open/close all folders
Games in the series
Games in the series to date:
- Fellow Traveler: The first game sees Rick discover his true calling as one who brings peace to the dead and protects the living.
- The Tall Man: Rick is called on to investigate the most recent disappearance in a legendary haunted forest.
- Enjoy the Shopping: Something in a shopping mall is driving the security officers to nervous breakdowns, and Rick goes undercover to find out who - or what - is responsible.
- Hook Man's Legend: Rick travels to a remote community to find out why ghosts are tormenting the residents.
- Trials of Worth: Members of an archaeological expedition have been driven to catatonia, and someone clearly doesn't want Rick to find out the truth.
- The Trap of Truth: Rick is a feature presenter at a carnival of the paranormal, but a spirit obsessed with honesty is rooting out the frauds.
- Ghost Chapter: Rachel assembles a team of friends to help her run Rick's agency in his absence, and they need to find out the story behind a malevolently haunted mansion.
- Price of a Secret: The current owners of a century-old family business are being targeted by angry ghosts who have an old score to settle.
- Silent Willow: Rachel is very close to learning what really happened in the beginning of Ghost Chapter, but the final clue seems to be in an insane asylum.
- Counterpart: The team has to go to an alternate dimension to rescue a friend.
Tropes seen in these games include:
Tropes seen throughout the series
- Affectionate Nickname: Mia sometimes addresses Rachel as "Rae."
- Alliterative Name: Rick Rogers
- Befriending the Enemy: When Rick and Rachel first meet in Trials of Worth, it's not a good relationship; he doesn't appreciate her deceptive tactics. By the end of the "Freaky Friday" Flip, however, they start to become friends, and as of The Trap of Truth it's clear that the friendship is moving in a romantic direction. Rick notes in Trap that he also gained a good friend in Gabriel as a result of the whole thing.
- Big Good: Rick arguably is this for the series in general. His explicit mission, as he states in the beginning of The Tall Man, is to hunt down and expel evil spirits for the good of humanity.
- Continuity Cameo: Daemon and Mia, two of the members of Rachel's team in Ghost Chapter, appear in previous installments as fellow paranormal experts of Rick's. Isaac is also introduced prior to joining the team because he's Gabriel's nephew.
- Continuity Nod: The entire series is an ongoing storyline about Rick Rogers and his paranormal investigations. In particular, the bonus chapter of The Trap of Truth directly leads into the main storyline of Ghost Chapter.
- Dead to Begin With: Any characters who appear as ghosts are this, though special mention goes to Emily and Rose in Fellow Traveler since it's not immediately clear that they are ghosts.
- Deadpan Snarker: Although he's a Nice Guy and usually sweet-natured, Rick does have shades of this at times.
- Disappeared Dad: The collection sidequest in Fellow Traveler reveals that Rick had been close to his dad, who died in a car accident many years earlier.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: When first introduced, Rachel has long hair that she often wears braided, and Mia's hair is extremely short. By the time of Price of a Secret, which is set fourteen years after the opening of Ghost Chapter, Rachel has cut off her braid and Mia has grown her hair to shoulder length.
- Functional Magic: Ghosts, amulets, magic rituals, and all manner of paranormal and supernatural phenomena are very real in the world of these games.
- The Immune: The third game in particular clarifies that this is one of Rick's powers - his gift from Emily at the end of the first game protects him from the influence of supernatural beings. They can physically harm him, if they so choose, but they can't mess with his mind or possess him.
- Improvised Screwdriver: Rick is more likely to remove a screw with a coin or token than an actual screwdriver.
- Level-Map Display: As with most Elephant Games properties, each game features an interactive map enabling Fast Travel between locations. The map also indicates which locations still have collectibles to find and actions to perform.
- Like Brother and Sister: Ghost Chapter and Price of a Secret suggest that this is the relationship between Rachel and Gabriel. They're clearly devoted friends, but there's no indication that there's anything romantic about it. Her friendship with Rick, on the other hand, definitely has romantic overtones.
- Missing Mom: The collection sidequest of The Trap of Truth reveals that Rick's mom, Amber, died trying to save him from a house fire when he was nine years old.
- Paranormal Investigation: As the series title indicates, every game revolves around this.
