[[quoteright:349:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Edna_5913.jpg]]

->'''Edna''': Is Dr. Marcel still after us?
->'''Harvey''': Who cares? [[{{Pyromaniac}} Let’s burn something!]]
-->''— The German cover''

Edna Konrad [[YouWakeUpInARoom wakes up in a padded room]]. She doesn’t remember how she got there — in fact, [[LaserGuidedAmnesia she doesn’t remember much of anything]] — but she knows that she is being wrongfully imprisoned. After all, she is completely sane — a fact to which [[ConsultingMisterPuppet her talking rag doll rabbit]], Film/{{Harvey}}, can attest. Harvey has another remarkable ability: When he is shown things that remind him of Edna’s childhood, he can "tempomorph" her into the past — or rather, her recollection of the past — where she not only finds out about her life before the stay at the asylum, but also (re-)learns abilities that help her escape from the asylum.

This is the basic premise of ''Edna & Harvey: The Breakout'' (''Edna bricht aus'' in the original German release), a 2008 low-budget AdventureGame (though it didn’t come out in the US and UK until 2011) that started life as a dissertation on the topic ''The Computer Game as a Non-Linear Narrative Form''. Despite its 2D graphics and classic verb interface, it turned out to be a huge hit and won many awards.

Had a [[GaidenGame spin-off]] titled ''VideoGame/EdnaAndHarveyHarveysNewEyes'' in 2011. It was released in English in 2012. An [[MilestoneCelebration Anniversary Edition]] with updated graphics was released in December 4th, 2019.
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!!Tropes featured in this game include (spoilers ahoy!):
* AirVentPassageway: How Edna escapes the padded room.
* ArtShift: The portraits in the WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue are drawn in a much more realistic style than the rest of the game.
* ArtStyleDissonance: The game shows the protagonist Edna and her surroundings in a cartoon-y, edutainment-esque style that initially seems to reflect well her whackiness and how everything seems a bit nonsensical and just for giggles. It fits less the more the story is about how deep Edna's psychological issues actually go and what a dark past lies behind her.
* AuthorAvatar: One of the patients is a game designer who went crazy when he tried to make a classical point-and-click adventure in a matter of months with only a handful of co-workers, drawing more than one hundred backgrounds and all the animations while at the same time writing his dissertation.
* AvoidTheDreadedGRating: The first release got no age restriction in Germany. The designer was rather unhappy about this, since it meant that the game frequently ended up on the kiddie game shelves, despite the fact that it's content and humor would be above the heads of most kids. For the Special Edition, developer's commentaries were recorded in which the developer swore a lot, said "fuck" a couple of times completely non-sequitur and names masturbating as an option to spend an afternoon. He succeeded: the Special Edition has an age 12 and above restriction.
* BadToTheLastDrop: The Stinkydrink. It's safe to assume that it's non alcoholic because it's in a rec room where one inmate ''thinks'' he's [[EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep the Bartender]], and they shouldn't have access to spirits.
* TheBadGuyWins: One of the possible endings. [[spoiler:Or both of them, depending on how you interpret Harvey's character.]]
* BirthdayHater: Peter hates his birthday, as it reminds him he's getting older.
* BlindIdiotTranslation: Unfortunately, the original English release of the game suffers from this.
** Most infamously, a kite is called a “dragon.” This is because the German words for these things a similar (“Drache” and “Drachen,” respectively.) Why the translator thought the game features a dragon is anyone’s guess; fortunately, this error was fixed in the special edition.
** This one is the subject of an [[LostInTranslation untranslatable pun]]: in the original a bench is labeled as "bank" (both are called "Bank" in German; if you tell Edna to "talk to" the bench, she says "I must speak with my bank!"). In the translation, it was ''still'' labeled as a "bank".
