The Rughzenhaide Castle burns as a mysterious faction led by Koko, Mharie, Sian, and Melano corners the princess Selphine Rughzenhaide and her royal guard, Ritona Reighnvhasta. In an attempt to escape, Ritona inadvertently teleports Selphine and herself to an unfamiliar land. As they get ready to journey back to the Kingdom of Rughzenhaide, they meet a girl named Rune, who is much more than she appears to be...
Fault Milestone One, stylized as fault - milestone one, is the first part of a series of Science Fantasy kinetic Visual Novels by the dojin group ALICE IN DISSONANCE. It is currently available on
Steam with the sequel, fault milestone two, and a prequel, fault - SILENCE THE PEDANT, coming soon. PS4 and Nintendo Switch versions of the game are available as well. The creators ALICE IN DISSONANCE have a patreon page and an ASKfm.
In 2022, a Prequel fault - StP - LIGHTKRAVTE was released.
fault milestone one provides examples of the following tropes:
- Armor-Piercing Question: Koko asking Ritona, "...Is it so wrong to take a life... if it means protecting someone you can't live without?"
- Berserk Button: Disrespecting Selphine in any shape or form is the easiest way to press Ritona's berserk button. Shown the most prominently in the Sky Terrace fight when Koko neglected to address Selphine by her "Princess" title.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: The original Rune is one after the stabbing incident. Selphine is suggested to be one as well at the end of chapter 8, though this may just be King Valher speaking through her using the Path-Down.
- Blind Jump: The teleportation that occurs at the beginning of this volume is basically a magical equivalent of this trope.
- But Thou Must!: At one point in chapter 3, Selphine asks Ritona (the player) whether they should intervene or not. Regardless of the choice, the overall story will progress the same way.
- Cliffhanger: The story ends with a very good one.
- Cool Sword: Ritona can use her manakravte to create an Absurdly Sharp Blade made of glass.
- Creepy Child: The original Rune got pleasure from performing violent acts ranging from stabbing Marcos to cutting up small animals.
- Culture Clash: When inviting Albas back to their hotel to continue their talk, Ritona and Selphine were both perplexed when he implied that it was "careless" of them to suggest that. This led them to believe that Kadia City— and the Outer-Pole as a whole— was still a patriarchal society. They couldn't fathom such a thing, seeing as Rughzenhaide had eliminated sexism altogether.
- Emotionless Girl: The original Rune is completely incapable of feeling any emotion, save for when she was killing or otherwise harming something.
- Evolving Title Screen: After completing the story for the first time, Rune gets added to the title screen.
- Expressive Hair: Selphine's little hair wings flap with joy when she's trying out new food.
- Flashback: While not exactly a case of Whole Episode Flashback, over half of the story consists of flashbacks.
- Inadequate Inheritor: Rudo for his father Cid. While clever, he lacks his father's and Rune's knack for research and innovation. However, he makes up for it by discovering a talent for finance and business management, making him an excellent CEO.
- Incompatible Orientation: Albas had more than platonic feelings for Cid, who was Happily Married to Eline.
- The Lad-ette: Ritona mentions her penchant for an "occasional drink", but Selphine implies it goes a bit beyond that.
- Lady of War: Of the few fights seen, Ritona always maintains an air of grace and poise in how she attacks.
- Lampshade Hanging: There's a Steam achievement for viewing the cutscene that presents Selphine and Ritona in their new outfits 50x titled, "Not that type of game!"
- Linear Visual Novel: The visual novel is more of a Kinetic Novel as it only has one point where it "branches" in the entire story. While the immediate dialog will be different depending on which option is chosen, the overall story does not change.
- Made of Iron: Rune took a hit from an ale-filled cask and left unscathed.
- Mistaken for Prostitute: An unfortunate misunderstanding of Rune's "unusual line of work" on Selphine's part results in this.
- Never Gets Drunk: Selphine implies that Ritona is this.
- Posthumous Character: Cid, Eline, and the original Rune Zhevitz.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: While Ritona is investigating the graveyard, Rune suddenly appears with her pupils and angular lines in her irises glowing red in an attempt to scare her off. It also foreshadows that she is an automaton.
- Ridiculously Human Robot: The current Rune is an automaton with the memories of the original Rune supplied by Cid.
- Science Fantasy: fault milestone one has both a system of magic known as manakravte as well as impressive technology such as Ridiculously Human Robots.
- The Sociopath: The original Rune was a textbook example, possessing no degree of empathy or understanding of the consequences her actions have. She eventualy goes so far as to orchestrates her own family's demise by first poisoning her mother and all of the Zhevitz executive board. When the former survives, Rune commits suicide knowing her death would rob what little hope her mother had left.
- Shout-Out: During chapter 8, Melano exclaims, "I have the wrong person? 'I' have the wrong person? Well, excuuuuuse me, Princess."
- Super Prototype: Rune is one. Played with since she's far more advanced thanks to having human emotions and thought processes, but compensates for it by being self-admittedly physically weaker than the Sisters made after her. Justified thanks to Cid sacrificing his own life in order to grant her her emotions, taking the fine details of how he created her body to the grave with him.
- Uncanny Valley: Both Rune's are noted to be naturally unsettling. Rune Zhevitz's eyes were noted to be just creepy to look at. The current robot Rune's movements are considered a bit too flawless and calculating, she lacks a proper life-force, and can go without blinking.
- What Beautiful Eyes!: Rudo gives Ritona's red eyes a very poetic description to the point she wonders if he's coming on to her.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Whether or not Sara/Rune can be considered a person is the driving conflict for the second half of the story.
- What Is This Feeling?: The original Rune had some level of emotions, but she couldn't understand them properly. The current Rune recognizes them as pity, envy, and admiration.
