History VideoGame / Ib

%%* PeekABangs: Garry.

* OminousSavePrompt: [[spoiler:Inverted, actually. If you're on a path to "Welcome to the World of Guertena" or "A Portrait's Demise" ending, after Garry fails the dolls room event, all the save books are closed]].

** It's more than a little ????? when Ib reads the title of a painting and some words are too ????? for a young girl to ?????

* DistressedDude: You need to retrieve Garry's flower from the painting holding it hostage first before he joins you.
** [[spoiler:Later on, you need to snap him out of his temporary madness if you fail the Doll Room event... If your actions over the course of the game haven't completely doomed him by the time you get to that point.]]

* EvilTwin:
** If you [[spoiler:fail the doll room,]] Ib and Mary later encounter Garry [[NotHimself not really acting normally]] [[spoiler:after he is driven insane by dolls.]] Mary seems convinced that this trope is in play, but Ib doesn't buy that for a minute. However...[[spoiler:while that was the real Garry, there really is an evil twin of him running around, as well as an evil twin of Ib's mom, and in certain endings one or the other of them will appear to try to lure you away from the way out of the haunted gallery.]]

--> You don't understand some of the words...

* RedHerring: The multicolored skeleton sculpture named "Puzzle". Also possibly a {{shout out}} to ''VideoGame/{{Seiklus}}''.

** All in all, the game's scariest part is that when something scary happens it's often in scripted events, and {{Jump Scares}} are few and far between, so you're left most of the time ''expecting'' something will happen. The throughly ominous background music does well in jacking up the player's anxiety and paranoia too.

* SpiritualSuccessor: In a handful of ways, to 1998 UsefulNotes/RPGMaker 95 game ''VideoGame/{{Palette}}'' and to the VisualNovel ''VisualNovel/PhantomOfInferno''.

* ThroughTheEyesOfMadness: As one book discloses: "If your spirit suffers too much, you will soon start to hallucinate and in the end you will be destroyed. And more worrying yet is that ou will not even be conscious of that fact." [[spoiler:At first, it seems like it's Garry who's hallucinating because he sees {{Creepy Doll}}s instead of the cute bunnies that Ib and Mary apparently see. However, it turns out that they were dolls all along ([[CreepyChild which Mary actually thinks are cute for some reason]]), and it was just Ib who saw them as bunnies. If the bond with Garry is too low or you let him kick the mannequin, you'll see the giant creepy doll pop up in certain spots. Ib also sees other hallucinations like herself hanged, or illusions of Garry and Ib's mother appearing to try to convince her to stay behind and not jump into the painting back to the real world in some endings.]]

** Garry has more petals on his rose because he's an adult who can withstand to be hurt more. Ib has less petals because she's a nine-year old and can't take as much pain.

** One of the options while with Mary implies that Ib might be able to pull one to save both Garry and Mary. [[spoiler:She can't, it's a RedHerring.]]

** [[spoiler:Examining Garry's corpse in the HeroicSacrifice paths gives the message "Garry is sleeping..."]]

* KillEmAll: In the "A Painting's Demise" ending, [[spoiler:Ib and Garry both go utterly insane, are trapped in the painting world forever, and since they can't escape, they'll probably die there. Mary tries to escape herself, and ends up collapsing before she can reach her goal.]]

* ActionSurvivor: All of the protagonists; Ib is a nine year old child while Garry is just some bloke visiting the gallery and gets scared easily, though they both manage to survive being chased by deranged artworks come to life; Garry in particular can dish out violence if the situatuon calls for it. [[spoiler:Except Mary. Unless she tries to leave without taking certain precautions first, the gallery's pretty safe for her, since she's one of the artworks. She's obsessed with Ib and the possibility of [[PinocchioSyndrome becoming a real child]].]]

* PinocchioSyndrome: [[spoiler:Mary, being in reality just another painting, desperately wants to come to the real world. And is willing to do some pretty unpleasant things to do it, although she'll only resort to murder if you've angered her enough.]]

On October 3, 2021, Kouri [[https://twitter.com/monomu_kouri/status/1444638228716290059 announced]] that they are working on a remake of the game for [[MilestoneCelebration the game's tenth anniversary]], featuring redrawn graphics and new music. The remake officially released on Steam on April 11, 2022. It will also be ported to the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch in Spring 2023.

