History VideoGame / Anodyne

Anodyne can be purchased directly from the [[http://www.anodynegame.com/ official website]] for $9, and it also available on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} for $9.99. Interestingly, Kittaka and Hogan themselves have uploaded the game onto Pirate Bay, making it available for free, so one may essentially pick one's price.

''Anodyne'' is a 2D, Top Down ActionAdventure indie game developed by Marina Kittaka and Sean Hogan during their last years in college.

* {{Speedrun}}: One of the Steam achievements for the game is to 100% complete it within 3 hours. Only under 2% of players have it.

* BigDamnHeroes: Played with. Mitra shows up dramatically in the late game just in time to [[spoiler: help you hold down a switch]].

* BrickJoke: The gates "sense your cards and decide to open." The final gate in the main game [[spoiler: is altered by the Sage to require 92 cards, far more than the game actually contains. Despite his efforts the gate "decides" to open anyway.]]

* ClicheStorm: InUniverse, several characters describe what [[spoiler: Sage]] tells Young as this. Most of them are statues.

* DevelopmentGag: The post-game [[spoiler: ARCHIVES and Debug Room contains beta sprites and, well, the debug room. The last card you get in the Debug Room also makes a pun off of the very early title, Intrast.]]

* EvilFormerFriend: It's implied that [[spoiler: Briar and Young were friends until something happened between them (hence the snowmen who rant about friendship), turning Briar into the [[BigBad Evil Darkness]]. [[HeelFaceTurn They go back to being friends in the ending.]]]]

** [[spoiler: After receiving all the cards, Sage tries to stop you from going to The Briar, saying you aren't ready. He even fights you, but you overpower him. Then you have to do two relatively easy levels, one in which there are snowmen that tell you how friendship is an illusion and die, and another that lights on fire suddenly. Then, Briar is revealed to be a person. It fights you, then it teaches you how to swim, then you go off to get a sandwich. CREDITS ROLL.]]
** In addition, the [[spoiler:secret "ending" for collecting all 49 cards and passing the 49 card gate. Instead of an ending, you're greeted with a 50 card gate (which can not be opened, even if you cheat in 50 cards), and a computer featuring a mostly unreadable email questioning something unknown and asking Young to wake up.]]

* LivingShadow: The Shadow People in [[spoiler: Young]] Town. Just run.

* OrcusOnHisThrone: Played with. According to the Sage, it's ''very important'' that Young obtain the Briar because the forces of The Darkness will be coming ''any second now.'' [[spoiler: There is no evidence of this ever happening, and all of the various evils that you fight seem to have independent causes. There is, in fact, no evidence in the game that The Darkness even exists.]]
** [[spoiler: [[FridgeBrilliance Unless the Evil Darkness is]] ''[[FridgeBrilliance Briar]]''-[[MetaphoricallyTrue you're saving Briar from]] ''[[MetaphoricallyTrue themselves.]]'']]

* SuperDrowningSkills: Young slowly sinks in water and drowns if he's there for too long. Most of the time, riding on dust clouds is how he gets around it. [[spoiler: The ending shows that this is an actual character trait and the Briar has to teach him how to swim.]]

* VideoGameCaringPotential: You need 36 cards to complete the game, but there is a 37th card available if you [[spoiler: track down a fishman after you've scared him and clean up his house as an apology]].

* [[WhamEpisode Wham Level]]: [[spoiler:Young]] Town. It hints at some pretty dark secrets about [[spoiler: Young]]. It's also one of the most overtly frightening areas in the game.

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: Or White, in Young's case.

** In addition to the Link's Awakening and other adventure game references, several of the secret areas and items provide references as well. [[spoiler:For instance, there is a mini-dungeon featuring music and sprites from The Binding of Issac, and secret items such as Missingno and a heart from An Untitled Story.]]
** There's [[http://imgur.com/bxucohn a hidden]] VideoGame/MegaManClassic in the background of one boss fight.

* WidgetSeries: Oh boy. Not only do the visuals get pretty surreal, but characters like the Cubes will often babble cryptically, and the man before the first dungeon who talks about how he was afraid a maintenance crew installed a hidden camera in his mirror. Sometimes this is played [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments for laughs.]] Other times [[NightmareFuel it is not.]]

Players take the role of a white haired human named Young who awakens in a strange world simply called The Land. Young is approached by a cloaked man named Sage, the village elder and is told he needs to save the [[MacGuffin Legendary Briar]] from the [[BigBad Evil Darkness.]] But all is not what it seems and you don't know who you can really trust..

* BigBad: The Evil Darkness, [[spoiler: A.K.A. [[LivingMacGuffin Briar.]] [[MindScrew Maybe.]]]]

* EvilFormerFriend: It's implied that [[spoiler: Briar and Young were friends until something happened between them (hence the snowmen who rant about friendship). [[HeelFaceTurn They go back to being friends in the ending.]]]]

* HeroicMime

* [[spoiler:RealityWarper: The last broom power-up Young finds is named Swap, and is used only to swap colored tiles to complete a puzzle before the two final areas. However, after defeating the final boss, Young can use it to ''swap almost every graphic tile in the game'', essentially warping the fabric of his own world, for example by putting terrain in place of water, void, walls and so on. This ability is used to find secrets in the normal and post-game areas]].

''Anodyne'' is a 2D, Top Down ActionAdventure indie game developed by Joni Kittaka and Sean Hogan during their last years in college.

* CallARabbitASmeerp: Most animal enemies are named after what they are (Dog, Lion...), however bats are called Annoyers (but still called "bats" on some other cards).

The same duo, under the name Analgelsic Productions have gone on to create two more games, ''VideoGame/EvenTheOcean'', and ''[[VideoGame/AnodyneTwoReturnToDust Anodyne 2: Return to Dust''

The same duo, under the name Analgelsic Productions have gone on to create two more games, ''VideoGame/EvenTheOcean'', and ''VideoGame/Anodyne2ReturnToDust''

Compare and contrast other indie games with a ''VideoGame/{{MOTHER}}'' flavor: ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'', ''VideoGame/{{Lisa}}'', ''Videogame/{{Ib}}'', ''Videogame/{{OFF}}'', and ''VideoGame/SpaceFuneral''.

Further compare to ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaLinksAwakening Link's Awakening]]'' and ''VideoGame/YumeNikki'', which the game creators have cited as inspiration.

* WidgetSeries: Oh boy. Not only do the visuals get pretty surreal, but characters like the Cubes will often babble cryptically, and the man before the first dungeon who talks about how he was afraid a maintenance crew installed a hidden camera in his mirror. Sometimes this is played [[CrowningMomentOfFunny for laughs.]] Other times [[NightmareFuel it is not.]]

* MindScrew: Several locations, such as [[spoiler:Young]] Town and Space, the dialogue you receive from the bosses, and the main character's name Young (pronounced like [[CarlJung Jung]]), hint at a deeper underlying meaning.