Heavy Rain



Heavy Rain is the Spiritual Successor to Quantic Dreams' Fahrenheit (aka Indigo Prophecy), an Adventure Game for the sixth generation of consoles. Heavy Rain itself is a PlayStation 3 exclusive, and has been described by the creators as an Interactive Movie as well as a standard adventure game.

Ethan Mars is a depressed architect whose life fell apart after the tragic loss of his child two years prior, for which he blames himself. He is jolted out of his stupor when his remaining son is suddenly kidnapped by the "Origami Killer", a notorious serial killer who uses rising rainwater to drown his young victims, then leaves origami figures on the bodies. If Ethan wishes to save his son from a similar fate, he must complete the trials set by the Origami Killer, who wishes to test just how far Ethan will go to save his child.

The story also focuses on three other characters: Madison Paige, an insomniac who becomes involved with Ethan's desperate search; Norman Jayden, an FBI profiler called in to consult on the Origami Killer case; and Scott Shelby, a private eye conducting an independent investigation.

The game focuses on choices and consequences, with actions taking place via a series of Quick Time Events a la Fahrenheit. The developers stated prior to the game's release that almost all situations would have later consequences on the plot and that they are determined to let players follow through on their actions - to the point that unless all four main characters die, the story will still continue with whoever is alive. The major themes of the game are love and the idea of what is good and what is evil (in regard to the Tagline on the poster to the right), according to the developers, who hoped to have players aim for a balance of the two rather than one extreme or another.

The game has led to very polarized reactions among the gaming community, though critical reviews thus far have been mostly positive, praising the game's intricate story and unique control scheme. Despite the developers' meager sales expectations (200,000 copies), Heavy Rain sold like hot pancakes, surpassing a whopping 2 million by 2011. One downloadable chapter, "The Taxidermist," has been released. Others are planned but on indefinite hold.

Similar to how Heavy Rain started off with a tech demo The Casting, Quantic Dream released a new tech demo Kara on March 7, 2012, hinting at their new game. Go watch it. On E3 2012, the spiritual successor to Heavy Rain was revealed as the supernatural drama Beyond: Two Souls.

New Line Cinema and Quantic Dream Productions have obtained rights for a movie adaptation, scheduled to be released in 2013 under the title Rain. This makes the above poster look like a movie poster.

Not related to the Hard Rain campaign in Left 4 Dead 2. Be warned: MAJOR spoilers are contained below.

This game features examples of:
"Jayden: 'Oh shit, Jack, ain't nothin' to it, just a little bit of self defense. Page one of the police manual: kill, or be killed.'
 * Abandoned Warehouse: The final chapter.
 * Aborted Arc: Ethan's blackouts, which stop and are never mentioned again after Shaun is kidnapped.
 * Some of the aborted arcs were going to be explained, but the developers felt that they would ruin the pacing of the plot, so they were removed. A list of the Dummied Out content and the reason in which they were removed can be found here.
 * Absence of Evidence:
 * Action Survivor: Ethan and Madison.
 * Adult Fear: Nothing does it quite like a serial killer who kidnaps children. And who can forget JASOOOOOOOON!
 * All Just a Dream: Madison fighting the burglars in her apartment.
 * Almost Kiss: Ethan and Madison come close, it's just up to the player if they go through with it.
 * And That's Terrible: "Oh, and sir...be careful not to overindulge in...you know what. It could kill you...That would be most unfortunate".
 * Always Close: No matter how quickly you free Madison from Dr. Baker's restraints, he will always come in just as you are undoing the last restraint.
 * At a point in the game, you can either.
 * Antagonist in Mourning: The ending
 * Anyone Can Die: If the player flubs certain Quick Time Events, the protagonists can and will die horribly, but the game continues.
 * In practice, two of the main characters actually have Plot Armor until the very end of the game, regardless of how badly you do in even their most insane QTEs.
 * Arc Words: "How far would you go to save someone you love?"
 * Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Implied in ending if he should die during the course of the investigation. Note the ending's title:
 * Asshole Victim: Kramer when he has his heart attack, not too long after having tried to . You can choose to save him.
 * Bad Cop, Incompetent Cop: Other than Jayden, just about every cop in the game is either corrupt or worthless.
 * The Bad Guy Wins: If you let all of the characters die,.
 * Barbie Doll Anatomy: There are a few shots where it's painfully obvious that the male character models have no penises.
 * Battle in the Rain:
 * Bavarian Fire Drill:
 * Beneath the Mask: If you think Blake and Perry are nice on their first meeting with Norman, think again.
 * Big Damn Heroes: Take a shot every time Shelby dramatically rescues someone. By the time you're done, you'll be so drunk you won't be able to hit the QTEs to make him do so anyways.
