YMMV / Nancy Drew

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Tropes in the books include:

• Archive Panic: Hundreds of books have been written featuring the character.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
  • In The Mystery of the Brass-Bound Trunk, Nancy gets struck by lightning. It has nothing to do with the rest of the story, it's over in less than a page, and nobody ever mentions it again, and isn't getting struck by lightning something you'd want to brag about?
  • In The Mystery of the Fire Dragon, while Nancy is at the airport about to investigate smuggling in Hong Kong. She's tricked into getting onto a plane by a girl with the same name as the missing Chi Che Soong — and immediately kidnapped. It amounts to nothing as Ned sees the plane take off and immediately sends the air force after them. The whole thing is resolved in about five pages, Nancy discovers nothing new about the case, none of the captors' names come up later and the ordeal isn't even mentioned again.
• Bizarro Episode: The Flying Saucer Mystery from the original series. The sci-fi aspects are strange enough, the two chapters where Nancy and Ned are apparently abducted by aliens and taken to another planet where they can fly and communicate telepathically is just flat out weird.
• Broken Base:
  • Fans of the original 30s/60s version usually hate upon the late 80s version, for the way it modernized the character.
  • The late 80s version (specifically the Nancy Drew Files spinoff) has its fanbase, and they don't take too kindly to the new Girl Detective reboot for going the other way and being too "kiddy" (usually, they like the original 30s/60s version, but feel like a certain amount of Nostalgia Filter might make them slightly biased toward everything afterwards).
  • A lot of hardcore fans dislike the 50s/60s rewrites of the first 34 volumes, finding them to be bowdlerized, sanitized, condensed, and featuring less character development, and poorer writing. The biggest complaint is that Nancy is no longer as "tough" as she once was, and that she acts far too proper, polite, and traditionally ladylike in the updated versions. These versions did remove the racist stereotypes often present in the original books, but some think they went too far in their "whitewashing" of almost all minority characters altogether. It doesn't help that the original versions of the first 34 volumes are mostly out-of-print and difficult to find, while the revised versions are still very widely available.
• Fair for Its Day:
  • The original stories had a lot of more offensive stereotypes, and the unfortunate habit of referring to a large number of the villains as "dark," "swarthy," and "foreign," not to mention stereotypical characters who were supposed to be the good guys. At least one scholarly article wondered whether or not it was a good thing, since rather than make minority characters more complex and three-dimensional, they just got rid of them entirely, whitewashing the entire series, leaving some scholars to say, "Sure they were offensive, but at least they were there."
  • The Mystery of the Fire Dragon does have a Yellow Peril element to it, and the narration frequently refers to Grandpa Soong as "the Chinese". George also pretends to be the missing Chi Che because she's Ambiguously Brown enough to look like her with make-up on. On the other hand, the villains are the Americans; it's actually the white Mr Stromberg and Mrs Horace Truesdale that are the Hate Sinks (while their Chinese accomplice Mr. Lung is a Punch-Clock Villain). Emphasis is placed on finding Chi Che, subverting Missing White Woman Syndrome, and she's treated as the utmost priority. Chi Che also partly helps engineer her own rescue - slipping Aunt Eloise crucial information while she's being kidnapped. And she and Nancy escape together. There's also another Asian character, Lily Alys Wu, who helps Nancy by going undercover in Stromberg's book store. The book also draws a distinction between Chinese and Japanese culture when the protagonists briefly stop in Japan before visiting China.
• Friendly Fandoms: With The Hardy Boys. Both book series were created by Stratemeyer Syndicate and share similar plot elements and story structures. There have also been many official crossovers between the two series.
• Hollywood Pudgy: In the original series, Bess is described as "slightly plump". In the "Files" series, while given a "fabulous figure", she is perpetually focused on losing five pounds. Additionally, she is consistently made out to be the weakest of the group -— easily frightened, boy-crazy, somewhat ditzy, etc. As of the newest series, Girl Detective, she's over it. She's always described as curvy, but her weight is almost never addressed. Furthermore, while she is still very fashion conscious, she has also become a full fledged Wrench Wench whereas the Papercutz graphic novels clearly depict her showcasing her figure in poses and fashions that mark her as a Ms. Fanservice.
• Les Yay: The series has become quite popular with LGBT people, and many people feel Nancy and her friends, mainly George, could have a thing for each other. George herself due to her name and more masculine appearance is also thought to be a Butch Lesbian or transgender.
  • In The Mystery of the Brass Bound Trunk, Nancy seems initially enchanted by Nelda's good looks, and admits that someone who looked as good as her couldn't be suspicious or cruel, and thinks she has a "musical voice".
• Memetic Badass: It's a pretty common joke among fans that "Nancy can do by herself what it takes two Hardy Boys to accomplish." Considering all the people she's put away, it's not that far off.
• Memetic Mutation: Nancy tends to get name-dropped in regards to any female character attempting any kind of investigative work.
• My Real Daddy: While Edward Stratemeyer is the actual creator of Nancy Drew, all he did was create a rough idea of the character and general outlines for stories for his ghostwriters to follow. It was Mildred Benson, the first ghostwriter, who added a lot more beyond his outline and really brought Nancy to life.
• Out of the Ghetto: While the games definitely broke out of the Girl-Show Ghetto, it wasn't uncommon to see boys checking out copies of the books in the library too, especially in The '80s.
• "Seinfeld" Is Unfunny: To modern readers, it can be hard to understand just how unusual a girl detective was when the first Nancy Drew books came out. Of particular note, much of the earliest praise and scholarship devoted to the character focuses on the fact she has a car and the agency she had as a result of it, and how stories of Nancy and her trusty blue roadster taking her anywhere she wanted without needing to rely on anybody was such a liberating and exhilarating idea for young readers. In the 1930s it wasn't uncommon for entire families to not have a car between them, so a 16 year old (later 18) having one entirely for herself, not to mention the driver's license to use it, was quite unusual (for a point of reference, I Love Lucy had episodes 20 years later devoted to the fact that Lucy and Ethel, despite being grown women, had never learned to drive at all.) However, between the feminist movement, obtaining a driver's license becoming the quintessential teenage rite of passage during the 20th century in the United States, and increasing suburbanization and pervasiveness of American car culture making a vehicle a downright necessity for most everybody, the idea of a teenage girl with her own car is barely remarkable, let alone radical. By the 90s and later, it might be considered more strange if Nancy didn't have her own car.
• Values Dissonance: As a series created in the 30s and rewritten/modified in the 50s, there is a lot that wouldn't fly or would simply be seen as strange in the modern day:
  • POC characters are routinely stereotyped, especially black people, with many speaking in a stereotypical accent, or being comic relief or sidekicks.
  • Married women don't get treated like women at all, instead they are called "Mrs. (insert husband's first name here) (married surname)". This is however Truth in Television, as it was a common and normal trend prior to the title "Ms." being created in the 70s to erase a woman's first name from her in formal, legal, or sometimes even face to face situations. These days, it comes off as implying either the woman is worthless and unimportant at best, or doesn't exist at worst.
