Video Game / Curse Crackers: For Whom The Belle Toils

Curse Crackers: For Whom The Belle Toils is a platform game inspired by classic platformers such as Super Mario, Mega Man, and Castlevania. It uses a color palette similar to that of the Game Boy Color games, and is part of the Colorgrave Universe. It was developed by Colorgrave, and released on Steam on August 30, 2022. A port for the Nintendo Switch was released in the US on August 24, 2023, and became available everywhere else on September 10, 2023, with a physical release planned for sometime in 2024.

The game follows Belle, a former acrobat, and her companion Chime, a flying golden bell. One day, Belle is on a date with her boyfriend Clyde, when he is suddenly kidnapped by Bonnie, one of their childhood friends. Now Belle must travel the land and face Bonnie's minions in order to rescue him.

Curse Crackers: For Whom the Belle Toils contains examples of the following tropes:

• 100% Completion: The game shows a percentage on each save file that shows how far you are in terms of the main story, collecting the Ardel Roses, Lore Books, Oath Blades, Lost Souls, and the three different medals for each level. Getting 100% will unlock the Spark Bangle, which is the only item that will be unlocked across all save files, and is very useful for doing speedruns.
• The Alcatraz: Hyrain, a floating prison castle where lawbreakers arrested by the Knights are sent to serve their sentence. It also doubles as the Knights' primary base of operations.
• All Crimes Are Equal: Any and all crimes commited in Ledarma are punished by a sentence in Hyrain, no exceptions, and the Knights strictly enforce this. Downplayed as the type of imprisonment is determined by how likely the criminals are to change their ways (with the ones considered to be lost causes being encased in crystal), and some are sentenced to work as Reapers instead.
• Advancing Wall of Doom: Some areas have a black wall with red skulls that will instantly kill you if it touches you, sending you back to the last checkpoint. If a room contains one of these, it's a race to reach the exit. These will most commonly come from below, but they can come from other directions as well.
• And Now for Someone Completely Different:
  • Part of a sidequest involves letting Ema play with Chime; doing so will result in a dodgeball minigame where you play as her.
  • The post-game has a quest near the end where you play as Bonnie when Belle ends up imprisoned in the Colorless Void.
• Antepiece: Most of the time, floating enemies that you can jump on and things that you can grab on to are first introduced above the ground before then appearing over pitfalls.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • The tutorial at the beginning of the game is completely optional, so you're not forced to go through it again on a replay.
  • Cutscenes that take place before boss battles are skipped if you lose to the boss and then enter the room again.
  • After completing the game at least once, you get access to a room that lets you input cheat codes, some of which can troll you, but others can be helpful and give you more coins or let you use certain items. This can be useful for if you want to attempt a speed run.
  • The second stage of the first 3 levels have a hidden cannon that sends you to the next world when used, unlocking all of the previous levels in the process.
  • If you're trying for a speed medal in each stage, there is the option to make the timer visible to let you know if you exceeded the time limit or not. You can also make it so that dying resets the level instead of sending you back to the last checkpoint, since you will most likely go over the time limit depending on how far away from it you were. If you're really struggling, the Stopwatch item will temporarily pause the timer every time you defeat an enemy, and there's an option to change speeds by toggling with the corresponding button rather than holding it down.
  • When revisiting levels to collect any items you missed, you won't have to finish the level in order to keep them, you can just leave the level once you've gotten them. The only items you can't do this for are the Speed and Longshot medals, since those are rewarded upon completing the level.
  • Once you get access to Grevenfel, you can buy a key from Elinore that will open any lock, which is useful for speedruns or if you're having too much difficulty with the few Crystal Keys that are in the game. You can even use it to get past a Ticket door if bringing the intended key is too hard, though the door does acknowledge that it's not the same key.
• Auto-Save: The game saves automatically rather than you having to do it manually.
• Badass Normal: People without magical abilities, implied to just be normal humans, are called Ungifted, but that doesn't mean they're useless. Several characters comment on how impressive it is that Belle can jump and swing through levels and fight enemies with only Chime to help her. One NPC also comments on how she was beaten in battle by an Ungifted, and even for those who aren't Ungifted only females can use magic and be Mages, with the males often becoming Knights instead (although some Mages have become Knights as well).
• Bittersweet Ending: The post-game ending is one that's more bitter than sweet. Bonnie rescues Belle and Chime from the Colorless Void after they were missing for weeks, but Belle has lost her color (although her eyes being pink suggests that it's already regenerating), and the Knights are waiting to arrest Bonnie when she returns.
