Video Game / Helen's Mysterious Castle

Helen's Mysterious Castle is an indie JRPG. The game was developed by studio Satsu and published by PLAYISM, with the game being developed in RPG Maker.

The game follows a young girl named Helen, who is raised by a mysterious, unnamed man. One day, she is allowed to go on an adventure in the mysterious castle where they live, in an attempt to leave.

The game is available on Steam since March of 2016.

Tropes

• And Now for Someone Completely Different: When Helen and Ardis are trapped by Krace's dragons, the Demon King and the Undead Knight come to their rescue. The player defeats Hydra as the Demon King, battles the Dragon Knight with the Undead Knight, and then controls Zack as he challenges Quetzalcoatl to stop Krace from fleeing.
• And Your Reward Is Clothes: Congratulations, you've made it through all the challenges of the Bonus Dungeon! So, what's your reward? A Hair Tie for putting Helen's hair up into a ponytail, and an endless supply of Clogs that do nothing but slow your attacks. Hooray.
• Anger Born of Worry:
  • The Undead Knight chews Ardis out for enabling Helen to break the barrier, despite being fully aware that doing so might doom himself and every monster in the castle.
  • Ardis himself is angry at Helen for choosing to rescue him from Krace even though he gave himself up so she would have a chance to escape.
• Anti-Frustration Features: The very last part of the game is a sequence of five boss fights scattered amidst quite a bit of dialogue; losing any of those fights allows you to immediately retry the fight instead of having to start the whole thing from the beginning.
• Armor-Piercing Attack: Magic attacks tend to have the "Piercing" property, meaning they will completely ignore defense. To compensate, spells tend to be slow and leave the user with no defense of their own.
• The Atoner: Ardis and the monsters of the castle, who have come to regret their role in the war from 100 years ago. Now, they only wish to live in peace within the castle, going so far as to openly defy Krace when he shows up wanting to rekindle the old war.
• Attack Reflector: The Spike Guard used by the hero Zack; while it's somewhat slow and has middling defense, it will reflect any damage it blocks back at the attacker.
• Big Bad: Krace, the man that made an army out of Ardis' monster creations. He's mentioned in the backstory but doesn't show up until the end of the game, where he becomes the main antagonistic force in a game that didn't really have an actual villain up to that point.
• Big Damn Heroes: The ending of the game is a string of these. Helen comes to rescue Ardis from Krace, and is rescued in turn by the Demon King, Undead Knight, the Evil Lords, and Zack.
• Blackout Basement: The Pitch Black Lair, domain of Brand, Lord of Darkness.
• Bonus Dungeon: There's a small optional dungeon hidden in the forest to the south of Helen's home; it becomes available after Helen defeats Zack. The first part, the Mysterious Room, only has a couple fights that grant a couple pieces of equipment. The deepest part of this area, however, is called the Domain of Chaos; be sure to arrive fully prepared, as the enemies inside (with the exception of a weak, semi-invisible ghost whose only attack does a mere 10 points of damage) are very powerful. While Helen doesn't need to defeat all of them, she must defeat a total of at least seven of the nine enemies without exiting the dungeon in order to open the door forward (the dungeon resets each time she leaves, including any defeated monsters). Furthermore, the dungeon prevents you from refining any equipment while you're within it, so healing outside of combat requires either reducing your capacity to heal in later battles, or using up one of the two full-heal pots provided in the dungeon (naturally, one of them requires defeating an enemy to gain access to it). And, once you've gotten through all that, it's time for the fight against Ahriman...
• Boring, but Practical: The Metronome, which is only used to skip a single tick. While it seems almost useless, it's extremely useful in the late game, where it basically forces the enemy to make the first move instead of making a move that will likely counter yours. It also lets you choose exactly when your attacks or defenses take place, giving you greater control over battles.
• Boss Bonanza: The final confrontation with Krace involves a sequence of five consecutive bosses.
