[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lost_crown_acclaim.jpg]]
''The Lost Crown: A Ghost-Hunting Adventure'' is a British graphic adventure video game released in 2008. ''The Lost Crown'' is the third full title to be written and developed by Jonathan Boakes, author of the ''VideoGame/DarkFall'' games. The screenplay follows the adventure of Nigel Danvers, as he experiences the paranormal in his quest to find the fabled Lost Crown of Anglia.

The game is vividly set in the fictional harbor town of Saxton in The Fens of eastern England, ''The Lost Crown'' follows the adventures of two young ghost-hunters, Nigel Danvers and Lucy Reubans. Nigel has fled London, after the theft of several documents from his employer, The Hadden Corporation. The documents contain proof of Hadden’s involvement in experiments with paranormal forces, and the existence of ‘chasm ghosts’. Two Hadden agents, Mr. Hare and Mr. Crow, are dispatched to capture Danvers and return the stolen documents.

Nigel takes refuge in Saxton, where he meets local psychology student Lucy Reubans. Together they set out to solve local mysteries, study paranormal activity and discover the whereabouts of a legendary Anglo-Saxon crown, thought to be buried somewhere around town. Nigel's presence in the town does not go unnoticed and there are many threats to his life... not just from the living but from the dead also!

Three more planned Crown-hunting games, ''Blackenrock'', ''The Last Crown'' and ''The First Crown'', have been adrift in in DevelopmentHell for years. A Halloween vignette-game, ''The Last Crown: Midnight Horror'', debuted on Steam on October 28, 2015.

----
!! Provides Examples of:

* AccidentalMurder: [[spoiler:A tragic example concerning Edward and Christina Molina, the ghosts haunting Harbor Cottage. When Christina fell ill soon after they moved in, Edward kept feeding her water from the cottage's water supply to help her recover, completely unaware that the water was stagnant and lethally contaminated until it was too late. Nigel helps the couple move on by making Christina realise that her husband did not deliberately poison her.]]
* AgentScully: Lucy has shades of this initially, although she's willing to concede that ''something'' weird is going on.
* AmbiguousTimePeriod: Nigel never does get a straight answer when he asks what year is it in Saxton, a region filled with anachronisms due to its numerous hauntings.
* AncientArtifact: The titular Lost Crown is an Anglo-Saxon artifact.
* AncientTomb: The hiding place of the Crown is an ancient tomb. Nathaniel Ager's crypt is a not-quite-so-ancient version.
* AndIMustScream: Some of the ghosts are trapped in the places they died in, requiring Nigel to help them settle whatever unfinished business that is preventing them from moving on.
* AnimalNemesis: Someone in Saxton is stealing [[spoiler:and skinning]] the cats of Saxton. When the culprit's lair is found, it's revealed that [[spoiler:they did it because they're guarding the Lost Crown, and somehow got suspicious that [[InsaneTrollLogic their natural curiosity meant the cats were looking for it]].]]
* AnimateInanimateObject: [[spoiler:When Nigel succeeds in contacting Ganwulf's ghost, he manifests as the glowing, floating crown.]]
* ApocalypseHow: [[spoiler:The 'shadow across the land,' forewarned by a legend describing the mystical powers of Ganwulf's Crown. Taking the crown from Ganwulf's tomb causes a Class 0 apocalypse, spreading pestilence and famine across Saxton and the surrounding areas. The final chapter takes place during the early stages, with Nigel racing to fix his mistake before the situation worsens. Fortunately, he succeeds before we see how exactly how much worse it would have gotten.]]
* ApocalypticLog: Molina's diary, which manifests only a couple of pages at a time to recount the tale of his wife's illness.
* AscendedExtra: Nigel is a minor character from the first ''VideoGame/DarkFall'' game, now starring in a scenario of his own.
* AsideGlance: In ''Midnight Horror'', Nigel offers a put-upon look at the viewer after the mask-seller casually insults his looks.
%%* AssholeVictim: Hardacre.
* ArtifactOfDoom: The Lost Crown appears to be one by the way everyone including the spirits react to Nigel looking for it. [[spoiler:According to legend, the crown itself isn't dangerous, but separating it from Ganwulf's head will doom the kingdom.]]
