Video Game / Changed

...Do you want to be transfurred?^note Center, left to right: Puro and Dr. K. Counterclockwise from left: A Dark Latex cub, a Snow Leopard, the Squid Dog, the Tiger Shark, a Red Panda, Prototype, the Stiger, and a Deer.

Changed is an Adventure Game developed and produced by Chinese designer DragonSnow, made with RPG Maker VX for Steam. It was released on April 4, 2018.

You play as Colin, a person who finds himself inside a strange room in a laboratory tower, alone and barely clothed. In order to find answers as to why you ended up there, you have to explore the abandoned building, while avoiding bizarre creatures that attempt to "transfur" you. If captured, he will be assimilated and turned into one of them and potentially lose his sense of self in the process. Can you make it back to the outside world? And will you still be "you" when you get there? And what happened to the world while you were asleep? Also, who is the strange black wolf with a white mask that seems to be aiding you from afar?

An Updated Re-release called Changed Special, including a graphics overhaul, new levels and mechanics and significant changes to the plot, was released in April 2020 to commemorate the game's second anniversary. ^note The Steam version is an early access beta and still being updated with new content.

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This game presents examples of the following tropes:

• 2½D: The Special Edition has a cutscene where the room becomes 3D to shift the camera onto the emerging orca hydra monster.
• Acceptable Breaks from Reality: According to the Non-Standard Game Over endings, getting absorbed by a latex goo creature takes minutes, not seconds. To avoid every death in a Nintendo Hard game dragging on, the player is assimilated instantly whenever caught.
• Against the Setting Sun: You wake up, thrust into an unfamiliar unsafe environment with everything out to "transfur" you. It may be scenic, but just Watching the Sunset from a balcony results in one of the first of many Non-Standard Game Overs.
• All There in the Manual:
  • The protagonist's name is revealed to be Colin per the 5th level badge for Steam Trading Cards.
  • The "I Choose To Leave" ending doesn't clarify if Colin dies, with him merely becoming unresponsive. The icon for said ending's Steam achievement depicts a grave, revealing that he did.
• Anti-Frustration Features: The Special Edition makes various improvements upon the gameplay:
  • Colin and Puro's relationship status is displayed in the save file menu, making it easier to avoid the endings where he forcibly absorbs you.
  • The game now auto-saves whenever you enter a new area, or just after a boss cutscene has played.
  • The robot puzzle in Dr. K's laboratory has been tweaked, the door buttons now having a one-second delay before deactivating again whenever Colin or the roomba aren't holding them down. A godsend as it makes unlocking the next area much more forgiving.
• Apocalypse How: From the get-go, you already see that things don't appear to be doing so hot. What with your character being trapped in a ruined building overrun by The Assimilator Blob Monster-type creatures and nary a human in sight. Doctor K reveals that the world was indeed devastated, but by a virus. This forced the elites of humanity to go into cryo-stasis in attempts to wait for it to die out, leaving everyone else for dead and the world in ruins. The few who neither died to the virus nor went into cryo-stasis were either assimilated by the "Transfurs" or, in Doctor K's case, were transfurred willingly to immunize themselves to the virus.
• Apocalyptic Log: Among research material, many scientists' last words are littered throughout the tower complex.
• Arc Words: Changed. Also serving as a Title Drop, this concept and phrase is prevalent through the game, reflecting Colin attempting to avoid becoming transfurred himself, how Puro changed his mind about just helping Colin from afar and making him his host, and Dr. K and notes from other scientists lamenting that nothing may have changed in regards to the state of the world.
• The Assimilator: This is practically the core concept of the game. All enemies in this game attempt to turn you into one of them through various means, either through absorption or such, and come with varying levels of mental alterations.
• Author Appeal: DragonSnow has a transformation kink. And so the game has hundreds of unique transformation sequences, including cutscenes that describe the process in detail. While the game doesn't have any explicitly lewd showcases, a few of them can get quite steamy.
• Bittersweet Ending: Whenever it's not a downright Downer Ending, Colin is forced to make some sort of sacrifice regardless. The "True" Ending (Can't Decide) is the only ending having any sense of happiness to it, and even then, Colin has to give up his humanity in order to make it happen, and him and Puro are still mostly alone in the ruins of the world while the remainders of humanity are still in cryosleep.
  • Betrayal - Puro gives into his instincts and assimilates/transfurs Lin.
