Visual Novel / Black Wolves Saga

Black Wolves Saga: Bloody Nightmare

The country of Weblin is a kingdom inhabited by both humans and animal races, such as wolves, cats, and various other subraces. Wolves and cats served the kingdom together, until the wolves revolted against the cat royalty after a wolf knight attacked the nobility. Around the same time, a mysterious plague called Zodiva started spreading, with the wolves believed to be the cause of the spread. King Garibaldi VI, the cat ruler of Weblin, announced Wolf Genocide, a program to exterminate the wolves and stop the spread of Zodiva. The wolves were driven to the brink of extinction, and retaliate by attacking human villages. 10 years later, Fiona Galland is a sheltered young girl who has been locked up in a tower her whole life due to being a Lobeira, a person with a very weak immune system. Mejojo, heir to the throne, wants Fiona to marry him but keeps getting rejected, so his twin brother Auger comes up with a plan to accuse Fiona of being a witch. Auger goes to her tower and has her arrested and brought to the castle, where it's determined that she'll stay at the castle to watch for signs of her being a witch. Things go downhill from there...

Black Wolves Saga: Bloody Nightmare is an otome game developed by Rejet and distributed by Idea Factory's Otomate label. It has currently not been localized and is only available in Japanese, although an English fan patch exists.

Games in the Series:

• Black Wolves Sage ~Bloody Nightmare~: The first game of the series, focusing more on the Cats. It was released on April 26th, 2012 for the PC.
• Black Wolves Saga ~Last Hope~: A midquel and Alternate Universe of the first game, focusing more on the Wolves. It was released on December 20, 2012 for the PlayStation Portable.
• Black Wolves Saga Weiß und Schwarz: A PS Vita port containing both the PC and PSP installments of the series. It was released in January 26, 2017.

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This series provides examples of:

• Abusive Parents: The mother of Mejojo and Auger, the twin cat princes, ends up involving both of her sons in her suicide when they were young, which scars them mentally.
• Adopt-a-Servant: Fiona's father bought Zara as a slave, released from from slavery, and now employs him as a doctor for Fiona.
• Adults Are Useless: The king's consort, Reyleigh, continually tries to assassinate the cat twins when they're children, and none of the adults ever step in to help them. Even when most of them know what's going on.
• Affectionate Gesture to the Head: The wolves have the tendency to express affection by headpats and headrubs.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Mejojo, Auger, and Guillan routes count as this.
• Alternate Universe: The Last Hope installment is this where Fiona is taken by the wolves first instead of the cats.
• Anyone Can Die: Every single Love Interest can die in this game, depending on route and ending.
• Assassination Attempt: The twin cat princes had to deal with numberous attempts on their life as they grew up, including poisoning and assassins sneaking into their room at night.
• Asshole Victim: Reyleigh. When you find out the cat twins throw her in the dungeon and eventually murder her, she has done so much to the cat twins that you feel no sympathy for her.
• Awesome Moment of Crowning: Mejojo has one of these after the previous king dies, complete with a badass speech.
• Ax-Crazy: Guillan. He is always talking about how he wants to kill more people, and gets excited whenever he's let loose to do so.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: Nesso and Zara have several moments like this together, being Bash Brothers who train together.
• The Bad Guy Wins: Choosing to romance the Gallibardi twins in "Bloody Nightmare" will result in this as Mejojo and the Gallibardi twins romance good ending involves the Wolves being wiped out and Mejojo ultimately having Fiona as his wife, with Mejojo being seen as a Villain with Good Publicity by the masses. This is only averted in "Last Hope".
• Bash Brothers: Zara and Nesso have trained with each other for years, and instantly know what the other is going to do and reacts accordingly.
• Battle Amongst the Flames: Mejojo and Arles have this with each other on both of their routes.
• Berserk Button: Arles counts as one for Mejojo.
• Big, Screwed-Up Family: The cat twins. Their mother got the twins to help her commit suicide, the king neglected them their whole life, and the twins themselves are both psychotic from their childhood.
