The Inner World is an independent 2-D Point-and-Click Adventure Game created by Studio Fizbin in Germany and published by Headup Games. The first game was developed in 2013 for PC, and was ported to iOS later that year. It was eventually ported to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in 2017, and then to Nintendo Switch in 2018.
It follows the story of Robert, a member of a race called the Asposians, who live within a Hollow World known -likewise - as Asposia. Living with a callous Wind Monk named Conroy, Robert possesses a flute-like nose unlike any other that Conroy loves to hear play, and is the reason he hides Robert from the world within his fort-like home. Until, that is, Robert accidentally falls down the garbage shoot, and comes out in the slums of Asposia. while trying to get a trinket back from a pigeon named Peck, Robert runs into his owner, Laura, a rebel against Conroy, and his shady dealings involving the wind gods, the Basilians. From there Robert embarks on an adventure to figure out where he's from and find the truth behind his increasingly menacing guardian.
The sequel, The Inner World - Last Wind Monk, was released in October 2017 for PC, PS4 and Xbox One, with a Switch version following a year later. It is set 3 years after the last game, Robert has been stuck as a statue thanks to the remnants of the now dead Conroy's world conquering scheme, but in his absence his real royal family, who all are flute noses are being subjected to a witch hunt by the Conroyalists, led by nasty man named Emil, who believe Conroy was a hero who died fighting the flute noses as a hero. Since Robert believes himself unfit to be the new king, and has now revitalized issues involving Conroy's voice hounding his mind, he sets out to find a rumored Last Wind Monk to lead, since the previous three are indisposed of for various reasons. Unlike the previous game, Peck and Laura are also playable throughout the adventure to help Robert solve puzzles and progress.
The Inner World Series provide examples of:
- And Now for Someone Completely Different: Part way through Chapter 2 in the first game, Robert gets entrapped by a murderous, bitter and senile ex-Wind Monk who lives in the trees, forcing the player to control Laura in order to free him.
- Boomerang Bigot: Emil is a flutnose, but he despises flutenoses and wants to kill them all.
- Call a Smeerp a "Rabbit": In the sequel, a "rat" is a weird-looking bird-lizard thing. Bizarrely enough, "drill rats" mostly look like usual rats, albeit with drills on their faces.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: In the sequel, Red for Robert, Green for Laura, and Yellow for Peck, signified by the light on the PS4 controller changing whenever you switch between the three.
- Deader than Dead: Conroy, he's Hoist by His Own Petard by being petrified by a Basilian, topples and smashes on the floor, then in the sequel, before the Conroylists can even attempt to un-petrify him, his head comes off his new body, and is then smashed into dust thanks to Robert.
- Dumb Muscle: The Guards. They're fooled extremely easily, to the point that they can be convinced to walk off ledges and into a chasm by placing false footprints on the ground.
- Everybody Calls Him "Barkeep": Emil's stepbrother. Everybody just calls him "Emil's brother", and even he doesn't remember his own name anymore.
- Faceless Goons: While the faces of the guards of Conroy's secret operations are fully visible, they are all exactly identical - which comes in very handy for Robert.
- Fictional Currency: Bordering on Weird Currency, as Robert's accidental haggling at the start of the first game reveals the existence of numerous denominations, all with strange names using the letters in Asposia, with the length of the name indicating value.
- Final Solution: Emil and the Conroyalists in the sequel hunt the flutenoses, intending to sacrifice them all.
- Jerk With A Heartof Gold: Laura, if she doesn't like someone for any reason at any given moment, she'll let them know in no uncertain terms that she thinks an idea/person is stupid, but she'll relent if she is impressed, and can be compassionate when the moment calls for it.
- Last of His Kind: Robert in the first game turns out to be the last of the flutenoses. And for most of the sequel, Robert searches for the titular last wind monk in order to offer him the throne (there might be two ex-wind monks still around, but they both are obviously unfit to rule).
- Manipulative Bastard: Conroy, though Obviously Evil, made people believe he was the lesser of two evils when compared to the Basilians - his creations mind you - in order to rule over everyone, including and especially towards Robert, who he kept under his thumb in order to keep the air flowing out of the wind fountain. even when he's dead, he influenced one particular individual into becoming his biggest zealot long after he died, creating a cause that worships him.
- Meaningful Name: Fosfosses are named after phosphorus, a chemical element that also glows. As for a certain other character, see Sdrawkcab Name.
- More Deadly Than the Male: Make no mistake, the Gorf is - while good-humoured and polite - completely deadly; secreting corrosive poison and having claws so sharp that they sink into anything that not solid rock (and even then they whittle away at it periodically); However Gorfelina is just that much deadlier according to the Gorf.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Once per game. In the first Robert leads some guards off their pre-set path of footprints by stamping some false ones that lead off a ledge and into a chasm, to which he tries to convince himself they're still alive before devolving into this trope. In the second, a paranoid passenger for a train Robert needs to ride needs to be made ineligible by making the amount of juice he has to much for travel turns out the guy was a Properly Paranoid flutenose also trying to get to the safest area of Asposia, and gets found out and arrested. needless to say Roberts not pleased once he sees this.
- Nice Guy: Robert, one of the reasons he's able to get so far is because he's extremely well mannered and can be patient with people to listen to and solve their problems.
- Promoted to Playable: Laura and Peck in the sequel.
- Sdrawkcab Name: Laura's father is named Reminepo. Spelled backwards, it becomes Openimer, which is suspiciously similar to the name of a scientist involved in the development of an extremely powerful weapon.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Played with a little bit with Robert regarding Conroy, in the first game, he doesn't really have many issues about his time spent with the wind monk, at least psychologically (he constantly makes reference to the mistreatment and is furious with Conroy once he learns the whole truth, but he doesn't exactly have involuntary reactions or anything) in the sequel however, once he's un-petrified at the start of the story and reminded of that time, he has a moment of reflection where he remembers a particularly scathing set of comments from Conroy regarding a drawing from his childhood, it breaks him, and Conroy's voice begins to haunt his mind.
- Taking the Bullet: Towards the end of the first game, just as Conroy was about to petrify Robert. Laura pushes him out of the way, getting herself petrified in the process.
