Demonheart: The Cursed Trial A Romance Visual Novel for Fans of Danganronpa
Written by Lover's Lens, Writer, Gamer Girl, Podcast Host, Cat Lover
Published on July 25, 2025
We just wrapped up a laid‑back chat with Lamb, the creative mind behind the series’ deliciously dark romances. She told us all about her newest standalone adventure—Demonheart:The Cursed Trial—from its Baldur’s Gate‑meets‑death‑game roots to the quirky alignment system that lets you be sweet, snarky, or downright wicked. Lamb also gave us a peek at an unreleased CG sketch and shared a bunch of candid stories about modding, voice‑line wrangling, and hanging out in Discord with players.
The full conversation is huge, so we pulled out the juiciest questions—plus that exclusive bonus—while keeping Lamb’s answers exactly as she said them. Dive in below for an unfiltered, spoiler‑friendly look into her wonderfully twisted world!
Listen to the full podcast here.
Demonheart :The Cursed Trial – Highlight Q & A
Otome.com
Can you tell us a bit about your story as a developer?
Lamb: So I started gaming in my early teens. My brother introduced me to video games. I liked everything epic fantasy. So some of my favorite games were Baldur’s Gate 1 and 2 and Neverwinter Nights. I was really drawn to that, but I found that games back then were more geared toward a male audience. And I wanted there to be more romances for female players. And that’s why I… kind of started developing my own content.
So I started with modding. I published some ⁓ modules for Neverwinter Nights. They were also the Demonheart series.And eventually there was this idea to convert the story into a standalone game. And well, today I have like five games published on Steam, so it’s been nice.
Otome.com
What is The Cursed Trial all about?
Lamb: Okay, so it is a mix of murder, mystery and romance and I know that’s strange. But I like when romance develops in the middle of some really like dramatic plot. So there has to be a big story and then there will be romance in the middle of it.
In The Cursed Trial, the main character is a demonheart. That means she either ate someone else’s heart or she was somehow tricked into becoming this like cursed creature. She’s a little paranoid trying to protect her secret.And then she is thrown into a ruined settlement and she can’t escape and people start dying. So like in the middle of all of this, two guys fall in love with her, which is like the most important part for us.
Otome.com
What inspired you to blend mystery, death‑game tension and romance?
Lamb: Yes, it’s like it was Baldur’s Gate and also the Danganronpa games. I really like the setting, like the characters were trapped in a facility and dying one by one. And for some reason, like these death games, I really like them. And I like that you have a murder mystery and the killer is one of the characters that you’ve already met. But here there are like multiple killers. And there’s also the influence from RPGs with an alignment system and dialogue options.
Otome.com
How did you approach the game’s world‑building?
Lamb: I started from this medieval fantasy world, because that’s what I like in general. And it has some dark elements like the royal family is corrupt and knights are evil, things like that. And yes, there has been a lot of influence from like Dungeons and Dragons settings. In Baldur’s Gate 2, the throne of Baal, there were both born who were children of a god and they had to eliminate one another until only one was left.
And I really liked that idea. That was a huge inspiration for Demonheart in general. And I developed the rules about their powers over time. In the early days, I would pace around and ask myself questions to solve any logic problems by establishing the rules about what the characters can or can’t do. And one of my guiding principles has been to not give the characters too many magical powers, or it would raise some logic questions like, why didn’t they just do that?
Otome.com
How does the alignment system work?
Lamb: I wrote the choices like when I’m writing, I want to write multiple choices. And then when I’m playtesting, I add some more. And yes, you get some points, good, evil, tactful, or defiant for picking some dialogue options. You can bring up the character screen to check your current alignment. And there are different expressions that represent your character and how she generally looks like.
So depending on your choices, the characters will sometimes comment on your alignment. Like if you are good and tactful, Ren will say, like, you have such a charming presence. Or Kaiser will say, she’s so irrationally nice. And sometimes the narration will also change because it’s giving us the main character’s thoughts. So sometimes, I don’t know, she will think, these poor people have died, but if she’s evil, she won’t think like that.
Otome.com
How many endings are there and what shapes them?
Lamb: Well, for alignment, the endings aren’t different. It just adds like this flavor text all throughout the game where the characters are commenting on what you’re like. And when I was designing the multiple endings, the first thing that I had to take into account was, you romancing Kaiser, Ren or No one?
So that’s three possible endings. But then there are some variations and there are some characters who could be dead or alive depending on your choices.
Otome.com
The art has that signature Demonheart look: dark, lush, dramatic. What was your visual direction this time around?<br />
Lamb:I was going for that look. And for the characters, well, we also went for like a dark style. So Ren is dark and mysterious. The main character ended up as a goth girl, but I also wanted her to look smart and cunning and potentially dangerous. And Kaiser, that was like interesting because I described him to the artist as a guy who thinks he is ugly, but he is a love interest. .
Otome.com
Why choose partial voice acting instead of full?
Lamb: I went for partial voice acting because that’s what I’ve always done in my games. I imagine that full voice acting is more work, but maybe it actually isn’t. I don’t know, because I sat there for days, like extracting the voice lines.
I printed out the whole script and in the end I kind of tried to have voice lines whenever a character first appeared in a scene. And there was also like some special scenes and some lines that I thought would be interesting. Also, I think near the end, there are more voiced lines.
Otome.com
How has player feedback influenced the project?
Lamb: Well, there has been a lot of activity on Discord during the early access and after the full release and I’m very happy about that. It was really fun to talk to the players while I was still developing the game because that’s, you know, I’m most engaged in it while I’m still writing it and then reading their theories and seeing ⁓ if they love or hate a certain character. It has been really inspiring and they even made some memes. I love that.
Otome.com
Any closing thoughts for the audience?
Lamb: I have something to say to the players that I’ve said before but the bad guys in my games are safe because they’re fictional. I wrote them so they really love you. But do not romance bad guys in real life.
Otome.com
You sent us a sketch—what’s the story behind this exclusive CG?
Lamb: So that’s an early sketch for a CG of Ran sitting in front of your house and he was waiting for you while you were sleeping. And yeah, this is supposed to show you his stalker tendencies, but you may miss it maybe like, but if you think about it, like why is he sitting in front of your house? But then again, he’s nice . It’s supposed to show his personality and also his interest in the main character. And in this scene, he offers you his hand to take a walk with him and you have a mean option to ignore his hand. And we recorded two voice lines where he’s saying the same thing, but if you didn’t take his hand, he sounds disappointed.
Support Lamb on her ko-fi shop by buying one of these super cute chibi charms of Demonheart characters.
