History VideoGame / TheNightOfTheRabbit

* AdultsAreUseless: Played with. During the second encounter with Humbert, Spitsweg could easily use his adult superiority and wisdom ([[spoiler:which Humbert took to in one of the audiobooks]]) so the brat would let them pass. He acknowledges this yet refuse to, telling Jerry that kids can work out their differences just fine... turning the whole thing an into AnAesop how [[AvertedTrope kids have to learn how to solve their own simple problems]] with one another [[TakeThat without always resorting for adults to shut it down by force.]]

In 2023, for the tenth anniversary of the video game, Matt Kempke started airing a bi-weekly page-cast [[https://linktr.ee/mattkempke]] which breaks down chapters of a novel that he is currently writing. The novel, which can be enjoyed without having played the game, serves as both a prequel and a sequel to the story within the game, filling out many details of the world and exploring the mysteries of the titular Rabbit Magician and the order of the Tree Walkers.

The story of the page-cast is based in part on a two-part audio drama that involved the voice cast of the German version of the video game, having aired in 2021 under the titles, "Der Zauberlehrling des Kaninchens" and "Wahre Baumläufer". While the audio dramas are available online through Amazon and other sources, it is German-language only and there are no English translations.

The first book of said page-cast, "The Rabbit's Apprentice", contained ten chapters that aired from July 9th to October 1st of 2023.

A two-part Holiday special, "Vinter's Tale", aired December 25th and 31st of 2023.

Book Two, "The Trial of the Rabbit", is planned to air in the summer of 2024.

* AncientTradition: Treewalking, which is the art to use trees to travel between different worlds, times and possibilities.
* AsianFoxSpirit: Is a character of the game.
* AnAstralProjectionNotAGhost: Jerry at first thinks the Magician of Mousewood is a ghost.

* AstralProjection: Is one of the powers of the old magician A. Molena.
* BarefootCartoonAnimal: Marquis de Hoto.
* BigBad: [[spoiler:The Great Zaroff, who was the last apprentice of the '''real''' Marquis de Hoto]].

* CatchPhrase:
** "Nothing is impossible", by Marquis de Hoto.
** "We have arrived. We will be the solution.", by the lizards.
* [[ChekhovsSkill Chekhov's Skill]]: [[spoiler: How to make a carrot flame.]]
* CivilizedAnimal: The inhabitants of Mousewood.
* CollectionSidequest: Getting the dewdrops, the quartet cards, the stickers and the audiobook stories.
* ConstructedWorld: Mousewood's world.

* [[DrunkOnMilk Drunk On Coffee]]: One of the guests of the Hares' party, a brown mouse with hat, is drunk with coffee.

** Also the reaction to Jerry's comedy, before he comes up with some jokes that are appropriate for a Mousewood audience.

* EarnYourHappyEnding: Despite all hardships (see DarkerAndEdgier above), Jerry manages to get one. [[spoiler:He overcomes his fears, defeats the BigBad, restores his father back into his world, returns back to his own time and place in time for dinner and is greeted by both of his parents]].
* EntendreFailure: Jerry, being 12, doesn't get some of Ludwig's punchlines.
* EvilAllAlong: While The Marquis De Hoto is very friendly and kind [[spoiler: the real marquis turned cruel and almost evil many years before.]]
* EvilSorcerer: [[spoiler:The Great Zaroff]].
* {{Expy}}: Marquis de Hoto to the rabbit from Literature/AlicesAdventuresInWonderland.
** Subverted with Jerry, as he draws many parallels to Simon from VideoGame/SimonTheSorcerer except for personality. They are both [[PortalFantasy sent to a fantasy world]] to be trained in the ways of magic, and both have magic hats that they [[BagOfHolding carry the entire inventory in]]. The difference is that Simon is a complete {{Jerkass}} who only gets worse in the sequels, while Jerry is [[IncorruptiblePurePureness almost "too" friendly and good natured.]]

* FaceHeelTurn: [[spoiler:The Great Zaroff and the ''real'' Marquis de Hoto, both of them prior of the game events]].
* FairyTaleMotifs: The story premise -- a kid following a rabbit into a magical world -- is reminiscent of Literature/AliceInWonderland.
* FetchQuest: Getting the ingredients for the medicine and the cake.

* FreudianExcuse: The BigBad [[spoiler:after losing his ability to travel across worlds just wanted to regain the attention of an audience in his magic shows]].
* GhibliHills: The city of Mousewood.

** The dewdrops and stickers scattered through Mousewood are often either tiny or blend with the object they are on. On top of that, some can't be clicked at anymore after certain events have taken place.
* HeroicBSOD: Jerry has one when [[spoiler:he returns to his world just to find that he had been missing for years, his house is abandoned and his mother has possibly died after searching for him for a long time]].
* HeroOfAnotherStory: [[spoiler:Zaroff]] and [[spoiler:the real Marquis de Hoto]], before their FaceHeelTurn.

