Line #188 Creator/ElephantGames


1	[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/elephant_games.jpg]]
2	Elephant Games is an Armenian video game company that specializes in highly detailed {{Hidden Object Game}}s. Their games span a wide variety of genres, from supernatural mysteries to fantasy to lighter puzzle games.
3
4	They first became known for their ''Mystery Trackers'' series of games and have since branched out into other stories, such as the ''Surface'' and the ''Grim Tales'' series. Gamezebo has praised their stunning artwork and immersive game environments.
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6	The devs maintain a fairly active [[https://facebook.com/elephantgames Facebook page]] where players can participate in contests and discussions; they also release exclusive art pieces (such as calendars featuring their most popular characters) and occasionally leak advance hints about upcoming games. Elephant celebrated its 20th anniversary of incorporation in 2023, and as such they offered plenty of bonus content throughout the year.
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8	[[folder:Game series]]
9	!!Game series developed by Elephant Games include:
10	[[index]]
11	* ''VideoGame/MysteryTrackers'': A group of investigators, many of them with supernatural abilities, look into various mysteries.
12	** ''The Void''
13	** ''Raincliff''
14	** ''Black Isle''
15	** ''The Four Aces''
16	** ''Silent Hollow''
17	** ''Raincliff's Phantoms''
18	** ''Blackrow's Secret''
19	** ''The Nightsville Horror''
20	** ''The Winterpoint Tragedy''
21	** ''The Paxton Creek Avenger''
22	** ''Train to Hellswich''
23	** ''Queen of Hearts''
24	** ''Memories of Shadowfield''
25	** ''Mist Over Blackhill''
26	** ''Darkwater Bay''
27	** ''The Fall of Iron Rock''
28	** ''The Secret of Watch Hill''
29	** ''Fatal Lesson''
30	** ''Forgotten Voices''
31	* ''VideoGame/GrimTales'': Anna Gray is a detective from a family with a history of supernatural abilities. She is able to use photographs and other objects to travel through time and SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong.
32	** ''The Bride''
33	** ''The Legacy''
34	** ''The Wishes''
35	** ''The Stone Queen''
36	** ''Bloody Mary''
37	** ''The Vengeance''
38	** ''Colour of Fright''
39	** ''The Final Suspect''
40	** ''Threads of Destiny''
41	** ''The Heir''
42	** ''Crimson Hollow''
43	** ''Graywitch''
44	** ''The White Lady''
45	** ''The Time Traveler''
46	** ''The Hunger''
47	** ''The Nomad''
48	** ''Guest From the Future''
49	** ''The Generous Gift''
50	** ''Heritage''
51	** ''Trace in Time''
52	** ''Echo of the Past''
53	** ''Horizon of Wishes''
54	** ''Dual Disposition''
55	** ''All Shades of Black''
56	** ''Light in the Darkness'' (currently in beta)
57	* ''Surface'': A series of fantasy hidden object mystery games which take place in assorted dimensions.
58	** ''Mystery of Another World''
59	** ''The Noise She Couldn't Make''
60	** ''The Soaring City''
61	** ''The Pantheon''
62	** ''Reel Life''
63	** ''Game of the Gods''
64	** ''Alone in the Mist''
65	** ''Return to Another World''
66	** ''Lost Tales''
67	** ''Virtual Detective''
68	** ''Strings of Fate''
69	** ''Project Dawn''
70	* ''Christmas Stories'':[[/index]] A LighterAndSofter series of hidden object games themed around [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Christmas stories]] and {{fairy tale}}s.
71	** ''Theatre/TheNutcracker''
72	** ''Literature/AChristmasCarol''
73	** ''Creator/HansChristianAndersen's Tin Soldier''
74	** ''Puss in Boots''
75	** ''The Gift of the Magi''
76	** ''A Little Prince''
77	** ''Alice's Adventures''
78	** ''Enchanted Express''
79	** ''The Christmas Tree Forest''
80	** ''Yulemen''
81	** ''Taxi of Miracles''
82	** ''Legends of Toymakers''
83	[[index]]
84	* ''Lost In The City'': A duology in which the player character wakes up in an abandoned city and must figure out what happened to him and how to escape.
85	** ''Lost In The City''
86	** ''Lost In The City: Post Scriptum''
87	* ''Halloween Stories'': Similar to the Christmas stories, this series is themed around Halloween tales and legends.
88	** ''Invitation''
89	** ''Black Book''
90	** ''Defying Death''
91	** ''Horror Movie''
92	** ''The Neglected Dead''
93	** ''Mark on the Bone''
94	** ''Written in Blood''
95	* ''Riddles of Fate'': Another supernatural mystery series, this one dealing with things like death and the seven deadly sins.
96	** ''Memento Mori''
97	** ''Into Oblivion''
98	** ''Wild Hunt''
99	* ''Royal Detective'': A series which focuses on the eponymous royal detective and the ongoing effort to help a young girl find happiness.
100	** ''Lord of Statues''
101	** ''Queen of Shadows''
102	** ''Legend of the Golem''
103	** ''Borrowed Life''
104	** ''The Princess Returns''
105	** ''The Last Charm''
106	* ''Chimeras'': A mystery series centered around mysterious beasts and missing persons.
107	** ''Tune of Revenge''
108	** ''The Signs of Prophecy''
109	** ''Cursed and Forgotten''
110	** ''Mortal Medicine''
111	** ''Mark of Death''
112	** ''Blinding Love''
113	** ''New Rebellion''
114	** ''Heavenfall Secrets''
115	** ''Wailing Waters''
116	** ''The Price of Greed''
117	** ''Cherished Serpent''
118	** ''What Wishes May Come''
119	* ''Ms. Holmes'': A mystery series based on the Literature/SherlockHolmes canon. It has been several years since the Great Detective disappeared, and crimes inspired by his old cases are taking London by storm. Sharlotte Holmes, a distant relation, has to fill in to solve the new crimes.
120	** ''The Monster of the Baskervilles''
121	** ''The Five Orange Pips''
122	** ''The Adventure of the [=McKirk=] Ritual''
123	** ''The Case of the Dancing Men''
124	** ''The Milverton Plot''
125	** ''Letter M'' (currently in beta)
126	* ''VideoGame/MysteryCaseFiles'': The Mystery Case Files agency investigates a number of supernaturally-themed mysteries.[[note]]This series actually belongs to Big Fish Games, but Elephant Games were hired to design and help produce two installments as a joint effort.[[/note]]
127	** ''Fate's Carnival''
128	** ''Dire Grove, Sacred Grove''
129	* ''VideoGame/HauntedHotel'': Paranormal investigators look into unsettling disturbances, all of which [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin take place in hotels]]. [[note]]This series originally belonged to a different developer; only the games starting with ''Eclipse'' were made by Elephant.[[/note]]
130	** ''Eclipse''
131	** ''Ancient Bane''
132	** ''Death Sentence''
133	** ''Eternity''
134	** ''Phoenix''
135	** ''The X''
136	** ''The Axiom Butcher''
137	** ''Silent Waters''
138	** ''The Thirteenth''
139	** ''Personal Nightmare''
140	** ''The Evil Inside''
141	** ''Lost Dreams''
142	** ''Beyond the Page''
143	** ''Room 18''
144	** ''Lost Time''
145	** ''A Past Redeemed''
146	* ''VideoGame/ParanormalFiles'': Similar to ''Haunted Hotel'', these games feature a character named Rick Rogers, who explores haunted and otherwise supernaturally charged locations to solve mysteries.
