Video Game / Witch Hunter Izana

"We have in common a lack of asking permission. I am claiming this island, Witch Hunter. Stop me if you can."

Verand

Witch Hunter Izana is a turn based RPG by Bottled Starlight, the developers of String Tyrant. It released on Steam on September 1st, 2023. The player controls the witch hunter Izana, an agent of the church in the world of Pandemonium, who has been sent to investigate why the monastery on Scier's Island has gone silent. She is quickly confronted by the Vampire Verand, who flees upon noticing something unusual about Izana.

Upon reaching civilization, she discovers the cause of the island's distress. Verand has unleashed a transformative curse, that quickly transforms those struck by monsters into that type of monster. Joined by the Knight Caelyn and the Hierophant Cyrano she has to fight her away across the island to slay Verand and put an end to the curse.

The game's most notable feature is that the heroes can be transformed by enemies in combat. If a character gets too transformed, they join the enemy's side until defeated and brought back to the side of light. Combat ends when all party members are converted instead of dead. To complement this, there's a bad end for every monster type and boss.

Available on Steam and itch.io

---

Witch Hunter Izana provides examples of:

• Abusive Precursors: The hidden character, Orios, claims to be indescribably ancient, from before concepts like gender or identity were even things. They also lie, mislead, and do their very best to get the heroes killed to save themselves.
• Affably Evil: The majority of the villains are at least polite to the heroes. Izana almost always ruins it by being a combination of rude and fanatical.
• Artificial Human: Izana is a homunculus implanted with artificial memories to enhance her effectiveness as a witch hunter. Whether or not there was ever a real Izana is ambiguous.
• Benevolent Boss: Verand, surprisingly. She is consistently supportive to her minions, and in all of the bad ends, she gets along well with the transformed heroes despite them trying to kill her earlier.
• Big Bad: Verand, the evil vampire who is taking over the island Izana has been sent to investigate, certainly fits the bill.
• Bittersweet Ending: The good ending. Izana sacrifices herself so that the others can escape the church and spread the truth of their crimes. In the process, she avenges the many that the Church's human cloning program has hurt. It's undone in the best ending.
• Boss in Mook Clothing: There's an entire class of Minibosses that fall under this. The omega enemies are basic enemies with their stats turned so far up that they will put you in the ground unless you are at the end game. They guard the ultimate equipment.
• Brainwashed: A side effect of Verand's curse is that all positive emotions are redirected into loving her. Her soldiers cannot imagine not loving and serving her. Even if it means betraying close friends, as Cyrano finds out.
• Church Militant: Fittingly enough for a game about a witch hunter. Much reference is made to two battalions of crusaders ready to invade the island if Izana fails. They serve as the game's final enemy type.
• Closed Circle: Scier's Island is one. Verand is sinking all ships that approach the island and has sunk all ships that could leave the island. Finding a way off the island is part of getting the golden ending.
• Corrupt Church: The church turns out to be creating an army of clone witch hunters as expendable pawns, performing utterly inhuman experiments like crushing people into goo to experiment with soul suspension, using mental patients as test subjects, murder an entire island's populations to keep their secrets, and don't care if one of their creations goes on a rampage so long as it can't be traced back to them.
• Creepy Doll: Verand's personal maid, Elvira, is one. She is drawn less humanly than the rest of the characters to reinforce this. The player characters can of course get turned into them as well.
• Cute Monster Girl: A feature of the setting, called Patirhumans; they reproduce by transforming humans. However, transformations as fast as Verand's curse allow are unusual in the setting. The party can naturally enough be turned into monster girls, and Sage the moth-girl is one of the primary vendors.
• Deadpan Snarker: Cyrano never hesitates to poke fun at Izana's inflexibility and is generally acerbic to her at every opportunity. It's implied this is a reaction to the many friends she's lost in the invasion of the island.
• Determinator: Any of the party members count, as they all keep fighting until everyone has been transformed. There is no surrender option.
• Downer Ending: Some of the bad ends count. The zombie bad end especially.
• Eldritch Abomination: The Voice of God and the Mannequins. They are described as being from a time before time and have effects which no one in the current era can explain.
• Equipment-Based Progression: Mixed with level-based progression. A crafting mechanic is used to make better weapons and armor which is essential to progression.
• Evil Overlord: Verand, obviously, as she is leading the invasion of Scier's Island. In any ending where she wins, she goes on to establish an empire of Evil, with her as its decadent head.
• The Fundamentalist: Izana is unwilling to admit that the church could be anything but correct even when the evidence is in front of her eyes. She grows out of it a bit, but it's a slow process. It's later revealed that it's part of her programming.
• Getting Smilies Painted on Your Soul: Those afflicted by Verand's curse cannot help but love her, obey her, and view the curse as a great thing. Even if they hated her before.
• Golden Ending: The "best" ending gotten by finishing Rosemary's quest, which allows Izana to survive the events of the game.
• Good Is Not Nice: The witch hunter Izana is a classic example. She is brusque to even her friends, will often proudly boast of skinning her enemies alive, and cares absolutely nothing for her enemies except for killing them. She's the hero.
• Good Is Not Soft: The Knight Caelyn and the Hierophant Cyrano are both nice people who are willing to do anything to save the island, even if that means cutting through hordes of monsters.
• Greater-Scope Villain: The church is indirectly responsible for everything that happens in the game. It's even implied that Verand herself is merely a leftover following their programming. All of the good endings involve the heroes going after the church next.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Happens in the good endings to buy time for the heroes and villagers to escape. The difference between the good and the best ending is who sacrifices themselves.
• Infinity +1 Sword: The Omega gear, which is hands-down the best equipment in the game. It's just guarded by Omega enemies, which are hands-down the hardest enemies in the game.
• It's a Wonderful Failure: Part and parcel of being a transformation-centric game. Every enemy type you can get transformed into has a special ending, sometimes changing based on game progress. Same for bosses.
• Lady of Black Magic: Cyrano counts, having the most offensive spells and being a hierophant. She's tall and thin and is more educated than her companions. This naturally puts her at odds with Izana, who views all non-church-approved magic as suspect.
• Maker of Monsters: Verand is the source of the curse which is transforming everyone. Beyond that, she will directly transform party members in her boss battle. She also transformed Nocha and Rosemary, and made Elvira the doll.
• Multiple Endings: The game has 27 endings, mostly bad endings depending on what type of monster or boss defeated the heroes.
• Never Split the Party: The heroes never split up except in the good endings. Given that someone by themselves is easy pickings for transformation, it makes sense.
• Nice Girl: Caelyn is polite, positive, and generally able to keep Cyrano and Izana from bickering too much. This is one of the biggest hints that the only person she genuinely hates is a complete monster.
• Press X to Die: The player can craft charms that transform a character most of the way into a monster type. No points for guessing what happens if you fight a monster type while already mostly transformed into it. The statues even have a special ending for it.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: A very well-hidden version is below the Villa. If the heroes are careless after releasing it, the entire island can be erased from existence.
• Shout-Out:
  • One of Izana's battle callouts is "Die monster, you don't belong in this world!" in reference to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.
  • Izana directly quotes JoJo's Bizarre Adventure as she approaches the first boss.
  • One of the achievement titles is "Don't got time to bathe" in reference to Predator.
  • Reaching the hunting lodge unlocks "Surviving the Game".
  • Defeating Verand unlocks "Ill needs a savior" in reference to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.
  • Getting the harpy ending is titled "Freebird".
  • Getting the zombie ending is titled "Night of the mostly dead" in reference to Night of the Living Dead (1968).
  • Getting the doll ending references the studio's other game String Tyrant.
  • Getting the statue ending is called "It belongs in a museum!"
  • The icon for "I wonder if I can monetize this" references the studio's NSFW project.
  • The title for finishing the quest to find Quinn's vampire girlfriend is Sundown Twilight.
• Slave Mooks: Most of your enemies are afflicted by Verand's curse, which means they will follow her commands no matter what.
• Slime Girl: One of the heroes' possible fates, if transformed by regular slimes. They are very, very stupid.
• Taken for Granite: One of the infection types enemies can inflict, and one of the most dangerous, as it just takes 5 infection ticks instead of five infection ticks plus another hit.
• Transformation Fiction: Transformation is a major part of the game, with one of the primary combat mechanics being transforming mid-combat. Get too transformed and you join the enemies' side until the character is smacked back to sense.
• Transformation Sequence: Lovingly drawn and a feature of combat.
• Was Once a Man: Many of the lower-tier enemies were likely originally the inhabitants of Scier's island, now so transformed into monsters as to be unrecognizable. Very nearly happens to Quinn.
• We ARE Struggling Together: Izana is a witch hunter. Cyrano is a hierophant, or in other words a witch. The only reason Izana doesn't kill Cyrano on sight is that she has no hope of surmounting the curse by herself. Cyrano knows this and snarks at her at every opportunity. Thankfully Caelyn, a knight errant, is able to keep them mostly on task.
• The Witch Hunter: It's in the title. But the witch hunter Izana hews closely to the archetype, complete with bad attitude and impressive hat. Interestingly, she is an outspoken proponent for the necessity of such a role, especially in the light of recent events.