A Tithe In Blood is a visual novel by Studio Élan released on June 16, 2025.

The story stars Honoka Asakawa, a university student in Sapporo, Japan, who has recently lost her parents. While suffering from grief, she has studied a Blood Magic tome and found a way to a Sapporo of the past, where a mage from the Meiji period named Yasue lives. Honoka's friendship and eventual love for Yasue is one of the few things to bring joy to her life, but it comes at a cost. The blood she uses to make her magic possible takes its toll on her physical health, while her growing desire to escape from her reality erodes her mental health.

Unbeknownst to Honoka, her dabbling in magic has not gone unnoticed, and a handful of individuals are willing to do whatever it takes to recover a tome for one of the most dangerous kinds of magic. What's more, one of Yasue's old enemies is out there, waiting to settle the score. Will Honoka's bond with Yasue save or doom them both?

The visual novel has examples of the following tropes:

• Beta Couple:While the relationship between Yasue and Honoka is the main focus of the game, it is revealed late in the game that Tatiana and Kaoru are a couple.
• Blood Magic: Honoka's magic uses blood as a reagent, allowing her to use magic despite her lack of experience. Blood magic is considered an especially dangerous school of magic, hence why Tatiana is trying to get her hands on the tome.
• Bookends: Honoka repeats her opening monologue at the start of the final scene before the epilogue.
  Honoka: A terrible chill hangs in the air, the season proving bitter as it so often is here. On this cold day, a great throng of students slowly shuffles through the piled snow of the university grounds, the day's lectures finally over. Some gossip freely with their friends, while others fawn over their partners. Most, however, stroll silently. Amidst this sea of people, walks one unremarkable student among many.
• Central Theme: Contrasts.
  • According to the art book, different societies running in parallel to each other. Not only do the mage and commoner societies exist alongside one another, but Kaoru, who had a rough past, ends up together with Tatiana, who comes from a wealthy family.
  • Many of the visual elements of the game contrast with one another. Honoka is dark-haired and has a monochrome modern outfit with a white sweater and dark pants while Yasue has Mystical White Hair and a bright yellow kimono. Yonehara's red kimono and black shawl contrast with the white snow where she's often seen. Tatiana's icy, graceful looking spear contrasts with Honoka's scythe made out blood and Tatiana's Makarov pistol.
  • Yasue's magic allows for the creation of illusions, and she typically uses it for frivolous pleasure. Her sister Katsuko Yonehara's magic is fire-based and used for destruction. The contrast is also reflected in Yasue's summoned fan and her sister's sword.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • Honoka's laptop has the translation notes for Isabella's book on it. Using it allows her to recreate the circle after her book is destroyed.
  • A more literal than usual case comes up in the end of Act 2, when Kaoru brings a rifle while trying to seize the book from Honoka. She ends up firing the gun at Honoka in the third act.
• Chromosome Casting: All six of the named characters are women. The only males are residents of the past Sapporo where Yasue resides, who turn out to be illusions summoned by Yasue.
• Dramatic Irony: A minor case in Act Three, Scene 1. Honoka believes that Yonehara is the first real person other than herself and Yasue to enter Yasue's Sapporo, but is unaware of Shino entering that world and even conversing with Yasue in the previous act.
• Evolving Title Screen: After the game is completed, the screen changes from the first CG of Honoka to an illustration of Honoka and Yasue together.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Yasue's ability to put on a kabuki play with magic eventually foreshadows her ability to create illusionary versions of everyone in the Sapporo where she lives.
  • Honoka observes that Shino doesn't strike her as being close to her age considering Shino's cheerful outlook (although Shino later admits that her cheerfulness is a facade). Honoka's instincts are right, and Shino is much older than her.
• Grey-and-Gray Morality: The conflict between Honoka and Tatiana's crew. Honoka simply wants to help Yasue, but is meddling with powers beyond her understanding, and ends up enabling Yasue's desire for revenge against her sister. Tatiana is trying to prevent the knowledge of Blood Magic from getting into the wrong hands, and seems to have some level of care for Honoka, but is not averse to killing her if necessary. Additionally, Tatiana's client is none other than Yonehara, the one responsible for Yasue's plight.
