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Enigmatis is a trilogy of games developed by Artifex Mundi and published by Avanquest Software; the first in the series released in Europe in 2012. It is available for a variety of platforms including, but not limited to, PC, iPad, iPhone, Kindle Fire, Xbox, and Blackberry. It chronicles the adventures of an unnamed female detective, who deals with supernatural foes, mystery, and death.

The Ghosts of Maple Creek, the first game, centers around a missing persons case in the eponymous Maple Creek. The story opens not with the investigation, but the detective being knocked unconscious and losing her memory halfway through it. She must find the pages that were ripped out of her notebook and piece together the clues she can find in town, as well as uncover the secret behind the townspeople’s strange behavior.

The Mists of Ravenwood, the second game, begins two years after the end of the first, with the detective investigating some leads along the west coast. As she’s driving through the woods, a mysterious creature nearly runs her off the road — straight to an abandoned and torn up camper, outside the gates to Ravenwood Park. She ends up embroiled in another set of strange disappearances, the activities of a bloodthirsty cult, and supernatural phenomenon.

The Shadow of Karkhala, the final game, features the detective and her partner finishing their pursuit of the demonic preacher, searching for an old monastery in the snow-capped mountains of Tibet to stop his bid for world domination.

The gameplay is a mix between point and click games, puzzle solving, and hidden object games.

This series provides the following tropes:

    open/close all folders 

     Tropes for all three games 
  • Anti-Hero: Private Investigator Hamilton, mostly in the first game. He's motivated primarily by revenge rather than justice, and his murderous intent conflicts with the main detective — but he shows numerous times that he's willing to help those in need, and only targets the cruel and unjust. He warms up considerably to the heroine over the course of the trilogy.
  • Artistic License – Traditional Christianity: Seen more in the second and third games than the first; the Big Bad of the series is a Sinister Minister, and the Greater-Scope Villain is Asmodai, the "king of demons." Several references are made to angels, demons, God, and hell.
    • However, the third game makes it clear that the mythology of the setup is connected to most if not all of the world's organized religions.
  • The Big Board: All games feature this as the protagonist’s way of collecting and organizing information for the various mysteries she’s solving in each location. Maple Creek has a wall in her hotel room, Ravenwood has an old tool board, and Karkhala has her use her phone.
  • Chekhov's Gun: The ritual dagger, which Hamilton steals to use on the Priest. It's revealed in the second game that it's the only weapon that can kill a disciple of Asmodai, although this is also hinted in the bonus chapter of the first game.
  • The Chessmaster: The Priest shows himself to be this in all three games.
  • Cliffhanger: The first two games end with the evil preacher from Maple Creek escaping, with the second having an added bonus of hinting he's going to become the reincarnated demon Asmodai.
  • Compilation Rerelease: There's an Android app called Unsolved containing the second and third Enigmatis games and some other Artifex Mundi games, for free. For some reason it doesn't include the first Enigmatis though.
    • The first game is added as Enigmatis Origin in a later update with some minor changes.
  • Damsel in Distress: Kate in the first game; Becky and her mother Rachel in the second; and Fang in the third.
    • The bonus chapters add Emily in the first game and Connie in the second.
  • Determinator: The detective protagonist. She refuses to escape from a case even when her safety is on the line until she has all the loose ends wrapped up, and continues to chase the evil Priest from Maple Creek for two years.
    • Also Richard Hamilton, who has been tracking his quarry for more than thirty years.
  • Difficulty Levels: The player can decide for themselves how much of a challenge they want the games to be.
  • Evil Sounds Deep: The Big Bad has a deep, raspy voice.
  • The Faceless: While the player can occasionally see the detective's whole body and the back of her head, there are no clear shots of her face.
  • Fair Cop: The detective, any time the audience gets a good look at her in cutscenes, appears to be an attractive woman. Her dark hair and puzzle-solving ability suggests she's a Brainy Brunette.
  • Finally Found the Body: In the first and second games. Only some are identified in-game.
  • Friend to All Children: The detective shows great kindness to both Becky in Mists of Ravenwood and Fang in Shadow of Karkhala.
  • Gratuitous Latin: The series title, Enigmatis, is a form of the Latin word enigma, meaning "riddle."
  • Human Sacrifice: The series features these as part of demonic rituals to obtain power in honor of the demon Asmodai.
  • Immortality Immorality: It's revealed in the second game that the Priest from the first game and Whitmarsh (the Raven) from the second are granted immortality through their bond with the evil demon Asmodai, and they maintain that bond through ritual sacrifice of innocent people.
