Embric of Wulfhammer's Castle: Difference between revisions

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From the game's manual, ''The Duchess of the fair land of Elstwhere comes by carriage to the Marque of Wulfhammer, presumably to marry its lord, Embric of Wulfhammer. Embric, however, is nowhere to be found. The Duchess, not being the sort to sit around idly, embarks on her own quest to get to know the body of the eccentric populace of Castle Wulfhammer, among them the ladies and dwarves of the Awesome Fellowship, those rescued on the Fellowship's grand adventures, a bevy of mysterious townsfolk, monsters, nobles, demons, and devils, waitresses, clerks, clerics, and more.''

''But there is something strange about this castle and its people. As the mysteries begin to unravel, and the real lives and futures of the people of Wulfhammer come into question, who can rescue those who are so used to doing the rescuing?''

 

 

 

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* [[Abusive Parents]]: He was her uncle, but Greyghast's "training" of The Duchess. {{spoiler|Likely sexual abuse, we see him walking to her in a memory when she couldn't move.}}

* [[Affably Evil]]: Carmina seems ''really'' nice and friendly for how evil she is, from treating the townsfolk of a Dark Elf city well in a flashback to her relationship with the Duchess.

* [[Always Check Behind the Chair]]: Just click on ''everything.'' You'll either get something important or funny.

* [[Aristocrats Are Evil]]: The Duchess isn't, but Bad King Greyghast the Terrible and Duke Thermin are happy to take up the slack.

* [[Black Comedy Rape]]

* [[Boss Subtitles]]: Parodied with ''The Cow.''

* [[Broken Bridge]]: At one point; the Duchess finds a boulder in the path of the [[Lost Woods]]. She's absolutely delighted at finding such a cliche and calls Alice over and [[Genre Savvy|they make fun of it.]]

* [[The Chessmaster]]: Vecnathrax {{spoiler|when he does what Louni tells him.}} {{spoiler|The True Duchess in the Natural Twenty Ending is also a schemer.}}

* [[Child Prodigy]]: Grettel

* [[Cute Bruiser]]: Alice doesn't have levels in Barbarian for nothin'.

* [[Descriptive Ville]]: The Duchess comes from the land of Elstwhere. Where is Esltwhere, and what is it like? Who cares? It's just somewhere away from the story.

* {{spoiler|[[Dream Apocalypse]]: What happens in the [[Bonus Dungeon]].}}

* [[Dungeon Maintenance]]: Our heroine can get to an empty treasure chest before the government official responsible for refilling them. She's outraged at this lapse in standards.

* [[Emoticon]]: All of the guards "speak" using these... which the Duchess is somehow able to understand.

* [[Even Evil Has Loved Ones]]

** {{spoiler|A man mentions how Alice looks just like a female Embric when your traveling with her in Everbrook.}}

* [[Gameplay and Story Segregation]]: The Duchess gets stripped all the time, but she always has all her equipment, including her dress!

* [[Gilded Cage]]: The Duchess's life when Greyghast was still alive.

* [[Gag Boobs]]: Countess Knockersdale. Lady Backmoore has a Gag Butt.

* [[Gainax Ending]]

* [[Guide Dang It]]: A common reaction from players.

* [[Harping on About Harpies]]: Alice was kidnapped by them as a child. They're obsessed with shiny things and not very bright, and had Alice polish mud.

* [[I Just Want My Beloved to Be Happy]]: Alice; {{spoiler|she only comments on how she loves the Duchess the most in a [[No Fourth Wall]] Developer's Room.}}

* [[I Know Madden Kombat]]: Whenever the Duchess has to actually fight, her combat style involves much of what gets her through aristocratic life. Most of her "weapons" are rings; her "armor" categories include dresses, undergarments, and perfume; her "accessories" are her acquired titles, and her special techniques reek of non-combat.

** {{spoiler|She does this again after beating the same devil in the [[Bonus Dungeon]]; after presumably a successful Diplomacy check; the devil gives her name in hopes of seducing her. The Duchess uses the True Name to command the devil to initiate the [[Dream Apocalypse]].}}

* [[Jerkass]]: Lady Falwythwier, full stop. {{spoiler|It's hard to feel bad for her when Carmina leaves her a greasy stain on the pavement in one of the endings.}}

* [[Mind Screw]]: The Alice ending and the Final Ending. {{spoiler|Was it [[Time Travel]]? [[Alternate Universe]]? Some kind of prophetic call for help into the future?}}

** [[Mind Screwdriver]]: Invoked and Inverted, the new "Final Ex" ending explains it more. And the Natural Twenty ending gives more questions.