  • Nancy and her friends often went out and jeopardized themselves. These days, parents are much tighter on their children because of stranger danger, and your average parent would teach their kids about stranger danger and not allow them to go out alone.
• Values Resonance: Despite many comments of how the older volumes were Fair for Its Day, Nancy Drew has aged fairly well for several reasons:
  • The fact that Nancy Drew takes her own initiative and gets herself out of trouble is something that resonated with women of the thirties just as much as they do in the twenty-first century. If someone, such as the Hardy Boys, comes to her rescue? Nancy's doing just as much work.
  • Nancy asks questions, states her opinions, and shows a willingness to learn things.
  • There's also the fact that Nancy doesn't choose between traditionally feminine or masculine traits or hobbies—she excels in both simultaneously. Nancy loves fashion and solving mysteries; she's an exceptional baker and a world-class athlete; she's fastidious about her appearance and isn't afraid to get dirty when the need arises. Different trends in feminism have come and gone, but Nancy has always shown that a woman can have any combination of interests and talents.
  • Nancy often rescues other people. She saves them from the villains, as well as people who are on the side.

Tropes in the games include:

• Alternate Character Interpretation:
  • The ending of "The Final Scene" shows that Maya testified on the culprit's behalf. Stockholm Syndrome, or is it a case of White-and-Grey Morality considering the theatre had all but become his home?
  • Henry Bolet. Is he lonely and insecure, or does he have clinical depression?
  • Rentaro. Is he an arrogant saboteur with total disregard for the lives he tries to ruin, or a fundamentally Nice Guy who's desperate to save a failing relationship? The ending allows for both interpretations.
  • Is Harper truly insane or did Clara make everyone think she was to cover up her role in Charlotte's death?
  • To add to that, did Clara mean to kill Charlotte, or was it an accident?
  • Rick Arlen. Social-climbing Casanova who enjoys loving and leaving multiple women? Or a decent guy caught up in the drama of Hollywood trying to keep his career afloat? The game implies the latter during conversations with both Mattie and Rick, but it's never expanded upon.
  • Ned Nickerson. Perfect boyfriend for Nancy or annoying Nice Guy who just gets in the way? The fandom is pretty divided on this one.
• Aluminum Christmas Trees:
  • Believe it or not, people have hidden treasures and written cryptic riddles as to how to find them.
  • In Stay Tuned for Danger, Millie sometimes says "Don't take any wooden nickels, young lady!" This may seem like a Non Sequitur, but it actually isn't.◊
  • Nancy's car and Jane's. Yes, cars actually look like that. Or used to in the 1930s. For those of you too young to remember, they actually didn't look the way they do now until the late 90s.
  • Yes, keeping female Dungeness crabs is illegal!
  • Danger at Deception Point also has a professor ask Nancy to do some online program to help with research. While an excuse for a puzzle, it also has been used in games like EVE Online and Borderlands 3.
• Angst? What Angst?: The games aren't quite cozy mysteries, but showing realistic reactions to crime is definitely not their priority.
  • In Message in a Haunted Mansion, Nancy shows absolutely no concern when she receives a threatening note commanding her to "leave the mansion now" in all capital letters with a very exaggerated, angry script, nearly coming off as a death threat. She makes no comment to herself on it after she receives the note, nor does she tell anyone around the house or even anyone across the phone about it. Realistically, most people who receive threats like that would usually report it to the police or do anything except just act like it's a common everyday occurrence that isn't worth mentioning. Then again, this is Nancy Drew, who can't be scared off of a case!
  • In White Wolf of Icicle Creek, Nancy almost dies from getting trapped in a sauna. She only tells one person (who isn't in law enforcement) this happened, doesn't seek medical treatment, and her immediate priority afterwards is following up on the clues she found in there. Even worse, it's expressly part of her job to report crimes, but calling the sheriff about it yields no related dialogue.
• Anvilicious: Sea of Darkness is a tad preachy about the repercussions of childhood bullying and petty ostracism. Maybe if you got to talk to Magnus a bit more before you hear him blaming himself in part for how Soren turned out, it wouldn't come off as such. For what it's worth, the same game also features the first openly lesbian character in the game series, Dagny, and all she gets is sympathy for recovering from a breakup with her life-partner Alicia.
• Ass Pull:
  • In the original Secrets Can Kill, the culprit is precisely mentioned in exactly one location before he's even introduced to the plot at all, and it's only in the form of one of the game's many decipherable messages than through an actual conversation. And he doesn't get introduced until about five minutes before the game ends, leaving an endgame that feels rather forced and only done for the sake of staying true to the original book and pulling the "surprise, it wasn't any of the people you thought" twist. The Remastered version fixes this by introducing him at a much earlier point in the game and demoting him to a pawn, while the true culprit is someone you've spoken to before.
  • The culprits in Danger by Design are only mentioned once in a newspaper article, and you only stumble upon them by total accident.
• Awesome Music: After going about three games without using the catchy opening tune, it returns with an all-new level of awesomeness.
  • While we're at it, why don't we mention just about every single score for the games? Kevin Manthei is a genius.
  • Special mention needs to go to Shadow at the Water's Edge. While the majority of the music is appropriately ominous, go into the city and you hear this cute little J-Pop number. It especially appreciated as something of a breather since most of the rest of Shadow is absolutely terrifying.
  • "Mattie's house - Day" is one of the best themes in the franchise. Such soothing music, which is especially appreciated in a crime game.
    • All of the music in Stay Tuned For Danger is pretty much amazing. The use of vibraphone and upright bass creates a brilliant noir-jazz vibe throughout the game, which is especially cool to hear when sneaking at night.
  • Message In A Haunted Mansion is home to supernatural piano music of highest quality. Some songs like "MHM", the theme, or "Attic" are downright creepy. "Abby's Room" is meanwhile one of the most beautiful in the games.
  • The Final Scene's 'Maya'. A short tune, the theme for a character you only see for five minutes, and yet it sums up everything about the game.
  • Treasure In The Royal Tower has some truly awesome wintry, baroque-like music. Also, there's harpsichord in it. What more could you want? Special mention also goes to the theme song "TRT" and the music in the library.
  • The Captive Curse has some of the best music in the series. "Girls" is nearly perfect. Mournful piano and strings at their best. "Mystery" is also awesome for evoking the atmosphere of the game so well.
  • Ransom Of The Seven Ships maybe didn't have the best music but "Toro" by itself is a fabulous tragic guitar piece, very fitting for the story of El Toro.
  • Warnings at Waverly Academy has a great atmospheric soundtrack that really brings the titular boarding school to life, evoking a sense of academic history and tradition with a faintly foreboding undertone as you delve into its secrets. Mel's cello performances are also pretty impressive to listen to.
