History VisualNovel / TheMurderOfSonicTheHedgehog

* FirstPersonSmartass: The player character has some truly Phoenix Wright-esque internal snarking throughout the game, especially towards the other characters' eccentricities.

*** You can [[spoiler:ask him not to [[ComicBook/SonicTheComic take them to the future, where Eggman's already taken over everything]].[[note]]This could also be a reference to ''VideoGame/SonicCD'' or ''VideoGame/SonicChroniclesTheDarkBrotherhood''.[[/note]]]]

** The player character is referred to exclusively with gender-neutral "they/them" pronouns. Their portrait is also gender-ambiguous.

** The fact that Shadow both participates in the game and willingly wears his costume seems to imply some degree of this, even if he's not putting much effort into roleplaying. He even gets into trying to beat the high score on the ''Super Monkey Ball'' arcade machine, competing against Knuckles and Vector.

* AscendedMeme: The [[https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/sonic/images/6/62/Portrait_amy_threatening2.png/revision/latest?cb=20230403174115 threatening look]] Amy makes after she finds out [[spoiler:Sonic was actually injured]] is inspired by the "[[https://youtu.be/kJRdOg9ZdJU You have alerted the Sonic]]" meme that would become popular in 2022.

* ChekhovMIA: Invoked. The lore card Tails receives for his detective persona notes that he had a Flicky partner that left him and joined Eggman. [[spoiler: Not only did the train provide the lore card, it was a badnik powered by a Flicky.]]

* NonStandardCharacterDesign: The Conductor is notably a ''lot'' taller than most of the main cast. It could be argued it's because he's old, but even though she's not in the game, one can make the comparison that he's almost twice as tall as Vanilla, Cream's mom. [[spoiler:In the ending, we get to see the Conductor's wife, and ''she's'' almost as tall as he is, so it's not him specifically, either.]]

** In the game's final scene, [[spoiler:Metal Sonic alongside Sage wear party hats and [[FunTShirt Fun T-Shirts]] for hoping that Eggman succeeded.]]

* {{Pun}}: Before the first THINK section, Tails suggests the player character to follow their "train of thought". While on a train.

* ThisIsReality: As one option for dealing with [[spoiler: the Fabergé Chao Egg bomb, the player character suggests opening it to see if it has [[WireDilemma the wires]]]] like in the movies. Tails denies the suggestion becuase they're not in a movie.
* TrailersAlwaysLie: The launch trailer notably has a couple of scenes and dialogue that aren't in the actual game, such as Sonic not being present in the initial gathering, and the Conductor asking the player character to make sure that "everyone makes it out of here... Alive." Mostly to present the game as an apparent ''actual'' murder mystery when the initial premise is that the "murder mystery" is actually a party game that becomes more serious [[spoiler:but ultimately doesn't result in anyone actually dying, though Sonic is seriously hurt.]]

* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: Despite having sentience and emotional attachement to another, [[spoiler:the cast doesn't hesitate to destory Mirage Express, as it's still a badnik [[PoweredByAForsakenChild powered by a Flicky]] and has kidnapped them to deliver to Eggman, has almost ruined Amy's birthday, and injured Sonic in the process. Only the Conductor shows pity to it]].

*** You can't name the MC a swear word, slur, or after certain infamous figures, which will cause the player character to say they "don't think [they] could show [their] face around again" if they put that on their name tag. However, innocent names can also end up falling under this [[ScunthorpeProblem if parts of its spelling spell out a swear word or slur]].

** [[spoiler:When Eggman reveals himself in the conductor's room, the player character can ask him not to take them to [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehogCD the future, with Eggman noting that he's taken over everything in that time]].]]
** [[spoiler:Alternatively, if you ask him not to [[UnwillingRoboticization turn you into robots]], he'll note that he "hasn't done that in quite a while". It's possibly one of the ''only'' canonical references in a game to [[ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics the Archie comics]] or ''WesternAnimation/SonicTheHedgehogSatAM'', since he's just powering badniks with Flickies again in this game]].
** [[spoiler:The birthday cake that Sonic buys Amy at the end of the game]] has a pink and yellow striped pattern that resembles the soil in [[VideoGame/SonicCD Collision Chaos Zone]].

* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: Once the Rogue and others agree [[spoiler:on a plan to break into the safe room]], the game jumps to after it's already done.

** After the Conductor's introductory scene, [[spoiler:the Conductor is suspiciously absent throughout most of the game, and there are a lot of hints that there's more going on involving the train than it seems. One would logically start to believe the Conductor is behind the state Sonic is in but, instead, it turns out to be ''the train itself''. His large stature might also lead one to believe that he's Eggman in disguise, but this too is disproven when the doctor himself shows up]].

* BareYourMidriff: Rouge's outfit sees her wear a sleeveless crop top. Makes sense, considering she was in no small part [[MsFanservice made for the older end of the audience.]]

* LateArrivalSpoiler: If you haven't played ''VideoGame/SonicFrontiers'', then the game's ending spoils the fact that [[spoiler:Sage is one of Eggman's creations ''and'' the father/daughter relationship that develops between them as ''Frontiers'' goes on]]. If you've only gotten the normal ending to ''Frontiers'', that same detail also spoils the GoldenEnding as well.

* WhatWouldXDo: Tails tells the player that whenever he's stumped, he asks himself "What would Sonic do," which eventually leads to the player "thinking" about what argument to present, represented by the game's "THINK!" mini-game segments. [[spoiler:Near the very end, once the player and Sonic are trapped in the Dining Car, they tell the blue blur that they've been asking themselves what he would do. Upon hearing the question, Sonic answers that'd he speed on ahead, going to save their captured friends, no matter what]].

** [[spoiler:[[VideoGame/SonicFrontiers Sage]] and Metal Sonic appear in the end next to Eggman, wearing party hats and [[FunTShirt Fun T-Shirts]]. Eggman even namedrops Sage before her cameo in the ending in an optional piece of dialogue.]]

* CanonName: According to the game's trailer and files, the player character's name is Barry.

*** You can't name the MC a swear word, slur, or after certain infamous figures, which will cause the player character to say "they don't think they could show their face around again" if they put that on their name tag. However, innocent names can also end up falling under this if parts of its spelling spell out a swear word or slur (see ScunthorpeProblem).

** The player character is referred to exclusively by other characters with gender neutral "they/them" pronouns. Their portrait is also gender-ambiguous.

* HappilyMarried: The conductor and his wife. He mentions how much he's looking forward to enjoying her retirement in Spagonia with her, has a portrait of her hanging in the train's dining car, and his ComicalCoffeeCup has ""A cup of joe in your hand, wife by your side, paradise," written on it when inspected in the Conductor's car. [[spoiler:The wife shows up in the ending scene of the game, where she gives a big hug to the conductor after the entire ordeal with the train is over, glad to see him safe after several hours of waiting]].