History VideoGame / MidnightTrain

* PressXToNotDie: Selene guiding Neil through the smoke of the boms she threw is handled by having to press a certain sequence of keys in relatively short timespan.

* Paradiegeticgameplay: Seriously downplayed - while the Morse code puzzle doesn't require you to look up the Morse anywhere outside the game, you'll probably be forced to grab a paper and pen to decipher the message.

* BigBadEnsemble: The titular [[GeniusLoci Midnight Train]] is a cursed entity that traps the main characters inside the building and forces them to play its game, where they must escape the buildings within three hours or be trapped forever. On the other end is [[spoiler:[[DiabolicalMastermind Justice II]], leader of the vigilante [[NebulousEvilOrganization Black Gear organization]], who organizes the killing of criminals that the police cannot catch and is responsible for Luna's tragic past, him having raised her, as well as the one who sent her to the Midnight Train for defecting]].

[[caption-width-right:350:Step on the train...and all aboard!]]

'''Midnight Train''' is an [[WesternRPG Western]] mystery/adventure game with horror elements by Lydia, the creator of ''VideoGame/AriasStory'', using RPG Maker VX Ace as its engine. The game is focused on exploration, story and puzzles. It's an episodic game, with four chapters in total.

--> '''In her letter to Neil:''' [[spoiler:''"Forgive me for what I did to your uncle."'']]

* AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent: Although you mainly control Luna, there’s some occasions you can play as Neil or Apollo as well. In Chapter 3, you play as Neil for more than half of the chapter.

*** Cynthia is also associated with yellow.

** The music box Diana brings with her [[spoiler:is eventually used to calm her when she tries to kill Luna]].

* EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler:Thanks to Neil's sacrifice, Luna escapes the Midnight Express. She then becomes a famous detective and, when Neil is able to escape thanks to a dying man giving him his pocket watch, breaks the curse of the Midnight Express, rescuing Apollo, Diana, Selene and the rest of the survivors.]]

'''Midnight Train''' is an [[WesternRPG Western]] mystery/adventure game with horror elements by Lydia, the same author of VideoGame/AriasStory, using RPG Maker VX Ace as its engine. The game is focused on exploration, story and puzzles. It's an episodic game, with four chapters in total.

Luna, a mute girl who communicates through sign language, is a traveller looking for a certain place. Suddenly, while she’s travelling in the Midnight Express, people around her disappear and the train stops at a mysterious building in a black void. At there, she finds a pocket watch with some instructions; she has three hours and needs to find the next train before time runs out or she will be trapped in that world forever. Meeting up with wannabe detective Neil Lawton, who also has a pocket watch, and several other characters in the process who are also trapped and seek freedom, Luna must work with Neil to traverse the building, solve the many puzzles within, and escape from the clutches of the living Midnight Train.

[[https://lyd1a.itch.io/midnight-train You can download the game here]].

* AllCrimesAreEqual: [[spoiler:The Midnight Express]] imprisons criminals inside [[spoiler:its dimension]] and psychologically torments them regardless of what crime they committed. Committing perjury, illegally experimenting and making chemicals, accidentally killing the mayor's son, and stealing jewels, as done by [[spoiler:Neil, Diana, Apollo, and Selene, respectively,]] gets them the same treatment as [[spoiler:Luna, Cynthia, and Justice I]], who have killed tons of people on behalf of [[spoiler:their organization, Black Gear]].
* AlasPoorVillain: The guy who betrayed Apollo is shown to feel very guilty about stealing his watch and leaving him to die in the second building, to the point he becomes paranoid of Selene and this gets him killed by the cave's traps. While Selene condemns him after finding out what he did to Apollo, Neil pities him, as he was just a desperate guy wanting to escape the Midnight Express.

* AssholeVictim:
** The mayor son Apollo accidentally killed.
** Also the guy who betrayed Apollo and stole his pocket watch. Chapter 3 reveals he refused to work with Selene and this got him killed by the cave's traps.
** The terrorist that killed Luna's parents. He was never caught by the police, until he's killed by a grown-up Luna.
** [[spoiler: Neil's uncle. Even after Neil saves him by refusing to testify against him, he decides to abandon the boy and continuing extorsioning people. Then Luna kills him on Black Gear's orders.]]
* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: Neil lost his parents in an accident and was abused by his uncle. Because of this he tries to sacrifice his own life many times to protect Luna, the first person who was ever nice to him. He's also moved to the point of tears when Apollo and Selene warm up to him.