147	** ''Fellow Traveler''
148	** ''The Tall Man''
149	** ''Enjoy the Shopping''
150	** ''Hook Man's Legend''
151	** ''Trials of Worth''
152	** ''The Trap of Truth''
153	** ''Ghost Chapter''
154	** ''Price of a Secret''
155	** ''Silent Willow''
156	** ''Counterpart''
157	* ''VideoGame/DetectivesUnited'': A CrisisCrossover series which brings together characters from ''Mystery Trackers, VideoGame/GrimTales'', and ''VideoGame/HauntedHotel''. They combine their efforts to solve cases that they would not be able to handle individually.
158	** ''Origins''
159	** ''The Darkest Shrine''
160	** ''Timeless Voyage''
161	** ''Phantoms of the Past''
162	** ''Deadly Debt''
163	** ''Beyond Time''
164	** ''Anthology'' (not an installment, but a compilation of the first three games with additional goodies)
165	** ''Mission Possible'' (currently in beta)
166	* ''Strange Investigations'': Former police detective Dana Strange works as a private investigator after resolving the abduction of her sister Ursula.
167	** ''Becoming''
168	** ''Two for Solitaire''
169	** ''Secrets Can Be Deadly''
170	** ''Truth Will Out'' (currently in beta)
171	* ''Crossroads'' is a horror series which takes place in the Crossroads bar, where Mistress Eve helps wayward souls conquer the demons of their pasts.
172	** ''On a Just Path''
173	** ''Escaping the Dark''
174	** ''What Was Lost''
175	** ''Fatal Truths''
176	* ''Cursed Fables'' is a dark take on classic fairy tales, with the traditional roles of heroes and villains being sometimes shifted.
177	** ''White As Snow''
178	** ''Twisted Tower''
179	** ''A Voice to Die For''
180	** ''Before the Clock Strikes''
181	** ''A Gilded Rose'' (currently in beta)
182	* ''Book Travelers'' sends the player into works of classic literature to save the worlds and characters from destruction by a mysterious enemy.
183	** ''A Victorian Story''
184	** ''A Royal Story''
185	* ''It Happened Here'' is a series of mystery games featuring Emily Smith, a widowed podcaster who uses her research skills to solve crimes.
186	** ''Streaming Lives''
187	** ''Beacon of Truth''
188	** ''A Storm is Brewing''
189	* ''Knight Cats'' is about a world of CatFolk and the medieval-inspired mystery adventures they experience.
190	** ''Leaves on the Road''
191	** ''Waves on the Water''
192	** ''Whispers of the Universe''
193	* ''Wilde Investigations'': Artemis Wilde tackles mysteries explicitly related to animals and animal behavior.
194	** ''The Zoo Kerfuffle''
195	** ''Animal Sanctuary Shuffle''
196	* ''Lucky Season'': Similar to the Christmas and Halloween stories, this series gets a new release every St. Patrick's Day, with the leprechauns using their magic to aid humanity.
197	** ''King of Fools''
198	* ''Midnight Castle'':[[/index]] This isn't a series, but a standalone {{Freemium}} game hosted on Big Fish Games, in which the player explores and interacts with characters in a large spooky castle. Unlike all other BFG Freemium games, which have been closed and had their servers deleted, ''Midnight Castle'' remains very active and has a huge player base.
199	[[/folder]]
200
201	!!Tropes commonly seen:
202
203	[[foldercontrol]]
204
205	[[folder:A-D]]
206	* AlliterativeFamily:
207	** Anastasia, Anna, and Alice Gray in ''Grim Tales'' (mother, daughter, granddaughter); the installment ''Echo of the Past'' also introduces Anastasia's sister Alexandra
208	** James and John Blackthorne in ''Haunted Hotel'' (brothers), with the later addition of James's wife Jessica
209	* AlliterativeName: Rick Rogers of ''Paranormal Files''
210	* AlwaysIdenticalTwins: If characters in their games are twins, they are almost always identical.
211	** Anna and Luisa Gray of ''Grim Tales'' are not only identical themselves, but they had a pair of elder half-sisters who died years before they were born, and these were also identical twins. Zig-zagged, however, as in the later games Anna and her sister look different owing to the fact that [[spoiler:Anna has been restored to her youth, and Luisa has not]].
212	** Daemon Park, in ''Paranormal Files'', had an identical twin brother named Dylan who died before the series began.
213	** Agent Dorian Brown and his brother Mortimer in ''Detectives United'' are a somewhat ambiguous example, as we never actually see either of them (since they're [[spoiler:both invisible]]). However, their in-game appearances are identical, so they are effectively this trope, with the bonus of also having identical ''voices''.
214	* AmbiguousTimePeriod: Some of the series fall into this.
215	** The first ''Haunted Hotel'' game from Elephant, ''Eclipse'', appears to have a late Victorian or Edwardian setting; ''Personal Nightmare'' is explicitly set in 1958, and ''Beyond the Page'' seems to be in the late 90s or early 2000s. Yet all of these games (and several others) have James Blackthorne as the player's companion, and he hasn't aged a day.
216	** ''Mystery Trackers: Raincliff'' is another example, as the Brown family who serve as the primary antagonists are shown in photographs which are clearly from the 1800s, even though the game is implied to take place in the 1990s at the earliest.
217	** ''Detectives United'' is ambiguous to the point of AnachronismStew. There are personal communication devices which amount to pocket-sized computers, but also antique-style landline telephones and phone booths. The first game in particular also has a sort of FilmNoir atmosphere to parts of it, which only makes it even more ambiguous.
218	** ''Strange Investigations'' originally had shades of this, since no time period was clarified. The second game shows a photograph of Dana's partner Malcolm as a Marine in 1957, which would make him at ''least'' 83 years old if the game was taking place in its release year of 2022. But as the series has continued, it's become more obvious (through clothing, technology, and the occasional dated document) that it takes place in UsefulNotes/TheSeventies.
219	* AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent: As usual, Rick Rogers is the initial player character of ''Paranormal Files: Ghost Chapter.'' However, after the first few puzzles are completed, the player is then in control of his partner Rachel, because [[spoiler:Rick has disappeared.]]
220	* AnimalMotif:
221	** ''Strange Investigations'' has a recurring bee theme, owing to the friendship bracelet Ursula Strange was wearing the day of her disappearance.
222	** The Detectives United have an owl motif in their sigil.
223	** The ''Chimeras'' series involves many animals.
224	** One installment of ''Grim Tales'' indicates that the Gray family emblem is a fox.
225	** The Bennet family in the first installment of ''Paranormal Files'' has a raven motif on their property.
226	** The castle in ''Cursed Fables: White as Snow'' has a bat motif on the coat of arms and other insignia; however, Queen Margaret's inner monologue observes that it's not supposed to look like this. [[spoiler:It's an early hint that the BigBad is a vampire.]]
227	* AnotherDimension:
228	** The ''Surface'' series is based on this trope, although it's revealed in ''The Noise She Couldn't Make'' that the dimension in particular is a coma patient's mind.
229	** The plot of ''Mystery Trackers: Mist Over Blackhill'' involves one of these.