** Just what was in that shaking box...?

* TheDollEpisode: After Garry is separated from Ib and Mary, the violet area pretty much becomes this. [[spoiler:The room filled with rabbits in Ib's eyes is instead filled with creepy dolls from Garry's perspective]]. A little doll takes a liking to Garry and follows him everywhere. A giant doll might appear behind bookcases and the like. Then Garry finds a room full of them. [[spoiler:They lock him up. And force him to look for the key. On a time limit. And do horrible things to his mind if he fails]].

** The BonusDungeon itself seems like it's building up to some grand revelation or a final twist — like getting to meet the spirit of Guertena himself — but no such thing happens. Other than [[spoiler:an additional ending]] and the key to another bonus area, there is no big reward.

On October 3, 2021, Kouri [[https://twitter.com/monomu_kouri/status/1444638228716290059 announced]] that they are working on a remake of the game for [[MilestoneCelebration the game's tenth anniversary]], featuring redrawn graphics and new music. The remake officially released on Steam on April 11, 2022.

* CreepyCircusMusic: Mary's {{Leitmotif}} is a sad-sounding waltz played on a music box, giving off this impression. One Website/YouTube user made [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sz9bD_Dmqwc a remix]] that sounds [[UpToEleven even more]] like circus music.

* DownerEnding: "Welcome to the World of Guertena", "A Painting's Demise" and the "Ib All Alone" endings have negative outcomes for everyone involved. [[spoiler:In the first ending, Garry has gone insane and Ib has reached the DespairEventHorizon. Mary decides to keep them in the gallery forever. In the second ending, everything is the same except Mary leaves to become a real girl, but the gallery refuses to let her leave and she futilely wanders it before dying. In the "Ib All Alone" endings, Ib has been isolated from Garry and is left to die alone.]]

* {{Fanime}}: There is a fanime of Ib in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXfO8MX2aCU this link.]] More specifically, it's a voice drama overlayed with many, ''many'' different pictures depicting the course of the game by various artists, with some actual animation mixed in.

* OminousMusicBoxTune: The opening screen plays a rather [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-5OA-BQua8&feature=related Sad and wistful tune]] incorporating a music-box like melody. Mary's theme is also played on a music box.

** Forgotten Portrait leans more to the bitter side. [[spoiler:Garry sacrifices himself to save Ib; she destroys Mary's portrait after she kills Garry, avenging him, and escapes back to the real world. Besides vaguely recognizing a portrait of Garry now hanging in the gallery, Ib has forgotten all about him and their ordeal in the Fabricated World, but she is at least safe and reunited with her parents]].
[[spoiler:Garry and Ib both escape back to the real world, but were forced to destroy

* EarnYourBadEnding: The two worst endings, [[ShootTheShaggyDog "Welcome to the World of Guertena" and "A Painting's Demise,"]] you have to go out of your way for. With "Welcome to the World of Guertena" in particular, you have to [[spoiler:screw up about as much as it is possible to screw up, meet one or two other requirements, ''and'' form a strong bond with [[BigBad Mary]].]]

* MinimalistCast: Discounting all the paintings, there are only about 5 characters physically present in the story: Ib, her mom and dad, Garry and Mary.

* PeekABangs: Garry.

* AbhorrentAdmirer: One little blue doll is quite taken with Garry and follows him everywhere trying to get him to play. This being [[CowardlyLion Garry,]] he's terrified of it. Then again, [[spoiler:[[JustifiedTrope he has real reasons to be afraid of]] [[CreepyDoll those dolls]]]].
** An ingame book says that the Lady paintings attack you simply because they always immediately become enamored with any humans they see, and will "stubbornly chase them until they're satisfied"... but it doesn't explain exactly what it is the Ladies want.
* ActionSurvivor: All of the protagonists. [[spoiler:Except Mary. Unless she tries to leave without taking certain precautions first, the gallery's pretty safe for her, since she's one of the artworks. She's obsessed with Ib and the possibility of [[PinocchioSyndrome becoming a real child]].]]
* AdvancingBossOfDoom: The FinalBoss ([[spoiler:Mary, if you find the room her painting's hidden in]]).

* AerithAndBob: Garry, Mary, and... Ib.

* AlternateCalendar: Everything seems consistent with the modern world, yet the only date given is the year 6223 sometime in the past, suggesting they are not using the normal calendar.