  • The music in The Haunting Of Castle Malloy can veer into some atmospheric, seriously beautiful territory. "Fiona" in particular, which is very haunting and sad.
  • Curse Of Blackmoor Manor is full of shadowy medieval beauty.
  • The composer for the newest games, Thomas Regin, has contributed some gorgeous pieces of music as well. Have some 'Electric' from The Deadly Device (unfortunately not in stereo) and 'Past' from Ghost of Thornton Hall.
  • "The Word I Couldn't Keep", an original song composed for Sea Of Darkness, is a soaring, passionate ballad. The singer is also the voice actress for Elisabet, and she sings a stanza of it within the game, before the entire song plays over the credits at the end.
• Bizarro Episode: The Haunting of Castle Malloy, whose mundane explanation for what is apparently a supernatural occurrence is somehow even stranger. The "culprit" is a 70-year-old borderline feral woman flying around on a jetpack. It Makes Sense in Context - but considering the particular game also involves Nancy herself using a jetpack it makes the game feel quite strange.
• Broken Base:
  • The "Good News, Bad News" segments from The Phantom of Venice to The Deadly Device. Some fans liked them and thought they were funny. Others hated them because they felt like it ruined the impact a death scene could have.
  • The Silent Spy seems to be doing this for the games, specifically the revelation that Nancy's mother's death wasn't an accident and she was actually a spy working for a secret organization. Some see the whole story as completely brilliant and an interesting twist, while others feel like rewriting a part of the character's history (that has been ingrained in both the character and the stories since their creation 80 years ago) was Her Interactive going a step too far.
  • The decision to replace Lani Minella as Nancy Drew's voice actress. Some fans are sad since Lani has been a part of the series from the very beginning, while others think that she sounds too old to be voicing an about-18-years-old girl anyway.
  • Midnight in Salem is a real doozy. As the game kept getting delayed, some fans were excited for the game's eventual release while others gave up hope on the game being good because of the delays. The released trailers and screenshots did not help given the divisive response to the game's comparatively poor graphics to previous games. Once the game finally released in December 2019 after 4 total delays since 2015, fans were divided on the quality of the game, more so with a negative reception.
  • The discontinuation of Ransom of the Seven Ships by 2020 tends to bring a lot of discussion among fans. While not many particularly miss the game as it's considered an infamous example of Sequelitis to most fans, whether or not it should have been outright discontinued is controversial. Many consider the reasoning behind it to be well-intentioned but misguided at best. The reasoning behind the discontinuation was the alleged use of blackface by the game's culprit, especially considering the hot topic of BLM at the time. However, some fans don't even consider it blackface considering said culprit never changes his skin tone or acts in a stereotypical way, only wearing a curly wig and having a fake Jamaican accent, and it's unfair for the developers to prevent new fans from buying this game. Not to mention, he's the villain of the game, so it's clearly not portrayed positively if that was the actual intention of the developers. Others, even if they disagree that the game was offensive, still stand by Her Interactive's decision and consider it the right move thinking that this kind of depiction isn't appropriate for an E rated game especially in the current climate.
• Can't Un-Hear It:
  • As Lucahjin points out, Nancy Drew sounds just like Smefanye, a model that she and ProtonJon played as in the Wii Game of America's Next Top Model, making it conceivable to think that Smefanye is Nancy.
  • Hearing Lani Minella's voice in any other casual adventure game will have you thinking that Nancy ultimately grew up to become that game's heroine.
• Contested Sequel: Due to the very large amount of Nancy Drew games, it's almost guaranteed that some of them won't be universally praised by the entire fanbase. While some fall under Seasonal Rot, others are just very divisive:
  • Stay Tuned for Danger, being only the second entry in the series and having come out in 1999, hasn't aged particularly well. While it is generally seen to have held against the test of time better than the first game, Secrets Can Kill, whether it's enjoyable still today is where the confliction lies. The best aspects for many are the story and characters, which stand out even among more modern games, including a fantastically memorable villain in Dwayne Powers, who made such an impact on players that he was brought back in Ransom of the Seven Ships. Others take a strong disliking to the game's graphics, gameplay, and puzzles, ruining the game for them. While the game is old enough to where the plastic-looking CG characters with robotic movements are forgivable, the fact that they're photoshopped onto real-life photos is notoriously uncanny. Most of the puzzles are also seen as bland or just plain infuriating, such as two infamous puzzles in both the bomb and end-game challenges. The gameplay is also frustratingly dated to many, as it relies heavily on clicking on easily missable spots and objects in order to progress, often making players stumped (it's even apparently possible to break the game by discovering the bomb before you get pliers or a screwdriver, as you can't back away to retrieve them once you encounter it, leaving you stuck in and endless loop). It also doesn't help that many character conversations are easily missable, such as the last conversation with Rick, so many players don't see the finer details of the story and characters.
  • The Secret of the Old Clock is a bit of a Downplayed example compared to others listed, as it's not especially loved nor hated by many fans, but it stands out as contentious nonetheless. It's sometimes seen as an enjoyable entry in the Nancy Drew series that is especially unique in its setting and taking place in 1930, with old-timey music to boot. It being one of the easier and shorter games in the series also makes it a fun early entry into the franchise for some, while also being easily replayable. Others think it's one of the weaker entries in the series for said short length, which isn't helped by the fact that it's padded out by tedious segments such as delivering telegrams for money and the fetch quest to obtain Josiah's trinket. Its story and characters are also seen as quite boring to many, with its early 20th century setting only driving home how dull it is to its detractors.
  • Danger by Design is enjoyed by some due to taking place in Paris, having some challenging but fun puzzles, and having one of the most interesting antagonists in Minette. To others, it's almost, if not just as bad as its infamous successor, The Creature of Kapu Cave, due to its minimal story ruining an otherwise interesting premise, characters that serve very little purpose or screentime after being first introduced (In fact, the only two major characters at the end letter mentioned are Minette and Heather!), and an infamous Ass Pull at the end that nearly rivals the original Secrets Can Kill’s culprit reveal.
  • The White Wolf of Icicle Creek is also quite divisive. Many fans love the game for its cozy yet chilling atmosphere and setting, interesting characters and story, and having one of the most scarily competent villains in Yanni. Others find it to be an extremely bland and slow-paced game that pads out its runtime with household chores and infamous puzzles like Fox and Geese, making it a pain to replay for some.
  • The Haunting of Castle Malloy is certainly a Bizarro Episode, which makes it quite divisive as you might imagine. Some fans enjoy it for being a weird yet interesting entry in the series that focuses more on fun puzzles and atmosphere than a compelling mystery with complex characters. Others dislike it for the exact same reason, finding it to have little place in the Nancy Drew series, due to the utter lack of crime-solving and instead has Nancy Drew flying around on a jetpack and shearing sheep by giving them weird haircuts. This also isn't helped by the game having No Antagonist. To those who like the game, it's a fresh change of pace that gives us a culprit one can actually completely sympathize with compared to many of the almost one-note generic villains the series is known to have. To others, it's a completely disappointing reveal that makes the game seem even more out of place in a mystery-solving franchise.