• Bittersweet Ending: Zara's bad ending counts as this. Zara dies by poison arrow as they're escaping from Royal Troops, but The Heroine Fiona, Nesso, and Zara all escape. This leads to Fiona living out in the woods because she's afraid to spread zodiva, but she and her family fondly remember Zara and they're trying to move on with their lives.
• Break the Cutie: Fiona counts as this, especially on certain routes and certain bad endings. She starts out as a naive, innocent girl who just wants to get out of her tower. And then she goes through hell.
• Break Them by Talking: This is one of Auger's favorite methods of torture, occasionally joined in by his brother. If Fiona chooses him to punish her on the twin path, he taunts her into believing that Julian's death is all her fault.
• Broken Bird: Due to being a Crapsack World, this happens a lot
  • Mejojo and Auger count. The things they went through in their childhood broke them, and made them realize they could only ever trust themselves. They thought people would never stop hurting them unless they hurt them first, and seized the throne to be able to exert control.
  • Julian counts too as he was tortured to the point that he broken, and is driven by the need to please his torturers and make them happy with him.
• Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Fiona and Rath's relationship sometimes comes across as this. He is more of The Stoic who has the tendency to brood, and she is patient and tries to draw him out of his shell.
• Calling the Old Man Out: The cat twins do this to their father as they're killing him. They call him out for neglecting them and mock him for the ways they've manipulated him.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Happens on many occasions throughout the game.
  • Guillan tortures several knights at the request of Arles, in order to get information.
  • Mejojo and Auger torture Rath after capturing him, simply because he is a wolf.
  • Mejojo and Auger do this to Julian in order to break him. Mejojo also does this using a whip to Fiona, as a punishment for running away from him.
  • Julian's true ending has him snapping due to the Cold-Blooded Torture he received for years, and turning around to do the same thing to Mejojo and Auger in retribution.
• Crapsack World: There is an incurable plague called Zodiva spreading around the country, the wolves that are spreading the plague are attacking and eating human villages, and King Garibaldi VI has issued a decree called Genocide Wolf to exterminate them though it's later revealed to have been Mejojo's idea. In addition, the nobility of the country are insane.
• Creepy Twins: Mejojo and Auger can come across as this sometimes, as they usually know what the other is thinking and can finish statements for the other one. They use this a lot to throw people off and manipulate them from multiple angles.
• Cynicism Catalyst: A few examples.
  • Mejojo and Auger's catalyst was their mother being Driven to Suicide and tricking them into helping. After that was when they really snapped and decided to seize power so they would Never Be Hurt Again.
  • Another example is Julian's true ending, where he was Forced to Watch Fiona being tortured and branded in front of him. That was his catalyst for plotting against his half siblings and seizing power for himself.
• Dances and Balls: At the beginning of the game, Mejojo throws a birthday celebration for The Heroine Fiona, complete with the choice of a Dance of Romance with most of the Love Interests.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Quite a few people in the game, but especially Mejojo and Auger.
  • Mejojo and his twin brother Auger were the sons of the king's concubine, and the king's consort saw them as a threat to her son's rule. She constantly tried to assassinate them, their mother wasn't in the position to help, and nobody in the palace would dare to cross the king's consort. In a fit of despair, their mother hung herself and got the twins to unknowingly help. This caused the twins to snap and decide to seize power for themselves.
  • Julian counts too, as he was disinherited, his mother was killed, and then he was thoroughly tortured to the point that he broke.
• Dance of Romance: At the beginning of the game, there is a ball thrown in The Heroine Fiona's honor for her birthday celebration. This allows a choice of a dance with whichever Love Interest you intend to pursue.
• Deadly Hug: On Auger's bad ending, he does this to Fiona, stabbing her in the stomach as he holds her.
• Demoted to Extra: Due to For Want Of A Nail, Julian and Guillan are no longer a love interest in "Last Hope" as the factors and butterfly effect of Fiona being kidnapped by Rath and getting to know the Wolves first in "Last Hope" means that Fiona couldn't truly interact with Julian in depth like she did in "Bloody Nightmare", for an example.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: Several examples.
  • On Zara's bad ending, he is shot by a poisoned arrow and dies in Fiona's arms.
  • On the cat path, Julian is stabbed by Auger and bleeds to death in Fiona's arms.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Part of the reason Mejojo wants to exterminate the wolves is due to Arles, a wolf knight, taking his fiance away.
• Divided We Fall: A big plot point is the fact that the wolves are needed in order to cure zodiva, and if they are wiped out then the chance to cure zodiva is lost.
• "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: "Dear Despair", the opening theme song of the game, is sung by Yūki Kaji, Rath Vogart's voice actor.
• Doctor's Orders: Zara does this a few times, usually when Fiona doesn't want to take her medicine.
• Downer Ending: Most of the bad endings count as this, and even a few of the good endings. This is especially more prominent in "Bloody Nightmare", the darker one of the two installments.
  • Mejojo's bad ending: Fiona is by his bedside as he dies from his wound he received from Arles. She is heartbroken and feels like she has nothing to live for with all her friends and family dead. So she is Driven to Suicide by jumping out of a castle tower in the while telling Mejojo she's coming to meet him.
  • Twin bad ending: Fiona has a Heroic BSoD after witnessing her brother Nesso die. She is taken to the dungeon, where she experiences Cold-Blooded Torture until she snaps, becoming a complete Masochist who only wants to please Mejojo and Auger, and is totally fine with being tortured by them since it means they're paying attention to her.
  • Both of Auger's endings have him killing Mejojo, and then Fiona. His bad ending has him killing Mejojo due to him losing the will to live after he accomplishes his goal, which bores Auger into getting rid of him. He then takes Fiona for himself, waits until it's revealed that she's pregnant, and then kills her too. In his good ending, he kills Mejojo after his brother finds him taking care of Fiona's wounds and accuses him of trying to steal her. He then wins over Fiona's trust, only to strangle her when he gets bored.
  • Nesso's bad ending has him performing a Heroic Sacrifice for Fiona as rocks fall and crush him, leaving Fiona to have a Heroic BSoD.
  • Rath's bad ending ends with the wolves being wiped out, and Fiona dying from zodiva, having never been able to see Rath again before she dies.
  • Arles bad ending leaves Arles, Guillan, and Rath dead at the hands of Mejojo and Auger. Mejojo and Auger then track down Fiona and the rest of the wolves, killing the wolves and taking Fiona back with them.
  • Julian's bad ending has him being broken again as he tries to give Fiona back to their enemy. Fiona panics and accidentally pushes him too hard off a cliff, which she has a Heroic BSoD over. Auger then decides to take her back to the castle with him
  • Guillan's bad ending leaves Arles and Rath dead, and Guillan mortally wounded. He manages to find Fiona before pulling a If I Can't Have You… situation by biting into her neck, explaining that he is Taking Her With Him, because she belongs to him.
• Driven to Suicide: Several examples of this. The mother of Mejojo and Auger commits suicide after being unable to handle everything.
  • Fiona has one of these on Mejojo's bad ending in "Bloody Nightmare", where she has a Heroic BSoD after having lost everything and jumps from a tower.
• Driven to Villainy: Mejojo and Auger count as this due to their Dark and Troubled Past. It's what led them to seek out the throne, so that nobody could control or hurt them again.
• Dying Race: The wolves are this, as the Final Solution plan Genocide Wolf has seen them killed off in huge numbers due to spreading zodiva.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: On most routes, Fiona goes through a lot before she gets her happy ending.
• Earn Your Title: Arles earned the name "The Silver Wolf and the Salvation of the Country", after he saved King Garibaldi VI during a war.
• Expressive Ears: The animal races have the tendency to twitch their ears. Of particular note is when Auger whispers to Fiona that Mejojo twitches his ears when he's embarrassed.
