History VideoGame / Mothered

* StableTimeLoop: In a sense. [[spoiler:Mother kills the corrupted Liana every Sunday Evening, with a fresh copy arriving Sunday Night. If the player does [[spoiler:get killed by Mother on Sunday]], the game continues directly into the opening scene.

* BreakingTheFourthWall: Liana becomes aware that [[spoiler:the player is controlling her.]]

* EasyAmnesia: A side effect of Liana's surgery, which Mother and Father assure you will wear off once you get back into your daily routine. [[spoiler:It's actually because Liana's CORE isn't fully integrated with her robot body, and can't integrate without corrupting it or being corrupted.]]

** Mother explicitly warns Liana not to go to the barn behind the house.

* TheReveal: [[spoiler:Liana died before the events of the game. Her father, a developer of realistically-functioning robots, found a way to transfer her consciousness (or "CORE") into a robot, and is bringing a new and improved model home every single Sunday to see if the CORE and chassis will integrate correctly in order to make a truly sentient lifeform. So far this hasn't worked, and Mother has had to repeat a routine of teaching and eventually killing each replacement once they start going off the rails by herself, as Father is constantly working covertly on a new Liana and Liana's brother is self-medicating via constantly sleeping or hiding online.]]
* ReplacementGoldfish: [[spoiler:The reason Mother can't stand you is because you're not the real Liana, nor a good copy of her. It's strongly implied Liana's brother has the same feelings.]]

* TomatoInTheMirror: [[spoiler:You're not Liana. The real Liana didn't survive her illness. You're an experimental robot body with her CORE implimented in hopes of bringing her back to life, and you're not the first one either... So far, this hasn't worked.]] Ironically, all the mirrors in the house have been covered up to prevent you from finding this out.

** UpToEleven in [[spoiler:''Mothered: Home'', which glitches out heavily as the plot progresses]].

* AnalogHorror: Contains many hallmarks of the genre, from VHS effects to title cards that wouldn't be out of place on a local weather channel.
* EasyAmnesia: A side effect of your surgery, which Mother and Father assure you will wear off once you get back into your daily routine. [[spoiler:It's actually because your CORE isn't fully intergrated with your robot body, and can't integrate without corrupting it or being corrupted.]]
* {{Foreshadowing}}: The first hint that something is off is when you bring the Father his box to his car, he states he'd love to give you a hug, but he cannot let you see his face. Right after that, next hint is when you head off to sleep [[spoiler: and in a BlinkAndYouMissIt moment, the bottom of the screen has a prompt saying ''DISENGAGING CONSCIOUSNESS'' which confirms to eagle-eyed players that Liana is actually a robot.]]
* HellIsThatNoise: [[spoiler: When "Liana" finally speaks while calling out to Mother, she does so in a strained, creepy electronic voice which horrifies both Mother and brother.]]

* OldSaveBonus: The game was featured in the 2022 edition of the ''Haunted [=PS1=] Demo Disc''. Because the Demo Disc was released a year after the game's official release, the demo seen ''there'' is the version with new content, provided you have a finished save file from the full game. [[spoiler: This bonus is in fact an ''entire sequel game'' called ''Mothered: Home'' that was hidden beneath the veneer of a demo for the full release.]]

* ReplacementGoldfish: [[spoiler:The reason Mother can't stand you is because you're not the real Liana, nor a good copy of her.]]
* RottenRoboticReplacement:[[spoiler: "Liana" (and the duplicates that came before her) is heavily implied to be this. As the game progresses, she begins experiencing various glitches and behavioral abnormalities that unnerve her Mother. The mirrors in the house are also covered up, likely because "Liana" doesn't appear to look like a human at all and to prevent her from discovering this.]]

* EasyAmnesia: A side effect of your surgery, which Mother and Father assure you will wear off once you get back into your daily routine. [[spoiler:Its actually because your CORE isn't fully intergrated with your robot body, and can't integrate without corrupting it or being corrupted.]]
* {{Foreshadowing}}: First hint that something is off is when you bring the Father his box to his car, he states he'd love to give you a hug, but he cannot let you see his face. Right after that, next hint is when you head off to sleep[[spoiler: and in a BlinkAndYouMissIt moment, the bottom of the screen has a prompt saying ''DISENGAGING CONSCIOUSNESS'' which confirms to eagle-eyed players that Liana is actually a robot.]]

* OldSaveBonus: The game was featured in the 2022 edition of the ''Haunted PS1 Demo Disc''. Because the Demo Disc was released a year after the game's official release, the demo seen ''there'' is the version with new content, provided you have a finished save file from the full game. [[spoiler: This bonus is in fact an ''entire sequel game'' called ''Mothered: Home'' that was hidden beneath the veneer of a demo for the full release.]]
* OminousVisualGlitch: Start appearing as the game continues. The most notable one is covering up [[spoiler:the real Liana's grave.]]

* TomatoInTheMirror: [[spoiler:You're not Liana. The real Liana didn't survive her illness. You're an experimental robot body with her CORE implimented in hopes of bringing her back to life, and you're not the first one either..] So far, this hasn't worked.]] Ironically, all the mirrors in the house have been covered up to prevent you from finding this out.

''MOTHERED'' is a 2021 "Role-playing horror game" by Enigma Studios released on Steam and itch.io. You are Liana, a young girl who has just returned home from the hospital after an unnamed illness followed by major surgery. However, her father refuses to come inside, her brother won't come out of his room, and her mother has been replaced by a talking, barely animate mannequin who wants nothing more than for everything to go back to normal...

* UncannyValley: One of the primary forms of horror is how strange and lifeless the Mother is. The game's store page even calls her a mannequin. [[spoiler:Ironically, she also sees you as this, and it's one of the main sources of the Mother's increasing displeasure and horror around the Liana duplicates. It's implied that Mother's mannequin-like movements and appearance are a result of "Liana"'s mental projection.]]

* OldSaveBonus: The game was featured in the 2022 edition of the ''Haunted PS1 Demo Disc''. Because the Demo Disc was released a year after the game's official release, the demo seen ''there'' is the version with new content, provided you have a finished save file from the full game.

* Foreshadowing: First hint that something is off is when you bring the Father his box to his car, he states he'd love to give you a hug, but he cannot let you see his face. Right after that, next hint is when you head off to sleep[[spoiler: and in a BlinkAndYouMissIt moment, the bottom of the screen has a prompt saying ''DISENGAGING CONSCIOUSNESS'' which confirms to eagle-eyed players that Liana is actually a robot.]]

* UncannyValley: One of the primary forms of horror is how strange and lifeless the Mother is. The game's store page even calls her a mannequin. [[spoiler:Ironically, she also sees you as this, and it's one of the main sources of the Mother's increasing displeasure and horror around the Liana duplicates.]]