* ArtifactOfPower: According to legend, Ganwulf's crown was forged in the pits of Incendria by a folk 'long since gone from this world,' and then plunged into the icy waters of the Cramtok Fjord to bind its power. This was done to prevent supernatural beasts known as the Fenlaria from spreading a 'shadow across the land.' [[spoiler:It turns out that the legend is true.]]
* BackupFromOtherworld: [[spoiler:After his murder just before the final chapter, Hardacre returns as a ghost and helps Nigel to save Saxton from a supernatural blight.]]
* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: [[spoiler:Nigel and Hardacre both get their hands on the crown, only to learn the hard way that it was lost for a very good reason.]]
* BedsheetGhost: Invoked with the "Guess the Ghost" game in ''Midnight Horror''. Played with when [[spoiler:Nigel's initial encounter with "the ghost" turns out to be a ''real'' haunting.]]
* BeingWatched:
** Between Nigel's own suspicions, soft sounds in the woods, and [[spoiler:surveillance photos from the Nightmare Room]], it's implied that someone or some''thing'' is always stalking him. [[spoiler:It's eventually revealed that the stalker is Mr. Gruel, who has taken up the Agers' obsession with protecting the crown.]]
** [[spoiler:Plus, Mr. Hadden is apparently observing his every move... somehow.]]
* BigBadDuumvirate: [[spoiler:Mr. Hadden as the primary [[TheFaceless faceless]] but corporeal antagonist, and the Ager Brothers as the main spectral antagonists.]]
* BigGood: [[spoiler:King Ganwulf, the man who wore the lost crown, was said to be a force of great good in life. In fact, beseeching his ghost is how Nigel is able to save Saxton at the end of the game.]]
%%* BigScrewedUpFamily: The infamous Ager family, especially the four brothers at the end of the line before the family went extinct.
* BlackAndGreyMorality: [[spoiler:At first it appears to be a case of BlackAndWhiteMorality, until it turns out that the Agers were absolutely right to want to keep the Lost Crown hidden. Nigel, who ignored all the warnings and signs that no good would come from taking the crown from its resting place, does just that and nearly dooms Saxton in the process.]]
* TheBlackDeath: The Black Death all but wiped out the neighbouring town of Northfield centuries ago, and only the church remains.
%%* BookDumb: Bob Tawny.
* BookEnds: [[spoiler:The beach is the first area Nigel comes to when he reaches Saxton, and it's where he stands with Lucy at the end of the game. It also begins and ends with Mr. Hadden watching Hadden through a darkly lit surveillance system.]]
* BreatherEpisode: The May Day Fayre is probably the most light-hearted part of the game. It's even the most colourful sequence, with the sky completely bright blue.
* CameraAbuse: When Nigel uses the night-vision camera to explore [[spoiler:the catacombs beneath Ulcombe Church]], poltergeist activity tosses pebbles at his camera, as if trying to break the lens and strand him in the dark.
* CameraSpoofing: How Nigel punks the museum's security camera. Visually Lampshaded in that the wire prop ''and'' the photo's edge are both plainly visible on the camera's feed, suggesting the only reason it works is that Oogle never actually looks at the video footage.
* ChekhovsGun: In-Verse example: In Molina's diary, [[spoiler:the water he mentions bringing Christina in the first two-page entry turns out to be contaminated and was the cause of her accidental death.]]
%%** An abandoned building that looks foreboding.
* {{Chiaroscuro}}: Some people you meet are in candlelight or bathed in shadows.
* CompanionCube: Jemima the rag doll, for Mr. Gruel. [[spoiler:Borders on CargoShip once you learn that Jemima was his late wife's name.]]
* Cloudcuckoolander: Nanny Noah has the occasional odd moment, but she's got nothing on Mr. Gruel.
* ContinuityNod: Several nods in fact, to the ''VideoGame/DarkFall'' series.
** The lighthouse on the restaurant's sign is exactly the same image as from the cover of ''Light's Out'', just flipped left-to-right. The primitive hut pictured on the price tag for Rhys's bundles of long sticks is one of the huts from [[spoiler: that game's prehistoric fens]]. There's a copy of the lighthouse-lantern model from [[spoiler: the top floor of the 21st-century lighthouse/museum]] in the entrance to Professor Oogle's museum, and a copy of a figurine from that game in [[spoiler: the Old Net Hut]].