• Faceless Goons: We never see any of the cat knights beyond their helm and armor.
• Fantastic Racism: This happens to the wolves, who are blamed for causing the spread of zodiva, and viewed as monsters for attacking human villages. This leads to the Final Solution plan called Genocide Wolf.
• A Father to His Men: Nesso seems to be this to those under his command, who all respect him greatly. They even come to his aid when Fiona is taken to the castle in order to help, even though they were not ordered to do so by Nesso.
• Final Solution: The ultimate goal of the royal family is the complete extermination of the wolves, due to spreading zodiva, and the attacking of human villages.
• For Want Of A Nail: "Last Hope" is an Alternate Universe where the Wolves found Fiona first instead of the Cats which switches the narrative and also a change in the romanceable cast as Julian is Demoted to Extra in "Last Hope" due to not having the chance to be able to fully interact with Fiona in this story. In short, "Bloody Nightmare" is a story where the Gallibardi twins had the upper hand for most of the game for their plans, while "Last Hope" is one where the Wolves got to Fiona first and completely destroyed the twins original plan to smokes.
• Flowers of Romance: Fiona's half brother Nesso brings her flowers at the start of the game, when he comes back home for Fiona's 16th birthday.
• Garden of Love: Fiona stays in a beautiful open air garden taken care of by Caring Gardener Julian. However, it becomes another Gilded Cage for Fiona on the cat twin path.
• Girl in the Tower: The Heroine Fiona acts as this at the start of the game, having been put into a tower her whole life due to being sick with a weak immune system.
• Golden Ending: In "Last Hope", the best ending of said installment is unlocked by in Arles's true ending route where the choices led to Fiona agreeing to a Polyamory with Arles, Rath and Guillan and after Mejojo and Auger are dealt with, the group eventually formed and created a village where wolves and humans can coexist peacefully and peace returned to the realm for years on as a cure for Zodiva is eventually developed by Zara and the village Fiona, Arles, Rath and Guillan had created flourished.
• Grey-and-Gray Morality: All the factions involved in the story have good and bad points, and reasons for why they do the terrible things they do.
• Ham and Deadpan Duo: Guillan and Rath, with Guillan being the Large Ham and Rath being the deadpan.
• Healing Factor: The werewolves heal very quickly from disease and illness.
• Hello, [Insert Name Here]: The Heroine's default name is Fiona Galland, but her first name can be changed to anything.
• Heroic BSoD: Oh boy...so many throughout the game.
  • Julian has one during the escape through the sewers, when Auger shows up to take them back to the castle. He stays like that until Fiona pulls a Get A Hold Of Yourself Man and smacks him to bring him back to himself.
  • Zara has one of these on the cat twins path, after Nesso is killed in front of him. He ends up with the Thousand-Yard Stare and allows himself to be dragged off.
  • Fiona herself has a lot of these, depending on routes and endings. Most notable is on Julian's bad ending and the twins bad ending.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Guillan performs one of these on the cat path, where he drags himself to the gates to get one of the wolves to run away. He then uses his body to shield the wolf from being seen by soldiers as he is skewered by spears.
• Horror Hunger: The wolves that are infected by zodiva develop a hunger for human flesh that leads them to attacking and eating human villages.
• Humans Are Bastards: The humans of the country happily started following the Genocide Wolf plan when it was announced, which lead to wolves being driven to extinction.
• Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: Mejojo and Auger have one of these as they're hunting wolves who have run away after an attack on a village.
• I Don't Like the Sound of That Place: The Palace of 10,000 Devils, the name of the hidden dungeon in the royal palace. It is frequently used for torture.
• I Owe You My Life: Zara views the Galland family as this, when he was freed from slavery and treated as family by them.
• If I Can't Have You…: On his bad ending, Guillan bites Fiona in the neck as a Taking You Down With Me move, because she is not allowed to be with anyone but him. They bleed out curled up together.