- Present Absence: Rick Rogers is the series protagonist. In Ghost Chapter, however, he disappears under mysterious circumstances, and his partner Rachel spends the next thirteen years trying desperately to find him. As of the end of the game, he's still missing, and the next few games continue the search.
- Relationship Upgrade: Daemon and Mia are implied to be dating during the events of The Trap of Truth. They're in a committed relationship by the time of Ghost Chapter, and they get married in the time between the end of that game and the beginning of Price of a Secret.
- Royal "We": More of the 'editorial we' variety. From the second game onward, Rick always refers to his detective agency using "we," even though for the first several games he's the only one working there.
- Sequel Hook:
- The Trap of Truth has its bonus chapter end with Rick asking Daemon to show him the store where he bought the game they've just been playing. Sure enough, Ghost Chapter begins with Rick and Rachel at that very store.
- As of the end of Ghost Chapter, series protagonist Rick Rogers has disappeared and is still missing, and the man who hired Rachel and her team to investigate his estate has also disappeared - and stolen some key items. The end of the main game shows this man on the phone with Rick.
- In the next installment, Price of a Secret, Rick reappears in the bonus chapter - but not permanently.
- Silent Willow continues the mystery, which remains unresolved.
- Counterpart brings it to its conclusion at last.
- Shared Universe: Counterpart reveals that this series takes place in the same universe as Grim Tales, with Anna Gray (the protagonist of that series) coming to aid Rachel and the team with their current case. By extension, this means that Paranormal Files also takes place in the same universe as Mystery Trackers, Haunted Hotel, Detectives United, and Mystery Case Files.
- Scenery Gorn: It varies from one game to another, but you can expect to see skeletons, murder victims, blood spatter, and other unpleasant sights from time to time.
- Shout-Out:
- During the main game of The Tall Man, Rick muses that he'll have to "channel my inner Indiana Jones" in order to swiftly replace a needed item with a heavy ball so as not to trigger a trap. Later, in the bonus chapter, Rick watches as railroad tracks bend themselves into snakelike figures and wonders, "Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?"
- Both the bonus chapter of The Trap of Truth and the opening act of Ghost Chapter include board games which seem to be heavily based on the one from Jumanji.
- Sigil Spam: The all-seeing eye which is the logo of the Paranormal Files agency appears multiple times in every game - there's one in every scene, and finding them all is a collection sidequest. Some of them are extremely tricky to find without the strategy guide or a walkthrough, leading to a Pixel Hunt.
- Title Drop: Paranormal Files is both the name of the series and the name of Rick Rogers's paranormal investigation agency. The subtitles of some of the games also get dropped in dialogue; in The Trap of Truth, all five of the previous games' titles appear in Rick's journals, as they're the names he's assigned to the cases he solved.
- Two Guys and a Girl:
- Rick, Rachel, and Gabriel are three friends who do a lot of sleuthing together until Rick disappears.
- Younger specialists Daemon, Isaac, and Mia join Rachel's team of investigators beginning in Ghost Chapter.
- Unfinished Business: The ghosts encountered in the games all have some of this. Some are a lot angrier about it than others.
- Vanity License Plate: Rick's car has a personalized license plate which reads ROGERS.
- Who You Gonna Call?: Many of the cases Rick and/or Rachel tackle are brought to them by people calling for help with malevolent ghosts and other supernatural entities.
Fellow Traveler
- Animal Motif: The Bennet family have a raven motif on their property.
- Beware of Hitchhiking Ghosts: The game kicks off when Rick picks up one of these. He's just the latest in a string of hapless victims to give her a ride, and meets another one in the course of the investigation.
- Danger with a Deadline: Anyone who picks up the hitchhiking ghost has three days to live, as Rick discovers in the opening cinematic.
- Downer Beginning: Reading Rick's diary, which is in his car at the start of the game, reveals that the series has one of these. He was enjoying a comfortable life and was getting ready to propose to his girlfriend, whom he really loved. Then he was abruptly fired from his job, which caused him to go home early, only to find his girlfriend in bed with his best friend. He packed his car and headed back to the house his father had left him. As the game begins, he picks up a hitchhiker. She's a ghost and now he only has three days to live.
- Frame-Up: Emily was suspected of stealing money and valuables from the home of her fiancé Nicholas. This was a big part of what led Nicholas's mother to have her killed, but it's hinted that the family gardener framed her.
