History YMMV / HeavyRain

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Before the game even came out, a lot of people viewing the trailers found Shelby to be more interesting than the other three stars. [[spoiler:It doesn't hurt that he turns out to be the Origami Killer.]]
** Now that the game is out, Norman is fan favorite as well.
** There's some love for Troy (the random guy who attacks Lauren in Scott's first chapter) around the net. His total screen time is probably less than 3 minutes but he squeezes every ounce of awesome he can get out of it.

* UnfortunateImplications: The only two black characters of note are a [[ScaryBlackMan a psychotic cop-murdering thug]] and [[MagicalNegro a wise old gravedigger]]. Also, the way many of Madison's scenes are dedicated to needless {{Fanservice}}.

* FanDisservice: The striptease in Sexy Girl may be this more this than {{Fanservice}} because Madison is being ''[[ShamefulStrip forced]]'' to remove her clothes. However, non-consent is a fairly common fetish as well.

** There's some love for Troy (the random guy who attacks Lauren in Scott's first chapter) around the net. His total screen time is probably less than 3 minutes but he squeezes every ounce of awesome he can get out of it

** Mad Jack is an unrepentant criminal, who we discover has at least one murder under his belt (which he attempted to cover up via acid bath).
** Both Kramer and his son qualify, depending on how you view them. The latter accidentally [[spoiler: killed a child whom he was tormenting intentionally purely out of boredom]], and the former covered it up and willingly commits murder to make sure things stay that way.
** There's also [[spoiler:the Origami Killer's father, who regularly sent his young sons out to play in a dangerous construction site so he wouldn't have to deal with them, and flat-out refused to get off his drunken ass to save John from drowning a mere few dozen yards from his trailer.]]

* DancingBear: [=ARI=]. See TruffautWasRight.

* BetterThanItSounds: It's basically an AdventureGame driven by [=QTEs=].

* LoveItOrHateIt: Opinions are mixed as to whether the game is an immersive piece of interactive storytelling or a long and barely interactive CG movie with poor writing and voice acting.
** In fact, some have called this one of the most divisive games in history. Looking at its Metacritic page, the game has eight Perfect scores, and three 4 out of 10's. (ones technically a 4.5).

* CharacterAlignment:
** LawfulGood: Norman, Shelby
** NeutralGood: Madison
** ChaoticGood: Lauren
** TrueNeutral: Ethan, Captain Perry
** LawfulEvil: [[spoiler: Actually Shelby]]
** NeutralEvil: Blake, Charles Kramer
** ChaoticEvil: Dr. Baker, Mad Jack, Gordi Kramer
* CompleteMonster: This game's full of them. First off: The Origami Killer himself, who may or may not qualify based on how adequate you think his FreudianExcuse is.

* DroppedABridgeOnHim: [[spoiler: Norman if you let him get killed by the guy at the garage. Possibly Madison if you let the MadDoctor kill her in his basement.]]

* IronWoobie: Ethan, depending on how you play him.

** spoiler:Mad Jack is an unrepentant criminal, who we discover has at least one murder under his belt (which he attempted to cover up via acid bath).

* CounterpartComparison: Ethan has characteristics similar to [[{{Fahrenheit}} Carla Valenti]].

* CounterpartComparison: Jayden appears to be like Carla Valenti from ''{{Fahrenheit}}'' as both of them are investigators who are addicted to their jobs that they can't get any sleep and don't have a love life.

* UnfortunateImplications: The only two black characters of note are a [[ScaryBlackMan a psychotic cop-murdering thug]] and [[MagicalNegro a wise old gravedigger]]. Also, how [[Fanservice]] is centered around Madison.

* UnforunateImplications: The only two black characters of note are a [[ScaryBlackMan a psychotic cop-murdering thug]] and [[MagicalNegro a wise old gravedigger]]. Also, how [[Fanservice]] is centered around Madison.

* CharacterAlignments:

** CahoticGood: Lauren

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Sort of. The player characters can have varying personalities depending on your choices, but Ethan Mars takes the cake. The guys at ''4 Player Podcast'' had an especially hilarious take on Ethan as an uncaring, hopelessly depressed asshole of a father who is a jerk to both Jason and [[strike:not-Jason]] Shaun, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pD_T685QAN0 ends up playing favourites with Jason anyway]], and spends the majority of "Father and Son" ignoring [[strike:[[FanNickname not-Jason]]]] Shaun. [[CrowningMomentOfFunny Even THE GAME ITSELF hates 4PlayerPodcast!Ethan]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJLD4XeBLRE and Shaun starts rebelling]].
** When you get into [[spoiler:his]] [[TearJerker backstory]], it only further drives it home.
** [[ZeroPunctuation Yahtzee]] also popularized a theory that portrays Jayden as a [[EpilepticTrees time-traveler from the future,]] in order to explain the magic forensic gloves-and-sunglasses technology that is ludicrously advanced for 2011.
*** Which makes several of his endings much more meaningful, [[spoiler: such as the one where he "meets" himself [[strike:while overdosing on drugs]] [[EpilepticTrees from an alternate timeline]] , or the one where he leaves future technology with the FBI after he quits.]]