230	** The second and third installments of ''Detectives United'' include some focus on one of these; the second installment actually mentions ''two'', but only one is seen.
231	** In ''Paranormal Files: Ghost Chapter,'' Rachel has to pay a few visits to what is identified as the spirit plane, which is a different layer of reality that only partially intersects with the one in which she lives.
232	** The ''Book Travelers'' series runs on this trope, as the player character has to travel through the worlds of various pieces of literature. These are indicated to be real places, accessed through magic, and implied to be alternate dimensions.
233	** ''Paranormal Files: Counterpart'' reveals that [[spoiler:Rick Rogers]] has been held prisoner in one of these for the previous few installments.
234	* AssholeVictim: A lot of the murder victims in the games, while not necessarily deserving of a vicious death, are definitely unpleasant people and are often guilty of heinous crimes.
235	* BilingualBonus: Overlapping with ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. The 20th and final installment of the ''Haunted Hotel'' series takes place at a location called the Hotel del Pasado. In Spanish, this literally means "the last hotel."
236	* BloodyHorror: Some of the scarier installments of the various series fall into this, such as ''Haunted Hotel: The Axiom Butcher'', which centers around the ritual antics of a serial killer. It's BloodierAndGorier than any other game in that series.
237	* CatFolk: The population of Catstown, in the ''Knight Cats'' series, is made up entirely of these.
238	* CatsAreMean: In ''It Happened Here: Streaming Lives'', Emily visits her friend Archie, who has a hairless cat named Gretta. Gretta is extremely ill-tempered and slashes Emily's wrist with her claws.
239	* CharacterTitle: Several of their game series titles are of this sort.
240	** ''Ms. Holmes'' is perhaps the most obvious example.
241	** ''Wilde Investigations'' and ''Strange Investigations'' are this, once it's understood that Wilde and Strange are the surnames of the series protagonists.
242	** ''Grim Tales'' is an odd example; the series actually ''is'' titled after a character, but this fact isn't known until the 21st installment, when it's revealed that Grim was the maiden name of protagonist Anna's mother.
243	* ChristmasEpisode: The ''Christmas Stories'' are this for their catalogue, as they're released in December each year.
244	* ContentWarnings: Usually averted by this developer, but there are some exceptions.
245	** On the Big Fish Games page for the first ''Crossroads'' installment, the player is warned that it is a horror game which "features moments of psychological terror that some may find distressing."
246	** The first installment of ''It Happened Here'' includes one of these during the opening credits, advising the player that the game contains graphic depictions of violence and "is not for the faint of heart."
247	* ContinuityNod: Most games in the various mystery series frequently make {{Call Back}}s to earlier installments, as there's at least some continuity in them.
248	** ''Raincliff's Phantoms'' is the sequel to ''Raincliff'', and one of the Brown siblings is mentioned in ''Black Isle'' as having joined the agency; he has a number of {{Continuity Cameo}}s throughout the series, and eventually becomes a PlayerCharacter in ''Detectives United''. [[spoiler:One of the Browns' distant relatives is revealed to be the BigBad in ''Raincliff's Phantoms'' and also in ''Detectives United: Origins''.]]
249	** One of the other Brown siblings from ''Raincliff'' is the BigBad in ''Detectives United: Phantoms of the Past''. The title of that installment is also a CallBack to ''Raincliff'', as the Brown siblings were known as "the phantoms of Raincliff" during that game.
250	** ''Detectives United'' also includes various connections to the three characters' origin series. ''Grim Tales'', in turn, makes occasional reference to the events of ''Detectives United''.
251	** ''Haunted Hotel: Death Sentence'' is the third appearance of James as the player's companion, and the opening cinematic includes references to the two previous cases they've solved together (''Eclipse'' and ''Ancient Bane'').
252	** The final ''Haunted Hotel'' installment, ''A Past Redeemed'', brings back elements and characters from previous games in the series, including James's cousin Rachel and the antagonist Valentine (who both appeared in ''The Evil Inside''), and it's specifically noted to be taking place roughly six months after the previous game. There's also an ominous eclipse on the day of the wedding, as a subtle nod to James's debut appearance in the game ''Eclipse''.
253	** The entirety of ''Paranormal Files'' is an ongoing storyline about Rick Rogers and his paranormal investigations.
254	* CosmeticAward: The unlockable achievements in the collector's editions of their games.
255	* CreatorInJoke: In many if not most of their games, you can expect to see an elephant with its trunk raised somewhere at least once. This can take the form of an item in a hidden object scene, an image on the wall, or any number of placements.
256	* CrisisCrossover:
257	** The Mystery Trackers rescue the player character of ''Haunted Hotel: Eternity'', and help the player character (implied to be the same character) of the next installment, ''Phoenix,'' with his investigation at the arson-riddled Stone Spires Hotel.
258	** The ''Detectives United'' series brings together James Blackthorne from the ''Haunted Hotel'' games, Anna Gray and her father Richard from ''Grim Tales'', and Agents Brown and Shade from ''Mystery Trackers.'' They join forces to solve mysteries that would be impossible for them to handle on their own.
259	** In ''Paranormal Files: Counterpart'', Rachel and her team realize that they need some extra help to have any chance of surviving the current case, so they reach out to Anna Gray for guidance.
260	* CutAndPasteEnvironments: Occasionally, scenes from one series will appear in another. For example, the camper's dormitory in ''Mystery Trackers: Fatal Lesson'' is all but identical to Alice's university dorm room in ''Grim Tales: Guest From the Future''.
261	* DarkAndTroubledPast:
262	** The player character of ''Mystery Trackers'' has one, although this isn't made clear until the installment ''The Secret of Watch Hill.'' Watch Hill was her hometown, which she left as a teenager following the deaths of her parents and brother, and she must return there fifteen years later to deal with a related issue. Her painful past also comes up in ''Fatal Lesson,'' in which a {{flashback}} in the beginning shows her at the organization's camp, learning to be a detective alongside Agent Shade; her inner monologue mentions that her family was killed a year earlier.
263	** Agent Brown, of the ''Detectives United'', has one as seen in his debut game, ''Mystery Trackers: Raincliff.'' It doesn't come to light in the DU series until the fourth installment, when his past catches up to him.
264	** James Blackthorne of ''Haunted Hotel'' has a minor one of these, having once (accidentally) brought about the conviction of an innocent man. This is enough to make him the target of the justice-obsessed killer in ''Death Sentence''.
265	** Dana Strange of ''Strange Investigations'' is forever haunted by the abduction and murder of her [[DeathByOriginStory younger sister]].
266	** Rick Rogers of ''Paranormal Files'' lost his mother to a house fire when he was just a child; she died [[HeroicSacrifice saving him]]. He was then raised by his father, who died in an accident. Rick then got started on his strange path in life when he was fired from his job and caught his girlfriend cheating on him with his best friend.
267	* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The ''It Happened Here'' series is about a widow, Emily, who solves mysteries as her way of coping after the death of her husband. She is also a writer who runs a true crime podcast. It's hard not to see her as a 21st century update on [[Series/MurderSheWrote Jessica Fletcher]].
268	[[/folder]]
269
270	[[folder:E-G]]
271	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness:
272	** Games made prior to the ''Mystery Trackers'' games had simplistic CGI characters and iffy gameplay. It wasn't until they produced ''The Void'' that they hit their stride.