- My Beloved Smother: Rose Bennet, in life, was arguably too attached to her son. According to documents found in the game, she attempted to welcome his bride-to-be, Emily, with open arms, but came to suspect that the girl was stealing. Rose ended up Offing the Offspring, although unintentionally; her murder of Emily, however, was fully deliberate.
- Occult Detective: Rick is this, though he doesn't really want to be at first - it's just the only way to keep himself from being killed by the Bennet curse. By the end of the game, he plunges into it wholeheartedly, and in the sequels he finds friends to help him with it.
- Prematurely Marked Grave: While conducting his sleuthing, Rick comes across the gardener of the cursed estate digging his grave; the gardener has stolen Rick's driver's license and mounted it on a pole to indicate that it's for him. Rick is not impressed.
- Thrown Down a Well: Happens to Rick at one point. He's more indignant about it than scared. Although he doesn't comment on it, he discovers that this also happened to Rose Bennet, suggesting that the gardener at some point became The Starscream to her.
- Together in Death: The end of the game shows Emily and Nicholas finally getting to Go into the Light together.
- Two-Timing with the Bestie: Rick caught his girlfriend in bed with his best friend shortly before the game begins.
- Undead Child: The ghost of a little girl causes havoc in the bonus chapter. She's not truly malevolent, however; she just doesn't understand what's happened to her, and Rick can put things right by reuniting her with her mother's spirit.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: The game doesn't mention what becomes of the Bennets' seemingly immortal gardener, who is not a ghost and actively participated in the many murders over the years, starting with Emily's. Presumably he finally dies once Rick banishes the ghost of Rose, but it's not made clear.
- With Great Power Comes Great Perks: As thanks for his help, Emily's spirit grants Rick "protection from death," adding that it's his destiny "to help the living and the dead live together in peace." The next several installments reveal that Rick has an assortment of Psychic Powers as a result of this gift, which enable him to assist both the living and the dead.
The Tall Man
- Antagonist Title
- Copycat Killer: In the bonus chapter, Rick goes to investigate things at the Forest of the Missing roughly a month after the main game, because a new pair of disappearances make it seem like either the Tall Man managed to come back or one of these has come on the scene.
- The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: Rick learns that Tina, the girl who has been missing for a year, had a fight with her sister Jessie shortly before her disappearance about borrowing some earrings. Tina's distress over their last conversation being a frivolous argument causes her to turn into a banshee after she dies, albeit a good one who tries to scare people away so the Tall Man doesn't have a chance to kill them.
- Inconsistent Spelling: The game is inconsistent as to whether Tina's last name is Rice or Rise.
- Meaningful Name: Tina's one true friend in the game is Nicky Summer, who has a warm and bright disposition.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Tina is just the latest individual to disappear in the Forest of the Missing, so named because it's been the site of unexplained disappearances for over 300 years.
- Rich Bitch: In Tina's friend group, Eliza is this, and she teams up with Elliot to play the mean prank on Tina. It makes her relationship with Terry, whom Nicky describes as "quiet and kind," seem very Odd Couple-ish.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: The eponymous villain was a bloodthirsty entity worshiped by people who performed sacrifices to appease him. He somehow ended up as one of these when his worshipers died out, and remained in stasis for an unknown length of time. Unfortunately, a group of 17th century coal miners accidentally disturbed his can and let him out, and he's been preying on those who enter his forest ever since.
- Spin the Bottle: The group of friends in the opening cinematic are playing this.
- Time Skip: The opening cinematic, combined with Rick's narration which follows it, indicates that a year has passed since both Tina's disappearance and the events of Fellow Traveler. The bonus chapter takes place roughly a month after the main game.
- The Upper Crass: Elliot, whose rich family owns the house from which Tina disappears, is both this and a Jerk with a Heart of Jerk. Not only does he completely humiliate Tina and cause her to run into the Forest of the Missing, but he absolutely does not feel any remorse for it even though, at the time of the game, she's been missing for a year.
- With Friends Like These...: In the opening cinematic, a game of Spin the Bottle leads two college students, Elliot and Tina, to go into a closet to kiss. But when the door opens, it reveals Tina being rejected by Elliot, and some of her so-called friends humiliate her by taking pictures of the incident on their cell phones. Distraught, Tina runs out of the cabin and into the dark woods, never to be seen again. A year later, her friend Nicky (who was not involved with the prank and has been trying to find Tina) reaches out to Rick for help because something is threatening the rest of the group.
