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Video Game / Outcore

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Due to the sheer quantity of spoilers, all of the spoilers on this page will be unmarked. You Have Been Warned!

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/outcore_desktop_adventure_1xchj.jpg
Who is she? Why did she appear on your desktop? Let's dive into her memories and find out.
Outcore is a Puzzle-Platformer Game by Doctor Shinobi, released on September 26th, 2022 on Steam.

Imagine that you boot up your computer one day, and a gray blob flies across your screen. It orders you to give it a file. Should you oblige, the game begins; the blob fades into light and reveals a girl named Lumi, who has lost all her memories. The game revolves around helping her regain her forgotten past, searching for files on your desktop and helping her decrypt them.

Of course, this is only half of the game. The other half actually takes place within the memories themselves. You play through her past, meeting a handful of "the worst characters ever written", as you discover exactly how she ended up there in the first place.

It was released for free, but with a slew of (practically functionless) DLC accompanying it, primarily for people wishing to support the game. Such DLC includes:

How about we run off together? Let's explore THE TROPES ABOVE

  • Achievement Mockery:
    • If you simply search online for the code to Mastermind's doorcode without finding the treasure, you get the "Read a walkthrough" achievement, and not only does Lumi outright say she looked up the code upon being questioned about how she knew the code, Laifu even scolds you for doing so shortly after. You unlock your Star power shortly afterwards, since you were supposed to get it through the intended path, but Laifu doesn't tell you how to use it, saying that you can probably just search it up as well. Doing this also has the added bonus of completely skipping the Fairy Hartstronk race, Booty the Bootleg Bootleg, The Great Evil Villainous League Of Evil Villains meeting, and all three Reinbo fights.
      Laifu: Oh? You don't know how to use it? Well, maybe you should check that on the internet.
    • Completing the eighth stage of the Idle Game and buying the final item for 2000 coins (a task that takes longer than an hour for the final stage alone) grants you... nothing, except for one achievement, titled "It really wasn't worth it".
  • Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Captain Tutorial fits this to a tee. He really does care for Lumi - after losing Ofelia, he bought Lumi several, and extremely expensive, gifts to try and cheer her up. On the other hand, he's influenced extremely easily.
    Lumi: I swear, he’s not always dressed like that!
    Lumi: It’s just that he’s always so overdramatic and easily influenced.
    Lumi: He once saw a TV show called “Mister Chef” and decided that he’s a world class food artist.
    Lumi: ... He ended up burning our house.
    Lumi: ... three times.
  • Amnesiac Hero: The player's job is to help the caped protagonist, Lumi, recover her memories.
  • Anti-Frustration Features:
    • ASHMEDAI THE DESTROYER provides you the option to skip any boss instantly, which is very useful if you want to play the game but get stuck on a boss or want to replay without refighting the bosses.
    • One part of the game involves completing an idle game to purchase a decoder for Lumi's memories. The game revolves around collecting and depositing golden coins by programming a character via a Javascript program. Thankfully, Lumi is skilled with Javascript, and is capable of solving the first four stages for you if you do not wish to do it yourself.
    • If you lose to Fairy Hartstronk during the race, Fairy Hartstronk will restart the race, however he will be extremely exhausted and move much slower.
    • Inverted by a certain section of the Fairy Hartstronk race. Just behind the finish line is the "Time-Wasting Heart", who, when interacted with, will go on an excessively long rant about basically nothing, all while Hartstronk gains a lead on you. If you talk to this heart and still manage to win (while Hartstronk hasn't been exhausted) you get an achievement for it.
  • A Lizard Named "Liz": Booty the Bootleg is an actual talking boot. Booty the Bootleg Bootleg is a bootleg of Booty the Bootleg.
  • Bombproof Appliance: The Tutorial Hat is not only bomb-proof, it's nuke-proof. On the other hand, it's just a hat rather than, say, a fridge, so this trope is both Downplayed and Exaggerated in its own strange way.