 * Bittersweet Ending: Two of endings,
 * Blown Across the Room: To the max in Face to Face. When shot, guards go flying in unintentionally hilarious ways.
 * Bombproof Appliance: Madison needs to escape from a burning apartment before it explodes... or she can climb inside the refrigerator. After the explosion, she is shown outside the building walking away. No explanation is given as to how she got out of the refrigerator.
 * Bottomless Bladder: Averted. Practically every chapter allows you to walk into a bathroom and do your business.
 * Bottomless Magazines: Averted. Played straight, however, in Kramer's house. Scott's handgun can apparently hold 18 bullets.
 * The second case may be an aversion as well as Scott's handgun is a Beretta 90 Two which means he has a 17 round magazine plus one in the chamber (assuming he's using the 9mm and thought to chamber a round).
 * Bound and Gagged: Norman is handcuffed to the steering wheel of a car, Scott and Lauren are both tied up in a car, and Madison is tied down to a table. If Madison escapes, you earn the trophy "Queen of Ropes".
 * Brand X: ASTHMA brand inhalers and FRIDGE brand refrigerators, among other things.
 * Burn, Baby, Burn:
 * But Thou Must!: Happens a few times when there appears to be a choice what to do, but fairly egregiously before the Bear Trial. Ethan is given a few choices of things to think, including the standard "that's crazy"-type evaluations of the trial as well as "Refuse" and "Accept." Even if you choose "Refuse," and Ethan reflects on how many innocent people will die if he drives the wrong way on the highway, nothing at all happens and you still have to accept.
 * Captain Obvious: Goes to Madison. "It's a painkiller, it'll help ease the pain."
 * Chekhov's Gun: The golden watch Jayden finds on the secretary's desk near the beginning of the game. Talking to her reveals that the station traditionally awards cops with this brand and type. That becomes a vital piece of the puzzle to figuring out the identity of the Origami Killer when Norman is later attacked by a man wearing that same kind of watch.
 * When Norman investigates Mad Jack, before getting out of his car, he leaves a gun in the glovebox. Guess what you need to do when Mad Jack decides to use the machinery to lift Norman's car into a compactor -- with Norman handcuffed inside.
 * Also, in a more traditional sense, the katana in Paco's office.
 * Cluster F-Bomb: Ethan occasionally delves into these when he sees what his trials entail, but he only really goes to town if you don't do all the trials and end up without all the letters of the address Shaun's being held at.
 * Coat, Hat, Mask: Used by the Origami Killer when "visiting" Paco.
 * Contrived Coincidence: When the Origami Killer kills Manfred in the latter's clock store, somehow Lauren gets distracted by a music box and Manfred ducks out of her line of sight just at the top of the hour, allowing the cacophony of all the clocks chiming to cover the sound of the murder.
 * Convection, Schmonvection: Technically Conduction Smonduction. During The Lizard Episode, Ethan can heat an iron rod to cauterise his wounded finger; not only does he grip a hot metal rod with his bare hands, but he puts said metal rod on a wooden desk. He neither burns his hand nor does the desk ignite. This trope is played straight by Madison in the burning building.
 * Controllable Helplessness: In "The Doctor", if Madison gets tied to the table, you can struggle against the restraints and scream, but it will be in vain, as you won't actually be able to free yourself until the doc leaves the room.
 * To a lesser extent, . Especially when.
 * Conveyor Belt O' Doom: At the end of the game, during a fight between
 * CPR: Clean, Pretty, Reliable:
 * Credits Montage
 * Crucified Hero Shot:
 * Cyberspace: ARI.
 * Cybernetics Eat Your Soul:
 * Detectives Follow Footprints: The introduction scene of Agent Jayden sees him following a footprint trail (among other things).
 * The Dev Team Thinks of Everything: Those mini-cartoons that can be seen on the televisions throughout the game? They're actually quite good.
 * Dirty Coward: If you don't do the trials. Best example, you can refuse to do the Lizard Trial, and use your two hands to help you and Madison escape, but you end up being shot in the arm instead.
 * The game even calls you out on it with the door leading to freedom in the Butterfly trial being labeled "Coward", should you choose not to do the trial.
 * Disappeared Dad: As Shelby goes around visiting the families of the victims of the Origami Killer, the husbands of both Lauren Winters and Mrs. Susan Bowles have disappeared soon after their sons did. As much as this would seem as a standard case of Disappeared Dad, you find out later that one father actually went out as Ethan Mars did to complete the trials to save his own son, but ended up dying in the power plant in the Butterfly chapter. This is similarly implied for the rest of the fathers... except for Reza's father, the shopkeeper. He didn't dare open the box.
