Line #24 VideoGame/TheGoodLife


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gl_4.jpg]]
2	''You may be looking for the [[Series/TheGoodLife TV show]] of the same name.''
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4	''The Good Life'' is a VideoGame written by Creator/Swery65 (known for games such as ''VideoGame/DeadlyPremonition''), developed by his studio White Owls, and published by Creator/{{Playism}}. Funded via Kickstarter in May 2015, the game released in October 2021 on Steam and UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch.
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6	Like most of Swery's catalogue, ''The Good Life'' is somewhat hard to classify - on the surface, it's a Daily Life Simulator, similar to ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossing'' or ''VideoGame/StardewValley'', boasting crafting and farming mechanics. You also have a camera, a la ''VideoGame/PokemonSnap''. [[MoodWhiplash Then the murder happens]].
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8	In ''The Good Life'', you step into the shoes of Naomi Hayward, a perpetually-annoyed, irate photographer hailing from New York City. Deeply indebted, Naomi has been assigned to discover the secrets of Rainy Woods, the so-called Happiest Town on Earth, far away in rural England. Once in the countryside, Naomi holds herself afloat by uploading photographs of popular things to Flamingo, a website that updates each in-game day, or completing assignments for her boss.
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10	However, her routine is quickly interrupted by the discovery that all denizens of the town turn into either a cat or a dog during the full moon. Shortly thereafter, Naomi herself acquires the ability to shapeshift at will by consuming a mysterious potion made by the 'Witch' living in the woods - and stumbles upon what appears to be a ritual murder.
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12	No relation to the [[Series/TheGoodLife TV show of the same name]] - though they both take place in England.
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14	!! ''The Good Life'' provides examples of:
15	* TwentyBearAsses: Some of the main quests and side quests can veer into this, especially if it requires obtaining a hard-to-get material. One sidequest in particular requires you to collect over a ''hundred'' aluminum cans.
16	* {{Animorphism}}: Naomi gains the ability to turn into both a cat and a dog within the first few days of gameplay.
17	* BeefGate: In the form of a Berserk Badger, requiring Naomi to turn into a dog and fight back.
18	* BittersweetEnding: Heavy on the sweet. [[spoiler: The secrets of Rainy Woods are kept a secret, the predatory company Morning Bell News undergoes a lot of backlash, Naomi gets to keep her house in Rainy Woods, and Elizabeth even manages to come back to life... But it comes at the cost of Naomi declaring all her articles on the town were fake and having her journalistic reputation completely destroyed.]]
19	* BoozeBasedBuff: Drinking booze can offer Naomi certain advantages such as extending her tiredness meter. It also relieves stress.
20	* BunnyEarsLawyer: ''Everyone in the village.'' The local handyman walks around in full plate armor. The cafe owner and mushroom cuisine enthusiast appears to munch poisonous Fly Agaric, straight off a ''log'' he's holding. The scone lady owns a chicken that lays golden eggs (but only on the days around a full moon). The owner of the local inn believes himself to be haunted by the Angel of Death and ''hasn't slept in 30 years''. Lampshaded by Naomi, who snarks about the quirks of everyone she encounters.
21	* CassandraTruth: Some of Naomi's reports would be earth-shattering and immediately get her out of debt, if only the journal she worked for actually ''believed'' her. For example, clear photographs of [[spoiler:a UFO piloted by an alien hive mind that manifests in peat moss]] are mistaken for CGI, and in fact would have been worth more if they were blurry and harder to identify as "fakes".
22	* CircleOfStandingStones: The outskirts of Rainy Woods have a few of these. [[spoiler:So does the area beyond the mine in the Snowy Mountains]].
23	* ConfettiDrop: Confetti rains during Dick Whittington's wedding in the intro.
24	* DeadpanSnarker: Naomi expresses her (many) complaints in a very dry and pointed fashion. Rita's something of a snarker as well.
25	* DrinkingContest: Naomi can engage in drinking contests with the vicar as part of a side-quest.
26	* FarmLifeSim: Naomi can grow herbs, produce and other items in her garden to be self-sufficient on food. All items grow in the span of a single day, and don't require watering.
27	* GetOut: [[spoiler: Essentially the response from ''all of Rainy Woods'' once they find out what Naomi has been doing for Morning Bell. Rita is just about the only person who doesn't, and even then, it's close.]]
28	* GlobalCurrency: The ''pound sterling''. For some reason, Naomi's debt, accrued in the United States, is calculated in £ throughout the game.
