Visual Novel / BAD END THEATER

From left to right: the Hero, the Maiden, the Underling, and the Overlord.

To the lost, the cold
Take your seats, everyone
Welcome to BAD END THEATER
When the curtains close
You'll come away stronger
Or maybe you'll break
Not my fault you sought this pain

BAD END THEATER (Steam, itch.io) is a Ren'Py-based Visual Novel released by NomnomNami in October 2021. Unlike their previous releases, which are primarily Freeware Games, this story was commercially available on multiple digital distribution services upon release.

The player has been chosen to direct the tragedies that occur at Bad End Theater. You will choose the behaviors of the four key performers, and you will watch them play out their tragic fates...over, and over, and over again. Just how much can they endure? And is it possible to save this unlucky cast?

Lighter spoilers are unmarked below, so experiencing the game beforehand is recommended if you want to find the endings yourself.

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BAD END THEATER provides examples of:

• AcCENT upon the Wrong SylLABle: The ending song pronounces "labyrinth" as "la-BEE-rinth".
• All for Nothing: In the "USELESS HERO" ending, the Hero finds no traces of the Maiden in the castle, rendering his whole adventure pointless.
• all lowercase letters: The story's narrator speaks this way.
• Ambiguous Gender: The Underling, who's the only major character in the story with they/them pronouns.
• Anti-Villain: The Hero is this from the Overlord's perspective, as her story opens with her narrating how she's purposely avoided trying to harm humans since coming into power, but is still attacked due to the transgressions of her predecessors and the false assumption that she's a kidnapper.
• Arc Words: "You'll all burn together." appears at the end of each True End, except the Maiden's, where it's "Will you all burn together?"
• Assassination Attempt: If there's no conflict between the Hero and the Demons, the Underling will learn that the other demons working for the Overlord are planning to seal her in her bedroom while she sleeps and burn the room down, since they don't think they can overpower her in a fair fight.
• Ax-Crazy: In the "PERFORMER UNDERLING" ending, the Underling eats the Maiden alive, then heads to the village and starts happily slaughtering humans before the Hero puts them down.
• Battle Trophy: In any ending where the Hero kills the Overlord but can't bring back the Maiden, he will instead bring back the Overlord's head as proof of his victory.
• Bittersweet Ending: The "TRIUMPHANT HERO / COMPLACENT MAIDEN / SLAIN OVERLORD" endings, which are the same save for Perspective Flip. The heroic Hero successfully "rescues" the Maiden and returns her home after slaying the Overlord and all of her minions (except the Underling, who runs away), and he considers it just, even though the Maiden's clearly traumatized because the demons were actually innocent and she was never in real danger.
• Blood-Splattered Warrior: If the Hero takes the violent way to the castle, he will end up covered in the blood of all the demons he slaughtered, preventing any further negotiation when his enemies look at him.
• Burn the Witch!: The "SPECTATOR HERO / EXECUTED MAIDEN" endings. The Maiden was never in danger, and returns back to town. But when she says the demons didn't harm her, the townsfolk don't believe her, and burn her at the stake for potentially being in league with them while the Hero can only watch from the distance.
• The Cameo: One of the two demons that the Hero encounters on their way to the Overlord's castle intentionally looks like Vido from KAIMA.
• Cliffhanger: The "True End" for every character is actually this: everyone's alive, but trapped in the Overlord's bedroom together while the castle burns, with no way to escape. The end. However, obtaining one of these is the only way to to access the TRUE True ending, which occurs right after.
• Climactic Music: There are three versions of the narrative's main theme. There's the title music "welcome to BAD END THEATER", and then two variants for the finale, both of which add lyrics: a Dark Reprise in which TRAGEDY mourns a lost love, and a Triumphant Reprise if the Omega Ending is unlocked in which TRAGEDY's lost love comes back.
• Chuunibyou: In the Golden Ending, summoning the Hero reveals that he was originally just a tailor who wanted to make cool outfits, taking up the "Hero" role in an attempt to justify them.
• Color-Coded Characters: Each character (and scenes from their perspective) is associated with a color: orange for the Hero, purple for the Maiden, teal for the Underling, and crimson for the Overlord. Only when everyone's together, on the True Ending paths, are all four colors used at once.
• Common Tongue: If the Underling encounters the Maiden and decides to talk with her, they'll take a moment to note how weird it is that they speak the same language despite demon and human society never mingling.