  • Trail of the Twister is often seen as one of the weakest games in the Nancy Drew series due to its half-baked story, dull characters and setting, and focus on tedious chores and puzzles like the infamous mouse trap, which has to be done four times. Others find it to be a fun game in its own right and enjoy its focus on storm-chasing and like its country setting. It also having one of the more complex antagonists that doesn't rely on one-note motives like greed and power unlike several other culprits in the series is also a plus point for many. Others find that the ultimately incomplete story ruins said antagonist, making him come across more of an insufferable Jerkass who sabotages his own team out of greed rather than the complex, three-dimensional villain he was likely intended as.
  • Tomb of the Lost Queen is often seen as when the series starts to really experience Seasonal Rot, due to it having many tropes associated with "modern" Nancy Drew games, like confusing dialogue, forced puzzles, and dull and/or annoying characters. Others don't hate it as much as other modern Nancy Drew games such as The Shattered Medallion and Midnight in Salem, finding it a fun enough game that takes advantage of its cool setting with some great puzzles.
  • The Silent Spy is another contentious "modern" Nancy Drew game, especially since it takes place after The Deadly Device and Ghost of Thornton Hall, which while not immune to criticism from some fans, are seen as great entries in the series with great pacing, a more mature tone, complex characters, and excellent writing to most. To some, the Silent Spy is a welcome entry in the series that builds upon the previous two games, making an epic story that takes advantage of Nancy being a spy to great effect. It also having to do with Kate Drew, a character fans were never told about outside of occasional references to the fact that she's dead, gives a personal connection to the case unlike any other entry in the series, which Nancy has little personal involvement with. Others find this game as a sign of the writing going downhill for the series, with an overly complicated yet unsatisfying story, dull characters that lack any sort of personality despite being closely tied to the plot, and an infamous villain that's considered one of the worst in the entire series due to constantly hiding information most of the game and having absolutely no motive other than "because I can", with only very vague reasoning as to why he resorted to crime being given in the end letter.
  • Lastly, there's Labyrinth of Lies, which takes place before Sea of Darkness (which is considered a surprisingly good entry in the series despite being surrounded by divisive or outright disliked games), and then the infamous Midnight in Salem (which is considered by some to be the absolutely worst entry in the series). One side of the fanbase loves the game for being closely tied to Greek mythology, having some very interesting puzzles, and involving an extremely unique plot where every suspect is involved in an art heist. The other side of the fanbase hates the game for having possibly the worst example of forced puzzles in the entire series, as the whole stage set is littered with them, despite there being no practical or logical reason for them being there, nor is one given. Similarly, the fact that most of the sets take place underground due to supposedly rotating into place is considered absolutely absurd even by the standards of the series. Other hated aspects include Thanos, who the game builds up as threatening and scary, despite him constantly speaking in vague terms and acting so over-the-top (at one point, growling like a dog) it comes across as Narm. It also doesn't help that the unique plot twist of every suspect being involved is considered a Captain Obvious Reveal from the very start to many.
• Creepy Awesome: Harper Thornton from Ghost of Thornton Hall. How literal the "crazy" part is is left for debate.
• Crosses the Line Twice: Some of the endings are just so hilariously-mean spirited or over the top that it's hard not to laugh.
• Designated Victim: Paula Santos from The Haunted Carousel is going through tough times with strange incidents and accidents in her park, one of which led to a lawsuit. As Nancy, you are more than willing to help solve the mystery and get things back to normal. Unfortunately, anytime you get hurt in any of the various Game Over sequences, she gets unreasonably upset with you and fires you. Does she express any sympathy for your injuries or consider that someone is doing this on purpose? Oh no, she blames you and tells you that you're off the case.
• Diagnosed by the Audience:
  • Rentaro in the Shadow at the Water's Edge is socially awkward, and even lampshades this by saying that he works with machines because they tolerate awkwardness.
  • Mason from The Deadly Device shows all the symptoms of OCD, from arranging the items on his desk in a certain order to (allegedly) alphabetizing the ingredients for a sandwich before making said sandwich.
  • Colton from Ghost of Thornton Hall appears to have issues with anxiety and depression, but again, no one specifically states what his issues are.
  • Joseph in The Final Scene shows signs of dementia at the very end.
  • Joy in Carousel is pessimistic as a rule, never talks about anything other than work or her (dead) parents, and rarely shows any emotion other than resigned sadness. A large part of the game's plot is helping Joy resolve her grief and move past her isolation. The possibility that she may have depression is obvious, but never made explicit.
  • Xenia in Labyrinth mentions that she suffered from a "vast sadness" as a child that she suspects will always return for her, which also sounds a lot like depression. It's easy to see how she could be making it up, though, seeing as she's an exceptionally manipulative villain.
  • Minette in Danger by Design is portrayed as simply just being eccentric - but some have pointed out that her volatile mood and unpredictable mood swings as well as periods of self destructive and impulsive behaviour such as getting her face tattooed could suggest Borderline Personality disorder, or possibly Bipolar Disorder.
  • Patrick in Medallion definitely conveys the impression that he's been knocked on the head too many times during his rugby career, although nobody comes out and says it.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Mel in Warnings at Waverly Academy and Dave in Secret of Shadow Ranch are some pretty popular ones.
  • Nick from The Final Scene verges on Memetic Badass within the fandom: "Fight the power!"
  • The fangirls seem to like Henry Bolet for his status as a Stoic Woobie.
  • Professor Hotchkiss. Even if only among the developers, she's so well-loved that they brought her back for two phone cameos. High-five, team Hotchkiss!
  • Big Island Mike from The Creature of Kapu Cave has produced some very... interesting memes. And let's just leave it at that.
• Fanon: In the first two games, there's random decipherable clues that crop up all over the place in the form of some sort of word puzzle. Usually, they make a comment on something that doesn't happen until later in the game, an obvious (and somewhat out of place in a series that usually tries to justify most of the "strange things" you see here and there) attempt at Gameplay and Story Segregation. Arglefumph (a Youtuber known for his Nancy Drew walkthroughs) took to justifying this as Nancy having a "psychic friend" that left those clues for her.
• Fan-Preferred Couple:
  • Nancy and... take your pick between one of the Hardy boys, or one of the various single male suspects in any of the games, even if it's the culprit, or if it would be totally unlikely in the game or in real life. The most popular of these, though, is Nancy and Dave from Secret of Shadow Ranch. Poor Ned...
  • Nancy/Frank Hardy has been a pretty common pairing since at least 1988, when the Spin-off/Crossover Supermysteries were written featuring the pair. Bess and Joe... not so much.
  • Henry Bolet from The Legend of the Crystal Skull and Mel Corbalis from Warnings at Waverly Academy, who share a goth motif.
