Visual Novel / Liar! Uncover the Truth

Liar! Uncover the Truth is a Visual Novel Freenium Romance Game from Voltage, Inc. for iOS and Android devices. It was originally released in Japanese in 2015, and was translated to English the following year.

You play as a woman who recently just dumped her boyfriend for cheating on her. With her mother planning to introduce her to a marriage candidate from her hometown in a month, our hero heads over to a matchmaking party. There, she meets ten men who fall for her immediately. She also meets a fortuneteller who gives an interesting message: one of the men will be her future husband. The rest will all have huge secrets.

Since the MC's criteria for Mr. Right doesn't include liars, she must comb through each of the guys and eliminate them one by one until she's left with the man of her dreams.

"Just you watch. I'll find Mr. Right. These liars don't stand a chance!"

In May 2017 the game received a spin-off titled Office Deception in which you play a woman that has been transferred to a different team at her workplace. She is told that out of her ten new co-workers one of them will be a reliable teammate, but the other nine will be no good idiots. In order for the team's project to be a success, she needs to weed out the liars until she finds the perfect business partner.

A second spin-off, Scheming Socialites, was released in July 2018. In this story you play a wealthy college student who is the heiress of the wedding planning company the Uncover the Truth heroine works for, as she tries to find a suitable partner before her parents force her into an arranged marriage after graduation. In the process, she runs into the fortune teller from the original, who tells her she will face nine obstacles, but at the end she’ll have the perfect boyfriend and best friend.

The game's third spin-off, Dark Lies (unofficial title), features a darker story starring a woman who is the daughter of a yakuza leader, who wants nothing to do with the underworld and live a normal life. She works as a nurse at a hospital where her mother, who fell into a coma when she was a child, is hospitalized in. This spin-off is yet to be released in English.

The game's fourth spin-off, App Matchmaking (unofficial title), features a woman who needs to be proposed to within 100 days, before she turns 30. She signs up on a dating app with the help of her two girlfriends, who guide her in looking out for "no-good men" on the app. This story features 17 men in total. This spin-off is yet to be released in English.

The Japanese version also offers the ‘Mini Liar’ series, which function similarly to the main stories, but are shorter, having only 6 candidates instead of 10 or more, and do not offer multiple endings at the end of every chapter for each character. There are currently 3 Mini Liar stories available: Luxury Cruise, Lying Women, and High-Rise Mansion.

‘Luxury Cruise’ features a woman who was supposed to go on a cruise with her boyfriend, but was dumped right before they boarded the ship, despite having promised her mother that she would introduce her boyfriend to her parents when the ship arrived in Singapore. She meets 6 men on the ship, including the ship’s owner and other famous people. Her goal is to see through the lies of 5 of them and find her destined person amongst them.

‘Lying Women’ features a male protagonist for the very first time, and is about a man who meets 6 women at the same matchmaking party the heroine of ‘Uncover the Truth’ attended, and has to find his ideal woman amongst them. The hero is a researcher and section chief of a large company that produces dairy products.

A movie based on the first season was released in 2019.

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These games include examples of the following tropes:

In general

• Gotta Catch 'Em All: The Liar Files. You collect "data" through activities such as: completing stories in the main plotline and special events, high-scoring in the special events, and using tickets during special events. The data are like collectible cards; some of them come with voice lines or short stories of their own.
• Red Herring: Expect a lot of false leads when trying to find out who the liar is.
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl: The heroine in Office Deception refuses to slap any of the female liars, but this is averted from Scheming Socialites onwards. The heroines slap members of both genders after exposing them. In Lying Women, the hero points at the female liars firmly with a loud cry of "Liar!" in lieu of slapping them.

