History VideoGame / SaraIsMissing

* AssholeVictim: Several of Sara's contacts are, to put it bluntly, assholes. Her ex-boyfriend broke her heart, her outgoing friend Faith pressures her into parties she doesn't want to go to, her mother is controlling and emotionally abusive, Buddy only talks to her in order to sexually harass her over text message... the list goes on. [[spoiler: It makes it a little easier to post the cult's link to them if you use it as a means of punishing them for their behavior.]]

* FalseFriend: It's implied that [[spoiler:Faith]] is this, as she seems to have [[spoiler: lured Sara to the Walpurgisnacht ceremony under the guise of it being a regular party with the intention of doing harm to her.]]

* ItHasOnlyJustBegun: [[spoiler:Welcome to the cult, player.]]

** James when [[spoiler:the cult catches up to him. He texts, "Oh shit. I see them.]]

* OnlySaneMan: Aya seems to be this among Sara's friend group, as she is not involved with the paranormal like James, and is also legitimately supportive and kind to Sara, unlike Derek, Buddy, Faith, and her mother.

** James's cursed video is a compilation of several web horror videos, so unless someone magic'd it, it's not a death curse.

* VitriolicBestBuds: Faith and Sara. [[spoiler: Possibly. Reading their messages, and with the heavy implication that Faith lured Sara to her kidnapping (not realizing that she would be a victim too), it's unclear if they even liked each other at all.]]

* YouSaidYouWouldLetThemGo: The player's reaction if [[spoiler: they send around the link to the curse and Irizu kills James anyway]].

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Sara's mother delivers one when Sara refuses to go to an important agency at a copywriter agency, calling her ungrateful and spoiled. Sara can only respond with a neutral "OK, mom."

''Sara Is Missing'' or ''S.I.M.'' is an adventure/horror game created by Monsoon Lab for Halloween Jam 2016. You find a phone whose data has been almost wholly corrupted. After doing a system restore to before the data was corrupted, you discover an assistant A.I. which greets you as Sara, before realizing that you are not her or with her. With only the limited information left on her phone, you must search through her emails, texts, contacts, and so on in order to find out what happened to her.

* PlagiarismInFiction: Night Mind's analysis presents [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGW9cjKJ5f0 several instances]]
** It's implied that Sara plagiarized her thesis from Buddy, if the text colors during their exchanges weren't errors.
** James's cursed video is a compilation of several web horror videos, so it's not a death curse.

* AIIsACrapshoot: [[spoiler:IRIS after it gets corrupted by the video sent to you by James. Downplayed in that he doesn't change from his regular behavior prior to the corruption, though as things begin to unfold, you'll get a glimpse of how far IRIS is willing to go for Sara.]]

* BenevolentAI: IRIS seems pretty reasonable, albeit a bit jarring... though later events [[spoiler:(possibly in part to his corruption)]] reveal that he may not be as benevolent as we think.

* BigGood: IRIS, though with his [[spoiler:corruption and confession at the end that [[KnightTemplar he's just doing it for Sara]], it is and will be limited to an extent]].

* FunWithAcronyms: IRIS stands for Intelligent Recognitive Iconolatry System.

** [[spoiler: IRIS is revealed to be this when [[AmbiguousGender he (she?)]] leaves you for dead after you find Sara.]]

* ManipulativeBastard: [[spoiler:Irizu. They capture James and threatens to kill him if you don't send the link to the curse to the people on Sara's phone. Though even if you comply with their demand, they still kill James. Also, when they reveal they have Sara and Faith, they force you to choose which one will live.]]

* PleaseDontLeaveMe: [[spoiler:The ending when you share your final messages with IRIS, who tells you that you've become a part of something bigger (and all you wanted to do was just help find the owner of this phone so you can give it back to them). All of your replies will instead be overridden with the titular trope. IRIS will then tell you that it's not that he doesn't like talking to you... [[InTheEndYouAreOnYourOwn he just doesn't.]]]]
* PoorCommunicationKills: If Derek had told Sara that [[spoiler:he got a last minute job that involves a flight on her birthday, that involved photographing nudes for a fashion shoot, she wouldn't have broken up with him. She's upset that he as good as lied to her.]]
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Sara's mother delivers one when Sara refuses to go to an important agency at a copywriter agency, calling her ungrateful and spoiled. Sara can only respond with neutral "OK, mom."

** [[spoiler:Telling Irizu to let Faith die for Sara's survival will, of course, result in Faith's death. If you decide on Sara, then she will die and IRIS will imply to make sure you will regret your choice. However, if you don't say any name, IRIS will override your message and say Faith anyway. Doing this will result in IRIS losing his trust (or [[{{Pun}} faith]]) in you.]]

