Line #48 VideoGame/TheLegendOfDarkWitch


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/0ffab8237c9f67069b17b6c655f6d5e3.jpg]]
2
3	''The Legend of Dark Witch'' (''Majin Shoujo'' in Japan) is a digital-exclusive game developed by indie group Inside System and translated into English by digital publisher Circle Entertainment. It was released worldwide for the Platform/Nintendo3DS eShop in 2014, Platform/{{Steam}} in 2015, and the Platform/PlayStationVita in 2015 (Japan) and 2017 (North America and Europe). In 2019, an enhanced version was released for the Platform/NintendoSwitch and Steam; the Steam version of this port is named ''The Legend of Dark Witch Renovation'' to differentiate it from the prior Steam release.
4
5	Syega crystals give magical power to the land's people, but someone stole all of them. Zizou, the titular dark witch, sets out to find the culprit and the Syega crystals, exploring 2D stages and battling bosses along the way.
6
7	Gameplay is similar to 2D ''Franchise/MegaMan'' games, as Zizou moves in horizontal stages, jumps and shoots, and gains bosses' powers. However, it also has features that make it unique. You can enhance Zizou's ability with Tres crystals, which powers them up à la ''VideoGame/{{Gradius}}'' -- but taking damage causes you to drop Tres you've gathered, so the game encourages you to use them when you collect them. Zizou can even enhance boss abilities for extra power.
8
9	''The Legend of Dark Witch'' is the first entry in what would eventually become a series. Other games in the series include:
10	* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfDarkWitch2'' (3DS and Steam)
11	* ''Dark Witch Music: Rudymical'' (iOS and Android)
12	** ''Dark Witch Music Episode: Rudymical'' (Expanded version for Nintendo Switch)
13	* ''VideoGame/BraveDungeon'' (3DS)
14	** ''Brave Dungeon + Dark Witch's Story: Combat'' (Enhanced port of ''Brave Dungeon'' that includes a card battle game for Switch)
15	* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfDarkWitch3'' (3DS)
16	* ''The Legend of Dark Witch Connect!'' (iOS and Android)
17	* ''Brave Dungeon: Seigi no Imi'' (Switch and Steam)
18
19	Being a ''Mega Man'' clone, each boss uses a certain weapon as well as having a weakness to some of them, so in order:
20	* [[BadassBookworm Klinsy]], weak to Divide Ice, will give you [[HomingProjectile Dia Missile]].
21	* [[AdventurerArchaeologist Al]], weak to Upper Tornado, will give you [[AnIcePerson Divide Ice]].
22	* [[LittleBitBeastly Papelne]], weak to Circlecron, will give you [[DishingOutDirt Ground Impact]].
23	* [[KnowledgeBroker Blad]], weak to Dia Missile, will give you [[HyperDestructiveBouncingBall Bound Ring]].
24	* [[ForeignExchangeStudent Sola]], weak to Bound Ring, will give you [[ReverseShrapnel Circlecron]].
25	* [[OurFairiesAreDifferent Stoj]], weak to Ground Impact, will give you [[BlowYouAway Upper Tornado]].
26
27	----
28
29	!!''The Legend of Dark Witch'' contains examples of:
30
31	* AchievementSystem: The "Playing Levels", which rewards players with Pura Syega to spend on the Syega Shop.
32	* AlternateCompanyEquivalent: The game makes very little effort to hide the fact that it is inspired by the [[VideoGame/MegaManClassic classic]] ''Franchise/MegaMan'' games.
33	* AmazingTechnicolorBattlefield: The start of each stage (justified in that magical teleportation leaves a slightly unstable field of presence for a little while before things settle in), the BlackoutBasement in the seventh stage, and [[spoiler:the final boss arena]].
34	* AmbidextrousSprite: Sticks out since Zizou has two-tone bangs. The only time that the white side of her hair faces the camera is in her idle stance.
35	* AmplifierArtifact: Tres crystals can amplify Zizou's abilities.
36	* AnimalMotifs: Butterflies are used to represent Tres. [[spoiler:Fittingly, the final boss gains butterfly wings in her One Winged Angel form.]]
37	* AnotherSideAnotherStory: The second playable character is Riva, [[spoiler:the game's Big Bad]].
38	* BigBoosHaunt: Blad's stage is an abandoned prison that gives off this sort of vibe.
39	* {{Blackmail}}: In the second character's story, [[spoiler:this is how Zizou ultimately wins. When it becomes clear that Riva won't be beaten into submission, Zizou simply threatens to expose her as a thief.]]
40	* BlindIdiotTranslation: CIRCLE Entertainment's translation, while far from unintelligible and certainly better than [[TranslationTrainwreck their work]] on fellow eShop title ''Demon King Box'', feels like a rough draft. Spelling and grammar errors are all over the place, along with some confusing character names, even within menus. It's certainly not helped by the amount of {{Engrish}} from the Japanese version that was retained, such as the aforementioned "Playing Level" menu.
41	** The Steam version tries to remedy this; among the game's testers were western fans who reported several translation errors to the game's director.
42	* BossRush: What ''Mega Man''-like game is complete without one?
43	* CallForward: ''Renovation'' adds a [=DLC=] stage with [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfDarkWitch3 Day]] as the boss. It seemingly takes place right after things go sour with the Magic Lion Corps, as Day is fresh off of crossing the DespairEventHorizon.
44	* ChromosomeCasting: Every single named character is female.
45	* ContinuingIsPainful:
46	** Losing a life erases all of your built up Enforcement Slots.
47	** Getting hit at all makes continuing more difficult. Whenever the player takes damage, a certain percentage of Tres is lost from the Enforcement Slot meter depending on the difficulty.
48	* DeflectorShields: Collecting all of the Pura Syega adds an extra ability onto the Enforcement Slot gauge that enables a single-hit barrier upon activation.
49	* DifficultButAwesome: Blocking. It is essentially ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIII's'' parry transplanted into a platformer.
50	* DoItYourselfThemeTune: Singer Yuuki Tedokon provides the voices of Zizou and Klinsy, and also performs the second character's ending song.
51	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: This game noticeably doesn't feature things that were added in later games:
52	** For starters, there's no capacity meter, meaning you can simply spam your shots with impunity. The ''Renovation'' release adds this feature in.
53	** Another would be both the player and bosses lacking Revenge Magics to use.
54	** Pure Syega is different in how it works in this game: each stage has two Syega[[note]]one in the seventh stage, and even then it will only show itself if all the other Syega has been obtained beforehand[[/note]] which upgrade a certain ability depending on its colour. Come the sequel, stages now has four Syega each which can be used to upgrade any ability.
55	** There's also no After Story to flesh out the cast.
56	** There are six starting bosses, only one normal level after the starting stages, and a final stage that consists of the BossRush and final bosses. The other mainline games have eight starting bosses, four normal levels after the starting stages, and a final stage. Also, this game's starting bosses are mostly unaffiliated with each other, unlike Ich in ''2'' or the former Magic Lion Corps in ''3''.
57	* EmbeddedPrecursor: The ''Renovation'' version includes an option to change the style to that of the original game in the Museum via buying it in the Syega Shop.
58	* FinalBoss: [[spoiler:Riva]] in Zizou's story, [[spoiler:Zizou in Riva's story]].
59	* FinalExamBoss:
60	** [[spoiler:The second fight with Riva very quickly turns into BulletHell if you do not know how to deal with each enemy she summons.]]
61	** The second character's final boss is [[spoiler:Zizou. She is a more traditional Final Exam Boss in that her repertoire consists of [[AllYourPowersCombined attacks from the previous bosses.]]]]
62	* TheGhost: One of the concept arts mentions that Zizou has a sister who insisted that Zizou investigates the missing Syega crystals. This is the only time that her sister is mentioned. [[spoiler:Said sister finally appears in the third game.]]
63	* GuideDangIt / PixelHunt: The "Pura Syega" crystals in each level, which raise your Enforcement abilities' level caps. The crystals are invisible and have fairly small hitboxes to boot. The less said about [[spoiler:[[ThatOneLevel Verri's Pura Syega, the better...]]]]
64	* IAmNotLeftHanded: The first fight with [[spoiler:Zizou]] amounts to her jumping up and down and firing easily-dodgeable shots. After she is downed once, she admits that she was holding back and promises to use "a fraction" of her power. [[spoiler:[[OhCrap She opens the next fight with Al's and Sola's Desperation Moves]].]]
65	* InsultBackfire: [[spoiler:Riva's]] death threats usually fall flat, but [[HotLibrarian Klinsy's]] reaction is this.
66	--> Klinsy: "Umm...This is a library. I usually stay silent."
67	* InterfaceSpoiler: The Records menu has the name of bosses not initially available on the stage select screen: [[spoiler:Verri and Riva at first, Zizou immediately after clearing the game the first time]].
68	* TheLegendOfX
69	* LongSongShortScene: The final stage's theme, due to it mainly being a hub for the BossRush.
70	* TheLostWoods: [[spoiler:Verri's]] stage, the Forest of Dreams. In going through it, [[spoiler:the player encounters a spacetime distortion that doubles as a BlackoutBasement]].
71	* MonsterTown: Papelne's stage, Ports-math City, is a town built and inhabited by beastfolk.
72	* {{Nerf}}: ''Renovation'' implements the Capacity Meter from ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfDarkWitch2''. While it's not likely to significantly change how normal stages are played, it shuts down an infamous method of breezing through Zizou's final boss. [[spoiler:In the original game, filling the screen with Bound Rings with the assistance of the fight's ever-regeneratng Slot meter reduced the hazards to Riva's rotating shots and the [[ReverseShrapnel HedgeHogger]] enemies. Capacity makes it nigh-impossible to keep the screen filled with rings.]]
73	* NintendoHard: The game is hard enough on Easy, but Normal and Lunatic remove health drops, give enemies more health, and raise the Enforcement Slot damage penalty from 25% of the gauge to 50% and '''100%''' respectively.
74	* NonDubbedGrunts: The one-liners between the versus screen and an actual boss fight are completely untranslated.
75	* NotActuallyCosmeticAward: Obtaining Playing Levels unlock concept art, which isn't all that useful in terms of gameplay. Then you finish the game and find out that each achievement gives you currency for the NewGamePlus shop.
76	* OneHitPointWonder: One of the NewGamePlus options, Dangerous Mode, applies this to your character. [[DifficultButAwesome You gain five times the Syega for clearing the game with this mode activated]].
77	* PalmtreePanic: Stoj's stage, Belfer Islands.
78	* PowerCopying: Zizou gains bosses' powers upon their defeat, and can enhance them with Tres crystals.
79	* RuleOfCool / RuleOfFunny: The infamous fire-breathing, body-builder snowman enemy. One such finding itself in [[TheLostWoods Verri's stage]].
80	* SequelHook: [[spoiler:The second character's story ends with a vague note that "something else" was going on during the Syega crisis. This is probably referring to [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfDarkWitch2 Germa's schemes]], which is likely the reason why Riva was stealing Syega in the first place.]]
81	* SequentialBoss: [[spoiler:Both final bosses are fought twice, with Riva going OneWingedAngel and Zizou [[IAmNotLeftHanded taking the kid gloves off]].]]
82	* ShaggyDogStory: [[spoiler:Riva's story. See the entry for Blackmail above.]]
83	* SlippySlideyIceWorld: Al's stage, The Silent Ice Roads.
84	* SpellMyNameWithAnS:
85	** [[JapaneseRanguage Both Sola and Sora]] are used in the character's BattleIntro.
86	** Blad's name appear as such throughout most of the game except for the notes her stage's theme in the unlockable Sound Test where her name shows up as "Vlad".
87	* SpiritualSuccessor:
88	** To a trio of Franchise/TouhouProject-based DoujinSoft platformers developed by Inside System, which themselves were also based on ''Mega Man''.
89	** A Franchise/MegaMan clone with witches? This has been [[VideoGame/MagicalDoropie done before.]]
90	* SuspiciousVideoGameGenerosity: The start of the eighth stage is a straightforward corridor with no music and several essentially-harmless enemies to help build your Enforcement Slot meter...and then comes the BossRush.
91	* TempleOfDoom: [[spoiler:Riva's stage]]. The "look" part is obvious, the "trap" part isn't. [[spoiler:The stage's description in the sound test all but outright states that the BossRush is part of the temple's defenses.]]
92	* TurnsRed: Bosses add a DesperationAttack to their repertoire at 50% health. At 25%, they add another attack and begin to move faster.
93	* VictoryByEndurance: [[spoiler:Riva's second form cannot be damaged by your weapons. Instead, her HP slowly drains while she summons other monsters to do her bidding.]]
94	* VillainsWantMercy: [[spoiler:Just like [[VideoGame/MegaManClassic Dr. Wily]], Riva grovels at Zizou's feet upon being defeated.]]

Context VideoGame / TheLegendOfDarkWitch