  • Captured - Puro is destroyed and Colin is forcibly changed and put under mind control by Doctor K.
  • Stay - Puro will soon perish without a host, but Colin will not spread the virus.
  • Leave - Colin soon succumbs to the virus but at least dies as himself, without a host Puro will eventually also die, and the virus might have still been released.
• Blob Monster: Most of the monsters are like this, being mostly non-sentient, animorphed masses of latex or other slimy materials, giving them a malleable property that allows them to either convert others into more of their kind or assimilate them into host bodies for themselves, which increases their lifespan.
• Body Horror: Downplayed, but it is there. One example would be the description of Colin being transfurred in one of the possible game-over outcomes, which says that his organs have disappeared. There are also multiple game-overs where Lin's vertebrae grows, which cannot be a pleasant experience, to say the least.
• Book Ends: The very first thing Colin can be transfurred into is a gooey white wolf. In the True Ending, Colin once again is transfurred into a white canid, only this time it's natural fur, and it's by his own volition.
  • The game begins in the lab during sunset. It ends outside the lab at sunrise.
• Broken Bridge: Your journey takes you on one big long detour around the entire complex tower, instead of heading for the quickest route to the front lobby exit. This is due to the fact that many doors were welded shut in a panic, when the latex goo beasts began to escape. Unfortunately for you, these obstacles don't deter them in the slightest.
• Crazy-Prepared: The Lab has several measures to prevent the escape of potentially infected human subjects. Especially in the Special Edition re-release, where it's revealed even the clothes the subjects wear are a countermeasure for escape, as they're truly dormant latex creatures that are programmed to be reactivated with special flashes of red light.
• Creator Cameo: Aside from the developer making an appearance, in the original and remake various programmers, beta testers, and artists, all appear in their fursonas throughout the game. ^note Shizi, YY, Feng Yu, Jasaka, Leo Volcano, Cait Ming, Kasami Dunk, and so on. Most are background or cutscene characters, and don't present an enemy hazard to the player.
• Crosshair Aware: Dr. K attacks Collin with a mutagen-loaded sniper rifle at one point, and Collin must stay out of the crosshairs to avoid being hit.
• Dark Is Not Evil: The black latex creatures, with their dark bodies and masks, look the most intimidating out of all the creatures you encounter. Despite this, not only is Puro — the only helpful latex creature you encounter — one of their kind, they also eventually cease pursuing the protagonist after sufficiently impressing the leader of their hivemind.
• Decontamination Chamber: There's two of them in the Special Edition that you have to go through to progress. Problem is, the moment you hit the button, two light latex beasts pop out of the vents to come get you. These areas are Control Room Puzzles, as you've got to setup the construction cones littered around the place to not only protect yourself when disinfection is initiated, but also an escape-route to get outta there fast.
• Death of Personality: Many of the game-overs do this to the protagonist, and this is also heavily implied to have been the fate of all the other scientists and human subjects in the ruined, Transfur-infested labs the game takes place in. Among the scientists, the only exception to this fate was Dr. K, who injected himself with a serum specifically designed to let him keep his sanity after his transformation.
• Developer's Foresight: Quite a few interactions occur in rare situations.
  • Lingering on the empty balcony at the beginning for too long results in a latex civet attacking and transfurring Colin.
  • Getting transfurred in the Elder One's room after having made it past him will cause him to question what Colin was thinking.
    Elder One: Why? Do you like this?
  • Stepping on a small puddle in the library and getting transfurred will have Puro call Colin out for his stupidity.
    Puro: ...Eh, eh...Ah!? ...Human!!? Are you serious!? Right in front of me!?
  • In the Greenhouse area, trying to recall Dr. K too many times after he hung up will result in him snapping and releasing gas that transfurs Colin into a black and blue cat-like latex.
  • In the post-Greenhouse area, Puro will follow Colin by crawling through the vents. If Colin repeatedly runs back and forth, Puro will eventually remark that he's tired.
    Puro: ...So tired...
  • Backtracking to the post-Greenhouse area after Puro leaves Colin and sniffing the flowers present causes Colin to be transfurred into a pink latex wolf.
  • Backtracking to same area as the above after Puro leaves Colin and eating the peaches Puro warned Colin not to eat results in the human being attacked and 'transfurred' by a shiny blue latex canine-like creature.
  • If the human interacts with the door at the right of the post-Greenhouse corridor enough times, an alien-like latex will appear and transfur Colin.
