Never meet your heroes.
Cathy informs Gloria and the player than an attack has occurred at the red carpet of the Transmutators 9 movie premiere, prompting them to rush to the scene. There, they find the body of lead actor Ronald Rooney shot in the chest.
Tropes:
- Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: Subverted. During the investigation, Yoshinobu tells you Ronald thrashed his sushi bar after drinking too much, but you later learn the reason for Ronald's rampage was completely different.
- Alliterative Name: Ronald Rooney
- Appearance Angst: As a result of Ronald insulting her appearance, Annie developed self-esteem issues that led her believe she's ugly and fat, despite the fact she only weights 140 lbs.
- Broken Pedestal: Turns out, Ronald wasn't a very good person despite being famous for playing heroes. Annie is specially heartbroken by this, as he called her ugly when she asked him to take a photo with her.Gloria: Well, <Player's Name>, the media may make people think they know what celebrities are like in real life, but this case is teaching me that Ronald Rooney was no role model!
- Call-Back: Louis Leroux reappears as a suspect. The young artist seen in Case 7 also makes her official debut here during the Additional Investigation, whose name is revealed to be Meera Kat.
- Career Versus Man: Gender-Inverted example with the victim, who preferred his career over continuing his romance with Yoshinobu. It's the reason why he killed Ronald.
- Celeb Crush: Annie was clearly in love with the victim, which is why she suffered so much when he called her ugly. Carter also has a huge crush on Savannah, according to Gloria.
- Closet Gay: The victim was this, as he used to have a relationship with Yoshinobu ever since they were in university, but had to keep their relationship hidden due to his career requiring him to be "a ladies' man."
- Continuity Nod: Rupert mentions how people in the past used cocaine to relieve pain, and there are even records of Concordian toothache drops made out of it.
- A Day in the Limelight: Rupert becomes your partner for most of the Additional Investigation while investigating who stole the pieces of art for Savannah's charity event.
- Drugs Are Bad: The victim openly used cocaine, which made him aggressive and often got him in trouble with his movies' director.
- Eternally Pearly-White Teeth: One of the killer's traits is that they use teeth whitener.
- Fallen-on-Hard-Times Job: According to Leroux, he didn't expect his job in CCN to involve interviewing egomaniac movie stars and he'd rather do some more exciting reporting, which is why he attempted to provoke the victim and get an exciting story out of his anger.
- Fanboy / Fangirl: Both Carter and Martine were apparently fans of the victim, but the biggest example is Annie Schmidt, who was the president of his club of fans. At least until he called her ugly.
- Good Samaritan: Savannah Blake, the lead female heroine of the Transmutators 9 movie, has been raising funds for Grimsborough's citizens that have been affected by the earthquake, which put her at odds with the victim since he refused to donate.
- If I Can't Have You…: As Yoshinobu puts it, Ronald ruined his life by breaking up with him, so Yoshinobu decided to ruin his.
- Immoral Journalist: Louis Leroux purposefully tried to make the victim angry by questioning him about some... private matters, as he wanted his job to be more than interviewing boring movie stars.Gloria: A journalist with integrity, my foot! Mr. Leroux seems no better than any gossip rag writer chasing a scandal!
- Instant Death Bullet: Ronald was killed instantly by being shot once in the chest.
- It's Personal: We find out the reason Jones took all of the files, and why he was so jumpy toward Zoe's disappearance, is because Zoe is Jones' girlfriend.
- Jerkass: The victim was a very unpleasant person who insulted one of his biggest fans and refused to take a photo with her because he considered her ugly, refused to donate to Savannah's charity for victims of the earthquake despite being pretty rich, openly did cocaine despite the bad publicity it brought to the movie, and broke up with his boyfriend because he didn't want people to find out he was gay despite Grimsborough being, for the most part, a pretty open-minded city. The only thing sparing him from being an outright Asshole Victim is that he at least never attempted to directly harm anyone, and even then, that's a pretty low bar.