• Boss Arena Urgency:
  • One of the bosses in the Cursed Book will keep destroying the blocks that are protecting you from an instantly-killing floor covered with Malice, and you have to defeat it before all the blocks are gone.
  • The second boss fight against Leer during Bonnie's post-game quest takes place on a platform surrounded by lava, which Leer keeps destroying parts of and requires you to defeat her before the whole floor is gone.
• Boss-Only Level:
  • World 4-5 is an interesting example, as when you first play the level, there is a locked door that doesn't open until after the actual final boss, so you can only fight Beakston and Bonnie, and will have to return later to explore the rest of the level and finally rescue Clyde.
  • World 5-5 has Leadra, the actual final boss. There's only one or two rooms before you reach her, with no other enemies.
• Bottomless Pits: If you fall and there's nothing below you to land on, it's instant death.
• Brutal Bonus Level:
  • The first 3 Worlds have a hidden set of levels called Hollows, which can be unlocked by finding a secret exit in one of the stages of each level. These are much more difficult, with more enemies and more pitfalls, as well as stages 3 and 5 each having a harder version of a previous boss.
  • The Cursed Book is a series of not 5 but 10 levels that you can unlock during a sidequest. Not only is there more platforming and harder bosses, but the second half of the area also has walls that instantly kill you if you touch them, requiring you to be more careful with your jumps. Oh, and you don't have Chime with you, so not only is it harder to damage some enemies but if you want those Longshot medals, you'll have to get all the way through the non-boss stages without taking any damage at all.
• Colony Drop: Leer and Tedra direct a meteor towards the moon with the intention to destroy it and send its pieces falling towards Ledamra to wipe out everyone there. Thankfully, Chime eats the meteor before that can happen.
• Completion Meter: Each save file in the menu shows a percentage of how complete each save file is. It also shows additional images if you've completed the post-game quest, or the Ticket quest, both of which don't count towards regular completion.
• Continuing is Painful: Downplayed; any items you collect during a level won't be lost upon dying (in fact, you don't even have to finish the level to keep them), but the coins you've collected will be lost. However, if you can reach the little checkpoint that appears where you died, you can get the coins back. Also, if you were carrying a key at the time, you'll lose it when you die and will have to retrieve it again, but once you've unlocked the door it stays open until you leave the level.
• Cutting Off the Branches: Continuing from Prodigal, Caroline makes an appearance after the ending shows that she one day left to travel to other worlds in search of Amadeus. It was possible for her to marry Oran or Hugh, or to go unmarried; however in this game it's revealed that she has a daughter called Ema Parish, showing that canonically, she married Hugh.
• Dark Reprise: The music towards the end of each world is usually a more minor and intense remix of their main themes.
• Deadly Walls: Two kinds. There's the advancing death walls that appear in some rooms and can come from any direction (often from below), and walls and floors with what looks like lava dripping from them in later levels as well as a few Ticket challenges. Both kinds will instantly kill you if you touch them.
• Difficult, but Awesome: It's quite hard to throw Chime diagonally so that he bounces off the walls around the room rather than just between them, but if you can manage to do it, it's useful for taking out several enemies in one go, as well as completing some puzzles.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Bonnie. Belle finally catches up with her at the end of World 4, and after defeating her, while Bonnie is explaining why she kidnapped Clyde, she herself is suddenly kidnapped by Tedra and Leer, who then escape through a portal that closes right after, requiring you to find enough Ardel Roses to open it again in order to go after them.
• Disc-One Final Dungeon: World 4 is much more difficult compared to the previous areas, appropriate for what appears to be the final area where you finally get to fight Bonnie at the end. Then Bonnie is kidnapped and you have to travel through another area to rescue her.
• Disney Death: After Leer and Tedra combine into Leadra and try to attack Belle, Chime takes the hit for her and is sent flying into the depths of space, leaving a distraught Belle to make her way to Leadra with Zeal's help, and then fight her using Bonnie's scythe. However, it turns out that not only did he survive, but he is also capable of eating the meteor that's heading towards the moon.
• Early Game Hell: In the first world, the only available items that can help you are consumed upon use, so you'll have to be careful with them if you need any for levels that you're struggling with. Even when you reach Grevenfel, where some sidequests to unlock some of the artifacts become available, most of these sidequests will have difficult extra stages that you'll have to make your way through first. If you manage to unlock any of the artifacts, though, some of them can make the later levels much easier to complete, as well as making it easier to replay earlier levels.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: The first World has a few cutscenes (such as the one where Bonnie kidnaps Clyde) that use the character's sprites. All other cutscenes would be still images outside of the sprite format instead.
