The Lost Crown: A Ghost-Hunting Adventure

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 Dark Fall: The Journal and Dark Fall 2: Lights Out.

Nigel Danvers 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, a harbor town in The Fens of Eastern England, 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.

A sequel, The Last Crown, was in Development Hell since 2009 and is expected to release in 2016.

Tropes used in The Lost Crown: A Ghost-Hunting Adventure include:

• Agent Scully: Lucy has shades of this initially, although she's willing to concede that something weird is going on.
• Ancient Tomb: The hiding place of the Crown is one of these.
• 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.
• Ascended Extra: Nigel is a character from Dark Fall; this is his own game finally.
• Artifact of Doom: The Lost Crown appears to be one by the way everyone including the spirits react to Nigel looking for it.
• 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. Plus, Mr. Hadden is apparently observing his every move... somehow.
• Chekhov's Gun: An abandoned building that looks foreboding.
• Chiaroscuro: Some people you meet are in candle light or bathed in shadows.
• Continuity Nod: Several in fact.
  • 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.
• Creepy Doll: Mr. Gruel's use of Jemima as his spokesdoll.
• Daylight Horror: 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.
• Electromagnetic Ghosts: Taping EVPs and detecting electromagnetic-field disturbances are necessary for finding clues.
• Evil Is Not Well Lit: Some of the areas (the haunted house, 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 yrs ago perhaps.
• 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.
• For Doom the Bell Tolls: The Saxton Bell is used to enhance the creepiness, as well as mark transitions between phases of the game.
• 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.
• Fortune Teller: Nanny Noah and "Mystic Morgan"
• 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.
• Ghost Lights: Several in fact.
• 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.
• 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.
  • Also happens a lot in other locations, such as The Bear's back rooms, although you don't get the chance to record those.
• Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday: Takes place on and around May Day, a major holiday for Saxton.
• 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...see the Spooky Photography explanation below.
• 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.
• Lightning Reveal: Done with creepy mystical energy-discharges in Ganwulf's tomb.
• Mind Screw
• Mysterious Employer: Mr. Hadden
• Non-Action Guy: Nigel barely fights or does more than run.
• Occult Detective: Nigel is forced to act as one during the game.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: Seems like every 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.
• Ravens and Crows: Real ones, painted ones, and symbolic ones. Also a Meaningful Name for both the Agers and one of Hadden's men.
• Red Herring: A few clues point you in the wrong direction where you eventually get the right direction.
• Seasonal Baggage: The clues for the "mill stones" puzzle.
• Shout-Out: Several to Barrow Hill, whose designers assisted with Lost Crown's visual effects.
  • Also several to MR James and his A Warning To The Curious. A big one is a skeleton found in the woods which you can identify as a victim of the Ager brothers. Doctor Black is a character from the television adaptation of that story.
• 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.
• Spooky Seance: Several, some with simple props.
• Super Smoke: The Agers manifest both as glowering human figures and as columns of malignant black vapors.
• Swirly Energy Thingy: A supernatural version appears in the photos Nigel stole. Also in Ganwulf's tomb.
• Taxonomic Term Confusion: Jasper the Not-Really-A-Parrot
• Unfinished Business: Most of the ghosts have some. Nigel himself will remark that he's not finished investigating if you try to make him leave an area or go to bed prematurely.
• The Unintelligible: Doctor Black. Also, Gruel speaking through "Jemima", unless s/he's saying her name.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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 to that one, and neither does the player, really.