• Bow and Sword in Accord: Bows and swords are two of the types of weapons Helen can equip. Bows are fast but weak, while swords provide a balance between offense and defense.
• Cast from Hit Points: The Demonbow found late in the game combines high power and excellent speed, but slightly saps Helen's HP every time she fires it.
• Combatant Cooldown System: The battle system in Helen's Mysterious Castle runs on a variant of this. Each action (such as Helen using a weapon or a monster's attack) comes with a "Wait" timer that ticks down once both combatants have chosen their move. Once an action hits 0, that action is performed and the combatant may choose a new one. Combat involves carefully juggling cooldowns so that you defend when your opponent is attacking and attack when your opponent's guard is down.
• Dark Is Not Evil: The monsters in the castle that you interact with are friendly and likable. They don't really want to harm Helen, just test her strength and stop her from breaking the barrier, which could doom them all. Even the average dungeon monsters turn out to be friendly once they realize who Helen actually is.
• Developer's Foresight:
  • When progressing through the Demon King's castle, the dialogue between the Evil Lords will change depending on what order you defeat them in.
  • It's possible for Helen to obtain equipment used by the Undead Knight and Zack. If she happens to be carrying this equipment during the fights where you control them, the Undead Knight will be using two more generic swords (the Blazing Slash and Tundra Blade) instead of Burning Agony and Freezing Yasha, while the Fairy states that Zack has a spare when you try to pick his shield up.
• Disc-One Nuke: The Longsword, which is obtained quite early in the game. While an unremarkable weapon at first, if you give it to the village blacksmith to refine it to its maximum level at the first opportunity, you're left with a weapon that's on par with endgame equipment in time for the third dungeon.
• Evolving Weapon: Helen can gain experience in battle, but doesn't ever level up herself. Instead, she can channel experience into her equipment, improving its performance up to a point. The village blacksmith can also refine equipment, but he can improve items beyond what Helen can manage (though the process is taxing and he can only do it every so often). After defeating Zack, Helen also gains the ability to refine items to their maximum potential.
• Evil Counterpart:
  • Krace to Ardis.
  • The Dragon Knight to the Undead Knight.
• Fairy Companion: The hero Zack has one. After he shows up at the castle, she ends up tagging along with Helen for a while and serving as a literal Exposition Fairy.
• Floating Continent: The titular Mysterious Castle is hovering in midair.
• Great Offscreen War: As the story progresses, you learn more about a war that took place a hundred years prior to the game's events. A skilled artisan was hired by a mage to create an army of monsters. However, the army was defeated; the artisan and the remaining monsters were banished. Specifically, they were banished to the titular Mysterious Castle — Helen's "brother" Ardis is the one who created the monsters, and almost every resident of the castle is one of his creations. Helen herself was originally a young girl who was killed in the war and subsequently revived by Ardis.
• Guide Dang It!:
  • Entering the Demon King's castle can be a minor case of this. Following the plot will guide you to a guy who says he got in by doing a cool pose on the pentagram in the entrance. You may have noticed that Helen occasionally does a pose as an Idle Animation, but you might not be aware that she only does it while you have the menu open.
  • Also involving the Demon King's castle: within the Hall of Silence, a side room contains a locked door with a nearby statue that says "Good things come to those who wait". While it might look like a Waiting Puzzle at first glance, the actual way to get the door open is to switch to a different window on your computer, then come back to the game.
• Heart Container:
  • Many of the pots placed throughout the game contain health boosters that increase Helen's Hit Points when she breaks them.
  • Steaks are given as an optional pickup when Helen falls in battle. Each boosts Helen's maximum HP by 1, and a limited number are provided per section of the game. If Helen hasn't hit the maximum bonus from eating steaks by the time she defeats the boss of a floor, she immediately gains the rest of the bonus all at once.
• Hero of Another Story: Zack, "hero of the blue skies" and his Fairy Companion. They came to the castle to render judgement upon its occupants for breaking the terms of their exile, but presumably this isn't the only heroic thing they've ever done.
