YMMV / Dark Tales

• Contested Sequel: Lenore was more or less promoted as being a direct sequel to The Raven, but there really isn't too much to connect the two games. They take place in neighboring communities, and they both have a villain named the White Crow, but the two White Crows are different people with different motives. The oddest part is that both games feature engaged couples named Alan and Lenore, but again, these are completely different people. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Lenore is one of the least popular installments in the series.
• Difficulty Spike: The hidden object scenes will sometimes be subjected to these, such as darkening the entire scene except for where you shine your flashlight, or experiencing an extremely localized weather anomaly.
• Good Bad Translation: Possibly responsible for one newspaper headline at the end of the bonus chapter of The Bells, which declares that "The young detective was awarded the courage!"
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • The bonus chapter of The Gold Bug shows us what a Nice Guy Dupin's friend LeGrand really is. As noted on the main page, Mike, the apprentice gunsmith, steals the treasure because his mother is deathly ill and needs a medical treatment she can't afford. LeGrand, upon learning the truth, declines to press charges for the burglary and gives Mike enough money to cover the expensive care his mother needs.
  • The bonus chapter of The Raven gives a nice one when the player character revives the kidnapped Dupin, who is locked in a cage with his wrists manacled. He laments that his hands are bound, because he would really like to hug you.
  • In Morella, after you craft the potion needed to recharge the Amulet of Death, Dupin uses it to save you from your Demonic Possession. Once everything is as it should be, he gives you the biggest and most beaming smile he's had in the entire series, because he's so happy that you're all right.
    • At the end of the game, he has a bit of exposition about how he couldn't have done it without you and he's so happy to see the sunrise - after which he gives you another brilliant smile and you hold hands.
    • Right after this, Madame Beauvois invokes a Happily Ever After for you if you agree to let her read your palm a second time. She tells you that you'll have "a long and happy life, filled with love" and that you deserve it.
• Player Punch: Given what a nice guy he is and how evidently fond he is of you, this can be the reaction to Dupin getting shot in the bonus chapter of Masque of the Red Death. (To twist the knife further, ERS stated that Dupin would have a Shirtless Scene. They just didn't mention that he'd almost be killed in the process.)
  • And then a few years later, along comes The Raven... where he actually does get killed. The only thing keeping this from being much worse than a mere Player Punch is the fact that the plot revolves around an artifact which can revive the dead, so you have the means to rectify the situation.
  • The punch is of a very different kind in Morella, where you have to watch as your own character falls victim to Demonic Possession. Sure, it's obviously too early in the game for things to be wrapping up neatly, so you know something is going to happen, but it's still quite a shock.
  • The Pit and the Pendulum gets in a few solid hits, too, most notably the moment when Dupin, of all people, claims responsibility for a recent murder and then shoots you, complete with Pre-Mortem One-Liner. Special mention also goes to a later scene where the Big Bad orders Dupin (whom you now know is Brainwashed and Crazy) to commit suicide after turning one of his friends in for your supposed murder, because he "can't live with the loss" of you. By the end of the game, the protagonist's decision to incapacitate the Big Bad by just shooting him isn't hard to understand.
  • The Devil in the Belfry offers another punch with the murder of Simon Loyalle. Given that this is the third game in which the character has appeared, and he's always been a good friend to Dupin and the player, his death is most unwelcome.
• Scrappy Mechanic: Starting in The Tell-Tale Heart, many of the games have "puzzles" which involve the player character getting into a fistfight with an antagonist. The actual mechanic ranges from merely guessing which type of blow will be effective to timing a strike when a meter on the screen is in a specific place. They are among the least popular puzzles with the fans.
• Sequelitis: The longer the series goes on, the more issues players seem to have with the quality. The first five games are generally lauded, with the vast majority of reviews giving them between three and five stars; but starting with House of Usher, the opinions of players have varied more widely. Some seem to feel that, after so many games, the series is running out of steam, while others acknowledge the varying quality of the games but still feel the series is viable (although it seems to have ended with the 18th installment).
• Tear Jerker:
  • The whole backstory of the Usher twins in House of Usher is a blend of this and Nightmare Fuel.
  • Lilly's entire story in Morella falls into this. First her father dies a hero's death; then she falls deathly ill, but she recovers - just in time to watch her mother die and no one will tell her why she died. She spends a year in an orphanage run by her great-aunt, where the other kids are mean to her because she has psychic powers she can't control. Finally she's Happily Adopted by a nice couple, but then they move into a Haunted House where she suffers Demonic Possession.
• That One Puzzle: Devil in the Belfry has one of these, very late in the game, when the player finds a diary belonging to the Big Bad. The player must then click on items which correspond to the highlighted words in the diary's narration. The diary has multiple pages, so the player can flip back and forth to find the items needed - but they're not all in the diary. Some are in the trunk where the diary is located, meaning that the player must close the diary to find the items, where normally closing the diary would mean backing out of the puzzle. Absolutely nothing in the game hints that this is required. Not only that, but unlike most others in the game, the puzzle cannot be skipped; using the hint button merely has the player observe that "I should move on" or a similarly worded sentiment; and the in-game strategy guide (included in the collector's edition) omits the puzzle entirely. Best of all, because the reward for solving it is a necessary Plot Coupon, the game cannot proceed until this puzzle is completed.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • Saying that it sucks is a little extreme, but many players were rather disappointed by various aspects of House of Usher, judging by the posts in the (now defunct) forum at Big Fish Games. One is that the visuals returned to the non-animated state of the first two games. The addition of many of the extra features in the collector's edition turned off a number of players as well, particularly the useless rat which adorns the inventory bar for no clear reason. Dupin is also less charming and suave in this game than in the previous installments, offering none of his usual courtesies to the player character and getting quite irritated over a broken walking stick.
    • Happily, the developers took this last complaint to heart, and on their Facebook page they promised in the future to "keep the character friendly and supportive." Both the animation of the characters and Dupin's usual personality make a return in The Mystery of Marie Roget.
  • Many players of The Raven were disappointed by the sheer quantity of Anachronism Stew present in the objects, nonsensical puzzles, and the way the bonus chapter remains unresolved. Many of the same players were likewise unhappy with Lenore due to its relatively short length and the fact that (as noted under Contested Sequel) it was billed as a sequel to The Raven, yet it has very little connecting it to that game.
• Unintentional Uncanny Valley: The three-dimensional model of Dupin used in the opening sequences of some of the games can come off looking like this, especially compared to the two-dimensional portraits used. The texture of the skin is very noticeably off and looks extremely rough—almost more like sandpaper than actual skin. The three-dimensional model used in House of Usher is much better quality-wise and more human-looking, so it's mostly averted in that game.
• Values Dissonance: As noted on the main page, Gold Bug brings in Arthur the Newfoundland to replace a human servant named Jupiter. Poe scholars generally agree that Jupiter's characterization has aged very poorly and is not consistent with modern values; the presence of the dog is much less offensive.