Line #26 VisualNovel/KissesAndCurses


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kissesandcurses.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350: Left to right: Anastasia, Niklas, the heroine, Ty, Melanie, Rhys.]]
3	''Kisses & Curses'' is a VisualNovel [[DatingSim romance]] [[MobilePhoneGame app]] for iOS and Android by [[Creator/VoltageInc Voltage Entertainment USA]].
4
5	Start your journey as a young Witch in the peaceful but uneventful town of Werbury, Vermont. As the Stargazer, it is your role to absorb infrequent bursts of Wild Magic known as Starfall.
6
7	Despite your magical heritage your life is pretty ordinary… until an increase of Starfalls known as Starfloods start to plague the world. You are approached by a mysterious member of the Witch Council who says that only a ritual involves you, a human and another Witch can calm the source of Starfalls.
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9	Love Interests include Rhys, a witch councilman from Wales; Ty, the friendly boy next door; Niklas, a TallDarkAndHandsome witch from Europe; Anastasia, a sweet and shy but deadly witch hunter; and best friend and fellow witch Melanie.
10
11	''Kisses & Curses'' was released in February 2016. It shut down two years later, on April 1, 2018.
12	----
13	!! ''Kisses & Curses'' provides examples of:
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15	* AffectionateNickname: Anastasia's uncle calls her "Anushka". When she was little, she was called "solnyshko" ('little sun') for her bright red hair.
16	* AlchemyIsMagic: Melanie's Birthright gives her skill in alchemy. In one fight, she dispels shadows by turning the moss around her phosphorescent.
17	* AllegedlyFreeGame: It's possible to play the entire game without paying a cent, but not very quickly. The coins for clothing and better ingredients are hard to come by, and stamina- which allows you to continue the story- regenerates at a one per four hours rate. Both can be bought for real money.
18	* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: A player character who romances Niklas falls under this.
19	* AllThereInTheManual: The [[http://web.archive.org/web/20160701153502/http://kissesandcurses.voltage-ent.com:80/index.php/characters/ official website]] had profiles for the love interests. Also available [[http://voltage-graphicnovelromance.tumblr.com/tagged/kisses-and-curses/chrono here]], with some slight differences.
20	* ApocalypseCult: [[spoiler: Yvette's group]] want the Starfloods to happen because they believe that the destruction they will bring is the natural order.
21	* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: When Anastasia explains her life debt to the heroine, she makes it clear that she will not help her with organ harvesting, kidnapping children, or animal sacrifice… or making coffee, or doing laundry.
22	* BadassBookworm: Rhys, who's a scholar and member of the witch's council, and the player character, who runs the family bookstore. To a lesser extent Anastasia, who reads romance novels unironically.
23	* BadassNormal: Anastasia and other Hunters. Ty can hold his own in a physical fight, thanks to his military training.
24	* BilingualBonus: Welsh from Rhys, German from Niklas and his family, and Russian from Anastasia's.
25	* BlackDudeDiesFirst: Ty references this trope when venturing into his haunted house with the heroine; he makes a comment about “the brother” always dying first.
26	* BoyNextDoor: Ty, who's friendly, [[MuggleBestFriend non-magical]] and [[ShipperOnDeck has the support of your father]].
27	* BrainsAndBondage: Academic Rhys is into UsefulNotes/{{BDSM}}.
28	* CallingParentsByTheirName: Alix calls her father by his first name.
29	* CapitalLettersAreMagic: Some magical terms are capitalized. Some Hunter terms as well, which the protagonist lampshades.
30	* TheCavalry: Either Joanna, Holly, or Jean will come to your rescue in Salem.
31	* ChekhovsGun: You're warned that healing Luna might have consequences down the line due to the Threefold Law. It does.
32	* ChildhoodFriendRomance: If you romance Melanie.
33	* ChristmasEpisode: The Christmas special stories.
34	* CompellingVoice: Niklas' Birthright. It doesn't work on other witches, though.
35	* TheDarkArts: Forbidden magic, which can be Light or Dark. Life-sacrificing spells are forbidden, among others.
36	* DarkIsNotEvil: Dark magic can be used for good causes, just as light magic can be used for bad ones. The Threefold Law applies regardless of intent, however.
37	* DeadpanSnarker: The protagonist, even if you don't pick the snarky dialogue options. She describes it as a coping mechanism.
38	* DreamingOfTimesGoneBy: The protagonist has dreams about her mother throughout the story. They are suggested to be memories absorbed from Wayward magic.
39	* EroticDream: One is had on Anastasia's route. It turns out Anastasia had one at the same time.