  • Interface Screw: Sometimes occurs as a penalty for making several incorrect clicks in an HO scene on higher difficulties.
  • Jump Scare: At least one or two per game. For example, there’s the dead body you find in the basement of the boarding house in Maple Creek, and then the skeleton hand that falls out of the brick in the maze in Ravenwood.
  • The Lost Lenore: Emily Smith is this for Hamilton. He hunts and combats the Priest for over thirty years to get revenge for her death, and always keeps her picture with him in his case notebook.
  • Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Asmodai is named after Asmodeus, the demon of lust (specifically, this one's practitioners appear to lust for power). Many of his twelve acolytes also have these.
  • No Name Given: We never learn the name of the main player character; when other characters speak to her, they only ever call her "Detective."
  • Only Known by Their Nickname: The twelve servants of Asmodai are only known, even to each other, by their assigned titles; the third game reveals that they also have assigned symbols to represent them.
    • The bonus chapter of Mists of Ravenwood reveals these titles in a clue: The Cobra, The Crow, The Devourer, The Dread, The Grief, The Monarch, The Priest, The Raven, The Ruler, The Shadow, The Vulture, and The Warden. The names are also shown in the third game. As of the end of the second game, only the Priest remains.
  • Peek-a-Boo Corpse: Standard practice. In particular, there’s all of the dead women shoved under the floorboards of the chapel in the first game, and the rotten bodies stuffed in barrels in the catacombs in the second.
  • Pixel Hunt: When all else fails, it can help to move the pointer around and see if it changes shape.
  • Prequel: All three bonus chapters are set before each game's main story. Naturally, this also means that the Downer Ending of each one is a Foregone Conclusion - Hamilton's girlfriend Emily is dead, the ticket seller ends up mentally enslaved by Whitmarsh, and Britney is murdered by the Priest.
  • Rewatch Bonus: Playing the games a second time, after learning how the mysteries in each are resolved, really lets the player catch a lot of details and subtle hints they probably missed the first time.
  • Rule of Three: Asmodai has three heads - one humanoid, one like a bull, and one like a ram.
  • Serial Killer: The Big Bads in the first two games are basically this. One specifically targets young women, for no stated reason, while the other is less picky. They require the sacrifice of lives to extend their own immortality in service to Asmodai.
  • Take Your Time: Despite many scenes in the game pressing the player to rush, there are no time limits on anything.
  • Video Game Caring Potential: The detective is a really good person, and many of the people she assists in the games are as well. Hamilton also turns out to be a Cool Old Guy, once the detective knows him better. It's very easy for the player to get attached to them.
  • You Shouldn't Know This Already: Returning players get very little advantage over first-timers, as the games run entirely on Event Flags; even if the player knows the answer to a puzzle, they still cannot solve it until they have found the necessary clue.

     Tropes for The Ghosts of Maple Creek 
  • Bittersweet Ending: The detective successfully saves the lives of Kate and her boyfriend, and destroys the ritual altar where so many young women were sacrificed. However, the preacher has escaped and is on the run, and Hamilton has stolen the murder weapon and is hunting him.
  • Blatant Lies: The sign at the entrance to Maple Creek describes it as "Your Four Season Paradise." Lampshaded by the detective, who notes it sounds almost sarcastic.
  • Bragging Rights Reward: The Xbox version of this game has unlockable achievements, which the PC and iOS versions do not.
  • Brand X: Of a sort. The computer the protagonist uses has "Artifex" on the front, as does her Securi-Case.
  • Cool Car: Hamilton, in the bonus chapter, drives a sleek 1970s convertible.
  • Creepy Basement: There’s one in the church where the preacher hides some of his equipment for the ritual. The one in the boarding house is not better, especially since a man commits suicide down there.
  • Creepy Cemetery: Just outside the church. The creepiness is amped up when you learn that the mysterious tomb is where Kate's being held.
  • Downer Ending: The bonus chapter. Since you know going in that Hamilton's beloved Emily is dead, this is a Foregone Conclusion.
  • Driven to Suicide: The man in the boarding house basement. The note he leaves indicates that he broke free of the Priest's spell long enough to realize what was happening in the town and that they all bore some responsibility for it, and he didn't want to live like this any longer. As it's still very early in the detective's investigation, the note doesn't tell her much at this point; it makes a lot of sense in hindsight.
  • Dull Surprise: Hamilton falls into this in the bonus chapter at least once. The subtitles make it clear that he's shocked and horrified to discover his girlfriend's possessions in the abandoned cottage, but the voice acting makes him sound almost bored.
