Video Game / Cute Knight

A princess or a pauper? It's all up to you!

You're an orphan of unknown past, just turned 18, which means the orphanage throws you out to make your own way in the world. Conveniently, nearby is a town full of job opportunities, skill-training classes, a dungeon packed with monsters and treasure, and a mysteriously-missing princess.

You have three years to make something of yourself before receiving an ending based on the skills you've built up and the actions you've taken.

Cute Knight is the first game of the Cute Knight series of life/dating games by Hanako Games. Its sequel is Cute Knight Kingdom.

There's an Updated Re-release called Cute Knight Deluxe, with new items, more secrets, "A revamped Wizard's Challenge", and better art.

Demos are available for both versions, with original's demo only available on its itch.io page, as "Original Edition - Windows Demo", and the Deluxe demos are available for Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux.

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This game provides examples of:

• Adult Adoptee: One of the game's endings has the protagonist get adopted into her magic instructor's family after forming a sisterhood with the latter's daughter.
• Ambadassador: The "Royal Knight" ending consists of joining the Praetorian Guard, dying of boredom, and asking for something to do, which results in this.
• Animal Lover: Prince Kirelan, as the former Royal Nursemaid will tell you. Naturally, the protagonist can meet him in the palace stables.
  Prince Kirelan was a darling little boy. Not much trouble. Loved animals, especially this dog he'd had since it was a puppy.
• Art Evolution: The Deluxe version includes a complete revamp of the Monster and Ending pics with a much improved art style. For comparison, the old◊ artwork for the "Slacker" ending vs. the new◊ one. Not all of the other pictures got this treatment, however, leading to Art Shifts.
• Asleep, Not Meditating: The "Slacker" ending is unlocked by having the PC do nothing but sleep for days. People notice her always sleeping on the street, but the local nun is convinced that she's really meditating. Her practice would eventually become the basis of a new religion, where people just sit around and do nothing all day.
• Battle Couple: If the PC is good at fighting, has high XP, and works a lot as a bouncer, she will eventually marry the Weapons instructor, Shane, becoming a "Warrior Wife". The two are said to go adventuring together when they're not teaching students how to fight.
• Babies Ever After: Many endings that involve a wedding make mention of the protagonist's children.
• Black Knight: Subverted. The Black Knight is not particularly sinister, and is simply a royal guard and jousting champion. Beating him nets you the Royal Guard ending and his role as the Jousting Champion and aforementioned Royal Guard.
• Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: The second book read in the library, the protagonist has this to say:
  This is either about fighting monsters or gardening, I can't tell which! Or maybe gardening IS about fighting monsters...
• Brother–Sister Incest: Zig-zagged like crazy. Two of the possible endings for the PC are to either marry Prince Kirelan or take her royal position as his sister, the missing Princess Alexandra. But it turns out she's not really Alexandra, she's just faking. But then it turns out that she is a princess by blood after all - she's Alexandra's older sister. But then you learn that it's okay and she can still marry him, because Kirelan's adopted!
• Canon Name: Although the main character's name is customisable, she is officially named "Michiko". This leads to a Continuity Nod in the sequel.
• Celibate Heroine: Several of the endings have the PC vow to never marry, such as the "Slacker", "Druid," and "Nun" endings.
• Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: Losing a battle kicks you out of the dungeon and a loss of some Dream, which is easy to regain.
• Developers' Desired Date: The Lisa the Librarian ending is one of the easiest endings to get, involving the common activity of fighting in the dungeon, then doing some easy work in the library, talking to her and giving her a cheap inventory item, and is the only one that has a Title Drop. She even appears in the game's icon with the protagonist on certain platforms, such as the Big Fish Games game manager.
• Developer's Foresight: In the Windows version, trying to save after an ending has been achieved, gets a message of:

It's a bit late for that now!