** When Edna is asked by Aluman how she plans to get through the main gate, she can answer, “We’ll build a hot air balloon from styrofoam and just float out of here.” Aluman treats this as a perfectly reasonable and obvious solution, explains why it still won’t work, and concludes with (translated correctly from German): “You’ll have to come up with a less obvious solution.” However, this joke went right over the translator’s head, so he turned the phrase into into its exact opposite, “You’ll have to think of something less far-fetched,” thereby completely ruining the joke.
** When Edna tells Mr. Frock (who thinks he is an article of clothing) that he has a strange name, he answers in the English version: “It is meant for a human.” This, of course, doesn’t make any sense. What he actually says is, “Maybe for a human.”
** It’s particularly sad that some other translations (like French and Italian) are based on the flawed English one rather than the German original.
* BrainInAJar: Bobo
* BrainwashingForTheGreaterGood: Dr. Marcel wants to end childhood behavior [[ThinkOfTheChildren for their own good]].
* BreakingTheFourthWall: Happens occasionally.
** Edna describes a drawer to be "measuremade of finnish ebony with golden inlays". As Harvey states confused that it's dull beech, Edna remarks she just managed to impress the player.
** At one point, Harvey using Harvey on a bridge will tell you what Item to use there. Edna gets mad at him for spoiling the player's fun and keeping them from pixel hunting.
** When you try to combine "fork" with "lamp", Edna will try to think of a pun. As she realizes she can't find one, she turns to the player, saying they can call Poki if they find a fitting joke.
** Aluman says that one reason for his OffScreenTeleportation could be that Poki was too lazy to draw an animation for him.
* BrickJoke: The epilogue to one of the endings explains that, after breaking out, Hoti became a bank robber who turned himself in after accidentally shooting a bank teller. The epilogue of the other ending says that Moti returned to the asylum and was released shortly after because he no longer suffered from the delusion of being Hoti’s siamese twin. He accepted a job as a bank teller and was shot on his second day.
* CardboardPrison: [[ZigzaggedTrope Zigzagged]] with the Asylum. On one hand, an average of three patients escape their cells per day. On another, none of them have so far made it past the walls surrounding the asylum.
* CerebusSyndrome: Oh boy, and ''how''. Starting out with an eccentric girl who's trying to break out the asylum with the help of her plush rabbit, meeting a lot of weirdos and making a thousand puns and jokes about every object she comes across, [[spoiler: as the game progresses, it becomes clear that due to Edna's psychotic tendencies she killed her childhood friend Alfred. Her father took the blame and got executed for it while Edna from the early age of eight was held captive in the asylum, constantly exposed to Dr. Marcel's attempts to delete her personality.]]
* ChekhovsSkill: During the course of the game, you learn how to copy a key. An ability that comes in handy more than once.
* ChickMagnet: Drogglejug, due to the {{informed attribute}}s described below. Even Edna has a crush on him.
* CompanionCube[=/=]ConsultingMisterPuppet: Harvey, though the player can hear him talk.
* ConjoinedTwins: Hoti and Moti ''think'' they are. Except they are both blatantly different ethnicities.
* CoversAlwaysLie: Edna doesn’t simply walk away from the asylum as is shown on the cover, and Dr. Marcel doesn’t simply stand behind her, ineffectively waving his arms.
* CuckooNest: The entire asylum, to no one's surprise.
* DeathByFallingOver: How Alfred and [[spoiler:Dr. Marcel, should you go with Harvey's ending,]] die. However, neither case was accidental.
* DefaceOfTheMoon: Yes, Edna ''can'' write "Edna was here" on the surface of the moon; she just has to do it from the right screen.
* DevelopersForesight: You can use everything with everything and even talk to inanimate objects (besides Harvey). The only way to do something that doesn't result in a custom response is finding a bug that allows you to do something that wasn’t meant to be possible. The default responses aren’t even voiced because they weren’t meant to be triggered.
* DialogueTree
* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:The game has two endings. In one, Dr. Marcel, the head of the asylum, [[TheBadGuyWins succeeds with his evil plan to erase Edna’s personality and replace it with a new one]]. In the other, Edna kills Dr. Marcel, after which it is implied that she died escaping from the police.]]