 * Disney Villain Death:.
 * Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Lauren with Shelby.
 * Driven to Suicide: in three of the bad endings.
 * Drives Like Crazy: The Bear trial requires Ethan to drive at 60 MPH on a rain-slicked freeway on the wrong side of the road.
 * Do Not Do This Cool Thing: The story's awesome and dramatic and everything, but the single most awesome thing in the game is ARI -- Cool Shades that do all kinds of awesome things via Cyberspace; Fingerprinting Air, accessing the FBI Magical Database, turning a prison cell of an office into Scenery Porn, and letting you bounce a ball off a wall like in a prison flick without a ball or a wall. The Holy Shit Quotient on this thing is roughly Eleven Fantastic Confusion Units Off The Scale.
 * Driving Question: The Origami Killer's identity.
 * Drugs Are Bad: Played with. It's Norman's overuse of ARI that's implied to be the cause of his hallucinations, and he takes Triptocaine -- again, to excess -- to help him deal with the adverse effects of his dives into ARI. Neither is doing any wonders for his health.
 * Empathic Environment: The rain, obviously. It's even a plot point, as the Origami Killer's trap requires about 6 inches of uninterrupted rainfall to work, and that is more than the monthly average in all but two cities.
 * Arguably, the virtual environments created by ARI are also this.
 * Enhance Button: Should Jayden not collect any clues in "Crime Scene", he'll just bring up a satellite scan of the scene in question and find the tire tracks.
 * Estrogen Brigade Bait: Norman, if the female fandom's opinion is anything to go by for many, many reasons.
 * Even Evil Has Standards: The Origami Killer's trials are designed to test the resolve of the victims' fathers.
 * Exploring the Evil Lair
 * Expy: The motives and methods of the Origami Killer are similar to those of Jigsaw, i.e. elaborate trials designed as tests of determination, morality, or sheer ability to withstand pain.
 * Norman Jayden shares a lot of similarities with Fox Mulder. Both are FBI profilers, who are good, honest cops who are widely disliked by fellow cops.
 * Fans of Silent Hill will compare Shelby to Douglas.
 * Eye Scream:
 * Fake American: Practically everyone (inverted with Paco and Hassan). Madison is voice acted by an American, but her motion capture is by a British actress.
 * Fan Nickname: 'Not Jason'. ARI: detective spectacles = 'detectacles'!
 * 'Nahman Jayden' as a jab at Norman's thick Boston New York generic Northeastern accent.
 * Another nickname a few fans came up with was Nomnom Jayden.
 * Japanese fans have been known to transcribe Ethan as E3 (E-san).
 * Fan Service: Madison. Just damn.
 * Especially in the Sexy Girl chapter, where she unbuttons her shirt, rips off part of her skirt so the bottom comes to just below her ass, and does sexy dancing. It would be especially heavy fanservice if you weren't concentrating on the QTE to make her dance well.
 * Not to mention when she fakes having sex by moaning, etc. in Paco's office to trick his guard from coming in, leaving Paco's mouth dropped open in shock.
 * Ethan's shower in the beginning.
 * Fantastic Drug: Triptocaine,, Betropen.
 * Film Noir: Looks, sounds, and feels like it. Dark, gritty, pessimistic, rainy, hard-boiled detectives, moody music, dutch angles, mystery, drugs, sex, violence. Covers all the bases, really. Scott Shelby even has a 1940s film noir theme going with his wardrobe, car, decorating, etc.
 * Final Death: And you can even get an ending where everyone dies.
 * Fingore: One of the most brutal examples in any media.
 * Fluorescent Footprints: With the help of the ARI.
 * Foe Yay: Jayden and Blake. Also, Ethan and.
 * Foreshadowing: A replay bonus, though you can notice it if you're really observant, is in the beginning credits. Several characters are shown which just seem to be random people in the rain, with no actual impact to the story, perhaps there to establish the mood of the game. You later realize they are anything but random: . It also shows many of the places significant to the story, like the overpass crossing over the lot where the last victim is found, the playground, and the scrapyard.
 * Also early in the game, you can find a DNA sample belonging to someone that mentions . Jayden dismisses it as "unrelated to the case".
 * has an old-fashioned typewriter in plain sight on top of his desk throughout the entire game, although it isn't the one actually used to type the Origami Killer letters.
 * Forklift Fu: Mad Jack, if you screw up Jayden's investigating.
 * Freudian Excuse:
 * Friends Rent Control: Madison lives in a very swanky apartment for a reporter who doesn't even seem to work for one newspaper, and Ethan's, though threadbare, is still quite roomy for a divorced dad.
