History VisualNovel / Berrywitched

* {{Foreshadowing}}: A lot in regards to the protagonist's true reason for coming to the forest:
** The protagonist is very insistent that they have to do what they came to the forest for alone.
** They also don't seem very concerned about their survival, coming to the forest without any camping equipment or food.
** Their overly sour demeanor in routes where you choose to be mean makes a lot more sense in the context of them being [[spoiler:heavily depressed]].
** If the protagonist chooses to [[spoiler: read Strawberry's diary]] they 'll notice that a page is missing. In the ''What a Glorious...Cake?'' ending [[spoiler: it's revealed that the page was hidden in the kitchen and that it's Strawberry's suicide note.]]

*** The protagonist is very insistent that they have to do what they came to the forest for alone.
*** They also don't seem very concerned about their survival, coming to the forest without any camping equipment or food.
*** Their overly sour demeanor in routes where you choose to be mean makes a lot more sense in the context of them being [[spoiler:heavily depressed]].

* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** A lot in regards to the protagonist's true reason for coming to the forest.

* BadBoss: Strawberry's bosses sent her off on an assignment to grant people's wishes without her having even learned wish granting magic and [[spoiler:without telling her it's a suicide forest and that [[DeathSeaker everyone's greatest desire is probably death]]]]. Lampshaded by the main character in the good ending, where they express disdain for them for putting her in that situation in the first place.

''Berrywitched!'' is a (very light) horror game. It's creator Smilestrawbunny's first game and was made in roughly two weeks for the Strawberry to the Heart game jam 2022. It's available for free on it's [[https://smilestrawbunny.itch.io/berrywitched itch.io]] page.

* VideoGameCaringPotential: Instead of being a paranoid JerkAss, the player can choose to be friendly to Strawberry from the beginning, only getting suspicious when Strawberry gets evasive when they ask about her backstory. They're still a bit abrasive, but nowhere near as much as they could be. This is the easiest way to get the good ending.

* TheLostWoods: The game's main setting is a creepy forest people are said to disappear in.

* AmbiguousSituation: It's unclear why the Strawbunnies feed the protagonist [[spoiler: the cake made of Strawberry's remains. It could be they were just following her wishes to use said cake to make people happy. Or it could be their way of taking revenge on the callous jerk who drove their creator to suicide. It could the Strawbunnies were just looking for a place to put the cake and weren't expecting the protagonist to eat it at all.]]

* TheBully: The protagonist becomes this towards Strawberry if the more abrasive dialogue options are chosen, continually making fun of her for her naive demeanor and her lacking powers. [[spoiler: Deconstructed, as their constant callousness towards her eventually causes Strawberry to snap and either commit suicide or kill the protagonist with plans to follow them soon after.]]

* DeathSeeker: [[spoiler: The protagonist is revealed to be this, having come to the forest in hopes of disappearing like all the others before them. Turns out they're not the only one who came to the forest with that goal.]]
* DownerEnding: Nearly every ending but one ends on a bleak note. Two of the endings have Strawberry [[spoiler: commit suicide, two endings have the protagonist killed by Strawberry after she snaps from their mistreatment.]]
* EasilyForgiven: After [[spoiler: reading her diary]], the protagonist finally understands how hard Strawberry has had it, leading to them completely forgiving her for [[spoiler: knocking them out and tying them up so they won't leave the bakery.]]

* FoodBasedSuperpowers: Strawberry's magic is linked to, of course, strawberries and sweet things in general. [[spoiler: This is a huge point of insecurity for her, as she has trouble fulfilling other people's desires with her strawberry-magic.]]

*** Their overly sour demeanor in routes where you choose to be mean makes a lot more sense in the context of them being [[spoiler: heavily depressed.]]

* InnocentlyInsensitive: The protagonist is often pretty rude to Strawberry, seemingly without realizing it. More than once they make derogatory comments about her intelligence and patronize her with Strawberry being just too desperate for companionship to call them out. [[spoiler: In the ''Wicked Witch'' ending they also eat the Strawbunny she gifted them in front of her and afterwards get confused at her horrified reaction.]]

* MinimalistCast: The cast consists of you, Strawberry and the Strawbunnies. Other visitors to the bakery are mentioned but only [[spoiler: posthumously.]]

