History VideoGame / FearEffect

* MoneyToBurn:
** Damaging [[spoiler:Lam, Wee Ming's father]] in the final battle involves shooting his minions, then grabbing the "hell money" (Chinese paper money burned as offerings to one's ancestors) they drop and tossing it in a fire.
** Wee Ming even [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] the trope herself. She [[spoiler: tells Glas that her "father" made a deal with the devil. Lam gets all his money by using the Chinese superstition of burning paper in the shape of money, except instead of the actual paper money appearing in Chinese hell, it appears in the real world, where Lam can get it. The King of Hell made this possible for Lam. However, in exchange for this, Lam has to raise Wee Ming, a paper doll made into a human, until she is 18 years old, at which point her powers will kick in and turn everyone into their SuperpoweredEvilSide.]] She actually says that Lam truly has MoneyToBurn.

* TheManBehindTheMan: [[spoiler: The King/Lord of Hell is pretty much behind everything in both games]]. In ''Fear Effect 2'', [[spoiler: Mist and Rachal Kazra merged together to form a bizarre creature, and were going to kill the human race, all so that "Father will again walk the earth." The bad ending implies that the King of Hell had nothing to do with it, except for watching from a distance]].

* HaveANiceDeath

* BilingualBonus:
** Both games are loaded with untranslated Chinese characters. As an example, the first game begins with a funeral procession, with a picture of a woman being carried as well as a sign that says 名垂千古. In Mandarin Chinese, this says "míng chuí qiān gǔ", and this can be translated as "(Her) name (is) Chui Qiangu". For those who are curious, Chui would be her last name and Qiangu would be her first name. Additionally, its actually a Chinese idiom which means a person's name being remembered throughout history.
** There is a door in the first game that has a sign saying 立入禁止 posted on it. In Mandarin Chinese, this says "lì rù jìn zhǐ", and this can be translated as "stand enter prohibited".
** As Hana moves around in Mr. Lam's building, she will come across huge neon characters that say 林氏企業 (In Simplified Chinese, this would be rendered as 林氏企业). In Mandarin Chinese, this says "lín shì qǐ yè", and this can be translated as "Mr. Lin('s) Company". Note that 林 is pronounced as "lam4" in Cantonese.

* NintendoHard: Goes without saying.

** A live-action film adaptation was in DevelopmentHell for years. Originally going to be helmed by UweBoll, it fell apart after a deal he had with Eidos fell through, and had since changed hands for years before falling off the face of the planet.

* TheOtherDarrin:
** All three protagonists changed voice actors between games.

** In ''Fear Effect 2'', WendeeLee voiced Hana, AnthonyGayleMarcotte voiced Glas, Creator/LexLang voiced Deke, DorothyEliasFahn voiced Rain, and Rob Monroe reprised his role from the orginal ''Fear Effect''.

* WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong: Hana says this at the end of ''Fear Effect 2''. It shows the King of Hell surrounded by fire and laughing hysterically. Those who have played the first game should know exactly what happened.
** A live-action film adaptation was in DevelopmentHell for years. Originally going to be helmed by UweBoll, it fell apart after a deal he had with Eidos fell through, and had since changed hands for years before falling off the face of the planet.

The games feature typical action/adventure elements (run and gunning enemies, stealth sequences, keycard-fetching and puzzle solving). What is somewhat unique is each character you control has a "fear/confidence meter". Essentially your life bar, however, there are no medicines/health packs in the game. By solving puzzles and taking out foes quickly, your character's meter stays green for longer, or recovers if he/she took damage. When you screw up, the meter goes down. When it's red, your character has all the [[OneHitPointWonder defense of wet paper]].

** The scene where [[spoiler: 5-year-old Hana witnesses her parents get shot and killed right in front of her]] may very well have its roots go back to {{Batman}}.

There was to be a third game for the {{PlayStation 2}} (''Inferno''), [[TooGoodToLast but it was cancelled]].

