Video Game / Batman: Arkham Shadow

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Batman: Arkham Shadow is a superhero/Virtual Reality video game based on the DC Comics superhero, Batman, and is the eighth installment in the Batman: Arkham Series. It was developed by Camouflaj, the developers of Iron Man VR, for Warner Bros. Games, and was released on October 22nd, 2024. The game serves as a direct sequel to Batman: Arkham Origins.

Starting on the Fourth of July, six months after the events of Origins, Gotham City is under attack from a new threat: the mysterious Rat King and his cultish devotees, who have abducted Jim Gordon, Harvey Dent and other public officials with the intention to execute them in one week on an event called the "Day of Wrath". As widespread rioting engulfs the city, Batman races to prevent this so-called "Day of Wrath", and save both the hostages and his city.

Story trailer and Gameplay trailer

"Batman: Arkham Shadow" contains examples of:

• Abusive Parents:
  • Like in the comics, Harvey's father was a mentally unstable man who would play heads or tails on whether or not Harvey would take a beating. Of course, since it's a double headed coin, Harvey always lost.
  • In one of Harvey's tapes with Jonathan Crane, he relates the story of a father who locked his own son in a closet for six months, and fed him only scraps. During the trial, the father even said that the kid deserved it. Harvey got so furious that he beat the father up on the stand. While he's shown to be incredibly regretful of his actions afterward, Crane notes that the general public is actually supportive of Harvey's actions due to how horrible the man was, and one newspaper shows that they even tried to donate money to pay his legal fines (though Harvey refused the offer).
  • Joe's parents were abusive to both each other and to him — whenever they argued, he called it "prize fighting" because he always got the belt at the end.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: In regards to Harleen Quinzel and Jonathan Crane's relationship when compared to Batman: The Animated Series (which Harleen originally debuted in). In that show they showed respect towards each other, with Jonathan showing a fondness for Harleen. In this game they are shown to have a strained and bad working relationship, with Jonathan scoffing at Harleen's rehabilitation attempts with the patients.
• Adaptational Badass: Most versions of Carmine Falcone are feared mob bosses, but usually shy away from a direct confrontation with Batman and would rather have their Mooks fight him instead. This version of Falcone, however, is willing to wield a full-on minigun against the Bat and has a direct Boss Fight, albeit while still being a Flunky Boss.
• Adaptational Name Change: Harvey Dent's alternate personality pre-scarring is the Rat King. In Batman: The Animated Series, which the Arkham games as a whole take most of their inspiration from, Dent's alter was known as Big Bad Harv.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: While Joe Chill is sometimes portrayed in a nuanced manner, he is generally shown to be unrepentent of killing the Waynes, with his only regret in the situation coming if he ever finds out that he directly created the Gotham underworld's worst nightmare. Here, Joe has genuinely regretted his crime that night for years and, though he's terrified by the possibility that Bruce could ever track him down (it's implied that he confessed to every crime he ever committed except the Wayne murders specifically so he'd be put away for life but Bruce still wouldn't be able to find him), when he and Bruce do come face to face, he's willing to die if it will bring Bruce peace.
• Adaptation Origin Connection:
  • It turns out Arnold Wesker's transformation into the Ventriloquist is actually because of Harleen Quinzel and Jonathan Crane in this continuity. Part of Crane's experiments began enhance the darker side of Wesker's personality. When Quinzel found out, she suggested that Wesker use his cellmate's wooden puppet as an outlet to project those intrusive thoughts onto so that he could reject the urge to engage in those behaviors. Said puppet would eventually become the first Scarface dummy.
  • It turns out that in this continuity, Barbara Gordon adopted the Oracle persona before she became Batgirl, implying she merely went back to her original role after Joker crippled her.
  • Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow and Bruce Wayne/Batman are made jointly responsible (albeit accidentally on both their parts) for the scarring of Harvey Dent. While Bruce is disguised as a criminal on trial, Crane attempts to covertly douse him with an experimental drug and Bruce's attempt to resist in self-defense tragically gets Harvey doused instead, disfiguring and subsequently leading him onto the path to becoming Two-Face.
• Ambiguous Situation: Near the end of the game, Harvey flips his signature coin for the first time to decide his own fate after Bruce convinces him to spare Joe Chill. While the result of the flip makes Harvey jump off the building, it's not revealed which side came up to trigger such a decision.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • Thugs with armor, shields, or stun sticks have the combat circles turned red with a big "x" inside to indicate that attacking them will disrupt the player's combo.
  • Vent Takedowns and Grate Takedowns are now silent, leaving only the Inverted and Ground Takedowns making noise.
  • When grappling to a gargoyle, holding the A button recenters the player's viewpoint once they reach the vantage point, meaning the player isn't forced to constantly turn themselves around if they don't want to.
  • Once the player is given the objective to stop being Batman and become Matches, the player may free roam around Blackgate as much as they like. For these moments, the pause menu adds a "Return to Batcave" option, meaning the player doesn't have to backtrack all the way back to the Batcave.
  • Beyond the franchise's usual habit of the final attack in a combat encounter being in slow motion, Batman has several attacks that only trigger if he's attacking the last person standing in a fight, which allows the player to know when a fight isn't actually over even if they can't see anyone directly in front of them.
• Apocalypse Cult: The Rats are explicitly identified as a cult dedicated to the Rat King, following his decree to enact the Day of Wrath that will destroy Gotham City. Stopping this is Batman's primary goal throughout the game.
• Arc Words: The concept of "shadows" is mentioned frequently throughout the game, which also doubles as a Title Drop.
• Ascended Extra: After being The Ghost in the previous games, Otis Flannigan/Ratcatcher finally gets to make a plot-crucial physical appearance in this one. Likewise, Arnold Wesker/The Ventriloquist makes his first physical appearance.
• Bag of Spilling: Once again, you start the game without most of the cool gadgets you acquired during Origins. Justified by Batman himself, who says he prefers to not bring equipment that isn't relevant to his current investigation and only requests gadgets to be shipped in when he needs them.
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • The game starts with the player sneaking onto a rooftop and using a molotov to light the Batsignal on fire, which might make you think you're in a Batman Cold Open or maybe an In Medias Res of the game's Darkest Hour. You're actually playing as Bruce, having disguised himself as "Malone" so he can get sent to Blackgate as part of his investigation into the Rat King. It is a Flash Forward, but the actual scene takes place at the end of Chapter 1.
  • The game's prologue climaxes with Shrike at the Courthouse, with an oil-doused Harvey Dent as a hostage and a lighter at the ready. Batman fans would immediately assume this is where Harvey is permanently scarred, combining the method of his The Dark Knight counterpart with the comics' setting. However, Batman manages to successfully rescue Harvey in this incident. Unfortunately, Harvey's true scarring happens far later into the story by an unforeseen accident...
  • As Batman enters Crane's secret laboratory and gets exposed to his fear toxin for the first time, he starts hallucinating and the player is taken to Crime Alley where the familiar scene of the Waynes and Joe Chill starts playing out... and then Batman, sporting the 'Worst Nightmare' look form the end of Origins, appears out of smoke and viciously beats up Chill.