  • Backtracking to enter the room in the vent Puro stopped the human from entering previously leads you to a Secret Boss hyena who attempts to 'transfur' Colin into one of her children.
    • Defeating the mother hyena latex, leaving, and then returning again will have her now sitting on her chair again. Interacting with her will have her begin to pet Colin, much to his delight. There's also two unique 'transfurs' where Colin can get 'transfurred' by a lizard or snake and become a lizard or Medusa latex creature respectively.
  • Entering the Aquatic Area and then backtracking to the bridge shows the area having completely changed. The manta rays are all gone, and in their place are a large variety of latex creatures relaxing in the water or on the "beach".
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Some of the positions made whenever an enemy manages to grab ahold of Colin can look pretty suggestive. This, coupled with Lin's (initial) struggle to escape and the clear fear in his expression, makes the cutscenes look disturbingly similar to rape.
• Door to Before: Averted due to Rail Roading. There will be many times Colin happens upon a welded shut or blocked doorway, leading to a previous area he ventured through. The man's a bit peeved he's been on one long meandering detour. Puro happily comments he's glad Colin was forced to, otherwise they never would've met.
• Dug Too Deep: The game's lore reveals humans far in the future began commercial operations and mining in Antarctica. Sometime later, researchers there eventually found an ancient virus preserved under the ice, a deadly pathogen to hominids that exploits fundamental flaws in the Human genome. They named it the 'Pale Virus' as its symptoms included fatigue, decreased blood supply to the skin (hence the pale complexion), eventually the person would lapse in and out of comas before death. Then they discover — this thing has already infected 60% of the human race. There's no vaccine or treatment. All the bioengineering scientists in the world scramble to find a way to change the very DNA makeup of humans in order to grant them some form of immunity. The latex goo monsters we see were the results of those trials.
• Easy-Mode Mockery: The only ending available on easy mode is a worse variant of the Betrayal Ending.
• Everything Is Trying to Kill You: Or, well, "transfur" you. And we really do mean everything, by the way. There are dozens of enemies that actively chase you, puddles of white latex on the ground or the ceiling that act as environmental hazards, and inspectable objects that actually end your game. This even gets taken to new levels in the Special Edition, where several objects you can harmlessly interact with and are necessary for game progression turn out to be dormant mimics that can spring to life if you screw up. Most notably including the player character's clothes.
• Emergency Transformation: This was the whole point of the ruined lab's research. They were trying to find a way to pull this trope by harnessing The Assimilator abilities of the Transfurs without the whole Death of Personality aspect, as getting transformed by them made one immune to the world-ending virus. Ultimately, they succeeded in creating the technology that would allow this, but the lab was attacked by riots and consumed by escaped Transfurs before they could roll it into mass-production. The only two people who ever got to use it were Dr. K and Colin (the latter only in the "Can't Decide" ending).
• Enemy Roll Call: All the monsters have their names read out in the credits of the game's Golden Ending, including another Creator Cameo from DragonSnow Thanking the Viewer.
• Forced Transformation: Colin gets turned into numerous different species depending on what captures him, with varying levels of brainwashing added in.
• Foreshadowing: At an early point in the game, Colin inexplicably faints and blacks out for a while. New players might just simply think of it as fainting from stress after having to escape numerous Transfurs and traps. After the revelation of the virus and the implications of the "I Choose to Leave" ending, this event gains a brand new meaning.
• From Cataclysm to Myth: In the Special Edition, there's three books the Bishop has (after defeat) that piqued Colin's interest. The first is based on an ancient medical journal about the "Black Plague", a small-scale outbreak of a Swarm of Rats devouring everything. The village doctor was unable to help the victims who came into contact with the rats, whose bodies were becoming goo. The village became a Ghost Town. The second book synopsis is about the Crystal Skull legends of the Mayan civilization, whoever wears it has the "power of the gods" with an indestructible body, able to turn enemies into his allies, but at the cost of their mind. The Mayan people disappeared overnight without a trace. The last is a horror novel "Colors of the stars" based on legends where plants near a town in wintertime underwent unnatural mutated growths. Later in the forest many wandering monsters were seen. Eventually the land itself became a black Eldritch Location. By the time spring came, the earth was back to normal, but all living things disappeared. All three imply each epidemic was caused by latex beasts in the past.
• Gender Bender: More than a few goo blobs will transform Colin into a more distinctly feminine creature.