** In the trailers of ''Inferno'', Wendee Lee, Anthony Gayle Marcotte, and Rob Monroe were slated to repris their roles. {{YouTube}} comments claimed that the voice actor from the first game (Anthony [=DeLongis=]) was going to Deke in this one. It is not clear who would have voiced Rain, and a couple of other characters.

* TookALevelInBadass: [[spoiler: A trailer of Fear Inferno Samus. She is trying to open a locked door. She finally gets it open with one powerful jump kick. She also knocks some guy over with one powerful punch, while wearing a red Chinese dress and high heels. If only she could have done these moves in gameplay.]]

An action/adventure/horror game published by Eidos and released midway through the original [=PlayStation=]'s life cycle, the game is the tale of three merciless mercenaries--Hana, Glas, and Deke. The daughter of a rich and powerful businessman has been kidnapped, and the trio has been hired to find her. Although, the three of them plan to ransom her back to her father if all goes well. However, everything is not what it seems to be, and the kidnapped girl in question is the key to an epic ordeal--possibly involving the fate of the world itself.

The game spawned a prequel, "Retro Helix", which shows how the three main characters met, and introduces Rain, Hana's love interest. Their mission in this game is to stop an epidemic of a highly dangerous disease.

There was to be a third game for the [=PS2=] ("Inferno"), [[TooGoodToLast but it was cancelled]].

* AbsoluteCleavage: Hana's green party gown in Fear Effect 2. As Rain said, "You're wearing ''that?!'' Why don't you just walk in there naked."
* ActionGirl: Hana

* TheBigGuy: Deke

* DistressedDamsel: Rain

* EverythingTryingToKillYou: And they do. However, the students in the aquaducts will leave you alone if you don't go around actively shooting them, the Immortals will not fight you if you make the right choices (i.e. ''NOT'' shooting the students), and the girls in the yellow suits will ignore Rain for as long as she doesn't have her weapons armed.
* FireForgedFriends: Hana, Glas, Deke, and Rain start out like this in Retro Helix. The problems associated to this come up in the first game. [[spoiler: In Fear Effect Inferno, the bonds between the four of them have improved significantly. In fact, the four of them seem to have started romantic or sexual relationships with each other - except for between Hana and Deke, and Glas and Deke.]]

* JerkAss: Try Deke. In his profile for both games he's described as a "borderline psychopath". Hana and Glas get several PetTheDog moments, with Rain being a borderline {{Woobie}}.
* LeftHanging: [[spoiler: The trailers for Fear Effect Interno reveal a number of things. One scene shows Jin/Yim Lau Wong alive and plotting with an unnamed man about Hana. This unnamed man is probably a member of the Triad Hana has to work for. There is a website that unfortunately may no longer exist that said that Hana reached to the point where she decided to go against her contract with the Triad. It is hard to say if that means she got enough money at that point or that she simply had had it. Either way, a woman named Minx threatens to kill Rain if Hana goes against the contract. Hana does not take threats like that lightly, so she decides to kill Minx, with Glas, Rain, and Deke helping her. There is next to nothing revealed about Minx. She may be a member of the Triad, or perhaps a servant of Jin/Yim Lau Wong. The outcome of the mission to kill Minx is not revealed. Trailers and Wikipedia indicate that Hana was captured and put in an insane asylum (Or she may have been killed and sent to hell, forcing the other characters to find some way to get to hell and rescue her). Unfortunately, the insane asylum is controlled by Jin/Yim Lau Wong's demons. She also has visions and gains some abilities. She even gains some kind of sword and uses it against a boss. The boss is an asylum doctor who is a monstrous creature whose brain pops open - and if Hana loses, a cutscene plays showing the monster ripping off Hana's arm and adding it to his body. Oh, yeah, and Deke infiltrates the asylum as one of the patients.]] As you can probably guess, so very much of Fear Effect Inferno is LeftHanging.