 * Ethan lives in a house, not in an apartment. Even when he's divorced. . Which also had Friends Rent Control.
 * Game Breaking Bug: If a player sets the mode to "Easy", the mode means there is more reaction time for the QTEs and less of them to begin with. However, some of them, although not appearing, still register in the game and will count as a failed press, leading to inevitable mission failures if you play on Easy mode.
 * Gangsta Style: Ethan uses this on the drug dealer briefly.
 * Go-Karting with Bowser: The golf match between Scott and Kramer.
 * Goggles Do Something Unusual: The ARI.
 * Golden Ending: The game's numerous Multiple Endings depend on what happens to each character, and there are a few variations concerning their ultimate fate. Typically, the Golden Ending will include:.
 * Good Guns, Bad Guns: Played around with a lot throughout the game. Almost all of the characters that have guns in this game have handguns, with the sole exception of the drug lord that Ethan has to kill in his fourth trial, who uses a shotgun. Subverting the trope is actually what ends up helping Norman figure out who the Origami Killer is, if you get all of the clues with ARI.
 * Good Morning, Crono: An adult example, where the very first mission as Ethan has the player waking him up.
 * Gory Discretion Shot: Varies. Power drill to the chest? No cutaway. Cutaway.
 * It could depend on which of the non-gunshot deaths can be caught with motion capture without actually killing the actor. And prosthetics wouldn't exactly work. And
 * Also used during the third trial. Ethan cuts off his finger just out of shot, but the actions the player has to perform, as well as Ethan's agonised screams, arguably make the whole thing even worse than if it was shown in detail.
 * Gray Rain of Depression: The only times it isn't raining in the game are the prologue, the playground, and the weather outside when . The rain eventually becomes a major plot point as well as mood setting.
 * Groin Attack: Madison is a certified user of this trope, using it in her fights with The Doc, Leland, and the Origami Killer.
 * She also tortures Paco by squeezing his nuts. Ouch.
 * Last but not least, Madison can freakin castrate Leland with a Chainsaw.
 * Norman can do this during his fight with the Killer, but the latter shrugs it off.
 * And during Fish Tank, the Origami Killer will stab Jayden in the groin with a katana if all the buttons are missed.
 * Guide Dang It: Among certain other trophies, getting the "Perfect Crime" ending requires you to kill off two of the four PCs, two of the NPCs (minimum), and get a specific one of the two remaining PCs jailed. Good luck figuring out what exactly what sequence of events must be done to do so.
 * If you are trying to get 100% completion you will likely play the game so much your eyes bleed, because not a single one of the trophies is labeled in game, except those that you get for 100% completion and for seeing all the endings.
 * It gets worse when you realize why this trophy is best obtained on your first run through the game. Last Lousy Ending indeed.
 * He Who Fights Monsters: Jayden is always at odds with Blake on his stance on crime fighting, so it's kinda jarring when he threatens Mad Jack with getting away with murder.
 * It gets worse when you realize why this trophy is best obtained on your first run through the game. Last Lousy Ending indeed.
 * He Who Fights Monsters: Jayden is always at odds with Blake on his stance on crime fighting, so it's kinda jarring when he threatens Mad Jack with getting away with murder.

Jayden: 'Do you like fireworks, Jack? 'Cause I bet them tanks are gonna blow up real nice! [...] We'll just say it was an accident... or rather, I'll say it was an accident' because you won't be able to talk, will you Jack?'"

"Jayden: Blake, you are an unbalanced, psychopathic asshole!
 * Of course, Alternative Character Interpretation is in play here, as Jayden won't object to Blake's methods too much unless you make him. It's also likely he's bluffing to psyche Mad Jack out.
 * Heal It with Fire: The player has the option to cauterise Ethan's wound after he chops off part of his finger.
 * Hidden Villain
 * Hoist by His Own Petard:
 * The mad "surgeon" if Madison kills him with the drill.
 * In one possible scenario, Mad Jack tries to kill Norman by throwing his car into a crusher with a crane. If you play right, you can escape and fight Mad Jack in front of the still-running crane. If you win, his pants get caught in a tire tread, and he's run over.
 * Hollywood Psych: Ethan refers to his condition, suggested to be Dissociative Identity Disorder, as "schizophrenia" on at least two occasions. Schizophrenia and Dissociative Identity Disorder are separate conditions. Possibly Justified; Ethan is an architect. Not a psychologist.
 * Hollywood Spelling: Everyone is able to spell right on the first try.
 * Hot Dad: Ethan.
 * I Cannot Self-Terminate:.
 * I Have a Family: The drug dealer tries this when Ethan threatens him with a gun.
