Know-nothing Noelle
A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, and Linux
Perilously close to failing her senior year, Noelle is overworked and pressured by expectations into cheating on an exam. After being caught in the act by her teacher, Noelle finds that he isn’t as well-intentioned as he seems.
Or at all, really.
But unable to afford repeating the year, she isn’t exactly in a place to refuse extracurricular lessons in exchange for favors…no matter how questionable said favors are.
So, what to do when you’re blackmailed into doing your teacher’s bidding? Will Noelle bend and buckle or stand up for herself? Survive until graduation or fail miserably trying!
Know-nothing Noelle is a No-good Noelle fangame that takes place in an alternate universe where Noelle and Ivy are students at the prestigious Frostbite Academy, and Yule is their teacher.
This game is for ages 17+.
Credit to Nemlei for the characters.
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42k words (3-5 hours of playtime)
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23 CGs
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2 main endings, 1 side ending, and 1 secret!
Student-teacher relationship, blackmail/coercion with power imbalance involved, strong language, mild violence, sexual themes, fantasy racial discrimination, general degeneracy.
(To reveal spoiler text, highlight the black boxes using the cursor.)
To get either GRADUATED or HELD BACK, you MUST “Keep the secret” when confronted by Ivy. Telling the truth automatically gets you expelled.
GRADUATED:
Pick ≥3 of the choices below OR simply pick “…don’t agree with that.” irrespective of other choices after the bedroom argument with Ivy.
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“Object”
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“Go with Ivy”
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“Don’t skip”
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“…don’t agree with that.”
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“Stand your ground”
HELD BACK:
Pick ≥3 of the choices below. You MUST pick “…think you’re right.” after the bedroom argument with Ivy.
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“Let it slide”
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“Go with Yule”
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“Skip”
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“ …think you’re right.” (REQUIRED)
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“Relent”
There are two variants of this ending. If you have picked all 5 of these choices, you MUST “Push him away” during the apartment scene to get Held Back A.
For Held Back B, pick ALL 5 choices listed above. Then, “Pull him in” during the apartment scene.
SIDE ENDING - EXPELLED:
“Tell the truth” when confronted by Ivy.
BONUS:
To access extra branches during the “Relent” and “Stand your ground” scene, do the following:
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GRADUATED failed (leads to HELD BACK A): pick ≥3 HELD BACK choices, then “Stand your ground.” You MUST choose “…think you’re right.”
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HELD BACK failed (leads to GRADUATED): pick ≥3 GRADUATED choices, then “Relent.” You MUST choose “…don’t agree with that.”
HELD BACK aborted (leads to GRADUATED): There are two ways to enter this branch. This happens whether you pick “Relent” or “Stand your ground.”
- Pick ≥3 GRADUATED choices, but say “…think you’re right.”
- Pick ≥3 HELD BACK choices, but say “…don’t agree with that.”
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I can't say I have played no good Noelle like a lot of the people downloading this. I really downloaded this because Yule is very similar to an OC I have, and I have thoroughly enjoyed my time with this VN. I am picking up NGN after this. I do wish I could support the creators of this VN and would love if they made an acrylic standee or maybe stickers. I can't wait to see what else comes from this fan game studio.
First thing I wanna say is y'all cooked with this one.
I love the sprite arts looking like anime style but all expressions still staying close to source materials, the OSTs are well picked and really capture the vibe of NGN although most of them are not from the same artists, that's some real dedication for finding the ones that fit in the game. I enjoy most of the CGs, some may need more polishing but they're all great overall.
As the story now takes place in a more modern world unlike in the original, Noelle's struggles here is as relatable as ever, Yule and Ivy get to nag and bully poor Noelle more, master Joutilainen is even chubbier now (bro looks like he's straight out of a Miyazaki Hayao anime), Noelle's mom, Ivy's mom and dad don't make a direct appearance but tbh don't care about them that much lol.