* LoveTriangle: [[spoiler: Trailers for Fear Effect Inferno reveal that one would have developed between Hana, Rain, and Glas. Hana loves Rain very much, and she begins to show affection to Glas. Rain loves Hana very much, and she appears to want to have sex with Glas and maybe more than that. Glas begins to show affection to Hana, and he appears to be willing to have sex with Rain and maybe more than that. This would have been one complicated LoveTriangle and how it would have been handled is not revealed. One trailer indicates that Rain and Deke have formed a relationship.]] Talk about complicated relationships.
* MaleGaze: We get several close ups of Hana's T'n'A in both games. An in universe example is averted when Hana threatens to kill Deke for peeking at her.
* TheManBehindTheMan: [[spoiler: The King/Lord of Hell is pretty much behind everything in both games]]. In Retro Helix, [[spoiler: Mist and Rachal Kazra merged together to form a bizarre creature, and were going to kill the human race, all so that "Father will again walk the earth." The bad ending implies that the King of Hell had nothing to do with it, except for watching from a distance]].
* MexicanStandoff: Part of the first game's climax. [[spoiler:You choose who fires first, and it decides your ending. On Hard, however, [[TakeAThirdOption you don't HAVE to choose]], and both characters make it out alive.]]

** The solution to one puzzle in the first game (Hana having a gun pointed at her point-blank, any mistake gets you shot), while you're only wearing said towel? Go into your inventory and use the towel - she ''takes it off''. Nice butt, Hana. (The guy with the gun? Deke breaks his neck while he's distracted.)

** The first game had 3 endings, depending on if you picked Hana or Glas in the stand off, would result in every character but the one you picked being dead. [[spoiler:If you played on hard though, you could have Glas and Hana not kill each other, and not only do they survive, but Deke is returned to life, and Glas's arm is restored.]] The cancelled 3rd game would've gone with that ending.
** And in Retro Helix, you could pick an ending that would have resulted in everyone but Deke and possibly Rain being killed. Since it's a prequel, it's obviously not canon.

* PoorCommunicationKills: Glas is the poster boy of having little to no communication skills. In Retro Helix, he could have explained to Hana why he is so opposed to having faith in someone else. In the first Fear Effect, he fails to explain to Hana why he thinks Wee Ming is the cause of the problems they faced so far. A lot of grief could have been spared if he just explained rather than go on a wild rant. Then there is the fact that he does not try to find out the significance of [[spoiler: the paper doll]] or even mention it to anybody. At least Deke handled the matter of [[spoiler: the paper doll]] than Glas ever did. Oh, and Glas also reveals that he does not speak Chinese. Honestly, does the army cause or teach people to have no communication skills? At least in Fear Effect Inferno, Glas tells Hana to be careful and he clearly shows that it was very hard to get that out of his mouth (i.e. CannotSpitItOut).
* {{Prequel}}: ''Retro Helix''

** Glas encounters [[spoiler: the first emperor of China]] and they have a short dialogue that was clearly taken from Film/{{Ghostbusters}} and paraphrased a little bit. When Glas fights this fellow, said fellow uses an attack that was clearly lifted from a certain black-robed figure in ReturnOfTheJedi.

** The disease EINDS is similar to the disease AIDS. AIDS really does exist in real life, by the way. Also, AIDS is not that big of a problem when compared to EINDS. Oh, and AIDS has yet to be cured, unlike EINDS.

** In the second game Hana suddenly gets a DistressedDamsel female [[LesYay love interest]]. Given the timing it's remarkably similar to [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Willow]] getting s lesbian paramour.
* SillyRabbitCynicismIsForLosers: Royce Glas is the cynical one. Hana Tzu-Vachel is the idealistic one. Glas is treated as the ButtMonkey and TheLancer. Hana is treated as the IronWoobie and TheHero. [[spoiler: It probably won't surprise you that the best ending in the first game essentially has Hana winning out without having to shoot Glas.]]
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Okay, this is a tough one. There are points in the series that are certainly cynical. However, there are points that are idealistic. One good example is the contrast between Hana and Glas. Hana proves to be the idealistic one, while Glas proves to be the cynical one. In fact, the ending of the first game could be viewed as the result of a battle between idealism and cynicism. [[spoiler: The true ending has Hana winning out, with Glas surviving (as well as regaining the arm he lost) and Deke being resurrected, thus causing the series to lean towards idealistic. Of course, the three of them failed to get any money out of the job, so the series also leans toward cynical]]. In Retro Helix, the manual claims that EINDS is a worldwide epidemic and causing theft, murder and terrorism to become big business. However, the first Fear Effect shows people going about their daily lives and not at all acting like the world is coming to an end. [[spoiler: The true ending of Retro Helix has the characters put together a cure for EINDS and make it available to everyone worldwide and not just the highest bidder, which may explain that]]. The series could be put in the middle of idealistic and cynical.