  • Easy Amnesia: Our detective wakes up in the beginning of the game without any knowledge of her investigation prior to being knocked unconscious. More or less justified - it's eventually revealed that she developed the amnesia due to injuries when she crashed her car.
  • Empathic Environment: The creep factor of Maple Creek is enhanced by the ongoing storm, which has knocked out the phone lines and half-destroyed the boarding house. It's also the reason for the detective's car crash before the game began.
  • Empathy Doll Shot: In the bonus chapter, this is actually averted. When entering the locked nursery of the abandoned cottage, Hamilton remarks that the old dolls are disturbing. It's implied that the former occupant of the nursery may have been one of the killer's victims, although this is unconfirmed.
  • Faux Affably Evil: The minister in the bonus chapter. He provides Richard Hamilton with a map to an abandoned cottage in exchange for a cup of coffee, and offers what almost sounds like a friendly warning about the state of things at the place. A note from Emily later reveals that he's also the one who suggested she go there; she writes that he was so nice to provide her with this information.
  • First Kiss: Richard Hamilton and Emily Price had theirs on Valentine's Day in 1976, as revealed on a clue the detective finds. The date is the passcode to the safe in Hamilton's basement.
  • Flavor Text: The detective can peruse a few different travel brochures at the local gas station. None of them are Plot Coupons and she can't add them to her inventory; they just provide a little more information about the area.
  • For Doom the Bell Tolls: The continuous clanging of the church bell is part of the main game's ambient sound effects. This is relevant to the plot, since the Sinister Minister uses the bell to enslave the town residents; however, the sound is still heard even after the detective disables the bell! Possibly justified since, after all, it's dark magic.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: When first heading downstairs in the boarding house and flipping the light switch, it brightens enough to show the form of a dead body that you get to see in more detail later when you fix the lights. This is so brief that you only get the hint of a glimpse of it.
  • Glowing Eyes of Doom: The man who breaks into the detective’s room early in the adventure, and later all the citizens in Maple Creek. While their behavior isn’t necessarily dangerous, it is frightening and indicates they’ve become mindless puppets to the preacher’s will.
  • Hollywood Acid: The detective uses some of the acid leaking from her car's damaged battery to destroy the church bell so she can remove the enchanted clapper.
  • Hope Spot: Near the end of the bonus chapter, Hamilton finds Emily alive in the ritual chamber. Needless to say, the hope doesn't last.
  • House Fire: One happened sometime between the events of the bonus chapter and the events of the main game. The burned ruin which the detective visits in the main game used to be the abandoned cottage which Hamilton visits in the bonus chapter; the player knows this because the same toy, a box with metal soldiers and a wind-up key, is found in both.
  • How We Got Here:
    • The periodic flashbacks which the detective experiences as she slowly regains her memories provide this, explaining how she ended up where she is.
    • The bonus chapter is this for Detective Hamilton, explaining how he ended up in the cabin.
  • Idiot Ball: The bonus chapter hands this to Emily Price. Going by yourself to camp out in an abandoned and run-down house, in an unfamiliar town, without telling anyone you know where you're heading? Yes, this sounds like a brilliant idea...
  • If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!: The detective says this to Hamilton, as he’s about to kill the Priest. This doesn’t sway the man’s mind; killing the culprit had been his aim for at least thirty years.
  • In Medias Res:
    • The story begins after the detective’s initial investigation was concluded, trying to pick up the pieces of what she discovered during that time.
    • The bonus chapter of the collector's edition shows the events surrounding Emily Price's murder thirty years earlier, and how Richard Hamilton came to be where he is when he meets the detective. The end of the chapter reveals that he's detailing all of this in a letter to the detective.
  • Lovecraft Country: Maple Creek, according to the local signs and brochures, is in Vermont.
  • The Maze: The detective won't even let herself try to navigate the woods north of town until she has both the compass and a destination in mind. Once she does, it's basically a very easy one of these.
  • Memento MacGuffin: Hamilton treasures a small locked box belonging to Emily. It provides clues for the detective in the main game; the bonus chapter shows how he found it.
  • Monumental Damage Resistance: The landmark tree, a beautiful and very large tree which is stated in-game to be at least 550 years old, is practically the only thing in Maple Creek which isn't at least a little decayed or damaged.
  • No Name Given: The majority of the characters; in particular, Kate's boyfriend never has his name revealed, despite being one of the characters with the most speaking lines.
  • Only a Flesh Wound: Averted with Kate's boyfriend, who has been seriously wounded. Detective Hamilton patches him up so he doesn't bleed out, but it's all but stated he will need professional medical help.