** '''Wicked Witch:''' The protagonist eats the Strawbunny Strawberry had created for them. [[spoiler: Strawberry does ''not'' take this well and retreats to the kitchen. The protagonist follows her, confused about why Strawberry would be upset with them for eating something edible. After one insensitive comment about the situation too many, Strawberry snaps and forces the protagonist into her oven, burning them alive while she watches with a smile.]]
** '''What a Glorious...Cake?:''' The protagonist follows Strawberry into the kitchen after their previous bullying causes her to run away. [[spoiler: They end up walking in on Strawberry preparing to kill herself due to despair over not being able to help the protagonist. When the protagonist confronts her, Strawberry suffers a complete mental breakdown and ends it with repeatedly stabbing the protagonist. She then turns their corpse into a strawberry cake, giggling as she promises the protagonist she'll join them soon.]]
** '''What a Glorious Cake:''' The protagonist chooses to wait for Strawberry after their callousness causes her to flee the room. [[spoiler: After waiting for quite a while, the protagonist falls asleep on one of the chairs. When they wake up again, they are greeted by the sight of a group of Strawbunnies offering them a delicious looking strawberry cake. The protagonist takes a slice, but when they start eating the cake tastes funny to them. Taking a closer look at the cake they discover to their horror that it's filled with human meat. The protagonist flees the bakery, traumatized by what they've seen and more determined than ever to do what they originally come to the forest to do.]]
** '''The Loop:''' [[spoiler: The protagonist takes the gardening shears to cut themselves free from Strawberry's vines and escape together with Strawbunny. Strawberry notices and starts giving chase. While running, the protagonist loses Strawbunny, but is too scared to stop and pick them back up again. Just when they think they've finally escaped, they stumble and hit their head on a rock, losing consciousness. When the protagonist wakes up, they hear Strawberry's voice asking if they're okay in the same manner she did when they met her at the beginning of the game, implying that all of this has happened before and the protagonist's memories have been erased.]]
** '''Good End:''' [[spoiler: The protagonist chooses to read Strawberry's diary. It's revealed that the forest is actually a pocket dimension Strawberry was sent to to fulfill peoples' greatest desires, in order to prevent them from committing suicide. However, due a combination of having insufficient magic for the job and a lack of experience, Strawberry was never able to keep the visitors before the protagonist from leaving for the forest again and doing what they originally came to do. Understanding Strawberry's plight, the protagonist chooses to stay with her, after the two have a heart-to-heart upon her return. The game ends with both of them living in the bakery together and doing their best to fulfill the desires of every visitor they might get.]]
* RosehairedSweetie: Strawberry has light pink hair and is kind and sweet to the protagonist. [[spoiler: Downplayed later on. Strawberry ''is'' a genuinely kind person whose only goal is to keep more people from killing themselves in the forest, but the lengthy isolation along with repeatedly finding the few visitors she does get dead the next day no matter what she does haven't done wonders for her mental state. She's so desperate to keep the protagonist alive that she's even willing to keep them in the bakery against their will.]]

* VideogameCrueltyPunishment:
** Eating the Strawbunny alive gets you on Strawberry's bad side. [[spoiler: It also directly leads into the first bad ending in which Strawberry burns you alive in her oven.]]
** Being too mean to Strawberry leads to either the ''What a Glorious Cake'' or the ''What a Glorious...Cake?'' ending. [[spoiler: The former has Strawberry commit suicide, with the Strawbunnies making her corpse into a strawberry cake and serving it to the protagonist. The latter has Strawberry inflict this on the protagonist with a promise that she'll join them soon.]]
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Strawberry wants nothing more than to fulfill her visitors' deepest desires so they won't [[spoiler: kill themselves. But after years of failure and finding visitor after visitor dead, she's gotten desperate. To the point that when the protagonist tries to leave, she knocks them out and ties them up in her room to keep them from committing suicide.]]

* MinimalCast: The cast consists of you, Starwberry and the Strawbunnys. Other visitors to the bakery are mentioned but only [[spoiler: posthumously.]]

* WellIntentionedExtremist: [[spoiler: Strawberry wants nothing more than to fulfill her visitors' deepest desires so they won't kill themselves. But after years of failure and finding visitor after visitor dead, she's gotten desperate. To the point that when the protagonist tries to leave, she knocks them out and ties them up in her room to keep them from committing suicide.]]

** '''What a Glorious Cake:''' The protagonist chooses to wait for Strawberry after their callousness causes her to flee the room. [[spoiler: After waiting for quite a while, the protagonist falls asleep on one of the chairs. When they wake up again, they are greeted by the sight of a group of Strawbunny's offering them a delicious looking strawberry cake. The protagonist takes a slice, but when they start eating the cake tastes funny to them. Taking a closer look at the cake they discover to their horror that it's filled with human meat. The protagonist flees the bakery, traumatized by what they've seen and more determined than ever to do what they originally come to the forest to do.]]

* WellIntentionedExtremist: [[spoiler: Strawberry wants nothing more than to fulfill her visitors' deepest desires so they won't kill themselves. But after years of failure and finding visitor after visitor dead, he's gotten desperate. To the point that when the protagonist tries to leave, she knocks them out and ties them up in her room to keep them from committing suicide.]]

* VideogameCrueltyPunishment: Eating the Strawbunny alive gets you on Strawberry's bad side. [[spoiler: It also directly leads into the first bad ending in which Strawberry burns you alive in her oven.]]

* RosehairedSweetie: Strawberry has light pink hair and is kind and sweet to the protagonist. [[spoiler: ''Very much'' subverted later on.]]

* FoodBasedSuperpowers: Strawberry's magic is linked to, of course, strawberries and sweet things in general.

* InnocentlyInsensitive: The protagonist is often pretty rude to Strawberry, seemingly without realizing it. More than once they make a derogatory comments about her intelligence and patronize her. [[spoiler: In the ''Wicked Witch'' ending they also eat the Strawbunny she gifted them in front of her and afterwards get confused at her horrified reaction.]]