** In the first Fear Effect, ElyseDinh voiced Hana, BraedenMarcott voiced Glas, AnthonyDeLongis voiced Deke, RobMonroe voiced Jin [[spoiler: or Yim Lau Wong]], JulieSchaller voiced Wee Ming, KathieBarnes voiced Madame Chen, and two people named GeoffHoff and PatriciaAyameThomson did additional voices.
** In Fear Effect Retro Helix, WendeeLee voiced Hana, AnthonyGayleMarcotte voiced Glas, Creator/LexLang voiced Deke, DorothyEliasFahn voiced Rain, and RobMonroe reprised his role from the first Fear Effect.
** In the trailers of Fear Effect Inferno, WendeeLee, AnthonyGayleMarcotte, and RobMonroe reprise their roles. Youtube comments claim that the voice actor from the first game (AnthonyDeLongis) is voicing Deke in this one. It is not clear who is voicing Rain, and a couple of other characters. If anyone knows who they are, please comment!

* TookALevelInBadass: [[spoiler: A trailer of Fear Effect Inferno shows Rain looking like an {{Expy}} of Zero Suit Samus. She is trying to open a locked door. She finally gets it open with one powerful jump kick. She also knocks some guy over with one powerful punch, while wearing a red Chinese dress and high heels. If only she could have done these moves in gameplay.]]

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The game was going to be titled ''FearFactor''. Some think the name was changed because of the TV show ''FearFactor'', but {{Wikipedia}} claims that the title was changed because it was too similar to the popular heavy metal band FearFactory.
* WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong: Hana says this at the end of ''Retro Helix''. It shows the King of Hell surrounded by fire and laughing hysterically. Those who have played the first game should know exactly what happened.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: [[spoiler: Hana encounters a frightened old woman in a fishing village. She then leaves the old woman behind and is not seen or heard from again. Really, Hana should have been given a WhatTheHellHero scolding for that!]]

** In Fear Effect Retro Helix, WendeeLee voiced Hana, AnthonyGayleMarcotte voiced Glas, LexLang voiced Deke, DorothyEliasFahn voiced Rain, and RobMonroe reprised his role from the first Fear Effect.

* AnArmAndALeg: Not ''all'' of [[spoiler:Glas]] gets out of the first game intact.
** [[spoiler: Except in the true ending.]]

* BilingualBonus: Both games are loaded with untranslated Chinese characters. As an example, the first game begins with a funeral procession, with a picture of a woman being carried as well as a sign that says 名垂千古. In Mandarin Chinese, this says "míng chuí qiān gǔ", and this can be translated as "(Her) name (is) Chui Qiangu". For those who are curious, Chui would be her last name and Qiangu would be her first name. Additionally, its actually a Chinese idiom which means a person's name being remembered throughout history.

* EverythingTryingToKillYou: And they do.
** The students in the aquaducts will leave you alone if you don't go around actively shooting them, the Immortals will not fight you if you make the right choices (i.e. ''NOT'' shooting the students), and the girls in the yellow suits will ignore Rain for as long as she doesn't have her weapons armed.

* JerkAss: Arguably every single playable character.
** Arguably every playable character? Try Deke. In his profile for both games he's described as a "borderline psychopath". Hana and Glas get several PetTheDog moments, with Rain being a borderline {{Woobie}}.

* LosingYourHead: [[spoiler:Deke. Well, not ''completely''.]]
** Just enough to be [[{{Gorn}} really, really gross]].

