Line #59 VideoGame/Tattletail


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tattletail_banner.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:[[CatchPhrase Me Tattletail! Me love you!]]]]
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4	Open Your Present
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10	Begin Describing Tropes
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16	''Tattletail'' is an indie "virtual pet horror" game from Waygetter Electronics, created by Ben Esposito, Geneva Hodgson, and Tom Astle. It was released for [[Platform/IBMPersonalComputer PC]] through Platform/{{Steam}} on December 28th, 2016.
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18	''December 20, 1998'': Unable to contain their excitement, a young child sneaks into the basement to peek at their Christmas presents... especially the hot new toy of the season, Talking Tattletail. This squat cartoon critter really talks, eats, and plays games with you, and with other Tattletail toys. After a night of fun, the child puts Tattletail away and goes back to bed, hoping their parents will be none the wiser...
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20	But now that Tattletail has been let loose, he wants to have ''more'' fun with his new owner, whether they like it or not. The child will have to keep Tattletail fed, groomed, and fully-charged if they want to avoid the wrath of the sinister "Mama Tattletail"...
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22	On May 9, 2017, the game got a "kaleidoscope" extension, which included an update and bug fixes.
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24	!!''Tattletail'' contains examples of:
25	* AdorableAbomination: Who'd have thought that a Furby {{Expy}} would be a monster capable of [[spoiler:leading a ritual used to destroy the only monster that's truly evil]]? Besides everyone that owned a Furby in the 90s, that is.
26	* AntagonistTitle: Kinda, since [[spoiler:while the BigBad is a Tattletail, it's Mama Tattletail, none of the others]].
27	* AuthorAvatar: Waygetter Electronics is the name of both the development team and the in-universe company that creates the Tattletail toys.
28	* BadassAdorable: Surprisingly, the titular Tattletails. [[spoiler:In fact, they manage to use RitualMagic to seal their [[BigBad "Mama"]] away.]]
29	* BlandNameProduct: The Tattletail is basically a Toys/{{Furby}}, except with even more terrifying rumors surrounding them that happen to all be true. Mama, meanwhile, has more of a Teddy Ruxpin influence.
30	* BrokenRecord: In the Kaleidoscope update, the VHS tape you find has a few audio glitches near the end, where it constantly repeats "BABY TALKING TATTLE-" until the end of the commercial.
31	* CandlelitRitual: On the final night, you must bring the Tattletails candles to [[spoiler:help them perform a ritual to destroy [[TokenEvilTeammate Mama Tattletail]]]].
32	* CharacterBlog: Tattletail himself has an official [[https://twitter.com/metattletail Twitter account]]. While the [[https://twitter.com/waygetter Waygetter Electronics account]] is mostly a straight developer feed, it does occasionally roleplay as the in-universe toy company of the same name.
33	* CollectionSidequest: There are twenty-two eggs hidden throughout the game, with random junk hidden inside them. [[spoiler:Collecting them all gets you the good ending.]]
34	* CreepyBasement: You spend a lot of time in the basement throughout the game, and it's pretty creepy even before Mama gets involved.
35	* CreepyDoll: Tattletail seems harmless, if annoying, at first... then it starts moving around on its own and messing around with things. Then more of them start showing up, including Mama Tattletail. [[spoiler:While the other Tattletails are ultimately CreepyGood, Mama [[BigBad is your worst nightmare.]]]]
36	* {{Creepypasta}}: The game is basically an interactive version of one. The trailer even evokes this, playing an original commercial and implying there are dark rumors of why Mama Tattletail was banned. This being a horror game, of course they're true.
37	* DarknessEqualsDeath: Stay in the dark too long, and Mama Tattletail ''will'' catch you, especially since being in darkness makes Tattletail freak out. Being in the light (not counting your flashlight) also means you're safe, as the power goes out when she's attacking.
38	* EldritchLocation: [[spoiler:The update's titular Kaleidoscope is a distorted realm where physics doesn't behave like normal, where all memories are allegedly held, and where your vision looks like it's filtered through...well...a kaleidoscope]].
39	* EyeMotifs:
40	** Tattletail's eyes are the most expressive part of its face, allowing it to say things with a lidded, potentially sardonic look or glance left and right furtively yet robotically. [[spoiler:Starting on Christmas Eve, it begins to show its [[GlamourFailure true nature]] by rolling its eyes as it assures the player that it's Tattletail and it loves them, and glancing down to the side worriedly as it says it likes to play with them.]]
41	** During [[spoiler:the ritual]], the eyes of all the Tattletails roll back in their head and go completely white to underline the power they're channeling.