• Everything Trying to Kill You: Aside from all the enemies, there's also other threats such as moving walls with skulls on them, patches of darkness with teeth in them, moving grass, blocks that can drop down on you, platforms with spikes in them, and a certain type of wall that doesn't move. Some of these can even kill you instantly.
• Fantastic Racism:
  • The Ungifted are often looked down upon, mainly because more of them appeared after the war of the Scales, leading people to initially believe that no more Gifted would be born. There's also one NPC who is unhappy that she was defeated in combat by an Ungifted, thinking it unfair that she couldn't get an advantage despite being Gifted herself.
  • Downplayed when it comes to the different types of Gifted; they're generally on good terms with each other, but the other races don't get on well with the Gazen, who are the most mysterious race and can see Malice which often makes people uncomfortable when talking about it, and the Hearthen aren't allowed to play card games because they might use their ability to hear other people's feelings to cheat.
• Fusion Dance: Leer and Tedra combinine into Leadra just over halfway through World 5, and are fought in this state as the final boss.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: A post-game quest involves Belle getting trapped inside a magical book and having to make her way through 10 difficult levels without Chime. Story-wise, she doesn't get out of the book until completing the 10th level; however, in gameplay you can leave at any time and do any other available quests as well as pick up an item to help.
• "Get Back Here!" Boss:
  • The second boss fight in the Cursed Book has the boss fly away to the other side of the room where you have to avoid taking too much damage while you try to catch up with it, although you can damage it sooner if you're fast enough.
  • The first part of the fight against Wren has her moving away from you and your attacks while you make your way through a long room.
• Giant Hands of Doom: The second boss of the Ruins has large hands that it attacks you with, and you have to break both of them 3 times.
• Good Morning, Crono: The game starts with Belle being woken up by Maggie, having overslept.
• Goomba Springboard: The enemies act as this, with some of them requiring you to jump on them in order to reach certain platforms.
• Goomba Stomp: Most enemies can be defeated by jumping on them, or by throwing Chime at them. However, some enemies wear helmets and can only be defeated in the latter way, and others will actually damage you if you try to jump on them.
• The Grim Reaper: Turns out this is actually a job profession in Ledarma! Those who challenge a Titled but fail to defeat them, or criminals who have proven willing to change their ways, are "deputized" by the Knights into becoming Reapers, who gather the souls of the dead and see them off to a place called the Grave for their final rest. It's also suggested that some people, such as Missy, can choose to become Reapers without having commited a crime.
• Guide Dang It!:
  • There are a lot of hidden areas, and some are less obvious than others. While you can use the Bathhouse to find out what you still need, it won't tell you where the exact locations are, and it isn't completely obvious which Worlds the soaps represent. In fact, there's not much indication of what the Bathhouse is for in the first place. If you unlock the Gaze Ring, you can at least get a better idea of where the hidden paths are, but only if you get close enough to them. In the case of the Tickets, however, they aren't shown at the Bathhouse, and some of the hidden areas won't be revealed with the Gaze Ring.
  • After finishing the main story, you gain access to a room where you can input runes and ring a bell, which can result in different things if the correct codes are entered. There are no hints at all for any of these codes except one that helps you unlock a door leading to one of the Tickets (and even that one is hard to figure out), with all the ones found so far having been a community effort from entering random codes to see what works and what doesn't.
• Helpful Mook: You can benefit from jumping on most enemies, such as using the flying bird skulls and ghosts as temporary platforms, or using the helmed or giant skeletons to help you jump over spikes that are too long to jump over normally, or to reach places that are too high.
• Inexplicable Treasure Chests: Downplayed; the only chests in the game are either ones where you're required to find an item for Claire, or the ones that won't unlock until you've completed the target challenge. The latter is justified, as it's explained that the target rooms and chests are there for Knight training. Claire also lampshades this trope when you bring the first item to her, saying that she hopes you didn't find it in some random chest.
• Interface Spoiler: World 4 appears to be the last world (the other one you can see next to it on the map is World 3's Hollow), but if you pay attention at the Bathhouse, where each soap basket represents a World or its Hollow, you'll notice there's an extra one...
• Invincible Minor Minion: The giant skeletons can't be damaged, but you can use them to jump up to higher platforms.
