It is a short story, which begins with the main character writing a letter to a certain Andrea about the virtual reality show they both took part in many years ago. He was the titular Blue Contestant, and the task simply consisted of reaching the goal first, fighting virtual monsters and collecting money icons on the way. These could either be carried all the way to the finishing line to be converted into real money, or spent on items and equipment. The show also included the class system, letting the players switch classes at any time, as long as enough Class Points are available to make the switch. Unfortunately, things escalate soon, and though Blue survived, he’s now mortally ill many years later, an illness somehow connected to what occurred during the show that day…
The game can be downloaded here
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The Blue Contestant provides examples of the following tropes:
- Anti-Grinding: Even though The Blue Contestant is built in RPG Maker and uses classical turn-based combat, you’ll never get experience from fights, only money and class points. Thus, the only way to become stronger is to buy better equipment for the class you’re using, or to upgrade spells with Power Tiles for Magicians. In theory, you can exploit encounters for more money with the Gambler class, but since the enemies never respawn, this is limited, too.
- Cerebus Syndrome: It's all a game show, and so there's nothing besides the prize money and lost pride at stake. Or so it seems, until The mysterious Voice shows up, and puts the game on a countdown, while also declaring that only the winner would survive. Then, the ending reveals the protagonist wanted it to be that way from the start.
- Checkpoint Starvation: There’s usually one checkpoint for the whole Area, with all that it implies. In particular, there’s a Rock Golem boss battle at the end of the first area, a battle you’ll almost certainly lose if you accept it. It’s an important moment, and losing will send you all the way back to the first checkpoint! Thankfully, you can come back to checkpoints and use them as many times as you like, so make sure to do so.
- Combat Medic: One of the six classes. Unusually, it’s by far the best one, especially for the early game: not only can Blue Medic heal himself easily, but his Poison Syringe provides a lot of reliable damage, while Booster Shot increases Attack and Defence almost to Soldier levels. Out of combat, he is also capable of peering inside the chests with X-Ray Scope Accessory, so that you wouldn’t waste money on things you don’t need. Lastly, Medic can convert HP/SP recover tiles into portable ones, so that you can use when they’re actually needed, like during the boss battles.
- Crutch Character: Red acts as one during the Sky Dragon fight.
- Early Game Hell: At the start, you'll have no idea which class has the best abilities, and when and where to switch between them.
- Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Very important for the Mage class. Fire is very effective against Cyclopi, while the electric Bolt is good on the water-associated enemies. Dragons are obviously weak to Cold, and so is Red during the optional battle with her.
- Enemy Scan: Student class can do that with their Analyse Weaknesses skill.
- Everything Is Trying to Kill You: The second area has Living Rocks, which drop down and then attack you in turn-based combat.
- Fire, Ice, Lightning: The three Elemental Powers possessed by the Magician. The fourth is Life Drain.
- Genre-Killer: In universe, that’s exactly what the game you’ve played was.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Blue tries to do one when he tells Green “Go ahead, take it”, referring to the goal, which will save the winner and kill other two. However, he’s actually done just the opposite, as the goalpost kills the winner, and he knows about it, because he made it that way.
- Improbable Weapon User: Every class fights with the weapon that’s appropriate to them. Thus, Soldiers simply have swords, and Magicians staves, but others are more interesting. Medics use clipboards, Students fight with study books, Engineers attack with rulers (and later try squares), while Gamblers employ dice (the upgraded ones, Snake Eyes, attack twice).
- Inexplicable Treasure Chests: Justified, as this is a game show you’re playing. Unlike most examples, they will never open for free: you always have to pay for what’s inside. Usually it’s weapons/armour for a certain class. Sometimes you’ll get potions or Engineer’s bombs, or, rarely, a larger (once, smaller) sum of money. Rarely, you’ll get very powerful Defence or Attack increasing accessory that can be used by any class.
- Karmic Death: Green dies right as he was about to sacrifice the other two contestants in order to win.
- Blue’s death from the implant surgery is very justified, considering he was the one who rigged the game to ensure someone would die in the first place.
- Life Drain: Magician’s Drain spell. It’s upgraded by investing power tiles into Absorb magic, maxing out at four. Ranks 3 and 4 let Magician absorb life from all enemies, so it’s obviously the first spell you should try to max out.
- Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards: Here, it’s more like linear Medics, Quadratic Magicians. At first, Medic is the all-rounder best suited to navigating the Early Game Hell. Once you get to the stage the timer starts running, however, you should have upgraded Magician’s spells with Power tiles enough times to make him power through most fights in a single turn.
- No Fair Cheating: Attempting to exploit RPGMaker 2000 collision detection in order to let Blue walk through walls will result in an instant-kill.
- Optional Boss: It’s possible to surprise Red at the start of Zone 2, and end up fighting her. She’s of Mage class at the time, which makes her weak to cold, but also capable of using powerful Fire spell.
- The Perfect Crime: What the game show hack turns out to be.
- Pre-existing Encounters: All of them. Some patrol a small area, but most just wait until you come into their sight/ambush range. A lot of the enemies will instantly drop down if you happen to be below of them, regardless of height, but’ll ignore you if you’re on the same level, or even standing right next to them.
- Protagonist Title: The game is named after its protagonist's title within the game show. His real name is only shown at the very end of the game.
- Smash Mook: Cyclopi are a very straight example. All they can do is attack, and bring their club downwards
- Other enemies, though, are not any different. The basic ones will only attack, while more advanced will either have another Defence-ignoring strong attack, or occasionally attack twice.
- Spikes of Doom: Here, they’re used purely as barriers that the Engineer class can remove through operating switches.
- Squishy Wizard: Subverted with the Magician class. Their health of 40 is average, and about the same as that of Medic. Like them, they can also heal, though for them it’s done through draining health from enemies. In fact, their main problem is the lack of agility, which often means the enemies will attack them first, and so can kill them before they get the time to heal up.
- Take Your Time: While Host tells you to hurry up at the start, the game is actually not timed, and all the important events happen only when you reach the certain area, and you’re allowed to explore at your own pace in the mean-time. In fact, rushing through and triggering the encounters haphazardly is one of the worst things you could do.
- Timed Mission: Afterwards, however, the rules change, and so you have a 30-minute timer. And Blue will die alongside the other loser if he fails to find the flag and win. Or so the Voice says.
- Teleporters and Transporters: These connect all the areas, and a Blue Magician can operate them.
- Video Game Stealing: Gambler class can steal money from enemies during battles.
- Villain Protagonist: Blue’s motivation for reaching the goal is by far the worst of the three, and it’s reflected in what he’s willing to do to win. As in, he was the Voice who rigged the game to ensure that the “winner” would die, in order to become rich from all the lawsuit settlements he would inevitably receive as a survivor.
- Wham Line: "I know who it was. I knew who our tormentor that day, and benefactor ever since, had been. It was me."
- Xanatos Gambit: In the end, it's revealed that the game was hacked by Blue from the very start. He decided that it would be too obvious if he clearly altered the rules to benefit him as a contestant, and so instead, he made it so that reaching the goal would kill the "winner", even as they believed it would save them and kill the other two. This was because he knew the company behind the show would be forced to pay them compensation.