  • Pet the Dog:
    • Kate’s boyfriend tries to insist that the mysterious stranger, really Detective Hamilton, is a dangerous lunatic. The detective wonders why he would bother patching up the man’s wounds if he's so unconcerned with human life. (Most likely, he was really hiding the young man from the Priest.)
    • The end of the bonus chapter has a bit of this. It reveals that the events of the bonus chapter are being related in a letter from Richard Hamilton to the detective of the main game, and he concludes the letter by assuring her that "my failure is not your fault" and he understands why she tried to stop him from killing the minister.
  • Prequel: The bonus chapter, set thirty years before the main game.
  • Regained Memories Sequence: Happens to the detective when she finally locates the place where the Priest nearly murdered her before her clever escape. Suddenly all the memories she's been struggling to reclaim come rushing back, and she remembers everything about the investigation.
  • Right Under Their Noses: Detective Hamilton has been hiding out in Maple Creek for three decades, trying to defeat the evil there. It's unclear whether the Big Bad was unaware of his presence or simply chose to ignore him.
  • Shaped Like Itself: When the detective first meets Hamilton, he greets her pleasantly and offers her, apropos of nothing, some Polish sausage. He then adds that "It tastes... Polish."
  • Sinister Minister: The true culprit behind the disappearances and the strange behavior of the townspeople. He uses dark magic to suck their life force and brainwash them into his servants.
  • Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Hamilton, in his younger days - the dark and handsome parts, at least, are corroborated by photographs from the time period. He's still tall.
  • Take Up My Sword: Seen in the bonus chapter. The owner of the abandoned cottage had been on the trail of the preacher, more than a century before Hamilton finds his notes. He leaves behind everything he's collected, along with a letter urging whoever finds it to finish what he started, because if they found his documents then that means he failed to stop the Priest. Hamilton even lampshades the trope, wondering if he's meant to be the man's successor.
  • Town with a Dark Secret: By the time the game begins, it’s already become evident that everything is completely messed up. The detective's computer, in her hotel room, is open to an internet forum discussing the town, and the commentary indicates that it was like this long before the storm. The residents are described as polite, but odd. The bonus chapter of the collector's edition shows that the town has been under the Priest's spell for over 150 years. Given how old the Priest is eventually revealed to be, it's entirely possible that Maple Creek has been this from its inception.

     Tropes for The Mists of Ravenwood 
  • Adrenaline Time: When the detective is thrown out of the camper at the beginning. It happens again when the bird kidnaps Becky.
  • Animal Motif: Butterflies. There are "ethereal butterflies" to collect throughout the game by clicking on them (see Gotta Catch 'Em All), and Becky and her mother both wear butterfly pendants. Possibly an allusion to Butterfly of Death and Rebirth.
  • Apocalyptic Log: The detective eventually finds Becky’s digital camera, recording the events that led up to her parents’ kidnapping.
  • The Bad Guy Wins: Not the Raven, but the Priest. The evil preacher gets exactly what he wants — to kill the only other remaining disciple of Asmodai, and thus to become the most powerful.
  • Bittersweet Ending: The preacher has the ritual knife, and is about to become the disciple who will reincarnate Asmodai. But the Ticket Seller has been freed from her mental enslavement; she, the Simsons, the detective, and Hamilton all get out relatively unscathed; and Ravenwood will never be able to harm anyone ever again.
  • Bragging Rights Reward: This game has a host of unlockable achievements to earn; unlike its predecessor, the achievements are available on all platforms.
  • Broken Bridge: The detective has to make a couple of improvised crossings for herself, including one to get across the river from the logging camp to the shacks.
  • Cain and Abel: The Priest and the Raven have shades of this; the Raven even addresses the Priest as "brother."
  • Call-Back/Continuity Nod: The runes that show up in the doorways of the maze are the same you see in the finale of Maple Creek. This can be helpful when interpreting them, and serves as foreshadowing.
    • The demon Asmodai was named in a painting in Maple Creek, and his name was the code to a safe.
    • In the savaged camper in the very beginning of the game, you can find a painting of the lakefront cottage which served as the evil preacher's hideout in the previous game.
  • Closet Shuffle: Becky does this repeatedly to hide from "the bad man." Since she's a small child, it works.
  • Creepy Blue Eyes: All that can be seen of the underground prisoner for most of the game are his bright, soft blue eyes. The creepy factor comes in when the player knows who the prisoner is.
  • Creepy Changing Painting: A variant; the statues will occasionally look at you when you’re not paying attention to them.
  • Creepy Crows: In addition to the angry-looking raven statues, the main monster is a very large ghostly raven.
