Arihara Satoru is but an ordinary person living in this futuristic world.
However, beneath that guise, he's actually a secret agent working for an organization that uses Astrals.
One day, he receives a new mission:
Pose as a student and infiltrate a famous academy for Astrals.
After successfully transferring into the academy together with his sister Arihara Nanami, he settles into his new life there, meeting new friends like his classmates Mitsukasa Ayase and Nijouin Hazuki, and his upperclassman Shikibe Mayu, among others.
Until an unfortunate accident leads to Mitsukasa Ayase finding out his true identity! And in that situation, he also learns that she has her own big secret...
Riddle Joker is a Visual Novel published on April 27th 2018 by Yuzusoft, the same company behind Dracu-Riot!, Sabbat of the Witch, and Senren * Banka. An English version was released on Steam by Nekonyan on December 18th 2020.
No relation to Batman's Rogues Gallery.
Riddle Joker contains examples of the following tropes:
- Aborted Arc: It's established early on that several Astrals have gone missing. This is only followed up on in Ayase's route, otherwise it's just dropped.
- Accidental Pervert: There are a few instances of Satoru accidentally seeing what he isn't supposed to see:
- Right after defending Ayase from being kidnapped one night, Satoru asks if Ayase is injured. But he ends up noticing one of her breast pads falling out from a torn part of her shirt. A flustered Ayase responds by covering up the cut. And of course, she isn't too happy about her secret being revealed.
- While trying to apply a memory patch on Mayu in order to get her Astron particles for a key card, Satoru trips and falls down, sticking the patch on her leg and seeing her panties in the process. Mayu covers up her skirt upon realizing this latter fact, and her face turns red as well, which made retrieving the memory patch more difficult for Nanami.
- After Hazuki attempts to control her water Astral ability not long after exercising, water splashes onto her shirt, making it see-through and revealing her bra underneath. She gets embarrassed when Satoru points this out to her.
- While Satoru and Ayase were having a private conversation at the pool, Hazuki was demonstrating her Astra powers, then two male students get into a fight, and Hazuki was trying to get them to stop. Then they insult her and she uses her water powers on them, which causes a wave. The water gets on Ayase and washes off one of her pads, and Satoru could see her nipple in view, which prompts him to get the missing pad and escorting Ayase to her office. It took Ayase a while to realize what he was trying to do.
- A-Cup Angst: Ayase is the prime example of this trope. She hates being called flat-chested, or any of the online nicknames associated with it. Thus, she wears a pair of breast pads to go from A-cup to E-cup, and is her biggest secret that nobody else knew until Satoru accidentally learns of this while on one of his missions one night.
- This also extends to Chisaki, given her smaller build in comparison to the rest of the heroines. Due to this, she has a low self-esteem in regards to her body, and is somewhat envious to, in particular, her classmate Nanami.
- Angry Chef: Whenever Nanami is angry, she makes gyoza dumplings in order to calm down. The amount she makes depends on her mood.
- In fact, she expects people to finish eating her dumplings, otherwise she gets even more upset...
- Anti-Frustration Features: Like Senren Banka, a flow chart is present in Riddle Joker. This makes it easier to see what choices are made for a particular route without having to go over the Common Route.
- Anti-Magical Faction: A central antagonist on most routes is a rogue security agency controlled by a political faction that wants heavy regulation of Astrals and Astron technology. They want to make the public hate Astrals and are willing to go to extreme lengths to achieve this.
- Art Shift: As is typical in Yuzusoft games, humorous events usually depict the characters in a chibi style.
- Big Eater: Kyouhei exhibits this trait often. He tends to consume large amounts of food, despite his appearance.
- Bland-Name Product: Ayase likes to watch cute cat videos on YouPipe.
- The YZ Vita that she watches her cat videos on is totally not a PS Vita...
- The YZ Vita that she watches her cat videos on is totally not a PS Vita...