 * I Just Want to Be Normal: In one of the endings,.
 * Idiot Ball/Idiot Plot: Heavily debated. Ethan Mars never requests assistance from the police, his ex-wife, his Token Romance, and cannot even attempt to guess Shaun's location unless he's at least attempted all the trials.
 * Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: One of the endings has the Origami Killer impaled on a metal pole.
 * Infant Immortality: Heavily averted: the death of Ethan's eldest son JASOOOON! in the prologue,.
 * Informed Flaw: Shelby's asthma. It debilitates him a grand total of once in the whole game.
 * Many asthma treatments can prevent attacks. Corticosteroids, for example. Additionally, swimming is considered a good thing for asthma, and Shelby says at one point that he considered returning to swimming (implying he has done it before). Thus, only having one asthma attack is at least somewhat plausible.
 * In-Game TV: Some TVs in the game show cartoons you can watch from beginning to end, before they loop over back to the start.
 * Ink Suit Actor: The four main characters basically look like their voice/mocap actors.
 * Interface Screw: The least and most common is how, during particularly tense moments, the displayed buttons will shake wildly, with more shaking the more nervous your character is. After the car chase, the button displays will be upside down. Also, when squeezing through the electrical wires, if you choose the wrong path, the button holds will be a truly tortuous sequence.
 * When Jayden is staring down Mad Jack with a gun and suffers a withdrawal attack, causing him to try and get some Triptocaine. The sequence starts off easily with a face and a shoulder button, but within a few seconds, requires you to hold down almost every single button on the controller in a bizarre sequence that makes it look like you're trying to play Twister with your hands. Failure doesn't result in death, but does result in another difficult action sequence.
 * Insult Backfire:

Blake: I'll take that as a compliment."

"Norman Jayden: Blake is trying to beat a confession out of Ethan Mars! You've got to do something!
 * Don't forget in "Covered Market" when Blake tells Jayden to "fuck off", and he smiles off it.
 * Karma Houdini: Any of the villains can become this, but the only one who can never be punished is Gordi Kramer. His fate after is unknown.
 * Karmic Death: If all the playable heroes are killed, the Origami Killer walks off into the heavy rain triumphant... unless
 * Kick the Son of a Bitch: If, Blake will try to beat a confession out of him while Jayden is in the room. As Jayden, you can interfere, causing Blake to tell you to hit him. You can.
 * Kill'Em All: Per Multiple Endings, below; spoiler: of the five "main" killable characters (Ethan, Madison, Norman, Scott, Lauren), it's impossible to have all five die in one run. You can have Lauren be the sole survivor, thus managing to kill all the playable characters.
 * Leitmotif: Each playable character (and Lauren) has one. Ethan's is probably the most memorable one, as it also serves as the game's main theme. It also doubles as a...
 * Lonely Piano Piece, tellingly. The soundtrack has many of these, but the variation on Ethans Leitmotif, Painful Memories, is the crowner.
 * Life or Limb Decision: The Lizard trial. Quite possibly the most remembered scene in the game.
 * Living Doll Collector: In the DLC episode "The Taxidermist".
 * Made of Iron: Ethan if you're completing all the trials. He's in a car accident, breaks one or two ribs, tears up his arms on broken glass, collects a horrible electrical burn, and cuts off his own finger.
 * Note, though, that if you manage to pass through the electricity part of the Butterfly trial without touching the wires once, Ethan won't suffer any burns and thus they'll never be present, nor does Madison need to treat them in a later scene.
 * The Many Deaths of You: This game might hold some sort of record for this. From being crushed by a car compactor while inside the car to taking a power drill to the pelvis, this game is certainly not for kids.
 * It's worth noting that there actually aren't that many different deaths (since nobody can die until the last quarter of the game), but this trope still wins out for sheer intensity.
 * Meaningful Name:
 * Medium Awareness: Played with a bit during the Jayden Blues chapter, during which the titular character sits at a piano and plays a few bars from his own theme song, as well as part of Ethan's.
 * Monster Sob Story:
 * Mooks:
 * Morning Routine
 * Most Writers Are Adults: Every ten-year-old in existence should be insulted by how the kids in this game are portrayed. Chasing a balloon? Playing in traffic?
 * Motion Capture: All major character's performances are fully mocap, including the face and the eyes, just like in Avatar.
 * And for that, the Heavy Rain team deserves props: it took half a year to get all the motion capture for this game filmed. There's an unlockable extra about it, too.
 * Multiple Endings: There are indeed several different endings depending on your major choices throughout the game.
