History VideoGame / ZorkNemesis

* FeaturelessProtagonist: The player character is never given any sort of physical description within the game itself. The hint painting lady refers to the player as "Wanderer," and supplementary texts reveal that the Wanderer is a female pilgrim of some sort. But what little narration the game has uses SecondPersonNarration, generally referring to the PlayerCharacter as if she's you.

* {{Feelies}}: True to ''Zork'' tradition, the game came with a handful of physical supplements, including a map showing where the Forbidden Lands were physically located and Bivotar's journal which basically explained the entire game's backstory.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: You revive the four alchemists by finding their elements, and then their metals. [[spoiler:And then they pull a group FaceHeelTurn and start a ritual to give themselves eternal life and kill you. The rest of the game sees you trying to undo the ritual by stopping it at the last possible moment with an alchemical recipe fueled by ElementNumberFive: ThePowerOfLove.]]

* PressXToDie: [[spoiler:After you revive the alchemists, they offer you a drink at their dinner table in celebration. It's poisoned. Drink from the glass, and you die. You just have to wait for them to get frustrated and give up trying to talk you into it.]]

* TheManyDeathsOfYou: Nowhere near as many as other titles in the series, but it is certainly possible to die in this game.
* MythologyGag: [[https://www.thezorklibrary.com/history/kaine_lucien.html According to the Encyclopedia Frobozzica]], [[spoiler:Lucien Kaine was a young man who, after the death of his wife Alexandria, was driven to find a way for the alchemical elements to save her, a quest that made him penniless, and so he became the Thief of the very first ''VideoGame/{{Zork}}'', until the FeaturelessProtagonist of that game killed him, and his tortured soul returned to the Temple of Agrippa, where he became the Nemesis.]]

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: You revive the four alchemists by finding their elements, and then their metals. [[spoiler:And then they pull a group FaceHeelTurn and start a ritual to give themselves eternal life and kill you.]]

* BackFromTheDead: [[spoiler:Lucien Kaine and Alexandria Wolfe near the end.]]
* BedlamHouse: The Asylum run by Sartorius.
* BitchInSheepsClothing: [[spoiler: The Alchemists all act polite and friendly to you after you revive their spirits, but they reveal their true colors once they think they no longer need you.]]

* DarkerAndEdgier: The other ''Zork'' games all have a humorous take to them, sort of as a parody of text-based adventure games. This one is full of gothic imagery and a dark storyline, without any brevity or humor to be found.

* HarmlessElectrocution: The Wanderer has to get shocked in order to solve a puzzle. If they fail, nothing happens.

* NukeEm: The thaddium bomb. Once the player picks it up, they have 90 seconds to put it in the tank. If they don't... [[DeaderThanDead boom]].

* WhamLine: [[spoiler:"Oh shut up, Lucien." This line signifies the FaceHeelDoubleTurn that occurs during this scene.]]

* AbandonedArea: Though the areas are generally abandoned, a few characters do appear there, although it is not clear how real those are.

* FaceHeelDoubleTurn: [[spoiler:The four alchemists pull a FaceHeelTurn by trying to kill you after they decide YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness, while Nemesis also pulls a HeelFaceTurn at the same time by revealing himself as Lucien. [[EvilAllAlong The Alchemists were the villains]] and [[GoodAllAlong Nemesis was the good guy trying to stop them]] the entire time, but this is the moment when the other shoe drops.]]
* FeaturelessProtagonist: The player character is never given any sort of physical description within the game itself. The hint painting lady refers to the player as "Wanderer," and supplementary texts paint the Wanderer as a female pilgrim, but what little narration the game has is done with SecondPersonNarration.

* TotalEclipseOfThePlot: Eclipse imagery is ''everywhere'', and a solar eclipse marks the climax.

* CallForward: A guide to a limited form of time travel comes in the form of a set of paintings. The one depicting the 'Futurelithic Epozz' shows a [[VideoGame/ReturnToZork familiarly dreary valley]].

''"It began on the day of the great eclipse; the day of my murder."''

* DarkerAndEdgier: The other Zork games all have a humorous take to them, sort of as a parody of text-based adventure games. This one is full of gothic imagery and a dark storyline.

* EvilAllAlong: [[spoiler: The Alchemists.]]
** GoodAllAlong: [[spoiler: Nemesis/Lucien.]]

* FeaturelessProtagonist: The player character is never given any sort of physical description within the game itself. The hint painting lady refers to the player as "Wanderer," and the supplementary texts paint the Wanderer as a female pilgrim.
* FeetOfClay: As you venture through the game, you find out that the alchemists aren't the pillars of morality they are believed to be. [[spoiler:In fact, they're the real villains.]] Though they do tell you, point blank, they're not exactly saints.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: You revive the four alchemists by finding their elements, and then their metals... [[spoiler:and then they pull a group FaceHeelTurn and start a ritual to give themselves eternal life and kill you.]]

* PensieveFlashback: Triggered by seemingly-random objects.

* StarCrossedLovers: Lucien and Alexandria.

* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Once the alchemists come back from the dead, [[spoiler:they try to kill you with a poisoned elixir]].

** Two of the game's characters are named Syovar and Bivotar. Those were the names of recurring characters from from a series of ''Zork'' {{Gamebooks}} from back in the 80's.

* CanonImmigrant: Bivotar is from the children's ChooseYourOwnAdventure Zork books. His journal mentions Juranda and Syovar, also from those books. [[spoiler: Which makes his death rather jarring.]]