  • Creepy Monotone: The Ticket Seller speaks in this much of the time, as part of her hypnotized state in the thrall of the villain. She later utilizes it deliberately, to make Whitmarsh think she's still under his control even though she isn't.
  • Cutting the Knot: Lampshaded. When in need of a rope, the detective spies one tied to a post. She remarks that it's "tied with a Gordian knot, and there's no way I'm untying that." So she cuts it.
  • Darker and Edgier: Compared with Ghosts of Maple Creek, which was already creepy, this one is even more unsettling.
  • Deliberately Cute Child: Becky seems to have been pretty much designed to invoke Video Game Caring Potential.
  • Deprogramming: The detective has to do this to the Ticket Seller, who is a thrall to Whitmarsh. She comes back later to repay the debt by luring him away from the mansion and getting Becky to safety.
  • Distressed Dude: Hamilton rescues Becky and pays for it by having his leg broken; the detective sets it for him, but he's unable to help her continue the investigation.
  • The Dragon: The giant ghostly raven turns out to be one of these, having been summoned by Whitmarsh to do their dirty work.
  • Enemy Mine:
    • Though she doesn't know it, the detective is working alongside the Priest, her enemy from the first game, who has his own reasons to want to kill Whitmarsh.
    • In a much less jarring example, the bonus chapter ends with Hamilton suggesting to the detective that they join forces in the investigation due to their shared enemy. She readily agrees.
  • Foregone Conclusion: In the bonus chapter featuring the Ticket Seller as the protagonist, the player already knows that she fails to save her friend and fiancé, and is enslaved by Whitmarsh by the end. The Downer Ending is thus expected.
  • Gotta Catch 'Em All: There are thirty "ethereal butterflies" and thirty "illusory objects" (items in the scenes which change appearance) to be found in the course of the main game. Success in the hunt will unlock achievements.
  • Hippie Van: The Ticket Seller and her companions traveled in one of these, as seen in the bonus chapter. It's seen in the main game too, but its hippie coloring only appears in the bonus.
  • How We Got Here/In Medias Res: The bonus chapter is the story of how the Ticket Seller ended up captured by the villain, with the Framing Device of her telling the tale to the detective and Hamilton in a private railway car as they leave the park behind.
  • Let's You and Him Fight: Asmodai's commandment to his twelve acolytes, long after his defeat by Raphael, was that they should fight one another to the death. The lone survivor will become his new host.
  • Master of Illusion: How this game's villain attracts his victims. Ravenwood Park was an abandoned park which he purchased, and he uses his powers to make it appear inviting when people are driving through the remote area. Once they're charmed by the seemingly beautiful park, it's too late to escape.
  • The Maze: Two of them, both underground, which cannot be navigated until the detective finds the clues that help her figure out the correct path. On the bright side, after she has completed each maze once, she's able to fast travel through them (to cut down on the monotony for the player).
  • One-Eyed Shot: Part of the detective's reaction to finding the multitude of decaying corpses in the underground tunnels. The 'camera' pans around the scene, then jumps back to the detective and gives an extreme close-up of one of her wide, horrified eyes.
  • Point-and-Click Map: After the endless backtracking of the previous game, the developers included one this time. It's a bit imprecise, but it helps.
  • Prequel: The bonus chapter, which is set in 1978.
  • The Reveal: Near the end of the game, when the detective finishes assembling the relief lock on the prison door, she discovers that her ally throughout the whole adventure has been the Priest - the very man she's been hunting.
  • Rewatch Bonus: In the bonus chapter, a notebook is found which lists all twelve acolytes of Asmodai. In the main game is a puzzle which becomes more interesting after this list is read; it has twelve figures which represent the acolytes, and must be rearranged in specific groups. Studying the figures after learning the names of the acolytes allows the player to recognize at least some of them.
  • Right Under Their Noses: In the bonus chapter, the Ticket Seller reasons that she's safe enough skulking around the park property to try and rescue her friends because the villain won't expect her to be there. She is horribly, tragically wrong.
  • Shown Their Work: The game includes accurate information about the redwood forests and specific trees of noteworthy size. After the main game is completed, players of the collector's edition can read the "Redwood Encyclopedia" in the Extras tab, and learn a number of interesting facts about the trees.
  • Soft Water: What presumably saves the detective when the ghostly raven attacks the cable car and sends it plummeting into the ravine.
  • Tempting Fate: When Becky says that a monster took her parents, the detective tries to soothe her by saying that there's no such thing as monsters. Not three seconds later...
  • Time Skip: This game takes place two years after the first.
