Visual Novel / Love & Legends

Love & Legends is a Visual Novel Romance Game for iOS and Android by Voltage Entertainment USA, released via the Lovestruck portal app. It is the first romance game title original to Lovestruck rather than being previously published as a standalone app.

The protagonist is a young, rather geeky millennial living in Chicago. One day, en route to a fantasy movie her friend Sophie recommended, she finds herself caught in a lightning storm, and the next thing she knows, she's stuck in a medieval fantasy world. To make things worse, she just so happens to look exactly like this world's Big Bad, The Witch Queen — something she discovers pretty quickly when the first reaction she gets is to be arrested and taken to a castle dungeon to be interrogated.

Luckily, her captors are good people, and Lord Wolfson decides quickly that the dungeon is not the right place for her — but they can't just leave her alone, either. And so the heroine, and player, is asked to choose between five potential Love Interests: rigid and cool knight August Falke, flirty and seemingly careless elf prince Iseul Idreis, quiet and mysterious demon Saerys, hard-working but playful magician Altea Bellerose, or kind but fair lord Reiner Wolfson himself. Later, two new love interests were added, contained in their own routes disconnected from the common route: bad guys Alain Richter and Helena Klein.

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This game provides examples of:

• The Ace: Imohn, Iseul's older sibling, who is effortlessly kind and charismatic and intelligent and loved by seemingly everyone. Iseul finds it...very hard to deal with.
• Actually Pretty Funny: Early in August's first season, he laughs in spite of himself at one of the heroine's retorts to him before covering it up with a cough.
• Alliterative Family: Adelaide Ailerose and Altea Ailerose, mother and daughter.
• Alliterative Title
• Alternative Calendar: The characters' birthdates in their profiles are listed as "[X]th day of [Y]", where [Y] is something relating to the seasons. There's Harvest, Cherry Winds, Snowfall, Autumn Rest, River Thaw, Frozen Lakes, and Rose Bloom.
• Amicable Exes: Iseul is embarrassed to encounter Caligo, but the two get along perfectly well when they do talk. It helps that it's implied their relationship wasn't particularly serious.
• And the Adventure Continues: August's ninth (and final) season ends with he and the heroine riding into the sunrise to their next adventure. Cue "The End."
• Anti-Climax: Unless you shell out for every heart option, you'll see quite a few cases where the MC is given the opportunity to do something romantic with their sweetheart or show off during a battle, only to end up passing.
• Ascended Meme: A version of the "I've Had Enough Of This Dude" meme was made with an image of Lennox as the dude in question. Later on, an in-app banner that showed Iseul punching Lennox in the face came with the tagline: "We've had enough of you!"
• The Beastmaster: Jinhai.
• Beta Couple: In Iseul's route, we find out that Caligo and Sophie used to date, and are now interested in getting back together again.
• Big Bad: The Witch Queen.
• The Big Damn Kiss: Naturally occurs at least once for each character.
• Birds of a Feather: A common thread in Iseul's route is that, despite the very apparent setting differences, both he and the MC are basically just aimless millenials with no idea what they should be doing in life.
• Bookcase Passage: Reiner has a passage into the castle's Tunnel Network behind the fireplace in his study.
• Brick Joke: A dialogue choice in Saerys's first season has the heroine quip that she will help Saerys fight Lennox the next time they encounter him, if Saerys will promise to hammer-toss him by the ankles into the sunset. Saerys does exactly that — albeit into a river, rather than a sunset — when Lennox attacks them later in the season.
• Call-Forward: Something of the kind occurs in an early season of one route where the MC is shocked to find out Iseul is a prince and demands to know whether anyone else happens to be secret royalty; Altea coughs nervously, referencing something that isn't revealed until their fourth season.
• Calling the Old Man Out: In Altea's seventh season, the heroine can provide an epic verbal smackdown to Altea's parents on her behalf in a heart scene, though it ends up backfiring and hurting their goal of getting Eclaciel's aide against the Witch Queen.
• Casual Kink: MC and Iseul get in on this a lot over anything from spanking to the Power Perversion Potential of controlling plants.
• Character Overlap: Happens often with characters from other Lovestruck series:
  • In August's seventh season, he and the heroine are in Chicago, where they run into Vanessa from Havenfall Is for Lovers.
  • When Iseul and MC go to check up on their unborn baby in Chicago, their doctor is Serena from Castaway Loves Adventure, who seems amusingly unsure how to deal with Iseul's eccentricities.
• Cheeky Mouth: Many of the pictures from the first five routes suffer from this. It's absent in Helena and Alain's routes.
• Cliffhanger: Most seasons (and three-episode updates) end on one, but Iseul's season 6 takes the cake, literally ending with him hanging from the edge of a cliff.
• Dark Magical Girl: Although Altea is the one with the most blatant Magical Girl coding, Helena fits this to a tee.
• Doppelgänger: In Helena's route, she, Alain, Reiner, and all of the retainers have alternate universe doppelgängers in Chicago.
• Empathic Environment: In Reiner season 6, after breaking through Saerys's brainwashing, the clouds part, lighting up the snowy battlefield with an aurora.