• Genius Bonus:
  • Knowing how to read sheet music will make one of The Silent Spy's most annoying puzzles much easier. There is a sheet music translation in the bagpipes book, but having it already memorized will mean you don't have to take the book out constantly. Knowing the layout of the keys on a piano wouldn't hurt either, since that's also used in Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon.
  • If you know how to speak some of the featured foreign languages, some puzzles can go faster. For example, in Danger By Design, you won't need to buy a dictionary to translate the list of photos for Dieter if you know a bit of French. The stakeout in Phantom of Venice is also much easier if you already speak Italian.
• Good Bad Bugs: In Senior Mode on White Wolf of Icicle Creek, Elsa cannot be called on the phone, meaning that the mystery of her slashed tires is never solved. The clues about it are still present in the game, but her phone line is always busy.
• Growing the Beard: The series has gone through a lot of different styles over more than thirty games. After each major design change, there tends to be one game that puts it to really, really excellent use. This also means that there are a few choice examples:
  • Treasure in the Royal Tower was where the series first found its groove, with the great setting, excellent puzzles, and some of the most memorable characters in the series. (Hotchkiss, of course!) Additionally, the voice acting started adding some more emotion, compare them to Nancy's deadpan "Fire!" in Message in a Haunted Mansion.
  • Either Secret of Shadow Ranch or Curse of Blackmoor Manor, which kept the excellent settings and puzzles but added a larger screen and a better user interface. These are also commonly cited as the two best games in the Nancy Drew series.
  • Ghost of Thornton Hall, and to a lesser extent, its precursor, The Deadly Device. Both games were atmospheric and mature, with more cinematic pacing and new kinds of puzzles. Thornton Hall in particular is terrifying, and the story is one of the best in the series.
  • While the game is seen as the weak point of the series, Ransom of the Seven Ships is when the animation started to become notably more thorough, although it became much more notable around Warnings at Waverly Academy when speaking to the eager Leela, who moves around a bit while talking to you about her games. Just compare the last game using this engine (Sea of Darkness) to Stay Tuned for Danger (which is infamous for its somewhat plastic-looking people).
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • In Danger By Design, model Jing Jing has a fan that's fixated on her, Zu. In order to convince Zu to help you so you can move forward in the game, you have to trick Jing Jing into writing a love note to him. While the game plays it for laughs, it's something that comes off a lot creepier nowadays.
  • As of 2020, Silent Spy's plot about unleashing a lab-developed virus meant to bring the world to its knees is much more uncomfortable, what with the conspiracy theories about the coronavirus being exactly that.
• Heartwarming Moments: Here.
• He Really Can Act: How many view the voice acting at Treasure in the Royal Tower and beyond. While the voice acting can come off as somewhat Narmy and amateur-y, they have been praised for sounding more casual, giving the impression that these are in fact average people.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • If you fail to catch the culprit at the end of Secret of the Old Clock, a Spinning Paper shows up with the headline mentioning it. Since it takes place in the 1930s, there is also a small article mentioning Pluto's discovery. Pluto's demotion happened only a year after this game came out.
  • Also, Linda's bewildered query about what sort of adolescent girl reads books about vampires and werewolves, regarding Jane of Blackmoor Manor, would receive a reply of "A trendy one" as of a year later, when The Twilight Saga took over the bestseller lists.
  • The fact that there is an antagonist character named "Thanos" in Labyrinth of Lies might get a chuckle out of some people familiar with the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
• Ho Yay: When Dwayne Powers explains himself to Nancy Drew in the end of Ransom of the Seven Ships, he mentions a man who did voluntary work in his prison. "We got to be friends. Good friends". The way he emphasizes "good" is rather... ambiguous. Also, here's the fact that it took place in a prison.
• Inferred Holocaust: Nancy can burn down an entire hotel in The Haunted Carousel. Nothing is mentioned about whether or not the staff or other guests made it out okay.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Harper from The Ghost of Thornton Hall at first appears dangerously unhinged, and she has no problem targeting Clara's insecurity about her parentage. But she also lost her sister, Charlotte, to a fire, which Clara started. She witnessed this and tried to tell everyone, but her family wrote her off as insane, and it took many years for someone to believe her. The hauntings she was behind were intended to guilt Clara into confessing.
  • The Culprit of Sea of Darkness, Soren. He was born only a few miles outside of the town... and everyone treated him like an outsider, no matter how much he did for the town - even helping to bring them out of financial disaster. Because of their treatment, they eventually decided to just get revenge on the townsfolk, and kidnapped Magnus to help him find the treasure and deny the town the joy of finding the treasure. The player actually can sympathize with the culprit and get them a happy(ish) ending.
• Memetic Mutation: Thanks to the tweenage fans with video cameras.
  • Courtesy of the Game Grumps: "I missed." There's also a version done by Nathan Vetterlein, the voice of the Scout.
  • Attempting to replicate the food in the games in real life.
  • Coming up with silly ways for Nancy to get fired, injured, or killed. The pettier, the better.
• Most Wonderful Sound: Older games had a victory sting that played whenever a puzzle was solved.
• Narm:
  • In Curse of Blackmoor Manor, one of the puzzles you must complete involves moving a giant statue across the alchemy lab (don't ask) to capture all four wind clouds which keep trying to push the statue into pits of doom and you must start over. This would be a little more frustrating...were it not for the hilarious Big "NO!" the statue cries out.
  • Also, in one of the Game Over scenarios for The Creature of Kapu Cave, if you make too much noise and wake up the grumpy professor, he growls " You young lady would appear to be in very. Deep. Trou-ble. " Try not cracking up.
  • Some of the game overs in Danger by Design are funny just to hear Minette freak out.
  • "Fire".
  • In The Final Scene, Nancy has to disarm an electrified gate. If Nancy touches it without rubber gloves, she will be electrocuted. The death scene loses its intensity thanks to a stock scream being used for Nancy.
• Narm Charm: Several minor characters, especially in the early games, have... very exaggerated accents that sound either quite silly or not consistent at all. For some this is the charm, but in Secret of the Old Clock? Nobody complained as it actually helped the game's atmosphere.
• No Problem with Licensed Games: While many forms of gaming journalism refuse to acknowledge this series, they have a surprisingly large Periphery Demographic consisting of former Adventure-Game players.
• Padding:
  • This is present especially with The Secret of the Old Clock. The game itself is fairly short, but a lot of it is padded by puzzles that require a lot of precision and have very little room for error, traveling around the town, and delivering telegrams in order to have enough money for gas and to use the phone.
  • Several of the games have very contrived puzzles - especially the early games. The contrivances of some of these puzzles is lampshaded in Sea of Darkness
  Nancy: That was the strangest wiring I've ever seen...
• Periphery Demographic:
  • If you started playing these games in your childhood or early teens and still play them well into adulthood, you are not the only one.