If anything I guess this fangame only missed out on an opportunity to create and show a fan version of Yule's imp appearance. Since the game does mention that phones exist, cameras and recorders must be too, imagine Holly happened to have a reporter taking pictures or even recording her sealing Yule's imp body away and smashing it on camera, they saved the pictures, footages for educational use or documentary in Frostbite Academy, which would be something she and her family bragged about for generations, Yule would definitely want to destroy any evidence capturing his biggest L in life. Now that I think about this, there's no mention of why Yule was sealed away, master Joutilainen also did not give context like in the original that imps are only sealed for having done something bad, and they can be unsealed if they repent, so it's lacking in this aspect of the lore compared to the original. There's also no Ivy's route, not like that's bad but like come on we all know she's egocentric and kind of a spoiled brat, but I'd wish she had more to say in Graduated end, like Noelle would also come forward to her at some point to say how she's been feeling about her this whole time like she does with Yule, not as an attempt to fix anything or cut Ivy off after graduation, but both would start acknowledging their problems more and leave that to the future to fix at some point. Anyhow since this fangame focuses more on the teacher-student relationship (and it being a Yuelle fangame ofc), it has done a good job on that.
To sum it up, I had a good time playing and wish more people, TCOAAL/NGN fan or not, would give it a try and have fun! Y'all deserve the world for this.
I'm a big fan of tcoaall, and after playing it I got into Nemlei's previous games too. I was excited to see that a fangame of NGN was being made, and finally playing it has been a delight!
The artstyle contrasts NGN's cartoony-fairytail style, since it has a cleaner, more 'modern' style, but this is precicesly what fits the AU perfectly, and maintains the spirit of the original.
The character models are impeccably drawn, but I found that some of the CGs where lacking in composition. This may have been a case of varying talent on the part of the art team; the sex scene and the closet scene were well drawn, but most of the other CGs had poor lighting, and character representation. I think that better studies of shading and models would have gone a long way to make some of the CGs feel 'cleaner'; part of what is so attractive about tcoaall, and NGN, and nemlei's games in general, is that she is remarkably versatile & detailed in how she represents her characters, a majority of the "poses" in this game's CGs felt stiff & awkward by comparison, which contrasted sharply with the otherwise dynamic composition; I was especially dissapointed with the quality of the ending graphics (though, again, for some of the scenes, this wasn't an issue).
The writing for this game demonstrates a clear love for nemlei's style of storytelling, and I think that the plot is a clear 'upgrade' from the original story. I esspecially liked the change, that Noelle's "uselessness", is connected to her poverty; as a theme, this was implicit in the original work, and I liked that it was explored here in a thoughtful & nuanced way. The characterization is correct, there's less nonsense about the contrivances & details of Yule's situation, and the core conflict of Yule & Noelle 'helping eachother cheat', is translated to the university setting in a very clever way, and the drama of this relationship is explored in novel ways that I enjoyed reading alot.
My only minor complaint with the writing is that it felt a little 'convinient' at times; this is because there was a bit too much explaining. For example, when Noelle walks into Yule's room because she hears a branch tapping on the window, it logically makes sense, but it would make more narrative sense if she recognized what was making the noise before she entered the room, but decided to snoop around anyways. The story is also very blunt about it's social commentary, I don't disagree with it, but I think it the same message could have been delivered more subtly, or in a more clever way.
Overall, I would give this game a solid B. Good writing, good art; there are wrinkes in both, but these wrinkles are incidental & not necissarily fundimental. I don't know if you're team has another project in the works, but if you do, I would love to play it!
(It's a shame this game couldn't be monitized either)
Just be glad u got something bro🙄
just for this stupid comment, I'll add another criticism
I didn't like the music; the 'lo-fi' soundtrack didn't really compliment the style, even if it does call back to the original game. I know that music production adds another dimension to game development, even nemlei comissioned the soundtrack for coffin rather than composing it herself, but I think that the soundtrack is one of the most important aspect of visual novels in general. This game only cycled through a handful of tracks, and they didn't always fit the tone, either.
Now that I think of it, this aspect brings my personal rating down to a B-
(and for the record, I'm criticising this game because I care about it, dismissing criticism indicates a lack of care, and is actually condescending)
Whatever helps u sleep at night lol
one day, age verification will reach a point were I will never have to endure 15 year olds in my fandom ever again
Thank you for supporting Linux.
Thanks to you, the fandom is still alive. Beautiful VN definitely and yule looks handsome (*/ω＼*)
I wanna congratulate you on your release of the fan game.
As well hope to have an interview with your team.
ts peak