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The Lost Crown: A Ghost-Hunting Adventure is a British graphic adventure video game released in 2008. The Lost Crown is the third full title to be written and developed by Jonathan Boakes, author of the Dark Fall games. The screenplay follows the adventure of Nigel Danvers, as he experiences the paranormal in his quest to find the fabled Lost Crown of Anglia.

The game is vividly set in the fictional harbor town of Saxton in The Fens of eastern England, The Lost Crown follows the adventures of two young ghost-hunters, Nigel Danvers and Lucy Reubans. Nigel has fled London, after the theft of several documents from his employer, The Hadden Corporation. The documents contain proof of Hadden’s involvement in experiments with paranormal forces, and the existence of ‘chasm ghosts’. Two Hadden agents, Mr. Hare and Mr. Crow, are dispatched to capture Danvers and return the stolen documents.

Nigel takes refuge in Saxton, where he meets local psychology student Lucy Reubans. Together they set out to solve local mysteries, study paranormal activity and discover the whereabouts of a legendary Anglo-Saxon crown, thought to be buried somewhere around town. Nigel's presence in the town does not go unnoticed and there are many threats to his life... not just from the living but from the dead also!

Three more planned Crown-hunting games, Blackenrock, The Last Crown and The First Crown, have been adrift in in Development Hell for years. A Halloween vignette-game, The Last Crown: Midnight Horror, debuted on Steam on October 28, 2015.


Provides Examples of:

  • Accidental Murder: A tragic example concerning Edward and Christina Molina, the ghosts haunting Harbor Cottage. When Christina fell ill soon after they moved in, Edward kept feeding her water from the cottage's water supply to help her recover, completely unaware that the water was stagnant and lethally contaminated until it was too late. Nigel helps the couple move on by making Christina realise that her husband did not deliberately poison her.
  • Agent Scully: Lucy has shades of this initially, although she's willing to concede that something weird is going on.
  • Ambiguous Time Period: Nigel never does get a straight answer when he asks what year is it in Saxton, a region filled with anachronisms due to its numerous hauntings.
  • Ancient Artifact: The titular Lost Crown is an Anglo-Saxon artifact.
  • Ancient Tomb: The hiding place of the Crown is an ancient tomb. Nathaniel Ager's crypt is a not-quite-so-ancient version.
  • And I Must Scream: Some of the ghosts are trapped in the places they died in, requiring Nigel to help them settle whatever unfinished business that is preventing them from moving on.
  • Animal Nemesis: Someone in Saxton is stealing and skinning the cats of Saxton. When the culprit's lair is found, it's revealed that they did it because they're guarding the Lost Crown, and somehow got suspicious that their natural curiosity meant the cats were looking for it.
  • Animate Inanimate Object: When Nigel succeeds in contacting Ganwulf's ghost, he manifests as the glowing, floating crown.
  • Apocalypse How: The 'shadow across the land,' forewarned by a legend describing the mystical powers of Ganwulf's Crown. Taking the crown from Ganwulf's tomb causes a Class 0 apocalypse, spreading pestilence and famine across Saxton and the surrounding areas. The final chapter takes place during the early stages, with Nigel racing to fix his mistake before the situation worsens. Fortunately, he succeeds before we see how exactly how much worse it would have gotten.
  • Apocalyptic Log: Molina's diary, which manifests only a couple of pages at a time to recount the tale of his wife's illness.
  • Ascended Extra: Nigel is a minor character from the first Dark Fall game, now starring in a scenario of his own.
  • Aside Glance: In Midnight Horror, Nigel offers a put-upon look at the viewer after the mask-seller casually insults his looks.
  • Artifact of Doom: The Lost Crown appears to be one by the way everyone including the spirits react to Nigel looking for it. According to legend, the crown itself isn't dangerous, but separating it from Ganwulf's head will doom the kingdom.
  • Artifact of Power: According to legend, Ganwulf's crown was forged in the pits of Incendria by a folk 'long since gone from this world,' and then plunged into the icy waters of the Cramtok Fjord to bind its power. This was done to prevent supernatural beasts known as the Fenlaria from spreading a 'shadow across the land.' It turns out that the legend is true.
  • Backup from Otherworld: After his murder just before the final chapter, Hardacre returns as a ghost and helps Nigel to save Saxton from a supernatural blight.