* [[Ms. Fanservice]]: The Duchess, who can and will end up in her undergarments at the drop of a hat (or a drop down a well). It's also a game mechanic; at least one story path requires her to be in her underwear before it will progress. {{spoiler|Her fanservice is especially apparent when she dons her evil dress.}}

** {{spoiler|Also Carmina, who usually appears naked and sumptuous-- in actuality she's emaciated and sick from being kept imprisoned and malnourished, but she uses illusions to satisfy her vanity.}}

* [[Rescue Romance]]: A few of the plotlines result in this.

* [[RPGs Equal Combat]]: Almost not at all. Physical combat opportunities aren't available for much of the game and are rather incidental, so much of the Duchess's EXP gain actually comes from her attempts to interact with and integrate into the Marque of Wulfhammer and the Awesome Fellowship (and perhaps also shoving a lich off a cliff once). What few battles there are are introduced by the message, "Negotiations have failed!" In this respect, it's rather more like a tabletop RPG than a videogame RPG - [[Fridge Brilliance|which makes sense when you consider how familiar the game's creator appears to be with the latter.]]

** [[Word of God]] is even the {{spoiler|Betrayal}} ending where the Duchess {{spoiler|turns out to be a spy for the Anti-Paladins}} is possible; because nothing to that point contradicts it.

** Perhaps the biggest is that ''three'' different endings {{spoiler|establish that none of the events of the game actually happened and Embric never existed}}... but two of them establish it in a way that's mutually exclusive with the third. {{spoiler|In the D&D ending, it's revealed that the game was part of a D&D campaign -- instead of bringing in an essentially identical relative of Embric's last time he died, his player decided to create the Duchess. Meanwhile, the Final and Alice endings suggest that the events of the game were a drug-addled dream by the as-yet-still-unrescued Duchess in which she split the real person Ember into the characters Embric and Alice.}}

* [[Shout-Out]]

** The Dwarves in this game are the [[Dwarf Fortress|fortress]] type, complete with interrupt messages, incidents involving killer carp, and allusions to fey moods. On the other hand, one of them cheers "[[Final Fantasy IV|Lali-ho!]]" once. He is ignored.

** Duchess' vocal warm-ups are the same as Daisy Adair's in [[Dead Like Me]].

** The Blue Smith notes that [[Discworld|dwarf bread is very hard to cut.]]

** One of the peasants' [[Welcome to Corneria]] lines is [[RPG World|"Times are tough."]]

** Reading one of the Everbrook tombstones quotes "Carry On My Wayward Son" near-verbatim.

** Another of the Everbrook graves is for [[Dragon Quest|Erdrick]]. This in itself is a reference to similar gravestone in ''[[Final Fantasy I]]''. The Duchess thinks it gives him too little credit.

** {{spoiler|Young Grettel}} starts training as [[The Strategist]] by reading [[A Song of Ice and Fire|A Game of Crowns]].

* [[Smarter Than You Look]]: {{spoiler|The nameless, faceless people on the castle grounds only speak short [[Welcome to Corneria]] lines because they're scared of the Duchess. When she earns their trust, they speak ''long'' [[Welcome to Corneria]] lines. One of them even works in the fields so he has lots of time to think deep thoughts.}}

* [[Spock Speak]]: The Duchess, with the excuse that she was conditioned that way in childhood.

{{quote|'''Duchess:''' Who is a delightful little nereid? That is correct! It is you!}}

** The Duchess herself his a more low-key version (not that a childhood in Greyghast's castle is anyone's idea of being spoiled). She may not know how to "make chore upon a cow", but she's certainly willing to learn.

* [[Stripperific]]: Duchess tends to lose her clothes a lot and end up in her underwear-- which includes panties, a brassiere, gauntlets and footwear, though it's hard to tell whether they're socks or boots or stockings because of graphic limitations.

* [[Tomboy and Girly Girl]]: Most of the pairings that the duchess can end up in.

* [[The Unfought]]: Vecnathrax. {{spoiler|He's not really a threat by himself, though.}} Duke Thermin. The Grey Elves. All possible [[Sequel Hook]].

* [[The Very Definitely Final Dungeon]]: The dialogue just before you enter a certain tomb certainly gives the player this vibe. {{spoiler|Final it is, dungeon it is not.}}

* [[Victim Falls For Rapist]]

* [[Villain Shoes]]: Fal at Duke Thermin's party; we get to see how she perceives social events with humans. It's not flattering for either party, but it is hilarious.

* {{spoiler|[[Visions of Another Self]]: Arguably the entire cast, though it is most prominent with Alice/Ember.}}

** Embric wanted to spare her, Fal wanted to kill her, and imprisonment was a forced compromise.

* [[Yuri Genre]]

[[Category:Eastern RPG]]

[[Category:Freeware Games]]