Line #16 VisualNovel/ProcessOfElimination


1	!This page contains unmarked spoilers. Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned!
2	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/process_of_elimination.jpg]]
3	[[caption-width-right:350:One of these detectives is The Quartering Duke. But which one is it? Pictured L-R: [[TwentyFourHourArmor Armor Detective]], [[TokenEvilTeammate Renegade Detective]], [[{{Workaholic}} Workaholic Detective]], [[BloodKnight Rowdy Detective]], [[TheParagon Ideal Detective]], [[NewMeat Incompetent Detective]], [[BlueBlood Posh Detective]], [[OldMaster Senior Detective]], [[DoomMagnet Doleful Detective]], [[TheEngineer Techie Detective]], [[SupremeChef Gourmet Detective]], [[TheSocialExpert Downtown Detective]], [[{{Bookworm}} Bookworm Detective]]. Not pictured: Mystic Detective.]]
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5	''Process of Elimination'' is a murder mystery {{visual novel}} developed and published by Creator/NipponIchi, released in Japan in May 2021 and the rest of the world in April 2023. The story follows Incompetent Detective, a high school detective who has been caught up in the operations of the Detective Alliance, an international group of expert detectives. He is brought to a mysterious island along with 13 other detectives in order to solve the mystery of "The Quartering Duke", a vicious killer with over 100 victims to their name.
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7	Upon arrival at the island of Morgue, the gathered detectives quickly come to the realization that one of them is "The Quartering Duke", and all of their lives are in grave danger. They must work together to stop The Duke before they all perish and solve the mysteries behind the killings.
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9	During certain segments of the story, the gameplay will switch over to the investigation phase, where you can control the detectives as they search for clues about the cases. This is followed by the resolution phase, where you can use the gathered evidence to find the culprits behind each case. Each detective has unique stats that make them suited for different roles during the investigation phase.
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11	!! Process of Elimination contains examples of:
12	* AnyoneCanDie: Of the 14 detectives alive at the beginning of the story, only six of them are left to confront the Quartering Duke.
13	* AnArmAndALeg: Renegade sacrifices his arm to the red SPX unit in order to buy Techie time to get away. This turns out to be a ploy to lure the unit to the group later on.
14	* AssholeVictim: In "The Case of the Paradox Murders", one of the victims is Renegade, who had just held Posh hostage, tried to kill Incompetent and had generally antagonized the group during their time in the research facility.
15	* AwfulTruth: When his identity is revealed, the Quartering Duke reveals that none of his crimes can be traced back to him because they were actually mutual suicides by the victims.
16	* BeastInTheMaze: Both the invisible and red SPX unites act as this in the maze beneath the prison facility.
17	* BequeathedPower: After the death of Ideal Detective, Incompetent Detective gains the power of the Denouement, which lets him observe his environment to see how people will die.
18	* BottomlessPit: An inconvenient one appears in the maze when the group is trying to escape from the red SPX unit. Armor Knight sacrifices himself by pushing himself and the unit into said pit.
19	* ButThouMust: The first option in the story once you arrive on Morgue is whether or not to go into the research facility. You can only choose this option once, and once you've experienced the path you're forced to go to the manor.
20	* CharactersDroppingLikeFlies: By the end of the second case, four characters are already dead and the group only grows smaller as they go.
21	* CherryTapping: Getting the "Gray Giant" trophy requires solving an MP with Armor Detective [[DumbMuscle who has an Infer rating of 1]].
22	* ClosedCircle: Following the death of Senior Detective, the arrival of a deadly black robot traps them inside Gormenghast Manor with no way out.
23	* TheCorpseStopsHere: After being knocked out by Workaholic and dropped into the maze below the prison facility, Incompetent escapes through a hole in the ceiling into Rowdy's cell, where she lies dead. The other detectives find him in there with the cell door locked, framing him for the murder.
24	* DeadMansSwitch: The bomb collar in Renegade's neck can be activated this way by his observers, as when an observer dies it sends one of the three commands needed to activate it.