40	* EquivalentExchange: [[spoiler: After the main character is shot/cursed and killed while traveling with Melanie or Niklas, they revive her, in exchange for either a part of their magic (Melanie's ability to use glamours on herself, or Niklas' Birthright) or part of the human companion's lifespan. The character being romanced is the one to make the sacrifice.]]
41	* FalseFriend: [[spoiler: Catherine, a member of the Werbury coven and an old friend of Claire, is the one who killed her. She's also willing to kill the main character, who she's known for years, in pursuit of her goal of resurrecting her sister. However, at the end, Amelia reveals that Catherine had a spell crafted that would protect the main character in the event of Catherine's death. Why she would do this is left unexplained.]]
42	* FantasticRacism: Hunters towards Witches.
43	* FirstGirlWins: Could apply to Rhys, the first character introduced in the game, or Melanie, who's been friends with the player character [[ChildhoodFriends since they were ten]].
44	* FirstNameBasis: On Rhys and Anastasia's routes, they will eventually switch to this with the player character. (Rhys, being the formal type, starts out calling her Miss [Last Name], while Anastasia just addresses her as "Witch".)
45	* FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling: The player character seems to have this dynamic with her little sister, Alix.
46	* ForWantOfANail: There's a major change in how the Niklas storyline plays out, depending on whether your human companion is Anastasia or Ty. At one point, the heroine is weakened and Niklas takes out a dagger. If Anastasia is there, she'll charge in to kick the dagger out of his hand, and Niklas says he was trying to do a ritual to give her strength. If Ty is there, Niklas does the ritual but something goes wrong, and he and the heroine end up mind-linked. It's also revealed that [[spoiler:his actual intention with the ritual was to steal her Stargazer magic]]. This ends up drastically altering the tone of their relationship, and the mind-link continues to affect the plot.
47	* FunetikAksent: Jean has a thick Scottish accent rendered in text.
48	* GayOption: Anastasia and Melanie.
49	* GentlemanSnarker: Rhys, on occasion.
50	* {{Glamour}}: Glamour spells are used for disguise.
51	* GreenThumb: Joanna's Birthright.
52	* HarmfulToMinors: Anastasia's training, which started when she was a child and included ''learning how to resist torture''.
53	* HelloInsertNameHere: The protagonist is nameable, with the default name being "Julie Grier".
54	* HalloweenEpisode: The Halloween special stories.
55	* IKnowYourTrueName: True names are usually the person's full legal name, or whatever they personally identify with.
56	* ImaginedInnuendo: The heroine rounds on Niklas when she learns that he was "making lightning" with Alix, only for him to clarify that it was literal, as in they were doing storm magic together.
57	* InformedJudaism: In the Thanksgiving side-story, Ty mentions his hopes of bringing the PC home to meet his family for Passover seder.
58	* InvisibleToNormals: Starfall is invisible to humans. Witches can see it out of the corner of their eye.
59	* IOweYouMyLife: Saving Anastasia indebts her to you, to her extreme displeasure.
60	* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: Melanie and Ty if you don't pick them.
61	* LivingShadow: The shadow beasts.
62	* LookBehindYou: If Anastasia isn't on your team, she drops by briefly to let you know there's Hunters tailing you. She says she's lost track of them and that for all she knows they could be "behind those rocks over there", then disappears while your party turns to look.
63	* MalignedMixedMarriage: Anastasia's family, as witch hunters, would never accept her being in a relationship with a witch.
64	* MasterOfIllusion: Yvette, a Senseweaver, has the power to create illusions.
65	* MentorOccupationalHazard: [[spoiler:If the main character goes to Alix's mentor Jean for help and brings her along to the crypt, Jean will end up dying there when the group is attacked.]]
66	* MissConception: According to Anastasia, she thought human babies came from the stork until she was about 19.
67	* MonsterSlayerRomance: Witch hunter Anastasia is a love interest option for the protagonist, who is a witch.
68	* MuggleMageRomance: If the player character romances Anastasia or Ty. Also describes her parents' relationship (Witch mom, non-magical dad) and Joanna and Andreas'.
69	* ObliviousToLove: On Melanie's route, the MC is unaware that Melanie has developed feelings for her, despite Melanie describing [[IHaveThisFriend the person she has a crush on]] to her.
70	* ObstructiveBureaucrat: The witch's council disapprove of the quest and refuse to help.
71	* OverlyLongName: Rhys and Niklas both have three middle names. Long names are customary of old witch families, to make their true names harder to steal.
72	* PerceptionFilter: Trickster's Slip is a glamour that makes you go unnoticed.
