Vincent Edgeworth (left) and Victor Blake (right)
Vincent: The Secret of Myers (often shortened to VTSOM) is a horror-mystery point-and-click Visual Novel made in Ren'Py by Dino999z
. After waking up in an unfamiliar mansion, the protagonist is trying to recover her forgotten memories by searching the abandoned Myers Corporation building. Along the way, she discovers numerous secrets about said corporation and the people involved.
A major mechanic the story has is the protagonist's ability to use certain objects to see into the past and collect clues to solve puzzles, while also adding lore to the story and providing insight into multiple characters.
Four chapters have been released so far, with a planned six in total. The game's development was placed on indefinite hiatus in July 2022. It can be downloaded here.
Shares a universe with Therapy with Dr. Albert Krueger by the same developer.
This visual novel provides examples of:
- 20 Minutes into the Future: The game is set in the 2080s, with the advanced bioengineering and robotics being the only significant difference in technology.
- Amazing Technicolor Population: Zalmona and Claude both have dark, bluish skin, along with a few other inhuman traits. Zalmona is confirmed to be a mutant, and Claude is implied to be one as well, having ties to the G3 district where mutants were created.
- Amoral Attorney: Vincent's loyalty to Myers Corporation extended to using every dirty trick in the book to defend them in court, with his last case involving knowingly condemning a scapegoat to a life sentence.
- Artificial Limbs: Multiple characters in the story are shown to have mechanical body parts, the most obvious being Victor, who has pink mechanical arms and black robotic eyes.
- Author Avatar: Dino, the hobby janitor met outside the abandoned Myers Corporation building, shares the developer's name and has the same appearance as their avatar.
- Ax-Crazy: The experimental subjects whose semi-mechanization didn't take.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Vincent, though rather polite, is willing to do whatever it takes to bring down the Myers Corporation. Victor puts it best.Victor: He is quite an adorable man. Yet could be extremely dangerous at the same time.
- Black Blood: While not black, most fresh blood in the game is a salmon pink colour.
- Blatant Lies: After answering all of Draco's questions correctly on pain of death, he assures the protagonist that he never intended to harm her. If she uses up all her chances or runs out of time to answer, he kills her without hesitation.
- Chekhov's Boomerang: Most puzzle items are single-use, but the scalpel used in the lab in chapter 3 remains in the inventory and is used again in a completely different puzzle in the basement. It remains even after that, and at the end of chapter 4, Vanora uses it to carve the memory core out of Draco's chest, just like she did with her own clone in the lab.
- Clone Angst:
- Implied with Draco, as he says that his life was empty before he met Vanora, although he doesn't specify if it's because he's a clone in general or because he was made to be Vincent's secret weapon against Myers.
- Vanora has an emotional breakdown on discovering that she might be a clone, although her distress over the later confirmation that she is a clone is quickly overshadowed by the returned memories of her mission to kill Vincent.
- Continuity Nod: Monsieur M's laptop reveals a photo of him with Albert Krueger, Vincent's unseen college arch-enemy and the title character of Therapy with Dr. Albert Krueger set in the same universe.
- Corporate Conspiracy: Myers Corporation was a technological research and development company focusing on high tech prosthetics. But its true goal goes far beyond that...
- The Corpse Stops Here: Zalmona became known as a murderer after a terrible misunderstanding involving the dead body of a Myers associate due to being the closest to the body. It is later revealed that the culprit was actually Vincent.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Mr Myers, and the other core members of Myers Corporation.
- Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: When humans undergo the heavy mechanisation characteristic of the G4 Cyborg Incident, successful mechanisation is very rare, and the failed cyborgs end up losing their sanity and physical stability and becoming the bestial, deteriorating cannibals responsible for many of the game's jump scares.
- Cyborg: Whether they're just people with prosthetics or mechanical bloodied horrors that eat human flesh to survive, if it's cyborg-related, this game has probably shown or talked about it.
- Double Agent: Claude teams up with the Chaser over their aligned goals, which are not revealed to the player, but mean both of them have an interest in helping the protagonist remember her true self despite Monsieur M's schemes.
- Elite Four: ICIJ is a task force answering directly to Monsieur M, the four main members being Claude the Infiltrator, the unseen Chaser, Vanora the Inspector and Dino the Janitor.
- Evil, Inc.: The Myers Corporation, known for its prosthetics, harbors many dark truths behind it. A notable example that is mentioned early on is the G4 Cyborg Incident—where numerous disappearances were found to not only be linked to the corporation, but the people disappearing were being used as cattle feed for employees turned into robotic monstrosities.
- Existential Horror: One of the main themes of the game is that a person's memories make them who they are. If memories can be erased, copied and implanted, then how can you be certain your past really happened to you?
- Expy: Vincent is a reference to Miles Edgeworth—not only do they share a surname, they're also both highly intelligent lawyers with M-shaped fringes and dignified, logical personalities.
- Eye Scream: The player has to remove an eyeball from a dead cyborg in the first chapter.
- The Faceless: Mr Myers is never shown above the chin. As Monsieur M he's usually only shown up to the mouth, and his full appearances have his head entirely black and featureless with only a sharp-toothed grin visible.
- Fake Memories: When clone-cyborgs are created, they're implanted with memory cores to give them individual personalities based on the memories contained. In chapter 4, Vincent reveals that the original Vanora has been dead for months, and the protagonist is simply a clone with her memories.
