Line #44 Videogame/SouthOfReal


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10	[[quoteright:259:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/untitled_51.png]]
11	[[caption-width-right:259:[[Music/ModestMouse All the stars are projectors here.]]]]
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13	The stars in the sky are a thing of beauty and wonder. Long has humanity been fascinated by them. But what if they are not simply giant balls of light? What if they are actually living beings of [[EldritchAbomination unspeakable horror and incomprehensible power]]? And what if, one day, they were coming to kill us all?
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15	So claimed Dr. Luis, who dedicated himself to saving the world from imminent doom. To this end, he adopted six children to raise them to combat the threat. But things went wrong, and now Alex is the only one left.
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17	Now, the stars have come to reap, and Alex is out of time. Alex is certain that the key to survival lies within their childhood home. Unfortunately, there are ''other'' things that remain in Alex's childhood home. [[BigBad The shadows]], angry, hurting things that are desperate for a little extra company, are after Alex. After all, they've been alone for so long...
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19	No place like home.
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21	''South of Real'' is a short horror game by indie developer Matthew B. Hare. The current version was released in summer of 2016, and can be [[https://mattdb.itch.io/southofreal downloaded for free on Itchio]].
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23	See also ''VideoGame/TheWitchsHouse'' and ''VideoGame/AoOni'', two popular indie horror pieces in the same vein.
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25	!!This game provides examples of:
26	* AbusiveParents: Dr. Luis uses his adopted children [[PlayingWithSyringes as nothing more than fodder for his experiments]] to [[WellIntentionedExtremist stop the end of the world]]. By the time the game proper rolls around, his own actions have left him a broken wreck of a human being. [[spoiler:[[DeathSeeker Even choosing to have the one survivor of the experiments kill him seems to be exactly what Luis wants.]]]]
27	* AcidTripDimension: Whenever Alex finds a tome, reality breaks down.
28	* ActionSurvivor: Alex, an ordinary kid who became [[SoleSurvivor the only child who survived]] Dr. Luis's experiments.
29	%%* AdventureGame
30	* TheAlcoholic: Dr. Luis, as his morale breaks down. Examining a bottle of wine implies that Alex's habits aren't that much better.
31	* AmbiguousGender: The protagonist, Alex. An easily-missable log reveals that Alex is short for Alexandra.
32	* AmbiguousSituation: The entire reason the plot happens is that Dr. Luis sought to save the world from the stars in the sky, which he claims to be {{Eldritch Abomination}}s. It is never really made clear if the stars really are living, impossibly powerful beings out to destroy humanity, or if Dr. Luis is just a delusional WindmillCrusader. On the one hand, supernatural events do occur, such as the shadows that haunt the mansion [[spoiler:and are actually the spirits of the other children Luis adopted]], but on the other hand, the stars themselves never take action or show any indication they are alive.
33	* ApocalypticLog: The tomes, which describe the situation with [[EldritchAbomination the stars]] and Dr Luis's experiments to stop them.
34	* AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: [[spoiler:One interpretation of the "Leave" ending, where Alex becomes a shadow like the other kids.]]
35	* BigBad: The shadows haunting the mansion are the beings that [[PlayerCharacter Alex]] must avoid. [[spoiler:They are actually the spirits of Alex's friends killed by Dr Luis.]] The stars and Dr. Luis, meanwhile, [[GreaterScopeVillain never directly antagonize]] Alex.
36	* CreepyChangingPainting: Happens when you pick up a tome. The changed paintings can be seen with blood on thier sprites.
37	* CosmicHorrorStory: According to Dr. Luis, the stars are actually [[EldritchAbomination godlike beings that have toyed with humanity as if they were chess pieces,]] and are coming to "[[KillAllHumans pick up the pieces.]]"
38	* DespairEventHorizon: Alex sits on this line the entire game. [[spoiler:You can choose to cross it at the end.]]
39	* DrivenToSuicide: One interpretation of the [[spoiler:"Stay" ending]].
40	* EldritchAbomination: The stars [[KillAllHumans are coming to destroy humanity]].
41	* GreaterScopeVillain: The stars are powerful {{eldritch\|Abomination}} beings out to destroy humanity, which drove Dr. Luis to his evil deeds to stop them, but they never physically appear. Luis himself also does not personally antagonize Alex. The direct antagonists are the shadows [[spoiler:that Luis created]].
42	* HauntedHouse: The setting is the mansion where Luis and the kids used to live, [[spoiler:and their spirits continue to haunt the place]].
43	* HumanoidAbomination: The shadows. [[spoiler:Alex can become one if they choose to join them.]]
44	* ImAHumanitarian: [[spoiler:Dr. Luis ate one of his adopted children at one point.]]
45	* ImplacableMan: The shadows cannot be fought — Alex can only run.
46	* InsurmountableWaistHeightFence: There's an operating table blocking one of the doorways for the first three quarters of the game for… some reason.
47	* LivingShadow: The enemies of the game. [[spoiler:They're the spirits of the other kids that lived there.]]
48	* MindScrew: The game as a whole is this, especially when it starts "glitching out," which indicates a shadow attack.
49	* MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate: Dr. Luis. [[spoiler:His doctorate is in the arts, not science.]]
50	* MultipleEndings: Two of them: the "Stay" ending, in which [[spoiler:Alex chooses not to go with the shadows and is possibly DrivenToSuicide]], and the "Leave" ending, where [[spoiler:Alex [[AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence leaves with their friends and becomes a shadow like them]]]].
51	* PayEvilUntoEvil: An option in the endgame. [[spoiler:[[DeathSeeker Luis even thanks you for it.]]]]
52	* PetTheDog: Dr. Luis let Alex leave in the backstory. [[spoiler:This was, unfortunately, after everyone else was dead.]]
53	* SoleSurvivor: [[spoiler:Alex is the only one of the adopted family that is still alive, with the possible exception of [[AmbiguousSituation Dr. Luis.]]]]
54	* StylisticSuck: Dr. Luis was [[InformedAbility apparently]] quite the artist before he started drinking.
55	* SurrealHorror: The game starts in a rather bog-standard haunted mansion, albeit one the player character grew up in. True to the title, though, the reality of the game goes completely south by the end of the game as [[SanitySlippage Alex realizes the depths of depravity their own parental figure sunk to]] in [[KnightTemplar an effort to save the world]].
56	* SurvivalHorror: Whenever the shadows show up and start chasing you.
57	* SurvivorGuilt: Alex really misses their siblings.
58	* {{Tykebomb}}: What Luis ends up turning the kids into. [[spoiler:[[MyGodWhatHaveIDone He's not proud of it.]]]]
59	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: One of the six kids (Katrin) is unaccounted for, as is [[TokenGoodTeammate Diane]].
60	* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: The shadows don't mean to be mean. They just want [[spoiler:a family reunion]].

Context Videogame / SouthOfReal