  • Be Careful What You Wish For: Nigel and Hardacre both get their hands on the crown, only to learn the hard way that it was lost for a very good reason.
  • Bedsheet Ghost: Invoked with the "Guess the Ghost" game in Midnight Horror. Played with when Nigel's initial encounter with "the ghost" turns out to be a real haunting.
  • Being Watched:
    • Between Nigel's own suspicions, soft sounds in the woods, and surveillance photos from the Nightmare Room, it's implied that someone or something is always stalking him. It's eventually revealed that the stalker is Mr. Gruel, who has taken up the Agers' obsession with protecting the crown.
    • Plus, Mr. Hadden is apparently observing his every move... somehow.
  • Big Bad Duumvirate: Mr. Hadden as the primary faceless but corporeal antagonist, and the Ager Brothers as the main spectral antagonists.
  • Big Good: King Ganwulf, the man who wore the lost crown, was said to be a force of great good in life. In fact, beseeching his ghost is how Nigel is able to save Saxton at the end of the game.
  • Black-and-Grey Morality: At first it appears to be a case of Black-and-White Morality, until it turns out that the Agers were absolutely right to want to keep the Lost Crown hidden. Nigel, who ignored all the warnings and signs that no good would come from taking the crown from its resting place, does just that and nearly dooms Saxton in the process.
  • The Black Death: The Black Death all but wiped out the neighbouring town of Northfield centuries ago, and only the church remains.
  • Book Ends: The beach is the first area Nigel comes to when he reaches Saxton, and it's where he stands with Lucy at the end of the game. It also begins and ends with Mr. Hadden watching Hadden through a darkly lit surveillance system.
  • Breather Episode: The May Day Fayre is probably the most light-hearted part of the game. It's even the most colourful sequence, with the sky completely bright blue.
  • Camera Abuse: When Nigel uses the night-vision camera to explore the catacombs beneath Ulcombe Church, poltergeist activity tosses pebbles at his camera, as if trying to break the lens and strand him in the dark.
  • Camera Spoofing: How Nigel punks the museum's security camera. Visually Lampshaded in that the wire prop and the photo's edge are both plainly visible on the camera's feed, suggesting the only reason it works is that Oogle never actually looks at the video footage.
  • Chekhov's Gun: In-Verse example: In Molina's diary, the water he mentions bringing Christina in the first two-page entry turns out to be contaminated and was the cause of her accidental death.
  • Chiaroscuro: Some people you meet are in candlelight or bathed in shadows.
  • Companion Cube: Jemima the rag doll, for Mr. Gruel. Borders on Cargo Ship once you learn that Jemima was his late wife's name.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Nanny Noah has the occasional odd moment, but she's got nothing on Mr. Gruel.
  • Continuity Nod: Several nods in fact, to the Dark Fall series.
    • The lighthouse on the restaurant's sign is exactly the same image as from the cover of Light's Out, just flipped left-to-right. The primitive hut pictured on the price tag for Rhys's bundles of long sticks is one of the huts from that game's prehistoric fens. There's a copy of the lighthouse-lantern model from the top floor of the 21st-century lighthouse/museum in the entrance to Professor Oogle's museum, and a copy of a figurine from that game in the Old Net Hut.
    • Two of the books in Celtic Corner were written by Andrew Verney, who appears as a ghost in Dark Fall 1 & 3, and were published in Dowerton where those games were set.
    • A copy of The Ballad Of Tom Oliver is framed on the wall of The Bear, and a gravestone with that name is in one of the churchyards. Tom's ghost haunts the cellar in Dark Fall: The Journal.
    • The scissors that keep turning up in Nigel's bedroom are from Dark Fall 1 & 3.
    • At one point, the phone in Harbour Cottage plays a sound-clip from one of the Dark Fall games, too.
    • Midnight Horror is packed with them, as the vignette-game was designed to help re-introduce players to Saxton after so many years of Development Hell.
  • Creepy Doll: Mr. Gruel's use of Jemima as his spokesdoll. It's implied that the doll represents his late wife. When he's discovered to be the serial cat murderer, it's symbolically burned in the Bear Inn's fireplace.
  • Cruel and Unusual Death:
    • Some of the ghosts' deaths weren't pretty. Special mention goes to the train wreck victims: the apple train derailed into a river, and the unfortunate sorting staff all drowned, but not before their bodies were gruesomely mangled beyond hope.