  • Chekhov's Gun: The World Above. Initially, it is only explained as a location beyond the Underground, and that's about it. The entire journey is kicked off by Ofelia hearing stories from Booty the Bootleg about The World Above, hearing about it being a huge, open area, with colors that don't even exist in the Underground and no walls or ceiling. Ofelia and Lumi originally planned to go there together, but Lumi backed out at the last second, leaving Ofelia to go on her own. Her desire to leave is fueled once more by the photo of The World Above left behind by Booty the Bootleg. At the end of the game, it's revealed that The World Above is actually your desktop, as the photo that Lumi takes is saved to your desktop as "The world above.png".
  • Clark Kenting: Captain Tutorial. Besides being in spandex, all he does to change his appearance is wear a Paper-Thin Disguise, which even Lumi is not fooled by.
    ???: HAAAAA HA HA HA HAA!
    Lumi: Dad, what are you doing?
    Not Dad: I'm not Dad, I'm...
    Captain Tutorial
    Lumi: What are you wearing? Have you been watching too much anime again?
    Captain Tutorial: HAAAAA HA HA HA HAA!
    Captain Tutorial: Yes!
  • Confused Question Mark: After picking the DEMON route's option on the second attack, Laifu will show extreme concern and confusion over Lumi's sudden possession.
    Lumi: What I'm trying to say is you're RAAAHHHHHHH
    Laifu: (extremely concerned) ???
  • Demonic Possession:
    • The Laifu boss fight has a third route, titled the DEMON route, where Lumi is possessed by a "handsome ancient demon lord zombie" or "handsome ancient demon lord vampire". Booty the Bootleg shows up afterwards with an item that conveniently dispels demons.
    • K-Lev is possessed by the soul of a handsome ancient demon lord.
  • Developer's Foresight:
    • Upon starting the first Memory, a character called "ASHMEDAI THE DESTROYER" asks you what your preferred control scheme is, offering the choice between using the Arrow keys + ZXC or Mouse + WASD. If you have OBS Studio open, he also shows up as soon as the game is first opened, and claims he is "The Screen That Warns You Not To Leak Your Private Information On Stream." Ashmedai warns you that the game does indeed run on your actual desktop, and, since the screen is being recorded, to ensure that nothing you don't want to be seen is visible.
      Ashmedai: My name is "The Screen That Warns You Not To Leak Your Private Information On Stream", but my friends simply call me ASHMEDAI THE DESTROYER. Legends foretold you might be recording/streaming this screen. Just wanted to let you know this game really does run on your real desktop. The game only runs on your main screen, so make sure it doesn't contain anything you don't want to be caught in your recording.
    • Deleting any of Lumi's files will crash the game and grant the achievement "Murderer".
    • Dragging K-Lev into the Memory Loader instead of Lumi grants you the "Good boy" achievement, as well as a really strange memory (that probably did not happen) involving a lot of golden bones.
    • The game comes with a free copy of Paint.net that is used as a failsafe in the event that Microsoft Paint cannot be opened.
  • Easter Egg: Picking up Lumi and spinning her really quickly makes her dizzy.
  • Eldritch Location: The Void. The Void's effects appear to be extremely drastic, to a point where, even after completely losing her memory, the very thought of an empty void comes close to triggering Lumi's trauma. While the circumstances are unclear, the Void appears to be beyond the edge of the world, and anyone who ventures out that far is almost guaranteed to never return. Those who do return have no memory of the place. If one manages to escape the gravity of the world, they begin to drift through the Void, which also seems to force its victims through Neverending Terror, driving them insane in the process. The only way out at this point is to get lucky enough to overload the program's memory and get ejected from it, which grants access to The World Above.
  • Exact Words: The ESCAPE Room, within the School of Love, is a white room that you get trapped in about halfway through chapter 3. The room is inescapable, hence the "days since last escape" counter reading "a lot", and there are other people stuck there. The way to escape is by pressing the Escape key (ESC on most keyboards).
  • Face–Heel Turn: Downplayed. Taking note that the hero's goal is to maintain the Status Quo, and Lumi is about to do everything but, she decides to change her attire to be more villain-like. If anything, she's transforming from The Hero to the Anti-Villain.