Uncover the Truth

• Best Friend: Yuri to the MC. They've known each other since college.
• Blunt "No": If you get an event question wrong, the asker will typically respond with at least a multi-word sentence. However, getting a certain question from Sotaro wrong just gets a smile and a "No."
• Bratty Half-Pint: The MC's nephew Mars.
• Camp Gay: The fortuneteller.
• Connected All Along: After Itaru is revealed as the non-liar, the MC looks at the picture of the guy her mother is trying to set her up with, and discovers that it was Itaru's photo all along.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Itaru admits on how if MC listened to her mother, they would've just reunited without liars in the way.
• The Ditz: The MC describes Ayumi as such.
  She's cute as a button, but one might call her… a little ditzy. Or maybe very ditzy… or maybe just plain stupid.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: The MC has to go through nine liars before she can find her dream husband.
• The End... Or Is It?: The main storyline ends with the MC looking ahead to her future with the one guy left standing. Then, the screen goes to black and the narration goes through a series of ellipses before asking, "Or is my new boyfriend another no-good liar?" It then says, "To Be Continued in [last guy]'s Lover's Route."
• From the Mouths of Babes: Mars is six, and already knows sexual lingo. The MC wonders to herself what in God's name her sister is teaching him.
• Functional Addict: The 7th Liar. That's what the game leads you to believe, anyway. After clearing his accusation portion, the truth comes out.
• Genre Savvy: The MC is this.
• Groin Attack: The MC kicks a soccer ball into Shuto's crotch after he's revealed as the first liar.
• Hospital Hottie:
  • Sotaro, the young handsome surgeon.
  • Tsubasa, a doctor at Sotaro's hospital. The MC thinks she looks like a model, and her shirt exposes cleavage.
• I Have This Friend: Lady Sachi talks of a friend of hers' experiences with a scam artist, but she slips up a couple times and describes it in first person.
• I Never Said It Was Poison: At least one liar gives themselves away by revealing they knew something they shouldn't have.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: The 7th liar gives up on a relationship with the MC but hopes that she'll be happy, whoever she's with.
• Jerkass:
  • Lots of these among the liars.
  • Tsubasa makes a snide comment about the MC getting dolled up despite her cold, and it only gets worse from there. Also a Dr. Jerk.
• The Load: The MC describes her co-worker Ayumi as "about as useful as an ejection seat on a helicopter."
• Love Triangle: The MC realizes that she's in one when she comes down to the last two guys.
• Manchild: One is encountered at the matchmaking party.
• Marrying the Mark: Azusa Kurono turns out to be a con artist who enters relationships with women to get money from them before abandoning them.
• Mistaken for Prostitute: At one point, an escort mistakes the MC for another escort.
• Multiple Endings:
  • Each liar's stage ends with four possible endings, though three of these are more like Perspective Flips and not excluding of each other. Each stage also has a Bad Ending you get if you make the wrong decision on the final choice.
  • The Lover's Routes diverge from the main plot and end with either the Happy End or Love End.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: One of the MC's friends is only called by her old college nickname, Lady Sachi.
• Perspective Flip: Secret and True Endings are from the perspective of the liar. Scumbag as well, usually, but sometimes it's someone else instead.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: Ayumi puts these on when she meets Toya.
  Her eyes sparkle like a newborn fawn stepping out of the morning mist.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: The MC's goal. She has no luck in attracting good men, so it's believable she has very high standards.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Itaru and Sotaro's rivalry turns out to have ridiculously petty origins. They met at a spicy food joint and tried to one-up each other at spice tolerance levels. Both ended up taking on too much and putting themselves out of commission.
• Stealth Insult: When the MC hears about Ayumi's experience meeting her boyfriend's parents. Ayumi says she showered them with non-stop compliments, which the MC thinks is a terrible idea, but it apparently went over well.
  (Dear god! That means there are more people like Ayumi in the world...)
  "Glad to hear it. Sounds like you've found a family that really gets you."
• Themed Harem: Nine of the ten love interests are liars.
• Title Theme Drop: There are two main themes, the title screen music, and the main menu music.
  • The first few seconds of the main menu music play at the opening of each stage. It plays in full over the introductions of the ten men, and the ending of the main storyline.
  • The first few seconds of the title screen music play near the beginning of each stage, when you're shown who the suspects will be. It plays in full right before it's time to choose a liar.
• Too Good to Be True: What the MC first thinks about Itaru. Later averted, for he's the non-liar.
• Unmoving Plaid: Itaru's suit.
• Uptown Girl: Gender-inverted. Among the love interests are a rising soccer star, a talented mystery novelist, and a genius fashion designer. It's a shame they're all liars...
• Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: The MC's nephew is named Mars, which is remarked to be odd; the MC says that foreign-sounding names are becoming popular.

