Overcome death. Solve the mystery.
Freya is a normal, somewhat depressed young woman who's cajoled into going on a ghost tour with her friends at the promise of her crush being there. But then the four of them are pulled into a mysterious alternate world, seemingly bent on killing them off one by one through cruel trap-filled puzzles. When Freya falls prey to one and meets her doom, she finds herself revived - able to see all the paths she's taken thus far, and forge new ones.
Retrace was originally released for the PC, and then a year later ported to console as Retrace: Memories of Death. An epilogue, Retrace: A Heartfelt Confession, is available on the studio's Itch page
, and contains more worldbuilding and character backgrounds.
Warning: Due to the nature of the plot, it's best to play the full game before reading any further.
This series contains examples of:
- A Day in the Limelight: A Heartfelt Confession is this for Claire.
- Ambiguously Brown: Mia is noticeably darker-skinned than the other characters and is
confirmed in side materials to be Filipina, but it's never referenced in game. - Another Dimension: The "mysterious world" most of the game takes place in, which is never given a name. The soundtrack refers to it as "Illusory World".
- Anyone Can Die: Any character is capable of dying, except for Matemna. Claire's singular death scene is easily missed, being an optional scene towards the end of the game that's not signposted in any way, but it exists.
- Big Bad: Claire.
- Matemna to Claire at the very end.
- Big Damn Heroes: The final confrontation. Owen, Lily's spirit, and a Sentinel materialised by Lucas all shield Freya from Matemna's attack. Claire then steps in too.
- Bittersweet Ending:
- Gold End: The quartet escape, but Claire, who is coming to realise the error of her ways, is trapped in the illusory world.
- White End: Freya stays and promises to find a way to save both herself and Claire, but is separated from her friends, who return to the real world.
- Break the Cutie: Mia, after being recruited as Claire's "bodyguard", goes from being unwaveringly positive to a broken shell of a woman.
- But Thou Must!: Leaving Claire in the cell is not an option. Neither is staying home and playing video games.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: It's not clear how Lucas dies in the Library in some ends, but all that's left of him is a few strands of black hair.
- Deadpan Snarker: Freya. Most of her internal monologue is extremely snarky.
- Despair Event Horizon: How most ends are triggered if Freya isn't outright killed. Falling into despair strong enough to paralyze her counts as a world being "over" for the parameters of the game.
- Eldritch Location: The Illusory World in general, but in particular Claire's World in the second half of the game, which is a series of doors connected by stairs and paths floating in a star-filled void. Random props appear floating, as though she's halfway through creating them, and nothing connects in quite the way it should.
- Fatal Flaw: Owen's impulsiveness, Mia's selflessness, and Lucas' fight or flight response. Freya's tendency to despair would count, but in this case it works to her advantage.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: Invoked by Wordof God, no less. Freya is melancholic, Mia is sanguine, Lucas is phlegmatic and Owen is choleric. The dominant color of their outfits reflects their temperament; Claire, being the odd one out, is dressed in white.
-
Ho Yay: Lucas and Owen, particularly when separated.- Les Yay: Likewise, Freya towards Mia and Claire towards Freya.
- Insistent Terminology: The game refers to the state of "not being able to proceed further in a timeline" as an END, rather than the more common "End" or "Ending". This is to signify that the meta-puzzle isn't over. The two actual ends of the game are indeed referred to as Endings.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Matemna to Claire, going so far as to show up in the creator's other works. How "villainous" she is may be up to interpretation, but she certainly isn't interested in letting Freya or Claire out of her clutches.
- "Groundhog Day" Loop: The primary mechanic of the game. Freya can start from several different points in the game and make different choices, giving her access to new information.
- Guide Dang It!: Several examples, but getting the Claire END (required to advance the plot) is notably difficult.
- Have a Nice Death: In a nod to RPG Maker predecessor Corpse Party, Freya narrates the gorey demise of her friends in remarkable detail.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Mia's raison d'etre.
- Claire eventually pulls a reluctant version in the Gold Ending, fighting against her own selfish nature.
- Multiple Endings: Played with. Collecting different ends is necessary for advancing the plot, but there are only two actual endings for the game.
- Murder the Hypotenuse: Claire END, although she uses a proxy to do it, and it doesn't last long.
- Red Herring: Freya is initially suspicious of Lucas, and there are small details (his disappearance in Mia END, him taking the knife from the parlor) that imply he may be working against the group. It turns out he's just weird.
- Shout-Out: One of Matemna's random dialogues has her speaking in red.
- Inspecting Freya's bookcase at the beginning of the game or following the conservatory scene reveals a few titles based on real games.
- The Many Deaths of You: Aside from the character-named END s, there are several alternate Bad END s, including ones with their own names. Freya can be killed by being crushed in a coffin, falling, and eaten by wolves, amongst others.
- Wanted a Gender-Conforming Child: Heavily implied with Owen. The picture of "Lily" with "her" parents has their faces blurred out.