** Two of the books in Celtic Corner were written by Andrew Verney, who [[spoiler: appears as a ghost]] in ''Dark Fall 1 & 3'', and were published in Dowerton where those games were set.
** A copy of ''The Ballad Of Tom Oliver'' is framed on the wall of The Bear, and a gravestone with that name is in one of the churchyards. [[spoiler: Tom's ghost haunts the cellar]] in ''Dark Fall: The Journal''.
** The scissors that keep turning up in Nigel's bedroom are from ''Dark Fall 1 & 3''.
** At one point, the phone in Harbour Cottage plays a sound-clip from one of the ''Dark Fall'' games, too.
** ''Midnight Horror'' is packed with them, as the vignette-game was designed to help re-introduce players to Saxton after so many years of Development Hell.
%%* CreepyCrows: Real ones, painted ones, and symbolic ones. Also a MeaningfulName for both the Agers and one of Hadden's men.
* CreepyDoll: Mr. Gruel's use of Jemima as his spokesdoll. [[spoiler:It's implied that the doll represents his late wife. When he's discovered to be the serial cat murderer, it's symbolically burned in the Bear Inn's fireplace.]]
* CruelAndUnusualDeath:
** Some of the ghosts' deaths weren't pretty. [[spoiler:Special mention goes to the train wreck victims: the apple train derailed into a river, and the unfortunate sorting staff all drowned, but not before their bodies were gruesomely mangled beyond hope.]]
** [[spoiler:The abducted cats are discovered to have been skinned alive, and their bodies strung up like butcher meat in the Nightmare Room.]]
* DeadAllAlong: [[spoiler:Katherine and Robert Karswell and the Northfield vicar. At Ulcombe Church, Nigel figures out relatively quickly that the evacuees he meets there are ghosts, and gently breaks the news to the older sister. She takes it remarkably well.]]
* DeadSerious: [[spoiler:Hardacre's brutal murder near the end of the game is the first indication that Nigel should have left the crown where he found it.]]
* DeathEqualsRedemption: [[spoiler:After Hardacre is murdered by William Ager's ghost when he tried to take the crown from Saxton, his ghost returns to help Nigel undo the curse he unwittingly unleashed upon the town. First he helps Nigel find the crown, then he helps him get in contact with Ganwulf's spirit.]]
* DeathOfAChild: Several examples have taken place during Saxton's dark history. [[spoiler:Said examples include a child accidentally drowning in the sea, [[GriefInducedSplit destroying his parents' marriage]], a girl getting trapped and dying in a museum's hidden passages, and beloved pets getting abducted and butchered, to name a few.]]
* DeliberatelyMonochrome: Black and white with occasional splashes of color in illuminated scenes, black and green when using the night-vision camera.
* DreamingOfThingsToCome: [[spoiler:The first three nights of his stay in Saxton, Nigel has terrifying dreams of a 'Nightmare Room,' a dark room including a bloody sickle and a portrait of the Ager Brothers, intermittent with cats meowing in the distance and images of a sickle-wielding man and a close-up of a bespectacled eye. This foreshadows the fate of the missing cats, Nigel's confrontations with the Ager Brothers and Hardacre's death.]]
* DrivenToSuicide: Edward Molina hanged himself in Harbour Cottage after his wife's death.
* DutyThatTranscendsDeath: Even after death, the Agers stick around Saxton so they can continue protecting Ganwulf's crown.
* EerilyOutOfPlaceObject: On most mornings, Nigel wakes to find that his ghost-hunting equipment has been scattered throughout Habor Cottage, forcing him to track them down before starting the day proper. More ominously, he keeps finding a pair of large scissors in his bed.
* EldritchAbomination: Fenlaria, supernatural beasts from the legend of the Lost Crown which preyed on any human who got too close to the dark shadows where they dwelled. They were prevented from inflicting famine and plague upon the kingdom by the power of the crown Ganwulf wore. [[spoiler:When famine and plague fall upon the fens after Nigel takes the crown from Ganwulf's tomb, one must wonder whether the Fenlaria are RealAfterAll. In fact, their description in the legend is eerily similar to that of the hostile black mist ghosts encountered by Nigel and Lucy.]]