• Content Warnings: The top of the title screen warns of blood/gore/violence, and strong language. Clicking on it brings up a letter from "your playwright" stating that, while the overall tone is meant to be lighthearted and that their intention is to entertain instead of harm, there will be dark subject matter and you're free to exit the theater at any time if you're in danger of being overwhelmed by despair.
• Cynic–Idealist Duo: According to the letters obtained from gathering all of each character's endings, TRAGEDY was the cynic, always fixating on unhappy endings, while "my love" was the idealist that rewrote her scripts to have happy endings. The game's final scene shows that they still have this dynamic, with TRAGEDY founding the BAD END THEATER after giving up hope of being reunited, and "???" having done everything in her power to seek her out and force their story to have a happy ending.
• Damsel in Distress: The Maiden, whose primary role is to be captured by the Overlord and rescued by the Hero, as it's what people say is fated for her. It's Subverted, however, in that she puts herself in distress, just because she's tired of waiting for it to happen naturally.
• Darker and Edgier: Compared to NomnomNami's other works, this is the darkest since KAIMA, with many outcomes involving visible bloodshed and brutal deaths.
• Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: In the Golden Ending, the Maiden admits to wanting more in life than to just stand by and be a Damsel, and hoped to find fulfillment instead of just following her supposed destiny.
• Deus ex Machina: It turns out there's only one possible way for the protagonists to Screw Destiny and avert tragedy: the "director" inserts themself into the story and just warps them out of the burning castle caused by the demons' assassination attempt.
• Dying Smirk: There are some endings where the characters die smiling, though usually not out of genuine happiness.
  • "SELFLESS MAIDEN": The Maiden gives a Tearful Smile as she burns to death, knowing it's her own fault for running off into the burning castle on her own.
  • "PERFORMER UNDERLING": The Underling is slain by the Hero to put an end to their killing spree. The Underling dies grinning, because it was Worth It.
  • "SLAIN OVERLORD": The Overlord's friendly chat with the Maiden ends with the former getting slain by the Hero. As she dies, she laughs at herself for being foolish enough to trust the Maiden.
• The Ending Changes Everything: Only after achieving all of the game's 41 endings does the full truth behind BAD END THEATER get revealed, and it recontextualizes a few key elements of the plot.
• Extra Eyes: Most of the demons have additional eyes on their face, including the Underling (though they're usually covered by their hair) and the Overlord (although hers is positioned like a Third Eye).
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: The Underling is particularly fond of a certain demon who always brought food to them whenever they were feeling a bit down.
• Evil Overlord: The Overlord, who lives in a large castle and is lavished by demonic servants, and tries to prevent being dethroned by a Hero. It's slightly Subverted, in that she avoids intentionally antagonizing humans and wants to be left in peace, but she can still be a Bad Boss to her Underlings.
• Evil Virtues: A Hero that's "dutiful" and "heroic" is actually a bad thing, as his heroic duty is to kill demons regardless of their innocence.
• Evolving Title Screen: Upon reaching the Omega Ending, the Bad End Theater on the title screen will have a "Closed" sign hanging on its doors.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The Hero, the Maiden, the Underling, and the Overlord are exactly what their names indicate...though it's possible to influence their decisions so they go against their role.
• Expy: The Hero greatly resembles Roy from Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade, another hero of an RPG fantasy universe. He shares Roy's haircut, headband, parts of his outfit, and use of a sword.
• Failure Hero: Considering the Hero in the many non-golden endings does things like killing the Overlord when she didn't harm any people, getting the Maiden killed (sometimes by his own blade), driving the Overlord and the Maiden apart, or allowing the Underling to take the throne, he fits this trope to a T. This bit of narration when he's getting torn apart by the Overlord for killing all her people sums it up.
  Deep down, you feel you deserve this.
  • Fittingly enough, the Golden Ending shows heroism isn't even his true calling.
• Featureless Protagonist: In the Golden Ending, the "director" is completely featureless when they insert themself into TRAGEDY's story, not even having hair or clothes, because they were not meant to be a part of it. However, if you unlock the Omega Ending, it turns out they do have an actual form: a girl that looks identical to the Overlord.
• Forced into Evil: For the Underling to survive, it's inevitable for them to gain the "disloyal" trait, as the only other outcome is to get killed by their fellow demons for not agreeing to their assassination plan.