* AntiClimax: [[spoiler: Malice's True Form is one. A nightmarish looking painting that you encounter in a dark room, it makes sounds and moves slightly when you look at it closely. Then, when you move away from it, you hear something fall to the ground and it makes the weird noise again, then you go back to find that there's nothing in the frame that had held it. Seems like you've got some company in that creepy dark room, right...? Nope. Instead of stalking you, Malice just disappears until you come out and find it laid out motionless on the floor. Even then it does nothing except lay there silently. A missed opportunity for a grade-A scare.]]

* BerserkButton: In an odd example, the gallery itself freaks out when Garry first pulls out his lighter. Fire remains a touchy subject for the whole game, as it's pretty much the only thing that can kill its residents.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:No matter what ending you get, only two characters can leave the Fabricated World. The third one usually suffers a horrifying fate.]]

* FlowerMotifs: All of the characters' roses have traditional floriography meanings significant to their personalities. Ib's red rose can convey thoughts of courage and congratulations, fitting her role as the protagonist of a horror game; it is also a universal symbol of love, representing how Ib is loved by everyone who knows her. Garry's blue rose is a color impossible in nature, and can only be created artificially by injecting dye into the petals; the closest things to natural blue roses are actually variations of purple or lavender, which appear blue in certain light. Aforementioned purple roses can symbolize love at first sight, which, [[TheFourLoves if you see the love as in a family or friendship-based bond]], can go well with his role as an older brother-like figure to Ib despite just meeting her. Mary's yellow rose is a traditional symbol of warmth, friendship and joy, which matches her upbeat personality and how she quickly befriends Ib after joining the group, in addition to some possible negative meanings, such as [[spoiler:infidelity, dying love, and jealously,]] which foreshadows [[spoiler:her true intentions for joining them.]] They can also represent the desire for, or promise of fresh starts and new beginnings, [[spoiler:fitting Mary's overwhelming desire to escape the cursed gallery and have a real life of her own.]]

* GameBreakingBug: For some people, ''Carrie Careless and the Galette des Rois'' simply refuses to work properly and causes the game to crash. You're supposed to read it to unlock the door, but thankfully there's another way to unlock it for those who can't read it without crashing the game, or those who simply can't be bothered to read it, and the issue can be fixed either by using an alternate map for the room (provided with the game) or by converting the codec for the book's avi movie to something more easily read. And for those who desperately want to see the movie, it's included as a video file in the game folder.

* GreaterScopeVillain: [[MadArtist Weiss Guertena]], as he created the BigBad [[spoiler:Mary]] and all the other artworks in the Gallery.
* GottaCatchThemAll: The balls of paint in the violet area. The pieces of a certain painting in the BonusDungeon.

** When playing as Ib alone, any word beyond a nine-year-old's comprehension is replaced with ???; you'll need Garry with you to fill in the blanks.

* IntergenerationalFriendship: Ib and Garry.

* LaserGuidedAmnesia: In a normal play-through, [[spoiler:failing the Doll Room event]] causes Garry to [[spoiler:be driven insane.]] Ib is able to save him, but he forgets something very important he just learned. As of 1.04, though, if you've played really really poorly before that point, [[spoiler:he completely forgets everything and never regains his sanity after failing the Doll Room event, and you're in for a very bad ending.]]

* BreakoutCharacter: Garry. In the poll made by Kouri, he placed first by a landslide!

* DeepSleep: Throughout the game, Garry will mention feeling tired, and at one point in the Sketchbook world, he nearly falls asleep standing up. He finally gets a chance to sleep in the BonusDungeon, and he takes it. You can't wake him up until you solve the room's puzzle.

[[quoteright:318: https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Ib_other_1811.png]]

* GeniusLoci: The gallery seems as alive as its art in the Art World. Especially when it comes to fire.

* AerithAndBob: Garry, Mary, and... Ib. This is an artifact of translation, as her name was intended to be Eve in the original.

On October 3, 2021, Kouri [[https://twitter.com/monomu_kouri/status/1444638228716290059 announced]] that they are working on a remake of the game to be released in 2022 for [[MilestoneCelebration the game's tenth anniversary]], featuring redrawn graphics and new music. The remake is officially released in Steam on April 11 2022.

!''Ib'' contains examples of: