[Otome Game Review] The Knife of The Traitor (English, Freeware)

Bones and guts, bones and guts. The Kingdom of Ulla was made of the bones and guts of their enemies. The new successor to the throne was the bloodthirstiest of all the heirs. But inside the kingdom was a traitor.
He brought down all. Even the new successor. And all traces of her vanished mysteriously... ...Until today.

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The Knife of The Traitor

Developer: Clua

Length: Very short
Language: English (♥)
Genre: Comedy,Mystery, Romance, Otome
Endings: 7
Free or Comercial? Free!
Rated: 16+ because of strong language

I'm amazed at the number of awesome freeware visual novels created for NaNoRenO 2012, . I plan to review all the ones I've played, even the non-otome ones. I've downloaded a good number of them, and The knife of the traitor was the one I finished first.

The knife of the traitor is an awesome comedy/mystery/otome game that really is different from normal otome streotypes. There is a huge abundance of tongue-in-cheek humor, and the dialogues are really fun to read. At many points I was shocked enough to stare at my screen in disbelief whether I really read the lines right XD

The protagonist of the story is Lady Os (weird name :/ ), princess of the kingdom Ulla. At the start of the game she awakes from her long slumber caused by a curse...with a knife on her neck. She also appears be unable to speak because of the knife through her vocal chords, as well as turned amnesiac by the curse of the knife.

Is that a How I met your mother reference I see? :D

Her loyal but weird chicken (?) attendant informs her that apparently somehow she had been attacked in this tower where she had come to visit some prisoners, and spent 4 years in a cursed sleep. There were only 5 people in the tower including her, who cannot escape from here unless the barrier around this place is removed by Os herself. This means culprit must be among one of the current residents of the tower. The game covers Os's investigations throughout the tower and her interactions with the residents to find out the culprit. I won't say any more because of my no spoilers rule! :S

Now a little bit about the cast of Characters:

Os: The heir to the throne of Ulla, also known as "Butcher of Ulla" because of her extreme ruthlessness towards the kingdom's enemies. At the first half of the game she is somewhat expressionless and due to her lack of voice, communicates using a notebook to write on. Though she's supposed to be extremely cruel, her rather friendly behavior towards the residents of the tower baffles everyone.

Vosges:

Having this conversation with him grants you a bad end :P

Self-proclaimed magician of the castle, he is a survivor of a village Os wiped out and has intense hatred towards her. He is actually around twenty but looks like a thirteen year old shouta because of the magical hat forced on his head. He has a brilliant mind and is knowledgeable about magic.

Gervase:

Woooh,rage~~

Watchdog of the tower who had been put to guard the prisoners as form of punishment. Dislikes Os, but to a lesser level than Vosges. He is generally uncouth and always acts very hungry (see his bad end *shudders*). He has a dog form when he turns into a small cute blue puppy ♥ He's pretty perverted and says the most outrageous lines in the whole game.

No, wait, Gervase has a potty mouth, but the most "outrageous" one would be:

Lilja:

O_O

The oddball narcissistic god who's trapped in the tower as long as Os doesn't manage to remove the barrier around the tower. He has a very weird personality and seems to always be immersed in reading invisible books.

Corvus: Os's extremely loyal attendant who has served her since birth. Has the from of a chicken (I thought he was a crow, but the game calls him a weird chicken :| )Since Os cannot talk, he serves as translator when Os investigates the other residents of the tower. He is very protective of her, and flirting with other characters make him go teary :P


Rating

Story: 9/10

Awesome story with great humor and mystery. The dialogues were simply brilliant, and pace of the story was fast and engaging, I never found any part of it boring. Despite the abundance of tongue-in-cheek humor, there were a lot of serious stuff too, especially in the bad ends :( Neither humor or seriousness was overdone so neither felt out of place to me. :) The twist about the identity of the culprit was pretty unexpected, and other than the fact that the game was so short I have no complaints :D