* TheManBehindTheMan: [[spoiler: The King/Lord of Hell is pretty much behind everything in both games.]]
** This troper is not so sure of that. In Retro Helix, [[spoiler: Mist and Rachal Kazra merged together to form a bizzare creature, and were going to kill the human race, all so that "Father will again walk the earth." This troper was under the impression that The King/Lord of Hell was totally uninvolved with that, except for observing from a distance.]]

* MsFanservice: Hana, from gratuitous shower scenes to stripper disguises to running around in nothing but a towel.

* MoneyToBurn: Damaging [[spoiler:Lam, Wee Ming's father]] in the final battle involves shooting his minions, then grabbing the "hell money" (Chinese paper money burned as offerings to one's ancestors) they drop and tossing it in a fire.

* NoCanonForTheWicked: The first game had 3 endings, depending on if you picked Hana or Glas in the stand off, would result in every character but the one you picked being dead. [[spoiler:If you played on hard though, you could have Glas and Hana not kill each other, and not only do they survive, but Deke is returned to life, and Glas's arm is restored.]] The cancelled 3rd game would've gone with that ending.

* {{Prequel}}: Retro Helix

* ShoutOut: Glas encounters [[spoiler: the first emperor of China]] and they have a short dialogue that was clearly taken from Film/{{Ghostbusters}} and paraphrased a little bit. When Glas fights this fellow, said fellow uses an attack that was clearly lifted from a certain black-robed figure in ReturnOfTheJedi.

** One website said that [[spoiler: Jin/Yim Lau Wong is essentially the [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI Kefka]] of Fear Effect]].

* TheOtherDarrin: All three protagonists changed voice actors between games.

* WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong: Hana says this at the end of Retro Helix. It shows the King of Hell surrounded by fire and laughing hysterically. Those who have played the first game should know exactly what happened.

* LesYay: Hana and Rain again, in ''Retro Helix''

* TooGoodToLast: Fear Effect Inferno was going to be the third game for the series, but Kronos folded. There are clips showing things that were supposed to happen in this game. This is the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pojVYDqE_4k first clip]]. This is the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsEuBq1mVdg&feature=related second clip]]. This is the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovhzvZZ03sE&feature=related third clip]]. This is the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TzYuEZ-oaM&feature=related fourth clip]]. This is the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mr3492MYh8&feature=related fifth clip]]. This is the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UT6A8Yl7vE&feature=related sixth clip]]. This is the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEkCDpPWoPY&feature=related seventh clip]]. This is the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRVSA55iTEA&feature=related eighth clip]]. This is the ninth and final [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyKEzNKGZIs clip]].

* FridgeBrilliance: Some might wonder why Madame Chen keeps calling Hana her daughter when she is not. That is because Madame Chen is a female pimp, and female pimps refer to the prostitutes working for them as daughters. So Hana denying that she is Madame Chen's daughter has less to do with biological relations and more to do with Hana making it clear that she is no longer working for Madame Chen as a prostitute.
* FridgeHorror: Here's a big one...Hana was 5 years old when her parents were murdered in front of her. She is taken to a brothel that is also a restaurant. She escaped at some point, and she had to have sex with Jin in order to get him to help her in escaping. She is 18 years old by the events of both games. Can you imagine what she experienced in that brothel?
** Here's an even bigger one...at the end of the first game, the King of Hell reveals that he intends to destroy the world because Hell has gotten too full. How did it get too full? Some might say that it's a combination of CrapsackWorld and HumansAreBastards. However, that can't possibly be the answer. While Hana is going through Hell, she encounters none other than her 5-year-old inner child, the girl she had been before she was taken to the brothel and raped. That's right, her 5-year-old inner child literally died and went to Hell, forcing Hana to reinvent herself! Indeed, the game shows that there are good people in the world, the world itself doesn't seem to be entirely a CrapsackWorld. For some reason, however, there is no Heaven...or it is blocked off somehow. Whichever the case, lots of people are dying, going to Hell, and a number of them could not even ''have'' a reason to go there!
* FridgeLogic: [[spoiler: Wee Ming runs away and somehow gets to a fishing village presumably a good distance away from Hong Kong. Later, Glas gets into a military vehicle and she is somehow in the passenger seat next to him. She says "I do not know how to drive." Would someone like to explain why she would need a car if she could just cover a lot of distance by disappearing and reappearing at various points?]]
** Why do none of the characters use their fists? [[spoiler: This gets especially egregious when Glas is fighting his back-stabbing brother Drew. Glas apparently has to grab the gun Drew dropped before Drew gets it. Glas grabs it and accidently shoots Drew, killing him. The problem here is that Drew is missing an arm and is - as he puts it - a cripple. Glas really should have had no trouble punching his bratty brother's lights out. So why did he not do that instead? Do they not teach people how to use their fists in the army?]]
** Why does Hana talk like an American? If she was born in Hong Kong, should she not be speaking English with a British accent?
** Here is a good one for you. [[spoiler: Jin/Yim Lau Wong reveals that he arranged the situation where Hana would get splattered by his blood. This causes her to be immune to Wee Ming's ability to bring out people's SuperPoweredEvilSide by looking at them (usually when Wee Ming is splattered with someone's blood). The King of Hell even says that he could not believe Hana never questioned why she was not affected by Wee Ming's power while everyone else was. Here is the question. If Wee Ming never used her power on Hana, and Hana was never in the same room with Wee Ming when Wee Ming's power kicked in, then why would it occur to Hana to question such a thing?]]
** Does anyone find it odd that Glas pronounces Hana's name as /'hɑnə/ in the first game and as /'hænə/ in Retro Helix?
** Why is it that there is a Chinese hell with its own king, but there is no mention of a Chinese heaven? That seems to fly in the face of Chinese beliefs about balance and opposite forces.