  • What if you're a boy? The original slogan "For girls who aren't afraid of a mouse" made it sound like a girl's club. Her Interactive has stated that a good chunk of their audience is male. Which is probably why they changed the slogan.
• Remade and Improved: "Secrets Can Kill remastered" is considered to be a pretty big improvement to the original game. While it wasn't seen as bad per se, it just didn't age well and suffered from a lot of Early-Installment Weirdness. One of the big improvements was the fact that the culprit has a much greater presence in the story despite being Demoted to Dragon.
• The Scrappy: With a large amount of games and sheer number of characters, there's just as many hated by the fanbase as those loved.
  • Rick Arlen from the second game is a total creep who spends half of his conversations hitting on the barely 18 Nancy and is a complete Narcissist. He's stated in-game to be a Casanova who frequently dates and leaves women as well as an entitled, controlling actor and Social Climber. While he's disliked by many in-universe for these reasons, he's clearly supposed to be portrayed as a Jerk with a Heart of Gold who has made mistakes in the past but truly loves Maddie and wants to spend his life with her. This mostly comes across as Informed Kindness due to his frequent flirting with Nancy and a lack of shown positive qualities, outside of an end conversation that a lot of players easily miss. As such, it's hard for many players to care about what's happening to Rick and can't understand why someone like Maddie would be in love with a sleaze-ball like him.
  • Mitch Dillon from Secrets Can Kill is nothing but a Flat Character who is given no characterization or motives besides being a drug dealer and thug. The most frustrating part of him and the reason he qualifies despite barely having any screentime, is that he is the culprit, the first in the entire series, and one of the only to outright killed someone, despite being introduced no more than 10 minutes before the game ends. He feels like a last minute addition as an excuse to make all the likable suspects innocent.
  • Louis Chandler in Message in a Haunted Mansion is only of the dullest culprits in the series, having no real personality or characterization before the reveal, feeling like an unnecessary character, only to become an almost equally boring culprit who has no motivations besides simple greed for greed's sake.
  • Dr. Quigley Kim, appearing in the infamous The Creature of Kapu Cave, is an insufferable egotist who forces you to break into the Hilihili Facility, not caring if you get sent to jail. She, of course, becomes a Karma Houdini in the end.
  • Pua Mapu, also from the infamous game above, seems almost deliberately designed to be a Flat Character, who outright says she has no hobbies besides surfing, a complete lack of personality, and is mostly there just to let you snorkel and sell fish. She also ends up being one of the culprits in the end, sharing the bizarre motives and plan of his father with none of his charm and seems almost forced to be a part of his scheme, with little hints towards her guilt, unlike Big Island Mike who is a painfully obvious culprit.
  • Margherita Fauberg from the otherwise well-liked The Phantom of Venice is a one-note unlikable Rich Bitch who serves little to the story and has no redeeming or likable qualities.
  • Jamila El-Dine from Tomb of the Lost Queen is seen as a prime example of the problem with "modern" Nancy Drew characters, being an extremely bland and irritating character who serves little purpose outside of being a crazy conspiracist that believes aliens build the pyramids. The fact that she's not actually a member of Sonny's organization and in fact is working for a group wanting to find Nefertari does little to redeem her previous annoying characterization and she remains a bland character until the end.
  • Ewan Mac Leod is an infamous villain who up until the reveal, had no real personality or characterization and simply served as a plot device who often answered questions with "I can't tell you it's confidential", making him very bland. Then when he's revealed as the culprit, he literally says he did it because he could, and no more motivation is given outside of some speculation in the end letter. He is often a main reason as to why some fans dislike The Silent Spy.
  • Kiri Nind is even worse than the character above, and is usually seen as the worst culprit in the Nancy Drew games, for having no real motive that is explained or makes any sort of sense to the player, only mentioning revenge due to Nancy Drew's "betrayal", which never happened. Her dialogue is also very odd and confusing.
• Seasonal Rot: Opinion varies on all of the games - some however get more disparaged more than others:
  • Ransom of the Seven Ships is often the most constantly disparaged for it's lack of suspects or characters altogether. It also had a case of what some would call blackface (the culprit disguises himself as a Jamaican with a wig and nose ring), and it's actually been discontinued as of 2020 supposedly to the latter, though some suspect the bad ratings from the fanbase were the actual reason for the game's removal and HER merely used the "blackface" as a convenient excuse to pull a game disliked by the majority of the fanbase.
  • Creature of Kapu Cave for its bizarre plot, backtracking, and its short length being padded out by constant fishing minigames. Although, it's usually not as hated as the other three due to its unique setting and music, as well as entertaining characters like Big Island Mike, being seen as a guilty pleasure to some.
  • Shattered Medallion is another top contender for the worst Nancy Drew game, mostly for its plot being extremely confusing, nonsensical, and downright incomplete, on top of its characters being very one-note and badly written. Admittedly, Ghost of Thornton Hall and The Silent Spy were quite a Tough Act to Follow.
  • Midnight in Salem due to it being a radical departure, replacing Nancy's voice actress, poor graphics compared to previous games made in much less time than Midnight in Salem, and periods of long silence when people speak due to the Unity engine's real-time rendering.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • While it's worse with earlier games, the annoyance of constantly returning to an overworld or map to get from house to house varies.
  • The puzzle that leads into the tower in Treasure in the Royal Tower. Every time you leave, the puzzle restarts. What makes it more annoying is the fact that the puzzle changes the pattern completely. So you have to discover the new pattern and listen to the loud squeaking sounds when you get the wrong latch.
  • In Danger on Deception Island, Nancy travels by bike to each location. The trouble is, every time one wants to travel, one must first pick up the bike helmet, then select the bike. Forgetting the helmet leads to an annoyingly easy Yet Another Stupid Death.
  • "Isis! Forward! Left! Down! Forward! Paw!" "... ... ... ... * whimper* " * Scuffle, scuffle, scuffle, scuffle, scuffle.*
• Sidetracked by the Gold Saucer: Some of the minigames are insanely fun to replay on their own. Notable examples include the Scopa card game from The Phantom of Venice and the puzzles from Rentaro's book in Shadow at the Water's Edge.
• Surprise Difficulty: Often. For example, the thought process of a new Blackmoor Manor player will probably run something like this: "Wait, what's that noise? Did the walls just move? And why are there six doors out of the room? (takes another step) Oh, God, it's moving again! (looks back) Wait, that's not the door I entered through! Where the heck am I supposed to go?!"
• Squick: The sandwich puzzle. Make Nancy (or Katie) eat a sandwich with expired Mayonnaise, bad bread, jellyfish, baking soda, and the edible ingredients, and you're sure to get a Game Over sequence.
