You deal with three cases in the course of the game. The characters seeking divorces are Baird the werewolf, Lillum the demon, and Po the blob. The characters being divorced are Jeska the witch, Lexis the golem, and Nerium the dryad. However, the pairing of victims and villains is randomly determined for each playthrough, creating nine distinct possible cases — to see them all, multiple playthroughs are required.
The game is available free
on itch.io.
Tropes:
- Abhorrent Admirer: Nerium is this to Po, declaring his deep love while paying little attention to Po's rejection.Nerium: I would gladly ease any burden you have. I can and will do far more than any no-name paperwork assistant could. All I need is to know what it is that's troubling you.
Po: You. Trouble. Me. - AcCENT upon the Wrong SylLABle: A variant occurs with Po, whose speech has distinct changes of speed in it, resulting in some phrases running together and others appearing like they're Punctuated! For! Emphasis!.Po: Hello. I-am. Ready. To-do-this.
- Alternate Identity Amnesia: Baird the werewolf has this between his human and wolf forms, to the point where they're basically different people. This is the problem with his marriage to Lexis — his human self agreed to it but his wolf self did not, and Lexis didn't know the latter fact.
- Amicable Exes: Since the marriages weren't mutually agreed in the first place, the parties certainly aren't amicable towards each other when they come to you. If you manage to address the underlying failures of communication, however, they may be on better terms by the time the divorce is finalized. Indeed, the protagonist seems to see securing this outcome — not processing the divorce paperwork — as the proper function of the divorce bureau.
- And Now You Must Marry Me: In one way or another, this happened in each of the cases you deal with. That's why the marriages in question are getting dissolved.
- Anti-Magic: The bureau is stated to prevent clients from using magic — which, given that it sees mutually hostile, supernaturally-empowered people being forced into the same room to sign papers, is probably a good idea.
- Blob Monster: Po, one of the characters seeking a divorce, is the spawn of the chief of the blobs. Blobs are apparently quite respected in this world, since Po has high social status even with non-blobs — and is considered quite beautiful, too.
- Card-Carrying Villain: Nerium is happy to describe himself as "quite the criminal" (and not in a Just Like Robin Hood sense). He enjoys the notoriety, and boasts of "the dramatically devious feats" he's accomplished.
- Divorce Is Temporary: The protagonist hopes so. Since the marriages weren't entered into properly, they have to be broken up, but the cases can end with the divorcees on reasonably friendly terms, and with the implication that they might eventually end up together by a better route than the first time.
- Foot-Dragging Divorcee: None of the characters who are being divorced have any way of stopping the process, but some of them are less than helpful.
- Golem: Lexis was created to be the guardian of a secret society, but outlived the society and is now on her own. She has emotions, but isn't very good at communicating them.
- No Name Given: The protagonist is never named. It's lampshaded by Nerium's dismissal of the protagonist as just a "no-name paperwork assistant".
- No Social Skills: Several characters have poor communication skills, but Lexis and Jeska stand out, particularly in their attempts to get closer to Lillum. Lexis thought that negotiating a contract with Lillum's minions was a good approach when trying to get a date, while Jeska, who wanted a pact, thought that trying to invoke Stockholm Syndrome was a good way of softening Lillum to the idea.
- Plant Person: Nerium the dryad.Nerium: I want to apologize for the horrible crime of seeming like I was just another easily impressed garden variety suitor.
Po: We met in a garden and you are a walking garden. I have never in my life met someone who was more of a 'garden variety' suitor. - Paperworkaholic: The protagonist clearly enjoys working in an office, although not to the point of being incapable of recognising other priorities.Protagonist: I love paperwork as much as everyone, but it isn't all that matters.
- The Pollyanna: The protagonist has a very bright and positive outlook, especially for someone who works in a divorce bureau.Protagonist: Another good morning to you, office. I wonder what excitement you will have for me today.
- Read the Fine Print: The marriage of Lexis and Lillum arose from this. Lexis, being not very good at interacting with people, tried to arrange a date with Lillum by means of a formal written contract, and when Lillum's people drew up said contract, an administrative error made it into a full marriage agreement. The marriage gets dissolved anyway, although selecting the right options can result in the two agreeing to try things again properly.
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: While not as bad as she could be, Jeska the witch has a tendency to use fancier vocabulary than other characters, sometimes to their annoyance. Despite the volume of verbiage, she's actually quite reluctant to properly communicate with people (which is how she ended up in the divorce bureau).
- Stockholm Syndrome: Jeska's magically-arranged marriage to Lillum turns out to have been an attempt to invoke this, with Jeska hoping that she could gradually earn Lillum's friendship (and therefore her help) through enforced proximity. Lillum is quite blunt in her appraisal of this plan, telling Jeska that it was the "most annoying experience of my life" and that "you suck at this". Depending on player choices, however, Lillum may eventually concede that Jeska is more socially inept than villainous, and that getting to know Jeska better wouldn't be so bad, telling her that "you pulled off your awful plan better that I thought."
- Unwanted Spouse: The basis of the plot, as the game's title would suggest.
- Wicked Witch: Jeska is viewed as this thanks to her dangerous experiments into forbidden magic. However, the misdeeds that land her in the divorce bureau owe less to her "wickedness" and more to the fact that, despite appearing very composed and collected, she was actually flailing around due to having No Social Skills.
- You Sexy Beast: Baird the werewolf is surprised to learn that Nerium likes Baird's wolf form rather than human form, which is usually not the case.