29	* HiveMind: The climax of Route B involves [[spoiler:a moss-based alien hive mind that identifies as "Simon"]].
30	* IntrepidReporter: Naomi sees herself as one of these, waiting for her big break.
31	* ItemCrafting: The local handyman somehow turns raw ingredients into modern materials, for a modest fee. The very first FetchQuest Naomi embarks on requires her to find tree sap (to turn into rubber) and small animal hides (to turn into leather). Naomi gains small animal hides by [[{{Animorphism}} transforming into a cat]] and mauling nearby critters. You then make a nice pair of modern running shows from the critter's hide.
32	* ItsAllAboutMe: Naomi can be rather self-centered, willing to take advantage of some of the town's weirder discoveries to benefit herself, though it rarely works out for her in the end. [[spoiler: Especially not during her DarkestHour, where she's coerced into kidnapping people to get rid of her debt.]]
33	* LighterAndSofter: Compared to Swery's [[VideoGame/DeadlyPremonition previous]] [[VideoGame/TheMissingJJMacfieldAndTheIslandOfMemories games]], ''The Good Life'' doesn't have much in the way of grisly murders, or really messed up storylines involving insanely dark themes. The game's more of a cozy romp with plenty of quirky humor.
34	* MistakenForEvidence: [[spoiler: None of the leads that Naomi finds at the crime scene has anything to do with the actual murder.]]
35	* MythologyGag: Rainy Woods, the town name, was the WorkingTitle for ''VideoGame/DeadlyPremonition''.
36	* PuppeteerParasite: In Route B, [[spoiler:David O'Reilley is revealed to have been taken over by sentient moss from another planet, which ties him to the murder scene as it also glows in the dark]].
37	* ReallyRoyaltyReveal: Happens several times during the story. [[spoiler:In Route A, Lonette Burley is revealed to be a direct descendant of the Bloodwoldes who ruled over the land long ago]] and [[spoiler:in Route C, Martha Berryman is revealed as a direct descendant of King Arthur himself, with the Curtana that stabbed Elizabeth revealed as the real deal.]]
38	* SherlockHomage: Norlock Holmes intentionally models himself after the detective, and even owns a parrot named Watson.
39	* ShoutOut:
40	** During Route C, after [[spoiler:deducing how Rudman took the Orient Express to commit a past crime]], Norlock is reminded of Literature/HerculePoirot.
41	** One of the drinks found in the neighboring town of Eccles is The Brexit.
42	** The uncommon monikers of the [=DrinKING=] and [=DrinQUEEN=] are a shout-out to Swery's own alcohol-related hashtag on Twitter, which has been used to refer to both himself and the actual act of drinking alcohol.
43	* SophisticatedAsHell: At the end of Route C, [[spoiler:the spirit of the repaired Curtana requests to be returned to a lake, in order to reunite with the spirit of King Arthur... but when Naomi considers selling it instead, it gets downright ''vulgar'' in its demands, pointing out that people in the Medieval era were more prone to brutishness than politeness]].
44	* SprintMeter: And it runs out fast. The right foodstuffs and equipment can help extend it.
45	* StatusEffects: Played with. Naomi can suffer from tiredness, a cold, a toothache, and other realistic 'status effects' - but treats them not by visiting a doctor, but by trading insects parts to the 'Witch' living in the woods and receiving a potion for them.
46	* TheUnreveal:
47	** [[spoiler: As it turns out, none of your leads ever actually tell you who murdered Elizabeth. Her actual killer turns out to be totally meaningless, as Elizabeth is shown to have come ''back from the dead.'']]
48	** [[spoiler: The reason why the townsfolk turn into cats and dogs during the full moon is never stated.]]
49	* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: Several residents confirm having been through the northern mine for one reason or another, but none of them mention anything about [[spoiler:Japanese cherry blossoms, a second Stonehenge marked property of the RAF and an actual UFO]] being there.
50	* WeBuyAnything: Virginia Yates and other stores that have a sell function will purchase anything Naomi offers them.
51	* WorkOffTheDebt: Most of Naomi's struggles are a result of her massive debt, not helped by the terms of her contract with Morning Bell meaning that anything she finds that can potentially generate a profit is immediately confiscated by Hugh Lee the debt collector.
52	* WorldOfMysteries: The entire point of the game, as Naomi must investigate several mysteries throughout the game, and other mysteries show up in side-quests.

Context VideoGame / TheGoodLife