• Beta Outfit: Jonathan Crane has yet to invent his Scarecrow identity by the events of this game, but you can see the beginnings of the persona in his clothes. His tie resembles the Noose Necktie he'd wear down the line, while he puts on a leather gas mask during his experiments that acts as a Call-Forward to the burlap mask he'd eventually stitch into his own face.
• Big Bad: The Rat King, a mysterious anarchist calling the downtrodden of Gotham to rise up on the Day of Wrath. In reality, it's Harvey Dent, whose pre-Two-Face dark side has been manifesting and planning on wiping them all out.
• Bittersweet Ending: Ultimately, Batman manages to stop the Day of Wrath, but the damage to Harvey is done: it's clear from the final scene that the upstanding attorney is long gone, and Two-Face has been born. Additionally, Harleen, Wesker, and Crane are on the paths to becoming the supervillains they were destined to be. On the other hand, Bruce winds up taking in Dick Grayson, setting him up to become the first Robin, and Barbara has become part of his team whether he likes it or not.
• Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: If you contact Carter's number, he'll tell you if he ain't picking up, he's either in prison, therapy or in prison for not going to therapy.
• Breaking Old Trends:
  • This is the first mainline Arkham game to not have the presence of the Riddler or any of his collect-a-thon sidequests, riddle solving or challenges to complete (there are still collectibles, but nothing to do with him). His sole appearance is in a prerecorded message he delivers to Carmine Falcone, which only really serves as an Easter Egg and Mythology Gag to the comics.
  • Similarly, this is the first Arkham game where the Joker isn't responsible or involved in the events of the story in any way, with his interactions in Solitary being completely optional, and his other appearance being in one of Harleen's interview tapes.
  • Unlike previous games, which take place over the course of one night, this game has the player experience multiple days and nights consecutively during the story.
• Bookends: Both the first and last times the player plays as Batman, their final action is to try to save someone from falling to their death. Batman fails to save Shrike, but is successful with Harvey.
• Burn Baby Burn: When it comes time to abandon the Malone identity for the final time, the sound effects that play when changing back to the Batsuit imply that Bruce burns the outfit and Latex Perfection skinsuit it consists of. Considering Malone at this point is considered the most likely identity of the Rat King, was caught "attacking" Dent at trial, and that maintaining his cover resulted in no small amount of close calls for Bruce, it's hard to blame him for wanting to get rid of the identity permanently.
• But Thou Must!: After The Rats mistake Malone for their leader, The Rats ask for his command to execute Lyle Bolton. Both options are to spare his life, they're just phrased differently.
• Call-Forward:
  • While traversing Blackgate, Batman can collect a set of runes transcribed by Cyrus Pinkney in the 1900's, detailing the same prophecy Azrael will relay to him in Arkham City.
  • One of Pinkney's logs says he can't determine if the records he found says that the Order's champion is "The Instrument of God" or "The Tool of Man", mirroring the same choice Azrael, that very champion, will have to make for himself in Arkham Knight.
  • The agenda of Jonathan Crane in this game is to use his as-of-yet-unnamed Fear Toxin to awaken his patients inner darkness (their shadow) to force them to confront them. Fast forward around a decade and this is what dooms him. ^note It is heavily implied that when the Arkham Knight's ejected from the Cloudburst tank, exposure to Fear Toxin (and Bruce's apology) during Jason's final confrontation with Bruce caused Jason to undergo a mental breakdown. Jason Heel–Face Turns into the new Red Hood, and frees the captured Bruce, allowing Bruce to pump Scarecrow full of fear toxin and capture Scarecrow.
  • Bruce, as Malone, gets into a fight while still handcuffed. And he beats his attackers so hard that the cuffs break, much like in the opening of Arkham City.
  • Just after Harvey's disfigurement, he refers to 'Matches' as an "acid-throwing bastard", just like he referred to his attacker in Knight.
  • There are several references to Harvey Dent promising to "crush crime within a year", which is the exact promise Harvey mentions Batman made to him in Knight. An interview tape also mentions that Harvey's been getting headaches that have been scaring his wife, which Hugo Strange taunted him over in City.
  • A new voicemail added with the New Game Plus update has someone asking Bruce to back them on a campaign to reopen Arkham Asylum.
  • Alfred notes that confronting one's Shadow takes years of therapy and has no viable shortcuts. As the events of City and Knight demonstrate, he's absolutely, tragically right, and Bruce suffers for it.
    • While this is the first time Bruce has faced his own Shadow, it's the second for the player. Shadow Batman will haunt Bruce again one night... wearing the face and mannerisms of the Joker.
  • The young Rat who is Shrike's roommate/accomplice confronts Batman with sharp pieces of broken wood in both hands, and does so in exactly the same pose that Nightwing adopts with his shock-sticks in later games. Which makes perfect sense, as he's a teenage Dick Grayson.
• The Cameo:
  • Vic Sage makes a voice-only appearance as the late-night host of ''Ask The Question", a conspiracy program on GCR, chatting with "Lonnie", one of his most frequent callers; as it turns out, Vic's conclusions are so wild that even Anarky seems like a voice of reason. Sage's theory that there exists a "Gotham Illuminati [with] zombie assassins" (the Court of Owls, which the Arkham series has hinted at before) is a particular point of contention between the two.
  • While the game doesn't draw attention to it, overheard thug conversations imply (and trophies and subtitles later confirm) that one of the Rats who Batman beats up during chapter 1 is Dick Grayson. Specifically, the one who attempts to dual wield batons against Batman and, if you look closely, has a "Hailey's Circus" jacket on. He's even a potential Game-Over Man should he win, and gets referred to as "Grayson" during it. This character is also listed as "Dick Grayson" in the games files. At the end of the game, Leslie mentions that she's tracked him down and wants to set him on the right path, which likely explains how he ends up in Bruce's care. The epilogue added after New Game Plus follows up on this..
  • The public defender during the courtroom scene is Anica Fritch, the mother of Pomeline Fritch. The judge meanwhile, is Vanessa Rios, a character from 'Robin (1993)''.
• Changing Gameplay Priorities: At the end of every chapter, Batman delivers a final blow or a beatdown to the antagonist of the present stretch of the plot. At the final chapter's conclusion, Batman instead grabs Harvey to try and save him, showing how Batman's priorities have changed as a result of the game's events.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Takeo Yamashiro, who disappears from the game after stabbing Malone during a fight, is actually an undercover cop named Chris Nakano, and his disappearance has Gordon and Dent come down hard on Malone in a manner that ends with Harvey being disfigured.
• Cloudcuckoolander: One of the inmates that can be spoken to in Blackgate is Walker, a shirtless man who takes an immediate liking to Matches and continually tries to be his friend, albeit by making increasingly unusual comments that make him seem somewhat unhinged. As it turns out, his personality is somewhat based upon Matt Walker.
  Walker: Allllllllriiiiiight. Look man, I know this place is a little creepy, and the guards are grouchy, and the food is garbage, BUUUUUT... I hope you have a fanTASTIC first day.
  • Completing the game on I Am The Knight difficulty reveals that Walker is fully rehabilitated and will soon be released to move into the apartment building that Dick Grayson is moving out of. He also confesses over the voicemail that he was put in Blackgate for repeated disorderly conduct offenses due to playing his favorite songs at loud volumes. The first thing he plans to do once he gets into the apartment is just that.
• Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: In this game, the unmasked Jonathan Crane (the future Scarecrow) bears a striking resemblance to Jeffrey Combs, who voiced the character in The New Batman Adventures era of Batman: The Animated Series.
• Composite Character: Blackgate prisoner Takeo Yamashiro is revealed to be an undercover cop named Chris Nakano. In the comics, Yamashiro and Nakano are two separate characters.
• Consulting a Convicted Killer: While undercover in Blackgate as 'Matches' Malone, Batman is placed in solitary confinement after defeating Lock-Up. The Joker is in the next cell, and immediately sees through the disguise. Over the next two nights, with little else to do, Bats presses Joker for information on the Rat King, TYGER Security, and Dr. Crane. Not a particularly helpful example, as while the clown is tickled to hear from his old friend, he offers little to Batman beyond taunts and provocations (in part because, as it turns out, he's being completely honest when he says he has no idea who the Rat King is or what his plan is.
• Continuity Nod: Blackgate Prison, as is to be expected, has dozens to Origins and Origins: Blackgate, since most of Batman's former foes are here in one way or another.
  • Due to undergoing two critical, destructive riot events in the past six months, Blackgate has been purchased from the city by TYGER, and is now under their complete control. Their strategy of open-air prisoner control — let them mingle under constant surveillance and viciously beat them for any infraction, or for none at all — bears more than a little resemblance to how they'll operate in Arkham City one day.
  • After the events of last Christmas led to his professional disgrace, Howard Branden has since left the GCPD and started working as a TYGER contractor, which means he's now a corrections officer after the buyout (and is just as corrupt as ever, which actually works in Malone's favor). As Falcone points out, most of the other corrupt cops removed by Gordon have done the same, giving Carmine a certain amount of leverage within the prison.
  • Part of Jezebel Plaza's skylight is broken, with Alfred dryly noting that it still hasn't been fixed from when Batman dropped "Loose Lips" Leblanc through it. Leblanc can also be found in Blackgate, having switched to working for Falcone.
  • Ferris Boyle has been ousted from GothCorp and convicted of his many crimes, and seems appropriately terrified to be a former wealthy CEO stuck in gen-pop.
  • Bird is in Blackgate as well, waiting for his master Bane to return and free him once more.
  • Most of the Casefile Report perps Batman apprehended — Andrew Carter, Chucky Berks, Robert Hanes, John DeMarco, and Ian Chase — can be seen around in various places; Carter still remains a loyal fanatic of Bane. DeMarco's old confiscated badge is also available as contraband in the Commissary.
  • Batman investigates the same chapel he fought Joker in at the end of Origins as part of a crime scene. Parts of the chapel are still damaged from the fight, including a broken stained glass window that's now boarded over.
  • Joker teeth and a Penguin Cage, two Origins: Blackgate collectables "left scattered around during the last riot", can now be purchased as cosmetics for your cell.
  • Dr. Hugo Strange is mentioned offhand to be Harleen and Crane's former supervisor. Presumably, he's left that job to begin his journey of uncovering Batman's identity.
  • Frank Boles appears as a TYGER contractor, doing a very similar job at Blackgate as he does later at Arkham Asylum.
  • Calling Jonathan Crane's phone number will get you a voicemail where he informs the caller that he'll be leaving his current job as a University Professor to take up a position at Blackgate. He then says to forward anything relating to his former position to his replacement, Dr. Penelope Young.
  • Slade Wilson's dog tags can be purchased as a collectible from Joe, having been left in the prison after his stay there.
  • You can find interview tapes with Bronze Tiger where it's mentioned that there's a a period of time where he was transferred out of Blackgate that has no records. He also mentions fighting the League of Assassins.
  • Penguin is busy opening the Iceberg Lounge, having gotten out of Blackgate early by testifying against Carmine Falcone. It's also revealed that his previous base of operations, the Final Offer, sank sometime after Origins, with his funds for the Lounge coming from him suing the city for letting it happen.
  • One segment you can hear on the radio features an on-air discussion with regular caller Lonnie, otherwise known as Lonnie Machin/Anarky. Despite their ideological similarities, to the point some of the Rats' crime scenes have Anarky's symbol written on them, Lonnie himself dismisses them as a False Flag Operation and suggests the Rat King is actually one of the city's elites. Shockingly enough, he's actually on the right track.
  • The Shock Gloves return, with Lucius Fox having used the year since Origins to reverse-engineer Electrocutioner's tech into a smaller portable version. Batman also mentions they're still experimental, hence why he doesn't bring them unless absolutely necessary (and presumably why they don't appear later in the franchise).
  • Firefly and Black Mask can be found locked up in solitary, and the latter is still pissed at Joker for the scheme he pulled in Origins. Malone also assumes that Firefly was in solitary for trying to blow up Pioneer's Bridge, though Firefly corrects him that it was actually for shoving a cook's hand into a fryer For the Evulz.
  • After witnessing him beat Bolton, Ben Turner doesn't seem quite certain whether Malone is Batman or not (aside from the incident with Bird cementing for him that Malone doesn't kill); he does, however, recognize you as a fellow disciple of Master Kirigi from your fighting style.
  • Batman finds another one of the WayneTech crates found during Origins: Blackgate with Alfred noting that its been disabled by Lucius Fox's most recent firmware update. Batman leaves it, saying that opening it is more trouble than it's worth.
  • Beacon Hotel, a prominent location in the game, first appeared in an Origins tie-in comic.
  • The game actually addresses a bit of Continuity Snarl between Asylum and Origins, namely in regards to an interview tape from Asylum seemingly depicting Joker and Harleen Quinzel's first meetings that is contradicted by how they meet on-screen in Origins. Turns out Joker had a habit of pretending that he's never met Dr. Quinzel and reintroducing himself, something she winds up playing along with, thus explaining the apparent Retcon.
  • At the end of the game, a newspaper article shows that Wayne Enterprises is releasing what is effectively a commercial version of Detective Vision as a set of goggles for search and rescue use, with specific attention given to their decision not to weaponize it. This, of all things, explains why the gang Elites in Origins's non-canon multiplayer have a Shoddy Knockoff Product version of it.
  • Harleen starts casually referring to Batman as "Bats" the longer they work together throughout the game.
  • A thug in Knight can offhandedly reveal that he was in the room when Harvey was scarred, and he mentions that Harvey kept fighting through the pain to get at his attacker even while the acid was melting his face. Barring some minor inconsistencies (such as everyone in the room being named, meaning no random thug could have seen it^*— though it could be the thug made it up to make himself look better —), the scene plays out in this manner, with Harvey fighting to get at and kill 'Matches'' even while Gordon and the bailiff are trying to pull him back.
  • When talking to Alfred after you defeat Shadow Batman, he asks if Bruce met "the man I feared you might become" with Bruce correcting that "he met me" instead. Where has that showed up in the Arkhamverse before?
  • During an inmate conversation in Day 2, the inmates mention a prisoner part of a racketeering group called the Bludhaven Six named Franklin Accardo is being released early due to ill health conditions. When he turns up, he is one of the victims of Professor Pyg.