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Unlike most Yuzusoft titles, Riddle Joker has a spoken disclaimer that can be heard in Japanese upon launching the game, even on the localized versions. One of the 5 available heroines chosen at random will voice this to the audience by default.
- Interestingly enough, the voiced portion will still mention how the visual novel is restricted to Japan sales only, despite the fact that it was later localized for Western markets. This may be an oversight for the translation teams behind the localizations.
- Bridal Carry:
- Satoru gives one to Hazuki during her route, catching her after her power accidentally causes a miniature tsunami at the pool. As both of them are in their swimsuits, Hazuki ends up incredibly embarrassed.
- Happens to Ayase towards the end of her route, when Satoru saves her from one of Kaori's attacks, which were obtained after ingesting a medicine that grants a person temporary superpowers.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: Satoru is called this early on by one of his teachers, remarking he can be incredibly intelligent whenever he actually applies himself.
- The Cameo: There are several cameos and references to other Yuzusoft properties:
- Satoru has a Senren * Banka poster in his room.
- Yoshino can be spotted in the background of the train station.
- Similarly, Touko can be seen in the town CG during the prologue.
- Tsumugi and Rio can be seen next to each other outside the mall.
- Suga Hideto, a minor character, has posters of both Sabbat of the Witch and Tenshin Ranman on his wall, as well as several figurines, including one of Tsumugi in her witch outfit on his dresser.
- In Nanami's route, during her sleepover with Chisaki, a book featuring the tarot illustration of Nene can be seen laying on the bed.
- Connected All Along: There's quite a few connections between the cast before they become friends. Ayase is the sister of Kotori, who (prior to her accident and induced coma) was best friends with Mayu, who was in an orphanage with Satoru, who once saved Hazuki from bullies as a child.
- Cool Big Sis:
- Mayu is the oldest member of Satoru's circle of friends, and she often refers to herself as "Onee-san".
- Kotori was this to Mayu in the past and is literally Ayase's older sister.
- Event Flag: As with many visual novels, each choice has a flag embedded. Certain choices leads to a particular route of your choice.
- Fake Boobs: The breast pads that Ayase uses to artificially inflate her chest size.
- It's worth mentioning that she has two pairs: one for her swimwear, and one for everything else. Ayase doesn't wear any in her sleepwear.
- Fantastic Racism: The general opinion of Astrals is not good and they are subject to a lot of discrimination.
- Foreshadowing: The game is rife with it, to the point that individual characters' routes have their own foreshadowing for things that happen in other routes.
- There is a lot of discussion about the incident two years previously where a crane collapsed in a storm, which led to Ayase's rise to fame in rescuing many people. What actually happened there become central to Mayu and Ayase's storylines.
- Early on, Kaori shows unexpected skill at pickpocketing when she steals a student's phone when he was taking lewd pictures of the girls in bikinis. This is because she's actually a government agent associated with the anti-Astral faction, and she later uses this to pickpocket Ayase.
- Ayase's power is oddly selective and many times she fails to use it to protect herself or someone else. This is because she has to take a specific drug to activate her abilities, and didn't have time to take it in those situations.
- While infiltrating Kikka Academy, Saturo's power is obscured by being officially classified as physical enhancement, rather than neural manipulation, to give him an advantage. On Mayu's route, he's forced to reveal the truth to Principal Ise and why he hid his power, in order to proceed with the research on the cure for control-loss. On Ayase's route, his hiding of his power saves his life because Kaori assumes that the control-loss drug will kill him if she administers a massive overdose, but between Nanami's healing and Saturo's neural manipulation, they are able to suppress the effect the drug has on his brain.
- Gamer Chick: Ayase is quite fond of video games, and she bonds with Satoru while playing them during her route.
- Happily Adopted: Satoru and Nanami both dearly love their adopted father Ryuunosuke. Satoru never knew his parents and Nanami's were Abusive Parents, so neither misses them.
