Klaus Spiegel
A stressed and anxious office worker who wakes up without any memories in the basement of a strange facility. He employs Player to help get his memory back and learn the secrets surrounding his existence.
- The Adjectival Man: Klaus's leitmotif and the first chapter of the game are both called The Unknown Man.
- Contemplate Our Navels: On occasion Klaus can wax philosophical, especially during his existential crises.
- The Determinator: To the point where his stubbornness overthrows the Player’s ability to direct him.
- Insufferable Genius: He can tend to come off as one, rushing the Player to finish the puzzles and critiquing them on their technique. In the first memory, he mentions that he remembers being a very bright child and apparently was an advanced reader. Looks like he inherited it from his creator.
- Final Boss: If the true ending isn’t found, Klaus is the last boss you have to face at the end of the purple levels. Otherwise it goes to Klaus Sr., the true final boss.
- Golem: Seems to be at least partially based off of one.
- Good Is Not Nice: He’s the protagonist and ultimately means well, but when he firsts meets K1 he’s pretty impatient and occasionally insults K1’s intelligence. He also occasionally takes a jab at the Player.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Snarky and mildly insulting, but he genuinely cares for K1 and Player.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Klaus wakes up alone in a basement, not knowing who he is, with the name “Klaus” written on his arm, but otherwise knows how to talk and other basic functions. Justified in that specific memories are being intentionally withheld from him.
- Leitmotif: The Unknown Man is a rhythmic, industrial beat.
- The Nicknamer: Gives Player their nickname and also affectionately calls K1 "Big Boy".
- Ridiculously Human Robot: Given that he's supposed to replace the original, yes.
- Robotic Reveal: Both Klaus and K1 are robots created by the original Klaus Spiegel, or Klaus Sr.
- Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The Sensitive Guy to K1's Manly Man.
- Shock and Awe: when he gets overcharged.
- Tsundere: He's quick to hide his happiness when seeing that K1's still alive in the green levels, and later questions why he thanks him.
- Walking Spoiler: Even moreso than sr.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Klaus becomes overcharged at the end of the purple floors, causing him to break away from the player and K1, then later fights them.
- You Are Number 6: His model is called a K2, and in the true ending Klaus Sr. calls him a number based on how many times you've killed him over the course of the game.
K1
The self-titled King of the Basement, this large fellow is a patient and kind soul who seems to want to follow Klaus and Player till the end.
- Big Fun: A generally jovial and happy man.
- Big Guy: He's more than twice Klaus's height.
- Deadly Euphemism: While there are instances where he uses it literally, during the battle with Klaus he says “Let’s play!” and knows exactly what he’s implying.
- Hidden Depths: He hints at what his life was like before Player and Klaus came into it, saying that he suffered and went through the same crisis Klaus is currently going through.
- Large Ham: He yells most of his dialogue.
- Leitmotif: King of the Underground is a jaunty chiptune piece accompanied by a light piano melody.
- Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The Manly to Klaus's Sensitive.
- No Indoor Voice: He talks in all caps and Klaus refers to him as "loud" on occasion.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: When he first meets Klaus he simply babbles gibberish, but soon opens up and becomes more verbal with his companion. When alone with the Player he’s even more articulate.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: K1 detracts from his No Indoor Voice mannerisms once in the true ending, whilst tearfully telling Klaus and Player that he'll stay in Korp rather than leave with Klaus.
- Mellow Fellow: K1 says several times that Klaus is too stressed or impatient, and should find something to relax him like how K1 found floating.
- Self-Made Orphan: A test with K1 kills his mom Julia in a lab accident before the game begins.
- Third-Person Person: K1 usually talks like this, but occasionally lapses into first person. It seems to be mostly of a personal preference rather than lack of education otherwise. See O.O.C. Is Serious Business.
- Trademark Favourite Food: "K1 likes sushi and white wine!"
- You Are Number 6: Shares this trope with Klaus, but doesn't go by anything but his designation.
Player
That's you!
- Ambiguous Gender: Since of course that's you, Klaus mentions you might not be a guy. Sr. seems to assume you are.
- The Determinator: Klaus both praises and laments the fact that you're so persistent.
