The Whispered World

A traditional point-and-click adventure game designed by Marco Hullen and developed by Daedelic Entertainment, featuring beautiful hand-drawn 2D graphics.

The Whispered World tells the story of Sadwick, a young, sad clown beset by nightmares which seem to foretell the End of the World. One day, Sadwick meets a messenger of the king on an important mission to prevent the impending apocalypse. At the messenger's direction, Sadwick seeks out the oracle, who tells him the meaning of his dreams: that he himself is prophesied to be the harbinger of the world's destruction.

Sadwick, despite his tendency towards pessimism, refuses to accept his destiny as a destroyer, and takes it upon himself to save the world. To do that, he needs to carry a magical artifact called the Whispering Stone to Corona, to the King's Castle. It's a long journey, full of trials and tribulations, but Sadwick refuses to let either his own insecurities or the very real dangers in his path dissuade him from fighting against fate.

The game provides examples of the following tropes:

• Aerith and Bob: Sadwick and his brother Ben.
• All Just a Dream: Turns out, Sadwick is really the avatar of a dreaming, comatose boy whose father is trying to wake him up by telling him a carefully crafted story. Really makes you rethink the opening narration, huh?
• Animal Companion: A caterpillar named Spot who can take on various useful forms.
• Aloof Big Brother: Sadwick's older brother Ben, who constantly reminds Sadwick of how much better he is at everything.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Sadwick does this occasionally. For instance, if you keep trying to make him grab things on a high shelf:

Sadwick: I'm too short to reach the shelf. Thanks for reminding me, by the way.

• Chekhov's Boomerang: Grandpa's pantaloons.
• Circus Brat: Sadwick, who lives at the circus with his grandfather and older brother.
• Cruelty Is the Only Option: You'll need all of Spot's transformation abilities to progress through the game, but getting those abilities often involves doing things to Spot that would kill or seriously injure a non-shapeshifter.

Sadwick: No animals were harmed in the making of this game. Except Spot.

• Deadpan Snarker: Sadwick is often this.
• Dreaming of Things to Come
• The End of the World as We Know It: What Sadwick is prophesied to bring about. He does.
• The Eeyore: Sadwick often waxes on his own uselessness and the futility of his existence.
• Evil Overlord: Loucaux, Lord of the Asgil.
• Fainting Seer: Shana, the oracle of the Autumn Forest.
• Harmless Villain: The Rock Bros., who wish to enslave the world, but are hindered by the fact that they're merely a couple of talking rocks.
• Human Cannonball: Part of Sadwick's act, and also used for multiple puzzles.
• I Can't Reach It: Typical for an adventure game, but somewhat justified by Sadwick's self-defeating attitude; he often won't even try to do something because he assumes that he will fail.
• Jerkass: Ben isn't shy about giving Sadwick shit; he doesn't even take the Sadwick seriously about how deeply the kid resents him for all the abuse.
• King on His Deathbed: The King of Corona
• Lethal Chef: Sadwick's grandpa makes petroleum soup, among other abhorrent concoctions.
  • Sadwick tells of a time when Grandpa accidentally read the map instead of a recipe and made Northeast for lunch.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Repeatedly in chapter 4. Sadwick just can't catch a break. He fixes the astrolab only to summon the big talking Sphere that plans to destroy the world, then stops the Sphere only to freeze time and enable the Asgil to take over, then stops Loucaux only to summon the Sphere again.
• No Indoor Voice: BANDO!!!
• Noodle Incident: Sadwick tells us that grandpa's pantaloons supposedly saved his life twice, and once started a war. He also founded a cult based around how they were supposed to save the world.
• Sad Clown: Sadwick, Sadwick, Sadwick. It's right there in the opening narration, too.
• Shaped Like Itself: "Rusty nails. About as handy as rusty nails."
• Shout-Out:

Sadwick: Hey, you have a mouse. Bando: Of course I have a mouth...AND I MUST SCREAM!

• • When Sadwick comes across a wall that seems like it should open, he tries "Open Sesame", "Mellon" and "Ken sent me". Neither work.
• Sssssnaketalk: Some of the Asgil talk like this.
• Speech Impediment: Sadwick has a bit of one. Probably because Ben once tricked him into eating rocks.
• Turtle Island: Kalida's island. As it turns out, the island is on Kalida's back.
• Violation of Common Sense: Some puzzle solutions, although they do still make sense according to Adventure Game logic. Sadwick lampshades:

Sadwick; Do I really want to live in a world where behavior like this is rewarded?

• You Can't Fight Fate
• You Have to Burn the Web: A solution to a puzzle.