* ElectromagneticGhosts: Taping [=EVP=]s and detecting electromagnetic-field disturbances are necessary for finding clues.
* EvilDetectingDog: George the German shepherd barks and whimpers at the door to the haunted room in ''Midnight Horror''.
* EvilIsNotWellLit: Some of the foreboding areas (the haunted house, train tracks, castle, cave, etc) are very dark, dimly lit, or just foggy and creepy.
%%* EvilInc.: The Hadden Corporation, at least where the owner's secret experiments are concerned.
* ExtremelyDustyHome: The little sea shanty Nigel is staying at has obviously seen better days... much better days... 30 years ago perhaps. The owner, Morgan Mankle, personally cleans it after the first night and leaves Nigel an apologetic letter after realising how bad the mess is.
* FetchQuest: Several short ones, including soup ingredients for the Karswells and [[spoiler:stone hands and coat-of-arms photos]] for one of the ghosts.
* FirstPersonGhost: While most of the game isn't first person, the scenes where objects must be handled or combined only show those objects floating into place, with no sign of Nigel's hands. Granted, that kind of fits the general spookiness of the scenario.
* FliesEqualsEvil: A swarm of Ager-conjured flies appear to attack Nigel in [[spoiler:the Nightmare Room.]]
* FoodAsBribe: Luring Mr. Tibbs back home requires food. Luckily, the cat is a cheese addict.
* ForDoomTheBellTolls: The Saxton Bell is used to enhance the creepiness, as well as mark transitions between phases of the game, specifically day and night.
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** One early encounter with Alex Spitmoor takes place next to the phone booth. [[spoiler:He's standing in front of the "Reubans Fayre" poster Lucy put up, which hints at his true identity: Detective Alex ''Reubans'', Lucy's brother. In fact, there are numerous instances of foreshadowing in the game, the first being a tombstone of Cole Tawny, the deceased soon of Nanny Noah and Bob Tawny, seen when the train first arrives with Nigel in it.]]
** Meta example: in the {{UsefulNotes/Steam}} version, the achievement icon for "A Warning to the Curious" (exhausting all of Nigel's conversation options during his encounter with Hardacre on the first night) is a scythe. [[spoiler:On Night 4 at Harbour Cottage, Nigel uses the crystal ball to determine who stole the crown from his bedroom, and sees Hardacre killed by someone wielding a scythe.]]
%%* FortuneTeller: Nanny Noah and "Mystic Morgan"
* FriendlyGhost: Some, such as [[CreepyChild Verity Church]] and [[spoiler:the Karswells]] are very polite and helpful, and even the majority of less lucid ghosts are normally more content to wail than be outright hostile. ''Others'', though...
* GainaxEnding: At the climax of the game, [[spoiler:Nigel tries to get in contact with Ganwulf's ghost so he can convince him to let Nigel back into the lost kingdom. During the seance, Nigel encounters the crown, glowing and floating in the air, and then is somehow transported back to Ganwulf's tomb. Surrounded by figures of all the characters he'd encountered on his quest, he puts the crown back on Ganwulf's skull and then somehow ends up on the beach with Lucy. This can only be explained by Ganwulf having special powers.]]
* GameBreakingBug: Clicking the walkie-talkie at the wrong time can leave you stuck inside [[spoiler:the Nightmare Room]] with no way to get the key. In-universe, Nanny Noah's "treasure hunt" would be impossible to complete on May Day [[spoiler:because one of the clues is in the Museum, which is closed]], although Nigel finishes it on a different day.
* GhostlyGape: The Track Men (the victims of the Apple Train crash you have to fight your way through on Night 2) have this appearance.
* GhostlyGoals:
** The [[spoiler:Ager brothers']] goal is to keep Nigel away from the crown!
** The friendlier ghosts usually want something -- [[spoiler:Guerny's hands and coats-of-arms, Emily's Pasque flower, Tim and Nancy's letter]] -- that Nigel [[FetchQuest can retrieve for them]].
* GoneHorriblyRight: [[spoiler:Nigel and Hardacre both get their hands on the crown, succeeding in their respective quests, but both pay a dire price for their success: Nigel unleashes an ancient curse on Saxton, and Hardacre is murdered by the ghost of William Ager.]]