    Lumi: They say that in stories the villain is the one who tries to change things, while the hero tries to maintain the status quo. Given the circumstances, I think it's fitting to say... That you and I are the final villains of this story, while your computer is its hero. Haha! You know, I think my current outfit doesn't really fit a villain very much. Allow me a moment to change that!
  • Fairy Trickster: Downplayed. Fairy Hartstronk is an incredibly buff (male) fairy who even wears pink. He's also a Lake Fairy that is summoned when one loses an important object to the lake. Hartstronk's first appearance shows him checking Lumi to see if she is Pure of Heart, but Lumi ends up having to race him for 4970 "Score Points" to pay the Electrical Bill Ghost's payment. Hartstronk ends up not having these points at all, since he didn't actually plan on someone beating him. Because of this, Lumi ends up making Hartstronk a Fairy in a Bottle, which Booty the Bootleg accepts as payment, as he can either use Hartstronk as a housemaid or sell his organs.
  • Fake-Out Fade-Out:
    • If you select "No" for the very first choice in the first Memory of the game, the credits roll before noting that you're in a bad mood.
    • When the Mastermind is asked why he is keeping everyone in the school, he says there is no reason, and that everyone is free to go. Roll credits!
  • Fate Worse than Death: Lumi is forced through this in the form of Neverending Terror while drifting in the Void. She's forced to relive the same nightmare, again and again and again, without end, until she gets lucky enough to be ejected into The World Above.
    Lumi: I woke up again... How long have I been here? Decades? Years? Months? Or maybe just mere hours? How many times did I dream about my journey to this place? How many times did I say these exact words?
    Lumi: It must have been at least 1,000 times...
    Lumi: It must have been at least 10,000 times...
    Lumi: It must have been at least 100,000 times...
    Lumi: It must have been at least 1,000,000 times...
    Lumi: Why did I do it? Why couldn't I just accept a normal, boring life? I can't take this anymore! Why... won't... it... just... END?!
  • Food Fight: After Ofelia tricks Lumi into planting her face in her plateful of food, she retaliates by throwing her food, but it misses and hits another person. Soon enough, everyone in the cafeteria is throwing food at each other while Ofelia and Lumi duck for cover.
    Ofelia: DUCK FOR YOUR LIFE
  • Good Is Not Nice: Captain Tutorial, while training Lumi, acts like Lumi set a bunch of people into burning buildings for drama. He proclaims that he will defeat Lumi and save the people, in that particular order, only to follow up with:
    Captain Tutorial: Before I annihilate you, let's hear what the crowd has to say!
    [Distant screaming]
    Captain Tutorial: ...
    Captain Tutorial: Don't worry, villain! There are other helpless citizens stuck in this building!
  • "Groundhog Day" Loop: Every day in the Underground is nearly the exact same, to a point where Lumi has memorized the entire day. The only people that are absolutely known to not be subject to the loop are Lumi, Ofelia, and Captain Tutorial.
  • Hello, [Insert Name Here]: Lumi lets you input your own name, but has tons of Easter Eggs to go with it, too.
    • Naming yourself "DoctorShinobi", "E", or anything self-deprecating, vulgar or sexualnote  will cause her to sarcastically proclaim how original the name is, along with the chance to change the name. If you take the chance, and reinput the exact same name, she notes this, and decides to play along anyways.
    • Naming yourself "Lumi" causes Lumi to be suprised at you having the same name as her. "Lumilia" also has this result, but has her mention that Lumilia is actually her full name.
    • Naming yourself "Captain Tutorial" sends chills down her spine, although she's unsure why.
    • Naming yourself "Booty The Bootleg" makes her think you're a boot.
    • Naming yourself "Laifu" has Lumi call your name "cute". She doesn't remember what Laifu did to her... yet.
    • Naming yourself "Outcore" causes Lumi to note that your name sounds more like a video game name rather than a real name. She brushes it off, though, since she's not familiar with the world yet.
    • Naming yourself "Daddy" makes her disgusted, since it's a name you would call your father.
      Lumi: ...WHAT. You can't expect me to be calling you daddy.
    • Naming yourself "Senpai" will have Lumi say that she doesn't know you well enough to be calling you that. She ultimately gives up trying to avoid it, and goes on as normal. Baka...
