Creator/SiliconKnights (creators of ''VideoGame/LegacyOfKain'') and published/owned by Creator/{{Nintendo}}.[[note]]While Nintendo supplied the marketing funds for some of Creator/{{Rare}}'s [[UsefulNotes/MediaClassifications M-rated]] games on the UsefulNotes/Nintendo64, this would be the first M-rated game actually ''published'' by Nintendo.[[/note]] The game contains {{psychological horror}} elements and is influenced by, and features numerous nods to, the works of Creator/HPLovecraft, Creator/EdgarAllanPoe, Creator/AlfredHitchcock, Creator/StephenKing, and other similar authors, making it something akin to ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' meets ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu''.

* KillItWithFire: The oil fires in Michael's chapter, which he attempts to snuff out using "80% nitroglycerin grade dynamite."

* LovecraftLite: An interesting example. On one hand multiple heroes are driven insane and/or killed, the Ancient's plans go unstopped for ages, and overall the tone is dark and almost hopeless. [[spoiler: But then suddenly several characters successfully start ruining the Ancient's plans, reveal that older characters were able to hinder them in some way as well, and then in the finale [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu you KILL one of the Ancients!]] Furthermore playing through the game twice more allows you to destroy the other two ancients, leaving one left [[MysteriousBacker who has in fact been helping you the entire time]]. All in all, a pretty darn optimistic eldritch horror story.]]

* NewGamePlus: Required to get the [[MultipleEndings best ending.]] Successful completion of the game records the completion, including the alignment of the dominant Ancient (Pious' master), cutscenes completed and autopsies completed during the Maximillian chapter, all of which can be rewatched (it can be very entertaining to be see the differences in conversations based on the alignment of those involved). [[spoiler:Completing the game three times, once per dominant Ancient, gives you the OneHundredPercentCompletion bonuses, including "Eternal Mode", a chapter by chapter playthrough with GodMode and everything unlocked.]]

** Dying as Pious in the very first chapter results in a different game over message than with any of the other characters because none of the plot (even the prologue) can happen without him.

* OffWithHisHead: One method of dealing with zombies and Horrors. In fact, it's the fastest and (in the case of Ulyaoth aligned zombies) safest way to defeat them.

* OurMonstersAreDifferent

* InvisibleMonsters: The vampire, there is also a room in Eng'ha that has invisible trappers. Even your AreaOfEffect magical attack [[ObviousRulePatch will fail against invisible targets]], forcing you to cast reveal invinsible, get them to bump into a damage field or damage field, or wait for them to reveal themselves.

* InvisibleMonsters: The vampire, there is also a room in Eng'ha that has invisible trappers. Even your AreaOfEffect magical attack [[ObviousRulesPatch will fail against invisible targets]], forcing you to cast reveal invinsible, get them to bump into a damage field or damage field, or wait for them to reveal themselves.

* InvisibleMonsters: The vampire, there is also a room in Eng'ha that has invisible trappers. Even your AreaOfEffect magical attack [[ObviouslyRulesPatch will fail against invisible targets]], forcing you to cast reveal invinsible, get them to bump into a damage field or damage field, or wait for them to reveal themselves.

** Monsters that drain your sanity when you're spotted by them can't drain your meter multiple times. This allows you to at least get back most of your sanity when you perform your finishing move on them. Only one type of enemy can drain your sanity at a constant rate and even then, it does so slowly.

*** Pious is a LightningBruiser immune to sanity effects. He's a career soldier of a powerful empire so of course he doesn't bat an eye at monsters. Furthermore, being the first person recorded in the Tome means he never added to its arcane knowledge so he has no magic meter.

* InvisibleMonsters: The vampire, there is also a room in Eng'ha that has invisible trappers.