- my guests,
allow me to be courtious-
where this goes, I forget and
may never know,
but for our sake-
I know that we will never reach the place where
we've heard all there is to tell of these places-
beyond the eyes of madness
and in sleep
where all others go but me
Ghost Suburb is a surreal and disorienting RPG Maker 2003 series of games by CARRIONBLUE. It begins with Ghost Suburb II: From Beyond Sleep Into The Eyes of Madness
which tells the story of Nurse Okay, a nurse working in the sprawling Midland Research Hospital Center. She has not slept in three months. Accompanying her is a floating eye named Gertrud, who claims to not be a floating eye. As the hospital begins to break down both physically and metaphysically, Okay and Gertrud will have to explore it and search for Sleep, the entire time leaving the player unsure of what exactly is going on.
Also in the series is a prequel, Ghost Suburb Zero, where you play as May and journey through a strange dream world while killing ghosts, and Instead;Ghost Suburb, a side-game where you play as a nameless girl collecting items in a village and dropping them off at the shrine to open the northmost building.
The Operation has begun...
- Animesque: The game is very OFF-inspired but has more of a cutesy anime artstyle for it's characters, which contrasts with the Surreal Horror and gore.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: Gertrud is revealed to be working with Insomnia and Narcolepsy to curse Okay with insomnia and are responsible for the monsters attacking the Midland Research Hospital Center.
- Foreshadowing:
- In one early room, you can see a lock with three images that flash quickly across the screen. The images are one of Gertrud, the face of Insomnia- one of the main antagonists and final bosses- and Dr. Leads looking over the experiment that would result in Sleep becoming braindead.
- In another early room, Gertrud, a floating eye, will tell you that she has legs, to which Okay doesn't believe her. The eye body is just an avatar- her real, human self indeed has legs.
- The Desk Nurse mentions a green-haired nurse who is "completely on something". This is most likely Gertrud, who is completely Ax-Crazy.
- At the end of Day 1, the closing narration wonders if the hospital is the same place as Okay's hospital or just some twisted copy. It is, in fact, a nightmare version crafted by Insomnia and Narcolepsy.
- Fetus Terrible: The Pulsating Body enemies and Fetal Patient boss are a "floating bag of pulsating organs and birth cries".
- Gameplay and Story Integration: Okay's PDA is the pause menu, but it broke at some point prior to the beginning of the game, so you can't actually view the menu until you buy a new one.
- Getting High on Their Own Supply: While not necessarily an illegal drug dealer, the Drug Nurse is addicted to narcotics and other medical drugs, to the point that she complains about having been banned from entering the hospital pharmacy.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Potentially subverted, as certain parts of the game imply that Okay's mental state is possibly affecting reality as a whole, and not just for her. The end then reveals it was all a product of her head due to her guilt over Sleep's current condition and Gertrud manipulating her, but End 3 hints that Insomnia and Narcolepsy are pretty much real.
- Mind Screw: And nothing but. All of the aspects of the game are put through a disorienting and confusing lens.
- Multiple Endings:
- Ending 1: Okay is killed by the soldiers.
- Ending 2: Okay wakes up in the real world, only to find Gertrud choking her in her sleep. Okay resigns herself to her fate and lets Gertrud kill her.
- Ending 3: Okay wakes up after defeating Insomnia and Narcolepsy, then shoots Gertrud in the head. She and the rest of the medical personnel are evacuated to a safer zone. The story ends up with Okay saying that many things happened after the evacuation, but even though she seemingly defeated Insomnia and Narcolepsy, she's still insomniac.
- Not Hyperbole: The Astronomer says she usually looks to the Moon for answers for questions she has. When Okay assumes she is being metaphorical, she clarifies that she means the Contemplative Moon, who resides in the hospital.
- Plot-Inciting Infidelity: As it turns out, the reason that Okay cannot sleep is Gertrud trapping her in an eternal nightmare as revenge for sleeping with her husband.
- Random Encounters: The presence of these is lampshaded by Getrud and Okay:Gertrud: I think its safe to assume this is going to be one of those 'Fucked until informed otherwise' situations.
Okay: So, expect them from nowhere?
Gertrud: Precisely. - The Reveal: All of the Mind Screw is given an actual explanation at the end. Okay was working in a secret government experiment on people with psychic powers, and was in a nightmare all along, trapped there by Insomnia, Narcolepsy, and Gertrud as revenge for sleeping with Gertrud’s husband (Dr. Leads).
- Shop Fodder: Amanda Panda, Okay's item merchant, starts to look for Mutant Samples on Day 3 and gives Okay fifty for every Mutant Sample she has.
- Story Breadcrumbs: The Hours, a series of sequences about How We Got Here that Okay collects in the form of notes. Turns out that Okay was in dire need for a job, so she slept with Dr. Leads to earn a job at his hospital. Gertrud Leads found out and made a deal with Insomnia and Narcolepsy to ruin their lives. In her insane path for revenge, she sabotaged Sleep's operation, transformed the Doctor into a mindless monster and gave Okay narcolepsy in order to make her pay for taking her husband away.
- Surreal Horror
- Warmup Boss: The Fetal Patient is the first boss of the game, fought at the end of Day 1.
- The Operation was a success...