** The sequel, however, establishes that [[spoiler: Edna and Dr. Marcel both survived the first game, and Edna did manage to escape the asylum.]]
* DrowningMySorrows: Peter.
* EpiphanyTherapy: Edna receives one of these in the videogame dev group therapy, [[note]]Though she's pretending to be someone else[[/note]], she later applies this technique on another inmate to cure him.
* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: Aside from the ''literal'' Bartender, several of the inmates have NoNameGiven.
* FingerlessHands: Harvey has these whenever he moves.
* FissionMailed: Using the tire on the table in the padded cell.
* FlyInTheSoup: The Stinkydrink Edna gets served has a fly inside.
* FoodFight: To distract the guards Edna needs to trigger one of these during lunch hour so that she can reqruit Hoti and Moti.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: In an optional object reaction, Edna can talk to a portrait of Sigmund Freud, recall a dream of hers and mention "kids falling from the stairs". [[spoiler: In the game's climax she finds out that, at the age of eight, she pushed her childhood friend Alfred off the stairs.]]
* GenkiGirl: Petra.
* TheGreatRepair: One of the many things you have to do in order to escape the asylum is repair a vehicle. [[spoiler:And then [[BaitAndSwitch you don’t even use it]].]]
* TheGuardsMustBeCrazy: Mostly subverted. While some are more easily manipulated than others, like Babit, most of them immediately clock on that Edna is ''not'' supposed to be out. The guard with the spectacles is a bit dim though, and doesn't put [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom Edna back into solitary]], and Blader doesn't look up from his monitors ''ever'', so if he had turned around when Edna entered his room he would have caught her.
* GutPunch: While the game gets darker in both atmosphere and music after escaping the asylum, things are relatively fine until [[spoiler:you make it to the church, where a priest that was just about to tell Edna the truth of her past gets murdered by the Keymaster, who then must be killed to escape.]]
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:To save Edna, her father took the blame for killing Alfred and was sentenced to death.]]
* ICantReachIt: PlayedForLaughs. A copy of the master key with which Edna could easily leave the asylum is displayed in the arts and crafts room as an artwork, but she refuses to take it with her so as to not destroy the art.
** Another example: One puzzle [[spoiler:requires you to connect headphones to a tape deck and bring the other end to a person who is too far away from the tape deck for the wire to reach. Edna refuses to simply pick up the tape deck because “[i]t isn’t a Walkman.”]]
* ImaginaryFriend: Harvey, who is stated by himself to be a projection of Edna's subconscious.
* InformedAttribute: Again, PlayedForLaughs. Drogglejug is described as a good-looking, well-read intellectual who is witty in conversation and seems rough on the outside, but is actually sensitive on the inside, when he is just some weird-looking guy who [[PokemonSpeak can only say his own name]].
* ImprovisedScrewdriver: There is one puzzle in which Edna must learn to loosen screws with fingernail clippings.
* InsaneEqualsViolent: [[AvertedTrope Averted]] with most asylum patients, but played straight with [[spoiler:the Keymaster, who murdered the priest after being released]].
* JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind: Tempomorphing, which sends Edna and Harvey to her memories.
* TheKillerInMe: [[spoiler:Edna finds out that she committed the murder for which her father was executed.]]
* KingOfGames: King Adrian became King of the Recreation Room after beating everyone else in every board game in the Asylum.
* TheKingOfTown: Adrian, king of the recreation room. He resides in a cushion castle and earned his title by winning a game of Yahtzee.
* KilroyWasHere: Edna can write "Edna was here" and some variations on many surfaces throughout the game, at one point even on the Moon.
* KleptomaniacHero
* LargeHam: King Adrian, particularly in the German version.
* LaserGuidedAmnesia
* TheMatchmaker: Edna considers herself one, by triggering a PottyEmergency in Peter making him run to the bathroom. Where Petra is waiting with a surprise party.
* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: [[AvertedTrope Averted]] with Harvey. Who is explicitly stated to be a projection of Edna's subconscious.
* {{Metaphorgotten}}: When Edna tries to cheer Peter up she often starts talking in metaphors and and analogies, but she derails and ends up depressing Peter more.
* MindScrew: [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in the WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue.
--> ''“The player never figured out what hit him.”''
* MissingMom: Edna doesn’t seem to have a mother, a fact that is important to the plot [[https://youtu.be/mKrOwmNe4eQ?t=25 but only brought up a single time in passing]].
* MoodWhiplash: The game starts out as a light-hearted comedy about an eccentric girl trying to escape from an insane asylum and the oddball characters she meets there. Towards the end of the game, it suddenly gets a whole lot darker.
* MoonLogicPuzzle: In order to remove the guard from the monitoring room, you have to get him to run to the restroom. His bladder is pretty full, so this shouldn't be hard, right? Making lots of water sounds doesn't do anything, though, and despite the guard's pleading for you to knock it off he doesn't move. What's the actual solution? [[spoiler: Deactivate the monitors until the lit ones form the rough shape of the letters W and C - short for "water closet."]] Why this makes him scurry off when more obvious temptations didn't is odd in and of itself, but American players would likely be especially stumped since the term [[spoiler: "water closet"]] isn't commonly used in the USA.
* MultipleEndings
* MustacheVandalism: You can do this to every picture of Dr. Marcel in the Asylum.
* NameAndName: Edna and Harvey.
* NeatFreak: Mr. Frock
* NeverFoundTheBody: [[spoiler:Edna]], in the Harvey ending. However, the [[VideoGame/EdnaAndHarveyHarveysNewEyes sequel]] showed [[spoiler:Edna being alive and well after she chose this ending and escaped the asylum]].
* TheNoseless: Most characters.
* OffscreenTeleportation: [[LampshadeHanging Lamshaded]] by Aluman:
--> Aluman: "Go head to the car. I’ll be waiting there."
--> Edna: "You mean you will follow."
--> Aluman: "No, I’m already there."
--> Edna: "You’re also able to teleport?"
--> Aluman: "Yes, it's either that… or Poki was [[LazyArtist too lazy to draw an animation]]."
* OntologicalMystery
* PantyShot: Of the ComedicUnderwearExposure variety. Edna is basically just wearing a hospital gown so her baggy purple pants are on full display when she walks.
* PensieveFlashback: The Tempomorph segments seem to take place in the past, with Edna knowing the future, and she experiences the events again for the first time.
* PixelHunt: [[AvertedTrope Averted.]] Like in ''VideoGame/SimonTheSorcerer'' ''1'' and ''2'', you can highlight all the hotspots in a room by pressing the space bar. This didn’t stop certain game reviewers from complaining about pixel-hunting because they didn’t ReadTheFreakingManual. The spin-off avoids this by mentioning the feature in the tutorial.
* PokemonSpeak: Drogglejug
** Except for one specific reaction you can elicit from him only if you bring him the right object.
--> Drogglejug: "This object exceeds my comprehension."
--> Edna: "What did you say?!"
--> Drogglejug: "Drogglejug!"
* PottyEmergency: In order to make him leave the bar, Edna has to feed Peter Bean dip, which immediately goes through him.
* PowerBornOfMadness: At one point of the game, you can ''write onto the moon''. Edna says she can do this because she is “completely gaga.”
** In a dialogue with Harvey, Edna cites this as the reason she's capable of [[HyperspaceArsenal carrying so much stuff around with her]].
* PsychicPowers: Adrian, king of the recreation room, can see into the future ever since [[LightningCanDoAnything he was struck by lightning]].
* PsychoPsychologist: Doctor Marcel. [[spoiler:Even before his son died he used [[MindRape ''therapy'']] to cure children of their childishness. And after that? Well, besides erasing Edna's memory multiple times, he also ostensibly killed an inmate that nearly escaped by breaking his legs and leaving him to starve in a padded room.]]