- Hollywood Hacking:
- Inverted for much of the story. The vast majority of Nanami's hacking is realistic, as it requires her to get physical access to computers, run hacking tools, use exploits, and so on. Rapid-Fire Typing is brought up and debunked. She does note that security is tight and she can't hack into the research center on Kikka's campus without physical access, and she has to be careful with messing with security systems lest someone immediately notice her presence.
- It is also mentioned that the AIMS database is air-gapped so it cannot be remotely accessed, but the security for the database is remarkably weak so it is easy to get to once she has physical access. On Ayase's route, Nanami realizes that the security was left intentionally weak so anyone with access to the database can easily use it to alter the files on Astrals.
- On Mayu's route, the thing that tips her off to Saturo's spying is that Nanami was unable to wipe all of the logs involving the use of Mayu's spoofed keycard.
- Interrupted Intimacy: At least, it wasn't supposed to be between Satoru and Mayu during the Common Route. The former tries to leave the latter's room after being summoned for a discussion, but Mayu does not want Satoru to leave, and she pulls on his pants. Hazuki, being the dormitory manager, hears the commotion and opens the door, but ends up seeing the situation instead. Embarrassed, she asks for the two to be mindful for protection before slamming the door shut. Satoru would later clear up the misunderstanding to Hazuki.
- Love Epiphany: Present in a romantic visual novel like this one. Either Satoru or one of the heroines in a route will develop feelings for each other.
- Love Interest: Riddle Joker has 5 heroines: Ayase, Nanami, Mayu, and Hazuki, and Chisaki (as part of a subroute).
- Love Letter: Satoru receives one from Hazuki during her route, written in a humorously formal tone:Satoru: It feels like I received some letter from a girl who lived in the Edo period...
- Lured into a Trap:
- In Mayu's route, Satoru unknowingly activates a trap set by Mayu while trying to enter her lab to gain access to the AIMS database one night. This comes after she implied her computer would soon be removed from the lab, forcing Satoru and Nanami to act ASAP. Given that Mayu's ability is forming a wall of Astron particles, the pre-made trap immobilizes Satoru. With no way out, he reveals his true identity to her, after which she lets him go. But rather than getting apprehended by the authorities, Satoru becomes Mayu's lab assistant instead, ensuring his actual intentions remain confidential.
- In Hazuki's route, Satoru trips over a water string created by Hazuki while entering the faculty room one night to gather some video surveillance footage regarding a suspected Astral user. By the time he realizes a water string was set off, Satoru attempts to escape, but is confronted by Hazuki. Heartbroken and betrayed, she proceeds to wonder Was It All a Lie? Even then, she did not report her findings to the authorities despite saying otherwise, because she still has some romantic feelings towards Satoru. After the actual culprit is caught, Satoru and Hazuki make up and become together once again.
- Mistaken for Gay:
- Nanami in this case. Getting the memory patch from Mayu leads to an embarrassing scene between the two characters, and while she eventually finds the patch, the perception of her having an interest on other girls as seen by others would not go away until some time later.
- During the Astral Expo Fair, the main cast are running a swimsuit cafe. Some of their classmates, Tesshin and Taishi, want one of the girls in bikinis to serve them, but end up being chewed out for being a pervert by Kyouhei, only for Taishi to say Kyouhei's fine to serve them. Both Kyouhei and Tesshin interpret this as Taishi wanting to ogle the former. The latter denies this upon realizing his slip of words.
- Nervous Wreck: Nanami becomes one during her route after realizing the full extent of her love for Satoru. Likewise, after Satoru comes to the same realization during her route, the two become stuttering messes when they greet each other the next morning:Satoru: Moningg!Nanami: Orning, Shatoru-Kun!
- Not Blood Siblings: Satoru and Nanami were separately adopted by Ryuunosuke.
- Playful Hacker: Nanami is skilled at using technology in order to access the AIMS database, which is needed for the assigned SFD infiltration.
- Her exceptional hacking abilities is further revealed in her route, due to her paternal parents using her to get what they wanted. She eventually runs away before being adopted by Ryuunosuke.