• Interspecies Adoption: The human Galland family take in a rabbit, Zara, into the family to live with and help Fiona.
• Interspecies Friendship: Several cases of this, including Nesso's friendship with Zara, a rabbit, and Elza, a lion.
• Interspecies Romance: Most of Fiona's romance options are this, including wolves, cats, and a rabbit. The only human she can romance is Nesso.
• Interrupted Intimacy: Occurs on the twin good ending, where Mejojo and Fiona are cuddling in bed. Auger barges in and demands to have breakfast with them, while his brother just sighs and asks if he knows any better than to interrupt a couple during their private time.
• It's All About Me: The cat twins are very much this. They don't care who they kill or what they have to do, as long as they get what they want.
• Jerkass: Auger is unrepentantly an asshole, and will hurt or kill anybody as long as it amuses him.
• Karma Houdini: The cat twin path in "Bloody Nightmare" ends up being a major The Bad Guy Wins ending, where Mejojo and Auger are able to get everything they want, including the Final Solution of the wolves and Mejojo finally getting The Heroine Fiona as his wife. He even becomes a Villain with Good Publicity and is loved by the kingdom as their king.
  • Karma Houdini Warranty: On the other hand, in "Last Hope", they get their just deserts as unless you choose to pursue their paths, the Gallibardi twins will die in all the other routes. Julian's True ending in Bloody Nightmare also involves him paying back the twins for the Cold-Blooded Torture they did on him tenfold behind closed doors.
• Kill It with Fire:
  • Happens on one of the wolf bad endings, where Mejojo and Auger light the cave on fire where wolves are sleeping, burning them all alive in the cave.
  • "Last Hope" reveals that Mejojo and Auger killed Rath and Arles's family this way.
• Killer Rabbit: The rat knights of the CCK are small, fuzzy, and adorable. They are also Mejojo's minions who are good at stealth and will not hesitate to fight for Mejojo.
• Lady and Knight: The relationship between Nesso and Fiona if she chooses to pursue him. Bonus points for him being an actual knight.
• Last Stand: The wolves have one of these on both their own path and the cat path. On the cat path, the castle gates are shut behind them due to being Lured into a Trap, and they must either fight their way out or die in the castle.
  • Another incidence of this occurs on the wolf path during the finale. Mejojo and Auger's army arrives to attack the hidden base of the wolves, and they must fight through the army or all be wiped out.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: Arles on his own route has a moment like this, when Fiona is threatened. Nesso also has a moment on the family path after someone tries to hurt Fiona, and he tells them he no longer has a reason to hold back.
• Lighter and Softer:
  • Zara's route counts as this after the darkness and despair of some of the other routes.
  • "Last Hope" is just as dark as the first game but has a happier ending in general with most of their good ending routes, including a Golden Ending where they manage to put an end to the Garribaldi twins tyranny of the country, a cure for Zodiva is developed, Fiona and the surviving wolves then created a village where both humans and wolves can coexist with Arles, Rath, Fiona and Guillan ruling and happily loving each other.
• Little Bit Beastly: The cats and lions look mostly human, with lion or cat ears and tails.
• The Lost Lenore: Elvira counts as this, being Mejojo's and Arles' former fiance, and the one whose death kicks off the events 10 years before the game begins.
• Love Interest: A given with being a Romance Game. There are three different branches, with different love interests. The cat path has Mejojo and Auger. The wolf path has Rath, Arles, and Guillan. And the family path has Nesso, Zara, and Julian.
• Love Makes You Evil: Mejojo's obsession with his ex-fiance spirals into him trying to kill off all the wolves.
• Made of Iron: The werewolves of the game can take a lot of injuries and even illness, and not be incapacitated. This ends up being the reason why they spread zodiva.
• Malicious Slander: Fiona is the subject of this, when it gets spread that she is a witch who is controlling the wolf pack. The wolves are subject to this too, due to the belief that they spread zodiva.