    • Naming yourself "Fez" or "Pazini" will have her be excited to meet "The Great Magician Musician".
    • Not naming yourself will have her call you "Null".
      Lumi: That's a good name for someone whose parents didn't care enough to name them
    • If you input a name only one or two characters long, she will comment on your name being extremely short. "E" is the only exception.
    • Putting symbols in your name will cause Lumi to exclaim that she's never met someone with symbols in their name.
  • He Who Must Not Be Seen: Ashmedai the Destroyer. Ashmedai takes a form closest to The Voice, albeit as text, at the start of the first Memory and the pause menu, where they allow you to select your control scheme and skip bosses, respectively.
    Ashmedai: Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyy whatsupppppppp. It's me, your boy, ASHMEDAI THE DESTROYER. Listen. You and I? We're best buddies. And you know what best buddies do together? That's right! They share their favorite platforming keyboard layouts with each other! Yeah! All the cool kids do that. So uhmm... How about you go first?
    Ashmedai: Hey best friend, it's me, ASHMEDAI THE DESTROYER, here to help you out. Choose this to skip this boss fight, champ
  • Hidden Villain: Laifu. Once you make it into the Mastermind's Evil Lair, the conveniently-shaped-like-Mistermind silhouette is revealed to be Laifu sitting in a throne, much to Lumi's disappointment. At the same time, it's revealed that she is one of the few individuals who were able to return from The World Above, but they remember nothing about it, besides finding other people who seemed insistent on calling her "thick." She eventually started to get sick of this and cut her own legs off so she couldn't go back, and has vowed the rest of her life to protecting others from the same fate. It's later revealed she was referring to the Void, and, as far as she knows, The World Above does not exist.
  • His Name Really Is "Barkeep": Captain Tutorial's name in the second memory, which takes place before Captain Tutorial's appearance, is simply "Mr. Tutorial". The first memory also states Lumi's first name is "Lumilia", which heavily implies her full name is Lumilia Tutorial.
  • Idle Game: An entire section of the game, just before Chapter 2, takes the form of an idle game. You have to program the movements yourself in JavaScript.
  • Innocent Bigot: At the end of the game, Lumi talks about exploring the Internet. During this conversation, she asks you if you're a "beta cuck", unaware of what the term really means.context This is justified by her only experience with the internet at that point being her own website, which resembles extremely old internet websites. It's only logical that she wouldn't be very well-informed on modern internet culture, such as the "beta cuck".
  • Intentional Heartbreaker: Subverted. Laifu's HATE route involves Lumi insulting Laifu several times. This starts by saying her heart is as ugly as she is and that she's as dumb as a bricknote , to name a few. Turns out, Laifu actually has a humilation kink.
    Laifu: Yes... Yes... YES! What is that feeling? My heart is pounding... my stomach is tickling... and my entire body feels warmer just from looking at you! Could... could it be... that I have fallen in love? You tried so hard to make me hate you by insulting me, but what you didn't know is... THAT I'M ACTUALLY INTO THAT $@&*!
  • Level Ate: Captain Tutorial's first trial is a candy land.
  • Love Confession: Played for Laughs. Laifu's third attack involves a completely random guy (named "Some guy who's in love with Laifu" in game) coming out of (quite literally) nowhere and confessing their love for Laifu. Laifu responds by saying that she might accept his love if he turns into a spikey heart and kills Lumi.
  • Most Definitely Not a Villain: Subverted. Mistermind looks exactly like the silhouette of the Mastermind, and is never seen at the same time as the Mastermind, even during their first introduction, which is implied to be pre-recorded. It is later revealed that the reason he never appears at the same time as the Mastermind is a pure coincidence, and that Laifu was the real Mastermind.
  • No Fair Cheating: During Fairy Hartstronk's race, if you go backwards a few steps and then cross the finish line, it counts as a full lap. Hartstronk does not approve of this, and will restart the whole race after it ends if you do it even once.
  • No Fourth Wall: Outside of Memories, Lumi is completely aware of you, and is even capable of reading files, writing to files, and outright hacking your device (with permission). Thankfully, since she isn't evil, she only does this to help people (and reads your save data just for fun). You do, however, end up helping her break your computer screen to expose the Outcore.