• Gone Horribly Right: The lab you wake up in was trying to research a cure for the virus by studying latex creatures, which eventually broke out and assimilated all scientists except Dr. K, who transformed himself ahead of them with a serum that would allow him to maintain his mind. This wound up working in favor of their original goal, though, since the lab was the last place on Earth where the virus could be found, and the spread of latex creatures destroyed most of it.
• Grey Goo: The potential end result for Earth owing to the latex monsters. It's not The End of the World as We Know It since the Pale Virus has already achieved that and the human race is virtually extinct. The white latex goo creatures play this trope straight with The Behemoth boss fight.
• Guide Dang It!: The task requirements to ensure you don't get a bad ending are unforgiving in the original version. You have to ensure you not only interact with and accompany Puro at every opportunity, but also thank your monster friend whenever given that option. Any other response will open up the wrong Dialogue Tree and you've locked yourself out of a happier ending. In the Special Edition, you have to work for it, as Puro will lovingly often want to interact with you to avert this outcome.
• Hazardous Water: Colin must venture through an entire watery-area to escape the tower complex. Not only can't he swim, and shallow water hampers his movements, but these flooded generator rooms are swarming with aquatic latex beasts and bosses, lurking in the depths to assimilate him.
• Heel–Face Turn: Early in the game, Colin encounters a giant masked dragon that seems to lead the black latex Transfurs. After showing his determination to survive and escape as himself, the large dragon seems to silently acknowledge his resolve and allows him to leave. In addition, the rest of the black latex cease hunting him even as he walks in plain sight down a hall filled with them. When he suddenly faints, he wakes up in a new room safe and sound, with the implication that it was the black latex Transfurs that carried him to safety. later in the game, Puro senses a territory of both white and black latex near the exit. He worries he might have to fight his own kind, but no actual black latex show up in their area, implying the giant dragon ordered all black latex to leave Colin be.
• Hive Mind: The two most common types of Transfurs in the ruined lab — the black and light latex creatures — each have their hiveminds. Both have game-overs that describe in detail the takeover of the player character's thoughts by the black or light group intelligence, and we even get to see the entity (a massive, and presumably sentient masked dragon) that commands the black latex hivemind.
• Humans Are Morons: In the last days of civilization with still no cure for the pandemic, the situation deteriorated outside the tower complex when the 99% infected dying masses realized the ultra-rich and government leaders had just absconded to a secret bunker to weather this plague out, abandoning them. The city populous riot outside, as do the human test subjects inside, and in the chaos, the latex beasts escape lab containment and consume everyone they come across. Had they held out hope just a little longer, Dr. K would've devised the means to 'transfur' the angry mob without costing them their identities.
• Ill-Timed Sneeze: This is the reason the Wolf King accidentally drops a glass tube onto himself in Special Edition. As the tube is moving into place, Colin sneezes, knocking it off the ceiling. Colin's sneezes is also the reason Colin falls into the greenhouse.
• Improvised Sail: The Squid Pup latex beasts in a bid to capture Colin, put together their own makeshift pirate ship out of garbage and crates. They all comedically sink once they sustain enough projectile damage from Puro's barrage of Gas Cylinder Rockets.
• Invincible Boogeymen: Many of the monsters are this. You cannot fight back against them, and one touch is invariably fatal to your personality. To survive you must Run or Die.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Several latex monsters, such as Kade and Headless Knight, appear malformed and missing body parts. With the former, it's the literal tail of a fox-like beast lacking any anatomy, and the latter is a centaur-like creature, minus of course, the head. Hence why they pursue Colin so desperately as such entities hope to complete themselves.
• In the Future, We Still Have Roombas: Throughout the tower complex Colin will find many little robot cleaners everywhere. Makes sense as you find out later a company previously rented this superstructure as a robotics laboratory, before the emergency expropriation of the building by the 'Thunder Science Company' during the pandemic.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  • A large amount of latex beasts will look directly at the camera during their transfur screens, even if the room they're in should mean they'd just be staring at a blank wall.
    • One monster, called Yuin, even holds its hand in front of its waist as though to hide something as it stares into the camera, then moves its hand away to reveal Barbie Doll Anatomy while flicking its tongue at the camera.
  • Yuin also actively disguises itself as a Save Point and will attack if the player gets close.
  • In the game's Special Edition, Dr. K will note how many steps Colin has taken since the game's beginning.
  • Quite a few of the latex beasts serve as walking Obvious Rule Patches intended to repel Game-Breaker strategies. This is even exaggerated in the Special Edition, where almost every Game-Breaker concept has something in place to require proceeding as intended.