• Man in the Iron Mask: Mejojo and Auger keep Julian around instead of killing him. Justified with the fact that he was a Disinherited Child already, and Auger is a Sadist who wants to keep him around his own amusement. On Julian's true ending, this comes back to bite them in the ass.
• A Match Made in Stockholm: Fiona ends up like this on the good ending for Mejojo or the twin good ending, where she stops trying to escape and starts cooperating and even caring about Mejojo.
• More Dakka: On the wolf path, the cats bring cannons in to attack the wolf base as the wolves are Made of Iron and hard to kill.
• Multiple Endings: 6 of the 8 Love Interests have a good and a bad ending. The other 2 have a good, bad, and a true ending.
• My Beloved Smother: Mejojo and Auger's mother was very much this, due to her terrible situation in the palace. She was merely the concubine to the king who didn't love her, and the king's courtesan hated her and constantly bullied her and tried to assassinate her twins. This led to her desperately clinging to them, to the point that when she was finally Driven to Suicide, she tricked them into helping.
• No Escape but Down: On Rath's good ending in Bloody Nightmare, Fiona and Rath are trapped on a cliff by Auger. Rather than be captured or killed by him, they jump off the cliff together. They both survive due to Soft Water.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: This occurs to The Heroine Fiona when she goes back to the castle for the cat path in order to convince Mejojo and Auger to abandon their plan. This leads to her experiencing Cold-Blooded Torture to punish her, the wolves getting wiped out, and her family getting killed trying to save her.
• Not in This for Your Revolution: On the family path, Fiona, Nesso, Julian, and Zara all decide that it's better to escape than try to fix the problems with the country. They decide that it is ultimately not their problem and that family is more important.
• Number Two: Elza, a lion, is this to Nesso's Gefreiter. They are also good friends.
• Our Werewolves Are Different: The werewolves in this game are their own race and cannot turn others into wolves. They can also change form at will and do not need the full moon.
• Parental Abandonment: According to the twins, their father, the king of Weblin, counts as this. He was more concerned with his son who was the heir to the throne, and even a wolf knight that served him.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: The attitude of Arles and his wolves. They believe that since they're already viewed as cursed and persecuted by the humans, then the humans should be just as cursed.
• The Plague: Zodiva is an illness that is spreading across the country, causing black spots to appear on the skin and madness.
• Polyamory: In "Last Hope", the Golden Ending for the Wolves has Fiona in a relationship with Rath, Arles and Guillan.
• Poor Communication Kills: On the cat path, Fiona sneaks off from Nesso and Zara to go back to the palace to confront Mejojo and Auger. This leads to Nesso and Zara joining the wolves to rescue her, and leads to their deaths.
• The Power of Blood: Fiona's blood is discovered to help cure the wolves of zodiva, and a cure can be made from it.
• Princeling Rivalry: Mejojo and Auger have this towards their brother Julian, who was the true heir to the throne until they deposed him.
• Propaganda Machine: The royal family uses this to their advantage, especially with regards to the wolves and with Fiona.
• Puppet King: King Garibaldi VI turns out to be one of these as it's revealed that his twin sons, Mejojo and Auger are actually controlling the country due to his illness.
• Rape, Pillage, and Burn: The wolves default method of dealing with the human villages they attack, without the rape. After Arles realized that the blood of a Lobelia can cure Zodiva, this becomes their MO to find such individual but otherwise, they did nothing to the women they captured and imprisoned.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Mejojo and Auger give one to their father, as they're assassinating him. They call him out for all the things he let them get away with, and how much they manipulated him.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Several examples of this.
  • Zara is the Blue Oni to Nesso's Red Oni. Nesso is more passionate and willing to fight, while Zara tries to rein him in and calm him down.
  • Additionally, Blue Oni Rath and Red Oni Guillan. Ax-Crazy Guillan is always wanting to fight and kill, and Rath is the more calm one who tries to keep him from killing so much.
• Replacement Goldfish: Fiona counts as this to both Mejojo and Arles, as a replacement for their ex fiancee that was killed.