• That One Puzzle: Almost every Nancy Drew game tends to have at least one. Some, however, stand out as significantly worse than others:
  • Stay Tuned for Danger had one of the most infamous final puzzles in the whole series.You have a panel with eight buttons, and you must figure out which sequence of buttons is the right one. Only it's a trial-and-error puzzle, so you don't know what the combination is. If you hit a wrong button, you have to start over. Sounds straightforward, right? Wrong! It's a time-limited puzzle, and if you don't solve it in time, you have to face a rather Nightmare Fuel inducing death scene as the culprit slowly approaches you with a horrifyingly devilish look. Okay, just use Second Chance and start the combination where you left off, right? Wrong again! The puzzle is RANDOMLY GENERATED. The entire thing almost completely boils down to if you're lucky enough to hit the right combination with only one or two mistakes, and if you mess up on the seventh button, just forget it. What's worse is that each difficulty decreases the amount of time you have to solve this puzzle. If you're on Master Detective mode, good luck. This puzzle frustrated so many players that Her Interactive actually released a patch that removed the time limit altogether.
  • The final code door in Danger by Design. To escape the "treasure room", you must take the message engraved above the door lock, apply a date shift cypher using the code name for the decoder you have in your pockets, set the decoder to the same set of digits, and then type the resulting string into the decoder. No other decoding puzzle requires this much extra work. You do receive instructions... but only if you play on junior detective, in which case they appear on your checklist. If you play senior detective? You're expected to deduce that all on your own. Good luck!
  • White Wolf has Fox and Geese, a board game scenario. Your opponent, Bill Kessler, moves a single fox token, with the goal of jumping your geese tokens to "eat" them. Your goal is to trap the fox so it cannot move. Doable. Then you need to use the radioactive pig token as the fox to open the underground tunnels for the wolf. You need to win the game three times, trapping the fox at three specific parts of the board. Unlike most Nancy Drew puzzles, this one utilizes an AI playing as the fox, so walkthroughs only get you so far. This puzzle is particularly hated by fans, often being listed among the worst of the franchise.
  • In The Legend of the Crystal Skull, tracking down the various gravestones is notoriously tedious. Nancy receives vague riddles and has to look through a ledger (filled with several hundreds) of names, with no clear direction of what to find. Eventually, the player will realize that the names being searched for are Puns, like "Constance Norring" or "Manny Kin." However, even knowing this, you still have to flip through dozens of pages, run outside and find the grave, receive a new riddle, and run back inside to use the ledger again. It's not even challenging as much as it is tedious and time-consuming.
  • The chemical sorting from Castle Malloy. Another fan punching bag, this unskippable and explosive chore will kill you constantly, and take from 10-15 minutes, depending how clumsy you happen to be. Hopefully, you can deduce the instructions.
  • One of the final puzzles in Ransom of the Seven Ships involves seven hourglasses that must be flipped over at very specific times, and you only get two chances to do it correctly. Players will be using the Second Chance feature a lot for this challenge. Underwater sudoku and several pages of deciphering are widely disliked as well. However, a guide can save you there - The hourglasses cannot be cheated or skipped in the same way.
  • Shattered Medallion has the tie-breaker challenge. A machine moves a container beneath several tubes filled with tokens, with your goal being to fill each of your containers with a specific pattern of tokens. Much like fox and geese, this puzzle can only be cheated so far, as the sliding container moves on a strict timer. If you're playing windowed mode, you could click out of the window to give yourself a moment to think, but otherwise you are at the game's mercy.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • Fans had this reaction to the "Good News, Bad News" segments being removed from Ghost of Thornton Hall onward. This was originally done to accentuate that game's frightening nature.
  • Some fans complained about the change to the Unity engine not being on par with the three-dimensional setting and too much of a departure from previous games. One reason for the complaints was that a number of players are understandably uncomfortable with FPS-style mouselook controls and virtual reality, as they get motion sickness easily compared to hardcore gamers accustomed to first-person shooters. Others are supportive of the change, however, due to the series' reliance on pre-rendered graphics and the overall gameplay style getting rather stale over time. Given the popularity of VR platforms as evidenced by L.A. Noire: The VR Case Files and mobile platforms, one can also understand as to why Her Interactive would want to move forward with this. And while the full retail release of Salem did stick to the point-and-click setting fans are accustomed to, complaints were levied against the game's graphics, which while it may have been watered down to better cater to casual gamers with low-end machines (*cough* Intel "HD" Graphics *cough*), made it seem like it came from a bargain-bin Wii or PS2 title. Granted, this is coming from a studio which has recently had some internal troubles, but even kids' games like LEGO City Undercover use moderate to advanced graphics effects and such. It's not hard for a casual game to scale well with a wide array of PCs (see The Sims as an example), and recent advances in technology have allowed for integrated graphics to be reasonably powerful like the built-in Radeon Vega that came with AMD Ryzen and Athlon APUs; all Nancy Drew fans got left quite disappointed.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The games' backstories are almost more interesting than the games themselves. In particular, the stories of Rita Hallowell and Julius Macquade would make stunning short stories or even novels.
  • There's also the wartime heroics of Noisette Tornade and the tragic romance of Dirk Valentine and Frances Humber on this list. Jake Hurley's story is nothing to sniff at either, not to mention the entire Penvellyn family, whose six hundred years of history are so fascinating that a character in the game is already writing a book about them.
  • Both the roller coaster and the haunted house in The Haunted Carousel look like they'd be epic themed attractions, and Nancy's got a free pass to all of the rides and activities Captain's Cove has to offer. What does she actually get the chance to experience while given the run of the park? Three midway games and a carousel.
  • This was also one of the reasons Ransom of the Seven Ships was seen as somewhat of a weak point in the series - as the culprit not only gets away but is the only returning culprit - Dwayne Powers.
• Tough Act to Follow:
  • A rare instance in which two works performed this function: Secret of Shadow Ranch and Curse of Blackmoor Manor. Both of these games were quite atmospheric with Shadow Ranch having a Tear Jerker backstory and Blackmoor Manor having an oppressive atmosphere and being one of the first games to really try and be scary and succeed. Following these two games was Secret of the Old Clock. While it was atmospheric, it was significantly lighter in tone compared to Curse of Blackmoor Manor but also suffered from a lot of Fake Longevity.
  • The Phantom of Venice was also this compared to The Haunting of Castle Malloy. Some of this however is the fact that The Haunting of Castle Malloy is a Bizarro Episode, wherein Phantom of Venice involved Nancy acting as a spy and investigating a spy.
  • One of the reasons The Shattered Medallion is considered to be one of the weaker games of the series is because it followed The Silent Spy, considered to be a pretty good entry to the series. It also is a Breather Game after the particularly dreary Ghost of Thornton Hall and the sad Silent Spy.
  • Midnight in Salem was in many ways doomed from the start. Sea of Darkness is considered to be one of the best Nancy Drew games, but coupled with four years of Development Hell and a Troubled Production, it's no wonder why it was considered to have been Seasonal Rot.
