Visual Novel / Ballads at Midnight

The bard protagonist (left) and the vampire love interest (right).

Abigail: You imply me to be insensitive on the grounds of trampling through your home, but what about you? Demanding my only means of providing for myself!
Lucius: Your only means? Nonsense! You're able-bodied, young, far from hideous; once you have your freedom, I am quite certain you will figure something out!
Abigail: Your venerable age must have impaired your hearing then, vampire, because I'm not sure you quite caught it when I REPEATEDLY SAID NO! I am NOT giving it to you!
Lucius: Fine! Then you're NOT leaving!

— Our romantic leads, folks.

When the bard Abigail (name changeable) is punished for a mysterious crime, her sentence is to be fed to a supposedly ruthless, blood-thirsty vampire. She arrives ready to fight for her freedom, but the vampire insists they make a deal instead…

Ballads at Midnight is a Ren'Py-based dark fantasy romance and collaborative visual novel between Synstoria (Imperial Grace), Wudgeous (Herotome), Arrapso, Notafish, Jeneara, Rowanty, Eliana Zebro, Shar Joyner, Megan Youmans, Eric Navarro, and Kiminako. It features fairly kinetic gameplay, focusing instead on showcasing a defined protagonist and an abundance of character banter.

The base game was created in one month during the Nanoreno 2022 game jam, and an additional secret ending, Unveiled, is in development.

The game is available for free on itch.io and is also coming to steam. Additional content can be found on the Extras page, which is hosted by the lead writer Wudgeous.

This page contains minor unmarked spoilers.

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Ballads at Midnight contains examples of:

• Actually Pretty Funny: Once they're at a safe distance, the pockmarked guardsman snickers when Abigail yells an insult at the old guardsman.
• Affectionate Nickname: Lucius ardently refers to Abigail as "my radiance" towards the end of the game.
• And I Must Scream: Lucius, when a previous convict stabbed him through the heart. He got better once the weapon was removed from his chest.
• Anguished Declaration of Love: Abigail does this when Lucius tries to set her free, once she realizes she will be forced to abandon him.
  Abigail: I don’t care about food or amenities, Lucius. I’ll eat your disgusting fish every single day if that’s what it takes to be with you.
  Lucius: To... To be with me?
• Blunt "No": Lucius says outlandishly ridiculous things sometimes. When Abigail is surprised and asks if he’s being serious, he responds with a deadpan “No.”
• Brutal Honesty: In a curious subversion of trickster bard tropes, Abigail asserts she is a miserable liar and thus has a policy of being honest to a fault. She will even inform her vampire host that his cooking tastes terrible and that she intended to hit him with a fire poker. You can try to make her lie about her opinion of his cooking. Abigail will attempt to craft elaborate praise for the dish, and Lucius's response is predictably dry.
• Call a Human a "Meatbag": Lucius calls Abigail "mortal" and "bard" at first, but later insists on referring to each other on a First-Name Basis when he realizes they were never properly introduced. They slip up and still call each other "mortal" and "vampire" a few times after the fact.
• Dance of Romance: Lucius pulls Abigail into an impromptu dance in the courtyard after they kiss. Abigail can’t dance though.
• The Diss Track: Abigail's crime was performing before the queen's court (through song!), calling the queen proud, cruel, vain, and insinuating that she will be "slain at day's conclusion." She later performs this song for Lucius, much to his delight.
  Queens, Queens, They rule in the light,
  Remembering tales of their kingdoms,
  Those lands now may be out of sight,
  But You can still remember your strategem:
  Be vain, be cruel, be always right,
  Proud until unproven
  Show your true self till the end of night,
  Where you'll be slain at day's conclusion.
• Dual Wielding: Abigail has a fire iron in one hand and a dagger in the other when she investigates the strange noises in the estate.
• Eek, a Mouse!!: Abigail hates rats and has a moment of alarmed terror when she sees a “small beige shape” moving under a curtain. It turns out to be a scrap of paper.
• Everyone Is Bi:
  • Lucius mentions being in love with a man named Gillian before the start of the game, and asserts they were both “attracted to men, women, and everyone in between.”
  • Abigail was apparently suspected of “charming men and corrupting women” during her travels, alludes to being “obsessed” with her cool big sis Ophelia, and can go onto date a nameless woman in the epilogue if you choose to leave the estate.
  • Even the current queen supposedly had a harem dancing around and giving her kisses – their gender is never specified.
• Fed to the Beast: Although this is meant to be Abigail's punishment, it is promptly subverted.
• Feral Vampires: Mentioned. Apparently most vampires will harass Illuvians by raiding their farms and eating their children. Lucius is a notable exception.
• Gay Option: If you choose to leave the estate, Abigail will have an option to date a woman in the epilogue.
• Gendered Insult: The guardsmen refer to Abigail as a harlot, among other things... Of course, she hangs a lampshade over this.
• Genre Savvy: Abigail. After a certain choice, she is well aware that Lucius will claim they cannot be together.
  Abigail: I've also been forced to take lives in order to defend myself, by the way, so don't you even try to bellyache about being too monstrous to associate with me.
• Gilded Cage: The abandoned estate is surrounded by an expansive moat: “miles wide, miles deep, and a harrowingly uncertain depth.” Abigail never learned how to swim and Lucius can’t cross running water. Still, they have nice furniture and fresh air.