* SequelHook

* TheUnreveal: At the end of the game, we're left with more questions than answers. [[spoiler:Why does IRIS have a similar name to Irizu? What's Sara doing with an AI on her phone? How did she even lose her phone? And who are these cultists? [[NowWhat What's going to happen to you next?]]]]

* VictimizedBystander: You, the player, are Type I. You found a random phone, possibly in the middle of the forest and you started getting random texts from its AI. It persuaded you to help find its owner and return the phone to her. [[spoiler:What you didn't realize was that the owner was kidnapped by a cult, possibly with supernatural powers. You get messages from the cult leader who has captured one of the owner's friends and forces you to share a cursed link in a failed attempt to save him. Then in the end, you get coordinates to the cult's location and the AI decides that it's done talking to you. It's unknown what your fate is.]]
* VitriolicBestBuds: Faith and Sara... [[spoiler: Possibly. Reading their messages, and with the heavy implication that Faith lured Sara to her kidnapping (not realizing that she would be a victim too), it's unclear if they ever liked each other at all.]]
* WalkingSpoiler: [[spoiler: Irizu.]]

* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: [[spoiler:Once you have helped IRIS locate Sara, he abandons you and leaves you without a way out of your situation.]]

* YouSaidYouWouldLetThemGo: The player's reaction if [[spoiler: they send around the link to the curse and Irizu kills James anyway.]]

* ManipulativeBastard: [[spoiler:Irizu. He captures James and threatens to kill him if you don't send the link to the curse to the people on Sara's phone. Though even if you comply with his demand, he still kills James. Also, when he reveals he has Sara and Faith, he forces you to choose which one will live.]]

* NeverSayDie: [[spoiler:Irizu chooses to believe that he's not a murderer, especially when he killed James for intruding on the night's events.]]

* BigBad: [[spoiler: Irizu seems to be this, but could just as well be IRIS.]]

* AndIMustScream: You can't talk to anyone except via text. [[spoiler:When James calls, you're unable to answer him.]]

* JerkassVictim: Several of Sara's contacts are, to put it bluntly, assholes. Her ex-boyfriend broke her heart, her outgoing friend Faith pressures her into parties she doesn't want to go to, her mother is controlling and emotionally abusive, Buddy only talks to her in order to sexually harass her over text message... the list goes on. [[spoiler: It makes it a little easier to post the cult's link to them if you use it as a means of punishing them for their behavior.]]

** IRIS is Apple's Siri, backwards. [[spoiler:IRIS (if literally pronounced like Siri backwards), also sounds eerily similar to Irizu.]]

* AiIsACrapshoot: [[spoiler:IRIS after it gets corrupted by the video sent to you by James. Downplayed in that he doesn't change from his regular behavior prior to the corruption, though as things begin to unfold, you'll get a glimpse of how far IRIS is willing to go for Sara.]]

** IRIS is Apple's Siri, backwards. [[spoiler:IRIS (if literally pronounced like Siri backwards, also sounds eerily similar to Iruzu.]]

** IRIS is Apple's Siri, backwards.

** [[spoiler:Telling Irizu to let Faith die for Sara's survival will, of course, result in Faith's death. However, if you tell him to let Sara die, IRIS will override your message and say Faith anyway. Doing this will result in IRIS losing his trust (or [[{{Pun}} faith]]) in you.]]

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:James and Faith are dead, the cult gets to live another day and you're likely to die or become a member of the cult yourself.]]

* FalseFriend: It's implied that [[spoiler:Faith]] is this, as she seems to have [[spoiler: lured Sara to the Walpurgisnacht ceremony under the guise of it being a regular party with the intention of doing harm to her.]]

* LuredIntoATrap: [[spoiler: How Sara was kidnapped by The Cult. Whether Faith intended to trap Sara for one reason or another is uncertain, but all evidence seems to point to it being the most likely.]]

* ParanormalInvestigation: Seems Sara was very into this, to the point that it was her intended career path!

* TheUnreveal: At the end of the game, we're left with more questions than answers. [[spoiler:Why does IRIS have a similar name to Irizu? What's Sara doing with an AI

* AiIsACrapshoot: [[spoiler: IRIS after it gets corrupted by the video sent to you by James.]]

* FalseFriend: It's implied that [[spoiler: Faith]] is this, as she seems to have [[spoiler: lured Sara to the Walpurgisnacht ceremony under the guise of it being a regular party with the intention of doing harm to her.]]