• Unfortunate Character Design: Taylor Sinclair from Secret of the Scarlet Hand is supposed to have a moustache. Unfortunately, thanks to the games' dated CGI it looks... not quite right.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: While most of the culprits are usually depicted in a negative light (being greedy, murderous, vengeful, etc) there are a few games that try to paint the culprit's motivations in a sympathetic light, even when their actions have caused serious harm or damage. To give a few examples:
  • While not a culprit, Rick Arlen from Stay Tuned for Danger qualifies. As the detective looking to investigate death threats against him, you're supposed to care for his well being and also want him to get back with Maddie. This is despite the game going out of their way to provide valid reasons as to why many people hate him and might want the guy dead, such as him being a Casanova who frequently flirts, dates, and/or abandons nearly every woman he sees, a Social Climber who uses people to advance his career, and a generally entitled Narcissist. This isn't even going into his behavior in-game, where he frequently hits on the barely of-age Nancy Drew even though Maddie claims he just wants love and is guilty over his past shitty behavior, which the only hints to that is shown through a late game conversation that many players miss. As such, it can be difficult to care about his fate, especially since he doesn't even take the death threats seriously. Of course, Dwayne Powers is a complete psychopath who tried to kill Rick out of sheer envy, so he's clearly the villain of this story, but some fans still side with him more anyways.
  • Joseph Hughes from The Final Scene. Nancy's letter to Bess at the end of the game gives the impression we're suppose to sympathize with Joseph because he wasn't intending to kidnap Maya (he originally was going to kidnap Brady), and he treated her courteously during the whole ordeal. However, regardless of whether he was kind to Maya, the fact is he still kept Maya hostage in a theater for 3 days with the threat of killing her if the demolition wasn't called off. Meanwhile, he was doing everything he could to hinder the police and Nancy from finding Maya. Even if Joseph was suffering from Sanity Slippage, it doesn't excuse that when push came to shove and the demolition was going to happen anyways, he chose to lock Nancy and Maya in the projection room (even after Nancy begged him not to), and was prepared to kill them and himself despite how it would do nothing to stop the theater from being demolished. It makes Joseph's actions look like an ugly case of If I Can't Have You… in regards to the theater rather than a misguided old man who didn't mean for things to spin out of control.
  • Jane Penvellyn from Curse of Blackmoor Manor. The end of the game tries to paint her actions as a case of I Want My Mommy! (more specifically, Jane's biological mom) since she's unhappy that her father is now in a relationship with Linda. However, the lengths she went to in Gaslighting Linda into believing she was turning into a monster (leaving nasty notes for Linda, slipping Mrs. Drake's allergy pills into Linda's food to make her feel unwell, sneaking her uncle's hair restorer in Linda's moisturizer) may make it hard for some players to sympathize with her motivations, especially since her behavior comes dangerously close to being psychopathic.
  • Aihara Rentaro from Shadow at the Water's Edge. The game tries to portray him as a well-intentioned culprit who only wants to make Miwako happy, with his intention lying solely within shutting down the ryokan so she can live with the city with him, as he thinks it's what's best for her. However, this is deeply undercut when you consider the insanely manipulative and downright evil methods he uses to shut down the ryokan. If you really think about it, Rentaro is essentially using the (fake) ghost of his girlfriend's dead mother to emotionally torture the entire family and run the ryokan out of business. The only possible justification is that he didn't realize how harmful his actions were due to his lack of social skills and possible Autism, which is still a bit hard to swallow. The fact that you can choose to forgive the culprit with a good ending only makes this worse, although he thankfully doesn't end up back with Miwako in the end.
  • Paula Santos in The Haunted Carousel to almost memetic levels. Several "Game overs" have Nancy getting fired for causing an accident at the park. Some of these are understandable in that Nancy did something very stupid (not wearing eye protection, getting electrocuted, getting injured at the carousel, burning down the hotel with an iron) but some have Paula come off as flat out heartless since she berates Nancy for things that're not her fault such as being attacked.
• The Un-Twist: One game's twist rates as a more traditional twist ending only if you've played the previous Nancy Drew games; in Trail of the Twister, Scott, the suspect with the most obvious evidence and the rudest personality is the culprit. Whereas it's more common in the series for the nicest suspect to turn out to be the culprit, while the initially suspicious suspect turns out to be the good one.
• Values Dissonance: In Shadow at the Water's Edge, Miwako's ranting about Yumi being selfish for moving out of the Ryokan and wanting to have her own career instead of taking on the one expected of her makes more sense if you understand the general Japanese attitude about independence versus doing what's expected of you. Oddly enough, it was just Miwako and her grandmother, Takae, who frowned on Yumi being her own person: the girls' deceased mother, Kasumi, actually didn't mind if her daughters did what they wanted, as revealed in the letter to them found at the end of the game. Then again, Takae did describe Kasumi as being just as free-spirited as Yumi, showing that not every Japanese person holds the same attitude about a particular issue as the traditional attitude would command them to.
• Values Resonance: Arguably moreso than the books, thanks to them being written and made in The '90s and later.
  • Nancy is just as capable of getting herself out of danger as she is in the book series - she may rarely fight back against the culprit, but even when she does (notably in "Danger at Deception Point" and "Haunted Carousel") she fights smarter - not harder.
  • Alejandro's talks of how artefacts being moved from their "home" territory manages to remain relevant today. Yes, there are still controversies of ancient artefacts simply being displayed in other countries through their lens, or viewing of archaeologists as looting their heritage without giving their actual descendents any say in the matter.
  • The fact that some culprits are actually portrayed somewhat sympathetically - and even the few with a mental disorder do not have their actions blamed on their mental health and are treated as having their own agency.
  • The bit about Kasumi wanting the girls to be free-spirited and follow their own ambitions also hits very true for many western societies.
• The Woobie:
  • Joy Trent from The Haunted Carousel. Not only has she recently lost her father, the only parent she remembers, to a situation she felt could have been prevented, but as it turns out, she has repressed all memories related to her mother, including her love for both Captain's Cove amusement park and the carousel. She also cannot remember destroying all the photos of her mother after her death in her childhood grief. Worse yet, she's partially responsible for getting the park closed down because she caused the roller coaster accident as revenge against Paula for indirectly causing her father's death. Luckily, with the help of Nancy and Miles the Magnificent Memory Machine, she is able to recover her memories and come to terms with everything that happened. She is last seen riding the carousel with a huge smile on her face.
  • Alexei from Alibi in Ashes. He used to be a well-known young detective like Nancy, solving mysteries and taking cases, one right after the other. His career put him in a lot of dangerous situations, something which Nancy can relate to. However, when he entered his twenties, he was framed for a theft that he didn't commit, convicted for related charges, and lost his credibility as a detective. To make things worse, Maggie, the girl he was dating and planned on eventually marrying, left him for someone else during the trial. It's no wonder why he seems so bitter as an adult.

Tropes in the 1938-39 movie series include:

• So Bad, It's Good: Some fans' view of this series, given the campy tone, and Nancy's more ditzy personality. There's a scene in The Hidden Staircase where she squeals in fright at the sight of a frog.