    • The abducted cats are discovered to have been skinned alive, and their bodies strung up like butcher meat in the Nightmare Room.
  • Dead All Along: Katherine and Robert Karswell and the Northfield vicar. At Ulcombe Church, Nigel figures out relatively quickly that the evacuees he meets there are ghosts, and gently breaks the news to the older sister. She takes it remarkably well.
  • Dead Serious: Hardacre's brutal murder near the end of the game is the first indication that Nigel should have left the crown where he found it.
  • Death Equals Redemption: After Hardacre is murdered by William Ager's ghost when he tried to take the crown from Saxton, his ghost returns to help Nigel undo the curse he unwittingly unleashed upon the town. First he helps Nigel find the crown, then he helps him get in contact with Ganwulf's spirit.
  • Death of a Child: Several examples have taken place during Saxton's dark history. Said examples include a child accidentally drowning in the sea, destroying his parents' marriage, a girl getting trapped and dying in a museum's hidden passages, and beloved pets getting abducted and butchered, to name a few.
  • Deliberately Monochrome: Black and white with occasional splashes of color in illuminated scenes, black and green when using the night-vision camera.
  • Dreaming of Things to Come: The first three nights of his stay in Saxton, Nigel has terrifying dreams of a 'Nightmare Room,' a dark room including a bloody sickle and a portrait of the Ager Brothers, intermittent with cats meowing in the distance and images of a sickle-wielding man and a close-up of a bespectacled eye. This foreshadows the fate of the missing cats, Nigel's confrontations with the Ager Brothers and Hardacre's death.
  • Driven to Suicide: Edward Molina hanged himself in Harbour Cottage after his wife's death.
  • Duty That Transcends Death: Even after death, the Agers stick around Saxton so they can continue protecting Ganwulf's crown.
  • Eerily Out-of-Place Object: On most mornings, Nigel wakes to find that his ghost-hunting equipment has been scattered throughout Habor Cottage, forcing him to track them down before starting the day proper. More ominously, he keeps finding a pair of large scissors in his bed.
  • Eldritch Abomination: Fenlaria, supernatural beasts from the legend of the Lost Crown which preyed on any human who got too close to the dark shadows where they dwelled. They were prevented from inflicting famine and plague upon the kingdom by the power of the crown Ganwulf wore. When famine and plague fall upon the fens after Nigel takes the crown from Ganwulf's tomb, one must wonder whether the Fenlaria are Real After All. In fact, their description in the legend is eerily similar to that of the hostile black mist ghosts encountered by Nigel and Lucy.
  • Electromagnetic Ghosts: Taping EVPs and detecting electromagnetic-field disturbances are necessary for finding clues.
  • Evil-Detecting Dog: George the German shepherd barks and whimpers at the door to the haunted room in Midnight Horror.
  • Evil Is Not Well-Lit: Some of the foreboding areas (the haunted house, train tracks, castle, cave, etc) are very dark, dimly lit, or just foggy and creepy.
  • Extremely Dusty Home: The little sea shanty Nigel is staying at has obviously seen better days... much better days... 30 years ago perhaps. The owner, Morgan Mankle, personally cleans it after the first night and leaves Nigel an apologetic letter after realising how bad the mess is.
  • Fetch Quest: Several short ones, including soup ingredients for the Karswells and stone hands and coat-of-arms photos for one of the ghosts.
  • First-Person Ghost: While most of the game isn't first person, the scenes where objects must be handled or combined only show those objects floating into place, with no sign of Nigel's hands. Granted, that kind of fits the general spookiness of the scenario.
  • Flies Equals Evil: A swarm of Ager-conjured flies appear to attack Nigel in the Nightmare Room.
  • Food as Bribe: Luring Mr. Tibbs back home requires food. Luckily, the cat is a cheese addict.
  • For Doom the Bell Tolls: The Saxton Bell is used to enhance the creepiness, as well as mark transitions between phases of the game, specifically day and night.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • One early encounter with Alex Spitmoor takes place next to the phone booth. He's standing in front of the "Reubans Fayre" poster Lucy put up, which hints at his true identity: Detective Alex Reubans, Lucy's brother. In fact, there are numerous instances of foreshadowing in the game, the first being a tombstone of Cole Tawny, the deceased soon of Nanny Noah and Bob Tawny, seen when the train first arrives with Nigel in it.