25	* DeadlyGas: After Incompetent proves that Downtown killed Mystic, she releases a poisonous gas into the manor to kill herself and drive the rest of the detectives into the secret passage.
26	* DeadlyHug: Downtown surprises Mystic with a hug in order to poison him with a neurotoxin-laced fingernail. This results in his death when he is unable to escape the spike trap in the room.
27	* ADeathInTheLimelight
28	** Mystic is killed shortly after he spends the evening talking with Incompetent about the occult.
29	** Rowdy is killed shortly after a scene where she encourages Incompetent to go with his gut and not second-guess himself.
30	* DetectiveMole:
31	** "The Case of the Phantom Killer" reveals that Downtown is a mole for the Quartering Duke.
32	** "The final chapter reveals that Senior was also working with the Duke and planned to kill himself and Downtown in a mutual suicide.
33	** The Quartering Duke himself is hidden among the group, who turns out to be none other than Doleful.
34	* {{Determinator}}: The red SPX unit manages to survive not only the usual method to disarm the SPX units, but being pushed down a bottomless pit by Armor and getting crushed under a hydraulic lift.
35	* DisabilityAlibi: During "The Case of the Semi-Sealed Cell", Workaholic tries to claim that Techie would be a suspect in Rowdy's killing due to the position of their cells. He forgets that Techie is a paraplegic who wouldn't be able to stand on the box the killer used to set up the wires for the death trap. And even if he was faking it, Techie could have simply used his wheelchair to stand on and thus wouldn't have needed to grab a chair from the office.
36	* DisneyDeath: Armor falls into a pit in the maze after being stabbed by the red SPX unit, but survives thanks to a hot spring at the bottom of it.
37	* DoomMagnet: Doleful's Danger Magnet ability has caused the death of many people around him and frequently gets him in trouble, but also keeps him safe from harm.
38	* DoubleMeaningTitle: The title of ''Process of Elimination'' refers both to the deduction technique for figuring out who the culprit of the case is, and to the fact that the game itself is a process of 'eliminating' the detectives.
39	* DwindlingParty: The initial group of 14 detectives is gradually whittled down as some are murdered and others fall victims to traps.
40	* DyingSmirk: Renegade has a smile painted across their face after tricking Doleful into activating the elevator, killing him.
41	* ExplosiveLeash: Renegade has a bomb collar attached to his neck that can be activated if he goes out of line. Gourmet also puts these on the remaining detectives after "The Case of the Paradox Murders" in order to root out the Quartering Duke.
42	* ForeseeingMyDeath: Ideal has an ability called the Denouement that allows her to observe her environment and see the deaths of those around her. This ability is passed on to Incompetent after she dies to the black SPX unit.
43	* {{Foreshadowing}}:
44	** The ghost of Ideal explains to Wato that upon her death her power of Denouement got transferred over to him. But remember how Wato received a vision upon passing by the poisoned research lab, well before he met up with her? It's later revealed she was lying and the power was Wato's from the start.
45	** Whilst discussing the SPXs, Techie gets mad at the others for calling the machines awful, saying the people who programmed them to do awful things are the ones at fault. Later, Armor gets killed by the Red SPX, which seemingly was simply protecting its assigned area. Only for it to turn out that Renegade deliberately set things up so the SPX would hunt the group down.
46	* FreshClue: The detectives determine that The Quartering Duke must still be inside Gormenghast after killing Senior Detective because there's a fire going in the fireplace.
47	* GentlemanDetective: Detective Gentleman derives his name from this archetype.
48	* GreatDetective: All of the detectives from the Detective Alliance are among the best in their field, but Ideal Detective stands out above the rest due to her future sight.
49	* HeroicSacrifice: Armor sacrifices himself to stop the red SPX unit by pushing it into a bottomless pit.
50	* HighVoltageDeath: Workaholic kills himself by handcuffing himself to a power cable while sitting in a puddle of water.
51	* ImpededCommunication: For most of the story, the communications antenna is down, leaving the detectives unable to communicate with anyone off the island.