* BreakTheCutie: Cynthia and Diana are all broken ''hard'' by the building, they would risk any way to be free, even the most [[DrivenToSuicide depressed]] or morally wrong one.
* BridalCarry: When Neil feels exhausted due to Diana's poison/anesthetic, Luna effectively carries him on her arms throughout the spiky traps. Neil also carries Luna when she passes out because of her trauma to explosion.
* ButtMonkey: Poor Neil is the target of Apollo and Selene's snarky comments. While Apollo finds Neil's self-righteousness annoying, Selene thinks he's a loser...and a little jealous of how close he and Luna had become in such a short time.
* ChekhovsGun: The music box Diana brings with her has done a good job in calming an enraged Diana.
** [[spoiler: The blackboards in the buildings give hints on how to break the curse of the Midnight Express.]]

* DefiantToTheEnd: [[spoiler: Even in his dying note to Luna, Justice I refuses to disclose how to break the curse, stating that he "doesn't want to help criminals". Neil realizes that he ''did'' left some hints, in the form of the blackboards in the buildings.]]
* EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler: Thanks to Neil's sacrifice, Luna escapes the Midnight Express. She then becomes a famous detective and breaks the curse of the Midnight Express, rescuing Neil, Apollo, Diana, Selene and the rest of the survivors.]]
* EveryoneKnowsMorse: Inverted. No one of the three (Luna, Neil, Apollo) knows morse code, so they have to find a book about it and decode the message word by word.
* EyeScream: People who break the rule will seemingly explode with only one eye left. That eye later will grows wings/legs and becomes a part of the building.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Neil's capability for range weapons can be seen when he threw the coin perfectly landed on the mark in one of the first puzzles.
* FloralThemeNaming: The city all characters want to reach through Midnight Express is named Bluebell.
* FourIsDeath: There are four buildings for the unlucky one to overcome. Obviously many people died here and you would be a part of them by acting carelessly.
* GhostTrain: The Midnight Express, as it brings certain people to a strange dimension with equally strange buildings that kill, and make all other passengers mysteriously disappear like they never exist.
* GoodIsNotNice: Black Gear is a vigilante organization that brings criminals to justice by any means necessary. Unfortunately they will treat justified criminals just as badly as selfish ones, provided the crime is the same. They use the Midnight Express to bring criminals to another dimension and lock them up for eternity. However Chapter 4 reveals [[spoiler:it was all a glitch in the dimension and they never truly wanted to kill and trap the prisoners.]]
* GracefulLoser: [[spoiler: Justice II and Purity calmly accept their defeat after Luna escapes the Midnight Express and brings down the organization. They decide to entrust the safety of the city to Luna, who captures criminals to help the police instead of killing them, like Black Gear used to do.]]
* HeelFaceTurn: Diana, after the struggle with Luna, decided to stay in the building and wait for our main duo to rescue her.
* HeelFaceDoorSlam: At some point during their lives [[YouKilledMyFather Luna]], [[AccompliceByInaction Neil]], [[ClandestineChemist Diana]], [[AccidentalMurder Apollo]] and [[ClassyCatBurglar Selene]] commited a crime and realized the error of their ways, so they decided to start over as honest people... Then they promptly get sent to the deadly strange dimension through Midnight Express.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler: Justice I created the PrisonDimension of the Midnight Express in order to capture criminals. However, he finds out anyone who enters the dimension can't escape. Including himself.]]
* ItsAllMyFault: Neil tend to blame himself for anything going wrong, notably after his own deductions. [[spoiler: That's because of his uncle's abuse, always blaming him for everything.]]
* JustAKid: Diana wanted to become a pharmacist to save lives, but because she was young nobody took her seriously, so she decided to make illegal medicines on her own. It ends up getting her sent to the [[PrisonDimension Midnight Express]].
* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler: Justice II and Purity are the only members of Black Gear that get away with their crimes. They even decide to start new lives, leaving their old codenames behind.]]

* MouthStitchedShut: Neil describes his portrait in the second building with his mouth sewn shut. That scene is more important than a jumpscare.
** Neil with stitched mouth returns in Chapter 3, this time with a clear CG. And it’s ''terrifying''.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Diana post going berserk, she collapsed in tears, questioning about her actions and fate after hearing the melody from her late friend's music box.
* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: [[spoiler: Cynthia helped Luna escape from the organization, after the latter expressed her desire to stop being an assassin and live a normal life. This results in her being sent to the Midnight Express and her death.]]
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: All the members of Black Gear are known by their given codenames. It's stated [[spoiler: Luna]] and Cynthia's codenames were [[spoiler:Serenity]] and Copycat respectively. [[spoiler:Justice I]] mentions that his real name is [[spoiler:Arche Radcliffe]]. Justice II and Purity continue to use their codenames, but [[spoiler:at the end of Chapter 4, they choose to to take up their old names again]]. Their true names are [[spoiler: Kale and Lucine.]]