  • If Colin gets transfurred by one of the lizard-like latexes in the Greenhouse area in the Special Edition, Dr. K will congratulate the human on getting the "right ending".
• The Many Deaths of You: Almost every possible game-over has a unique animation. Some even have slideshow-like cutscenes or special screens. After the Special Edition re-release, several game-overs have been given a touch-up by being given such special screens on top of the unique animations they already had. All of these animations, screens, slideshows (which, if you played the game, you've probably seen already), and even some extra content can be viewed in the game's playable credits.
• Melancholy Moon: The last half of the game takes place after nightfall; a well-cared for Puro subdues Dr. K leaving Colin free to leave the lab area. As the deuteragonists climb down a stairwell does the player appreciate the full scale of the post-pandemic Urban Ruins.
• The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: Basically every "death" in the game results in you getting transfurred, and basically all of these new shapes brainwash the player character in some way. This can range from a simple Lotus-Eater Machine effect to the complete replacement of your memories and personality with those of whatever creature that assimilated you.
• Mini-Game Credits: You can continue to control Colin after the golden ending, during the Enemy Roll Call and potentially see many 'transfurmations' and other content you would've potentially missed otherwise.
• Multiple Endings: The game has a total of 5 different endings that depend on actions taking up to the climax of the game and what choice you make at the end.
  • Betrayal: If your relationship with Puro is low, after reaching a certain room, Puro will give up hope of escaping the building alive, as without a host body, he doesn't have long to live, and doubts Colin can survive with the world outside devastated. Hoping to spare Colin and himself from dying ignoble and lonely deaths, he opts to "transfur" Colin personally, trapping him in a hallway with no escape. If played on Easy mode, Puro fully assimilates Colin into himself. On Normal difficulty, he instead turns the latter into a blue-eyed version of himself while still maintaining his identity.
  • Captured: If you make it past the aforementioned point above, but fail to improve your relationship with Puro more, Doctor K will end up destroying Puro, leaving him as just a puddle of black goo with a broken mask. Devastated by his death, Colin attempts to attack Doctor K with a pair of shears, but is quickly subdued. He is then forcefully "transfurred" into a white wolf and hypnotized with drug injections to make him obedient so that he won't spread the virus to the outside world. Doctor K remarks that a crystal formed from Puro's broken mask, implying he might reform, but without his memories of Lin.
  • I Choose to Stay: If Puro's relationship is high enough, instead of being destroyed, Puro will subdue Doctor K, giving both him and Colin a chance to escape. As they finally reach the exit of the laboratory, Doctor K reappears and desperately pleads for Colin not to leave, offering him safety if he promises to not go outside. If Colin accepts, a hurt Puro respects his choice, but goes on his own to the outside world for whatever little time he has left. The game ends with Colin apologizing to Puro for his choice to put humanity first over their friendship.
  • I Choose to Leave: If Colin chooses to leave, Doctor K reluctantly allows both of them to leave, unable to do anything else to keep them from going. After a while of walking, Colin starts to feel both exhausted and sick, and the pair rest on a rock to look at the sunrise. As Colin falls asleep, Puro confides how he finally got the see the outside world, though his nature makes it hard to see static objects around him. Colin remains unresponsive to Puro's words as they watch the sunrise. The achievement earned from this ending implies that in the end Colin succumbed and perished from the virus he had been carrying.
  • Can't decide: A third hidden option that's presented during the final choice. If the choice is backed out of, Doctor K comes up with an alternate solution: have Colin undergo the same transformation process Doctor K himself went through, allowing his new form to be treated of the virus while allowing him to maintain his sense of self, though at the cost of his human form. After some thought, Colin agrees to the treatment, with Puro watching over him carefully. After the treatment is done, Colin has become a white canid like Doctor K, while Puro has been given an "artificial host" to allow him to live longer. Free to go, the pair go to the same spot from the "I Choose to Leave" ending and watch the sunrise together, with a sense of renewed hope of living in the recovering world.
• Nintendo Hard: With the cramped hallways and chases, it can be difficult to maneuver around enemies while pushing crates around to clear the way, on top of leading enemies into one area to rush by them. And with several sneaky traps lying in wait, it would be difficult to clear the game without suffering a "death" once.
• No Escape but Down: You've got to escape the tower complex you've emerged out of Cryo-Prison from, as it's swarming with indestructible goo animals that see you as prey, and want to absorb you.