• Continuity Snarl: An extremely minor one all things considered, but one of the cross-game phone numbers in Arkham Shadow previously showed up as a case file collectible in Origins: Blackgate - except in that game, it was assigned to a payphone in Metropolis used by Task Force X to misdirect any investigations into their recruitment of supervillains. Here, it's used as part of a reference to the Animated Series, meaning that a number meant for Metropolis somehow, within three months, transferred over to a Gotham-based game development studio.
• Decomposite Character: Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow and (tragically) Bruce himself, while disguised as Irving 'Matches' Malone, takes comic book Salvatore Maroni's role in Harvey Dent's origin as Two-Face - though unlike Maroni's deliberate attempt at assassination, the two scarred Harvey by accident in a struggle between themselves. Unless, of course, you do nothing, in which case Scarecrow was instead deliberately responsible.
• Developer's Foresight: If you guess the "4118" code in Shrike's apartment without doing the detective work you'd normally need to do to get it, Alfred will sarcastically ask if Batman just got a lucky guess, and Batman will respond "something like that".
• Didn't Think This Through: As "Malone", Bruce engineers a way to sneak in and out of his cell so he can slip out at night and investigate the prison as Batman. He is confident that this won't be discovered because no one patrols the cells after lights out. That is, until he's dragged into an interrogation with Gordon and Harvey, at which point Harvey shows him security footage of his empty cell. Because of course a company as security-obsessed as TYGER would have multiple contingencies to prevent prisoners from leaving their cells whenever they wanted. By extension, by not telling Gordon and Dent about his plan, Bruce causes a chain of events that has horrific consequences for everyone involved.
• The Dog Bites Back: The primary motivation of the Rats; they're some of the poorest and most victimized people in Gotham, and they're finally deciding to strike back against the system that's failed them at every turn. One of their main mottos is "If you have nothing, you fear nothing", which functions as a bit of Arc Words throughout the game.
• Dramatic Irony: To highlight the lack of effort the GCPD is putting into capturing Batman, a board in the Task Force Office displays a list of Batman suspects (Akin to the one briefly shown in The Dark Knight). It consists entirely of absurd joke suggestions like Dracula, Bigfoot, Santa Claus, and Bruce Wayne.
• Easy Amnesia: Although Batman unmasks himself in the final confrontation to stop Harvey/Two-Face from shooting Joe Chill, after the crisis is over Leslie Thompkins states that Harvey's memory is slipping away, suggesting that he no longer remembers Batman's true identity. Truth in Television, as memory loss is a potential symptom of dissociative identity disorder.
• Easter Egg: With a side of Alternate Reality Game; some phone numbers you can call aren't actually found within Shadow, instead being sprinkled across other games in the Arkhamverse.
• Enemy Civil War: Roughly the first half of the game's conflict revolves around Lyle Bolton and Carmine Falcone fighting for control over Blackgate Prison, with Batman/Malone in-between them both trying to find the Rat King and stop them from killing each other if he can.
• Everyone Has Standards: Before her fall into supervillainy, Dr. Harleen Quinzel grew so concerned over the way Dr. Jonathan Crane was treating her patients that she tried to contact City Hall about it, specifically reaching out to Harvey Dent's office 28 times in one week. Unfortunately for her, Dent dismissed her concerns.
• Extremely Short Timespan: Subverted for once; the game takes place over the course of seven days, with the game reminding you how many are left until the Rat King's "Day of Wrath". However, Bruce winds up spending a few of them in Solitary after he fights Lock-Up.
• Flashback with the Other Darrin: The "Echoes of the Past" unlockables are flashbacks to the events of Origins and Blackgate. However, two fall under this.
  • The one revisiting Batman's fight with Bronze Tiger in Blackgate sees the latter voiced by his voice actor in this game, Zeno Robinson instead of Gary Anthony Sturgis.
  • The one featuring Bane during his and Batman's fight at the end of Origins could be called "Flashback with the Original Darrin", however, as Bane was voiced in that one by his original voice actor in Asylum and City, Fred Tatasciore, instead of JB Blanc.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing:
  • When chasing Dr. Crane through his laboratory, Batman takes an elevator. Shortly before he steps onto it, a few conspicuously open vents can be seen spewing a clear gas into the air.
  • After taking down the TYGER guards on the Liberty Ship, Batman will remark that the Rat King is likely holding Harvey with him in the control room. If Detective Vision is used before going there, only one person can be seen in the room.
• Fission Mailed: When your Player Character gets shot by a trigger-happy GCPD officer at the end of the prologue, the screen actually shifts to the same black void with only character models visible used for the Arkham series' usual Game Over screens. You might even get tricked into thinking you messed up until Gordon storms in and calls out the blatant disregard of due process before confirming the player is still alive.
• Foreshadowing:
  • There's a lot surrounding Joe and his true identity.
    • While attending a group therapy session undercover as "Malone", Bruce mentions his parents being murdered in front of him. Joe, sitting across from him, immediately turns away with an uncomfortable expression. That's because he's actually the mugger who killed Thomas and Martha Wayne.
    • After the group therapy session, Joe has Malone hand him a copy of The Count of Monte Cristo. When Malone half-jokingly asks him if he's reading it as inspiration for an escape attempt, Joe states that he just likes reading it every few years. That book is about someone seeking revenge on someone who ruined their life, which is exactly what Joe fears Bruce Wayne would do if he found him.
    • Joe is Blackgate's resident Scrounger, and he notes that he's been in there a long time. His full name is Joseph Chilton. As in Joe Chill.
    • During a checkup with Leslie Thompkins, one of the interview tapes has Joe comment nervously on a picture of her and one of the people in the picture she's with. Leslie assumes that he's talking about Harvey Dent, much to Joe's confusion. Instead, he was actually talking about Bruce Wayne.
    • When calling Oracle to get intel on Dr. Crane, she excitedly mentions she's been doing research on everyone in the prison, including "digging up some fascinating stuff about this guy who runs the-" before Batman tells her he just wants information on the prison doctors. She was almost definitely going to say "the guy who runs the commissary", and likely found links between his past life of crime and the Wayne murders.
  • The concept of a Jungian Shadow comes up during a group therapy session. The Big Bad turns out to be Two-Face, effectively Harvey Dent's own Shadow.
    • What's more, a boss fight in the game is against Bruce's own Shadow, complete with a take on Batman's "Worst Nightmare" appearance from Origins and Knight. Players who have played Knight and learned from Kill The Justice League what Bruce did post-Knight know Bruce and his Shadow end up interacting years later, starting with City.
  • It's possible to find a phone number scrawled on a wall in Blackgate saying "For A Good Time". Actually calling it in-game reveals it's really set up by Joker, who laughs creepily before saying "See you soon" and disconnecting. Guess who turns up as your neighbor in Solitary Confinement later on?
• Gang of Hats: All the members of the Rats wear masks with glowing red lenses in addition to outfits with dedications to the Rat King and the Day of Wrath scribbled all over them. This even applies in Blackgate, you'd wonder why TYGER seems to tolerate it despite their otherwise harsh rules until you realize they're in on Harvey's plan to kill them all.