* PrisonDimension: What the Midnight Express is revealed to be.

* ShoutOut: ''VideoGame/AriasStory'' appears as a pink book in the train. Also, Lewin, Clyde, Dahlia and Wendy appear in the train station at the end of Chapter 4.

* StellarName: All the characters have moon-related naming. See MeaningfulName in each one’s section.
* ThisIsUnforgivable: Apollo's [[spoiler:seemingly]] death was what finally caused Neil to snap and determine to discover the truth about the train.
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: The Black Gear organization. The civilians know they're locking up criminals (even justified ones) in another dimension, but as long as they keep the city safe, nobody cares.
* VitriolicBestBuds: Neil doesn’t like it when Apollo actively tries to separate him and Luna, and Apollo's constant snarks never help. However after acknowledging each other better, they realized how they ability can compensate for the other's and decided to fight the Midnight Express together. Apollo still loves teasing Neil, though.
** Also becomes this with Selene, as she's jealous of how he and Luna became close in such a short time and thinks he's a loser, while Neil is suspiscious of her cheerful persona. However, after being forced to work together, Neil comes to understand why she's Luna's best friend while Selene starts to acknowledge him, even apologizing for only caring about Luna's wellbeing at the beginning of their journey.
* WhamLine: Luna has what maybe considered one of the most shocking sentences ever said/written in this game. Right after Neil declared he wouldn’t forgive Black Gear for [[spoiler:killing his uncle]], she has this to say...
--> '''In her letter to Neil:''' [[spoiler:''“Forgive me for what I did to your uncle.”'']]
* YouKilledMyFather: [[spoiler: The reason Luna joined Black Gear was to get revenge at the terrorist that killed her parents. However, it fails to bring her any satisfaction, so she ends up defecting.]]

* AGlitchInTheMatrix: [[spoiler: Turns out the Midnight Express was created to send the criminals to the Black Gear's headquarters, not to trap them for eternity. It's one of the most tragic parts of the game, as all those people got killed because of a simple mistake.]]

* BigBadEnsemble: The titular [[GeniusLoci Midnight Train]] is a cursed entity that traps the main characters inside the building and forces them to play its game, where they must escape the buildings within three hours or be trapped forever. On the other end is [[spoiler:[[DiabolicalMastermind Justice II]], leader of the vigilante [[NebulousEvilOrganization Black Gear organization]], who organizes the killing of criminals that the police cannot catch and is responsible for Luna's tragic past, him having raised her]].

Luna, a mute girl who communicates through sign language, is a traveller looking for a certain place. Suddenly, while she’s travelling in the Midnight Express, people around her disappear and the train stops at a mysterious building in a black void. At there, she finds a pocket watch with some instructions; she has three hours and needs to find the next train before time runs out or she will be trapped in that world forever. Meeting up with wannabe detective Neil Lawton, who also has a pocket watch, and several other characters in the process who are also trapped and seek freedom, Luna must work with Neil to traverse the building, solve the many puzzles within, and escape while uncovering the sinister plot of [[BigBad Justice II]] and his [[NebulousEvilOrganization Black Gear]] organization, the masterminds behind the game.

* BigBad: Justice II, the leader of the [[NebulousEvilOrganization Black Gear organization]], is the one who trapped the main characters inside the titular Midnight Train to force them to play his game, where they must escape his buildings in three hours or be trapped forever. His motive is [[spoiler:wanting to bring justice to the main characters, who are all criminals, and the world, [[KnightTemplar by any means he deems necessary]]]].

Luna is a traveller looking for a certain place. Suddenly, while she’s travelling in the Midnight Express, people around her disappear and the train stops at a mysterious place. At there, she found a pocket watch with some instructions; she needs to find the next train before time runs out or she will be trapped in that world forever...

* BigBad: Justice II is the leader of the Black Gear organization who wants to bring justice to the world [[KnightTemplar by any means he deems necessary]].

* BigBad:Justice II is the leader of the Black Gear organization who wants to bring justice to the world [[KnightTemplar by any means he deems necessary]].

* BigBad: The Black Gear organization.
** BiggerBad: [[spoiler: The curse of the Midnight Express.]]

'''Midnight Train''' is an [[WesternRPG Western]] mystery/adventure game with horror elements by Lydia, the same author of VideoGame/AriasStory, using RPG Maker VX Ace as its engine. The game is focused on exploration, story and puzzles. It's an episodic game, there are four chapters in total and currently in development. For now, Chapter 1, 2 and 3 are available. The last chapter will be added in future updates.