* {{Pyromaniac}}: Implied that out of all of her problem child vices, that Edna ''really'' liked setting things on fire.
* RedHerring: There are at least two things in the game that you can pick up, but are entirely useless.
* ReplacementGoldfish: [[spoiler:In the Doctor Marcel ending, it's implied that he makes Edna into one to replace Alfred, as her new personality's name is Alfredine.]]
* SadisticChoice: The player is presented with one right at the end of the game.
* SadistTeacher: A minor example; Edna and Alfred's home tutor Mr. Hornbush terrifies Edna, for some reason, and if she acts up in class he makes her serve penance in the cupboard.
* SelfMadeOrphan: [[spoiler:Indirectly and unintentionally. Edna committed the murder for which her father took the blame and was subsequently sentenced to death. What happened to Edna's mother is anyone's guess.]]
* SelfServingMemory: Not Edna herself, but when tempomorphing into her memories, Harvey can get a wrong impression of events Edna did not directly observe, for example he saw [[spoiler:Mattis killing children and serving the Devil]].
* ShoutOut:
** Edna's ragdoll rabbit is called Film/{{Harvey}}.
** Also, quite a few references to the ''VideoGame/MonkeyIsland'' series, including an implication that Guybrush Threepwood was a former patient of the hospital.
** Multiple ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' references. For instance, Beeman mentions his resentment of Bumblebee Man for giving men in bee suits a bad name.
** At least four ''Franchise/StarWars'' and eight ''Franchise/StarTrek'' references.
** Edna repeatedly says to closed doors: ''[[Literature/AliBabaAndTheFortyThieves "Open Sesame!"]]'' Not that it helps, though.
** With a pen found in the asylum, Edna can write onto every wall; while mostly she writes just her name or ''"Edna was here"'' she can indeed write onto the wall of her cell ''[[VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry1InTheLandOfTheLoungeLizards "Ken sent me"]]''.
** Edna quotes from ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''.
** [[Series/SesameStreet Oscar the Grouch]] makes an appearance.
** Aluman gives one to [[Film/TheKarateKid Mr. Miyagi]].
** A room full of bent spoons reminds Edna of Uri Geller (an Israeli entertainer best known for his SpoonBending performance).
** [[Creator/TerryPratchett Terry Pratchett]] apparently signed the foot of the man in the bee costume.
** A bird bath gives rise to a shout out to ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet''.
** Edna can write onto the clinicum's wall: ''"Die Mauer muss weg!"'', which is German for ''"The Wall has to go!"'' and was 1989 a pretty common chant in the Peaceful Revolution that led to the Fall of the UsefulNotes/BerlinWall.
*** In the same context, if Edna uses her phone with the wall, she simulates a phone call with a demolition company, telling them she has a wall that needs to be torn down. They answer: ''"Sorry, we don't do walls anymore - not after that debacle back then in Berlin."''
** In an item reaction with the river, Edna says: ''"No time for fishing; after all we're not in [[VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft Azeroth]]."''
** She can also comment on a cross on the church's altar: ''[[Film/MontyPythonsLifeOfBrian "One cross each!"]]''
** As a book leads Edna to state that one day she wants to write an autobiography about her adventures, she suggests the title could be ''[[Literature/OneFlewOverTheCuckoosNest "Air Raid on the Cuckoo's Nest"]]''.
** At her house, Edna comments on some undergrowth that has grown rampant at the backdoor: ''[[Theatre/{{Macbeth}} "The wood has come to Dunsinane."]]''
** When inspecting the closet in Edna's room, she gives one to [[Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia The Chronicles of Narnia]]. There once was a portal to another world in it, but she sealed it after burning down the Ice Queen's palace.
* ShrineToTheFallen: Dr. Marcel keeps a room with memorabilia to his son Alfred somewhere in the Asylum. Behind a locked door with the key locked in a drawer, inside of his locked office.