• Hair-Contrast Duo:Yasue as Mystical White Hair while Honoka has dark hair.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: At the climax, Shino calls out to Honoka, whom Yasue is possessing, knowing that Yasue is drawing on Honoka's memories and that Honoka can still regain control.
• Ironic Echo: Honoka makes an analogy that getting to Yasue's world requires a difficult Blood Magic ritual that's like making a rock float in the air, but leaving is as simple as letting the rock go. She returns to that analogy when preparing to kill herself.
  Honoka: In the end, a human life is no different than magic; once you let go of the rock, it simply drops. Now it's time for me to finally let go.
• Kinetic Novel: This novel has no opportunities for player input, and a single route with only one ending.
• Kimono Is Traditional: Yasue, who has been stuck in time for over 100 years, wears a yellow kimono from the Meiji period. Yoneharu also wears a kimono as her standard outfit and turns out to be Yasue's younger sister.
• Limited Wardrobe: The game takes place over several weeks, but the characters never change clothes, with the exception of Honoka wearing hospital clothing at the start of the final act, although she changes back into her regular clothes in the following scene. The ending, which takes place in May, has the cast in entirely different outfits due to the change in season.
• Meaningful Echo: Honoka's first line that is spoken aloud is "The magic worked..." when she finds herself in Yasue's world after the ritual. In Act II, Shino remarks, "It worked..." when she manages to get into Yasue's world.
• Oh, Crap!: Both Honoka and Yasue are overwhelmed with silent terror as they see Yonehara find her way into Yasue's Sapporo at the start of Act Three.
• Simultaneous Arcs: Act I starts with Honoka getting home and performing a ritual to see Yasue, and ends with her attempting suicide. Act II begins at the same point as Act I, from Shino's POV, revealing that Shino was working with Kaoru and Tatiana to keep tabs on Honoka for the entire act and ends with Shino and her colleagues going into Honoka's house to seize the book.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: In the ending, while Shino is successful at creating an artificial body for Yasue to inhabit, she's unable to fabricate documentation for her.
• Switching P.O.V.: The story starts out in Honoka's POV, but it switches to Shino's POV in Act 2, and switches between them for the subsequent acts. It even briefly shifts to Yasue's POV after she takes over Honoka's body.
• Undead Tax Exemption: It turns out that Yasue, as someone who lived long ago, doesn't have official documentation.
• Wham Episode:
  • Act One, Scene 11. Honoka, having reached her breaking point, prepares to commit suicide.
  • Act Two, Scene 1. It turns out that Shino is more than just a librarian. She, Kaoru and Tatiana were keeping tabs on Honoka for a mysterious client.
  • Act Three, Scene 1. Yonehara makes her way into Yasue's world, forces Honoka to show her to where Yasue is, and recounts the full history of the sisters' enmity. A battle breaks out between the two sisters, and Shino is forced to pull Honoka back to reality. Honoka then gets into a fight with Tatiana until she collapses, at which point Kaoru confiscates her book.
• Wham Line:
  • In Act One, Scene 3, after Yasue's kabuki performance ends, Honoka reveals a startling observation that reveals the true nature of Yasue's magic.
    Honoka narrating: Yet, not one of the actors was human.
  • In Act Four, Scene 4, Yasue makes a miraculous return.
    "Confused, my eyes shift to the flash of yellow I notice from behind her. I'm left speechless as the woman glides into the room, her free-flowin gwhite hair unmistakable."
• Wham Shot:
  • In Act One, Scene 3, after Yasue's performance ends, the actors fade away, revealing that they are illusions of her making.
  • In Act Two, Scene 1, after Honoka's opening monologue is repeated, the shot shows that Honoka is being observed through a window, revealing that the scene is being shown from Shino's perspective.
  • In Act Three, Scene 1, Honoka is horrified when she spots Yonehara in Yasue's world- to her knowledge, the first time someone other than her made her way to Yasue's Sapporo.
  • In Act Three, Scene 3, Shino rolls up her sleeves and shows Honoka that her entire body, not just her legs, is an artificial construct.
  • In Act Three, Scene 4, Honoka spots Yasue walking into Tatiana's bar behind Shino, despite Honoka thinking Yasue was gone forever.
• Wizards Live Longer: It's possible for mages to extend their lifespan through magic.
• Year X: A shot of Shino's phone late in the game has the time and date represented by Os.