42	** Eyes play a pretty big role in the "Kaleidoscope" expansion. [[spoiler:An eye symbol is apparently the trigger for Waygetter's memory modification technique, and one of the more notable differences between the false-memory Tattletail and the real one is in the eyes.]]
43	* FakeMemories: In the "Kaleidoscope" expansion, [[spoiler:the player discovers that their memories of the main game's events have been modified so that they now remember the main Tattletail as a boring educational toy and Mama as good]].
44	* FauxFurby: The titular Tattletails are Furby-esque toys, but with more catlike features than a Furby's birdlike features. The game revolves around carrying around and caring for a very chatty Tattletail without alerting the dangerous Mama Tattletail.
45	* FeaturelessProtagonist: Downplayed. While the creators have gone on record to say that there is no canon gender for the main character, they are presumably one of the children seen in the photos in your room.
46	* {{Foreshadowing}}: On night 1, if you decide to answer the phone after returning Tattletail to his box, you can hear [[spoiler:Mama Tattletail's casetophone grinding among all the static. On night 2, once you get the flashlight and head to the main basement, lights go out and you can see her red eyes. She can't do anything to you beyond giving you a minor jumpscare, but still serves to herald her debut during the following night]].
47	* GainaxEnding: The Normal Ending counts as one. [[spoiler:When Christmas comes, you open your Tattletail present only to see... Nothing. Then, for some reason, Mama Tattletail jumpscares you, and ROLL CREDITS!]]
48	* TheGhost: The protagonist's parents are never seen, nor are the family pets. The parents may have been revealed in an in-game picture though.
49	* GlamourFailure: Tattletail [[spoiler:initially pretends it can only move its eyes left and right or raise and lower its eyelids, to appear more toylike. As the nights go on, it lets some emotion slip through the charade]].
50	* GoldenEnding: Collecting all the eggs changes the game's ending. [[spoiler:Instead of the box being empty, Tattletail appears and gives you his tag and a golden flashlight. The protagonist then goes to wake up their mother, and the game ends on a white screen with Tattletail saying "Thank you."]]
51	* GoneHorriblyWrong: [[spoiler:Mama was designed as an option to keep the Tattletail children out of too much mischief. Stories on cassette sold separately. Instead, she savaged and maimed anyone who dared to interact with the cute critters. She was recalled, but evidently, not quickly enough.]]
52	* HauntedTechnology: Unlike the AI Tattletails, Mama, specifically her VHS tape, [[spoiler:has no artificial sentience but is instead a monstrous, murderous supernatural entity. You have to work with the Tattletails to banish and destroy her if you hope to live to see Christmas Day]].
53	* HollywoodGiftwrap: Your protagonist's present.
54	* HorrorDoesntSettleForSimpleTuesday: The game takes place over the last five days of the Christmas season.
55	* InfinityPlusOneSword: [[spoiler:Getting the GoldenEnding rewards you with the Golden Flashlight, [[InfiniteFlashlight that never runs out of batteries]], making subsequent playthroughs much easier.]]
56	* InnocentBlueEyes: Your main purple Tattletail has these.
57	* InternalRetcon: The basis of the Kaleidoscope extension.
58	* JumpScare: It's a Horror game, it's to be expected.
59	* KidHero: The protagonist is a child no older than about nine or ten.
60	* MadnessMantra: On the final night, [[spoiler:the Tattletails start shouting "NO MORE MAMA!" as they cast their "ritual"]].
61	* MamaBear: Literally. Mama will horribly maim anyone who so much as ''plays'' with the Tattletails.
62	* MeaningfulName: Between their battery needs, [[note]]("UH-OH!")[[/note]] grooming needs, [[note]]("BRUSH ME!")[[/note]] and food needs, [[note]]("GIVE ME A TREAT!")[[/note]] you, the player, have to go through a lot to keep these loudmouthed tattletales from revealing your position to Mama.
63	* MechanicalAbomination: Though Mama Tattletail has the appearance of an oversized Tattletail doll, she's actually a monstrous, murderous supernatural entity inhabiting a mechanical vessel. Her presence is accompanied by {{Ominous Visual Glitch}}es and the whirring, grinding sound of her casetophone, and [[spoiler:the closest thing she has to a true form is the VHS tape that you banish in the end]]. Besides her [[VillainTeleportation teleportation]] abilities, the "Kaleidoscope" expansion reveals that [[spoiler:she can also [[FakeMemories modify memories]]]].
64	* MechanicalLifeforms: Despite being mechanical toys, the Tattletails can eat and digest real food, and produce waste, as an egg.