* InsurmountableWaistHeightFence: Used literally to prevent you from getting into the wood dwarves' house, Hares family garden and their birthday party.

* MalevolentMaskedMen: The mysterious strangers around town.

* MiniGame: The quartets card game, which is played like Go Fish.
* MysteriousStranger: The wood sprite upon first meeting him and the various strangers [[spoiler:Lizards]]
** MysteriousWatcher: The wood-spite often does for inspiration for his stories. Kitsune also does this [[spoiler:in the form of a statue]]
* NoodleIncident: The old magician A. Molena [[spoiler:gets trapped in one of his own magical bottles. He used said bottles to catch one of the lizards, but then opened one of his own, although he knew that whoever does so gets sucked into it]].
* ObviouslyEvil: The lizards ([[PaperThinDisguise poorly]]) masquerading as humans creep out everyone who sees them, in-universe. [[spoiler: They're only able to start convincing people to take them seriously once Zaroff starts working his magic.]]
* OminousFog: Occurs twice in the game.

* PhysicalGod: The [[spoiler:stone statue you find at the North Pole]] is hinted to be one.
* PixelHunt: The search for the dewdrops and stickers. Luckily they aren't needed for the plot.

* APupilOfMineUntilHeTurnedToEvil: The villain [[spoiler:Zaroff]] to his mentor [[spoiler:Marquis de Hoto]].

** Averted in the audiobooks included with the game, which feature several non-evil reptile characters.
* RetGone: [[spoiler: Jerry's father]]
* RidiculouslyCuteCritter: Mousewood's citizens.

* SealedEvilInACan: [[spoiler: The real Marquis de Hoto.]]

* TheStoryteller: The woodsprite. If you find him at night in Mousewood, he'll give you one to listen to.
* ThePowerOfRock: Kitsune and Plato use this to [[spoiler:free the townsfolk from Great Zaroff's dream]]. It's another version of the [[LeitMotif Night of The Rabbit theme]].
* TitleDrop: Happens during the ending with the WorkingTitle "The Rabbit's Apprentice".
* TomatoInTheMirror: The [[spoiler:Marquis de Hoto]] you meet is not the real one, [[spoiler:but just a memory of the real one]].
* UnexpectedGameplayChange: The BigBad [[spoiler: The Great Zaroff]] is fought in a WizardDuel BossBattle.
* UsedToBeASweetKid: [[spoiler:The BigBad Great Zaroff]].
* VillainousBreakdown: [[spoiler: The Great Zaroff]] has one after being defeated.

* WhiteBunny: Marquis de Hoto.

* WorldOfFunnyAnimals: Averted. There are several hints from early on that the world Mousewood's in is in fact a MouseWorld:
** As soon as setting foot on Mousewood, players could notice various human items (large belts, cola caps) being used as building materials or furniture.
** [[spoiler:The abandoned rail tracks near where the clearly human Magician of Mousewood's house is.]]
** Stories collected from [[spoiler:the woodsprite occasionally mention or deal with human "ramblers" and their civilisation (tapirs in a zoo). So are the "wingless beings" courtesy of the moths.]]
** And if the player somehow manages to miss all of that, [[spoiler:you see a massive dump on the outskirts of a skycraper-lined human city late in the game.]]
* WorldTree: The Clearing Of The First Tree.

In 2023, for the tenth anniversary of the video game, its creator Matt Kempke started airing a bi-weekly page-cast [[https://linktr.ee/mattkempke]] which breaks down chapters of a novel that he is currently writing. The novel, which can be enjoyed without having played the game, serves as both a prequel and a sequel to the story within the game, filling out many details of the world and exploring the mysteries of the titular Rabbit Magician and the order of the Tree Walkers.

The story of the page-cast is based in part on a two-part audio drama that involved the voice cast of the German version of the video game, having aired in 2021. Unfortunately the audio drama is German-language only and there are no English translations.

Not to be confused with ''Film/NightOfTheLepus''.

** Subverted with Jerry, as he draws many parallels to Simon from VideoGame/SimonTheSorcerer except for personality. They are both [[PortalFantasy sent to a fantasy world]] to be trained in the ways of magic, and both have magic [[NiceHat hats]] that they [[BagOfHolding carry the entire inventory in]]. The difference is that Simon is a complete {{Jerkass}} who only gets worse in the sequels, while Jerry is [[IncorruptiblePurePureness almost "too" friendly and good natured.]]