 * Bittersweet Ending:
 * Downer Ending:
 * Kill'Em All:
 * Earn Your Happy Ending:
 * My Car Hates Me: In the DLC "The Taxidermist", if Madison escapes from the house with the killer at her heels, her bike will pull out this trope. Thus, the player must decide, by a QTE, if the killer catches her or she escapes at the last second.
 * Mystery Magnet: On the hunt for the Origami Killer, Madison runs into a homicidal taxidermist, a crazy Doctor Death, and a sleezy nightclub owner and would-be rapist. In addition, depending on the choices the player makes, she might encounter the Origami Killer directly, and
 * Mythology Gag: Players who watched the tech demo "Heavy Rain: The Casting" from several E3s back might recognize Lauren as Mary Smith, still voiced/mocapped by Aurélie Bancilhon.
 * Book Ends: Lauren gets the final scene of the final game in the "best" ending.
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Nice move, Grace Mars, for giving Blake a hint that your ex-husband is the Origami Killer.
 * Jayden accusing Blake of being the Origami Killer will get him to turn in his badge.
 * If you think it's a good idea to not make him take Triptocaine, think again..
 * Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Way to go releasing Scott, Blake,.
 * Not Distracted by the Sexy: When you meet Kramer Jr., he's watching cartoons while two women are passionately making out on the couch next to him. He couldn't care less, and eventually orders them out of the room.
 * Oh Crap: Blake's reaction of
 * Offhand Backhand: In Face to Face, after Shelby gets out of his car, the first thing he does is shoot a Mook without even bothering to look at him.
 * Offscreen Teleportation: Heavy Rain abuses this quite a bit..
 * Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Very apparent with Jayden and Lauren, and many minor characters.
 * Ominous Save Prompt: Inverted with an ominous load screen; the final level's load screen, rather than show any of the four playable characters, shows Shaun's face.
 * Once More, with Clarity: Appears when destroys the evidence.
 * Open the Door and See All the People: After Ethan's son is kidnapped by the Origami Killer, a mob of reporters shows up outside his door almost immediately.
 * Optional Sexual Encounter: Between Ethan and Madison.
 * The Password Is Always Swordfish: How Madison breaks into the killer's computer.
 * Pet the Dog: After everyone else had seemingly forgotten about him, Kramer, having owned the construction site where he drowned,
 * Playing the Player:
 * Please Wake Up:
 * Plot Armor: Try as you might, you can't kill or  until the endgame.
 * Plot Hole: One of the Red Herrings, Ethan's blackouts. It is never explained how they line with the Origami Killer's timing explained within the game.
 * By the game's timeline, Ethan should have been in a coma when the Origami Killer began murdering. The point appears to be ignored by the rest of the plot.
 * In scenes cut from the game, the Killer was present at the accident that rendered Ethan comatose, and somehow the event created a tenuous psychic link between the two. Every scene before a blackout, Ethan would originally see strange hallucinations involving lots of rain and water and go through a nightmare sequence where he'd discover a dead child, these scenes coinciding with the killer's activities, and then fold a paper crane at the same time the Killer did. . This plot element was eventually dropped for it adding a supernatural element to the story that didn't really need it, though the scenes were left in to re-direct the player.
 * Plotline Death: JAYYYYSSOOOOOONNN!!!
 * Additionally, any and all of the main playable characters may die within the course of the game, depending on various actions.
 * Police Are Useless: Jayden is the only law enforcement official worth a damn in the whole story.
 * Press X to Die: A couple of Schmuck Bait options.
 * Press X to Not Die: The majority of the game.
 * Race Against the Clock: Race against inches of rainfall.
 * Red Herring: Played straight and subverted. While the characters themselves might follow what they later think are wrong leads, it is revealed that all the clues are pointing at the killer, it's just that both the characters and the player can't see the big picture until later on.
 * Relationship-Salvaging Disaster:
 * The Reveal: When.
 * Rewind, Replay, Repeat: It's up to the player whether Ethan does this to discover Sean's location or gets it the first time around.
 * Roaring Rampage of Revenge: "Face to Face". Shelby goes through Kramer's mansion, picking off every guard that aims a gun at him.
 * Room Full of Crazy: Nathaniel's flat.
 * Rube Goldberg Hates Your Guts:
 * Say My Name: *cough*
 * Scary Black Man: Jackson "Mad Jack" Neville.
 * Secret Test of Character:.
 * Sequel Hook: "You deserve a better adversary. Somebody more... ferocious."
 * Serial Killer: The Origami Killer and Leland White, the serial killer in the Heavy Rain Chronicles.
 * Ship Sinking: Ethan and Madison, if Ethan doesn't forgive her..
 * Shoot Him! He Has a Wallet!: When the player has the choice to shoot Nathaniel. Nathaniel spins around in a complete stab like manner, but just reveals a crucifix.