• Last Episode Theme Reprise: The final boss theme, "The Belle Tolls," is a reprise of the game's main menu theme.
• Level in Boss Clothing:
  • The boss in 2-5 works something like this. You have to damage its hands, then go into the next room and make your way up while avoiding a rising death wall, and you must do this a total of 3 times, with each room being different. The boss at the end of World 2's Hollow also works this way, but the rooms are different and have a fire-spitting enemy each time.
  • The second boss of the Cursed Book will flee from you as you chase it across several platforms with different things to avoid taking damage from, and will also make spikes rise from the ground if you stay still for too long. You have to do this 3 times in order to damage the boss, but it is possible to hit it before it moves too far away if you're fast enough.
  • The first part of the boss fight against Wren is a chase where you have to avoid both her attacks and the lava that you can fall into.
• Lighter and Softer: In Prodigal, a few characters are killed and there are more references to death, and it's implied that a war is starting. Here, while there is some Fantastic Racism between the different Scale races as well as the Ungifted, it's very minimal and there is more peace, the world is more colorful, and the music is more upbeat. The artbook even says that this game has more quirkiness wheras Prodigal is much more grounded. Don't think that means the gameplay is any easier, though...
• Little Bit Beastly: Some of the races gifted by the Scales have animalistic features. For example, the Hearthen have rabbit ears, the Gazen have tails, the Loren have antlers, and the Mournlen have sharp teeth and spikes in their hairstyles that resemble fins.
• Long-Lived: The Loren have significantly longer lifespans than the rest of the Ledamrans. A conversation with the Loren fisherman on the bridge has him mention how he's outlived many people. He's later revealed to be Sir Toan, who was first mentioned in Prodigal to have been involved in a war that is hinted to have taken place hundreds of years ago.
• Night of the Living Mooks: The enemies are all different forms of skeletons, and one enemy type is also a mummy. Interestingly, the four skeletal bosses are capable of talking, but all they really do is follow Bonnie's orders.
• No Body Left Behind: Ledamrans don't leave bodies behind when they die, instead turning into flames known as souls, which are collected and taken to a place called the Grave by the Reapers. The fact that Bonnie's scythe can create an army of skeletons and the existence of the Cursed Skull are seen as unusual for that world.
• No-Damage Run: Longshot medals are usually awarded for throwing Chime at the cauldron that appears at the end of most levels from a certain distance. Not all levels have these, however, so instead the medals are awarded for not taking any damage. Usually these will be levels with a boss at the end, but a few of the levels in World 5 require you to make it from the last checkpoint to the end without getting hit, and all of the non-boss levels in the Cursed Book require you to not take damage for the entire level, and you also don't have Chime to help you.
• No Fair Cheating:
  • Only one of the doors that the hidden Tickets are behind will open for Bonnie; the rest will turn her away, so you can't use her wall jump or Riot Mode to easily get to them. However, a few of the Tickets aren't hidden behind doors, so you can pick them up as Bonnie.
  • Averted for one of the doors that will open for you if you have Elinore's key rather than the key that was intended for it in case you're finding it too hard to reach and then bring back.
• One-Hit Kill: There's a few features that will cause instant death and send you back to the last chekpoint:
  • Falling off the screen or into lava will instantly kill you.
  • If you get touched by a death wall, it's instant death.
  • Some places have blocks that will fall if you go under them - if they land on you, you lose all your HP.
  • Walls and floors with Malice dripping from them will instantly kill you if you touch them.
  • The Cursed Skull will make any damage a one-hit kill in exchange for tripling the amount of coins you collect.
• Portal Book: After helping Vivian with the portal and going through it, Belle encounters somebody (implied to be Lorebright), who gets angry at the mention of Vivian and traps Belle inside the Cursed Book. Eventually, the unknown person lets her go, with it being implied that Chime kept bothering her until she did so.
• The Power of Hate: Malice exists as a force that causes people with enough of it to have seeds in them; if they don't keep their Malice under control, it can create creatures known as Spites, and eventually cause their seeds to grow and turn them into beings called Malevolents. This can even happen to Ungifted, if Belle's house being surrounded by a lot of Malice is anything to go by. The Gazen also have the ability to see Malice and seeds.
• Puzzle Boss: The bosses often require specific ways to defeat them, such as making use of the environment or Belle's skills, or having an Unexpected Gameplay Change.
• The Reveal: This game sheds more light on things that Prodigal hinted at but didn't fully explain:
  • Armadel's true form is a dragon, and her daughters were all created from her scales.