• Gentle Touch vs. Firm Hand: The whole conflict between Jonathan Crane and Harleen Quinzel; Quinzel believes in using sympathy and empathy to help patients through their issues, while Crane believes in forcing one to face their fears and doubts head-on. They butt heads several times over their differing approaches... and of course, we already know that both their viewpoints will eventually lead them to supervillainy.
• Greater-Scope Villain: This game establishes that even besides his own supervillain career, Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow is also directly responsible for the creations of Harley Quinn, the Ventriloquist/Scarface, and Two-Face.
• He Who Fights Monsters: In the story trailer, Batman notes that the Rat King will stop at nothing to destroy Gotham and wonders how far is he willing to let himself go to destroy him. The developers have even noted in the story that Batman's anger towards criminals is still very much there as well as his lack of empathy towards them. This comes in to stark reality when the Rat King is revealed to be Harvey Dent's repressed alter-ego, which Bruce was unaware of - and, in his desperation to discover this, Bruce tragically becomes partly responsible for Harvey's disfigurement and cements the latter's path to villainy as Two-Face.
• High-Altitude Interrogation: Batman attempts this on Shrike at the end of the prologue, which massively bites him in the ass when Shrike lights himself on fire, forcing Batman to drop him. Several characters believe that Batman's escalated to murder as a result.
• Hijacked by Ganon: Harvey Dent, not yet Two-Face for most of the game, was the Rat King all along, with it being a manifestation of the darkness that's been building inside him now attempting to "punish the guilty".
  • Finally completely Averted with Joker, who, after being the true Big Bad of every prior Arkham game, actually spends the whole game imprisoned for once. He even Lampshades this when Batman talks with him in solitary, noting that while he'd love to take credit for all the chaos, he genuinely has nothing to do with it.
• Interquel: Takes place between the events of Origins and Asylum.
• Involuntary Charity Donation: Implied by a news report that says a local cat shelter recently received an anonymous gift of $50,000. All in cash.
• Ironic Echo: A meta-example: Shadow Batman utters the line "A fitting end for his kind" before his boss fight, something Batman himself stated in his first appearance after killing Alfred Stryker.
• It Runs in the Family: A series of flashbacks indicate that dissociative issues run in Harvey's family, as his father similarly had split personality issues. This shows in two back-to-back flashbacks: in the first one, Harvey's father beats Harvey and Bruce over a coin flip because Harvey wanted to finally leave the house, while the second flashback has him noticeably kinder and seeming to genuinely not know why the two boys are locked in the closet. By the end of the game, it turns out that Harvey had already had split personality issues before he got scarred.
• It's Personal: Contacting the Steel Mill number has Sionis basically tell the player that they do not care how long they wait, because the moment he gets out, he's going to track down Joker, cut off his face and feed it to his dogs while he watches for the events of Origins.
  Sionis: You're dead, clown! You hear me?! Dead. Dead!
• Latex Perfection: Batman's persona of Irving "Matches" Malone is made possible by an advanced synthetic skinsuit that lets him appear completely distinct from Bruce Wayne in a way makeup simply can't (and bruises like human skin, so it raises no suspicion when the guards rough him up). It's so lifelike absolutely no one thinks it's a disguise (except for Joker, who only hears his voice and sees through the disguise immediately).
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  • Alfred notes early on that there's an entire warehouse in the Cauldron full of remaindered defective vent grates — the kind the player has been wrenching off their bolts with little effort for multiple games — and that Gotham businesses "budget for quantity over quality".
  • Joker, known for his infamous tendency to pull a Hijacked by Ganon in previous games, admits he genuinely has nothing to do with the events of this one.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Batman decides not to tell Gordon about his infiltration into Blackgate as "Malone", out of concern that it could be leaked to the corrupt officers under Gordon's command. This bites him in the ass when Malone is accused of killing an undercover cop, and Gordon is vehemently determined to make him pay for it; the end result is Harvey getting disfigured.
• Misaimed Fandom: An In-Universe example; Jonathan Crane works to have his subjects confront their titular "shadows" through chemical means, using Carl Jung's theories on the concept, but Alfred rightfully doubts Jung would ever approve, since psychological care takes years of work and can't be rushed with shortcuts.
• Mistaken Identity: On the Day of Wrath, after "Matches" Malone (i.e Bruce Wayne/Batman) accidentally scars Harvey Dent in the middle of trial and is believed to have done so intentionally, the Rats take this to mean Malone is the Rat King's true identity and save him from being executed in a gas chamber. This is never cleared up before Bruce 'kills' the Malone persona, meaning Gotham as a whole comes to believe that he was the Rat King as well.
• Mysterious Watcher: One can be seen watching Malone as he's brought into Blackgate Prison, perched on a gargoyle with only their glowing eyes and Batman-like silhouette visible. They notably seem to dissolve into smoke after a moment, leaving it ambiguous as to what they actually are. And unlike with Azrael in Arkham City, the game offers no answers to that question.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Carmine Falcone has the same claw-mark slashes on his cheek that he got from Catwoman in Batman: Year One, though whether or not they're from Catwoman in this continuity is unstated.
  • When meeting with Gordon and Harvey near the start of the game, it's noted that the trio worked together before to take down Falcone's criminal empire. Evidently the events of The Long Halloween went a lot better for everyone in the Arkham-verse, considering Harvey isn't Two-Face yet and Falcone is still alive by the events of this game.
  • Batarangs are used via removing Batman's Chest Insignia and throwing it, just like how Batman used them in The Batman (2022) and before that, how his insignia was used as a back-up Batarang in Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Likewise, Batman is referred to a few times as a "rat with wings", which are some of the Arc Words in that same film as well as what the Penguin said about the bats he used to kill the Ice Princess in Batman Returns.
  • One particularly trigger-happy GCPD officer encountered at the start of the game is named Pettit. During Batman: No Man's Land, William Pettit was a GCPD officer whose stockpile of guns proved valuable when Gotham City was cut off from the outside world, and he'd eventually cause a schism in Gordon's faction over Pettit's far more draconian ways of reclaiming the city.
  • Lyle Bolton, AKA Lock-Up, is the new warden of Blackgate, with Harleen Quinzel, Jonathan Crane, and Arnold Wesker all being present within the prison; Quinzel and Crane as psychiatrists and Wesker as an inmate who regularly attends the two's therapy sessions. This is likely a nod to Lock-Up's debut in the Animated Series, where Harley Quinn, Scarecrow, and the Ventriloquist were the trio of Arkham inmates who testified against him.
    • Speaking of Lock-Up, him being in-charge of Blackgate is possibly a nod to Batman: No Man's Land, where he temporarily took over the prison during the event.
  • If Bruce as Malone asks Joe if he's got any family, he mentions an estranged little brother that he hopes is doing all right. Max Chilton only made one comics appearance ever, in The Brave and the Bold, in which he died while seeking revenge on Batman for Joe's death.
  • One of the Rats mistakenly refers to Harvey as "Harvey Kent" (the character's original Golden Age surname) and seems confused when others point out the error, wondering aloud if he changed it.
  • Calling the Sionis Steel Mill will result in a pre-recorded message from Black Mask where he threatens to cut Joker's face off.
  • After being (accidentally) scarred by Jonathan Crane, Harvey Dent's initial disfigurement resembles his original appearance in the comics in which his mutilated side was a green color.