 * Shoot the Dog: One of Ethan's trials involves killing somebody. The guy turns out to be a drug dealer, which might sap him of sympathy, but when Ethan finally gets the chance to shoot him, he's on the floor begging not to be killed, especially in his young daughter's bedroom. It's up to the player to go through with it.
 * Shoot the Shaggy Dog: See Downer Ending and Kill'Em All under Multiple Endy ings.
 * Shout-Out: The bartender that gives Jayden advice is practically identical, down to the outfit, to the bartender in The Shining. His existence as a living being is also just as ambiguous.
 * Also, Shelby shares a name to a similarly conflicted protagonist.
 * Madison can hide in a refrigerator to save herself from an explosion, much like a certain archaeologist did to hide from a nuke.
 * Another possible Indiana Jones reference occurs in the last chapter with a fight atop a conveyer belt that ends in a deadly grinder. Like in Temple of Doom, the villain can die by reaching the end of the conveyer.
 * The subway entrance through which Madison and Ethan make their escape from the police is identical to the subway entrance used by Lucas Kane in the beginning of Quantic Dream's Fahrenheit (2005 video game).
 * The apartment in some of the endings is very similar to Lucas's in the same game.
 * In the opening credits, a store sign has a pawprint on it that says "Naughty Dog".
 * Shower Scene: The game starts with Ethan having one after he's gotten out of bed, then Madison gets one of her own in her first chapter.
 * Jayden gets a brief one in “Jayden Blues” if Ethan doesn’t get arrested, but considering he does it with all of his clothes on and in an attempt to recover from some really bad withdrawal symptoms, it’s probably not as sexy as it sounds.
 * Shut UP, Hannibal: If Madison is the only one to make it to the last chapter, she has the opportunity to grab a pipe and smash the Origami Killer upside the head while they're talking.
 * Simple Score of Sadness: "Painful Memories".
 * Soft Glass: Played straight and averted. Averted in that whenever a character needs to break some glass, it takes serious physical effort. Played straight during Face to Face, as one of the guards tumbles through a window when shot and shatters it completely.
 * Also played straight during Jayden's fight with the Origami Killer. Jayden is shoved from across the room into the huge aquarium built into the wall and it shatters.
 * It's also averted when Ethan has to crawl through a tunnel where the floor is covered in shattered glass. It's portrayed as really painful, and his arms and legs get cut up pretty bad.
 * Also played straight if Madison is the one to take on the killer --
 * Actually, the trope is played straight in pretty much all of the game's fight scenes. It shows up early in the game, too; when Scott defends Lauren from the abusive client, the client can punch right through a microwave door. And that's not counting the possible shattering of glass by forcing a head through it that can happen earlier in that same fight.
 * One aversion in the beginning. In Hassan's Shop, Scott can attempt to whack the robber on the head with a liquor bottle. If he succeeds, the man is knocked out and the bottle does not break.
 * Soundtrack Dissonance: The prologue: It's Jason Mars's birthday, everyone's happy, but one of the game's Lonely Piano Pieces is already playing. The fact that the game is about a serial child murderer doesn't help.
 * Speed Run: Believe it or not!
 * Split Personality:
 * Striptease: See Fan Disservice.
 * Sunglasses At Night: Justified. Norman's ARI sunglasses display forensic information and record voice memos.
 * Tap on the Head: Done to Madison by Dr. Baker when she tries to investigate his house. She takes a whack to the back of the head with a baseball bat, and when she wakes up not long after, she's completely conscious right off the bat (no pun intended) and struggling and screaming.
 * That's optional, but this will happen in every game to Scott Shelby before.
 * Tears of Blood:
 * That Makes Me Feel Angry: The epilogues are composed entirely of this. Odd, because the game had made an effort to avoid this beforehand.
 * The Killer in Me
 * There Are No Therapists: Averted. Ethan is seeing a therapist by the events of the game. The validity of the man's doctorate is questionable.
 * The Cake Is a Lie:
 * The Other Darrin: In the DLC The Taxidermist, Madison Paige is voiced by a completely different voice actor.
 * They Fight Crime: Shelby and Lauren. He's a Private Detective with a flair for the dramatic. She's a Hooker with a Heart of Gold who wants revenge on her son's killer. Eventually, they engage in a makeshift partnership to hunt down the killer. They fight crime!
 * How about Norman and Blake?
 * Title Drop: In one of the endings,
 * To the Tune Of: Listen to the main theme, especially the melody that comes in until around 0:25 and at 3:00. Then "The Other Side" from the Gattaca soundtrack. Notice any similarities?