• Foreshadowing:
  • In the Tutorial, having the Human and Demon puppets kill each other makes the narrator ecstatic due to it being the most tragic outcome, while having them both spare each other has the narrator muse how this was an oversight and how they'll have to be more attentive with their scripts. Clearly, the impending bad ends aren't going to be solely due to our protagonists' actions...
  • While many of the Bad Ends have the protagonists reflect on their poor choices, multiple ones for the Maiden are outright accusatory, with the narration for "SELFLESS MAIDEN" stating "this is exactly the kind of punishment you deserve" for trying to break from her role, be Heroic, and save the Overlord when her minions set the castle on fire, only to fail and be burned to death. The reason for this becomes clear in the Omega Ending.
  • Unlock enough endings, and you will start receiving hints about the Omega Ending in the form of letters from "TRAGEDY" to "my love". There is even a subtle hint towards the true identity of "my love", namely the color of the quoted text in the fourth letter.
• Framing Device: The titular Bad End Theater, from which all of the events are presented as a series of tragic performances.
• Golden Ending: The "True" Endings are not these, but they unlock a fight with TRAGEDY, and victory over them gives a genuinely happy, TRUE True ending to the main cast.
• Greater-Scope Villain: The real reason the story can only have bad endings? TRAGEDY, the owner of Bad End Theater and the god of the in-story world, is the one that wills it.
• The Hero: The Hero, a reliable and swell guy that is sent to rescue the Maiden from the Overlord.
• Heroic Sacrifice: In the "VICTORIOUS UNDERLING" ending, the Underling stays in the castle and helps the demons defeat the bloodthirsty Hero, but is fatally wounded in the process.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: In the Golden Ending, the Overlord admits that they spend so much time in their bedroom because they have trouble connecting with their underlings, and the "director" realizes that this ties into how easily and quickly she ended up befriending the Maiden.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: The Maiden is selfless, honest, and by far the most innocent character in the story. Ironically, she is also more or less responsible for almost every death that occurs in the story.
• Inhuman Eye Concealers: The Underling's white hair completely covers their Extra Eyes, save for when they become serious.
• "It" Is Dehumanizing:
  • The narration in the Hero's story uses "it" pronouns for the Underling and other minor demons, reflecting how the Hero views demons as mere monsters. The Maiden's story alternates between "they" and "it", since the Maiden is more open-minded about meeting demons than the Hero. The Underling and Overlord's stories as well as your story use "they" pronouns exclusively.
  • Curiously, in the Golden Ending, TRAGEDY refers to itself at "it", making it seem like you're fighting the concept of tragedy rather than a person named after it.
• Jumped at the Call: The Maiden's story starts with her getting tired of people saying she's fated to be a Damsel in Distress, and decides to just go to the Overlord herself instead of waiting to be kidnapped. This instigates every single tragedy of the story, since the Overlord was trying to avoid intentionally provoking the humans, who now blame her for the Maiden's disappearance.
• Knight Templar: The Hero thinks demons are all evil monsters and feels completely justified in killing them. Also, if he sees the Maiden get burned at the stake, he just assumes she deserved it somehow.
• Laser-Guided Karma: A minor one for the old man in the village, depending on the path. If the Maiden comes back with the Hero to explain the Demons aren't going to hurt them, the old man will say she should stay behind and the Hero go to the Demons to talk—which would result in her being burned at the stake, as the village thinks she's in league with the demons and thus a witch. On the Underling's path, if the Underling eats the Maiden and then decides to attack the village, the old man is the first person they eat.
• Lemony Narrator: The narration is quite sarcastic and flowery.
• Locked in a Room: In everyone's True End, they all end up locked in the Overlord's bedroom together when her traitorous demon minions enact their assassination scheme.
• Maligned Mixed Marriage: TRAGEDY and the director were two women who deeply loved each other, but their families and hometown refused to accept it and the two eventually separated. They're reunited in the Omega Ending.
• Meaningful Echo: The two reprises mentioned earlier as the Climactic Music have lyrics. The Dark Reprise ends with "I miss you, my darling," reflecting how TRAGEDY was driven from her beloved, while the Triumphant Reprise ends with "I've missed you, my darling," reflecting how the player, TRAGEDY's beloved, has finally found her again.
• Mercy Rewarded: The only way to reach the True Endings is by unlocking the Overlord's "merciful" trait and not eviscerating the Underling when the core cast is trapped in a burning room together.
• Minion with an F in Evil: The Underling, who's described as neither particularly strong or weak by their friends, and whose initial motivation is asking the Overlord for a day off because of how rarely they have to fight a hero.
• Multiple Endings: The story has over 40 endings, most of which are, as the title indicates, Bad. However, it's still possible to achieve a Golden Ending for the main cast including yourself and TRAGEDY.
• My God, What Have I Done?: In the "TRAGIC HERO" ending, after slaughtering the entire demon army, the Hero is shocked to learn that the Maiden was never in any danger, and quietly accepts his fate when the Overlord kills him in retaliation.
• My Name Is ???: In the Golden Ending, when the director decides to insert themself into the story, their name is "???" when selected as the protagonist.
• Nameless Narrative: The main characters are only ever referred to by their roles. The Maiden is said to have a name, but we never find out what it is. Subverted when TRAGEDY appears.
• Narrator All Along: In the Golden Ending, the narration suddenly becomes first-person when TRAGEDY makes its appearance.
• Nice Guy: A "diplomatic" Hero will simply ask for cooperation with the demons instead of trying to overpower them.
• Omega Ending: If you clear the game with all 41 bad endings, you're treated to a special reveal after the regular Golden Ending. The Maiden is actually a self-insert of TRAGEDY herself, and the whole story is a metaphor about how society forbade her and her love from being together. The Overlord is a representation of you, the Player Character and TRAGEDY's love interest, and you came to the theater in the hopes of reuniting with her.
• The Outsider Befriends the Best: Upon casting herself away from other humans, the Maiden very quickly becomes a friend and love interest of the Overlord.
• Pair the Spares: Implied. During the ending credits montage, the main focus is on the Maiden and Overlord staying together, but there's also a picture of the Hero being excited as the Underling models an outfit he made.
• Paper Tiger: The "CONQUERED OVERLORD" ending. After the Hero has rampaged through her castle and stabs her, the Overlord admits to herself as she dies that she was never actually any better than her underlings, and it was only her title that allowed her to boss others around.
• Personality Powers: Played with, as by progressing through the routes, you unlock "personality modifiers" for the performers. All of the characters naturally learn traits fitting their roles, and once known, the "director" can choose to activate or disable them in order to change the flow of events; for example, by finding and disabling the Underling's "hungry" trait, they'll stop devouring the Maiden on sight.
• Perspective Flip: One of the visual novel's main features is that, due to the way everyone's fates intersect, decisions chosen in one character's storyline will occur in the others, opening or closing connected paths.
• Pet the Dog: In the "ESCAPED MAIDEN / HEROIC UNDERLING" endings, after carrying out their violent revolution plot against the Overlord, the Underling takes a moment to send the Maiden home out of concern for her safety.
• Poor Communication Kills: The Maiden writes a note to explain why she goes to the demon castle. Somehow, nobody in the village sees the note, which is why the Hero initially believes the Maiden was kidnapped.
• Readings Are Off the Scale: In the Golden Ending, TRAGEDY's health bar has an infinity symbol on it instead of a number. However, it can still be defeated by everyone uniting their power.
• Reset Button: The final achievement, "Total Reset", requires the player to agree to reset the game, taking every character back to the start. This is indeed a total reset and erases all the save files, not just one of them.
• Revenge Before Reason: If the Hero is dutiful and slays demons, the Underling and/or Overlord can try to avenge their allies by fighting him. The Underling's doomed to failure, while the Overlord only loses if he's also Heroic and feels no guilt for his actions.
• Rewatch Bonus: The actions of the Maiden and the Overlord make a lot more sense if you've seen the Omega Ending. The Maiden's actions unwittingly lead to someone getting killed in every single bad ending, as befits TRAGEDY, who is obsessed with writing bad endings. Meanwhile, the Overlord actively tries to defy everyone's expectations and avoid conflict between humans and demons, as befits you, who would always rewrite TRAGEDY's bad endings into happy ones.
• RPG Mechanics 'Verse: The narration outright says that the Hero gains experience points and becomes stronger from fighting the demons. There's also the boss fight against TRAGEDY, which has health bars.
• Samus Is a Girl: TRAGEDY is called "it" and the director is called "you," and both are featureless black silhouettes. Both are women.
• Sauna of Death: The Assassination Attempt mentioned above involves locking the Overlord in her room and setting it on fire, burning her to death.
• Screw Destiny: In the Golden Ending, the director changes the script to save the protagonists, and must then fight TRAGEDY, the theater's owner and god of the setting, to defy their tragic fates.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: The "DESERTER UNDERLING" ending. When the Hero storms the castle to find the missing Maiden, the Underling decides to just run for it, abandoning their comrades and living in solitude from then on.
• Self-Made Orphan: In the Golden Ending, when summoning the Overlord, she mentions how she killed her father, the previous Overlord, for being a tyrant towards the humans...but the "director" says that now's not a good time to introduce new backstory and asks her to hurry things along.
• Senseless Sacrifice: The "SACRIFICIAL MAIDEN / LOYAL HERO" endings, in which a martyr Maiden shields the Overlord from the heroic Hero, only for the Overlord to put Revenge Before Reason, attack, and immediately be slain herself.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: The "FAILED HERO" and "TRAGIC HERO" endings; in both, the dutiful Hero slaughters all of the demons in order to rescue the Maiden, only to learn in the former that she was never there (she was devoured by the Underling, but the Hero never learns this) or in the latter that she was completely fine the whole time, which leads to letting the Overlord kill him to avenge her army.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: The demon characters in general, especially the Underling, seem more prone to dropping F-bombs than any of the human characters.
• The Starscream: The "LORD UNDERLING" and "HEROIC UNDERLING / ESCAPED MAIDEN / UNLUCKY HERO" endings have the Underling kill the Overlord and usurp her as the leader of the demons. In the first, they do it while she's sleeping, and they wonder just how long until another demon does the same thing to them; in the latter, it's after the Hero has weakened her and all of the other conspiring demons are already dead.
• Story Branching: The player is able to see how the fates of the four characters intersect in the form of a branching chart, which is important in figuring out how to reach certain outcomes.
• Tomato in the Mirror: Both TRAGEDY and the Director, as revealed in the Omega Ending, are revealed to bear the appearances of the Maiden and the Overlord, respectively, since they are their own respective self-inserts. And said reveal shows that they have reunited again at the end as lovers.
• Too Dumb to Live: If the Underling has the "captor" trait, the other demons will just outright tell the Hero that they've locked the Maiden in their dungeon, and immediately get slaughtered for it while the Underling hides.
• To Serve Man: The Underling's "hungry" trait makes them demonstrate this by devouring the Maiden.
• A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: The majority of tragedy in the narrative can be traced back to either the humans assuming the demons are responsible for the Maiden's disappearance, or the demons not thinking their assassination plan through and accidentally burning down the Overlord's entire castle.
• Van Helsing Hate Crimes: A "Dutiful" Hero will slaughter the demons, as is his duty, even if the demons pose no threat or are attempting to clear up a misunderstanding.
• White Mask of Doom: The BAD END THEATER itself is represented by a white mask with black tears. It's worn by TRAGEDY herself in the climax, and starts to crack after her defeat, showing her true face if the player stays to listen to her reveal her past.
• Witch Hunt: If steps are taken to prevent the Underling and Overlord from being antagonistic towards humans, the human townsfolk will still believe they're up to no good, and accuse anyone that shows sympathy to them (even the Maiden, though they're hesitant to accuse the Hero) of being evil traitors.
• With Friends Like These...: The Underling considers the other demons their friends, and yet they are all ready to kill the Underling for disagreeing with their revolution plan, and even throw the Underling under the bus should their plan go south.
• Write What You Know: In-Universe, TRAGEDY admits to basing the character of the Maiden after herself and the Overlord after her estranged girlfriend the director and their relationship struggles.
• Wrong Line of Work: In the Golden Ending, all the Underling wants is to have a job that's fun, and the "director" notes how easy it would be for them to find happiness if they just got away from their scheming coworkers.
• Yandere: In any ending where the Overlord's "possessive" behavior comes into play, she takes such a liking to the Maiden that she would rather murder the Hero than let him take the Maiden away.

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TROPE PAGE END

[RESET THE STAGE]

[EXIT THE THEATER]