• Distinguishing Mark: The PC has a heart-shaped birthmark just like the missing Princess Alexandra, inherited from their mother. This is a clue that she's actually a member of the royal family and is the true heir to the throne.
• Downer Ending: Most of the endings caused by negative Dream, the stat that represents optimism, usually have the PC be somewhat content with what she gets in life, even if she's not always completely satisfied, but there are some exceptions:
  • The "Oops" ending, where the PC agrees to partake in the Crafting instructor's experiment and die in the resulting explosion.
  • If the PC fails to achieve anything, she will end up as a beggar. Having Sin will add misery on top of that.
• The Dragonslayer: One of the endings has this exact name, earned through defeating the evil dragon on the fifth floor of the dungeon.
• Family Theme Naming: The magic instructor is named Orchid. Her daughter's name is Rose.
• Happily Adopted: If the PC agrees to become "sisters" with Rose, the Magic Instructor's daughter, Rose expresses a desire to compete in the Wizard's Challenge, and the player wins the challenge, the instructor will eventually offer to adopt the PC as her daughter and they live Happily Ever After as a family.
• Happily Ever After: The goal of the game, and there's a variety of ways to achieve it! (Many of them subvert the standard trope by not involving a wedding at all.) The endings which invoke the trope by name are usually achieved at high Dream.
  • The "Fighter" ending ends with "and they would all live Happily Ever After".
  • The "The Royal Family" ending ends on: "Nothing was left, except to live Happily Ever After."
• Interface Spoiler: Of a sort. The game's icon at the Big Fish Games website shows the PC and Lisa the Librarian, implying that Lisa is a significant character. This is only true for a game which leads to the "Partners" ending, however.
• Item Crafting: Some of the best equipment can only be made, not bought.
• Just Add Water: The crafting system is: Ingredient 1 + Ingredient 2 = New equipment, usually clearly showing the ingredients together. It takes place in what is called a "forge", so it's presumably not just sticking some items together - although with lower difficulty items, that's literally what seems to happen:
  • Fairy Dust, when fused with items, helps make them more magical through an undescribed process.
  • Rings and Necklaces of Enchantment are Gold Rings and Necklaces with a flower on them, crafted by fusing a Flower and such items.
  • The Deluxe equipment of the Striking Ribbon is a Stick + a Ribbon, and appears to be a ribbon attached to the end of a stick.
• Lazy Bum: One of the special endings, "The Slacker," is achievable by having the PC do nothing but sleep for a few days straight.
• Loan Shark: Having a lot of money, charisma, and mathematics skill leads to the PC becoming a banker. If her Sin level is also high in addition to the aforementioned skills, the ending page mentions that she is a vicious loan shark.
• Magic Knight: The "Hero" ending requires the PC to master the weapon, fighting, and magic skills.
• Money Spider: Enemies in the dungeon usually drop Gold when defeated in combat. Exceptions are usually vermin like snakes and rats.
• Multiple Endings: The game has about 50 endings, and some of these endings have different permutations depending on the player's skill stats.
• The Oldest Profession: The PC can actually engage in this. If she has some Sin, over 60 Charm, and is working in the inn as a Waitress or Barmaid, or Busk / Performing square for money, a young man can approach her and offer to pay her to join a "party," which she can accept for a amount of money dependent on her Charm.
• Orphan's Plot Trinket: The PC has a necklace which she has worn all her life, the only relic of whoever she was before she landed in the orphanage. It doesn't really have a bearing on the plot, but it is a hint that she's "somebody." She is the eldest child of the King and Queen. The "Nun" ending shows her setting aside the necklace, letting go of the past in order to embrace her faith.
• Our Dragons Are Different: The Final Boss of the Dungeon, is a dragon, and defeating it gives The Dragonslayer ending as an Instant-Win Condition.
• Outlaw Couple: In the Deluxe edition, the "Queen of Thieves" ending is given an expansion in which the PC can end up together with Jareth, the thief who introduced the PC to a life of crime in the first place, and the two will become legends as the King and Queen of Thieves.
• Professional Slacker/The Slacker: If the protagonist does nothing but sleep everyday, she will get the "Slacker" ending, in which she gains money by pretending to meditate while actually being asleep.
• The Professor: If the PC spends most of her three years attending the college classes, she will decide to pursue a life in the academic field and work as one of the University's teachers.
• Pseudo-Romantic Friendship: The "Partners" ending has the PC form an Adventure Duo with Lisa the Librarian, and the two girls are said to never marry, because they prefer each other's company to a man's.