  • Too Good to Be True: The detective is immediately suspicious of the idealized version of Ravenwood Park because everyone is too cheerful and friendly. (The fact that it was completely different less than an hour previously also contributes to her suspicions.)
  • Took a Level in Kindness: Hamilton. In the first game, he was a revenge-focused, secretive hermit who locked Kate's boyfriend in a basement and tried to murder the Priest instead of apprehending him. Here, he rescues Becky, tries to rescue the detective, treats her like an old friend, and has even switched voice actors so that the deep, dark tone of his previous self has been replaced with a warmer, older sounding voice.
  • The Unreveal: It's never explained, even in the bonus chapter, just why Whitmarsh decided to spare the Ticket Seller.
  • Wham Line: "I lied to you, Detective. There are still two Reapers remaining."
  • When Trees Attack: The Raven uses the roots of trees in Ravenwood Park to drain the life from his victims. The detective notes, sadly and rather poetically, that the "once-pure" trees are dying from the corruption.
  • You Will Be Spared: The Priest says this to the detective after she lets him out of his cell, citing not only her aid to him in this game but also her refusal to let Hamilton kill him in the previous one. Since she's rescued him twice, he says, "you're not on my list... for now."

     Tropes for The Shadow of Karkhala 
  • Adventure Duo: The detectives have evolved into this.
  • Affectionate Nickname: The detective has taken to addressing and referring to her partner as "Rick," and dubs Fang "Kid."
    • In the bonus chapter, Britney's friend Jen calls her "B.B."
  • Apocalyptic Log: In the expedition encampment, the detective finds a recording made by one of the members of the expedition as he's dying, explaining what happened and where the listener can find the things he hid. The bonus chapter reveals that there were three members of the expedition not in the camp when the tragedy took place, so his message is likely meant for them. He explicitly states that they've all been murdered by an unidentified man, contradicting Britney's earlier assessment that they were killed by the winged creature.
  • Arc Symbol: A design made up of three spirals (similar to a triskelion), representing eternity, appears frequently throughout this game.
  • Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: The detective helps Raphael destroy Asmodai at the climax, enabling him to return to his rightful place in heaven. He acknowledges her efforts with a grateful bow before ascending.
  • Bragging Rights Reward: Once again, the game has a bunch of unlockable achievements.
  • Brand X:
    • The expedition members use an Artifex computer system, just like the detective did in the first game.
    • A supply list in the bonus chapter includes, among other things, a pack of "Oneo's cookies".
  • Break the Cutie: Fang, as shown more clearly by her outgoing friendliness in the bonus chapter. By the end of the main plot, she's lost her friend Britney, her guardian spirit, her grandfather, her father, and her home. This is all on top of having the responsibility of being the Holy Flame thrust upon her so suddenly. Even the detective remarks on what a rough time she's having.
  • Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Implied to be the reason that the Priest disguises himself as Britney and pretends to befriend the heroes. He needs the detectives to work out how to reassemble the portal, and he needs Fang to open it once they do.
  • Cheerful Child: Fang is this in the bonus chapter.
  • Cute Mute/The Speechless: Fang, the little girl in the Himalayan village. She communicates through drawings and hand signals.
  • Dead Person Impersonation: Britney is Dead to Begin With; the bonus chapter basically takes the player through the last hour or so of her life. The one in the main game is really the Priest.
  • Deadpan Snarker: The detective has shades of this. For example, she lampshades the Priest's tendency to light his lairs with candles by saying, "Wouldn't a halogen desk lamp be easier? Come on, they cost ten bucks."
  • Distressed Dude: Rick falls into this a few times, and the detective has to help him. Justified in that he's a couple decades older than she is - as he keeps pointing out, "I'm too old for this."
    • In the bonus chapter, Britney's colleague Jim has a broken leg and has to be taken for medical treatment.
  • Don't Fear the Reaper: Invoked by Fang's grandfather in his journal, where he notes that "I do not fear the Reapers." Of course, these Reapers aren't the one the trope usually references.
  • The Dragon: The flying creature appears to be this for the Priest. In truth, this is actually the "Wrath of God" mentioned in several clues, and it obeys the Holy Flame, who directs it with music.
  • Earn Your Happy Ending: You can say that again. It does end as happily as it can. Fang's family (and possibly the rest of her village) and the expedition members have all been killed by the Priest; but all of the Reapers have been destroyed, Asmodai is defeated forever, Raphael is free to return to heaven, Rick and the detective are alive and have become close friends, Rick's thirty-plus years of seeking revenge are over, and Fang accepts the detective's invitation to come and live with her. Cue the Sun.