* CompleteMonster: This game's full of them. First off: [[spoiler:The Origami Killer himself, who may or may not qualify based on how adequate you think his FreudianExcuse is.]]
** [[spoiler:Doctor Adrian Baker is a MadDoctor who murders people via "surgery" while they're still alive and fully conscious.]]
** [[spoiler:Mad Jack is an unrepentant criminal, who we discover has at least one murder under his belt (which he attempted to cover up via acid bath).]]
** [[spoiler:Both Kramer and his son may qualify, depending on how you view them. The latter accidentally (or so we're told) killed a child whom he was tormenting intentionally purely out of boredom, and the former covered it up and willingly commits murder to make sure things stay that way.]]

** Aaaaand in the DLC "The Taxidermist," the titular taxidermist [[spoiler:apparently kills young women, stuffs them taxidermy-style, dresses them up, and poses them in his bedroom]].

** Now that the game is out, Norman seems to be a fan favorite as well.

* GoodBadBugs: Apparently, there's one where the nude model of Madison will be in place of a normal clothed one in certain parts of the game. [[SarcasmMode Many players will surely be angered should this ever happen to them.]]

** [[spoiler:And him actually having Lauren fall for him for his supposed determination in finding her son's killer, while he himself was the one who committed the deed? Talk about MoralEventHorizon there. It's fucking hard to have ANY sympathy for him at the realization.]]

* MoralEventHorizon: You might come to understand the Origami Killer's motivation, you might buy into his FreudianExcuse, you might feel sympathy for him, but [[spoiler:at the end, when Ethan has succeeded in all his trials and found his son, and it appears that Shelby intends on shooting him and leaving Shaun to die ANYWAY, all bets are off.]]

*** [[spoiler:His manipulation of Lauren certainly counts.]]

** Lt. Blake has two moments: [[spoiler:Beating Ethan up to know if he's the Origami Killer, and in the end, ordering his death]].
* PlayerPunch: Goddammit, game! [[spoiler:Why did SHELBY have to be the Origami Killer??]] FUCK!

** How about [[spoiler: Shethan?]]
* StrangledByTheRedString: Potentially [[spoiler:Ethan and Madison]] and [[spoiler:Shelby and Lauren]]. [[supersecretspoiler:Though how real that last one is is questionable, given the circumstances...]]
* TearJerker

*** When Jayden investigates the scene [[spoiler:at the nightclub]], one of his thoughts just emphasizes his woobieness:

* HighOctaneNightmareFuel: The game has a lot of it, but special mention goes to [[spoiler:the third trial, where Ethan is forced to [[{{Fingore}} cut off his freaking finger]]. It's not so much the fact it's being cut off so much as it is the fact you CONTROL EVERY SECOND OF IT, even as he screams in agony. The fact you even get to choose which instrument he does it with (which happens to include an axe, wire cutters and a pair of scissors among other things) somehow makes it worse. If you use the scissors, he has to cut off a lingering bit of it... ''twice''.]]
** [[spoiler:If you take too long on the final use of ARI as Jayden, his ''eyes start bleeding''. Then he dies if you take even longer (see ContinuityNod above).]]
** The Origami Killer's method of murder. You'll be afraid to get into the bathtub, let alone any large body of water.
** [[spoiler:When Ethan hallucinates he sees Jason again in the train station. From his point of view, time is frozen, and any time he touches one of the other people in the station, they fall limply, as if suddenly sucked of life.]] Try not to get nauseous.
** [[spoiler:Adrian Baker. What are the fucking odds that investigating leads on a serial killer makes you bump into ANOTHER serial killer? And a less insane, more evil one?]]
*** [[spoiler:Pretty big when FridgeBrilliance sets in and you realize that the case Shelby has spent the entire game solving is the identity of his own copy cat.]]
** [[spoiler:Leland White, the suspect that Madison investigates in the Taxidermist DLC, kills women and has them stuffed just like the animals mounted on his wall.]]
** [[spoiler:The Butterfly trial. Crawling through a tiny tunnel with broken glass all over the floor is anyone with claustrophobia's worst nightmare. Especially if you look at Ethan's arms after he's done this.]]
*** [[spoiler:And then having to slide down an incredibly narrow chute to get to the condenser maze once they get to the end of ''that'' part of the trial? Good luck keeping your lunch if you have claustrophobia.]]
** Want some ParanoiaFuel? [[spoiler:That sweet guy who saved you from suicide, took care of your baby, and stopped a robber from shooting you in the head may kidnap and kill your son the next day.]] Rock yourself to sleep with that one.
*** Note, [[spoiler:in all the examples listed, he ''already did'' kill their sons. *shudder*]]
** [[spoiler:Madison's Dream.]]

** Madison's dream is definitely a YourMileageMayVary thing. It's kind of a WakeUpCallBoss in terms of difficulty; it pops up and says "Hey, this is how hard the game can get, are you ready?", definitely useful since the difficulty of some scenes can catch you heavily off-guard.

** [[spoiler:Both Kramer and his son may qualify, [[YourMileageMayVary depending on how you view them]]. The latter accidentally (or so we're told) killed a child whom he was tormenting intentionally purely out of boredom, and the former covered it up and willingly commits murder to make sure things stay that way.]]

* CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming: Scott Shelby rescuing the suicidal mom and then taking care of her baby left many people rather misty. YourMilageMayVary however.

* TearJerker: And ''how''! YourMilageMayVary, however.