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Spare a thought for Denis. Brave Denis. Noble Denis. Dyslexic Denis? Persecuted Denis. With his centre-parted blonde hair, proud shoulder pads, and Wellington boots, Denis likes to boast that he only ever tracks his prey alone. That which he considers courageous only makes him vulnerable. Reckless Denis. His backstory provides a slither of justification for the cruelty to which you must subject him. "He insists that he comes from a family of knights," it reads. "But he had nothing to prove his claims." A liar, then. And a boastful one at that. Fraudulent Denis. First, I trap Denis in a bear snare. This serves two important purposes. Crucially, it makes a mockery of those Wellies. What kind of infantrymen wears Hunter boots to battle? One who doesn't read labels properly, I'd wager. Secondly, the bear trap pins him in place. Now I can take my time lining up a high-heeled kick to the groin. Kapow: this sends him reeling backwards to fall heavily into a bidet I've installed behind him. Before he's able to scrabble free of the pan, a spurt of water fountains him upwards. Airborne Denis! With expert timing, I loose a swinging axe, which strikes him mid-air, and knocks him straight into a stone pillar. As he slides mournfully to its base, I drop a hollowed pumpkin onto his head to finish him off. A knight, eh? Prove your claims, Denis.
There's no shortage of pitiful foils in Deception, a series that aims to stimulate every player's inner sadist. Later, you'll meet Nobu the Lackey, a dropout college athlete who's "never managed to clear the level four vaulting box" (those things come in levels?). Then Frances the Tearful, a crack archer who apologises "whenever anything happens." These comic characters pose little real threat to any of the devilish anime girls as whom you play in Deception 4: The Nightmare Princess. Rather, they act as foils for your cruel ingenuity. They are, like the cat's frantic mouse, prey to be toyed with.
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