* GirlyRun: Rain definitely runs like this. Hana does not. This serves as a contrast between the characters, with Hana being more masculine and Rain being more feminine.

** In the second game Hana suddenly gets a DistressedDamsel female [[LesYay love interest]]. Given the timing it's remarkably similar to [[{{Buffy}} Willow]] getting s lesbian paramour.

** In the second game Hana suddenly gets a DistressedDamsal female [[LesYay love interest]]. Given the timing it's remarkably similar to [[{{Buffy}} Willow]] getting s lesbian paramore.

No matter how fitting it sounds, ''Fear Effect'' [[DoNotConfuseWith isn't]] [[TheCoconutEffect what you get for playing too much]] ''[[FirstEncounterAssaultRecon F.E.A.R.]]'', although [[HypocriticalHumor coincidentally]], they're both horror games.

* ShoutOut: Glas encounters [[spoiler: the first emperor of China]] and they have a short dialogue that was clearly taken from {{Ghostbusters}} and paraphrased a little bit. When Glas fights this fellow, said fellow uses an attack that was clearly lifted from a certain black-robed figure in ReturnOfTheJedi.
** The Shop, the organization that Glas used to work for, is almost certainly taken from the books of StephenKing.

** One website said that [[spoiler: Jin/Yim Lau Wong is essentially the [[FinalFantasyVI Kefka]] of Fear Effect]].

* WordSaladTitle

<<|ActionAdventure|>>

* [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu Did You Just Shoot Cthulhu]]: [[spoiler: In one bad ending, Hana shoots the King of Hell right between the eyes. In the true ending, Glas shoots the King of Hell, and the King of Hell falls into a pit, apparently dying. Unfortunately, the King of Hell comes back in Fear Effect Inferno.]]

* [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu Did You Just Shoot Cthulhu]]: [[spoiler: In one bad ending, Hana shoots the King of Hell right between the eyes. In the true ending, Glas shoots the King of Hell, and the King of Hell falls into a pit, apparently dying. Unfortunately, the King of Hell [[IGotBetter comes back]] in Fear Effect Inferno.]]

* BilingualBonus: Both games are loaded with untranslated Chinese characters. As an example, the first game begins with a funeral procession, with a picture of a woman being carried as well as a sign that says 名垂千古. In Mandarin Chinese, this says "míng chuí qiān gǔ", and this can be translated as "(Her) name (is) Chui Qiangu". For those who are curious, Chui would be her last name and Qiangu would be her first name.