Ending: 9.5/10

There are 7 endings in the game: total 3 bad ends, 1 for each character other than Corvus, total 3 good ends for them and Corvus's good ending(which was awesome ♥o♥). I liked even the bad ends, they showed how things could go so horribly wrong (though I didn't like the way the triggers depended on the choices, I got a bad end for asking Vosges why he stank T__T).

bad end cg :(

The good ends were cute, only Vosges's one was a bit "common", Gervase's end was had a slight shoujo feeling (the last line at the end~~♥), Lilja's was EPIC funny and Corvus's one was so romantic~~♥♥♥♥ (I know people are thinking I'm mad, but play it then you'll understand :P)

MAKE SURE TO WATCH THE "FANSERVICE" AFTER COMPLETING ALL 4 GOOD ENDS, YOU'LL DIE LAUCHING. XDXDXD

Characters: 9/10

I'll make this quick as the summaries are already given above. I found all the characters interesting, a ranking of my favorites would be Corvus>>Gervase>>>Lilja>>Vosges. Corvus was so cute and funny with his chicken crush on Os XD and Gervase was like a tsundere puppy~~ Lilja was an extremely funny whacko, so poor Vosges, the most normal person seemed the least interesting to me, lol. Os is a good protagonist, much different from normal shoujo crap, and her optimism in the good ends is kawai^^

Art:

CG 9/10, Sprites 8/10

The sprites were pretty good, specially considering the fact that this game was made in a month by non-commercial people. The variations in expressions, like sweatdrops and stuff were pretty nicely done, even with Corvus the chicken! LOL.

The CGs were unexpectedly nice (especially the one from Corvus's ending ♥o♥ )And the chibi pics were so cute!~~

The difference in their expressions is amazing :P

Music: 7.5/10

This game mostly used music from free sources, but they fit the atmosphere well most of the time. I did find a couple of tracks annoying, but overall it was fun~~

DOWNLOAD LINKS

Grab them from Lemmasoft forums .and leave some feedback! I'll post the links here too since I have problems opening the lemmasoft forums often :((

Windows
Mac
Linux

Walkthrough

There is a guide provided at lemmasoft, but since it is not completely detailed (hints are given) I've made a more thorough one. :) Oh and this is for the good ends, to get bad ends just choose one patch below, but don't choose one or two of the blue(necessary) choices. Easiest way would be to choose the last bold blue choice that determines which ending you see. E.g. Choose "...eat something in the kitchen" while on Vosges's or Lajla's path to get Gervase's bad end.

Vosges

Go to the basement

Pat him

Because he's cute

Go to the basement

Just passing by

Go to the kitchen

I'm hungry

Go to the balcony

Go to the kitchen

Just passing by

Go to the balcony

What can I do to make you not hate me?

Stop Gervase

Do nothing

Say nothing

Yeah, I don't care anymore

...see the mushrooms in the basement

Gervase

Go to the kitchen

Change his bandages

Refuse

Go to the kitchen

Does it hurt less?

Go to the basement

I'm hungry

Go to the balcony

Go to the basement

Why do you stink like that?

Go to the balcony

Call for Corvus

Stop Gervase

Do nothing

Forgive him

...eat something in the kitchen

Lilja

Go to the balcony

Go to the kitchen

I'm hungry

Go to the basement

I'm hungry

Go to the balcony

Go to the kitchen

Just passing by

Go to the basement

Why do you stink like that?

Call for Corvus

Stop Gervase

Cheer him up

Say nothing

Actually...I can't

...watch the sunset before it gets dark.


Corvus

Go to the basement

Pat Vosges

I felt like it

Go to the kitchen

Change his bandages

Agree with him

Go to the balcony

Go to the balcony

Go to the kitchen

Just passing by

Go to the basement

Why do you stink like that?

Call for Corvus

Do NOT protect him when Gervase attacks

Do nothing

Forgive him

...tell you something

Conclusion

A good game. PLAY IT!!!! It was a bit of a pain to play this since my laptop hates the ren'py engine and keeps crashing a lot, I am glad I persevered and didn't give up. :D My afternoon today was well spent ♥