65	* MultipleEndings: There are two endings you can get, the Normal Ending (which you get by playing through the game normally) and the GoldenEnding, which you can get by [[spoiler:finding all the Easter Eggs hidden throughout the game]].
66	* MyBelovedSmother: It's implied that [[spoiler:the Tattletails take]] a distinct issue with Mama because she [[spoiler:keeps killing people who just want to play with them]].
67	* NewGamePlus: [[spoiler:If you get the GoldenEnding, you are rewarded with the [[InfinityPlusOneSword Golden Flashlight]], [[InfiniteFlashlight which never runs out of power]]. This carries over to subsequent playthroughs of the game.]]
68	* NoCommunitiesWereHarmed: Waygetter Electronics is located in a nonexistent town called "Decent, Illinois". Its zip code corresponds to the real-world town of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwight,_Illinois Dwight, Illinois]].
69	* NonMaliciousMonster: [[spoiler:Mama Tattletail is the only one that actually wants to kill you. The rest just want to play, even to the point where they perform a ritual to banish her.]]
70	* NothingIsScarier: Used very often during the earlier nights of the game. Specifically Nights 1 and 2, where the darkness of the basement can fool a player into thinking that something is coming.
71	* OhCrap: When the power goes out on Night 2, a "Task: Oh no..." will appear.
72	* PresentDayPast: The game gets many things right about [[TheNineties the period it's set in]], but makes two minor flubs as of the available technology.
73	** The game is set in 1998 and your flashlight is a shake light. Faraday shake lights only came to the market in 2002.
74	** The Tattletail gets power from a charging cradle. Rechargeable batteries weren't that common in children's toys in the late 90s and would have been more likely to use regular alkaline AA or AAA batteries like the original Furby did.
75	* RedEyesTakeWarning: A pair of glowing red eyes are the only sign that Mama Tattletail is about.
76	* {{Retraux}}: The game makes judicious use of VHS-esque graphical artifacts to add to the vintage 90s feel.
77	* ShownTheirWork:
78	** Tattletail really does look and move like an actual Furby. The only real difference is that Tattletail looks more like a cat than a bird. It can still lay eggs, though.
79	** December 1998 actually ''is'' the time when Furby was first released.
80	** Mama Tattletail seems like an inversion of the IRL Furby Babies.
81	** With the motherly personality and the eggs, Mama also resembles a "Wuv Luv"; A similar electric toy creature coming from around the same time Furby did. The Wuv Luvs were AlwaysFemale and could "lay" an egg with a baby inside.
82	** It's possible Mama was also inspired by Teddy Ruxpin, another mammalian doll with a tape deck that tells stories.
83	* TenSecondFlashlight: When the lights go out, your only source of light is a shake-powered flashlight that lasts only a couple seconds and makes a lot of noise when you recharge it.
84	* TheEndOrIsIt: The regular ending. On Christmas Day, you open your present... [[spoiler:and it's just an empty box; Tattletail is gone. Then you're treated to the JumpScare that plays when Mama Tattletail catches you. [[GainaxEnding Then the game abruptly ends]]]].
85	* ThemeMusicPowerUp: [[spoiler:While the Tattletails are performing the ritual, the song from their commercial plays in the background.]]
86	* VideoGameCaringPotential: Despite how annoying he can be, it's rather common for players to get attached to Tattletail. Some even want a real Tattletail toy of their own, or a game ''without'' Mama that just involves playing with your Tattletail.
87	* WhamEpisode:
88	** Christmas Eve. The "party" Tattletail and his friends throw in the basement turns into [[spoiler:some kind of terrifying arcane ritual, complete with a pentagram drawn in Christmas lights, intended to banish the... ''thing'' that is Mama Tattletail]].
89	** Prior to that is night 3, when Mama is properly introduced. The first two nights just introduced the mechanics and the spooky atmosphere; after you put that cassette in, you're now in actual danger.
90	* AWinnerIsYou: Should the player character obtain the GoldenEnding by [[spoiler:collecting all 22 eggs]], your gift will be [[spoiler:a golden flashlight]]. The flavor text is as follows: [[spoiler:Waygetter Gold, new from Waygetter Electronics. The Long-Lasting Golden Flashlight! You love it!"]]
91	* WouldHurtAChild: You think Mama Tattletail will go easy on you since you're just a child? Think again.
92	* {{Yandere}}: Mama Tattletail can count as a parental example, seeing as the only reason she's attacking you is to "Defend" her children from "Bad" kids.
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94	-->[[TheStinger Mama's coming...]]

Context VideoGame / Tattletail