History VideoGame / TheWitchsHouse

* GiantSpider: There's one lurking on the second floor of the house, who is {{color blind|Confusion}}, which will [[OffWithHerHead bite off Viola's head]] if you try to leave the room while the web is empty.

* AndNowForSomethingCompletelyDifferent: While the core gameplay and storyline remained the same, the 'Extra' difficulty in ''MV'' version features different puzzles to solve, new events, harder chase segments, and slightly better detail on the story aspect. Oh, and there's even more ways to die as well.

* AdultFear: A child going missing, and you possibly never seeing them again, or knowing what happened to them. A child being lured away by a seemingly kind stranger, who does ''not'' have kind intentions. The idea of horrible things happening to your child, and you never even finding out about it. [[spoiler:It's impossible to not feel extremely sad for Viola's father. Or the parents of the countless children whom Ellen has murdered over several centuries.]]

* BreakableWeapons: At the beginning of the game, you pick up a rusty machete. You then immediately break it (cutting roses of all things) to get to the witch's house. It's also completely ineffective on the roses that lead to the way out.[[spoiler: Just don't try the latter on Extra difficulty. It will kill you.]]

** Viola never gives up trying to get out of the house, no matter what tries to kill her. The girl [[spoiler:(really Ellen)]] is a determinator not just in trying to escape the house, [[spoiler: but in how far she's willing to go just to get a body that doesn't hurt. The lengths she went to get Viola's body are quite extreme.]]

** By far the most obscure, and easily one of the most bizarre and creepy deaths: when you climb down the chimney on the fourth floor, you will find yourself back in the dining room on the first floor, which is now dark and has male bust statues sitting around the table. If you try to open the door in the kitchen that leads to the second floor stairs, you will find it is now locked. If you go back up the chimney and descend down the floors to the stairs leading to the first floor, and attempt to open the door from the other side, you will still find it locked. When you turn back, [[spoiler: a male bust statue will suddenly appear in front of you. If you don't get out of its way, the statue will promptly crush you to death]].

** The prequel reveals that all the inhabitants of the house are the spirits of people killed by Ellen in the past. [[spoiler: Since Ellen has no magic or immortality now that she's in Viola's body, it's no surprise that her past victims want their revenge]].

* GiantSpider: There's one lurking on the second floor of the house, who is {{color blind|Confusion}}, which will [[OffWithHisHead bite off Viola's head]] if you try to leave the room while the web is empty.

* HalfTheManHeUsedToBe:
** When Viola finally comes face-to-face with the witch, all that's left of her is her mangled upper body. [[spoiler:In the third pseudo-ending, it's revealed that Ellen cut her legs off and gouged her eyes out so that Viola would despair and die (see DeathByDespair). To add insult to injury, Ellen gave Viola a throat-burning "medicine" so that she would no longer be able to scream or even speak, as the sound of her old body screaming upset Ellen. This was to ensure Viola died, because a witch's immortality and glamour fails if she suffers great despair, according to the novel.]]

* MissionControl: You regularly run into notes pinned to the walls that hint you on how to avoid obstacles and solve puzzles. [[spoiler: In the True Ending, it is revealed this is [[GeniusLoci the house itself]] helping its [[VillainProtagonist real mistress]]]].

* MoodWhiplash: The true ending, [[spoiler: where the player is rooting for "Viola" one minute and realizing that she is Ellen the next, turning what seems like a happy ending into a CruelTwistEnding]].

** When you return to the kitchen and dining room area, you find it much darker than it was when you were there earlier, and is eerily quiet, save for the sound of a pot boiling on the stove. In order to progress, [[spoiler: you need to take a pair of golden chopsticks from the ribs of a skeleton in the cellar at the back of the kitchen (which was inaccessible earlier), to retrieve a necessary item from the boiling pot. The game won't let you exit the room without returning the chopsticks to the skeleton, and if you put them back anywhere besides the ribs, the cook from before will suddenly appear and kill you as you try to leave the kitchen. Furthermore, after replacing the chopsticks in the ribs and heading back to the dining room, you'll hear ominous footsteps coming down the stairs beside the kitchen, and you have five seconds to run back to the chimney and escape; if not, the cook will catch you and kill you. Meaning, the whole time you're down there, the cook is still lurking around somewhere, probably watching you, but you can't see him, though why he's suddenly so eager to kill you is unclear -- it's likely because you [[BerserkButton messed with his cooking]], found his cellar full of handless skeletons, or both]].