• God Save Us from the Queen!: Illuvia (the game's setting) has been ruled for centuries by a long line of cruel queens. Or rather, by one cruel, witchcraft-practicing queen who had been prolonging her life by draining the life essence of countless orphan girls who had the misfortune of ressembling her so she could maintain the masquarade.
• Grow Old with Me: In one of the Bliss endings. Abigail will grow old if she refuses to turn, and it's implied that Lucius will love her until the very end.
• High on Homicide: Abigail, if she chooses to become a vampire spawn and then chooses the Bliss ending.
• Immortality Bisexuality: The vampire Lucius is “attracted to men, women, and everyone in between.” He doesn't clarify whether he was bi as a mortal, but he is certainly bi now.
• Lantern Jaw of Justice: Lucius has a notably square jawline, along with some manly facial hair.
• Lethal Chef: Lucius. It is later explained that his tastebuds aren't what they used to be, and human food now tastes like dust That doesn't quite explain why he put coffee grounds into a fish dish, though.
• Likean Old Married Couple: Lucius and Abigail argue a LOT, though there’s notably less vitriol as they begin making each other laugh. Lucius even alludes to this and says that arguing is “one of [their] favorite pasttimes.”
• Longer-Than-Life Sentence: As an exiled vampire, this presumably applies to Lucius.
• Loving Details: Lucius notices that Abigail has a habit of wrinkling her nose when she finds something disagreeable.
• Neat Freak: Lucius keeps his entire estate spotless.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Lucius’s skin ‘’bubbles’’ when exposed to sunlight, but heals over almost immediately when he returns to the shade. Getting stabbed seems to annoy him at worst, although he later mentions that being impaled through the heart once left him paralyzed and unmoving for two years.
• Oh, Crap!: Abigail outright panics when she spills ink on Lucius’s desk.
• Orphanage of Fear: Nightingale Gardens, where Abigail grew up before she ran away to seek her fortune.
• Profanity Police: Lucius won't allow the player to proceed if, when asked to introduce themselves, they type in a curse word instead.
  Lucius: "There is no need to curse. I only asked for your name."
• Really 700 Years Old: Lucius is over 300 years old, although since he has also been imprisoned in the estate for over 300 years, he doesn’t have the life experience of a 300-year-old.
• Shapeshifting: Lucius, being a vampire, can turn into a bat.
• Shout-Out: The narration makes small, coy references to Interview with a Vampire and Twilight.
• Spiteful Spit: When the pockmarked guardsman returns Abigail's lute, Abigail points out that he was likely intending to pawn it off but became afraid of the potential consequences if he got caught. The guardsman then becomes so angry that he calls her a harlot and spits at her before hurrying away.
• Stink Snub: Lucius remarks more than once about Abigail's scent and state of cleanliness, citing these as reasons he has no desire to bite her. To be fair, she had just been marching through the wilderness with unruly guardsmen for nine days...
• Story Branching: The story branches off into different endings near the end of the visual novel.
• Super-Senses: Though his taste buds aren't what they used to be, Lucius can pick up some extraordinarily specific scents.
  Lucius: “You smell of chain rust, fresh soil, dried blood. And… incense?”
  Abigail: "Yeah, I'm a big hit with nuns and orphans."
• Tear Up the Contract: Lucius eventually tries to set Abigail free and pay her for her music, stating that she has suffered injustice and owes him no debt.

• Twirl of Love: Lucius is so excited after confirming his feelings for Abigail that he lifts her into the air.
• Wandering Minstrel: Abigail. She alludes more than once to having travelled the world and played music to earn her keep.
• What Are You in For?: Lucius and Abigail continually ask each other this. They both become rather coy about it.
• Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Lucius will have a special response if the player names their protagonist something like “Batman” or “Buffy,” considering the fantasy setting.
• Work Off the Debt: In exchange for her life and freedom, Abigail agrees to play 100 songs for Lucius over the course of 100 nights. Lucius later tries to pay her when he decides she has been wrongfully convicted.
• You All Meet in a Cell: Played with, when it's revealed that Lucius is also a prisoner. Vampires cannot cross running water, so he can't cross the moat surrounding the estate.

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