Walkure Romanze: Shōjo Kishi Monogatari

Walkure Romanze: Shōjo Kishi Monogatari (ワルキューレ ロマンツェ 少女騎士物語) is a Japanese adult visual novel being developed by the visual novel company Ricotta for the Microsoft Windows PC. It is Ricotta's second visual novel after Princess Lover!. It is currently targeted for release in 2010. The game is described by the development team as a "romancing female knights ADV" (少女騎士恋愛ADV).

Setting and themes
The story of Walkure Romanze takes place in an academy and is centered around the sport of jousting.

Characters
The player takes on the role of Takahiro Mizuno (水野貴弘), the protagonist of Walkure Romanze. Takahiro was a very good athlete in the junior competitions but has since left the scene due to an injury he incurred during a championship finals match. Mio Kisaki (希咲美桜) is a friend of Takahiro's and also lives quite close to him. Mio enjoys watching jousting competitions and strongly believes that Takahiro will eventually recover from his injury and return to competing. Noel Marres Ascot (ノエル・マーレス・アスコット) is a daughter of a marquess family. Her jousting skills are top class. Noel puts in all she has got into the competitions because she promised her younger sister that she would never lose when she is competing in front of her. Celia Cumani Aintree (スィーリア・クマーニ・エイントリー) was the winner of the jousting competitions during both her first and second year at the academy and is regarded as a prodigy in jousting. Celia also has excellent grades and has been the president of the student council for consecutive years. Lisa Eostre (リサ・エオストレ) is a first year student at the academy but is regarded as a very promising rookie. No one in the first year class is able to stand up to her.

Plot
Walkure Romanze's story revolves around Takahiro Mizuno, a student studying at an academy with jousting as its main focus for sport. Takahiro acts as an advisor to the riders of the sport. Takahiro goes through each day tediously until the time of the annual competition draws near. Due to some odd circumstances, his childhood friend Mio Kisaki is enrolled into the competition. As she has never even rode a horse once in her life, Takahiro senses the fear in her friend and becomes Mio's coach.

Development
Walkure Romanze is Ricotta's second game, after their first game, Princess Lover!, released in 2008. The scenario for Walkure Romanze is being written by Orugōru and Hare Kitagawa. Kitagawa's authoring credits include Akiiro Renka, Happiness! Re:Lucks, and Time Leap. The art and character designs will be handled by Kei Komori, who also worked on Princess Lover!.

Due to the unusual jousting theme of the game and Komori's personal love for armour, the Ricotta staff had to do a lot of research. With regards to the game, the staff would like the player to pay close attention to how the sport of jousting brings the protagonist and the heroine together, and how the trust between the two slowly blossoms into love. They also stated that they originally had five heroines being designed but the number was later cut down to four.

Release history
Walkure Romanze was originally planned to be released in the winter of 2009 but has since been delayed to 2010.