52	* IsometricProjection: The investigation gameplay is played with the map styled this way.
53	* MurderByMistake: Workaholic originally intended to kill Renegade but ends up killing Rowdy instead because she switched cells with his intended target.
54	* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: The ''Quartering'' Duke, a brutal serial killer whose murders often involve the victim being torn limb from limb.
55	* NoodleIncident: The Detectives have cases that they are famous for solving. Finding Keywords during Investigation phases allows you to learn the details of how they solved them.
56	* NoSell: In the investigations where there are invisible SPX units, Armor is immune to being attacked by them due to the strength of his armor.
57	* OccultDetective: Mystic is known for solving mysteries involving supernatural entities, such "The Case of the Lycanthrope".
58	* OffWithHisHead!: Renegade ends up losing his head when Doleful activates the elevator he stuck his head in.
59	* ThePeepingTom: Ideal's ghost tricks Incompentent into using his Denouement powers to see what would happen if he spied on the girls in the shower. The vision ends with Posh killing him, and when he comes back to, Posh punches him for having a {{nosebleed}}.
60	* PrivateIntelligenceAgency: The Detective Alliance is an independent organization of detectives formed in the aftermath of "The Dayless Night Incident", working to solve mysteries related to the resulting uptick in crime.
61	* RazorFloss: The Detective Agency developed a type of extremely sharp wire that's both used to create dangerous traps in the underground tunnels and as the weapon that was used to kill Senior. The wire itself is sharp enough that you need special gloves to be able to handle it.
62	* RewatchBonus: The game's scenes take on a different meaning after you complete the game and learn Doleful Detective is the Quartering Duke.
63	* RRatedOpening: The game sets up the violent tone by having the Quartering Duke off two of his victims in a gameshow style opening.
64	* ShowerScene: Ideal tricks Incompetent into using his Denouement Powers to spy on Bookworm, Posh and Gourmet in the shower. It leads to him [[PervertRevengeMode getting killed by them]].
65	* SlainInTheirSleep: Rowdy accidentally gets killed by Workaholic in her sleep while he's trying to eliminate Renegade.
66	* SpikesOfDoom: The second floor living room has a spike trap that's triggered by closing the door. This almost kills a group of the detectives while they were investigating the manor, and ends up being the cause of Mystic's death.
67	* SuicideNotMurder: The final chapter reveals that Senior's death wasn't caused by the Quartering Duke but instead was an elaborate suicide planned with the help of Downtown.
68	* SuicidePact: The reason every Quartering Duke case has two victims is because every case involves two suicidal people mutually killing each other with the help of the Duke.
69	* TakingYouWithMe: Workaholic kills himself in order to trigger the bomb around Renegade's neck, keeping him from escaping the underground facility. This turns out to be unnecessary as Renegade is dead by the time the bomb goes off.
70	* TrailOfBlood: During "Into the Maze of Mysteries", Renegade lures the red SPX unit to the group by using the bloody stump of his arm to leave a trail of blood on the wall for it to follow.
71	* TrapIsTheOnlyOption: After being brought down to the tunnels by Workaholic, Incompetent finds an opening in the ceiling that leads out. Ideal warns against the idea, saying it's a trap, but Incompetent is worried that if he doesn't he can't stop the murder he saw with his Denouement. Turns out the murder had already happened and the trap was set up to frame him for it.
72	* UselessSecurityCamera: Techie sets up security cameras around Gormenghast in order to try and catch The Quartering Duke, but Downtown takes advantage of their blind spots in order to kill Mystic.
73	* VillainOpeningScene: The very first person you're introduced to is the Quartering Duke, who makes you choose which of his two victims to kill. He then proceeds to kill the other one because the audience didn't like them.
74	* WakingUpElsewhere: After being knocked out by Senior, Incompetent wakes up in a locker in the woods on the island of Morgue.
75	* WeHardlyKnewYe: Senior only appears briefly in the prologue before being found dead in the basement of Gormenghast.

Context VisualNovel / ProcessOfElimination