Enjoy the Shopping
- Alas, Poor Villain: Ethan Harris isn't really a bad person, although he does have a strong desire for money and power. But it's the Double Faced Mask of Janus which turns him into the Big Bad.
- Back from the Dead: In the bonus chapter, Arthur Novak's explorers uncover the Tambourine of the Dead, which summons ghosts back from the afterlife.
- Captain Obvious: Late in the game, Rick finds a door in the mall labeled with Ethan Harris's name and title. He declares that he's sure this must be the man's study. You think?
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Mall owner Ethan Harris gives off this aura, and early in his investigation, Rick finds the diary of a mall salesgirl in which she notes that Harris gives her the creeps. It's foreshadowing, of course, but with a twist. While he's fairly greedy, Harris isn't actually evil - he's possessed.
- Credits Gag: As the game credits roll, they're accompanied by various animations of Rick goofing around with different masks, waving at the player, playing with the disenchanted Tambourine of the Dead, and watering his roses.
- Go into the Light: In the bonus chapter, this is what Lilith wants to do, and she's distressed because Simon's actions are preventing her from finding peace.
- Inconsistent Spelling: The game can't seem to decide if the female security guard's name is Alexa Bethany or Alexa Betany.
- The Infiltration: Rick goes undercover as a security guard in a mall to find out just what's causing the supernatural events happening there.
- The Lost Lenore: Seen in the bonus chapter. Simon Riley, one of the explorers working for Arthur Novak, lost his fiancée Lilith in a car accident and could not move on from the tragedy. He steals the Tambourine of the Dead to try to bring her back, which of course doesn't go quite as planned.
- Murderous Mannequin: These are what's causing all the havoc in the shopping mall - mannequins more or less come to life after closing and drive the security guards mad. But it's only near the end of the game that Rick realizes the mannequins are actually real people, whom Double Faced has enslaved with his powers. Presumably, his defeat sets them free again. The mannequins return in the bonus chapter, but this time they're just ordinary mannequins for the most part; the real problem lies elsewhere.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Both Detective Griffin and security guard Alexa are good at their jobs and seem to understand that Rick really is on the level. Alexa in particular senses that she can trust him and helps him take down Double Faced. In the bonus chapter, Griffin recognizes that Rick is the only one capable of dealing with the new disaster.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: The Double Faced Mask of Janus causes anyone who wears it to obey the whims of Janus, an evil ancient trickster god. It was this until the can was opened, and the mask was sent to Ethan Harris, who put it on and became its slave. Rick has to find the ancient scroll that can create a new can to seal it away again.
- Time Skip: The bonus chapter takes place roughly a month after the main game.
- Too Dumb to Live: Teenage troublemakers Lesley and Chuck break into the mall in order to play a prank on the security guards, only to be taken captive by the mannequins. Rick has to rescue them. Subverted when it turns out that neither of them actually exists - they're aspects of Double Faced.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Prior to Rick taking the case, security guards Lucas White and Philip Johnson were driving nearly catatonic by the mannequin invasion. The game doesn't state whether or not they recovered their sanity afterward.
Hook Man's Legend
Trials of Worth
- Easily Forgiven: Despite all the crap that Rachel puts him through, Rick decides to forgive her and they become close friends.
- "Freaky Friday" Flip: Rick and Rachel end up trading bodies for a while thanks to some Applied Phlebotinum. Neither is particularly happy about it.
The Trap of Truth
- Agent Scully: Mia, one of the younger paranormal investigators, is initially introduced to players as being one of these. Her schtick revolves around ferreting out fake paranormal stories, but when she clings to her skepticism in the face of proof of ghosts, it makes her a target for the Big Bad.
- Always Identical Twins: This game reveals that Rick's younger colleague Daemon Park had an identical twin brother, Dylan, who died before the series began. Daemon struggles with intense Survivor Guilt because he didn't call for help in time to save his ill brother.
- Art Shift: The CGI in this game is a bit clunky compared to the much smoother animations of those which came after it.
- Circus of Fear: Carnival, more accurately. Rick headlines at a carnival which focuses on paranormal events and powers, but the carnival gets shut down because of strange and terrifying events.
- Dark and Troubled Past: After the first arc of the game is complete, the God of Truth holds four characters prisoner, and Rick has to delve into this for each of them in order to secure their release.