  • An exabit on Blackgate's history shows a time when the island was a monastery for an order of monks, implied to be the Order of St. Dumas, who are depicted wearing red and gold vestments. The same colours as Azrael's first costume.
  • One of the newspapers features a review of The Riddle of the Minotaur, the virtual reality puzzle game designed by Edward Nigma, which was pilfered by his crooked boss in the animated series episode he made his debut. The article even ends with the same quote from the man that the episode is named for; "If you're so smart, why aren't you rich?"
  • You can receive a voicemail from Selina Kyle where she says she'll be visiting Rome for a few days. She even says she might have family there... or at least, she'll find out after she asks Louisa Falcone some questions.
  • Posters of Rita Farr, Paige Monroe, and the Grey Ghost can be bought from Blackgate's commissary.
  • Rooms belonging to a Werner Vertigo (a.k.a Green Arrow supervillain Count Vertigo) and an Aaron Helzinger (a.k.a Batman villain Amygdala) can be found while looking for Dr. Quinzel.
  • One of the voicemails you receive over the course of the game is from Andrea Beaumont, who mentions she's recently seen a painting depicting an "Angel of Death" that reminded her of Bruce.
  • Another of the voicemails left behind is Lucius Fox telling Bruce that he's found some irregularities in the Applied Sciences financials, and they should probably come up with an explanation for that before a shareholder wonders where the money's going.
  • Before his boss fight, the Shadow Batman utters the line "A fitting end for his kind", something that Batman himself stated in his first appearance after killing Alfred Stryker.
  • In Dick Grayson's apartment in the epilogue, one of the newspapers mentions rising prices on a treatment for MacGregor's syndrome.
  • Also during the epilogue, a sticker can be seen on the refrigerator for Condiment King.
• No-Gear Level: Like the beginnings of City and Cold, Cold Heart, Bruce winds up having to fight outside of his Batman persona. Unlike those games however, this happens throughout the game as you get into prison-yard brawls as 'Matches' Malone, who naturally doesn't have access to any of Batman's gadgets and has to rely exclusively on his fists. Most notably, this includes the boss fight with Lock-Up.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: At the game's start, when Bruce learns that the courthouse that Harvey and Leslie are in is being targeted by the Rats, he completely loses his mind and effortlessly begins dispatching every Rat that you run across. When the Rats begin to notice the shift in Batman's behavior, they start to immediately surrender rather than face his wrath. It doesn't work. Most tellingly, this segment of the game not only has every strike as an automatic critical hit and introduces the Instant Takedown to show how Batman isn't holding back at all in this moment, but also features the introduction of an Infinite Beatdown, allowing the player to brutalize as much as they want.
• Noodle Incident:
  • If you contact Maroni's as Malone, Maroni will tell Malone that they refuse to deliver pizza to Blackgate after Killer Croc nearly bit off his hands because they forced him to deliver in person.
  • If you contact Barbara's number, she will tell her father to wait an hour if it's him before he puts out an APB on her again.
  • When two inmates are discussing about seeing TYGER bring in AA guns, one of them asks if it's for helicopter fly outs. For one who's been in prison for life, he saw it happen three times.
• Not Me This Time: Joker states repeatedly that he has no idea who the Rat King is and has absolutely no involvement in the upcoming Day of Wrath. He's actually quite upset about it, arguing that you'd expect someone who wanted to cause mass destruction and chaos would go to Joker for help with it, and tells Batman that if he was involved, he'd make sure Batman knew it.
• Parental Substitute: The game makes it clear that Leslie Thompkins was just as much of a mother-figure to Bruce after his parents died as Alfred was a father-figure. Even by the time of the game, she's one of the very few characters Bruce lets his guard down around, even dropping the Batman voice and persona when she asks.
• Poor Communication Kills: After Shrike's death, Batman decides to create a criminal persona and get himself sent to Blackgate, both so he can better understand the criminal mind and so he can try to track down the Rat King. Unfortunately, only Leslie and Alfred are let in on this plan. This means that when it appears that "Matches Malone" killed a cop, Gordon is very eager to throw the book at him and get him locked up for good. The end result is Harvey's disfigurement after Dr. Crane tries to gas Malone into submission in court and Bruce instinctively knocks it away.
• Pragmatic Adaptation: A lot of Arkham series staples are changed up a bit in this installment to fit with the VR gameplay.
  • Explosive Gel is launched as blobs instead of sprayed in a bat pattern, to make it easier for the player to use (though for old times sake, the blob forms a batsymbol if it's left to sit).
  • Critical Strikes are now executed by physically punching harder rather than timing the strikes a certain way.
  • The game tells you exactly how long it takes until a counterable attack will connect instead of the more indistinct counter symbol used by the other games, to account for the player's more restricted view in first person.
  • Batman's arsenal is notably scaled down, only consisting of the Batarang (and Sonic Batarang as an upgrade), Explosive Gel, Batclaw, Cryptographic Sequencer, Smoke Bombs, and Shock Gloves at its peak (though the Disrupter technically also exists, it's just folded into the Cryptographic Sequencer). This is because each gadget requires reaching for a different body part, which would eventually become impossible to keep track of. Additionally, unlike previous games, Batman has to unlock the gadgets one at a time once again, which is justified both narratively (Batman says he doesn't take gadgets he doesn't know he'll need and calls them in once he needs them) and for gameplay (collecting the gadgets one at a time allows the game to tutorialize them one at a time).
  • The Cryptographic Sequencer is a 3D placement puzzle rather than the radio frequency/password puzzle it was before, which leaves the joysticks free for use.
  • To account for the faster Silent Takedowns, guards in Predator encounters/challenges move a lot faster when they learn someone has gone unconscious. To further even the score, Vent and Grate Takedowns are now silent, meaning the player won't be swarmed by the fastest guards they've ever seen after performing these moves.
  • The Blade Counter only requires two dodges instead of three since the player now has to physically dodge the strikes rather than just hold down a button. Additionally, to keep the fighting moving, the Blade Dodge Takedown now requires a strike after the counter rather than initiating automatically.
• Private Profit Prison: After two separate massive riots in the span of a year, Blackgate Prison was bought out by TYGER and now operates under their complete control.
• Race Lift: Leslie Thompkins, the Ratcatcher, and Lyle Bolton, originally presented as white, are now African-American.
• Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: While this is nothing new to the Arkham games, it's especially prominent in this game due to the VR gameplay letting you physically do it yourself. Instead of just a set amount of time to complete the animation, now enemies can be subjected to a Beatdown Takedown at the speed of however fast the player can physically thrust both controllers forward.
• Reed Richards Is Useless: A refreshing Aversion; at the very end of the game you can find a news article detailing the release of new "Rescue-vision" technology by Wayne Enterprises, designed to be able to sense people and their vital signs through even concrete. The article's picture makes it clear it's a mass produced version of the Detective Vision Batman has been using throughout the franchise.
• Red Herring: Early on in the game while Batman is tracking Shrike, Shrike takes Harvey Dent hostage and reveals that he's been doused in gasoline. This is a very clear reference to one of Harvey Dent's most famous adaptations, where the scarring on his face and body was the result of being near an explosion after having half of his body doused in gasoline. Luckily, Batman knows he has to be cautious and gets Shrike away from Harvey before he can light a fire, sparing the DA. At least until he ends up in the same courtroom as Jonathan Crane.