- Fire-Forged Friends: Certainly, to Klaus and K1.
- The Ghost: Seen only as a faceless silhouette in the very last memory.
- Heroic Mime: To Klaus’ dismay, you can’t talk to him or K1. K1 however uses this to talk about himself, since he trusts you.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Klaus gives you the nickname Player.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Klaus Sr. either hired or built you to run Quality Assurance. You're just doing your job.
Klaus Spiegel, Sr.:
The original Klaus Spiegel, whose memories you encounter. He wants the Klaus you control to take over his facility.
- Affably Evil: He genuinely cares about the people around him, and is truly nice to Klaus in the true ending before he finds out about the extent of Player's meddling.
- Ambiguously Jewish: Black pomadour hair, a large nose, and a traditionally Ashkenazi name like Klaus Spiegel all point to it, but the topic of religion never comes up. The idea of artificially creating life with names inscribed on them also brings to mind tale of the Golems.
- Badass Labcoat: As seen in some of the later memories.
- Beard of Sorrow: Granted in that he's sixty four by the time you formally meet him, but he still doesn't look too cleaned up.
- Big Bad: More like Big "Made A Lot Of Mistakes And Isn't Coping With Them Well".
- Humongous Mecha: Employs one of himself in the final ending.
- Informed Attribute: Had red-green colour-blindness.
- The Man Behind the Man: Employed and/or Built Player.
- Maternal Death? Blame the Child!: Seems to be the main reason he sent K1 to the basement. He mentions to Klaus later that he knew it wasn't K1's fault but his own, but shortly after brings up Julia's death and blames K1 seemingly just to hurt his feelings.
- Mean Boss: In general, judging by the posters littered about the Office levels, but also to Player's face in the true ending, where he fires you for performing your job and getting all the doors. Letter of recommendation notwithstanding.
- Mysterious Employer: Even though he hired you, Player doesn’t know much more about him than anyone else.
- Never My Fault: Despite his claims otherwise, he is perfectly fine with blaming anyone convenient, including K1 and Player. It might be hereditary.
- Our Founder: In his Blue levels office hangs a massive portrait of him in his middle years.
- Rummage Sale Reject: Wears a tacky blue sweater and designed the outfits of the K models.
- Start of Darkness: The stress of being CEO, his waning relationship with Julia and her death later on, raising K1 for a short while before banishing him to the basement, and no one taking him or his ideas seriously put him teetering on the edge of Well-Intentioned Extremist.
- True Final Boss: If all the memories are gathered, the true ending has Klaus fight Klaus Sr. in a giant mechanical Klaus.
- Unreliable Narrator: Due to the memories being from his point of view, we don't know how much was opinion, how much misremembered, how much just forgotten.
Julia Sonnenschein
Klaus Sr.'s dead wife who designed and built the robots according to his ideas.
- Dead Sparks: Klaus notes in the glitch memory that the original and Julia grew apart as he was consumed with work as CEO of Korp.
- Death by Childbirth: While not literally, K1's 'birth' did end up with her dying. The allusion continues with K1 calling Sr. Dad.
- Eye Motifs: The first time we see her are her two bright eyes, and is said to have been watching Klaus. The last time we see her, her eyes are closed and she's crying while Klaus tumbles away from her.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Majored in Computer Sciences and presumably got a degree in it.
- Girl Friday: At least, Klaus Sr. seemed to think so.
- The Ghost: Only seen in memories, and even then as a silhouette.
- The Lost Lenore: Julia’s death sends Klaus Sr. into a downward, depressive spiral that culminates with the game’s beginning.
- Meaningful Name: Her name is Jewel Sunshine, and she was both to Klaus Sr.
- Satellite Character: Unfortunately, due to the story being told from Klaus' perspective and we only encounter her in the memories of the original Klaus Spiegel, we don't know much about Julia besides what Klaus remembers and how he feels about her.
- Shout-Out: Her name is a reference to Julia from Cowboy Bebop.
- Wrench Wench: Julia helps build both the K2000s and K1.
K2000s
Bureaucratic enemies you encounter starting with the blue levels.