• No Item Use for You: With the exception of a one-off keycard, the player has no inventory. Likely justified with having no weapons, as those are useless against the creatures.
• Non-Malicious Monster: None of the latex goo monsters want you dead, they're just running mostly on instinct in wanting to assimilate/absorb you. Even their playful mannerisms are evident as they chase and hunt you. The concept of "humanity", "rationality" and "reason" are all alien to them, and that's the problem. If they succeed in swallowing you up, you're effectively being killed by them - you lose your individuality, your freedom, everything.
• One-Hit Kill: Virtually every monster in the game can absorb and swallow you up with but a mere touch and there's almost nothing you, a One-Hit-Point Wonder, can do to fight back as they're all indestructible, except run or hide.
• Our Sirens Are Different: One of the obstacles the protagonist must overcome in the Special Edition is a female shark-latex whose singing hypnotizes him to walk into deeper water, getting the player 'transfurred'. Her singing is drowned out by the crowd cheering should Colin incite a shark and squid-dog to fight over him.
• Post-Peak Oil: In the future humankind was running out of resources, and in desperation began petroleum extraction and mining in Antarctica. They Dug Too Deep and unleashed an unstoppable ancient virus from under the tundra. Scientists didn't discover this until it had already spread across the globe.
• Press X to Not Die: Several encounters with a latex Blob Monster will see you spamming the Space or Arrow keys to break free of its grasp before they assimilate you.
• Puzzle Game: In the Special Edition, cute dragon-like latex baby monsters hiding in boxes force Colin to play a mirror game against them. Despite its simple premise it can be fiendishly difficult to get past them. There is, however, the option to reset the puzzle should you bone yourself by touching the latex beast hiding in a box with a recycled symbol.
• Railroading: The game has a mostly-linear progression, beyond any curiosity of the transfurmation game overs, few areas allow the player to backtrack to them, and for very good reason. Colin pragmatically doesn't want to return to previous rooms as whatever latex monster he was just fleeing from is usually banging on the doors, and sometimes they break in. Escaping a chasing beast will have one solution, and the protagonist's fear preventing you from being creative serves as not just an Obvious Rule Patch, but to let you know when you've screwed up.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Various creatures have a sweet, lovable appearance and disposition in spite of the real danger they pose to humans. This is noted In-Universe by the scientist researchers who even kept any safe-to-handle young goo creatures, as pets. It is also adorable to witness different animals latch onto and hug Colin. Flatteringly, to some of them, you are the best thing to ever happen to them, even though their affection ends in a Non-Standard Game Over.
• Run or Die: The core mechanic of gameplay is that you the player are up against implacable predatory threats you cannot hope to stand your ground against.
• Shout-Out:
  • Many of Shizi's soundtracks with their cover art in the Special Edition credits are a reference to various iconic albums. White Knight about to smash his guitar pays homage to The Clash's cover for London Calling. Ming Cat with their cardboard cutouts is a shout-out to the vinyl cover of The 1970s Best of Van Morrison. The dark latex wolf area parodies Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here (1975) album. Wolf King wearing many sunglasses is homage to Walls And Bridges by John Lennon. The music to the dark latex dragons area references Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon. The realistically-shaded orange fruit for the Library BGM is a reference to Andy Warhol's album cover for The Velvet Underground & Nico. Kade posing is a parody of the 1980 album "Diana" by Diana Ross. Tigershark swimming underwater for an orange is a parody of Nirvana's 90s iconic cover for Nevermind. Tigershark and Squid Dog holding each other as they walk is a shout-out to Bob Dylan's 1963 album The Freewheelin'.
• Showing Off the New Body: Many of the latex goo organisms do this after successfully assimilating Colin into themselves.
• Sorting Algorithm of Threatening Geography: As the latex goo spreads unchecked through the tower compound it creates a hazardous environment for Colin to navigate without getting 'transfurred'. Some surfaces are slippery, and he'll slide frictionless and helpless. Others hinder his movements and he cannot run in it. The pursuing dark and light latex monsters are either also subjected to, or completely unaffected, by these habitats.
• Stealth-Based Game: Some sections of the game Colin must sneak past patrolling latex beasts to survive, timing his movements according to when the creatures aren't looking all while power outages knock out the lights.