* GraveRobbing:
** In the crypt under Ulcombe, Nigel breaks open a coffin to acquire the clue to a puzzle, although subverted in that he doesn't actually take away the book that contains the clue.
** [[spoiler:Nigel steals the Crown from Ganwulf's tomb, though he puts it back again.]]
* GriefInducedSplit: In the present, [[spoiler:Nanny Noah and Bob Tawny]] have a friendly, even fond, relationship. They're revealed to be [[spoiler:AmicableExes who divorced after their young son Cole drowned at the beach.]]
* TheGrimReaper: Featured prominently in the morbid murals on the walls of [[spoiler:the Plague catacombs under Ulcombe]].
%%* HatesSmallTalk: Hardacre and Spitmoor.
* HauntedHeadquarters: While nearly every location in or around Saxton is haunted, Nigel encounters more ghostly phenomena in Harbour Cottage, where he's staying, than anywhere else.
* HauntedHouse: More like haunted ''everything'': houses, churches, caverns, village businesses, train tracks...
* HearingVoices:
** You get to hear creepy whispers and notes of worth in some portions on the EVP sections and sometimes just at random.
** In locations such as The Bear's back rooms, you don't get the chance to record them.
** There's a ghostly ''typist'' at work in the room behind the phone booth, heard only at night.
%%* HeKnowsTooMuch: The reason Nigel is forced to flee from Hadden and his goons, starting the whole plot.
* HorrorDoesntSettleForSimpleTuesday: The ghostly adventure takes place on and around May Day, a major holiday for Saxton. ''Midnight Horror'' is set on Halloween night.
* ISeeDeadPeople: Some of the ghostly images appear briefly, only the cameras can let you see some of it clearly... other parts are a little... spooky...
* IfJesusThenAliens: Played with when Nigel is frustrated by Lucy's skepticism about ghosts, yet pokes fun at Hardacre's speculation that ''dragons'' might have a factual basis.
* ItsAlwaysSpring: True because it's the end of April, but not this trope because the weather varies widely (cold, fog, wind, thunder, sunshine, rain), much like a realistic British springtime.
* {{Jerkass}}: Hardacre is downright rude to Nigel at every chance [[spoiler:and later steals the Crown from him, only to become an AssholeVictim.]]
%%* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Lucy, at least until she and Nigel warm up to each other.
* JustTakeThePoster: Nigel takes a poster for Cat Watch with him after reading it.
* LampshadeHanging: Viewing his old photos in ''Midnight Horror'', Nigel muses how it feels like "years" since he first came to Saxton. In-game it's been six months, but the out-of-game hiatus was seven years long.
* LastOfHisKind: William was the last of the Ager bloodline.
%%* LightningReveal: Done with creepy mystical energy-discharges [[spoiler:in Ganwulf's tomb.]]
* MiniGame: The [=EnviroMeter=] poses a few small minigames when used to pinpoint ghostly activity in Harbour Cottage.
%%* MindScrew: Some of the supernatural events Nigel gets himself into.
* MissionControl: Whomever is monitoring the remote cameras in Harbour Cottage. Lucy temporarily takes on the role of mission control over a short distance when she directs Nigel around a pitch-black room using the night-vision camera.
* MonsterShapedMountain: Saxton folklore holds that the jagged rocks along the shoreline are spines on the back of Grindle, a dragon from local legend.
%%* MysteriousEmployer: Mr. Hadden.
* NervesOfSteel: Nigel barely shows any fear of the ghosts he willings seeks out.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler:Nigel finds the titular Lost Crown, which would have been a tremendous accomplishment were it not for the fact that removing the crown from Ganwulf's brow would bring a curse upon the land.]]
* NightmareFuelStationAttendant: Averted. Nanny Noah says some pretty creepy stuff, but Nigel isn't particularly creeped out by her.
* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: [[spoiler:Hardacre is beaten to death with a blunt sickle.]]
* NoodleIncident: Lucy had a bad experience in Harbor Cottage when she was young, implied to be paranormal.
* NonActionGuy: Nigel barely fights or does more than run.
%%* OffscreenAfterlife
* ProtectiveCharm: During a visit to her house, Nanny Noah gives Nigel a charm resembling a small bladed weapon to protect him against whatever spirits may oppose him on his treasure hunt. [[spoiler:It comes in very handy when he's ambushed by a horde of ghosts on the train tracks on the second night.]]