• Retcon:
  • Lore in previous games seemed to imply that Harvey Dent was scarred during a court hearing for Carmine Falcone in retaliation for standing up to the mob alongside Commissioner James Gordon and Batman, bringing it slightly closer to the comics (although Salvatore Maroni was originally responsible). But here, Jonathan Crane and Bruce Wayne/Batman himself (then disguised as a criminal named Irving 'Matches' Malone) are responsible, with Bruce knocking Crane's aerosol capsule away in self-defense and Crane subsequently spilling it on Harvey by accident. Though it's still an obvious retcon from a long-term perspective (as the previous setup is still clear even if Harvey is vague in previous games), the facts fit just enough for it to not be a complete retcon; Malone, as far as the public knows, works for Falcone and is believed to have disfigured Harvey on purpose, and by the end of the game Harvey's sanity has deteriorated enough to explain any other contradictions.
  • Related to two of the aforementioned cases of Race Lift, tie-in comics for Batman: Arkham Knight had previously portrayed Leslie Thompkins and the Ratcatcher as white as in the source material before this game made them African-American. That being said, said tie-ins are also subject to a lot of Continuity Snarl, such as killing off a TITAN-addicted Bane when Knight itself says he's still alive and in rehab for TITAN, so it's possible said comics were merely moved into Canon Discontinuity.
  • Joe Chill's voice and appearance have been changed from Arkham VR while shakily maintaining that he "was never brought to justice" for the Wayne Murders, as instead he got himself arrested for different charges specifically to avoid Bruce Wayne hunting him down. There's also the fact that Batman outright met Chill and revealed his identity to him nearly three years into his career.
  • During Scarecrow's second Nightmare Sequence in Asylum, Jim Gordon is shown comforting and helping Bruce while he was stewing in the aftermath of his parents' murder, with another officer implying (albeit sardonically) that Bruce was taken in and raised by Alfred shortly afterward. The flashbacks in this game game instead show that Bruce was discovered by Leslie Tompkins at his parents' murder scene, and she took him into his care alongside Harvey Dent. Jim Gordon and his partner don't show up at all.
• The Reveal:
  • Near the end of the game, it seems at first like a now-scarred and deranged Harvey Dent has gone after the Rat King to impose vigilante justice on him - only for it to turn out that Harvey is the Rat King, his Split Personality having already manifested before he was disfigured.
  • On a lesser note, Scarecrow/Jonathan Crane finally averts his series-long Faceless status in Arkham Shadow, where he's shown to be largely in-line for his usual depiction in most comics (brownish hair, narrow features, haggard look overall behind his glasses, etc).
• Sarcastic Confession: On the Day of Wrath, Malone is taken to an interrogation room by Gordon and Harvey for questioning as to why he's been disappearing from his cell room for hours at a time. The two dialogue options are "I'm Batman" and "I'm Bruce Wayne".
• Saved by Canon: Batman, Alfred, Gordon, Harvey, Barbara, Harleen, Crane, Wesker, and Dick are safe from dying in this game since they all appear in later games (though Wesker is only mentioned to be active while Arkham City's events are playing out). That said, Harvey gets his scars here, effectively 'killing' the heroic DA he once was.
• Save the Villain: Batman, in his 'Matches' Malone persona, winds up having to save Carmine Falcone from getting killed by Lock-Up when Bolton decides to publicly execute Falcone in an effort to establish his absolute control over Blackgate. At the end of the game, Batman has to save Joe Chill from Harvey Dent, even after learning that Joe was the man who killed his parents, and then has to save Harvey himself when he jumps off a building; this reflects Bruce's new outlook on fighting crime, setting him up to be the caring hero he is in later games.
• The Scapegoat: By the time the credits roll Bruce's "Irving 'Matches' Malone" persona is not only put on trial for the supposed murder of Takeo Yamashiro/Chris Nakano, but accused of intentionally disfiguring Harvey Dent and is the primary suspect for the true identity of the Rat King.
• Secret Identity Vocal Shift: Done three ways this time; Bruce switches between the Batman, Bruce Wayne, and 'Matches' Malone voices depending on which role he's playing at the moment, with the subtitles following suit. It even gets lampshaded when Leslie demands that Bruce stop speaking to her with "that fake voice". First, he switches from Malone to Batman, but when she refuses that voice too, he finally acquiesces and talks in his Bruce voice.
• Secret-Keeper: By the end of the game, Joe Chill knows that Bruce Wayne is Batman, as Batman unmasks himself to make Harvey let him go. Given how the rest of the franchise plays out, there's no indication Joe ever tells anyone what he knows.
• Sequel Hook:
  • During the credits, Leslie mentions she managed to track down Shrike's accomplice, implied to be the one who dual wielded broken chair legs like a pair of batons and wore a Hailey's Circus jacket. He's abandoned the Rats and has been going to counseling, with Leslie suggesting that Bruce should go talk to him...
    • Patch 1.3 expanded on this with a new epilogue scene where Bruce arrives at the apartment of Dick Grayson to take him in as his ward. The player can also find newspaper clippings on the refrigerator, revealing that Dick wants to go after Anthony Zucco for murdering his parents.
  • During the main game, there are museum exhibits about Cyrus Pinkney and his collaboration with the Arkhams that do not line up with the established backstory in Origins. Near the end of the game, a second grave for Cyrus Pinkney can be found underneath Blackgate, with a nonsensical epitaph including a spelling error, claiming that he lived to be over 105, whereas Origins claimed he died at 40. In the epilogue, a newspaper can be found noting these discrepancies and reporting on Pinkney's grave from Origins, postulating that Pinkney's grandson may have been using his grandfather's name, and promising more follow-up research.
• Shout-Out:
  • As a substitute for the cape stun, Malone is able to use Pocket Sand to stun enemies.
  • After Batman finds Wesker in Dr. Crane's office, Wesker begins singing some half-forgotten, half-ad libbed lyrics to the song "Me and My Shadow".
  • During the boss fight with Falcone, he can tell Batman to "go punch a clown". Developers have confirmed this was a shoutout to ClownPuncher139, a Youtuber primarily focusing his videos on the Batman: Arkham series.
• Start of Darkness: This game is a proper villain origin story for many of Batman's Rogues, such as Harleen Quinzel (who was hinted to be on her way in Origins), Jonathan Crane AKA Scarecrow, The Ventriloquist and Scarface (referred to here as "Woody"), and Harvey "Two-Face" Dent, who's dark side has already come out as the Rat King.
• Starter Villain: Shrike, a member of the Rats who acts as Batman's first lead in attempting to identify the Rat King. He sets himself on fire when Batman tries his usual High-Altitude Interrogation tactic on him and drops to his death. Batman is impacted enough by the fact Shrike would rather kill himself than go to prison that it motivates him to go undercover in Blackgate as Malone, both to pursue leads on the Rat King and so he can understand the criminal mind better.
