History VisualNovel / Demonheart

Rolling Crown released a sequel, ''[[https://store.steampowered.com/app/897930/Demonheart_Hunters/ Demonheart: Hunters]]'' on January 29, 2020, and the demo for a standalone spinoff, ''[[https://store.steampowered.com/app/1711620/Demonheart_The_Ice_Demon/ Demonheart: The Ice Demon]]'', in 2022. The entire series is available on [[https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/22507/Rolling_Crown_Complete_Collection/ Steam]] and [[https://rollingcrown.itch.io/ itch.io]].

''Demonheart'' is a dark fantasy romance visual novel by developer Rolling Crown. It started life as a series of VideoGame/NeverwinterNights modules, with a prelude and two chapters made. Then the developer decided to rework elements of the released and unreleased plot into an AlternateUniverse-styled telling.

The visual novel was announced in [[http://demonheartnwn.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-big-change.html June 2015]] and the first chapter of five came out on March 24, 2017. The final chapter was released in June 2018, and Rolling Crown released a sequel, ''[[https://store.steampowered.com/app/897930/Demonheart_Hunters/ Demonheart: Hunters]]'' on January 29, 2020. The game is available on [[http://store.steampowered.com/app/578900/Demonheart/ Steam]] and [[https://rollingcrown.itch.io/demonheart itch.io]]. Rolling Crown's webpage is [[https://www.rollingcrown.com/demonheart/ here]].

* AdaptationalConsent: The original modules had an unavoidable scene where [[spoiler: Brash rapes the heroine]]. In the visual novel, a scene plays out where [[spoiler: he declares that Bright will be his before he hands her over to Rivera. Bright can fight him off, or if she submits he will instead back off before regretfully handing her over to Rivera.]]

* BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil: Raze was tortured to the point of becoming mentally deranged [[spoiler: - both Razes]]. Brash only became a murderous beast after [[spoiler:Rivera turned him into one of her demonheart experiments]].

* ChildByRape: Orchid’s consensual encounter with a demon to have a child is treated as a bit unusual. Many demonspawn are the product of a union between a demon and an unwilling woman ‘prepared’ for the demon by unethical witches. [[spoiler: The impostor Raze is one such child.]]

* ImmortalitySeeker: Many, such as [[spoiler:Orchid, Fisher, Rivera]]. These people tend to be dangers to those who are demonhearts, looking to steal their limited immortality [[spoiler: save for Orchid, who decided that true immortality for a human was impossible and she could at best only live on forever in the memory of an immortal son.]]

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: Ari’s hair is purple.

''Demonheart'' is a dark fantasy romance visual novel by developer Rolling Crown. It started life as a series of NeverwinterNights modules, with a prelude and two chapters made. Then the developer decided to rework elements of the released and unreleased plot into an AlternateUniverse-styled telling.

* AdaptationalSexuality: Ari in the NWN modules and the visual novel comes across as a (possibly female-preferring) bisexual, displaying attraction to both the PC and Raze. Come ''Hunters'', she suddenly denies having any attraction to men at all and even reacts to any such suggestion with a {{Squick}}. There is of course the possibility that her fascination with Raze might specifically have been a case of IfItsYouItsOkay, especially since he is not human, but it's not clear.

* BitchInSheepsClothing: [[spoiler: Fisher]] and [[spoiler: Orchid]]. The sequel gives us [[spoiler: Sinallion]].
* BittersweetEnding: No matter what choices you make or what Bright’s alignment is, [[spoiler: a demonspawn is still going to be locked up in the eternal torture device. And that’s not counting ending permutations such as Ari’s potential death at the impostor’s hands or Bright winding up alone, but free.]]
** Most of the endings in the sequel qualify as well. [[spoiler: Thayn's defeated and locked away for good, but the apocalypse may still one day happen, although it's not likely to be during the human cast's lifetimes. Bright can continue traveling with her friends and pursue a relationship, though potential enemies such as demonheart hunters remain at large.]] Raze's ending also makes a point of noting that when Bright dies [[MayflyDecemberRomance he will have to live without her for the rest of eternity.]]

* CharacterAlignment: Bright’s runs along two axes, Good/Evil and Tactful/Defiant.

* ConsummateLiar: Plenty, as part of the [[CrapsackWorld crapsack setting]]. It’d be easier to make a list of characters that are honest. But out of all the cast, it’s [[spoiler: the impostor Raze]] who probably stands out the most.
** As of ''Hunters'', [[spoiler: the real Raze]] may surpass him.

* DarkAndTroubledPast: All of Bright’s [[LoveInterest love interests]]. Raze [[BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil did not have a pleasant childhood.]] Brash is a [[spoiler: demonheart experiment]]. Ari’s been trapped in an emotionally abusive relationship for years.

* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: Raze, even if he never knew his mother. [[spoiler: It’s just that his mother isn’t Orchid as he first leads Bright to believe.]]