* PuzzleBoss: Liberal use of "boss", but most of the hostile ghosts in this adventure game almost inevitably get taken care of via solving one or two puzzles. For instance, [[spoiler:Thomas Ager]]'s ghost is split into several black smoky columns and you have to use wiccan binding spells to trap its heart, and then free the soul of someone he butchered in life. [[spoiler:William Ager]] requires freeing the soul of [[spoiler:Emily in the Saxton Caverns]] then [[spoiler:having Lucy guide you through the Net Hut while William is in black smoke form to open the window and dissipate his ghost]].
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: [[spoiler:The day after Nigel finds and takes the Lost Crown from Ganwulf's tomb, the people of Saxton either forget who he is, turn against him, or both. It's implied that the curse unleashed by Nigel's actions is affecting them in some way.]]
* OccultDetective: Nigel is forced to act as a paranormal detective during the game.
* OneWomanWail: One-''Man''-Wail, actually, during the opening sequence and the menu screen as a recurring motif.
* OpenSaysMe: Lucy kicks a door open to save Nigel in [[spoiler:the Old Net Hut.]]
* OurGhostsAreDifferent: Seems like every ghost variant Boakes could think of makes an appearance, from disembodied voices to wraiths of the still-living to full-body corporeal presences that don't know they're dead.
* RavenHairIvorySkin: The Ager Brothers all have black hair and pale skin, which adds to their creepiness.
* ReadingTeaLeaves: Nanny Noah reads tea leaves for Nigel during one of their fireside talks.
* RedEyesTakeWarning: The Ager brothers' spirits and paintings have red eyes when they're particularly pissed.
* RedHerring: A few clues point you in the wrong direction, where you eventually get the right direction.
* RiddleMeThis: More of an in-universe example than a game challenge, as the dialogue between Nigel and Timmy talks you through the solution.
%%* SeasonalBaggage: The clues for the "mill stones" puzzle.
* SceneryDissonance: Just because its mid-day doesn't mean you shouldn't worry about the phantom hands and ghostly visages that roam the house Nigel is staying at.
* SelfDeprecation: One of the beers on tap in ''Midnight Horror'' is names after Boakes, and Morgan claims it's terrible.
* ShoutOut:
** Several to ''VideoGame/BarrowHill'', whose designers assisted with ''Lost Crown'''s visual effects. This tradition continues in ''Midnight Horror'', as Nigel has a promotional coffee mug from BHR, the radio station from ''Barrow Hill'' and the stone circle from that game appears in an illustration from one of the pub's old books.
** Several to Creator/MRJames and his ''A Warning To The Curious'', [[spoiler: which the game's plot [[WholePlotReference is heavily based on]]. A big one is a skeleton found in the woods which you can identify as a victim of the Ager brothers]]. Doctor Black is a character from the television adaptation of that story.
** The phone in Harbour Cottage plays an eerie recitation of Walter de la Mare's poem "The Listeners" at night.
** Use of the name "Spivey" may be a reference to Creator/JohnCarpenter's ''Film/TheFog1980''.
** Mr. Gruel stages a Theatre/PunchAndJudy puppet show for May Day.
* ShownTheirWork: Boakes joined some actual ghost-hunting expeditions to research their methods, and their techniques inspired several of Nigel's spook-detecting Hadden devices.
* SignificantAnagram: [[spoiler:Spitmoor-Impostor.]]
* SignsOfTheEndTimes: [[spoiler:Dismal weather, dying livestock and townsfolk acting strangely are all effects of the curse of the Lost Crown. Nigel spends the last chapter working to end the curse before things get worse.]]
* SplashOfColor: Makes flowers and other cheerful objects stand out in contrast to the monochrome surroundings. Nanny Noah's house and the May Day sky are heavily splashed, helping make them some of the most upbeat notes in the story. Splashes of blood, like 'crimson flowers,' are a more disturbing example.
* SpookyPainting: The Agers' group portrait from [[spoiler:the Nightmare Room]], and Thomas Ager's from Northfield Church. The "Tree of Crows" is haunted also, but less menacingly-so.