  • Foregone Conclusion: In the bonus chapter featuring Britney, we already know from the main story that she gets killed by the Priest. This makes the Downer Ending inevitable.
  • Foreshadowing: A few times.
    • When the detective opens the monastery gate to see Britney, she exclaims, "Are you trying to kill me?" - meaning that the new arrival has scared her half to death by appearing out of nowhere. The joking reply is "Not yet." It's not actually a joke.
    • The winged creature doesn't attack the monastery until after Britney is inside. The Wrath of God recognizes the Reapers, no matter how clever their disguises. The detective actually calls attention to this by wondering why the creature is attacking, since "we're not Reapers."
  • Good Parents: Fang's father loves her very much, as shown both in photographs and by his Last Words.
  • Gotta Catch 'Em All: Much like in the previous installment, the player is on the alert for morphing objects, white feathers, and little red and white flowers called widow's sorrows.
  • Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: The archangel Raphael is depicted with flowing golden hair.
  • Happily Adopted: The ending of the game implies that the detective adopts the now-orphaned Fang.
  • Hero of Another Story: Britney, in the bonus chapter, assembles the ingredients for a ritual candle which allows the Wrath of God to break free of his holding place.
  • Heroic Lineage: The monastery is secretly the concealed grave of Asmodai, and was built by The Chosen One of Raphael and his followers. The responsibility of being the Holy Flame was handed down to the firstborn child of The Chosen One, and has been inherited by the firstborn child of every subsequent generation.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: After the Preacher becomes the new host of Asmodai, the Detective stabs him In the Back with his own ritual dagger, weakening him enough for the newly-freed Archangel Raphael to destroy him - and this time, he won't be coming back as his Reapers have all been destroyed.
  • Hollywood Acid: Used by the detective to break into the sawmill of the Himalayan village.
  • Hollywood Healing: As noted below, this game takes place less than two weeks after the previous one. Rick had a broken leg by the end of the previous game, but you'd never know it here - he's apparently completely recovered now.
  • How We Got Here: As the detective and Rick's plane goes down, the story flashes back to her recent return trip to Maple Creek to look for clues.
  • Informed Ability: It is said that the Wrath of God has the power to destroy the Reapers, but since there's only one Reaper left by the time it's unleashed, it's never shown whether or not that's the truth.
  • In Medias Res: The story opens with the detective and Rick having already gotten a plane up to the mountain range; as they prepare for the plane to crash, the game shifts back to four days previous, showing the detective digging up clues in Maple Creek.
  • Insistent Terminology: Rather, insistent pronunciation. Fang's name is pronounced fong, but Britney and (in the bonus chapter) her friend Jen pronounce it as fang, like an animal's tooth. The detective, on the other hand, pronounces it correctly.
  • Intergenerational Friendship: Rick and the detective. She's depicted as being a young woman, in approximately her twenties or thirties; his data file in the previous game explicitly gave his birth year as 1952, putting him in his early sixties here. As a result, they also fall into Old Cop, Young Cop territory.
    • This is also the case with Britney and Fang; Fang is a little girl, while Britney is a college student. The bonus chapter shows that they are truly fond of one another.
  • Involuntary Group Split: Several cases, usually caused by either the flying creature or ceiling collapses.
  • Joke Item: In the detective's car in the beginning, there's a skull bobblehead. It can't be collected, but you can click on it to make it wobble. Also, Just for Fun, you can click on the car radio and change between about five different stations.
  • Knockout Gas: In the bonus chapter, after Britney successfully fixes a relic and opens it to discover a strange figurine, she's immediately hit with this.
  • Last of Their Kind: Fang is the last in a very long line of Holy Flames. On the other hand, the ultimate defeat of Asmodai means that there will no longer be a need for either the Holy Flame or the Wrath of God.
  • Late to the Tragedy: The detective and Rick arrive at Karkhala too late to save the doomed expedition. In the bonus chapter, their plane is seen flying overhead, indicating that they missed the devastation by a matter of hours.
  • Liar Revealed: Seen in the bonus chapter. When Britney reaches the camp after hearing the distress call on her radio, she finds one of her colleagues dead outside the main tent, and next to him is a message from someone at a university, stating that "no one by that name has ever worked here." The Priest joined the expedition under the pretense of being a visiting professor from that university, and one of the expedition members decided to verify his credentials. Given the presence of the letter, it's likely that being confronted with the truth of his deception is what caused him to break character and murder everyone.
  • Lighter and Softer: Although there's still quite a lot of death in this game, it's arguably the lightest of the trilogy. The color palette is considerably brighter than in the other two, the detective doesn't stumble across any hidden skeletons, and she has a good friend in Rick.