273	** The first ''Mystery Trackers'' game does not employ live actors as seen in the next few installments, and the CGI characters are less polished. Similarly, the games with live actors can come across this way to those familiar with the later games, as the use of live actors was dropped starting with the sixth installment.
274	** The first four ''Haunted Hotel'' games come across this way because they were made by a different developer, who later sold the series to Elephant. The games from before the sale don't have any sort of cohesive storyline tying them together, and James Blackthorne was not added to the series until after Elephant purchased it; he debuted in ''Eclipse'', though his last name wasn't given until later. ''Eclipse'' also doesn't animate the figures, as later installments do.
275	*** Also, in James's first three appearances, he dresses like a Victorian/Edwardian character and has long hair. Furthermore, these appearances do not give him a surname; in fact, ''Death Sentence'' goes to great lengths to avoid giving him more than a last initial, because the ''murderer'' in the game has the surname of Blackthorne. It's only starting with the installment ''Phoenix'' that he's given a last name and his modern appearance.
276	** The early installments of most of the older series lack the interactive map used in later games, forcing the player to do a good deal of backtracking.
277	* EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette:
278	** Snow White, in ''Cursed Fables: White as Snow'', has the same dark hair and pale skin as in the original fairy tale, but her complexion has an UndeathlyPallor to it. There's a reason, of course.
279	** In the first installment of ''Book Travelers'', Bertha Rochester - the mad wife of Edward Rochester from ''Literature/JaneEyre'' - is depicted as one of these.
280	* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep:
281	** The agents in the Mystery Trackers are, usually, only ever identified by {{code name}}s. The player character of most installments, however, [[NoNameGiven goes unnamed]] all the way to the 16th game, ''The Fall of Iron Rock'', where documents identify her as "Agent A." In the next game, ''The Secret of Watch Hill'', her ID badge finally reveals that her code name is Agent Amber. Later in the game, the player finds a scientific award she received in high school, which confirms that her birth name really is Amber Edevane. It's never explained why [[HisNameReallyIsBarkeep Agent Amber and Agent Brown]] were allowed to use their real names as code names.
282	** This is also true of some installments of ''Haunted Hotel'', which has a few different protagonists. For example, in ''The X,'' the player is only ever called "brother" by his sister Samantha or "Mr. Detective" by the young girl he rescues. In other installments, like ''Eclipse'' and ''The Axiom Butcher'', James Blackthorne is the player's companion and merely addresses them as "my friend." Averted by the few installments which have James as the player character, and also by the installments which have one-shot protagonists, all of whom have their names given in the games.
283	* EvilCounterpart:
284	** ''Mystery Trackers: Train to Hellswich'' reveals that the Mystery Trackers had one of these back when they were founded as an order of medieval knights. The Black Swamp Society was, like the Mystery Trackers, on the constant watch for supernatural activity and persons with unusual powers; however, the Black Swamp members were committed to collecting such power for themselves with the intention of taking over the world. The Mystery Trackers knights fought them and sent them underground, but the organization survived and became the antagonists of the installment. It's implied that winning the game ends their plans for good.
285	*** The bonus chapter for ''Mystery Trackers: The Secret of Watch Hill'' involves a villainous version of the protagonist crossing over from a parallel universe, having been sent by the Dark Trackers agency to locate the game's MacGuffin. The chapter takes place concurrently with the main game, but the regular protagonist doesn't suspect a thing. Agent Blade, the counterpart in question, is also the villain of the installment ''Memories of Shadowfield''.
286	** Beginning in the second installment, the ''Detectives United'' have to contend with their dark counterparts from another dimension. (Quite possibly this dimension is the same one which is home to the Dark Trackers agency mentioned above, although this has yet to be confirmed.) Anna Gray and Agent Brown's dark counterparts are the antagonists of the second game's bonus chapter, and Dark Anna is the antagonist of the third game.
287	*** In the fourth installment, the BigBad is Agent Brown's EvilTwin.
288	** The BigBad of ''Grim Tales: Dual Disposition'' is Anna's identical doppelganger from another dimension. This is possibly the same doppelganger who debuted in ''Detectives United'', but it's unconfirmed.
289	** The BigBad of ''Paranormal Files: Counterpart'' turns out to be one of these.
290	* ExtranormalInstitute: The [[ThePlace eponymous school]] in the ''Chimeras'' installment ''Heavenfall Secrets'' is one of these, as many of the students are chimeras. Somewhat overlaps with WizardingSchool.
291	* FeaturelessProtagonist: Zig-zagged. The most you'll get from the [=NPCs=] in some games is a reference to your title if you're a detective, but other games will state your gender. However, many of the longer-running series (and especially the more recent ones) tend to have protagonists who are given names and character designs.
292	* FracturedFairyTale: The ''Cursed Fables'' games are these. The player will eventually recognize a classic fairy tale as being the source material, but the roles of hero and villain are often reversed or otherwise altered, and the stories are given quite a bit of {{Grimmification}}. For example, in ''White as Snow'', Literature/SnowWhite is [[spoiler:a vampire]], while in ''Twisted Tower'', Literature/{{Rapunzel}} is [[spoiler:a succubus chimera]].
293	* FreakyFridayFlip: In ''Paranormal Files: Trials of Worth'', Rick and Rachel end up trading bodies for a while thanks to some AppliedPhlebotinum. Neither is particularly happy about it.
294	* {{Freemium}}: In addition to ''Midnight Castle'', there are mobile versions of some installments of the various series which fall into this. The games are free to play, with optional in-app purchases; the developers sometimes give away items or energy for these games on their Facebook page.
295	* FullMotionVideo: ''Surface'' and ''Mystery Trackers'' started out using these with their characters and cutscenes, but by their respective fourth games, have settled for using traditional animation of the characters and dropping the full motion cutscenes.
296	* FunctionalMagic: The supernatural ''definitely'' exists in the worlds of most Elephant series, including psychic abilities, magic rituals, time travel, ghosts, and invisibility. It may not always be clear to the player why or how the magic in question works, but in the games where it appears, it's a real thing.
297	* GirlInTheTower: Rapunzel, in ''Cursed Fables: Twisted Tower'', is one of these just like in her original fairy tale. She's not in need of rescue this time, though. [[spoiler:She's a soul-draining EldritchAbomination who needs to be defeated.]] As the game progresses, the player learns that she was originally placed in the tower by her GoodParents to ''protect'' her, but then things went very badly.
298	* GoodStepmother: The ''Cursed Fables'' series introduces a few of these, as part of its habit of subverting traditional fairy tale tropes.
299	** Margaret, in ''White as Snow'', wants to be this to her stepdaughter Literature/SnowWhite. Snow's own diary notes that she likes Margaret, who is very nice to her, and she's pleased that her father is HappilyMarried.
300	** Stella, who is Literature/{{Cinderella}}'s stepmother in ''Before the Clock Strikes'', has raised Cinderella alongside her own two daughters and loves her like her own child.
301	* GottaCatchEmAll: The collector's editions of their games have assorted collections for the player to find, including morphing items, photograph fragments, and figurines. There are usually achievements to be unlocked by completing these collections.
302	[[/folder]]
303
304	[[folder:H-L]]
305	* HalfHumanHybrid[=/=]HumanMomNonhumanDad: In the ''Royal Detective'' games, Princess eventually learns that her mother is a human sorceress and her father is an elven wizard.