• Step One: Escape: Colin's first task upon waking up is to escape his holding chamber, as the vent is too small to climb through and the door is locked. The solution is to lure the living milk puddle out of the vent and down the drain so that Colin can press the emergency door unlock inside the vent.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: In an early update in Special Edition, going through the vents had Colin encounter grey mouse-like Cartoon Creature latex beasts. A later update completely replaced these creatures with red panda latex beasts, with the previous mouse creatures making no appearance whatsoever.
• There Is No Cure:
  • Any human being infected by the Pale Virus will become increasingly sickly and pale-skinned, lapsing in and out of consciousness before its curtains. Desperate, the world leaders and scientists crossed the Godzilla Threshold that was their latex-goo experiments in a last-ditch attempt to cheat death.
  • Anyone who is assimilated by the Mutagenic Goo latex creatures is changed by them for keeps. The "transfurmation" process as it became known as by the bioengineers that created them, is permanent and irreversible.
• The Tower: The entire game's location is set inside a megastructure; a skyscraper complex that dominates the ruined post-apocalyptic metropolis. Its implied the compound, along with various bunkers and seed vaults throughout the globe, were all originally built by The Illuminati.
• Trapped-with-Monster Plot: You the player, wake up from suspended animation into an unfamiliar hostile environment where latex goo monsters are running amok driven to assimilate you on sight. An Ambiguously Evil doctor, seems desperate to feed you to said monsters because you're a Typhoid Mary carrying the last of a deadly virus that wiped out civilization.
• Unintentionally Unwinnable: In the vent passageways near Puro's home, you can accidentally softlock yourself if you push the boxes into the wrong places. Can also happen earlier when fleeing the Ming Cat and you block off your only route of escape.
• Urban Ruins: Beyond the tower complex where the game is set lies an endless cityscape of ruins, appropriate considering the story takes place After the End.
• Verbed Title: Also a Justified Title as anyone assimilated by the Mutagenic Goo latex creatures is changed by them for keeps.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential: Much of the game's charm is around all the various possible ways the protagonist can meet his end at the paws of the latex beasts, the Special Edition features many more 'transfurmations' and Non-Standard Game Over screens than the original.
• Video Game Cruelty Punishment: In the original game it was easy to mess up and have Puro absorb the human into himself, or die to Dr. K, if not looked after properly. The special edition gives the player multiple opportunities to avert this, so now it's a case of Earn Your Bad Ending. Puro won't always be there to save Colin if he's not befriended, meaning the chase sequence with the snow leopards just got a lot harder.
• The Virus: The latex creatures can transform (or 'transfur') the protagonist into one of them upon contact. All human personnel in the lab have been converted long before the protagonist wakes up. The transformation abilities are so virulent, in fact, just coming into contact with the inanimate crystals found on their territory or with the synthetic substances made by the scientists studying the damn things is enough to be 'transfured'. Ironic, since the latex creatures were researched by the scientists as a cure for a highly lethal virus.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Colin wears nothing but a pair of shorts throughout the entirety of the game.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Doctor K is willing to do anything to keep the virus from being reintroduced to the world, and when he suspects Colin of being a possible carrier, he'll resort to imprisonment or forceful transformation to keep him from leaving.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: A central theme of the game. Any human assimilated into a latex goo monster will not only survive the Pale Virus pandemic but also essentially achieve immortality, but at a terrible cost. Not just to their physical bodies, but their mind, individuality and memories all start to erode and breakdown and they no longer remember being human. Even Puro himself isn't immune to this, being a self-made Uplifted Animal, and fears his regeneration cycle will destroy his sapience when he reverts into a crystalline form and back again.
• Yet Another Stupid Death: Nearly everything in the lab can result in a transformation, and only trial-and-error will inform you which objects are safe and which ones aren't. There's even a nasty enemy that disguises itself as a save point.
• Your Days Are Numbered:
  • Puro, being a black latex, can only survive on his own while inside the lab building. Otherwise, like the other Transfurs, he needs a human host to extend his lifespan. In the Easy Mode Betrayal ending, he caves in to his desire to survive and forcibly makes Colin his host. In the Can't Decide ending, Doctor K instead provided an artificial host, allowing him to live without having to consume a human.
  • The "I Choose to Leave" ending, this is true for Colin as well as Puro. As Doctor K suspected, he was indeed carrying the virus that devastated the world inside of him, and by the ending, he finally perishes from it just hours after exiting the building. The "Can't Decide" ending on the other hand has his Emergency Transformation save him in time, with the virus being treated as a result.

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