** In addition to the aforementioned decapitation-by-GiantSpider, putting on the red shoes instead of washing them results in Viola's body running off without its head.
** Forcing open a door at one point causes your head to suddenly snap off.

* ParentalSubstitute: According to the novel, [[spoiler: [[OurDemonsAreDifferent The Demon]] and [[GeniusLoci The House]] acted as this for Ellen, and guided her into becoming the ruthless villain she is in-game]].

** Don't step on that blood pool in the middle of the first note room. Don't lend the invisible chef [[ExactWords a hand]] [[spoiler: (unless it's not yours)]]. Don't read [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast The Book of Death]]. And don't touch the clock on the fourth floor. There's also one room where Viola is explicitly told to let nothing distract her, and doing anything but walking in a straight line to the exit, such as investigating items or dodging (fake) traps, results in her being crushed by a boulder.

* SurvivalHorror

---> '''Ellen''': [[spoiler:Hm? "Give it back?" No way. [[GrandTheftMe This body hurts much less]]. You gave it to me in the first place. Why should I have to give it back? Right... [[TomatoSurprise Viola]]?]]

---> '''[[spoiler:Demon]]''': "Good luck with the rest, Ellen...[[spoiler:[[TheManBehindTheWoman my faithful witch]]]]."

--> '''Tadpole''': [[spoiler:My dad is dead. My dad was eaten by a snake. '''[[YouBastard You killed him]]]].'''

* LoopholeAbuse: There is a room where a note on the wall tells you not to let anything distract you on the following hallway. Normally, doing anything but walking in a straight line to the exit would result in death by giant rock, but if you proceed into the hallway without reading the note, you CAN let things distract you, and nothing will happen. Ignorance of the rule excuses you. However, if you read the note on previous playthroughs, [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou the game will remember]].

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: The witch has purple hair.

* RealityEnsues: In the '___', ending, [[spoiler:Ellen, instead of going into the house, waits outside the house (and outside its reach) until the already heavily wounded Viola trapped in Ellen's body dies]].

* TrueColors: In the room where you need to find your way around using a small light, after getting the jade pipe, you start to hear noises of the statues "chasing" after you. At one point when you drop the Light bottle (or after picking up the wristwatch earlier), [[spoiler:going into the main menu will show Viola with black hair, red skin, and a SlasherSmile, as {{Foreshadowing}} to who Viola really is ([[WickedWitch Ellen]] in [[GrandTheftMe her body]])]].

* JailBait: Viola looks rather too well-endowed for a 13-year old girl as shown in the cover art at the top of this page.

[[caption-width-right:350:''[[ArcWord COME TO MY ROOM]]'']]

* PlayingThePlayer: [[spoiler: You were playing as the villain all along. All the deaths you had? You probably had it coming.]]

* TomatoSurprise: [[spoiler:"Viola" is [[VillainProtagonist the witch, Ellen]], who switched her bodies with the real Viola, who was the HeroAntagonist all along.]]

* HardModePerks: Of a sort, as Extra Mode [[AllThereInTheManual un-manuals]] some of the additional lore written after the original game's release, thus providing further explanation on the setting and characters that would otherwise require reading the novel.

* BreakableWeapons: At the beginning of the game, you pick up a rusty machete. You then immediately break it (cutting roses of all things) to get to the witch's house. It's also completely ineffective on the roses that lead to the way out.

** Normal Ending: If you manage to just escape from the final chase, [[spoiler:Viola finally reunite with her father, only for The Witch suddenly appear and barely follows Viola outside the house. Although luckily, Her father kill it just in time and they hurry to leave. We last see Viola giving the house a long look before leaving]].

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screenshot_the_witchs_house.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''COME TO MY ROOM'']]

* ThePointsMeanNothing: Viola has hit points, because this is an VideoGame/RPGMaker game. They're functionally useless, though, since only one of the game's many death traps doesn't kill you instantly and even it is inescapable.