* SiameseTwins: Hoti and Moti. However, they’re actually two men (with different skin colors) wearing one big sweater.
* StarringSmurfette: Edna is the main character and, of course, a girl. Nearly every other character in the entire game is male, with the only two other women in the game (Petra and an unnamed Group Therapist) being very minor characters who only appear on one screen each, both having minimal impact on the overall story.
* {{Stripperiffic}}: During the entire game, excepting flashbacks, Edna wears only a hospital gown and a very tight-fitting pair of panties. It's considerably less [[FanService fanservice-y]] than it sounds, taking the cartoon-like art style into account and the fact that Edna has been held captive in a house for ten years, underfed and with little to no access to natural light and fresh air.
* SuddenAnatomy: Edna's (and some other characters') mouth only shows when she is talking.
* SurpriseParty: Petra has prepared one for Peter - on the toilet.
* TalkingIsAFreeAction: [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by Mr. Frock:
--> ''"I have the [...] feeling that time has slowed down while we were talking."''
** This joke was sadly removed from the Special Edition, where the laundry lift can actually arrive somewhere in mid-conversation.
* ThemeTwinNaming: Hoti and Moti, the Siamese twins. They used to be Siamese triplets but their third brother, Boti, [[MoonLogic is somewhere in France]].
* TheTell: When Moti is playing a card game with you, Hoti [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane reacts]] when you are about to pick the right one.
* TomatoInTheMirror: [[spoiler:After having escaped from the asylum, Edna tries to prove that her father did not kill Dr. Marcel’s son. And succeeds — by finding out that she did.]]
* TraumaInducedAmnesia: While Edna’s amnesia is mostly [[LaserGuidedAmnesia laser-guided]], one specific memory is suppressed due to a trauma.
* TwistEnding: Edna spends most of the game trying to break out, and then as soon as she realizes ''why'' she is in the asylum, to prove the innocence of her father and Dr. Marcel's guilt [[spoiler: See TomatoInTheMirror]].
* UpdatedRerelease: An optimized special edition playable in both German and English and with 18 unlockable achievements and audio commentary has been released.
* VitriolicBestBuds: Despite Edna and Alfred having been fighting basically all the time when they were kids, Edna remembers him fondly, speaking about him in a friendly voice even when she calls him an idiot or "frog-face". And with all the pranks she played on him, unleashing her destructive tendencies by playing some borderline cruel games, Alfred never seems to have even considered to look for another friend.
** Depending on how you interpret their relationship, might double as PuppyLove - after all, they have quite some ShipTease as [[spoiler: Alfred is clearly mad that Edna mentions him in her diary only in a derogatory manner while having a much more amicable friendship with Harvey.]] Even Edna's father Mattis sees this, as he points out to Dr. Marcel that the two kids would make for a pretty couple and could have a future together.
* VocalDissonance:
** In the English version Edna has a soft, gentle voice that clashes slightly with her appearance and personality.
** Alfred's voice (both German and English) also clashes with Alfred as even though he was suppose to be a child, his voice in both versions sound more adultish than child-like.
* WhamShot: What seems to be lightheaded gets really dark when after hearing a scream in the church, people assume that it was just a minor thing when it shows that when Edna climbs upward, [[spoiler:she learns the hard way that the Keymaster is really a murderer by murdering the priest himself!]]
** Another one also coincides when in the final flashback, [[spoiler:as Alfred mocks Edna while snatching her toy, Harvey, Edna screams to release him and on par with Harvey's suggestion, pushes Alfred down the stairs and making Edna realize in horror that SHE killed Alfred.]]
* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: Two different versions, depending on the final decision of the player.
* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: Looking at a globe, Edna asks Harvey what country they live in, which is a very good question considering that it is [[ArtisticLicenseLaw a German-speaking country in which the death penalty is legal]].
* YouWakeUpInARoom: The start of the game.
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