• The Reveal: Towards the middle of the game, it is discovered that Mejojo himself, not his dad, orchestrated the genocide of the wolves due to losing out on his fiance because she fell in love with a wolf.
  • Additionally, the reveal that the wolves are infected with zodiva, and Lobeira blood can cure them.
• Rightful King Returns: The true ending of Julian's route involves Julian, the rightful heir growing a spine and decided to take back the throne from his half brothers.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Mejojo starts one of these against the wolves when he loses his fiancee.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Mejojo and Auger both fight battles throughout the game instead of simply letting their soldiers do all the work. They fight during several wolf attacks, and help their knights during a wolf hunt.
• Sadistic Choice: On the cat path, Mejojo and Auger let Fiona choose who gives her punishment. Choosing Mejojo leads to A Taste of the Lash, and choosing Auger leads to break her by talking.
• The Scapegoat: The wolves are this, as they blamed for the spread of zodiva.
• Schrödinger's Cast: In "Bloody Nightmare", Julian and Guillan are one of the main Love Interest of that installment, in "Last Hope", they are Demoted to Extra and don't have a route dedicated to them. In exchange, "Last Hope" brings in Pearl and Richie, Fiona's young guard dog friends and Elza, one of the knights under Nesso, as a Love Interest for "Last Hope" as they are originally supporting characters in "Bloody Nightmare".
• Self-Made Orphan: The cat twins eventually end up killing their dad, and Mejojo takes the throne.
• Signature Sound Effect: Mejojo has one during his POVs, which is the sound of a creaking rope. It indicates the time that he and his brother unknowingly helps their mother to commit suicide.
• Sliding Scale of Anthropomorphism: The cats, lions, and rabbits are of the Anthropomorphic variety, looking human with tails and animal ears.. The rats are the zoomorphic type, resembling real world rats but being 2 to 3 feet tall and intelligent.
• The Smurfette Principle: The Heroine Fiona is the only female character in the cast to even have a sprite.
• Sneaky Departure: The Heroine Fiona makes one of these on Bloody Nightmare, where she has Arles and the wolves sneak her out of their territory so she can go back to the palace and confront the cat twins. She doesn't want Nesso or Zara to know what she's doing, because she knows they'll try and stop her.
• Spanner in the Works: In Last Hope, the whole story changes in the wolves favor and things not looking too good with Mejojo and Auger over the course of the game for the fact that Rath infiltrated the Galland manor before Mejojo could get to Fiona and brought her away. Rath taking Fiona away before Mejojo and Auger could get to her essentially ruined what plans that they originally had for Fiona in Bloody Nightmare to smitherenes.
• Story Branching: There are three main branch off points in the game which applies to Bloody Nightmare and Last Hope.
  • The cat path, where you choose to go back to the castle, leads to Mejojo and Auger's routes.
  • The family path, where you choose to leave the country, leads to Nesso, Zara, and Julian's routes.
  • The wolf path, where you choose to stay with the wolves, leads to Rath, Arles, and Guillan routes.
• Switching P.O.V.: Throughout the game, the POV sometimes switches to other characters. Usually Nesso, Mejojo, Auger, and Arles. These typically reveal unknown plot reveals and flasbacks.
• Survival Mantra: Mejojo and Auger both have the tendency to repeat to each other "We will survive, brother" and "We have to survive."
• Taking You with Me:
  • Happens several times throughout the game, mostly when Mejojo and Arles fight. Depending on the ending, it can either succeed or fail. Guillan's bad ending has one of these too, where he decides to bite and kill Fiona as he is dying because she belongs to him and he doesn't want to die alone.
• Tampering with Food and Drink: Previous Assassination Attempts towards Mejojo and Auger were this, as their food was poisoned on multiple occasions.
  • On Julian's true ending, Julian poisons Mejojo and Auger's tea with a paralyzing poison to disable them and call in reinforcements.