    • Meta example: in the Steam version, the achievement icon for "A Warning to the Curious" (exhausting all of Nigel's conversation options during his encounter with Hardacre on the first night) is a scythe. On Night 4 at Harbour Cottage, Nigel uses the crystal ball to determine who stole the crown from his bedroom, and sees Hardacre killed by someone wielding a scythe.
  • Friendly Ghost: Some, such as Verity Church and the Karswells are very polite and helpful, and even the majority of less lucid ghosts are normally more content to wail than be outright hostile. Others, though...
  • Gainax Ending: At the climax of the game, Nigel tries to get in contact with Ganwulf's ghost so he can convince him to let Nigel back into the lost kingdom. During the seance, Nigel encounters the crown, glowing and floating in the air, and then is somehow transported back to Ganwulf's tomb. Surrounded by figures of all the characters he'd encountered on his quest, he puts the crown back on Ganwulf's skull and then somehow ends up on the beach with Lucy. This can only be explained by Ganwulf having special powers.
  • Game-Breaking Bug: Clicking the walkie-talkie at the wrong time can leave you stuck inside the Nightmare Room with no way to get the key. In-universe, Nanny Noah's "treasure hunt" would be impossible to complete on May Day because one of the clues is in the Museum, which is closed, although Nigel finishes it on a different day.
  • Ghostly Gape: The Track Men (the victims of the Apple Train crash you have to fight your way through on Night 2) have this appearance.
  • Ghostly Goals:
    • The Ager brothers' goal is to keep Nigel away from the crown!
    • The friendlier ghosts usually want something — Guerny's hands and coats-of-arms, Emily's Pasque flower, Tim and Nancy's letter — that Nigel can retrieve for them.
  • Gone Horribly Right: Nigel and Hardacre both get their hands on the crown, succeeding in their respective quests, but both pay a dire price for their success: Nigel unleashes an ancient curse on Saxton, and Hardacre is murdered by the ghost of William Ager.
  • Grave Robbing:
    • In the crypt under Ulcombe, Nigel breaks open a coffin to acquire the clue to a puzzle, although subverted in that he doesn't actually take away the book that contains the clue.
    • Nigel steals the Crown from Ganwulf's tomb, though he puts it back again.
  • Grief-Induced Split: In the present, Nanny Noah and Bob Tawny have a friendly, even fond, relationship. They're revealed to be Amicable Exes who divorced after their young son Cole drowned at the beach.
  • The Grim Reaper: Featured prominently in the morbid murals on the walls of the Plague catacombs under Ulcombe.
  • Haunted Headquarters: While nearly every location in or around Saxton is haunted, Nigel encounters more ghostly phenomena in Harbour Cottage, where he's staying, than anywhere else.
  • Haunted House: More like haunted everything: houses, churches, caverns, village businesses, train tracks...
  • Hearing Voices:
    • You get to hear creepy whispers and notes of worth in some portions on the EVP sections and sometimes just at random.
    • In locations such as The Bear's back rooms, you don't get the chance to record them.
    • There's a ghostly typist at work in the room behind the phone booth, heard only at night.
  • Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday: The ghostly adventure takes place on and around May Day, a major holiday for Saxton. Midnight Horror is set on Halloween night.
  • I See Dead People: Some of the ghostly images appear briefly, only the cameras can let you see some of it clearly... other parts are a little... spooky...
  • If Jesus, Then Aliens: Played with when Nigel is frustrated by Lucy's skepticism about ghosts, yet pokes fun at Hardacre's speculation that dragons might have a factual basis.
  • It's Always Spring: True because it's the end of April, but not this trope because the weather varies widely (cold, fog, wind, thunder, sunshine, rain), much like a realistic British springtime.
  • Jerkass: Hardacre is downright rude to Nigel at every chance and later steals the Crown from him, only to become an Asshole Victim.
  • Just Take the Poster: Nigel takes a poster for Cat Watch with him after reading it.
  • Lampshade Hanging: Viewing his old photos in Midnight Horror, Nigel muses how it feels like "years" since he first came to Saxton. In-game it's been six months, but the out-of-game hiatus was seven years long.
  • Last of His Kind: William was the last of the Ager bloodline.