73	* PerspectiveFlip: The special stories take place from the love interests' perspectives.
74	* PopculturalOsmosisFailure: Anastasia fails to catch a lot of pop culture references because of her sheltered childhood that focused foremost on learning witch hunting.
75	-->'''MC:''' So instead of Literature/TheVeryHungryCaterpillar, you were reading The Very Hungry Witch?\
76	'''Anastasia:''' The very hungry what?
77	* PosthumousCharacter: The protagonist's mother, Claire, who died many years ago.
78	* PowerAtAPrice: Due to the Threefold Law, all magic is this. Any spell cast causes a karmetic imbalance three times the power of the spell, either good or bad.
79	* PowerIncontinence: Witches can release telekinetic bursts in moments of strong emotion, but most of them get it under control at a young age. Alix is an exception -- she's broken many of her smartphone screens this way.
80	* PowerTattoo: Niklas has one on his arm. Ty obtains one on his back in his storyline.
81	* PrecisionFStrike: From Catherine: "The council is full of shit!"
82	* PsychicLink: In the Niklas+Ty storyline, [[spoiler: you form one with Niklas after a spell goes wrong.]]
83	* RunningGag: The protagonist keeps forgetting to give Amelia the book she ordered.
84	* SafeWord: With Rhys, it's "onyx".
85	* SalemIsWitchCountry: Salem is the setting for the casting of the Pact spell.
86	* SavingTheWorld: The quest to cast the Pact, in order to stop the Starfloods from, well, flooding the world with dangerous wayward magic.
87	* SeeksAnothersResurrection:
88	** [[spoiler: Catherine seeks the resurrection of her twin sister Cassandra.]]
89	** [[spoiler: Waltraud and her family seek to eliminate death itself.]]
90	* {{Seers}}: Rhys' Birthright allows him to see possible futures.
91	* ShoutOut:
92	** On the Ana+Mel route, you can tell Anastasia that she can "[[VisualNovel/MySweetBodyguard be our sweet bodyguard.]]"
93	** One Anastasia special story has the protagonist getting a passport with the name "[[VisualNovel/QueensGambit Barbara Eddricks]]".
94	* SiblingYinYang: The MC's sisters. Alix, the younger sister, is a dark witch who loves the big city party life and surrounding herself with admirers. Joanna, the older sister, is a light witch living in a small town, running a herbal store and engaged to be married.
95	* SolitarySorceress: Jean lives in the middle of the woods; the party has to seek her out before they can get her help.
96	* StealthHiBye: Anastasia pulls this a few times.
97	* StraightGay: Melanie and Anastasia. The MC and Melanie promised to keep each other updated on developments with Ty, which MC notes means just her, unless Ty somehow became a woman. Anastasia recounts how she tried to like the boys in high school and even ''thought'' she was crushing on one, but unfortunately, he was a boy.
98	* SuperpowerfulGenetics: Witchcraft is a genetically inherited trait, and [[AlwaysFemale 95% of witches are female]].
99	* SweetTooth: Anastasia is fond of pastries and other desserts.
100	* TallDarkAndHandsome: Niklas, with shades of TallDarkAndSnarky.
101	* TeethClenchedTeamwork: Anastasia, if you choose her for the Pact. Additionally, out of the six possible team pairs, the following will come into conflict: Anastasia and Melanie, Anastasia and Niklas, and Ty and Niklas.
102	* TemptingFate: With lampshading, after they retrieve the charm from the Stirling family crypt.
103	-->'''MC:''' Well, that was easier than I expected.\
104	''[Cave threatens to collapse]''\
105	'''MC:''' Why did I ''SAY'' that?!
106	* ThanksgivingEpisode: The Thanksgiving special stories.
107	* UniqueProtagonistAsset: The protagonist has the rare Birthright of Starsight, making her uniquely suited to take part in the Pact. Her Aunt Cheryl is a Stargazer as well, but her role is to take over your duties while you're out of town, thereby allowing you to leave.
108	* VirtualPaperDoll: You can buy clothing for your character. In some parts, it's required to continue the story.
109	* TheVonTropeFamily: The Reylanders have "von" before their surname, as they are nobility.
110	* WeatherManipulation: Alix's Birthright.
111	* WhatYouAreInTheDark: During a conversation with Alix, you can refuse to entertain the possibility of using a charm spell on Anastasia. She overhears this and it helps repair her trust in you.
112	* WildMagic: Wayward magic, which falls from the sky randomly and always has unpredictable effects.
113	* TheWitchHunter: Anastasia. She's a witch hunter who kills around 4 witches a year.

Context VisualNovel / KissesAndCurses