  • Magic Music: The winged creature seems to respond to specific melodies played on a flute. It's eventually revealed that this music is how the Holy Flame summons or dismisses the Wrath of God.
  • The Maze: As in the previous installments, this game has two. One is the forest path leading from the detective's plane crash site to the village; the other is the snowy mountain path leading to the expedition's campsite. There's also one in the bonus chapter, leading from the campsite to a secret chapel.
  • Meaningful Name: Fang is a Chinese name meaning "virtuous." She is the Holy Flame.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The detective is understandably horrified when Rick charges into Asmodai's tomb and jams the ritual knife into the stone, causing the tomb to open. Of course, it's not really Rick.
  • Platonic Life-Partners: Rick and the detective seem to have fallen into this by the end of the game. Alternately, they may be forging a Family of Choice with Fang; some of their interactions suggest that he sees the detective as the daughter he never had.
  • Point-and-Click Map: The one in this game is more specific than the one in Ravenwood.
  • Prequel: The bonus chapter, which shows the release of the Wrath of God. Unlike the bonus chapters of the other two games, this is not a story being told to the detective by someone who was there. In fact, it's unlikely that the detective will ever learn most, if any, of the details presented, since the only participant still alive is Fang, who is mute.
  • Rescue Introduction: The detective meets Fang by finding a ladder and helping her down from the roof of a hut.
  • Retired Badass: Rick, at the end.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Rick, in the opening scenes, reminds the detective that It's Personal and blatantly admits that he's on one of these. (It's the only Call-Back this game makes to his murdered girlfriend Emily.)
  • Sacrificial Lion: Britney, in the bonus chapter. Upon discovering that the man she thought was a visiting professor has murdered everyone in the expedition camp, she rushes to deliver the Wrath of God's control flute to Fang's father Po. This ends up being her final act, as she's killed by the Priest moments later; his face is literally the last thing she sees.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: Mists of Ravenwood indicated that Asmodai is this. This game confirms it, with the added astonishing reveal that the "can" in question is the archangel Raphael himself, who became a living prison in order to contain the demon's evil.
  • Sealed Good in a Can: The Wrath of God is a winged creature formed from the feathers lost by Raphael when he was fighting Asmodai, and thus the creature is effectively a reserve tank of Raphael's own power. This power has to be returned to Raphael so he has the strength to fight Asmodai one more time. In the bonus chapter, we see that this personified Sealed Good in a Can was also literally sealed inside a statue, and had to be released to fight the Reaper.
  • Shapeshifting: As it turns out, this is one of the Priest's powers.
  • Spotting the Thread: Upon listening to the Apocalyptic Log and examining the other evidence in the encampment, the detective starts to realize that Britney's story doesn't quite add up. She shrugs it off for the moment in order to focus on the task at hand, but it sets the stage for the Wham Shot which soon follows.
  • Stock Shtick: The old gag about "men refuse to ask for directions" gets lampshaded by the detective when she finds someone's notes on ways to figure out directions without a compass.
  • Take My Hand!: Seen when the detective has to climb the cliffs to the monastery, since the scaffolding (which is shown in the bonus chapter) has been demolished. Her last few steps are especially tricky, but a friendly hand appears to stop her from falling. It's Rick, whom she had feared was dead.
  • Team Pet: The bonus chapter indicates that at least some of the expedition members regard Fang this way.
  • Time Skip: This game takes place less than two weeks after the previous one.
  • Undying Loyalty: The detective and Rick seem to have developed this for each other, as proven by the escape from the plane crash; he tries to convince her to go and save herself, and she refuses to leave him. During the parts of the game where they're separated, she is repeatedly shown to be worried about him.
  • Unexpectedly Abandoned: Maple Creek, in the two years since the detective was last there, has been abandoned by its occupants; a newspaper she finds under her car says that they fled in the wake of the horrible discoveries.
    • See You in Hell: They also made a point of burning the church before they left, and one of them even carved a message in the doorframe:
      BURN IN HELL, PREACHER
  • Wham Shot: When the detective finds Britney's corpse buried in the snow, she realizes that the "Britney" who has been helping her has been the Priest in disguise. This is immediately followed by a Tap on the Head, and then a Wham Line: "Useful as ever, Detective."
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: In the bonus chapter, Britney's colleagues Jen and Jim leave the camp and go to the village in hopes of finding transport to a hospital, because Jim has a severely broken leg. It's unknown whether they actually escaped or if they were killed by the Priest.
  • When All You Have Is a Hammer…: The detective has a gun in this game, and she uses it several times for unconventional purposes, like breaking a lock.

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