  • Old Save Bonus: The penultimate boss has Lumi use the icons on your desktop to create various mini games. There's lots of them, but only three are picked, presumably at random.
    • The only icon that seems to be guaranteed is the Recycle Bin, which causes conveyor belts to appear, and you must sort various files into the correct bins.
    • Having a DAW, music streaming program, .mp3 file, media player, or osu! causes a piano to appear, and you must play the notes that appear.
    • Having an image editor or .sai file will cause Lumi to paint on your screen. The paintbrush will follow your cursor, and you have to avoid the trail it makes.
    • Having an antivirus will actually put you at a disadvantage, as pop-ups will appear throughout the fight that will instantly cause you to lose if left open for too long, or if the wrong button is clicked.
    • Having Minecraft, Terraria, Starbound, Forager, or Trove causes multiple blocks to appear on the bottom of the screen. You must click them, and dig your way to the six diamond ores to win.
    • Having Valorant, Fortnite, Enter the Gungeon, Half-Life, Battlefield, PAYDAY, DOOM, Fallout, Team Fortress 2, Destiny, or a considerable number of other shooting games causes lots of missiles to appear, and you must grab the energy circles before the missiles reach the top of the screen. Fortunately, you're given a gun that destroys the missiles, albeit slowly.
  • Reality Warper: Lumi becomes this after defeating the Outcore. She uses this power to recreate the entirety of the Underground, creating a vast planet with millions of places to explore. She even goes as far as creating other star systems and planets for them to explore when they seek to explore outside the Underground. Lumi goes this far to specifically ensure that nobody ever makes it to the Void again, declaring she found nothing but madness in her quest to The World Above. She also transports all citizens of the Underground to this new planet, but Lumi herself chooses to explore the Internet instead, as she created the dimension, and thus knows all of its secrets. She becomes an Internet Explorer, if you will.
  • Self-Deprecation: Found in the advertisement for the Tutorial Hat, from the happy customer interviewed:
    Unknown: Let's see what our happy customers think about it!
    Kafot: It sucks.
  • Shout-Out:
  • Songs in the Key of Panic: Found in the variety of Nearing-the-End Music. Every boss track has a faster and more intense version, identifiable by the "Pinch!" at the end of their name, that plays when the boss has very low health, usually their very last hitpoint. The game's four examples:
    Captain Tutorial's Pinch! music, Tutorial Justice Pinch!
    Big Booty's Pinch! music, Big Bad Booty Pinch!
    Laifu's Pinch! music, Waifu 4 Laifu Pinch!
    The Outcore's Pinch! music, The World Above 47 Final FINAL new Final(4) ver Pinch!
  • Stable Time Loop: Of a sort. The photo of The World Above is revealed to have been left by Booty the Bootleg who states that a dog told him to put it in a specific place at a specific time, to which Lumi refuses to believe. Near the end of the game, Lumi creates a screenshot of your desktop and requests that you drag and drop it inside her dog K-Lev if you wish to reset the game, so that he may give the screenshot to Booty the Bootleg, who will leave the photo for another Lumi to find.
  • Technicolor Ninja:
  • The Power of Love: Laifu hints at this early on. Later, it's revealed that, through love, anyone can escape from the highschool, much to Laifu's surprise. Sadly, Kafot cannot be saved through the power of love. Funnily enough, if you input the code without going through the whole treasure quest, this trope is averted.
  • The Scream: One of the civilians in the burning building screams in pain just before the Captain Tutorial fight.
  • Title Drop: Near the end of the game, if you ask Lumi what that core she just fought was, she'll refer to it as the Outcore. Funnily enough, she dismisses the name as "cringy" immediately after.
  • Transformation Sequence: Captain Tutorial has one right before his boss fight. His transformation is identical to his normal form. Additionally, just before the sequence, he shouts out "It's Tutorial time!"
  • We Will Meet Again: Reinbo does this, and has an entire case of The Quest and an exaggerated case of You Killed My Father to go along with it.
  • Writers Cannot Do Math: K-Lev is half robot, half mutant, and half dog possessed by the soul of an ancient handsome demon lord.

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