Date Warp

Linds and Alben

A Visual Novel released in English by Hanako Games in 2010. Take a sprinkling of Otome Game, a dash of Speculative Fiction, a lot of sneaky references to a certain movie - and serve over a bed of plot twists that make it hard to describe anything much about the story without giving too much away.

Our heroine is Janet, who is on her first date with a boy named Bradley. A storm leads them off their path, and their car breaks down. They find a mansion and ask to stay until the storm passes. The following morning, when they try to leave, they find a forcefield keeping them inside.

You can find the game here.

Tropes used in Date Warp include:

• Alternate Universe: Janet discovers that she and Bradley are in an alternate universe where The American Revolution never happened, and the country is called Atlanta. However, it isn't quite that simple.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: When Janet finds out about how much Nathaniel loves Bianca she wishes that she was his princess instead. In his bad end, her soul ends up being stuck in Bianca's body.
• Bi the Way: Linds. You could place him in Anything That Moves, or the Ethical Slut.
• Camp Straight: Alben used to be like this, when he was a boy.
• Chekhov's Gun: The gun that Bradley threatens the others with at the start of the game plays a key part in finally ending the Groundhog Day Loop.
• Closed Circle: Once the force fields come up, the mansion becomes one for everyone but Bradley.
• Curtains Match the Window: Alben and Bradley
• Dark-Skinned Redhead: Janet. (She's Indian.)
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Free health care? Forging immigration papers?
• Dead Little Sister: Bradley's sister Susan isn't dead per se, just missing. She only comes back in one ending. Also, Bianca might sort of count.
• Dreaming of Things to Come: Janet can sometimes dream about herself with pale skin and blue eyes. This foreshadows Nathaniel's bad end, where her soul gets stuck in Bianca's body.
• Driven to Suicide: Linds, after Rafael's heroic sacrifice.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Before unlocking the true ending, most of the outcomes are bittersweet at best.
• Equivalent Exchange: In order for Bianca to gain a soul and come back to life, someone else's soul needs to be sacrificed in exchange. That someone is usually whichever girl gets trapped in the Groundhog Day Loop.
  • Making the tradeoff even worse, the fact that the loop keeps looping shows that most of the time the sacrifice doesn't even work.
• Failure Is the Only Option: To get a good end, the Bianca experiment has to either fail or get called off. The only exception is the true end.
• Fiery Redhead: Bradley, who also has red eyes
• Forgets to Eat: Linds, according to Rafael.
• Freaky Friday Flip: Janet and Bianca in Nathaniel's bad end.
• Golden Ending: Bradley's true end. Janet and Bradley manage to get home, Bianca and Susan are saved and none of the other victims of the Groundhog Day Loop go missing.
• Groundhog Day Loop
• Half-Identical Twins: Alben and Bianca, who couldn't be more different.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Rafael in one of the endings. This does not lead to a happy ending for everyone else. The theme of what's worth sacrificing comes up multiple times.
• Ho Yay: Linds and Rafael are... very close.
• Ill Girl: Bianca
• Innocent Cohabitation: The setup that Linds and Rafael have. Much to Janet's disbelief.
• Insufferable Genius: Janet used to be one of these.
• I Take Offense to That Last One: Linds is perfectly fine with being called a creepy pervert, but call him little...
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: In one of the endings, soon as Janet finds out about Nathaniel and Bianca she decides to give up pursuing him and instead focuses on helping to cure her.
• Kids Are Cruel: The characters have a long conversation about this. Numerous examples happen in-story, like the kids who bullied Janet and Alben as well as the kids who tried to rough up a sick and homeless Rafael.
• Like Brother and Sister: The reason why Janet didn't date much at in high school. Because their community was so tight-knit, she regarded most of the boys as bratty siblings.
• Lonely Rich Kid: Nathaniel's childhood in a nutshell. Even though now he's not a kid , he still qualifies.
• Love At First Sight: Nathaniel and Bianca.
• Moment Killer: Linds in Rafael's route.
• Morality Pet: Rafael to Linds. Rafael's Heroic Sacrifice is even the cause for Linds committing suicide.
• Multiple Endings
• My Girl Is Not a Slut: Subverted. If Janet reveals what she read in Bianca's diary, Nathaniel will reveal that he and Bianca had already talked about it, and he doesn't care because he loves her.
  • Played straight in that if Janet spends the night with Linds, you not only get his bad ending but what is probably the worst ending in the game.
• Optional Sexual Encounter: With Linds. With the other boys, it doesn't really go beyond kissing.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Mostly averted with Bradley.
• Relationship Values: All of the guys have one. Bradley's is the only one that can reach the 'love' status. The highest the rest of the guys go is 'like'. Word of God states that the reason for this is that Janet isn't in the mansion long enough to establish such a deep relationship with them.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Linds is sometimes guilty of this.
• Shout-Out: Rocky Horror Picture Show in particular.
  • In one thread, Janet has a dream that clearly echoes The Princess Bride.
• "Shut Up" Kiss: Alben plants one on Janet after she confronts him about Bianca. Unfortunately, this is a clear sign that you are on his bad end.
• Techno Babble: Makes up around half of Linds's lines.
• Teen Idol: Rafael becomes this in his good end.
• The Messiah: Rafael.
• The White Prince: Nathaniel
• Together in Death: Bradley and Janet. In Bradley's normal end they decide to sacrifice both their souls in order to bring Bianca back to life.
• Trapped in Another World: Janet and Bradley. Happens to the rest of the guys in Alben's bad end.
• Yaoi Fangirl: Linds thinks Janet might be one.
• You Can't Go Home Again: Janet and Bradley get stuck in Atlanta in most of the endings. In Alben's bad end, the rest of the guys get trapped in their world instead.