Touchstarved is a gothic horror romance Visual Novel. Announced late in 2022, it's currently in development, with a free demo available.
You play as one of three characters - the Unnamed, the Hound, or the Alchemist - all of whom were born with charred, glowing hands that drive anyone they touch mad. When their desperate journey to the fabled city of Eridia, the site of the university called the Senobium of the Luminous Void said to hold all the world's knowledge, ends in tragedy, your chosen protagonist must quickly find their footing in Eridia's slums, a dark and violent place where secrets are more precious than gold and trust is more precious still. Out of the five secretive, alluring people who help them survive their first day in Eridia, who will they choose to share their secrets with - and will that choice save or damn both the cursed one and their chosen confidant?
Touchstarved contains examples of:
- Berserk Button: Don't call Vere a dog. Or Mhin short. Or mention Kuras around Vere, or vice versa.
- Broken Bird: It's hard to say for sure at this point, but Mhin seems to be heading in this direction.
- Deadpan Snarker: The protagonist has quite a few snarky dialogue options, and Mhin can give as good as they get.
- Desperately Craves Affection: It's right there in the title. On discovering that Leander is immune to their curse, the protagonist is quickly overwhelmed by the feeling of holding his hand.
- Double Entendre: Vere mostly speaks in these.
- Ethical Slut: Implied. Leander is notorious for sleeping around, but given how well-liked he is, he's unlikely to be running around carelessly breaking hearts.
- Everybody Has Lots of Sex: Having multiple regular hookups and talking fairly freely about sex seems to be the norm in Eridia, and at least four of the romanceable characters are mentioned to have slept together in various permutations at some point in the past - Ais and Vere are outright stated to be "friends with benefits" by the developers, a friendship that doesn't seem at all soured by Ais also sharing Leander's bed. Leander also implies he's slept with Mhin, leaving Kuras as the odd one out (and even he hasn't said he doesn't have a lover, the subject just hasn't come up at this point).
- Exhausted Eye Bags: Leander has them.
- Fluffy Tamer: Ais is the only known person able to tame the monsters known as the Soulless. It's hinted that this has something to do with his unique connection to the Seaspring.
- Foul Fox: Downplayed. Vere has fox features, and he's the most antagonistic of the romanceable characters at the outset - make the wrong decisions and he can kill the protagonist very early on.
- Great Big Library of Everything: It's said that the Senobium's library contains all the knowledge anyone's ever had.
- Hive Mind: Anyone who drinks from the Seaspring gets linked into one, a prospect that leaves the protagonist understandably freaked out.
- Horned Humanoid: Ais.
- Hospital Surprise: The game starts out this way, with the protagonist being mauled by Soulless only to wake up in Kuras's clinic.
- The Illegible: In Kuras's stat chart, the description states that "his true power is almost as unfathomable as his handwriting." Makes sense, since he's a doctor.
- Karmic Trickster: Kuras gets a kick out of selling fake alchemical ingredients to his enemies in the Senobium.
- Lethal Chef: Kuras's character sheet describes him as "possibly the worst cook in the entire city".
- Little Bit Beastly: Vere has the ears and tail of a fox.
- The Napoleon: Mhin does not like having their height pointed out.
- Really Gets Around: At least three of the romanceable characters do - Leander keeps a room at the Wet Wick reserved for his escapades, and Ais and Vere are both quite happy to talk about what people are like in bed.
- Tsundere: Mhin. They're cranky and aloof, but quickly (if briefly) melt when the protagonist gets past their defenses.