Office Deception

• Bait-and-Switch Comment: When the MC asks to borrow a movie.
  "Would you mind if I borrowed it?"
  "Yeah, I would. I don't want to lend it to you.
  I want to watch it with you."
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Sakurako Kaneyama
• Bland-Name Product: "Ormani" brand watches and "cBay" (Armani and eBay).
• Companion Cube: Shiori's teddy bear.
• Continuity Cameo: Several of the characters from Uncover the Truth get minor appearances.
  • Shuto Matsuki is in the fifth liar story working with Media Act on a shoot, and ends up being a victim of robbery.
  • The sixth liar ends up working for Haruichi Mamiya or rather, the Mamiya family in their dumbass ending.
  • The ninth liar story includes a doctor's note in the evidence list, signed by Sotaro Shiga.
• Fictional Counterpart:
  • The 'Office Battles' series is clearly a parody of the Star Wars franchise. The mascot, Dace, even looks like a recolored version of Yoda.
  • 'Merry K', which acts as a parody of Mary Kay.
• Foreshadowing: There have been many hints dropped throughout the game that point towards May's true identity.
  • During the third liar, the MC attempts to fix May's scarf, causing May to immediately stop her from doing so.
  • When the MC invites May to go to a hot spring with her and Reina, she rejects the offer, implying that she has something to hide...
  • Also, on the night the MC was being followed by the spy, she messages May, asking to stay at her place, and was rejected by her immediately, implying that she was the one following the MC.
• Go and Sin No More: The MC's reaction to many of the liars. A number of them are allowed to keep working at Media Act so long as they improve their behavior.
• I Never Said It Was Poison: The fifth liar lets slip something only the guilty party could have known, which is the key to catching them.
• Laxative Prank: In the second chapter, someone puts laxative in the MC's drink in an attempt to sabotage her.
• Murder the Hypotenuse: Happens to the MC in the third liar's Bad Ending.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: A news station mentions "TV personality Perys Halton".
• Office Romance: Multiple examples present. The third liar, Daikichi, goes as far as to date at least three women from the office at the same time, claiming that having sex in the office is "hotter". Love Ends featuring male liars contain these. The main character also ends up dating Keisuke, the sole non-liar, in the end of the game.
• Ship Tease: The MC has ship tease with several of the characters, mostly through being affected by their good looks or their flirting.
• Spoiler Opening: Office Deception follows the trend from Uncover the Truth of featuring the last two standing in the opening movie.
• Stalker with a Crush: Reina stalked, secretly took photos of, kidnapped and tied up the MC, and later explained that she did those things as she was in love with the MC.
• Sticky Fingers: The 5th liar cannot help but steal items from others, and even claims that the thrill of stealing gives them adrenaline for new ideas.

Scheming Socialites

• Bittersweet Ending: Although MC manages to defeat all the liars and is happily engaged to Shotaro, her trusted butler Haruki is revealed to be the final liar. He decides it's best to leave her side to find himself, complete with a Nostalgic Music Box as the background music.
• Spoiler Opening: Subverted for the first time in the franchise. Neither of the two guys in the opening movie are among the final two liars.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: The identity of the person who made Senri's fantasy blog public and added the MC's hotel details is never revealed.

Dark Lies (currently Japanese-only)

• Bittersweet Ending: MC defeats all the liars, and lives happily with Ookura...but her mother's dead because of the final liar.
• Bland-Name Product: Ami works at a major international IT company named "Goolgl".
• Book Ends: The story begins and end with the words ‘What is happiness to you?’, with the question being answered by the heroine at the end.
• Catchphrase: The heroine exclaims "You don't wanna mess with a woman of the underworld!" before slapping each liar after exposing them.
• Darker and Edgier: This story is notably darker than the other stories, featuring a money counterfeiter, a date rapist, a drug dealer, a human trafficker, and a psychopathic murderer, amongst other liars.
• Dark Secret: The heroine wants to keep the fact that she is the daughter of a yakuza leader a secret, though the fact is accidentally revealed to everyone during a shootout involving a rival gang when the heroine is on a trip with a few of her colleagues and housemates.
• Easily Forgiven: Only two of the liars who have committed criminal acts actually go to jail, though one of the two of them turns themselves in to the police.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: The heroine has to go through several trials and tribulations before finally finding her "destined person", including being kidnapped, almost raped, almost framed for a crime, being purposely injured, almost having one of her friends killed, and almost being murdered by the final liar.
• Face of a Thug: Ookura may have a scary appearance, but he is a nice person on the inside. He's the non-liar.
• Manchild: Reiko Himeno is 30 years old, but speaks and behaves like a little girl. Made worse by the fact that she is actually 50 years old.
• Shout-Out: To Downtown's Gaki no Tsukai ya Arahende. One part of the story features the heroine watching a game show titled "You Must Laugh" (a parody of Gaki no Tsukai's annual "No-Laughing" punishment game) with her housemates on New Year's Eve. The show is described as one where famous people and actors are supposed to make the participants put on a straight face and not laugh, by pulling off lame jokes (which is the opposite of what happens in the No-Laughing punishment games). Later on, the show also describes one of the participants being given a Muay Thai Kick, a staple in Gaki no Tsukai.
• Yandere/Serial Killer: The final liar is the one responsible for putting the heroine's mother into a coma, and then later killing her off when she finally awoke. He did it because he was in love with the heroine's mother 20 years ago, but she married the heroine’s father, Inosuke, instead. He even stole her wedding ring after assaulting her, and tries to propose to the heroine using her mother’s own stolen ring. When he is exposed as a murderer, he tries to kill the heroine.

