Sword Daughter is a Ren'Py-based English Visual Novel developed by Hanako Games. It is a licensed property, and was originally a gamebook by Rhondi Vilott under the title Sword Daughter's Quest. It is the first game under the Hanabira line, a series of games licensed but not written by Hanako Games.
You play as Tyrna, a feisty young woman who dreams of finding adventure in battle. But one fateful night, while traveling to the Warrior Games, her group is attacked by orcs. Her father is murdered, and the caravaners they were traveling with are taken captive. Now alone, Tyrna must decide how to proceed. Should she follow the orcs for revenge? Go back home? What will she find along the way?
Sword Daughter provides examples of:
- Action Girl: Tyrna.
- Anger Born of Worry: Gavin spends a lot of his time in varying degrees of this state, which contributes to the rockiness of his interaction with Tyrna. At one point Tyrna even observes that he sounds a lot like her father did sometimes when he was worried.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Tyrna and Gavin spend the majority of their interaction arguing with each other, and the more attracted he is, the more belligerent Gavin becomes about it.
- Braids of Action: Tyrna braids her hair to put up under her helmet when she dresses for battle. The braids tend to come loose and reveal her as a woman at inconvenient moments.
- But Thou Must!: At least one decision point can result in finding out that you simply can't proceed in the way that you chose, and must go back and take the other path.
- Cool Horse: Stormseeker is far more intelligent than a normal horse and has supernatural abilities, including the power to cross more distance than the length of his strides should be able to, and to help anyone running alongside him do the same.
- Dragon Hoard: Slag, the legendary blue dragon, left a substantial hoard of treasure behind.
- The Dragonslayer: Neron the paladin, according to legend, killed the blue dragon Slag. There's a temple in his honor in the mountains.
- Expy: Stormseeker is basically Shadowfax, complete with Tyrna's narration referring to him as "a prince of horses".
- Fiery Redhead: Tyrna. Lampshaded at one point when Gain comments in exasperation about her red hair as a reference to her temper.
- Gold Fever: Dragon hoards like Slag's run the risk of cursing people with irresistible avarice. Tyrna judges this to have happened to Loric, and if she's not careful she can fall victim to it as well.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Gavin is a half-elf raised by his elven father, with all the attendant angst.
- Love at First Sight: It doesn't take long after meeting Gavin for Tyrna to start going on about how wonderful falling in love is. Gavin tends to fall equally as fast, sometimes before they've even reached a decision about their initial course of action.
- Love Redeems: Tyrna can try this on Loric. It doesn't end well.
- Multiple Endings: Twenty-two of them!
- Naïve Newcomer: Tyrna's new at this sword thing, and not always very good at it.
- Our Elves Are Different: Standard high elf model - long-lived, innately magical, in tune with nature and generally better avoided by humans whenever possible. The narration makes a couple of references to "legendary elven calm," and Gavin, a half-elf, mentions that he's been raised by his father to be above messy human emotions.
- Our Orcs Are Different: Tolkien-esque style, straight out of Dungeons & Dragons.
- Rightful King Returns: Villainous version. Loric was driven out of his kingdom, and he plans to take it back... by hiring mercenaries and orc raiders, and enslaving people who he forces to work unearthing the lost treasure of Slag's hoard.
- What Beautiful Eyes!: The very first thing Tyrna notices about Gavin is that he has "the most beautiful violet eyes [she's] ever seen."
- You No Take Candle: The typical orc mode of speech, the better to illustrate their lack of intelligence.