* HateSink: [[spoiler:The Black Cat Demon is the true villain who is responsible for turning the Tragic Villain Ellen into a monster. Manipulating the unloved Ellen and her predecessor into becoming his witches, he emotionally abuses Ellen into becoming a murderer and uses her to kill hundreds of innocents for centuries so he can eat their souls, eventually screwing over the innocent and kind Viola while leaving Ellen to live a hollow, empty life and getting away with it. Whereas Ellen just wants to be loved, the Demon, while [[LaughablyEvil humorous]], cares only for his insatiable appetite.]]

* HateSink:
** [[WickedWitch The Witch]], the titular BigBad, rules the house and uses it to kill innocent people. [[spoiler:Ellen, in truth the [[VillainProtagonist protagonist]], starts out a neglected IllGirl but kills her parents and makes a deal with a demon to become his witch. After trying to befriend a boy but killing him due to a misunderstanding, she decides instead to lure people to her house and kill them with gruesome traps to feed their souls to the demon in exchange for a cure, blatantly being as sadistic as she can. When Viola befriends her, she betrays the girl by stealing her body, then murders several animals and a friendly flower while on her way to finish Viola off, and finally tricks her father into killing his own daughter with no remorse, proving she sees everyone as pawns, even the demon. All throughout, she [[NeverMyFault refuses to take responsibility]], and she also [[TheBadGuyWins gets away with everything]].]] Despite initially starting out as sympathetic, [[spoiler:Ellen]] the Witch casts away her sympathetic qualities and has become a monster by the story's end, with the story emphasizing her narcissism, cruelty, and lack of remorse.
** [[spoiler:The aforementioned [[TheManBehindTheWoman Black Cat Demon]] is Ellen's EvilMentor. He appears after having eaten her parents' souls and makes a deal to raise her as a witch. Despite being superficially friendly and cordial, he treats Ellen callously, at one point giving her a BreakingLecture where he tells her that no one loves her, and belittles the hard-working cook. His interactions with Ellen amount to a disturbing mutually-abusive relationship where he verbally attacks and attempts to manipulate her, to which she responds by physically abusing him. He eats the souls of her many victims, and when Viola shows up, he comes up with the body-swapping plan, giving another breaking lecture to Viola when it is complete, and eating her soul when she dies, also [[TheBadGuyWins receiving no punishment]]. The Demon may be LaughablyEvil, but he is also a loathsome figure who, unlike Ellen, has no sympathetic backstory.]]

* BigBad: The titular witch who traps Viola in her HauntedHouse and has killed tons of children before her. [[spoiler:It's actually Ellen, Viola's FalseFriend, possessing Viola's body all along, making her [[TomatoSurprise the real protagonist]]. Viola, in Ellen's body, is the HeroAntagonist trying to stop Ellen from killing her. [[DiscOneFinalBoss However]], Ellen turns out to be a puppet for [[TheManInFrontOfTheMan the true villain]], the Black Cat Demon who made her his witch and gets her to kill people so he can eat their souls.]]

* BigBad: The titular witch who traps Viola in her HauntedHouse and has killed tons of children before her. [[spoiler:It's actually Ellen, Viola's FalseFriend, possessing Viola's body all along, making her [[TomatoSurprise the real protagonist]], though she is working for the true villain, the Black Cat Demon who made her his witch. Viola, in Ellen's body, is the HeroAntagonist trying to stop Ellen from killing her.]]

* BigBad: The titular witch who traps Viola in her HauntedHouse and has killed tons of children before her. [[spoiler:It's actually Ellen, Viola's FalseFriend, possessing Viola's body all along, making her [[TomatoSurprise the real protagonist]], and she is [[BigBadDuumvirate aided by]] the [[GeniusLoci House itself]], who is the spirit of the witch before her, and the Black Cat Demon, who granted her his powers and guides her through the house. Viola, in Ellen's body, is the HeroAntagonist trying to stop Ellen from killing her.]]

** A text box description reads "A toy soldier with a fake gun". [[spoiler:It's not- it can kill you.]]