The characters of Downfall (2009).
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Joe Davis
Joe Davis
"This...Is...The end."
The main protagonist of the game.- Ax-Crazy: Later in the game, you find out Joe is this.
- Jerkass: In the original. In the remake the player has more control over how much of a jerk he is, though he has his moments even at his nicest.
- Through the Eyes of Madness: The entire game is this. The hotel Joe and his wife are staying at doesn't even exist!
- Sanity Slippage: If he was ever sane to begin with. The game shows him sliding farther and farther into his delusions.
- Unreliable Narrator: Due to Joe's Sanity Slippage most of what happens in the game either didn't happen or didn't happen the way he remembers it.
- Villain Protagonist: All those people he killed were real people...Maybe.
Ivy Davis
Ivy Davis
"I've been making myself sick."
Joe's wife. She's been sick for awhile, but the trip to Quiet Haven doesn't help her state.- Hallucinations: In one scene (after Joe peers into a corpses head) Ivy sees many strange and horrifying things in the bathroom.
- Hearing Voices: Ivy seems to hear strange things as soon as they get to the hotel...
- Nervous Wreck: At the hotel, at least. She spends the first few minutes of the game screaming at things that aren't there. Joe can acknowledge this or not, depending on player actions.
- Weight Woe: Played for drama. Her (incorrect) belief that she is fat drives her eating disorder, to a degree.
- In her hallucination in the bathroom the voice that speaks to her claims she is fat. More specifically, the voice encourages her to crawl into the toilet "Like a good little fat girl".
- It's implied by the first Sophie that some of the delusions play on this, such as there being a "monster" in the mirror that whispers bad things to you when you're alone.
- I Am Not Pretty: Her believing in this trope doesn't help her state of mind.
Agnes
Agnes
A mysterious amnesiac woman Joe meets after he brings her back to life while assisting Doctor Z.
- Ambiguously Brown: At least in the remake. Her skin appears notably darker than that of any other character she contacts with, even with the Deliberately Monochrome art style.
- Blood-Splattered Wedding Dress: If Joe kills her.
- Brutal Honesty: Agnes is very straightforward, justified due to her circumstances.Agnes: (to Joe) It's totally beyond me how any woman could like a guy like you.
- Deadpan Snarker: Some of her dialogue options are very sarcastic, either playfully or out of desperation.Queen of Maggots: But the only thing that matters if what YOU think I am.Agnes: An unlucky victim of lip augmentation gone wrong?
- Genki Girl: She is, very noticeably, the liveliest and bubbliest character in the game's grim setting. A recurring animation of hers exemplifies this; whenever she's happy or congratulatory, she bounces and claps her hands enthusiastically.
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl: She accompanies the constantly brooding Joe and he is noticeably more relaxed when she's around. Since she's literately made from Joe's fond memories of his wife in the remake, this may also apply to Ivy.
- Plucky Comic Relief: Especially in her more sarcastic moments.
- Quirky Curls: In the remake.
- Tulpa: Agnes was this all along, due to her not real nature, but still being independent and able to interact with other people and objects without Joe's input. Joe created her from the fond past memories of his wife, Ivy, before she became sick.
Doctor Z
Doctor Z
A doctor who is working at the Quiet Haven hotel.
- All Germans Are Nazis: if you look around enough, you'll find evidence of him being a former Nazi, or at least has a strong fascination with them. An Averted Trope in the remake, which has no reference to Nazi affiliation.
- Herr Doktor: Speaks with a thick German accent.
- Mad Scientist: Putting a random brain into a corpse and electrocuting it until it came alive would certainly make him qualify as one. Joe can call him out on this too.
Sophie
Sophie
A resident of Quiet Haven hotel. There are four different versions of "Sophie" that Joe must kill in order to leave Quiet Haven. not that he was ever there to begin with...
- Bath Suicide: One of the already-dead Sophies killed herself this way.
- Boom, Headshot!: One of the already-dead Sophies killed herself with a shotgun this way.
- Death Seeker: The young and the adult Sophie both express a willingness to die.
- Driven to Suicide: Three Sophies are dead in the bathroom before Joe even intervenes.
- Fat Bastard: The fat Sophie in the room full of corpses.
- I'm a Humanitarian: The ingredients for the "smoothie" the third Sophie asks you to make are more than a little odd.
- Rage Against the Reflection: All the mirrors in Quiet Haven Hotel are broken, save for one...
- Stuff Blowing Up: Two of the Four Sophies that Joe kills over the course of the story die this way.
- Waif Prophet: The first Sophie.
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Adult Sophie right before her death.
- Yandere: Adult Sophie, especially after you kill her boyfriend.
- Your Head A-Splode: The first one regardless of which poison you give her.
The Manageress
The Manageress
The manager of Quiet Haven hotel.
- Dissonant Serenity: Constantly."Joe, do you realize how HARD it is to wash blood off these carpets? -sighs- We just can't carry on like this."
- The Vamp: The manageress takes this role in the remake as she, tries to seduce Joe into killing Agnes which if Joe agrees to results in a Downer Ending
Robbie Davis
Robbie Davis
Joe's little brother.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The younger, foolish sibling to Joe's older, responsible sibling. Joe instantly recognizes the danger the crate of grenades represents. Robbie doesn't, and it ends up costing him his life.
The Queen Of Maggots/ Lorelai
The Queen Of Maggots
A mysterious being Joe and Agnes encounter. She has many names.
- Demoted to Extra: Plays a much more minor role in this game.
- Greater-Scope Villain: She's manipulating events not only in this game but in The Cat Lady and Lorelai as well.
- I Have Many Names: Just like in The Cat Lady her introduction includes this.
- Apparently, her real name is Lorelai. She will tell Agnes if you press her long enough. Which could be considered a way to bring attention to the Lorelai game, which was only released in 2019 but was already being planned by the time the Downfall remake was released.
- Villain of Another Story: Gets a lot more development in The Cat Lady and Lorelai, but she's still shown to be a malevolent force in this game.
Susan Ashworth
Susan Ashworth
The protagonist of The Cat Lady, Joe and Ivy's neighbor and a Parasite killer.
- Adaptational Attractiveness: She is far more attractive compared to how she looked in her game. Though it could be a case of her Informed Attractiveness being addressed.
- And Now for Someone Completely Different: In the remake, the last third of the game is played from her perspective.
- Hero Antagonist: At the remake's final act, she confronts Joe in the climax.
- Took a Level in Badass: Susan is shown in the Downfall remake as a genre savvy parasite killer that mastered MacGyvering various weapons and is utterly ruthless and efficient in dispatching anyone she sees as a parasite. This is demonstrated when she nearly kills Joe during his attempt to resurrect Ivy.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: In Ending C, after spending her entire game destroying parasites that kill other people or that make people kill themselves, Susan is now encouraging people to commit suicide. This is the only ending where she does this, though; the rest she's her usual heroic self.