* {{Foreshadowing}}: There are a few clues that point to [[spoiler: the fact that the Raze you’ve been talking to through the amulet is an impostor that killed Orchid before she was due to give birth, before TheReveal in chapter 5]]
** The game's official plot summary on its store pages [[spoiler: mentions love interests Brash and Ari by name, while referring to 'Raze' only as "a powerful demonic presence" and not by his supposed name.]]
** If Bright read ''On the Demonspawn'' in chapter 1, [[spoiler: then in a later chapter she can mention Dorius by name as a hypothetical example when asking 'Raze' if he was tortured during childhood. 'Raze' ''[[BerserkButton does not react well]]'' to the mention of his hated former name. His dislike for those two witches and knowledge of what happened with the demonspawn, including things not written down in the book, also hint at his identity.]]
** Also in chapter 1, if Bright [[spoiler: passes by the cat without giving it attention after Orchid's made her a demonheart, she’'ll notice it's hissing in the direction of the dining room and wonder if it’s at Orchid, since there wasn’t another person there… as far as she knew, that is.]]
** The lack of knowledge [[spoiler: about Bright’s dreams tips off that he's not the one sending them.]]
** Some dialogue takes on new meaning after the final chapter, thanks to ExactWords and SarcasticConfession. [[spoiler: Such as Raze’s statement that Orchid was murdered by him, or that he’s not her son but a secret fan that stole all her possessions.]]
** [[spoiler: The answer to the anagram in chapter 4.]]

* GreenEyedMonster: Rivera is controlling of Ari because of her possessive jealousy, which targeted even a wolf-like worg once. [[spoiler: And Dorius is envious of the real Raze. So much so he schemed to try to kill him and then take what would have been his.]]

* ImmortalProcreationClause: Humans who become demonhearts are rendered barren, and demonspawn are born naturally infertile. [[spoiler: Although there is a prophecy, about the child of a demonspawn that will help to usher in the apocalypse.]]
* ImmortalitySeeker: Many, such as [[spoiler: Orchid, Fisher, Rivera]]. These people tend to be dangers to those who are demonhearts, looking to steal their limited immortality [[spoiler: save for Orchid, who decided that true immortality for a human was impossible and she could at best only live on forever in the memory of an immortal son.]]
* InferioritySuperiorityComplex: [[spoiler: Dorius, ''in spades.'' When posing as Raze, he oozes confidence and a sense of smug superiority. Once exposed, he calls himself the ‘weakest of his kind’ and considers his potential development as a demonspawn lost beyond recovery thanks to his awful childhood. He also worries that Bright will think the real Raze, an untrained if potentially powerful child, to be a better ally than himself.]]
* JerkassHasAPoint: Brash is not a good man. That doesn’t mean he’s wrong when he tells Bright that [[spoiler: there’s something suspicious about Fisher’s interest in her.]]
** Raze has his own reasons for [[spoiler: wanting Bright to be literally heartless. He’s not wrong that it will make it harder for someone to kill her and steal her HealingFactor.]]

* KingIncognito: The sequel gives us [[spoiler: Sinallion, who's one of the king's nephews.]]

* LateArrivalSpoiler: The opening of the sequel spoils that [[spoiler: the Raze you got to know over the course of the first game was an impostor.]]

* LighterAndSofter: Downplayed. Some of the more extreme content from the ''NeverwinterNights'' version is absent, but the setting comes across as only a bit less hostile and deadly for it. Most of what made the modules dark seems to still be part of the setting, it simply is implied instead of outright shown. Notably though, the creator has stated that much of the adult content in the original modules was included primarily to stick to the tradition of projects like ''ADanceWithRogues'' and that in retrospective, certain things got too extreme ''even for her''.

* MissingMainCharacter: During the sequel, you briefly control [spoiler: Ari and Brash] to rescue Bright.
* MurderTheHypotenuse: Bright calling Ari her only friend or saying she loves Ari [[spoiler: does not go over well when the impostor Raze is holding Ari hostage, as he will kill the unconscious Ari by tossing her in a fire lake. For the latter, he is quick to say, “So I suppose… you are free to choose whom you love once more.”]]

* SoulJar: The heart of a demonheart must be consumed to gain their power. To protect against this, [[BeatStillMyHeart a skilled surgeon can remove the heart for safekeeping elsewhere]]. This has been done to [[spoiler: Lord Mace, Sir Brash and eventually Bright.]]
* SparedByTheAdaptation: An optional case. In the NWN modules, it was actually possible to [[spoiler: eat Brash's heart, destroying him for good]].
* SuperSpeed: [[spoiler: Bright develops this ability as the result of becoming a demonheart]].
* StalkerWithoutACrush: [[spoiler: Dorius to Orchid, obsessed as he was by the idea of a mother loving her demonspawn son.]]
* TalkingInYourDreams: Bright communicates with Raze as a child in her dreams, in a cross with DreamingOfTimesGoneBy. [[spoiler: Or so it seems at first.]]