- Face Your Fears: Invoked in the bonus chapter, when Rick, Rachel, Daemon, and Mia play a board game by this name. Three guesses what it forces them to do.
- God Is Displeased: The Big Bad is a strange figure who introduces himself as the God of Truth, and he's there to punish certain individuals for their lies.
- Reasoning with God: As annoyed as he is with the liars, the God of Truth is rather pleased with Rick, because he actually is everything he claims to be. For this reason, he allows Rick the chance to rescue his friends from the punishments intended for them.
- Parental Favoritism: Daemon's secrets include the fact that his parents clearly preferred his quiet and studious twin brother Dylan.
- Phony Psychic: The first third of the game revolves around revealing a colleague of Rick's to be one of these.
- The X of Y
Ghost Chapter
- And Now for Someone Completely Different: As usual, Rick Rogers is the initial player character here. However, after the first few puzzles are completed, the player is then in control of his partner Rachel, because Rick has disappeared.
- Another Dimension: Rachel has to pay a few visits to what is identified as the spirit plane, which is a different layer of reality that only partially intersects with the one in which she lives.
- Immortality Seeker: The original owner of the mansion was this, and turned to Black Magic and caused many deaths in his efforts to turn himself, his wife, and their three children immortal. He ended up a mindless monster stuck in the house, devouring the souls of those who became trapped there.
- The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday: The game starts with an investigation at what turns out to be one of these. Naturally, it vanishes from the map and no one can find it.
- Spanner in the Works: Carrie, the daughter of the Big Bad, is this to her father. While her brothers' ghosts are still subservient to him, she actively defies him and helps Rachel defeat him once and for all.
- Time Skip: The first ten or so minutes take place in 2020. We know this because of a newspaper article about the incident which is dated July 30, 2020, and which states that it happened a week earlier. The game then jumps ahead thirteen years, according to the onscreen captioning.
- Two Guys and a Girl: The Burton siblings Joseph, Albert, and Carrie.
Price of a Secret
- All Girls Like Ponies: Charlotte Harding adored the horses on the family's vineyard estate, so much so that when the place was doomed, she refused to abandon them. In the bonus chapter, Rachel has to save the ghosts of the horses in order to free Charlotte to Go into the Light.
- Grandma's Recipe: The Russell family's ancestor wanted to partner with the Harding siblings, whose vineyard was very successful. When the Hardings politely refused to share their family's secret recipe book, Cuthbert Russell stole it.
- Karma Houdini: Cuthbert Russell, the ancestor who ruined the Hardings' livelihood and their lives, seems to have paid no price for his actions. Ethan Harding is therefore determined to get his revenge on the man's descendants, even though they had nothing to do with it.
- No Kill like Overkill: Cuthbert Russell not only stole the Russells' secret family wine recipes, he flooded their entire estate, killing the three Russell siblings and many of their employees in the process. In the bonus chapter, a document indicates that he knew perfectly well that the estate was still inhabited and chose to flood it anyway.
- Scary Scarecrow: A sinister-looking scarecrow is on the shore of the lake, which turns out to be the drowned Harding estate. It poses no threat to the detectives, but Rachel has to open its head in order to gain some necessary items.
- Sins of Our Fathers: The Russell family turn out to be endangered by a curse that was laid on their ancestor roughly a hundred years earlier. They themselves have done nothing wrong, but this trope is in play.
- Time Skip: This game is implied to be set the year after Ghost Chapter. Rachel mentions that it's now "more than" thirteen years since the incident at the start of that installment; also, Daemon and Mia got married and took a honeymoon between the events of the two games.
- Two Guys and a Girl: The Harding siblings Ethan, Henry, and Charlotte
- The X of Y
Silent Willow
- The Place: Silent Willow takes place in a mental asylum of the same name.
Counterpart
- Another Dimension: Much of the action takes place in one of these.
- Antagonist Title
- Crisis Crossover: Rachel and the team realize that in order to succeed in their current objective, they're going to need some outside help, so they join forces with Anna Gray of Grim Tales.
- Evil Counterpart: The Big Bad is this to Rick, and is the one responsible for his disappearance fourteen years earlier.
- Time Skip: The events of this game are confirmed to take place fourteen years after the beginning of Ghost Chapter.