- Love Hurts: Yoshinobu ultimately killed Ronald after he broke his heart by refusing to continue with their relationship.
- Mad Artist: Meera Kat, an artist who used the city's ruins after the earthquake as inspiration for her paintings and is willing to steal other paintings (as if, literally take them away and toss them in the trash) so hers will get more publicity.
- Never My Fault: After the victim complained to Leroux's bosses for asking him inappropriate questions during their interview, he says it was Ronald's fault he almost got fired because of it despite clearly being Leroux's fault.
- Nice Character, Mean Actor: Ronald, who was famous for always being the good guy in his movies, was an unpleasant Jerkass in real life.Savannah: Ronald kept playing noble heroes in the movies, but in real life he was a selfish slug!
- No Such Thing as Bad Publicity: In-Universe example with Mike and Meera. The former believes Ronald's death will only serve to boost Transmutators 9 popularity, while the latter doesn't care about being incarcerated for stealing paintings since not only his fans will bail her out, but make her even more famous.
- Not So Above It All: The end of the case has you and Rupert, two people that seem to not be ones for frivolity, invited to a party held by Savannah Blake. The game implies the two get utterly shit-faced.
- The Reveal: Zoe Kusama, the missing social worker you learned about in the previous case, is Jones's girlfriend, which is why he's been so desperately trying to find her.
- Shameless Self-Promoter: Mike Cove, the director of Transmutators 9, does this during a press conference regarding the victim's death.Mike: I know that many among you will feel the loss of Ronald as sharply as I do...But never fear, because you can still see him in Transmutators 9, coming soon to a theater near you! Thank you for coming, and good night!
- Shout-Out:
- Savannah Blake resembles Meghan Markle.
- Yoshinobu Akagi's sushi restaurant, Benibana, is a parody of Benihana.
- Mike Cove is a parody of Michael Bay. His love for explosions is even referenced in one his dialogues.
- In the Limousine scene, there is a poster for Dracula.
- In the Hotel Lounge scene, there is a magenta teddy bear.
- The murder weapon is a Big Bauer P253, which is a parody of the SIG Sauer P320.
- Transmutators is a parody of Transformers.
- Skewed Priorities: Mike Cove, the movie's director, isn't that affected by Ronald's death despite being the star of his film.Mike: At least the death is good publicity for the movie. I hear Hearsay Weekly is dedicating an entire issue to the shooting!Gloria: Your compassion is overwhelming.
- Take That!: Gloria throws a jab at the Transformers franchise by claiming the Transmutators movies (a clear parody of Transformers) "are just explosions and robots with no real storyline."
- Tempting Fate: Seems like some of Jones's habits are starting to seep onto Gloria.Gloria: Carter is a huge fan of the series! Personally, I think they're just explosions and robots with no real storyline, but this is not the time to begrudge people some lighthearted distraction!Cathy: Lighthearted distraction? You can forget about that, <Player's Name>! There's been an attack at the movie premiere! There are reports of a fatality!
- Teeny Weenie: Louis Leroux provoked the victim during their interview by asking him about one of his ex-lovers claiming he had one of these, which Ronald didn't take well.
- Together in Death: During his trial, Yoshinobu says he will pay for his crime, and soon him and Ronald will be together again.
- Trademark Favorite Food: The victim was apparently a great fan of sushi, hence why he always ate in the same restaurant during his premieres.
- True Art Is Angsty: In-Universe with Meera Kat, whose art is based on the destruction and suffering brought by the earthquake that struck Grimsborough a week ago. Some of your teammates are shown to be clearly disgusted by this.
- Weight Woe: One of the killer's traits is that they drink celery juice and cayenne pepper, which supposedly detoxes the body and helps with losing weight.
- I Will Find You: Jones's search for Zoe is revealed to be much more personal than it was first shown, as he's his girlfriend.
- What the Hell, Hero?: A minor one occurs with Jones when you discover he hid the fact Zoe Kusama is his girlfriend and he's been investigating by himself without anyone's help, though he's quickly forgiven by Gloria and Chief Parker.