- Family Eye Resemblance: Played with. As a clone, Draco should physically resemble Vincent in all ways, but Vincent is shocked to find that Draco's eyes resemble Victor's original eyes, despite his only having Victor's memories and personality.
- Flashback: These commonly appear throughout the story, especially in later chapters, by interacting with certain objects or completing certain parts of that chapter. These are usually to solve puzzles or provide lore.
- French Maid: Investigating Monsieur M's laptop will reveal a picture of him in a sexy maid outfit, among other things.
- Godhood Seeker: Monsieur M seeks to make himself an omniscient god by researching and developing psychometry, which would allow him access to everyone's secrets. The cannibal cyborgs were created to be a new Master Race, with their diet specifically designed to allow them to replace humans.
- Head Crushing: At the end of chapter 4, Vanora kills an immobile Vincent by repeatedly stomping on his head.
- Hello, [Insert Name Here]: As the protagonist is an Amnesiac Hero, the player can choose a placeholder name for her in the first chapter. Certain names from the canon will not be allowed, and if no name is entered, the game will default to "Valeria".
- Identity Amnesia: The protagonist wakes up at the start of the game with no idea who she is.
- Implied Love Interest: Vincent and Victor have been best friends since college, and Victor is the only person Vincent can be himself around. When they graduated, Victor invited Vincent to celebrate alone with him "like a date" complete with mutual blushing, and later teased Vincent for dressing up for the occasion, only for Vincent to point out that Victor had done the same. Victor also decided to work for Myers Corporation so he could stay with Vincent after graduation. To top it off, Vanora likens Victor's feelings for Vincent to Draco's romantic feelings for her.
- In Love with the Mark: Vanora's forgotten mission is to kill Draco, but it's implied that they had a romantic relationship before the start of the game. After she regains the memory of her mission and murders him at the end of chapter 4, she's noted to be crying offscreen.
- Living Emotional Crutch: Vincent trusts Victor with his life, saying that he needs him and doesn't want to imagine where he would be if he'd never befriended Victor or had him by his side. During his chase sequence, Vanora deals him emotional damage by throwing Victor's harsher words in his face, and pointing out that Victor is human and Vincent will eventually outlive him. The finishing mental blow is when she tears up the college photo of him with Victor, causing Vincent's deteriorating body to finally collapse.
- Loners Are Freaks: This perception made it easier for Myers Corporation to pin the blame for their horrific experiments on Winston Loomis, a shy and unsocial researcher.
- Memento MacGuffin: Vincent's black tie was a graduation gift from Victor given on their "date". While held captive by Myers, the now bloodstained tie reminded Vincent of Victor and his encouraging words, inspiring his escape and quest for revenge. Later when Vanora grabs the tie in self-defence, her power shows her Vincent's memories of his relationship with Victor and his captivity, giving her the psychological weapons needed to defeat him.
- Multiple-Choice Future: At the end of chapter 4, the Chaser reveals that Vanora can also see possible futures, and the game then rewinds back to the branch split between Vincent and Victor's routes.
- Nice Guy: Draco, a young man the protagonist meets in chapter 2, fits this to a T. He is willing to protect the protagonist at all costs, to the point of almost dying, and sincerely wants to help the best he can. This makes it all the more surprising when she kills him in chapter 4.
- No Name Given: Claude's name can be found in the game files, but is not mentioned in the game itself.
- Not-So-Abandoned Building: The Myers Corporation went bankrupt and the building was abandoned five years ago, but fresh garbage still turns up every day…
- Psychometry: The protagonist has the power to see the memories of others by touching certain items.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Claude's role as the Infiltrator is only a job to him, and he claims to have no interest in his boss's ideals. It's also implied that the power he really serves is in the G3 district.
- Quest for Identity: The goal of the protagonist is to discover the truth about who she is.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Victor and Vincent. Vincent is cold, rational and intellectual with little interest in socialising, while Victor is flirtatious, easygoing and far more sociable. To drive the point home, Victor even has red hair and red prosthetic arms.
- Research, Inc.: The Myers Corporation and its rival, the Voorhees Corporation.
- The Scapegoat:
- Winston Loomis was used as the fall guy for the G4 Cyborg Incident.
- Zalmona was forced to go on the run after being blamed for her neighbour's brutal murder, despite the detective in charge knowing full well that the true culprit was someone else.
- Shout-Out: Myers Corporation and Voorhees Corporation.
- SkeleBot 9000: The failed cyborgs you encounter look like this.
- Stepford Smiler: While aloof, Vincent is polite and charming to everyone but Victor. Victor and the chapter 4 flashbacks reveal that he used to be cold and arrogant to the point of rudeness, but started faking an affable demeanour to fit in at Myers Corporation, and Victor is the only person he can be his true self around.
- Strong Family Resemblance: Draco greatly resembles his brother Vincent to the point of looking like a younger version of him. Justified, as he's really Vincent's clone.
- Tears of Blood: Vincent's cyborg form has these streaming down his face from his eye socket.
- Transferable Memory: Clone-cyborgs need memories from humans to shape their personalities and give them intelligence, although they don't remember the actual memories. It's also implied that the donor loses those memories.
- Unwilling Roboticisation: Vincent. After a planned car accident severely injured him, the Myers Corporation turned him into a cyborg. Needless to say, he was less than grateful.
- The Voice: The Chaser has multiple scenes in conversation with other characters, but never appears onscreen themself.
- Was Once a Man: The monstrous cyborgs encountered in the game.