306	* HalloweenEpisode: The ''Halloween Stories'' are these for their catalogue, as they get released close to Halloween each year.
307	* HappilyAdopted: In ''Cursed Fables: White as Snow'', Margaret finds the lost diary of her predecessor, Snow White's birth mother, whom she has been told died of an illness. The diary talks about how the king and queen were struggling with the LawOfInverseFertility, but they found an abandoned baby in the forest and joyfully brought her home and named her Snow White. [[spoiler:She turned out to be a vampire, who eventually killed her mother.]]
308	* HellHotel: The settings of the ''Haunted Hotel'' games, of course, but these occasionally appear in some of the other series as well.
309	* IHaveYourWife:
310	** The central plot of ''Grim Tales: The Generous Gift'' involves Anna's six-year-old daughter Alice being kidnapped and used as bait to lure Anna into a trap. Alice is later kidnapped again in ''Echo of the Past,'' though for a very different reason.
311	** In ''Mystery Trackers: Queen of Hearts'', the title character forces Professor Green's cooperation by holding his young daughter Felicia hostage. In the later installment ''Memories of Shadowfield'', during the bonus chapter, Agent Blade does the same thing to Mr. Mason by kidnapping his grandson Bobby.
312	** In ''Haunted Hotel: A Past Redeemed'', when James Blackthorne hesitates to help the ghosts, they take his bride-to-be Jessica as a bargaining chip.
313	* HiddenObjectGame: Gamezebo considers them one of the best creators in the casual game industry, on par with Big Fish Games, Alawar, [[VideoGame/DarkParables Blue Tea Games]], [[VideoGame/{{Awakening}} Boomzap Entertainment]], and [[Creator/ERSGameStudios AMAX Interactive]]. Their value to the genre has become even more pronounced in the first few years of the 2020s, as many of their fellow developers have either closed their doors or stopped producing games of this type.
314	* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Creator/CharlotteBronte is a main character in ''Book Travelers: A Victorian Story.''
315	* HollywoodAcid: Frequently used to dissolve locks and other metal items.
316	* IdenticalStranger: During the mystery in ''Strange Investigations: Becoming'', Dana Strange encounters a police officer named Eve, who - apart from her blonde hair and sunglasses - looks just like Dana's dead sister Ursula. [[spoiler:The end of the game heavily implies that this ''is'' Ursula, who is NotTooDeadToSaveTheDay.]]
317	** Eve returns in ''Two for Solitaire'', with Dana noting that she's very helpful but always disappears before Dana can ask her any questions. Near the end of the game, she finally reveals that [[spoiler:she's an aspect of Dana's own subconscious, and that only Dana can see or hear her. Dana has her doubts as to whether this is true.]] Eve then continues to appear sporadically during the sequels; Dana more or less gives up and accepts that this is going to be a thing in her life.
318	* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: The ''Haunted Hotel'' titles began having this, albeit inconsistently, after the series was purchased by Elephant from its original developer. Beginning with the ninth game, the installments often reflect their numerical order in some way, either with Arabic or Roman numerals. For example, ''The Axiom Butcher'' is the eleventh game in the series (''A'''xi'''om'') while ''Room 18'' is the eighteenth.
319	* ImprovisedScrewdriver: In the various mystery games, the protagonist is more likely to use a coin to unscrew something than an actual screwdriver.
320	* InTheBlood:
321	** Being a member of the Mystery Trackers is frequently a hereditary thing. The installment ''Silent Hollow'' reveals that some of the present members of the order are descended from earlier members. [[spoiler:This includes the PlayerCharacter herself, who is a descendant of the order's ancient nemesis Morpheus!]]
322	** Psychic abilities run in the Gray family bloodline, albeit inconsistently, in the ''Grim Tales'' games. Protagonist Anna inherited them from her father, but her twin sister Luisa did not.
323	** All over the place in the ''Ms. Holmes'' series. Sharlotte Holmes, the protagonist, is a granddaughter of Sherlock Holmes's brother Mycroft. Her two closest associates are Oscar Watson, the medical examiner, who is a grandson of John Watson, and Kiron Adler, an underworld spy, who is a grandson of Irene Adler. In at least one installment they find themselves at odds with Jane Lestrade, granddaughter of Inspector Lestrade.
324	* InnocentBystander: If a murder victim isn't an AssholeVictim, they're usually one of these - just unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
325	* IronicNurseryTune: In the bonus chapter of ''Haunted Hotel: Death Sentence'', one of these occasionally plays as background noise; however, it may take a little while before the player understands what they're hearing.
326	-->Hush, little baby, don't say a word\
327	Auntie's gonna buy you a mockingbird\
328	And if that mockingbird don't sing\
329	Auntie's gonna break that birdie's wing
330	* ItsPersonal:
331	** In the second ''Strange Investigations'' game, Dana's partner Mal says this about the murder of his old war buddy Robert. Prior to the series beginning, Dana herself felt this way about the abduction and murder of her sister, so she understands his attitude.
332	** Sharlotte takes this attitude in one of the ''Ms. Holmes'' installments, when someone is hell-bent on ruining her Great-Uncle Sherlock's reputation in London. She refuses to let his heroism be tarnished.
333	** The ''Mystery Trackers'' installment ''The Secret of Watch Hill'' is extremely personal for the player character, Amber, as she must return to her hometown and learn the truth behind the deaths of her parents and younger brother.
334	* KidFromTheFuture: The title character in ''Guest From the Future'', in the ''Grim Tales'' series, is Anna's future daughter Alice. Anna herself is also this to her own mother in the installment ''Echo of the Past''.
335	* LevelMapDisplay: One of their signature features is a PointAndClickMap interface that eliminates backtracking. It's especially useful in the plot-heavy games.
336	* LighterAndSofter:
337	** The ''Christmas Stories'' games are much more lighthearted than their other hidden object games, as they are mainly riffs on classic fairy tales and fantasy literature, and can be enjoyed by gamers of all ages.
338	** The ''Wilde Investigations'' series is also this compared to most of their fare, and the games are even described as being "light and fun."
339	* LongRunner: ''Mystery Trackers, Haunted Hotel,'' and ''Grim Tales'' each have twenty installments or more, which is quite unusual for the genre.
340	[[/folder]]
341
342	[[folder:M-R]]
343	* MagicMirror: A recurring element in the ''Cursed Fables'' games is the presence of these. In ''Twisted Tower'', a note mentions that there were once seven such mirrors owned by seven queens, which may be a clue as to how long this series is expected to last.
344	* MeaningfulName: Some of the Mystery Trackers have code names related to their specific abilities. For example, Agent Wulf is a lycanthrope, and Agent Rayne can control the weather.
345	* MediumBlending: The first several games of the ''Surface'' and ''Mystery Trackers'' series superimposed live actors moving against the painted backgrounds, but later dropped this technique in favor of photo-filtered renditions of the actors for a more seamless blending. Eventually the games shifted to being strictly animated, with no live actors except for voices.
346	* MembershipToken:
347	** The Mystery Trackers carry badges identifying them as official agents.
348	** The members of the Detectives United each wear a badge shaped like the series icon.
349	** All of those who are chosen to be Book Travelers are given special amulets. These not only identify them, but allow them to create portals which take them into the world of books.
350	* MetafictionalTitle: ''It Happened Here'' is the name of the game series, but within the games it's also the name of Emily Smith's true crime podcast.
