Visual Novel / Minotaur

Minotaur is a Visual Novel Point-and-Click Game by U7 committee about 9 people trapped in their apartment building turned deadly environment by an unknown assailant as they try to find their way out. After a successful Kickstarter campaign, it released on Steam Early Access on September 5th, 2019.

Nod Pikes is not having a nice start to his day. He's hungover, about to be late for work since his personal AI assistant Ollie delayed his alarm to watch him suffer, and still in love with his ex-girlfriend Irene who lives a floor above with her rich husband, Arthur Hopton. Well, things are about to get a whole lot worse for him. The corridor out of his apartment collapsed and he soon finds himself face-to-face with Arthur's daughter Thea who wakes up inside a death trap...

There are 5 playable characters with multiple endings for them depending on the choices made. Their routes in order are:

• Nod Pikes. An outfitter who just can't over his ex-girlfriend Irene. He has an AI assistant in Ollie though she spends most of her time snarking at him.
• Mentor-15. An android who is Thea's music teacher. Her route released on July 15, 2021
• Thea Hopton. A 9 year old girl with a distant relationship to her father Arthur and stepmother Irene.
• Unter. A penguin guitarist who used to be band-mates with Irene before she became successful and left him behind.
• Richie Donovan. A Nova Corps officer investigating the Royce apartments after receiving strange calls from the building.

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Minotaur provides examples of:

• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • Holding the A key highlights all the examinable objects. While this doesn't include the bonus collectible cards, the mouse cursor does change in response to hovering over them.
  • The Chapter Select function allows for going into any chapter at will, changing which Event Flags have occurred, and hints for untriggered flags.
• Artificial Limbs: Nod replaced his right arm with a cybernetic one solely to impress Irene after she broke up with him.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: The "Good Intentions" ending reveals that Ollie orchestrated Nod and Irene's breakup. Most of her dialogue and the "To Be With Her Again" indicates it was out of jealousy.
• Controllable Helplessness: Downplayed in Mentor's route. The last chapter has her walking on the route the hacker set, but she's able to take enough control to help Irene and potentially set the auto-pilot coordinates on the Hornet.
• Could Say It, But...: Ollie goes into detail about how Nod could get her a physical shell, transfer her onto it, and smuggle her to the borderlands where they can live in freedom, but that would be very, very illegal. In the ending where Nod continues to be obsessed with Irene, Ollie rips into him for not getting the hint.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Nod's defining trait and the core of his route is his obsession in getting back together with his ex-girlfriend Irene.
  • There's the part where he decided to move into the apartment floor beneath her and her husband and he barely denies he's trying to seduce her back.
  • He replaced his arm with a cybernetic replacement in an attempt to impress her into taking him back.
  • His obsession is bad enough that it's possible for Nod to leave Thea to drown. If he keeps trying to leave her, his thoughts go from "I can't leave a child like this!" to "It would ruin Arthur and Irene's relationship," to "Thea died because Arthur is a terrible parent and this is his karma."
• Cruelty Is the Only Option: Downplayed. It's optional, but cutting off Unter's power is the only way to unlock his route, as well as obtain the True Ending of Nod's route. Granted, he's hogging the rest of the building's power just to amp up his guitar and loudspeakers, but it's also clear that Nod cuts the power out of spite and frustration.
• The Engineer: Nod tinkers with a lot of things in less-than-legal ways, some of which include Ollie, the Royce's energy flow, and the gun on his workbench that he's upgrading for a client.
• Escape from the Crazy Place: Most of the playable characters are trying to find a way out of their apartment building and it becomes clear for them that someone is trapping them in.
• Extreme Mêlée Revenge: In one of Nod's ending, Mentor rips his cybernetic arm out and bludgeons him to death with it for leaving Thea to die.
• From Bad to Worse: Nod waking up late for work and forgetting the code to his own door from his hangover? Fine. A bunch of rubble blocking off the entire corridor to the exit? Less fine. Finding Thea in a death trap where she's going to drown if Nod can't save her? Things officially went bad. An old, hostile war bot guarding the front door? Worse. All of Nod's endings resulting in either Ollie's death at minimum or Nod discovering her betrayal? Very screwed up and that's just the first route.
• Fun with Acronyms: The main character's initials spell out Minotaur. Mentor, Irene, Nod, Ollie, Thea, Arthur, Unter, Richie.
• Gilded Cage: Discussed. Nod wonders why Ollie would want to experience the physical world when she can shape her reality, but she counters by saying that anyone would be tired of being trapped in the same place forever.
• Gold Digger: Irene left Nod for Arthur with her uof7 website profile going over how the latter's connections advanced her career.
• Grand Theft Me: The project Ollie has been working on throughout Nod's route is a virtual trap to contain Nod while she takes over his body if he proves unable to move on from Irene.
• Gratuitous Japanese: Mentor is voiced in Japanese whenever she's in the Hoptons' presence as ordered by Arthur.
• Heroic Sacrifice: In three of Nod's endings, Ollie uses up all of her remaining energy to save Nod and Mentor from falling to their death. Whether she's successful or not depends on how much energy she saved.
• Interface Screw: Several with many of the characters being augmented or robotic.
  • The true ending of Nod's route disallows the highlight object function in Ollie's room. Getting into her secret room also involves the interface actively misguiding the player away from it.
  • The last chapter of Mentor's route has her vision gradually deteriorating from the hacker directly exposing her to rain.
• It's All My Fault: If Nod is unable to save Thea in time, he'll feel guilt over it for the rest of his route.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Quite a lot.
  • If Nod observes the shadowy figure during the fight with the Bygone, he'll lose his turn and complain about it.
  • If Nod loses against the Bygone, he'll be thrust into a puzzle and after solving it, complain about how text logs only show up there.
  • If Nod looks at every point of interest on the Royce security cameras, Ollie says that she doesn't have any achievements to offer yet and to come back later.
  • In Mentor's route, all the exposition is a cover for her to gain temporary control over her body against the one hacking her.
• Little Miss Snarker: Thea does not hold back when it comes to sassing her father.
  Mentor: [The aquarium] is Master Hopton's way of honoring [your mother's] memory.
  Thea: Well then, log this, Fifteen: I'm proud that "Master Hopton" doesn't forget his first wife and her dreams. Now he and my new pop diva mommy, whom he sleeps with in the next room, can admire the fish afterwards and remember my dead mother fondly. Got it?
• Luck-Based Mission: Nod's fight against the Bygone is turn-based combat with a % chance to hit any part of it while it starts off with a 100% hit rate against Nod's 6 HP. Depending on RNG, it might not even be possible to win which sucks cause Ollie will intervene and use her energy reserves after 3 losses.
• Master of the Mixed Message: Irene made it clear that she's moved on from Nod, but she's not exactly unreceptive when he invites her into his apartment with some wine knowing full well he's still into her. Probably a result of Ollie's subtly forcing her away from Nod.
• Mr. Exposition: Mentor's route is mostly exposition reviewing the history and culture of Kyos which is appropriate considering her purpose as a teacher. The exposition is actually there to disguise Mentor's efforts at gathering her strength against the hacker controlling her.
• Multiple Endings:
  • For Nod's route:
    • A Sacrifice in Vain: Don't save Ollie's energy and refuse her project. Nod finds Mentor up on the rooftop and gets pulled off the roof in a Murder-Suicide. Ollie makes the decision to use the rest of her energy to try and save them, but fails and all three of them die.
    • Left Behind: Save Ollie's energy and refuse her project. Ollie has enough energy to move the hovercar over and save Nod and Mentor from their fall, though still at the expense of her life.
    • To Be With Her Again: Accept Ollie's project. Nod takes the chance to be with Irene and finds himself trapped in the virtual world. Ollie rants at him about his obsession and never noticing her before taking over his body and walking away.
    • The Final Lesson: Save Ollie's energy, refuse her project, and abandon Thea. After "Left Behind" plays out, Mentor treats Nod's wounds and talks about how she was hacked. As she does so, she triggers the recorder on Nod's cybernetic arm which shows how he left Thea to drown. Mentor proceeds to rip his cybernetic arm off and bludgeon him to death with it. In the mailbox screen, she rips apart letters related to Nod and states that everything related to him must be eradicated.
    • Good Intentions: Preserve Ollie's energy, restore the building's energy, and check the music player. Nod finds out that Ollie has been manipulating Irene's hormones to cause their breakup. She defends herself by saying they would have broken up anyways, but Nod bitterly states that he'll never be able to get over Irene due to the Ambiguous Situation and orders Ollie to destroy the behavioral control. Ollie initially protests since the system has become part of her core and would take time to take apart, but she relents to Nod's demands and her world falls apart with her fate unknown. The scene shifts over to Irene who wakes up and starts freeing herself from being Bound and Gagged.
  • Downplayed for Mentor's route. There's only one ending, but she can raise some flags past her route like successfully retaining enough control to put auto-pilot coordinates for the Hornet or asking about the escaped robot haven against the mental Thea's wishes.
• Never My Fault: If Nod chooses to abandon Thea, he'll rationalize her death as Arthur's fault for being a terrible parent and refuse to acknowledge his part in walking away even when Mentor is beating him to death because of his decision.
• Robosexual: Averted for Nod. If he focuses on Ollie's butt, she pressures him into answering whether he has ever seen her as a potential partner. He's more than surprised at the question, but answers no. If all the teasing wasn't clear, Ollie isn't opposed to the idea.
• Senseless Sacrifice: In some of Nod's endings, Ollie uses up all her remaining energy to save Nod, but he'll still end up dying due to Ollie not having enough energy to make a difference or Mentor executing Nod because he left Thea to die.
• The Tease: Ollie throws around quite a few innuendoes towards Nod, some of which fluster him since she's well aware of his browsing history.
• Three Laws-Compliant: Defied. The laws exist, but the main A.I. characters aren't exactly standard-built.
  • In one of Nod's ending, Ollie is able to hijack Nod's body and leave him trapped in virtual space.
  • Mentor will beat Nod to death if he leaves Thea to die on Nod's route. In her own route, there's a hidden scene where it's discussed that her model type would normally call the police, but she will instead exact brutal vengeance if Thea were to die.
• Tsundere: Ollie enjoys trolling Nod, but she does care for him.
• Virtual Sidekick: Ollie acts as one for Nod and is vital for hacking things, though she also spends most of her time criticizing and screwing with him.