RE: Alistair

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Merui, Shiro, Derek and Travis

Merui loves nothing more than to play her favorite MMO Rivenwell Online. One day a player named Alistair hijacks Merui's kill in a boss fight and wins the Blessed Stone she aimed to get for herself. Merui, outraged by this, is determined to do whatever it takes to get it back (and to teach Alistair a lesson). This results in a bet initiated by Alistair:

Merui has a month to figure out his real life identity. If she does he'll hand over the Blessed Stone to her. If not, she'll have to relinquish her online earnings from the past month to Alistair.

With a lead and three potential suspects the player must guide Merui in this mystery. Along the way she may very well develop a romance with any of the three guys she's out to investigate...

RE: Alistair is a Freeware OELVN created by sakevisual with writer sake-bento, artist tooaya and programmer Thee Forbidden One. It focuses heavily on romance and dating, with the mystery being secondary.

The creators put out an updated re-release: RE: Alistair++. It can be downloaded from the creator's website or from Lemmasoft Forums.

Tropes used in RE: Alistair include:
  • Affably Evil: Derek goes out of his way to be as nice and appealing as possible. All while emotionally manipulating Merui.
  • Backstory: Shiro gets the better end of this (in both the original release and the re-release). Derek stays more or less the same in both versions. Travis gets a little more in the re-release, though the part about his mother having cancer feels a bit...tacked on.
  • The Bet: Basically what the story revolves around.
  • Big Man on Campus: Derek
  • Bishoujo: The art style falls into this.
  • Bland-Name Product The MMORPG is called "Rivenwell Online" ( Maple Story/Ragnarok Online). Stores in the mall include "Boundary's Books" ( Borders Books), "The Divide" ( The Gap), and "Gamego" ( GameStop). Boundary's sells a book called "Planetost" ( like Harry Potter, but with aliens instead of wizards), and Gamego sells "Movie Maniac" ( SceneIt), "Diamond Moon: Final Phase" ( Sailor Moon, Final Fantasy), "Other Saga" ( Excel Saga???), "Monochrome Diet" ( Silent Hill???), "Demon of Edo" ( Inuyasha), "Walk This Way" (???, puzzle game), and "Rock Festival" ( Rock Band).
  • Blond, Brunette, Redhead: Derek (blond), Shiro + Travis (brunette), and Merui (redhead)
  • Blond Guys Are Evil: Derek turns out to be the one who's Alistair. He spends the story stringing Merui along knowing who her online persona is. Unless the player chooses to pursue him as a love interest he remains a bastard. Even when confronted he never intends to make good on his part of the deal.
  • Bookworm: Shiro
  • Bridal Carry: Derek has an extra scene in which Merui accidentally gets hit in the head by a basketball and feels lightheaded, so he offers to carry her to the nurse.
  • Casanova: Derek. He starts out like this but, if you play his route, he'll gradually become a Ladykiller in Love.
  • Catch Phrase: Travis: "Hm...I wonder." Merui even pokes fun with it at one point.

Merui: Do you always have to say that?

  • Club President: Travis is president of the Computer Games Club.
  • Crash Into Hello: Both Travis and Shiro have a scene in which Merui loses her footing and falls into them.
  • Cross Player: Shiro playing Rivenwell Online as FionaWings
  • Dating Sim: An element of mystery is added with trying to figure out who Alistair is in real life. However, the majority of the emphasis is on the dating/romance angle.
  • Driving Question: Who is Alistair??
  • Evil Overlooker The artwork features all three of the guys who could be Alistair floating above and around Marui. And the one at the top, Derek, is in fact Alistair.
  • Fiery Redhead: Merui. Especially when she gets mad.
  • Gamer Chick: Merui
  • Good Is Not Nice: Not the straightest example of this. Travis just has a tendency of being a little mean even when doing something nice. Contrast this with Derek.
  • Headbutt of Love: Shiro does it in his ending.
  • Hands-Off Parenting: Shiro's bitter about his parents never being around.
  • Hands-On Approach: When Merui helps Travis reboot all the computers in the lab, he gets annoyed with her slowness and "helps" her move the mouse.
  • Headphones Equal Isolation: A little ironic with Shiro. While he is fairly isolated it has to do with his family and the rumors. The headphones are never used for this purpose. He just wears them as an accessory.
  • Healing Hands: FionaWings in Rivenwell Online
  • Honor Before Reason: What compels Merui to accept the bet with Alistair. Most people wouldn't bother dragging something from an MMO into real life. It's not even legal, anyways.
  • I Love You Because I Can't Control You: You can catch Derek's attention by NOT pining after a date with him.
  • I Was Just Passing Through Travis's reasoning for doing things like maintaining the school's neglected computer network. Admitting to Merui that he "finds her useful" is one of the first cracks in his emotional armor.
    • Think Nothing of It His general attitude about Merui commenting that he's a nice guy underneath it all.
  • Jerkass: Alistair. And Derek, by extension. Unless you pursue him, then he Becomes The Mask.
  • Kuudere: Travis as a mild male example.
  • Lampshade Hanging: In an encounter with Travis he and Merui nearly bump into each other. Travis jokes around by saying, "Don't tell me you were expecting me to say something like 'Watch where you're going, you stupid girl!'"
  • Lonely Rich Kid: Shiro. His family isn't loaded (both parents work all the time, so this wasn't something he was born into). But they certainly seem to be fairly well off. Also, a lot of people are scared of what Shiro's parents will do to anyone who causes Shiro any harm due to their connections and past events.
  • Love Redeems: The ending where you win Derek's heart is the only one in which he doesn't come across as a complete Jerkass.
  • Luminescent Blush: Do something cute to embarrass one of the guys. Go on, try it. Shiro is especially prone to it.
  • MMO: The fictional Rivenwell Online
  • Multiple Endings
  • Nice Guy: Shiro, even if he can display some surprising anger at times.
  • Overprotective Dad / My Beloved Smother: Derek's parents. If his complaints about them are any indication, anyway.
  • Popular Is Dumb: Travis's mentality
  • The Quiet One: Shiro
  • Redheaded Heroine: Merui
  • Replay Value: The multiple endings, CG gallery and bonuses to unlock make for some good replay value
  • The Reveal: Shiro being FionaWings when you play his route and win him. Most people were genuinely surprised by the revelation. Many players admitted they should've considered who FionaWings might've been in context of the story. Most people just dismissed her and assumed she was a minor character who's real life identity would never be revealed. Also, the fact that Shiro's a guy and FionaWings is female might've had something to do with the surprise. Travis being user Oda and a Global Moderator for Rivenwell Online may count except, as his route goes on, it just sort of becomes pretty obvious. Derek being Alistair may be a little ruined here especially if you play someone else's route but his first and find out he's Alistair that way.
  • Second Place Is for Losers / The "B" Grade: The attitude Derek says his parents have.
  • Sleep Cute: Study late with Shiro one evening and Merui will fall asleep sitting on the floor with him. When she wakes up, he's asleep on her shoulder, complete with Love Bubbles in the background.
  • Stoic Spectacles: Travis.
  • Student Council (Vice) President: Derek
  • Super-Deformed: The appearance of the Rivenwell Online characters
  • Suspiciously Specific Denial: Shiro does this once when trying to help Merui with a riddle.

Shrio: I'm not saying you can't figure it out on your own... or anything...

  • Take a Third Option - Regarding Travis's riddle about knights who always tell the truth and demons who always lie.

Merui: Couldn't you just ask something like "is one plus one equal to two?" and whoever says no is the liar?
Travis: ...It doesn't work that way.
Merui: In other words, yes, and you don't want to admit it.

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