  • Mini-Game: The EnviroMeter poses a few small minigames when used to pinpoint ghostly activity in Harbour Cottage.
  • Mission Control: Whomever is monitoring the remote cameras in Harbour Cottage. Lucy temporarily takes on the role of mission control over a short distance when she directs Nigel around a pitch-black room using the night-vision camera.
  • Monster-Shaped Mountain: Saxton folklore holds that the jagged rocks along the shoreline are spines on the back of Grindle, a dragon from local legend.
  • Nerves of Steel: Nigel barely shows any fear of the ghosts he willings seeks out.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Nigel finds the titular Lost Crown, which would have been a tremendous accomplishment were it not for the fact that removing the crown from Ganwulf's brow would bring a curse upon the land.
  • Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: Averted. Nanny Noah says some pretty creepy stuff, but Nigel isn't particularly creeped out by her.
  • No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Hardacre is beaten to death with a blunt sickle.
  • Noodle Incident: Lucy had a bad experience in Harbor Cottage when she was young, implied to be paranormal.
  • Non-Action Guy: Nigel barely fights or does more than run.
  • Protective Charm: During a visit to her house, Nanny Noah gives Nigel a charm resembling a small bladed weapon to protect him against whatever spirits may oppose him on his treasure hunt. It comes in very handy when he's ambushed by a horde of ghosts on the train tracks on the second night.
  • Puzzle Boss: Liberal use of "boss", but most of the hostile ghosts in this adventure game almost inevitably get taken care of via solving one or two puzzles. For instance, Thomas Ager's ghost is split into several black smoky columns and you have to use wiccan binding spells to trap its heart, and then free the soul of someone he butchered in life. William Ager requires freeing the soul of Emily in the Saxton Caverns then having Lucy guide you through the Net Hut while William is in black smoke form to open the window and dissipate his ghost.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The day after Nigel finds and takes the Lost Crown from Ganwulf's tomb, the people of Saxton either forget who he is, turn against him, or both. It's implied that the curse unleashed by Nigel's actions is affecting them in some way.
  • Occult Detective: Nigel is forced to act as a paranormal detective during the game.
  • One-Woman Wail: One-Man-Wail, actually, during the opening sequence and the menu screen as a recurring motif.
  • "Open!" Says Me: Lucy kicks a door open to save Nigel in the Old Net Hut.
  • Our Ghosts Are Different: Seems like every ghost variant Boakes could think of makes an appearance, from disembodied voices to wraiths of the still-living to full-body corporeal presences that don't know they're dead.
  • Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: The Ager Brothers all have black hair and pale skin, which adds to their creepiness.
  • Reading Tea Leaves: Nanny Noah reads tea leaves for Nigel during one of their fireside talks.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: The Ager brothers' spirits and paintings have red eyes when they're particularly pissed.
  • Red Herring: A few clues point you in the wrong direction, where you eventually get the right direction.
  • Riddle Me This: More of an in-universe example than a game challenge, as the dialogue between Nigel and Timmy talks you through the solution.
  • Scenery Dissonance: Just because its mid-day doesn't mean you shouldn't worry about the phantom hands and ghostly visages that roam the house Nigel is staying at.
  • Self-Deprecation: One of the beers on tap in Midnight Horror is names after Boakes, and Morgan claims it's terrible.
  • Shout-Out:
    • Several to Barrow Hill, whose designers assisted with Lost Crown's visual effects. This tradition continues in Midnight Horror, as Nigel has a promotional coffee mug from BHR, the radio station from Barrow Hill and the stone circle from that game appears in an illustration from one of the pub's old books.
    • Several to M. R. James and his A Warning To The Curious, which the game's plot is heavily based on A big one is a skeleton found in the woods [[spoiler:which you can identify as a victim of the Ager brothers. Doctor Black is a character from the television adaptation of that story.
    • The phone in Harbour Cottage plays an eerie recitation of Walter de la Mare's poem "The Listeners" at night.
    • Use of the name "Spivey" may be a reference to John Carpenter's The Fog (1980).
    • Mr. Gruel stages a Punch and Judy puppet show for May Day.
  • Shown Their Work: Boakes joined some actual ghost-hunting expeditions to research their methods, and their techniques inspired several of Nigel's spook-detecting Hadden devices.
  • Significant Anagram: Spitmoor-Impostor.