351	* MissionControl:
352	** Agent Shade is this for Anna, Brown, and James in ''Detectives United.''
353	** The Commander of the ''Mystery Trackers'' usually takes on the role in those games.
354	* MyBelovedSmother: The original ''Paranormal Files'' adventure features one of these, who in life was entirely too attached to her son.
355	* NoNameGiven: Apart from protagonist Megan, none of the {{original character}}s in the ''Book Travelers'' series have names. The first game introduces men who are identified as the Great Librarian and the Renegade, but no other names are ever mentioned for them.
356	* NonHumanSidekick:
357	** Starting with ''Black Isle'', your ''Mystery Trackers'' character is accompanied by a miniature pinscher named Elf. It's later revealed that many agents in the Mystery Trackers have animal companions; in ''Silent Hollow'', one of the {{Collection Sidequest}}s involves collecting information cards about them.
358	** ''Fate's Carnival'' introduces Isis, Madame Fate's cat, as the Master Detective's sidekick in her journey.
359	** Anna, in some installments of ''Grim Tales'' and ''Detectives United'', has Richard - the ghost of her father, bound into his own skull, which she carries with her everywhere. Later in ''Grim Tales'', she instead has Anastasia, the ghost of her mother, whom she contacts through the use of a special piece of jewelry. In both cases, this overlaps with DeadPersonConversation.
360	** During the events of ''Haunted Hotel: The Evil Inside'', James is assisted by P.A.T.R.I.C.K., a talking handheld device which can detect paranormal activity. It's quite chatty and makes him feel like he has a friend with him for the investigation.
361	* OccultDetective:
362	** The Mystery Trackers are an agency that specializes in supernatural mysteries.
363	** James Blackthorne in ''Haunted Hotel'' is this; his particular expertise is in helping ghosts with their UnfinishedBusiness by solving mysteries related to the locations they haunt.
364	** Rick Rogers of ''Paranormal Files'' is this, though it seems like he doesn't necessarily ''want'' to be, at first. By the end of the first game, though, he embraces it wholeheartedly.
365	** Anna Gray in ''Grim Tales'' is this, although the cases she solves (or at least the ones shown in the games) are somehow related to her own extended family.
366	** The partnership of the Detectives United also falls into this, since occult detecting is what its members do on their own; they join forces when the cases are too big to handle alone.
367	** Played with in ''Strange Investigations'', where Dana Strange often takes on cases that ''seem'' to have a supernatural aspect to them, but turn out to have much more mundane resolutions. However, there is no logical explanation for the repeated appearance of a woman who looks just like Dana's murdered sister.
368	* OutlivingOnesOffspring: Possibly. The parents of Dana Strange, of ''Strange Investigations,'' lost their younger daughter to a psychotic kidnapper on her tenth birthday. The case went unsolved for ''years'' before ending with her murder, although it's not made clear whether or not their parents were still alive at that point.
369	* PaperKeyRetrievalTrick: Sometimes used to get out of (or into) locked rooms.
370	* ParanormalInvestigation: The focus of a number of the series.
371	* PassingTheTorch: In the ''Mystery Trackers'' series, the installment ''Fatal Lesson'' introduces three cadet agents codenamed Slate, Black, and Ginger. They become the player character team in ''Forgotten Voices,'' embarking on their first field assignment.
372	* PastExperienceNightmare: Dana Strange of ''Strange Investigations'' repeatedly has nightmares about the abduction and murder of her younger sister.
373	* PhonyPsychic: These crop up occasionally in ''Paranormal Files'', due in part to the fact that Rick Rogers has genuine PsychicPowers and has to contend with the fakes.
374	* ThePlace: The Crossroads bar is this in the ''Crossroads'' series.
375	* PlotTriggeringDeath:
376	** Prior to the beginning of ''Strange Investigations'', Dana Strange's sister Ursula was kidnapped and murdered, which led to Dana becoming a police detective and then a private investigator.
377	** It's eventually revealed that the PlayerCharacter of ''Mystery Trackers'' got her start with the agency when her parents and brother were killed under mysterious circumstances.
378	* PreciousPuppy: The ''Mystery Trackers'' installment ''Silent Hollow'' reveals that the player's CanineCompanion Elf has sired a litter of adorable puppies with his mate. A {{collection sidequest}} involves finding coins to spend on treats and goodies with which to pamper the fuzzy family.
379	* PresentAbsence:
380	** At the start of ''Detectives United: Phantoms of the Past'', Agent Brown has been missing for two months, and remains absent for much of the game while his partners try to find him (and rescue him if need be) and figure out just what the heck he's been doing.
381	** Rick Rogers is the series protagonist for ''Paranormal Files''. In ''Ghost Chapter'', however, [[spoiler:he disappears under mysterious circumstances, and his partner Rachel spends the next ''thirteen years'' trying desperately to find him. As of the end of the game, he's ''still'' missing, and the next games continue the search.]]
382	** In ''Royal Detective'', part of the series plot is driven by the disappearance of Princess's mother.
383	** ''Strange Investigations'' is heavily influenced by the murder of Ursula Strange, sister of series protagonist Dana, which took place before the first game ever began. Dana, who [[spoiler:witnessed the murder after spending years trying to find Ursula]], can't seem to move past it.
384	** Oddly averted for Richard Gray, who went missing from both the ''Grim Tales'' and ''Detectives United'' series beginning with ''Grim Tales: Heritage''. No one in either game series appears to take much notice of his absence, apart from a single line in ''Heritage'' about him being "on vacation", and another in ''Detectives United: Deadly Debt'' where Anna wishes he were available to help with the current case. (This comes across very strangely when the player remembers that Richard is ''dead'', and exists in the games as a ghost.) The 22nd ''Grim Tales'' game ''Horizon of Wishes'' finally clears up the matter. Meanwhile, he returns to ''Detectives United'' in the installment ''Mission Possible'', with no hint to the player of that series why he's been absent.
385	* PublicDomainCharacter:
386	** The ''Book Travelers'' series has several of these roaming the stories, including Jane Eyre, Tom Sawyer, and Sherlock Holmes.
387	** The main recurring cast of the ''Ms. Holmes'' series are all original characters; however, they're all SpinoffBabies who are grandchildren of characters from the Sherlock Holmes stories, and their famous grandparents are mentioned often.
388	* RetiredBadass: ''Strange Investigations: Two for Solitaire'' reveals that Dana's partner Malcolm is actually this. He's a decorated veteran of UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar; Dana sees a picture of him and his friend Robert from their time in the service.
389	* RoleCalled:
390	** The ''Strange Investigations'' series falls into this; the player character's name is Dana Strange, and she's a private investigator. Becomes a TitleDrop at the end of the first game, ''Becoming,'' when her friend Malcolm suggests that they name their joint agency Strange Investigations.
391	** ''Book Travelers'' is also both this and a TitleDrop; as explained in the first game, ''A Victorian Story,'' Book Travelers (also called Wanderers) are individuals with the rare ability to physically travel into the world of a book's story. The player character is one of these.
392	** ''Wilde Investigations'' is likewise both this and a TitleDrop, as it's the business name of zoo investigator Artemis Wilde.