• Then Let Me Be Evil: Arles has this attitude towards humans, saying that if everyone thinks the wolves are cursed, then he will make them just as cursed.
• Token Mini-Moe: The puppies, Pearl and Richie, count as this. They are adorable children who turn into fluffy puppies.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Mejojo on his good ending ends up as a Villan With Good Publicity who his people love, and he starts treating Fiona quite well.
• Torture for Fun and Information: Guillan tortures several people for information over the course of the game, and always seems to really enjoy it.
• Trademark Favorite Food: The rat knights go crazy for nuts, and accept them as payment for a job well done.
• Troubled Backstory Flashback: The game uses a lot of these, especially for the cat twins Mejojo and Auger, and the Wolf King Arles. They usually reveal more about the plot.
• Undying Loyalty: Several cases throughout the series
  • Zara has this towards the Galland family, especially Nesso and Fiona, as they accepted him as a member of the family and because they were nice to him.
  • Nesso himself has this also, towards his sister. It's partly Big Brother Instinct and partly because he wants to marry her.
  • Nesso's military unit also has this towards him. When Fiona gets taken, his entire squad shows up to help him even if that means going against the princes Mejojo and Auger. Auger later comments that Nesso's squad has even more loyalty to Nesso than to them.
  • Guillan has this towards Arles, who he looks at as a father figure.
• Unstoppable Rage: The wolves can go into this mode while infected by zodiva.
• Unusual Animal Alliance: The cats previously had an alliance with the rabbits, and currently the CCK, rat knights, serve Mejojo who is also a cat.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Mejojo becomes this on the paths where he wins, despite being the one to wipe out the wolves, and holding out on the zodiva cure until it wins him the most points. It is mentioned that the kingdom absolutely loves him.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Guillan and Rath come across as this. They snark at each other and even come to physical blows occasionally. But Guillan was the first to suggest rescuing Rath, and on the cat path, he performs a Heroic Sacrifice in order to get Rath to leave.
• The Voice: Although people have conversations with him, you never actually see King Garibaldi VI. You also never see Mejojo and Auger's mother, or Julian's mother, although people do talk to them and they have voice acting.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: The three wolf romance options, Arles, Rath, and Guillan, can all change their wolf form at will even without the full moon.
• Vorpal Pillow: The method the cat twins use to kill their father.
• Witch Hunt: Fiona is the subject of this when the villagers around her tower start to think she's a witch. It's what led her to be taken to the castle.
• Withholding the Cure: Mejojo and Auger are holding back a preventative medicine for zodiva from the public, so that they can use the fear of it as a reason to continue their Final Solution of the wolves. On their path, after the wolves are exterminated, they do actually distribute the cure to the people.
• Worthy Opponent: Mejojo and Auger consider the Galland family in general to be this. They especially consider Nesso, the World's Best Warrior, as a swordsman that even they can't beat. Besides each other, he is also the only one who they call by his real name instead of insulting nicknames. They even try to send him to the border of the country on the common route so that he can't interfere with their plans for his sister.
• Wound Licking: The wolves do this occasionally to Fiona, especially after she is bitten.
• The Wrongful Heir to the Throne: Julian considers himself this, although how accurate it is is undetermined due to his Broken Bird status.
• Yandere:
  • Mejojo counts as this towards Fiona. He will stop at nothing to marry Fiona and keep her away from everything else but him.
  • Nesso, Fiona's half brother, counts as this too. He rejects any marriage proposals from the twins, and was actually the one to propose the idea of keeping Fiona locked in a tower. On his good romance ending, he tells Fiona that he would like to build another tower for just the two of them.
  • Guillan is also one, being very possessive and clingy towards Fiona. In his bad ending, he pulls a If I Can't Have You… to Fiona, using his dying moment to kill her too because she is his.
• You Can't Go Home Again: This happens to Fiona, Nesso, and Zara, after Fiona has been accused of being a witch and they realize they can't go back to the castle because of the angry mob of villagers that have turned against them.

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