- Playing Card Motifs: The eye catches during the loading screens for each heroine's route features these with their own Ace and Joker versions:
- Ayase: Spades.
- Hazuki: Clubs.
- Mayu: Diamonds.
- Nanami and Chisaki: Hearts.
- Power Incontinence: It's bought up on a couple of routes that Astrals can experience "control loss", in which their power rapidly increases in strength and fires off randomly, while the Astrals lose their higher brain functions. On Ayase's route, it is revealed that this is not a natural process, but induced by a drug developed by an anti-Astral spy agency instead.
- Power Perversion Potential:
- On their respective routes, both Nanami and Mayu find...creative uses for their astral powers in the bedroom.
- On a far less pleasant note, on Chisaki's route, a telekinetic uses his power to get away with molesting women from a distance.
- Revealing Cover-Up: On Ayase's route, Satoru and Nanami discover that someone has been actively tampering with the AIMS database when they discover they can't access earlier versions of various files - indicating someone was actively deleting them. Nanami then concludes - correctly - that the AIMS database had been designed with intentionally weak security to allow someone to do this at will.
- Running Gag:
- Because opposite genders cannot visit each other at night, Nanami uses a rope outside to visit Satoru several times, given that her room is located one floor level above his. This, however, leads to her calling for help every time she does this, completely frightened and scared in the process.
- After Satoru discovers that Ayase pads her breasts, he seems incapable of not bringing the subject up in every conversation, regardless of context.
- Science Fiction: The whole plot of Riddle Joker centers around Astral users and their Astral abilities, thanks in part to the discovery of Astron particles by the end of the 20th century.
- Shrinking Violet: Nanami is quite shy. One of her biggest worries with transferring to Kikka Academy is the prospect of introducing herself to the class, remarking she feels sick at the thought of doing so.
- Story Branching: The norm for visual novels. Given that there are multiple choices, having a flow chart makes this easier to manage.
- Superhuman Trafficking: Early on, it's mentioned that an overseas crime syndicate has been kidnaping Astrals with useful powers and selling them. On Nanami's route, the anti-Astron faction, acting from spite after being exposed, sells the school's security plans to said syndicate so they can abduct any students they want. Thankfully, Satoru, Nanami, and their friends stop them.
- Super Serum: Rumours abound regarding some sort of drug that can induce Astral powers in non-Astrals. The rumours are broadly true, and Ayase, who is not a natural Astral user, takes this ability-inducing drug, resulting in a Plot Twist.
- Teen Superspy: Satoru and Nanami work for the SFD, a secret, questionably legal organisation with a broad mandate to fight Astral related crime. This is less extreme than some examples of the trope however, as they are not saving the world on a nightly basis, but rather stopping low to mid tier crimes and leaving the subdued criminals for the police. On Ayase's route, Kyouhei is revealed to also be an undercover agent, albeit in his case working for the school and its attached research facility.
- Thinking Out Loud: During Ayase's route, both she and Satoru accidentally mumble about their feelings for each other.
- Two-Person Pool Party: Three out of the five routes feature the couple hooking up at the school pool after hours and one of the two routes that doesn't rectifies this in the After Story.
- Unlockable Content: Chisaki's route is unlocked by completing at least one other route. Also, each girl's route unlocks a short After Story for the girl in question. Finally, the CG image gallery, the music gallery, and the sprite gallery are unlocked by completing every girl's route.
- Wall Pin of Love: Satoru gives one to Hazuki during her route after deciding to accept her love confession.
- Satoru also performs one with Mayu during her route.
- Would Hurt a Child: The antagonists of most routes have no problem attacking the High School aged protagonists.
- Yamato Nadeshiko: Hazuki is best described as a traditional ideal Japanese woman. Her looks and especially her personality in her route showcases this trait. The fact that she has a water Astral ability means she can use her superpowers to defend herself when necessary.