393	* RougeAnglesOfSatin: The captioning in the games sometimes contains various errors. For example, several examples of the detective's inner monologue in ''Mystery Trackers: Raincliff's Phantoms'' misidentify the setting as "Rainfall" rather than Raincliff.
394	[[/folder]]
395
396	[[folder:S-Z]]
397	* SceneryPorn: These games are beautifully rendered, and there's often plenty of this to be found. However, in the spookier supernatural settings such as ''Fate's Carnival'' or the ''Grim Tales'' series, it can sometimes lead to SceneryGorn.
398	* ScreamingWoman: In some of the ''Haunted Hotel'' games, one of these can be heard as part of the ambient noise. It happens roughly every ten to fifteen minutes and, depending on how tense the current situation is, can be very unsettling.
399	* SelfMadeOrphan: In ''Cursed Fables: White as Snow'', Margaret eventually discovers that [[spoiler:Snow White killed her mother. Her father is completely unaware and thinks his first wife died of an illness, right up until Snow turns on him as well.]]
400	* SequelHook: Frequently for the series that have ongoing storylines.
401	** ''Grim Tales'' players spent several months waiting for the revelation of just how, and why, Anna's father Richard disappeared. ''Horizon of Wishes'' finally answers the question.
402	** As of the end of ''Paranormal Files: Ghost Chapter'', [[spoiler:series protagonist Rick Rogers is still missing, and the man who hired Rachel and her team to investigate his estate has disappeared and stolen some key items.]] In the next installment, ''Price of a Secret'', [[spoiler:he reappears in the bonus chapter - but not permanently]], and the investigators have to endure a few more adventures before the matter is resolved.
403	** Each installment of ''Detectives United'' ends with one of these.
404	* SharedUniverse: Several of the game series take place in the same universe. This is most obviously evidenced by the ''Detectives United'' series, but there are also instances of one series referencing another, such as the Mystery Trackers assisting the player in two of the ''Haunted Hotel'' investigations.
405	** The ''Grim Tales''[[note]](and by extension, ''Haunted Hotel, Mystery Trackers,'' and ''Detectives United'')[[/note]] games take place in the same universe as the ''VideoGame/MysteryCaseFiles'' series. In the bonus chapter of the GT installment ''The White Lady'', it's revealed that Anna's father Richard attended a school founded by Alister Dalimar, the father of MCF BigBad Charles Dalimar. (As noted above, Elephant was the developer for two games in the MCF series.)
406	*** The installment ''Counterpart'' reveals that the ''Paranormal Files'' games are also part of this same universe.
407	*** The ''Halloween Stories'' games may possibly be part of the same universe as ''Grim Tales'' and its relations, because a picture of Richard Gray appears in one scene of ''Halloween Stories: The Neglected Dead.'' However, the picture is only in the background, so it's equally possible that the ''Grim Tales'' games exist as fiction in the ''Halloween Stories'' universe.
408	** The ''Christmas Stories'' and ''Knight Cats'' series are implied to take place in the same universe, as the residents of Catstown are mentioned in the bonus chapter of ''A Christmas Tree''. This game was released a few years before the ''Knight Cats'' series debuted.
409	* ShipTease: The first installment of ''Book Travelers'' heavily implies this between protagonist Megan and the character called Renegade. The bonus chapter ends with her writing a letter to him and signing it "your Megan."
410	* ShoutOut: Often, with varying degrees of subtlety.
411	** The devs have confirmed that ''Haunted Hotel: Eclipse'' is meant to be an homage to Literature/SherlockHolmes and Dr. Watson; James dresses very similarly to the famous detective, and the player character talks about what good friends they are and how they've solved many cases together. This is also true of the next two installments.
412	** ''Haunted Hotel: Beyond the Page'' makes a very obvious one to the ''Franchise/HarryPotter'' books, with James mentioning "the soul artifacts in those wizard boy books you showed me."
413	** The entire ''Ms. Holmes'' series is a shout-out to Literature/SherlockHolmes.
414	** In the ''Grim Tales'' series, Anna eventually marries a man named Dorian Black. [[TookTheWifesName He takes her surname after the marriage,]] which means that he is now known as [[Literature/ThePictureOfDorianGray Dorian Gray]].
415	*** Also in ''Grim Tales'', when Anna's maternal aunt Alexandra is shown, she wears an outfit which is remarkably similar to that of Ciri in ''VideoGame/TheWitcher3WildHunt''.
416	** The ''Mystery Trackers'' installment ''Train to Hellswich'' reveals that one of the agency's members is called Series/AgentCarter.
417	** The bonus chapter of ''Strange Investigations: Becoming'' has a few references to ''Literature/TheLegendOfSleepyHollow'', as the main antagonist is a headless figure.
418	** ''Paranormal Files: Ghost Chapter'' includes a board game which seems to be heavily based on the one from ''Film/{{Jumanji}}''.
419	** The CollectionSidequest in ''Cursed Fables: White as Snow'' has the player looking for little dolls. Seven of them are identified on the collectible screen as [[WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs Doc, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Sneezy, Bashful, and Dopey]]. Also, the witch who aids the player after the first act is named [[Franchise/TheWitcher Fringilla]].
420	** The ''Book Travelers'' series is one to various pieces of classic literature, beginning with ''Literature/JaneEyre''.
421	** One of the leaders of the witches' coven in ''Cursed Fables: Twisted Tower'' is named [[Franchise/HarryPotter Hermione]].
422	* SinsOfOurFathers:
423	** The Russell family in ''Paranormal Files: Price of a Secret'' turn out to be endangered by a curse that was laid on their ancestor roughly a hundred years earlier.
424	** The witches' coven in ''Cursed Fables: Twisted Tower'' is reluctant to allow Genhelia (the PlayerCharacter) to join their ranks because her mother betrayed them twenty years earlier. Genhelia finds a note from her mother which suggests that the reality of the betrayal isn't exactly what they think it is, but the game [[TheUnreveal never fully clarifies the matter one way or the other]].
425	* SirenSong: The use of one of these is a key plot point in ''Cursed Fables: Voice to Die For'', in which Literature/TheLittleMermaid is actually a siren.
426	* SpeaksFluentAnimal: Artemis Wilde's entire schtick, in the ''Wilde Investigations'' games, is being able to communicate with animals and learn what's really causing the most recent mishap.
427	* StableTimeLoop: Completely averted in ''Grim Tales'' and (by extension) ''Detectives United''. In each installment, Anna travels back to the past and changes details and events in order to prevent modern-day tragedies from taking place.
428	** This also happens in the bonus chapter of ''Mystery Trackers: Silent Hollow'', as the player must travel back in time to stop a fiend from wiping her fellow agents out of existence; she undoes all the damage he had already caused when she began her case.
429	* StandaloneEpisode: Within each series, each individual game is basically designed to be this, so that new players don't have to learn a lot of backstory in order to enjoy the puzzles and current storyline. That said, several of the series do have ongoing plots which add a little something extra for fans who play them in order.
430	** ''The Void'' is this for the ''Mystery Trackers'' games, as it has virtually no connection to the rest of the series and never gets referenced by any of the subsequent games.
431	** ''Haunted Hotel'' has a few installments which really are this, being completely disconnected from any other games in the series and lacking recurring characters.
432	** Each installment of ''Cursed Fables'' falls into this, as they are entirely distinct from each other. There is a hint that they might be connected through the existence of {{Magic Mirror}}s, but this is the only common thread they have displayed thus far.