  • Colorgrave is one of Armadel's daughters, the others being called Cradleforge, Hearthlove, Mournless, Oathbind, Blindgaze, and Lorebright.
• Rise to the Challenge: Death walls will most commonly come up from below, with you having to find your way up and to the exit as quickly as you can.
• Shield-Bearing Mook: Some of the skeleton enemies carry shields, meaning that you can only defeat them by jumping on them or throwing Chime at them when their backs are turned. Some also wear helmets, and some have both shields and helmets. There's also enemies that can throw their shields at you, and others that have a lance in addition to the shield who will try to charge at you.
• Shout-Out:
  • Claire's name on her stands looks a lot like the same font used for the Claire's accessory shop.
  • Vivian laments having been cursed into the form of a "sassy lost child" at one point.
  • Bonnie's Riot mode functions very similarly to a Super Mode from the Sonic the Hedgehog series, giving her flight and invincibility (among other things) in exchange for the ability gradually draining her currency.
• Something We Forgot: Both Belle and Bonnie were so preocupied with saving the moon, and by extension the whole of Ledamra, from being destroyed that they forgot that Clyde was still imprisoned. They only remember at the end of the credits, leading to the post-game.
  Bonnie: I'm never kidnapping anyone for you ever again.
  [...]
  Belle: Wait, kidnapping?!
  Bonnie: Yeah, Cl- We forgot about Clyde!
  (Cut to Clyde still waiting in a prison cell)
• Speedrun Reward: Each level awards the player with a speed medal if completed within a time limit. In one sidequest, Belle applies to join the Knights, and one of the tasks she has to complete for her application to be accepted is to collect ten of these (initially five, but the Knight giving the task moves the goalposts once you accomplish that).
• Spring Jump:
  • The Mourn Suit's special ability is a jump that goes even higher than the normal high jump and can be used in midair.
  • Using the Grave Mask's double jump immediately after bouncing off something (such as an enemy or Chime) results in a massively higher jump.
• The Stinger: Just before the credits roll, Bonnie says she's never kidnapping anyone again. After the credits, Belle questions this, and they both realise they forgot about Clyde.
• Super Not-Drowning Skills: You can swim through water without having to worry about losing your health to it, the main threats instead being enemies and obstacles like there are on land.
• Taken for Granite: The Mages who were hit by Leer's arrows are turned to stone, only turning back after you remove the arrows. One of them tells you that she was still conscious while petrified.
• Toggling Setpiece Puzzle: There are levels with blocks which, when active, manifest like solid white-and-grey tiles, and when inactive they're absent and one can only see white dots marking their would-be positions. However, when Belle or Chime interacts with holes surrounded by purple octagonal borders, all blocks will swap their states, activating the blocks that are inactive and vice versa. Toggling these blocks will be essential to successfully navogate through the levels.
• Unexpected Gameplay Change:
  • The 1-5 boss can't be damaged normally, and instead must be beaten by taking part in a music minigame that involves pressing certain buttons in the order that they appear.
  • The boss battle of 4-3 works like a game of tennis where you must alternate the wall behind you to deflect the attacks past your opponent and score 3 points before the boss does.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: The boss at the end of World 2 has 3 stages where you have to avoid its attacks before damaging it before making your way through a room with an Advancing Wall of Doom coming from below, avoiding damaging obstacles while doing so. Since you only have 3 lives, this forces you to be more careful in order to avoid taking damage rather than brute force your way through it all.
• Wham Line:
  • After finally rescuing Clyde, Belle next finds him standing next to Ursyla at Grevenfel:
    Belle: Hey Clyde! Who's this girl?
    Clyde: My new girlfriend.
  • At the end of Fione's sidequest, she can be found at Belle's house:
    Fione: This is where you live?
    Belle: Yeah, why?
    Fione: It's seeped in Malice...
  • In the post-game ending, when Bonnie gets arrested:
    Belle: Wait, stop! I won't let you take her.
    Sir Toan: Don't make the same mistake as your mother, Belle.
• Wrap Around:
  • Some rooms will require you to move offscreen in one direction to get to the other side in order to navigate towards the exit. The first boss also makes use of a wrap around where the only way to hit it is to throw Chime offscreen so that he'll hit the boss from behind.
  • One of the Tickets is found by solving a puzzle in the overworld where you must travel up, left, and right through the mountains based on a series of cryptic hints. Getting the correct sequence of directions will take you to a new area where the Ticket is found.

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