 * Too Dumb to Live: Jason. He wanders off from his dad and wanders off again after being told not to wander off. Then he runs off across the street to go look at another store outside of the mall. Then after his dad calls out to him, he runs across a busy main street.
 * The game also gives you many opportunities to make very stupid decisions. Like, for example, accepting a drink from a creepy criminal doctor who hits on you.
 * Too Happy to Live
 * Twenty Minutes Into the Future: Released in early 2010, set in late 2011.
 * Trailers Always Spoil: The cover art for the maligned American version.
 * Truth in Television: Although it's never explicitly mentioned in the game,
 * Turn in Your Badge:.
 * Jayden can have this, too, if he accuses Blake of being the Origami Killer.
 * This also happens to Perry if.
 * Unknown Rival: Blake, like all cops, shows disdain towards Jayden, who doesn't acknowledge him.
 * Unreliable Narrator:
 * Video Game Caring Potential: You might grow attached to these characters and want to ensure they'll get through their trials successfully and with as little pain as possible, because goddammit, a lot of what they go through physically and emotionally just looks painful.
 * Additionally, good luck holding back Mama Bear/Papa Wolf rage at seeing the recordings the Origami Killer sends you.
 * Video Game Cruelty Potential: On the other hand, you might want to either get everyone killed and/or suffer tremendously for your amusement, or out of spite if you dislike the game, such as having Ethan get shocked repeatedly, or cutting off his finger with a saw.
 * Was It All a Lie?: Lauren
 * Wasted Song: The music from the trailer and the dramatic "countdown" music from the tunnel in The Butterfly aren't on the official soundtrack.
 * Weirdness Magnet: Including the optional DLC, Madison is menaced by two serial killers and a rapist before she even meets the Origami Killer.
 * Wham! Line: Don't forget about me, 
 * What Happened to the Mouse?: Nathaniel. Once he's taken into custody (or killed), he's never seen or heard from again, and only mentioned once in passing.
 * What Could Have Been: See Aborted Arc, above. One of the biggest plot holes, Ethan's blackouts, would've been explained in the game. This was cut in the last few stages of development, partly for pacing issues and partly because they thought it made the plot too complex, as well as the paranormal aspect ruining the realism of the game.
 * There were to be at least two more DLC chapters for the game -- one following the Origami Killer and his motives, the other following Norman Jayden and detailing his scar and Triptocane addiction -- but Sony convinced Quantic Dream to focus on incorporating Move support into the existing game instead.
 * What the Hell, Hero?: Jayden can call out Blake for his actions.
 * Writers Cannot Do Math: Behind the reception desk at the motel where Madison checks in, there is a calendar-clock-thing that inexplicably notes the date as Thursday Oct. 5th, 2012. First of all, the game takes place in Fall 2011, so the writers and art department weren't talking to each other, and second, Oct. 5th 2012 is a Friday. In 2011, it was a Wednesday. (The date would have at least existed if not for the fact that 2012 is a leap year, but it would still be the wrong year for the game's story.)
 * Wrongful Accusation Insurance: Ethan, Madison, and Scott all commit multiple felonies over the course of the adventure to save Shaun/catch the Origami Killer, including several acts of breaking-and-entering, multiple assaults, and multiple acts of mayhem, including one premeditated first degree murder. It seems that a city that would tolerate a cop as obviously psychotic and unhinged as Lt. Blake has a soft spot for vigilante action.
 * Villainous Breakdown:
 * How about Blake? Check out chapters "Kick Off Meeting", "Shrink and Punches", "Under Arrest", and "Solving the Puzzle".
 * You ALL Share My Story: One of the defining motifs of the game, especially if you make it to the "best" ending path.
 * You Bastard: . Enjoy your One Hundred Percent Completion, asshole.
 * You Can't Make an Omelette:
 * Wrongful Accusation Insurance: Ethan, Madison, and Scott all commit multiple felonies over the course of the adventure to save Shaun/catch the Origami Killer, including several acts of breaking-and-entering, multiple assaults, and multiple acts of mayhem, including one premeditated first degree murder. It seems that a city that would tolerate a cop as obviously psychotic and unhinged as Lt. Blake has a soft spot for vigilante action.
 * Villainous Breakdown:
 * How about Blake? Check out chapters "Kick Off Meeting", "Shrink and Punches", "Under Arrest", and "Solving the Puzzle".
 * You ALL Share My Story: One of the defining motifs of the game, especially if you make it to the "best" ending path.
 * You Bastard: . Enjoy your One Hundred Percent Completion, asshole.
 * You Can't Make an Omelette:

Captain Perry: Which is more important, Norman? Finding little Shaun Mars or sparing that lowlife a few bruises? You can't make omelettes without breaking a few eggs."