Ceville

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

You are King Ceville, descendant of a illustrious line of tyrants. What you are lacking in stature is more than made up for by your wanton cruelty and vileness -- you've truly done your ancestors proud. One day, however, all tyrants have to face one occupational hazard: insurrection. The unwashed, ignorant ingrates of Faeryanis have risen against you, and your moronic guards are keeping you under house arrest. Time for Plan B. (is there a Plan B?)

Ceville is a point-and-click adventure game by Realmforge Studios, set in a farcical, anachronistic fairytale land -- think Shrek meets King's Quest, except the king is evil and cannot be killed off. As he tries to make his way out of this mess, Ceville makes an unlikely bond with sweet, moralistic street urchin Lilly, and both of them have to stop Ceville's even more evil minister Basilius from ascending to the throne.

Tropes used in Ceville include:


  • 0% Approval Rating -- Ceville is proud of this, and is rather baffled that his subjects would object.
    • "Of course I tyrranized them; I'm a tyrant."
  • BFS -- Ambrosius's "+3 Sword of Demon Slaying". He can't even wield it.
  • Bilingual Bonus -- El Chollo's name means something akin to "the bargain."
  • Brutal Honesty -- Much of the game's humor results from Ceville's gleeful disregard of tact.
  • Chekhov's Boomerang -- As a general rule, unless an item disappears from your inventory, you must assume it is needed. That can of green paint, in particular, is very useful.
  • Chekhov's Gunman -- The chef, introduced in the prologue, turns up again in Act 3.
  • Cool and Unusual Punishment -- Ceville's torture implements include a jukebox and a TV set.
  • Corrupt Corporate Executive -- Both dwarves you meet.
  • Corrupt Politician -- Ceville and Basilius, obviously. The Council isn't any better.
  • Democracy Is Bad -- Understandably, Ceville has lots of beef against democracy, but the council election in Faeryanis sure does not look good.

Ceville: Lilly, I am slowly coming to understand this "democracy" thing -- the ones in charge are just as tyrannical as I was, but they hide it better.

Ceville: Have I mentioned how wonderful it is to be on the dark side? The good people are so stupid, so easy to con, hehe!

  • The Guards Must Be Crazy -- Ambrosius, who spends his duty-time preening and admiring himself, is the poster child of this trope. The other guards are no better: see Paper-Thin Disguise below.
  • Guide Dang It -- The puzzles in the game are on the difficult side, but what drives most people to walkthroughs is actually a non-puzzle: catching the hamster. Most people over-analyse the set-up, when all you have to do is to run to its cage extra fast.
  • Hellhole Prison -- The cell they keep Ceville in is disgusting: but it is Ceville himself who made all prisons hellholes in the first place!
  • History Repeats -- The third act starts exactly the same as the prologue, except with Queen Gwendolyn instead of King Ceville.
  • Human Catapult -- occurs twice.
  • Human Popsicle -- The chef in Act 3, and it's all your fault!
  • Just Between You and Me -- Lampshaded by Ceville himself:

Ceville: Sometimes I wonder why all the bad guys feel the need to explain their evil plans.

  • Landslide Election.
  • Look Behind You! -- Particularly egregious in the soccer-match puzzle.
  • Loony Fan -- Gwendolyn is obsessed with her hamster, having installed a hamster flap in her throne room, a clock that chimes when it's time for it to eat, and a giant gold statue of it behind her throne.
  • Miles Gloriosus: Ambrosius will never stop talking about his brilliant mind, superhuman strength, incredible beauty, etc. With the possible exception of the beauty, it's all lies.
  • The Napoleon -- Ceville.
  • Obstructive Bureaucrat -- The pig-nosed secretary in Dwarves' Inc. Ltd.
  • Our Dwarves Are All the Same -- Not exactly: the dwarves have turned managerial and have hired goblins for lowly work, and in additional to mining, they've expanded their business interest to logging and real estate. Still, some things never change:

Lilly: A beer tap! But they are dwarves, what do I expect!
Dwarf CEO: By Moradam's beer-belly, what do you expect?
Lilly: Gold fever and beer, what else.

  • Our Elves Are Different -- they are hippies who live in a place called Woodstock, always look a bit stoned, and like all self-respecting environmentalists, they chain themselves to trees to protest against logging.
  • Our Fairies Are Different -- The Good Fairy runs a kindergarten-like school of rehabitation for former archvillains. Her method is basically smothering them with baby talk. It does not work, at least not long-term.
  • Paper-Thin Disguise -- A chef's hat on Ceville's head is able to fool his guards; semi-justified as they are cheaply hired idiots.
  • The Prima Donna -- H. Lo.
  • Promoted to Scapegoat -- The Dwarves promote Lilly to CEO when they think they have bankrupted their company.
  • Reformed Criminal -- Subverted: the Good Fairy Mother's reformed Archvillains are only too eager to go back to their old ways, once they are reminded that Evil Is Cool.
  • Sequel Hook -- Watch to the end of the credits.
  • Shout-Out -- Lots. The Red Demon looks almost the same as the one on the box of Dungeon Keeper, and he aspires to be (what else?) a dungeon keeper. A good third of Lilly's lines are references to other games or movies: one choice bit concerns the sociopathic Ceville and a rabbit costume:

Lilly: With your mindset, I think YOU should put on the costume, Ceville.
Ceville: Not until your sling shot qualifies as a pistol, Sam!

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