Faithful Or Fickle

You play a black-cat familiar to the lord or lady of a manor, in a pixel-art platformer. Each era, from the 1400s to the early 1900s, has a map you cross toward the far right, where the ruler fights a battle. The condition of the estate decides whether they win or lose.

The ruler pulls you into short familiar duties quite often. In your free time you roam. Press B where spies try to bribe you to switch sides, let infiltrators in, or re-swear your loyalty and recruit allies. You can switch as often as you like.

To start the battle you must first find two house-needs items. The core route stays in the middle band with the ground, the road and the manor, where most powerups sit. You can also climb to the heights or drop into the deeps to fight large beasts such as dragons.

There are no extra-life pickups. You have nine lives, and when they are gone the run is over. Frame-skip options let the game show more detail on faster machines, though the creator says the deeps feel quite empty.