  • Signs of the End Times: Dismal weather, dying livestock and townsfolk acting strangely are all effects of the curse of the Lost Crown. Nigel spends the last chapter working to end the curse before things get worse.
  • Splash of Color: Makes flowers and other cheerful objects stand out in contrast to the monochrome surroundings. Nanny Noah's house and the May Day sky are heavily splashed, helping make them some of the most upbeat notes in the story. Splashes of blood, like 'crimson flowers,' are a more disturbing example.
  • Spooky Painting: The Agers' group portrait from the Nightmare Room, and Thomas Ager's from Northfield Church. The "Tree of Crows" is haunted also, but less menacingly-so.
  • Spooky Photographs:
    • Nigel uses a digital and video camera to sniff out clues in the game. Seeing the whole world in gray-scale or night-sight green sometimes really makes it more creepy to see said ghostly images.
    • Some ghosts or spooky images are clues, some are down right freaktastic, while others are just bizarre and don't have much to do with the game play.
  • Stupidity Is the Only Option:
    • After you find the crown, you have the problem of finding a safe place to keep it. What you're supposed to do is put it in the trunk in Nigel's bedroom. This leads to a man breaking in, stealing the crown, and dying for his troubles. The thing is, at that point in the game you know there's a safe in the basement and what the combination is. It's only after the crown's stolen from you that Nigel figures to put it in the safe instead.
    • Rationalized away in the revised edition of the game released on Steam, as Nigel can't bear to go down to the basement because it smells really, really foul down there.
    • Also to an extent taking the Lost Crown to begin with after reading a book which described at length what happened the last time it was removed. Then again, the Crown is the entire focus of the plot.
  • Stock Audio Clip: Voice lines are reused at several points, sometimes in annoyingly quick succession.
  • Super Smoke: The Agers manifest both as glowering human figures and as columns of malignant black vapors.
  • Swirly Energy Thingy: A supernatural swirly energy appears in the photos Nigel stole. Also in Ganwulf's tomb.
  • Taxonomic Term Confusion: Jasper the Not-Really-A-Parrot.
  • Torture Cellar: The Nightmare Room from Nigel's dreams is revealed to be where the missing cats were horrifically butchered and skinned.
  • Town Contest Episode: While not restricted to one episode, Mr. Branwen, owner of Celtic Corner, hosts a photography competition in town, which Nigel can participate in.
  • Unnaturally Blue Lighting: Not exactly blue, but the whole game is in gray coloring with only a few objects (flowers, certain animals, train, some objects, some buildings) having splashes of color like blue, green, yellow, or brown. In Night-Vision mode everything is green, which makes it irritating to the players eyes after a while.
  • Undead Child: The ghosts of Verity, Nancy, and Timmy are all children. Also Emily Travers, if teenagers count.
  • Unfinished Business: Most of the ghosts have business to finish. Nigel himself will remark that he's not finished investigating if you try to make him leave an area or go to bed prematurely.
  • Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Again, taking the crown from Ganwulf's tomb has terrible consequences.
  • Video Game Caring Potential: Soft-hearted players can let Nigel stuff Cairon the pig with leftovers to their heart's content. And then be heartbroken when Bob dishes up pork at the Fair.
  • Wham Episode: The final day. Hardacre has been murdered by the Ager Brothers after trying to take the Lost Crown from Saxton, the morning newspaper reports that the local livestock is being killed of by a mysterious blight, the weather has turned rainy and bleak, and the townsfolk forget who Nigel is and turn against him. Nigel gradually realizes to his horror that taking the crown from Ganwulf's brow has indeed unleashed an ancient curse upon Saxton.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: Pretty much everything about the town of Saxton. Weird time compression? Odd people? Ghosts running about? Nope. You never learn anything about all that.
  • What Year Is This?:
    • Nigel never gets a straight answer as to what year it is, and neither does the player, really.
    • Nigel and Lucy do get a straight answer to this question in Midnight Horror, but only from a ghost who thinks it's 1785, so it doesn't resolve the issue.
  • Whole-Plot Reference: The central plot is based on M. R. James' A Warning To The Curious, down to the magical ancient crown that protects the country and is guarded by the ghostly Ager family.
  • Where the Hell Is Springfield??: It's not made clear exactly where Saxton is located. All that is known for certain is that it's located on the North Sea coast of England.

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