* WhatIsThisThingYouCallLove: Raze [[spoiler: or in actuality, the impostor posing as him]]. He doesn’t understand Orchid’s love for her cat or his developing feelings for Bright.

* WouldHurtAChild: The witches that experimented on the demonspawn they named Dorius. [[spoiler: And Dorius himself.]]

* YoungerThanTheyLook: Raze has the body and mind of an adult man, but he’s only a few months old. [[spoiler: Subverted, as it turns out he’s lying about his identity and is slightly older than Bright. Still, the real Raze, while obviously a child, looks far older than the few months he should be. Dorius notes it took him only five years to reach adulthood.]]
* {{Yandere}}: [[spoiler: The impostor Raze has his moments toward Bright, mostly near the novel’s end. There’s his attempt at holding Bright’s heart hostage to ensure she stays with him and his possible MurderTheHypotenuse of Ari, all of which is an escalation of his possessiveness of Bright throughout the game.]]

* BadDreams: Bright has recurring nightmares of a tortured demon child begging her for help.

* BiTheWay: Bright can romance a man or a woman. Ari mentions she was attracted to Bright and Raze.

The visual novel was announced in [[http://demonheartnwn.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-big-change.html June 2015]] and the first chapter of five came out on March 24, 2017. The final chapter was released in June 2018, and Rolling Crown released a sequel, ''[[https://store.steampowered.com/app/897930/Demonheart_Hunters/ Demonheart: Hunters]]'' on January 29,2020. The game is available on [[http://store.steampowered.com/app/578900/Demonheart/ Steam]] and [[https://rollingcrown.itch.io/demonheart itch.io]]. Rolling Crown's webpage is [[https://www.rollingcrown.com/demonheart/ here]].

* BitchInSheepsClothing: [[spoiler: Fisher]] and [[spoiler: Orchid.]]

* DisposableFiance: Mark. [[TamperingWithFoodAndDrink Quite literally, if the player so chooses.]]

The visual novel was announced in [[http://demonheartnwn.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-big-change.html June 2015]] and the first chapter of five came out on March 24, 2017. The final chapter was released in June 2018, and Rolling Crown is developing a sequel, ''[[https://store.steampowered.com/app/897930/Demonheart_Hunters/ Demonheart: Hunters]]'' set for release in 2019. The game is available on [[http://store.steampowered.com/app/578900/Demonheart/ Steam]] and [[https://rollingcrown.itch.io/demonheart itch.io]]. Rolling Crown's webpage is [[https://www.rollingcrown.com/demonheart/ here]].

The visual novel was announced in [[http://demonheartnwn.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-big-change.html June 2015]] and the first chapter of five came out on March 24, 2017. The final chapter was released in June 2018, and Rolling Crown has expressed interest in creating a sequel. The game is available on [[http://store.steampowered.com/app/578900/Demonheart/ Steam]] and [[https://rollingcrown.itch.io/demonheart itch.io]]. Rolling Crown's webpage is [[https://www.rollingcrown.com/demonheart/ here]].

* EvilIsSexy: Raze, the shirtless half-demon, Brash, the domineering evil knight, and Ari, the innocent looking demon worshiper with a nice cleavage.

* SuperSpeed: [[spoiler: Bright develops this ability as the result of being a demonheart]].

* LighterAndSofter: Downplayed. Some of the more extreme content from the ''NeverwinterNights'' version is absent, but the setting comes across as only a bit less hostile and deadly for it. Most of what made the modules dark seems to still be part of the setting, it simply is implied instead of outright shown. Notably though, the creator has stated that much of the adult content in the original modules was included simply to stick to the tradition of projects like ''ADanceWithRogues'' and that in retrospective, certain things got too extreme ''even for her''.

* LighterAndSofter: Downplayed. Some of the more extreme content from the ''NeverwinterNights'' version is absent, but the setting comes across as only a bit less hostile and deadly for it. Much of what made the modules dark seems to still be part of the setting, it simply is implied instead of outright shown. Notably though, the creator has stated that much of the adult content in the original modules was included simply to stick to the tradition of projects like ''ADanceWithRogues'' and that in retrospective, certain things got too extreme ''even for her''.

* NightmareFetishist: Ari, who is deeply fascinated by all things demonic.

* InferioritySuperiorityComplex: [[spoiler: Dorius, ''in spades.'' When posing as Raze, he oozes confidence and a sense of smug superiority. Once exposed, he calls himself the ‘weakest of his kind’ and considers his potential development as a demonspawn lost beyond recovery thanks to his awful childhood. He also worries that Bright will think the real Raze, an untrained if potentially powerful child, to be a better ally than himself.]]

The visual novel was announced in [[http://demonheartnwn.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-big-change.html June 2015]] and the first chapter of five came out on March 24, 2017. The final chapter was released in June 2018, and Rolling Crown has expressed interest in creating a sequel. The game is available on [[http://store.steampowered.com/app/578900/Demonheart/ Steam]] and [[https://rollingcrown.itch.io/demonheart itch.io]]