* {{Kitsune}}: Is a character of the game.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Dozens of them, each one with a distinct personality.

* DarthVaderClone: [[spoiler: The real Marquis de Hoto]].

* LostInTranslation:
** Ludwig the mole's radio ident in the original German is "Welle Sumpf 103 Punkt Funf … fünf!" -- intentionally mispronouncing the word ''fünf'' ('five') to sort of rhyme with ''Sumpf'' ('swamp'). In English, this is changed to "Swamp Radio 103 Point Six…er…five", transforming the radio presenter from one who's fond of bad puns to one who can't remember the number of his own station.

* HeroicAlbino: With his [[WhiteBunny white fur]] and red eyes, Marquis de Hoto has the look.

** Stories collected from [[spoiler:the woodsprite occasionally mention or deal with humans "ramblers" and their civilisation (tapirs in a zoo). So are the "wingless beings" a moth used.]]

* AllInTheManual: Minor example with the [[spoiler:woodsprite's stories]]. They flesh out minor or one-note characters ([[spoiler:Steinberg's dwarfmates; Humbert who seemed like a spoiled KnowNothingKnowItAll in-game, really is one of most critical and smartest member of Mousewood and is a very responsible and attentive brother to his own little sister]]) or expanding cryptic lines and [[NoodleIncident Noodle Incidents]] (Plato and his giant tree with a raven dream).

** As soon as setting foot on Mousewood, players could noticed various human items (large belts, cola caps) being used as building materials or furniture.

* AllInTheManual: Minor example with the [[spoiler:woodsprite's stories]]. They flesh out minor or one-note characters ([[spoiler:Steinberg's dwarfmates; Humbert who seemed like a spoiled KnowNothingNoItAll in-game, really is one of most critical and smartest member of Mousewood and is a very responsible and attentive brother to his own little sister]]) or expanding cryptic lines and [[NoodleIncident Noodle Incidents]] (Plato and his giant tree with a raven dream).

* AdultsAreUseless: Played with. During the second encounter with Humbert, Spitsweg could easily use his adult superiority and wisdom ([[spoiler:which Humbert took to in one of the audiobooks]]) so the brat would let them pass. He acknowledges this yet refuse to, telling Jerry that kids can work out their differences just fine... turning the whole thing an into AnAesop how [[AvertedTropes kids have to learn how to solve their own simple problems]] with one another [[TakeThat without always resorting for adults to shut it down by force.]]

* AdultsAreUseless: Played with. During the second encounter with Humbert, Spitsweg could easily use his adult superiority and wisdom ([[spoiler:which Humbert took to in one of the audiobooks]]) so the brat would let them pass. He acknowledges this yet refuse to, telling Jerry that kids can work out their differences just fine... turning the whole thing an into AnAesop how kids have to learn how to solve their own simple problems with one another [[AvertedTrope without always resorting for adults to shut it down by force.]]

* Alli\InTheManual: Minor example with the [[spoiler:woodsprite's stories]]. They flesh out minor or one-note characters ([[spoiler:Steinberg's dwarfmates; Humbert who seemed like a spoiled KnowNothingNoItAll in-game, really is one of most critical and smartest member of Mousewood and is a very responsible and attentive brother to his own little sister]]) or expanding cryptic lines and Noodle Incidents (Plato and his giant tree with a raven dream).

* All in the Manual: Minor example with the [[spoiler:woodsprite's stories]]. They flesh out minor or one-note characters ([[spoiler:Steinberg's dwarfmates; Humbert who seemed like a spoiled KnowNothingNoItAll in-game but really is one of most critical and smartest member of Mousewood and is a very responsible and attentive brother to his own little sister]]) or expanding cryptic lines and Noodle Incidents in the game (Plato and his giant tree with a raven dream).

* AdultsAreUseless: Played with. During the second encounter with Humbert, Spitsweg could easily use his adult superiority and wisdom ([[spoiler:which Humbert took to in one of the audiobooks]]) so the brat would let them pass. He acknowledges this yet refuse to, telling Jerry that kids can work out their differences just fine... turning the whole thing an into [[Aesop]] how kids have to learn how to solve their own simple problems with one another [[AvertedTrope without always resorting for adults to shut it down by force.]]

* WorldOfFunnyAnimals: The world where Mousewood is. [[spoiler:Or it at least is what it seems at first. Late in the game, while you are on the top of a tree, you see what looks like a human city, suggesting that Mousewood is actually a MouseWorld]].

* AdultsAreUseless: Played straight with Spitsweg who (during the second encounter with Humbert) could easily use his adult superiority to tell the brat to buzz off, as he and Jerry have important business. But instead just says (paraphrasing) "Kids will be kids, I'm sure you can handle him yourself"