• Supreme Chef: A recurring background gag is a Blackgate inmate, known only as "Meals", continually managing to put together high-quality foods and desserts from unorthodox ingredients. One of his regulars calls him crazy after hearing he made a cheesecake from mayonnaise and sugar.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • The Arkham-series version of Batman is well known for being Made of Iron, taking numerous beatings throughout just one night and being able to keep going. When the guards at Blackgate take an x-ray of Bruce in his "Malone" persona, they're shocked when they see he's absolutely riddled with metal screws and pins. Bruce may have enough Heroic Willpower and adrenaline to keep going through one night, but he's naturally going to need a lot of surgery to recover in the aftermath.
  • While the legal system means that Joker cannot be contained in solitary confinement for more than a few days, even he and Bruce Wayne find escaping impossible when your allowed environment is four walls and a bed and have to wait until they are let back into the general population by outside forces.
• Sympathetic Villain, Despicable Villain: The game elaborates more on the background of the Rat King and Dr. Jonathan Crane, the two main antagonistic forces in the story. The former being actually one of Harvey Dent's alternate personalities, as he was already struggling with DID, even prior his transformation in Two-Face, as a result of his Abusive Dad's actions and history of mental illnesses present in his family. This personality wants to unleash the "Day of Wrath" to take down the corruption present at Gotham, as destructive said plan would be in practice. Crane, on the other hand, is still capable of being an awful individual even before becoming Scarecrow, being a psychopathic Mad Doctor who is willing to experiment on his patients and bring the worst out of them, playing also a role in turning Harleen Quinzel, Arnold Wesker and Harvey Dent himself in what they are now.
• Take That!: While talking to Bolton, Carmine Falcone complains that one of the guards incorrectly called him "Mr. Fal-cohn" instead of "Falco-nee". This is likely a jab at past adaptations like Gotham and The Batman, which changed the pronunciation of his name to the former.
• Title Drop: A variation. During the group therapy session, Dr. Quinzel mentions the concept of the Shadow, which Dr. Crane clarifies is the subconscious fears, shame, and desires of a person. The entire concept of a Jungian Shadow is indeed a major part of the game, with Batman infiltrating Blackgate being in-part Bruce's attempt at confronting his own.
• Trailers Always Lie: The trailers show Batman activating the Shock Gloves right before the boss fight with Lock-Up. You do acquire the Shock Gloves right before the showdown with Lock-Up... but you don't fight him as Batman. Instead you fight him as Malone, who doesn't have access to any of Batman's gadgets (including the Shock Gloves) and has to make due with just his fists.
• Unseen No More: Goes for several characters who served as The Ghost in the previous games. This includes Arnold Wesker/Ventriloquist, Carmine Falcone (who only had a voice appearance in the now defunct online game Batman: Arkham Underworld), Leslie Thompkins and Otis Flannegan/Ratcatcher (who only appeared in an Arkham Knight tie-in comic).
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
  • Arnold Wesker admits in his tapes with Dr. Quinzel that he's been suffering from a lot of intrusive thoughts and dark impulses lately, something Dr. Crane is actively bringing to the surface with his experiments. Quinzel suggests that he externalize those darker parts of his personality onto something else so he can properly confront and control them. Wesker decides to use the puppet his cellmate made, and well...
  • Takeo Yamashiro, despite originally helping Matches follow Falcone, outs Matches to Bolton at a critical moment, prompting a fight that ends with Takeo stabbing Malone in the hand and Malone retaliating. When Yamashiro, who's actually an undercover cop, then goes missing, Gordon pins the whole thing on Malone despite the lack of evidence by fixating on the stab wound from the fight, and the resulting hearing ends with Harvey being disfigured.
• Verbal Backspace: Selina Kyle leaves a voicemail for Bruce, explaining how she's flying to Rome. One of the reasons she lists is a valuable emerald that she's always wanted to ste- see.
• Villain Cred: 'Matches' Malone quickly gains a reputation at Blackgate due to his fighting skills, with none of the prisoners realizing that he's the same man who put most of them there to begin with. You can even visit Firefly and Black Mask in Solitary and they'll admit their respect, Firefly for Malone torching the Bat-Signal, Black Mask for managing to get in with Falcone after only a few days in the prison.
• Villainous Breakdown: After an encounter with Batman, Dr. Crane's normally composed demeanor begins to crack until he's curled into a fetal position on the floor, overwhelmed by the sensation of being afraid seemingly for the first time in his life. Unfortunately, it's not long into his ranting that he becomes obsessed with the idea of channeling the power of fear for himself.
• Villainous Rescue: Bolton comes dangerously close to executing Malone (Batman in disguise) in a gas chamber. Who comes to his rescue? Not Alfred, Oracle, or any other ally, but rather the Rats, who now believe that Malone is the Rat King.
• The Voice: The Joker is Matches' neighbor in solitary confinement, but we never actually see him; just talk to him through the wall.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist:
  • The Rats and the Rat King aren't exactly wrong that many of Gotham's institutions are extremely corrupt, but unlike Batman and his allies, they're not interested in fixing it and instead seek to burn the whole city down and start anew.
  • Crane protests that forcing inmates to confront their inner darkness with his hallucinogenic cocktail is a superior form of therapy, even when the darkness wins.
• Wham Line:
  • The mystery player character at the beginning of the game saying his name is "Malone". Anyone familiar with Batman mythos will recognize Batman's alter ego "Matches Malone" for when he goes undercover as a criminal.
  • Near the very end of the game, you get one that reveals the full name of a certain character and who they exactly were:
    Harvey: I found him. The bastard that killed your parents! I found him, and his name is Joe Chill.
• Wham Shot: When Batman encounters him on the Liberty Ship, Chris Nakano informs him that Harvey Dent was onboard as he heard his voice. When Batman does find Harvey, not only is he not being held captive, but he's found alone in the ship's control room, where Batman believed the Rat King was.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Harvey leaves Bruce a voicemail blasting him for not being at the courthouse for the fundraiser, not because of what it meant for Harvey but because it meant Leslie, the woman who raised both of them, was assaulted by Rats with only Harvey for protection. He effectively demands that at a minimum, he should call Leslie and apologize.
• What You Are in the Dark: During the climax of the story, Harvey has found out who killed Bruce's parents and holds Joe Chill at gunpoint on top of the GCPD HQ. Despite being a position to let the killer die, Batman chooses to unmask himself which makes Harvey let Joe go, proving himself to be the bigger man.
• What Is This Feeling?: After his first fateful encounter with Batman the otherwise unmoved Doctor Crane seems taken aback that he actually experienced fear, fixating on the emotion.
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: In Patch 1.3, an epilogue is added, showing that Bruce has taken Dick in as a ward, with Dick accepting this status with full knowledge of Bruce's identity as Batman. TYGER has been removed from Blackgate, with Bolton and Branden in particular both facing criminal charges for collusion with the Rat King. Dr. Thompkins is shown to still be helping Dick with his return to a crime-free life and Harvey Dent is currently still a hero in the eyes of the public for his service in helping thwart the Rat King, who is thought to be the disappeared Matches Malone. Joe Chill had also turned himself in and returned to Blackgate.
• Wretched Hive: Gotham, as to be expected in a Batman property. Though in this case even more so as the city is experiencing a full on riot due to the actions of the Rat King.