* SpookyPhotographs:
** Nigel uses a digital and video camera to sniff out clues in the game. Seeing the whole world in gray-scale or night-sight green sometimes really makes it more creepy to see said ghostly images.
** Some ghosts or spooky images are clues, some are down right [[NightmareFuel freaktastic]], while others are just bizarre and don't have much to do with the game play.
%%* SpookySeance: Several, some with simple props.
%%* StalkerWithACrush: William Ager, to Emily Travers. Brock Farm's resident, to Katherine Karswell.
* StupidityIsTheOnlyOption:
** After you find the crown, you have the problem of finding a safe place to keep it. [[spoiler:What you're supposed to do is put it in the trunk in Nigel's bedroom. This leads to a man breaking in, stealing the crown, and dying for his troubles. The thing is, at that point in the game you know there's a safe in the basement and what the combination is. It's only after the crown's stolen from you that Nigel figures to put it in the safe instead.]]
** [[spoiler:Rationalized away in the revised edition of the game released on Steam, as Nigel can't bear to go down to the basement because it smells really, ''really'' foul down there.]]
** [[spoiler:Also to an extent taking the Lost Crown to begin with after reading a book which described at length what happened the last time it was removed. Then again, the Crown is the entire focus of the plot.]]
* StockAudioClip: Voice lines are reused at several points, sometimes in annoyingly quick succession.
* SuperSmoke: The Agers manifest both as glowering human figures and as columns of malignant black vapors.
* SwirlyEnergyThingy: A supernatural swirly energy appears in the photos Nigel stole. [[spoiler: Also in Ganwulf's tomb.]]
* TaxonomicTermConfusion: Jasper the Not-Really-A-Parrot.
* TortureCellar: [[spoiler:The Nightmare Room from Nigel's dreams is revealed to be where the missing cats were horrifically butchered and skinned.]]
%%* TogetherInDeath: The Molinas and the [[spoiler:Karswells.]]
* TownContestEpisode: While not restricted to one episode, Mr. Branwen, owner of Celtic Corner, hosts a photography competition in town, which Nigel can participate in.
%%* TheUnintelligible: Doctor Black. Also, Gruel speaking through "Jemima", unless s/he's saying her name.
* UnnaturallyBlueLighting: Not exactly blue, but the whole game is in gray coloring with only a few objects (flowers, certain animals, train, some objects, some buildings) having splashes of color like blue, green, yellow, or brown. In Night-Vision mode everything is green, which makes it irritating to the players eyes after a while.
* UndeadChild: The ghosts of Verity, Nancy, and Timmy are all children. Also Emily Travers, if teenagers count.
* UnfinishedBusiness: Most of the ghosts have business to finish. Nigel himself will remark that he's not finished investigating if you try to make him leave an area or go to bed prematurely.
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: [[spoiler:Again, taking the crown from Ganwulf's tomb has terrible consequences.]]
* VideoGameCaringPotential: Soft-hearted players can let Nigel stuff Cairon the pig with leftovers to their heart's content. [[spoiler:And then [[SubvertedTrope be heartbroken]] when Bob dishes up pork at the Fair.]]
* WhamEpisode: [[spoiler:The final day. Hardacre has been murdered by the Ager Brothers after trying to take the Lost Crown from Saxton, the morning newspaper reports that the local livestock is being killed of by a mysterious blight, the weather has turned rainy and bleak, and the townsfolk forget who Nigel is and turn against him. Nigel gradually realizes to his horror that taking the crown from Ganwulf's brow has indeed unleashed an ancient curse upon Saxton.]]
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Pretty much everything about the town of Saxton. Weird time compression? Odd people? Ghosts running about? Nope. You never learn anything about all that.
* WhatYearIsThis:
** Nigel never gets a straight answer as to what year it is, and neither does the player, really.
** Nigel and Lucy ''do'' get a straight answer to this question in ''Midnight Horror'', but [[spoiler:only from a ghost who thinks it's 1785]], so it doesn't resolve the issue.
* WholePlotReference: [[spoiler:The central plot is based on [[Creator/MRJames M. R. James']] ''A Warning To The Curious'', down to the magical ancient crown that protects the country and is guarded by the ghostly Ager family.]]
* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield?: It's not made clear exactly where Saxton is located. All that is known for certain is that it's located on the North Sea coast of England.
----