• Rags to Royalty: In three of the endings, the PC either takes the place of the missing princess or marries the prince or learns about her true origin as the eldest daughter of the King.
• Randomly Generated Levels: The first four levels of the Dungeon are determined by when you enter them for the first time.
• Random Drop: The treasure gotten from enemies is random, within certain possibilities.
• Rebellious Princess: Multiple:
  • The TRUE Princess Alexandra, whom the PC may encounter in the slums, had run away from home and tried to become the Princess of Thieves. The thieving made her sinful enough that she was stuck in the slums and forced to live her life picking through trash. The PC can help her go home again.
  • Gender-flipped with the unnamed prince who is betrothed to the PC in the "Fighter" ending:
  ...she freed a distant kingdom from the threat of a rampaging ogre and was offered the hand of their Prince in marriage! The Prince was unhappy about being given away like a object to a stranger, and tried to run away and become a hero himself...
• Prince and Pauper: If the player goes to the library and asks about the town, they can find out that the princess of the kingdom has mysteriously disappeared. Turns out, the PC looks suspiciously like said princess. However, the PC is not the missing princess - at least, not that missing princess!
• Save-Game Limits: Depending on if you're playing the demo or not, and depending on the operating system.
  • The demo cannot save nor load.
  • In the full game, you can have as many as your computer can store. They can be made, anywhere at any time, even partway through dialogue and jobs, except during initial character creation of birth month selection, the opening cutscene, and at the screen that displays the ending. If you try to save at an ending, the message is:
    It's a bit late for that now!
    • On Microsoft Windows, saves can named anything your computer allows, but can't be made in the middle of combat.
    • On Unix, saves aren't named; they're just given the Player Character's name, the time of creation, and their gold and Hit Points. They can be made in the middle of combat.
• Shout-Out: The "Partners" ending is a gleeful and affectionate riff on Xena: Warrior Princess, right down to a direct quote from the opening sequence. The protagonist even gets a leather skirt and a devoted, literary girlfriend... Lisa the Librarian!
• Sibling Triangle: One of the future events mentioned in the ending where the protagonist becomes an adopted sister of Rose, is how they're in conflict over some man.
• Socialite: One of the endings for a PC high in Charm.
• Standard Hero Reward: Multiple uses:
  • Part of the "False Princess" ending:
    She would be prepared for her eventual marriage to the prince of a allied kingdom - or a hero, if the kingdom ever needed a hero so badly that it had to promise a princess in marriage as a reward.
  • Gender-inverted in the "Fighter" ending, where the protagonist gets offered a unnamed Prince.
• Switched at Birth: Played with, and only revealed in one of the endings. Prince Kirelan was swapped with the royal family's oldest child at birth, but it wasn't mutual. The excess baby was not given to the other family, but instead dumped in an orphanage - becoming the PC. The king and queen know the truth, but rather than spring an extra daughter on the kingdom (which apparently never knew she existed), they instead have Kirelan marry the PC so that all three of their children remain in the family. This is the 'true' Golden Ending of the game.
• Title Drop: The protagonist is called a Cute Knight in the "Partners" ending.
• Troubled Fetal Position: In the "Beggar" ending, that's the position the protagonist takes, sitting against a wall.
• Unexpectedly Realistic Gameplay: Multiple:
  • Doing the untested and unsafe experiments with the crafting instructor leads to the "Oops" ending, where you blow yourself up.
  • If you embezzle while working for the shopkeeper, she may find out and fire you. Afterwards, she refuses to hire you again, and jacks up your prices.
• Updated Re-release: The Deluxe version gives:
  • Updated ending and monster art.
  • Infoboxes about stats and skills, when their names are moused over in the Skills screen.
  • A Start Screen updated with the title.
  • The "Queen of Thieves" ending is expanded.
• Video Game Cruelty Punishment: Multiple:
  • If you embezzle while working for the shopkeeper, if she finds out, she fires you immediately. She refuses to ever work with you again, she treats you with contempt, and the items are permanently raised to their maximum price.
  • Having any Sin prevents you from resting at the church. Having 100 Sin prevents you from going in, as the Nun can tell by your presence that evil surrounds you. Sin can be reduced through volunteering as a nurse, at a cost of time, and maximum Hit Points, with the latter waived if they're already at 10.
• What the Hell, Hero?: If you commit enough "sinful" acts, the magical barrier designed to keep monsters in the dungeon will affect you as well! Discovering this is required to advance some plotlines.

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