App Matchmaking (currently Japanese-only)

• Bland-Name Product: This story has a myriad of those:
  • Tasuku is a "MewTuber", and he talks about the "Hanten Saiban" ("Rolling Trials", a parody of "Gyakuten Saiban" ("Turnabout Trials"), or the Japanese name of the Ace Attorney series) game series on one occasion.
  • Also, "Harmes" (Hermes) and "Gutty" (Gucci) merchandise appear in the game.
  • Poyopoyo (Puyopuyo)
  • Team Love (Team Lab)
  • Toys "R" Mas (Toy "R" Us)
  • Parpie (Barbie)
  • Barvard University
  • Amezon
• The Cameo: Ookura and one of the yakuza underlings make an appearance in the 7th Liar. Hilarity ensues as the yakuza underling is called "Scary Man" and Ookura is called "Even Scarier Man".
• Foreshadowing: Akane calls Lucas a "fake foreigner" when she first meets him. It turns out that she was right about it.
• Mistaken for Pedophile: Pretty much all of the men but the actual liar in the 7th chapter, where the heroine had to identify which of them was the pedophile that had kidnapped her 10-year old cousin, Akane.
• Multiple Endings: This is the first story that features this trope at the end of the entire story. The heroine can choose from 4 options: getting together with the 9th liar, the sole non-liar, forget about her goal of getting married within 100 days and continue looking for a marriage candidate, or give up on her marriage-hunting entirely and choose to remain single.
  • Subverted in that all options but choosing to get together with the sole non-liar turn out to be the ‘wrong’ option. They all end in the story looping back to the part where the heroine must choose from the 4 options at the end.
• Old Maid: The premise of this game. One of the heroine's life goals is to get married before she turns 30, and at the start of the game, she realizes that she has only 100 days left before that. Furthermore, Kathy the fortune teller tells her that she will never get married if she does not get married by 30.
• Workaholic: The heroine is one, thus the reason she is still single despite being almost 30.

Luxury Cruise

• Gender Reveal: The second liar turns out to be a woman, and she proves it by putting the heroine’s hand against her chest.

Lying Women

• Gender-Blender Name: This trope might be invoked if the player had entered a feminine name for the protagonist, as the same name is shared amongst all the protagonists of every story, all of whom have been female except for this story’s.
• Gender Flip: Of ‘Uncover the Truth’. This trope is made even more obvious in the Japanese version, as the ‘Uncover the Truth’ story is called the ‘Lying Men’ story. ‘Lying Women’ also takes places simultaneously with the ‘Lying Men’ story timeline-wise.
• Pretty Boy: The hero is often called this by the women in this story.
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Unlike his female counterpart, the hero does not slap any of the female liars after exposing them, and instead points at them firmly with a loud cry of “Liar!”, Ace Attorney-style.

High-Rise Mansion

The Film

• Adaptation Deviation: As a Compressed Adaptation of a game, it's to be expected. More importantly, Joe actually kidnaps Kana after he was exposed as a liar.
• Adaptation Expansion: Itaru and Kana's romance is more developed here, and his identity of knowing her before gets more focus in the last section of the movie.
• Advertised Extra: At least four liars get eliminated within the first quarter of the movie.
• Character Catchphrase: Kana uses "doubt" whenever she calls out a liar.
• Demoted to Extra: Unlike the original, Sotaro doesn't make it the final five liars, Keima does instead.
• Chekhov's Gun: After injuring herself, Kana uses the Octokitty bandage she got from Itaru on it, only for the trash to lead her to the marriage interview photo she got earlier from her mom. She opens it, and Itaru's photo is in it, leading her back to him.
• False Soulmate: After rejecting Itaru for hiding about his past, Kana assumes Asuza is her destined person. That's when it reveals he's a con man.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Kazumi ultimately lets Kana go after revealing about his condition.
• Love Epiphany: After Asuza is arrested, Kana calls out the fortune teller saying he was wrong about finding her soulmate since all her love interests were liars. He replies that everyone lies: weren't some of those lies good? This ultimately makes Kana realize she still loves Itaru despite his lies.
• Meaningful Echo: Kana rejects Itaru by saying she can't be with a liar. After they meet again at the marriage interview, she affectionately calls him a liar.
• Mythology Gag: Many of the game mechanics (number of Liars remaining, evidence showing, and the "Nice" pop ups) are added to the film.
• Named by the Adaptation: The MC is given the name of Kana Sakurai.
• Sealed with a Kiss: The film ends with Kana and Itaru getting married as it closes on them about to kiss.