433	* StockPuzzle: {{Klotski}} and TowersOfHanoi puzzles are seen occasionally in the various puzzle series.
434	* StrangelySpecificHoroscope: An extremely (and oddly) detailed palm reading is the catalyst for the events of ''Haunted Hotel: A Past Redeemed''.
435	* StringTheory: Boards of this nature are not uncommon in the mystery-themed games.
436	* SuddenlyVoiced: Beginning in the installment ''Mist Over Blackhill'', the player character of ''Mystery Trackers'' has a voice actress. (She was also previously voiced by the same actress in the installment ''Nightsville Horror'', but only as a voice-over during cutscenes.)
437	* TagalongKid: Some installments of ''Grim Tales'' which take place after the events of ''Guest From the Future'' have Anna's young daughter Alice taking a role in the plot.
438	* TakenForGranite: In the ''Royal Detective'' games, Princess has the ability to bring statues to life.
439	* TimeSkip:
440	** There's a time skip of nearly seven years between ''Grim Tales: Guest From the Future'' and the next installment, ''The Generous Gift''. At the end of ''Guest From the Future'', Anna receives confirmation that she's pregnant with her daughter Alice; the events of ''The Generous Gift'' take place on Alice's sixth birthday. In the later installment ''Echo of the Past'', she looks to be about nine or ten, and then in ''All Shades of Black'' she appears to be about thirteen or fourteen.
441	** The first ten or so minutes of ''Paranormal Files: Ghost Chapter'' take place in 2020. We know this because of a newspaper article about the incident which is dated July 30, 2020, and which states that it happened a week earlier. The game then jumps ahead thirteen years, according to the onscreen captioning.
442	*** The next installment, ''Price of a Secret'', is implied to be set the following year. Rachel mentions that it's now "more than" thirteen years since the incident; also, two of her team members, Daemon and Mia, got married and took a honeymoon between the events of the previous game and this one.
443	** ''Haunted Hotel: A Past Redeemed'' is explicitly stated to take place six months after the previous installment, ''Lost Time''.
444	* TitleDrop:
445	** The phrase "haunted hotel" crops up occasionally in the ''Haunted Hotel'' games. Some of the games in the series also get their subtitle dropped at least once, usually as ThePlace.
446	** The Mystery Trackers are an organization whose name gets mentioned repeatedly throughout the ''Mystery Trackers'' series. ''Raincliff, Black Isle,'' and ''Silent Hollow'' are both the titles and the locations of those games, so their names come up a number of times; the installments ''The Four Aces'' and ''Queen of Hearts'' are both [[AntagonistTitle named for their major villains]], so those names are also dropped frequently.
447	** At the end of the first ''Detectives United'' game, Agent Shade proposes the series title as the name for the partnership. The name gets mentioned periodically throughout the rest of the series.
448	** The games in the ''Crossroads'' series all take place (at least partly) in an inn by that name.
449	** ''Paranormal Files'' is both the name of the series and the name of Rick Rogers's paranormal investigation agency.
450	** Similarly, ''Strange Investigations'' is both the name of the series and the name of Dana Strange's private investigation firm.
451	** In the 21st installment of the ''Grim Tales'', the player finally learns why the series has that name. Anna's mother, before marrying Richard Gray, was Anastasia Grim; her sister, Alexandra Grim, was a famous adventurer, and her exploits were published as a series known as ''Grim Tales''.
452	* TookTheWifesName: Mentioned briefly in ''VideoGame/GrimTales: The Generous Gift'', when Anna finds the formal documentation regarding the subject. Her husband, Dorian, has changed his last name to hers rather than asking her to take his, and she acknowledges that she appreciates it because her name is synonymous with her detective work.
453	* TwoGuysAndAGirl:
454	** The Brown siblings in ''Mystery Trackers: Raincliff''
455	** James, Brown, and Anna in ''Detectives United''
456	** The three young people captured by the ghost in ''Haunted Hotel: Silent Waters'', and the original hotel owners in ''Haunted Hotel: Lost Time''
457	** Junior agents Black, Slate, and Ginger in ''Mystery Trackers: Fatal Lesson'' and ''Forgotten Voices''
458	** Daemon, Isaac, and Mia, who join the team of investigators in the ''Paranormal Files'' series beginning with ''Ghost Chapter''
459	** Sharlotte, Oscar, and Kiron in the ''Ms. Holmes'' games
460	* TwoTimingWithTheBestie: The ''Paranormal Files'' series gets kicked off when, prior to the beginning of the first game, protagonist Rick Rogers came home to find his best friend in bed with his girlfriend - to whom he had been planning to propose.
461	* UnexpectedInheritance: The bonus chapter of ''Strange Investigations: Two for Solitaire'' is all about this. Rather than solving a crime, Dana is asked to help a young man puzzle out the fact that the only thing his beloved grandfather left him is a key. The complete lack of an antagonist makes this chapter LighterAndSofter than most of Elephant's mystery fare.
462	* UnexplainedAccent: Alice Gray, Anna's young daughter in some later installments of ''Grim Tales'', has a strange British accent reminiscent of WesternAnimation/PeppaPig. Neither Anna nor her husband Dorian speak with such an accent - nor does the older Alice, in her appearances - so it's unclear why the child version of the character does.
463	* UnfinishedBusiness: If a ghost is wandering around in an Elephant game, they invariably have some of this. Unfortunately, more often than not, said unfinished business will have turned the spirit malevolent.
464	** GoIntoTheLight: The player often has to help them do this, one way or another.
465	* WeCanRuleTogether: The offer is made in ''Cursed Fables: White as Snow''; the BigBad is willing to share power with Queen Margaret in exchange for access to the MagicMirror. Margaret's response is a BigNo.
466	* WeddingFinale: The focus of ''A Past Redeemed'', the 20th and final installment of the ''Haunted Hotel'' series, is James Blackthorne's wedding.
467	* WhoNamesTheirKidDude: In the ''Royal Detective'' games, Princess isn't actually a princess; that's just her first name. Later installments give her a romance with a young man whose name is Prince. He actually ''is'' the grandson of the reigning monarch, but his father was exiled so he has no right to a royal title; like Princess, that's just his name.
468	* WholePlotReference:
469	** The plot of ''Surface: Game of the Gods'' is a darker take on ''Literature/{{Jumanji}}''.
470	** The first ''Detectives United'' game seems to be this to ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar''.
471	* WomanScorned: Or man, sometimes. Many of the mysteries in the darker games revolve around this trope, often involving a LoveTriangle of some sort.
472	** DeathByWomanScorned: Often the result. ''Haunted Hotel: The X'' is one example.
473	* WouldHurtAChild: Children are not immune from danger and death in some of these games. ''Haunted Hotel'' in particular has a fair few installments in which children are kidnapped, threatened, and even sometimes murdered.
474	* YouKilledMyFather: ''Cursed Fables: Twisted Tower'' gives this FreudianExcuse to [[spoiler:Rapunzel, whose parents were murdered by a TorchesAndPitchforks-wielding mob. After the same mob tried and failed to burn her at the stake, Rapunzel surrendered to her monstrous impulses in order to avenge her parents, whom she loved.]]
475	* YouHaveToBurnTheWeb: Crops up from time to time as a puzzle solution.
476	[[/folder]]

Context Creator / ElephantGames