• Hit Points: Helen's health is represented at the bottom of the battle screen as a fraction of current / maximum.
• Increasingly Lethal Enemy:
  • The Undead Knight, by virtue of his sword Burning Agony. It gradually gets stronger as the battle continues; if a battle goes on long enough, it'll eventually be able to batter through even the toughest defense. Said sword continues to work the same way if Helen makes use of it.
  • Masochist Kanza of the Bonus Dungeon also qualifies. It only has one attack, but it gets stronger the more damage it's taken.
• Interface Screw:
  • Brand, Lord of Darkness shrouds his arena in... well, darkness. This has the effect of making it impossible to see how much health he has left or the details of his attacks. It's possible to keep track of what he's doing by looking at his pose and keeping a careful count, though.
  • Certain other enemies also obscure their health bars, such as the Invisible Ghost of the Bonus Dungeon or Krace during your second fight with him.
• Irony: Krace ridicules the monsters for siding with Ardis, especially the fact that they see Ardis as their father. In the end, Krace is saved from capture by his own creations, who consider him their father.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  • Helen only communicates using "!" and "?", which other characters comment on.
  • When a fairy begins tagging along with Helen late in the game, a text window will pop up explaining how to turn around so Helen can talk to her. The fairy will respond to the window's instructions.
  • During the final confrontation with Krace, the Undead Knight will say he's tired of the non-stop fighting; while he is probably talking about having been in the war a hundred years ago, this comment comes in the middle of a sequence of five consecutive boss fights.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Shields have no offensive capability (save for one that acts as an Attack Reflector), but are the best source of defense you can find.
• Magic Knight: Helen, who can make use of weapons and magic with equal skill. Many enemies are also examples, especially in the later parts of the game.
• Maximum HP Reduction:
  • One of the Undead Knight's swords, the Freezing Yasha, applies any damage it deals to both its target's current and maximum HP. The spirit of the blade itself can also use the same attack when challenging Helen to ensure she is worthy of wielding it.
  • Other examples include the Curse spell used by the Final Boss (works much the same as Freezing Yasha, but pierces defenses) and the Evil Heal spell used by the Superboss (sets the target's maximum HP to its current HP).
• Meido: In the town on the 4th floor, the Mayor has one that serves as his mouthpiece. She turns out to be the actual Mayor and ruler of the 4th Floor.
• Monster Knight: The Undead Knight (it's in his name, even).
• Named Weapons: The Undead Knight uses two: the swords Burning Agony and Freezing Yasha. The hero Zack also uses the sword Kugelschreiber, though it doesn't have any special mechanics like the Undead Knight's swords.
• Never Learned to Read: Helen, at first. It isn't until her brother sees how distraught she is over finding a gravestone at their house (for a sheep that drowned in a lake, though she thought it was for him) that he realizes she never learned. So he teaches her how to read, which also unlocks the information in the books scattered throughout the castle.
• Noble Demon: The Demon King isn't actually all that bad of a guy. The whole sequence with challenging him ends up being more of a Secret Test of Character than anything else.
• No Name Given:
  • Helen's brother figure is not named until much later in the game, when he teaches her how to read. His name is revealed to be Ardis.
  • The fairy that accompanies Zack is only ever referred to as "a/the fairy".
• No-Sell: The Titans on the 7th floor have a property labeled "Total Defense"; this blocks all effects of any attack, even the normally defense-piercing magic. The only way to defeat them is to hit them in the brief periods between their attacks.
• The Namesake: The titular castle is called the Mysterious Castle by the Undead Knight when he and Helen meet on the second floor.
• One Curse Limit: As punishment for instigating the Great Offscreen War, Krace was cursed to abhor sunlight. During the final confrontation with him (as the sun is rising), he states that he managed to defeat that curse... by overpowering it with another, stronger curse. What precisely that second curse does is never explained, but given how in the rematch, Krace appears to have pustules on his arm and you can't see his health bar, it probably isn't pleasant.
• Only the Chosen May Wield: In the Bonus Dungeon, Helen can come across one of the Undead Knight's blades, the Freezing Yasha. Attempting to pick it up results in a boss fight with Yasha, who seeks to ensure his blade is only used by those worthy of it.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Much like the other monsters, they aren't natural animals or divine beings, but were created using science and magic by Ardis. Krace has created several dragons and draconic monsters of his own.
• Our Homunculi Are Different: Several homunculi live among the monsters of the castle; these include all of the villagers on Floor 4, and Helen herself might qualify. In the laboratory on Floor 7, more homunculi serve as common enemies.
• Power Copying: The Haunters on the 2nd floor have the Imitate ability, which copies your current attack to the letter. The Departed Soul of the Bonus Dungeon has a similar ability, but their copied abilities hit harder, defend better, and swing faster.
• Public Domain Character: The game uses the RTP characters from RPG Maker 2000, default names included.
• Really 700 Years Old: Elves have long lifespans and homunculi don't age. Ardis, the villagers, the monsters, and Helen have all been around for at least a hundred years.
• Samus Is a Girl: Before leaving, Krace's flying dragon Quetzalcoatl reveals that she is a girl and calls Zack out for fighting her after saying beating a girl isn't very heroic.
• Secret Test of Character: The Demon King is actually quite friendly and gets along well with the villagers. The mayor of the village asked him to play the villain to see if Helen had the strength and courage to be able to break the barrier and leave the castle.
• Squishy Wizard: Magic spells might have powerful effects and bypass defenses, but using them tends to leave the caster defenseless while they're casting.
• Stripperiffic: The Demon King isn't wearing very much under that cloak — the rest of his outfit includes boots, spiked wrist and leg bands, and a Leotard of Power.
• Superboss: Of the Bonus Dungeon described above. Unlike the rest of the monsters in the castle who were all created artificially by Ardis or Krace, Ahriman is a real monster. As indicated by his use of Zack's battle theme, he proves not to be taken lightly. He first phase starts as a test for Helen, with a magic attack that transfers defense to damage as he charges it, a defensive move that weakens Helen's weapons, and a Temporary Seal attack that prevents Helen from using her current weapon for a few turns. Once Ahriman takes enough damage, he heals a huge chunk of HP and begins fighting more seriously, using moves that reduce Helen's maximum HP or double her Wait timer. His Temporary Seal attacks also start sealing Helen's equipment for longer and longer, and are eventually replaced with Permanent Seal attacks. Being able to defeat him without running out of steam towards the end of the fight requires careful preparation and strategy.
• Token Good Teammate: Sylas the Lord of Silence is a very likable guy compared to the other Evil Lords, who can be quite mean to each other and to Helen.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Helen sure loves her steaks.
• Ultimate Blacksmith: The village blacksmith can refine equipment the same way Helen can, but can bring out the full potential of items beyond what Helen can accomplish (though he needs to rest after each time he does this).
• The Unintelligible:
  • Helen, who primarily communicates with "?" and "!". Everybody can still understand her, anyways.
  • The Slimes you can talk to also communicate the same way.
• Wham Episode: Floor 2 has a bunch of revelations. The Mysterious Castle is floating in the sky; there was a Great Offscreen War involving an artisan who made monsters at the behest of a mage; after said war ended, the artisan and his monster army were banished to a castle; Helen and everyone else here (including the villagers, who are homunculi that just look human) have been trapped in said castle for the past hundred years; Helen's brother figure Ardis is said artisan and is now facing the death penalty for breaking the terms of his exile; and Helen is quite possibly a homunculus herself.
• Would Not Hit a Girl: Zack. When he shows up to help at the end, he claims that he did not give his all in the fight against Helen — both because he couldn't figure out whether she was evil or not, and because beating up a girl isn't very heroic.

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