  MC: (Heh. Looks like even the stars are on our side for this one.)
• Evil Counterpart: Each of the Witch Queen's generals is one in some way to Reiner and his retainers. Alain is a knight like August, Helena is a female spellcaster like Altea, Jinhai is an elf like Iseul, Lennox is a rogue like Saerys, and Magnus is the largest like Reiner. Each pair has an unlockable image together.
• Evil Is Deathly Cold: The Witch Queen has ice magic and her presence is associated with cold.
• Extradimensional Emergency Exit: At the end of August season 6, the heroine's curse threatens to overwhelm her. Aisetha opens a portal back to her world, and they escape there, where the curse is suspended.
• Extreme Doormat: Alain and Helena both try to be this, but have a bit too many emotions to really count. In Alain's route, after the MC freezes his heart to protect him in his season 3, he turns into a fully-fledged version, being essentially a robot programmed only to listen to the MC. Thankfully, she's eventually able to snap him out of it.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Altea's homeland is based on France and the Elf Kingdom is based on China.
• Fish out of Temporal Water: The MC is basically one, even if this past is a lot more magical than the real one. And each of the main five love interests gets a chance to visit modern day Chicago for a period as well, complete with requisite scenes of trying out all kinds of cool modern things.
• Foil: August and Iseul, who are the first two to meet the heroine in the prologue and the ones who bring her to the castle. August, the human knight, is a close-range fighter, conventionally masculine in appearance, and no-nonsense. He is introduced bluntly telling the heroine to be quiet and that she's under arrest. Iseul, the elf, is an archer, a Long-Haired Pretty Boy, and mischievous. He is introduced holding a flower and offering his hand, playing Good Cop so to speak.
• From Roommates to Romance: The protagonist rooms with her love interest, who is given the responsibility of watching over her.
• Gay Option: Among the original five love interests for the heroine, Altea is the only female one. A second female option, Helena, was added later.
• The Ghost: Lisette's wife Felicity is mentioned on various occasions, but never appears.
• Gratuitous French: Beginning in Altea's seventh season, she and her family sprinkle in a decent amount of "Eclacien" in their dialogue.
• Green-Eyed Monster: In Altea's route, the MC quickly becomes very jealous of Mireille's very close relationship with Altea, while Altea herself is suspicious and confused about the MC's insistence in defending Helena.
• Green Thumb: Ishara can make vines grow. In Iseul's route, she passes the power onto him right before she is gravely injured. Even after he returns the largest extent of the powers back to her, he retains a weaker ability to control plants.
• Groin Attack: How the heroine defends herself before she learns swordsmanship.
• The Hedonist: The faeries and mermaids are whole species of hedonists, renowned for their wild parties.
• Heel–Face Turn: The protagonist can bring about this for Helena and Alain in each of their routes. Helena also eventually defects from the Witch Queen herself - albeit with help from the main character - in Altea's, Iseul's, and Alain's routes. Alain also defects in Saerys's route, but decidedly not in Iseul's.
• Idle Rich: Altea's royal family, which deliberately stayed out of the previous war because it didn't affect them directly yet. But in her 6th season, things get dire enough that trying to re-petition them becomes the best possible plan, and after some difficulty, they manage to get them to help out in season 7.
• The High Queen: Queen Ishara.
• Horse of a Different Color: The warriors of the dwarven domain use giant hyenas as mounts.
• "I Know You Are in There Somewhere" Fight: In Reiner season six, the heroine and Reiner fight to get through to a Brainwashed and Crazy Saerys.
• Last of His Kind: Saerys is the only survivor of the Witch Queen's genocide of the demon race.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: In the first episode of Saerys's sixth season, the heroine's internal assessment of the current situation does double duty as a summary of the previous season's cliffhanger ending.
  MC: (Alright, so here's the TLDR...)
• Leitmotif: Each of the major characters has a specific musical track which is associated with them, and in most cases plays only on their individual route.
  • Reiner has a calm piano theme, reflecting his down-to-earth nature and his own piano-playing.
  • August has a stately brass theme befitting his status as a knight.
  • Altea's theme has a whimsical sound.
  • Iseul's theme is shared by his mother.
  • Saerys' theme is mysterious like him.
  • Helena has a sweeping piano theme.
  • Alain also has a somber piano theme.
  • The Witch Queen has a foreboding theme.
• Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: Friendly, pink-coloured Altea and sexy, mature Helena respectively.
• Lipstick Lesbian: Helena, naturally, with Altea being pretty feminine herself.
• Literal Cliffhanger: Iseul's sixth season ends with Iseul very literally dangling by one hand off the edge of a cliff.
• Little Miss Badass: Altea, who is one of the best wizards in the world, and the youngest in the cast. And who played an integral role in putting down the Witch Queen for the first time at the ripe old age of fourteen.
• Love Makes You Evil:
  • Alain's route shows that he was a decent and kind-hearted young man who followed the Witch Queen on her descent into evil because he was in love with her.
  • In Reiner's route, it's discovered that his older brother Aldric fell for and defected to the Witch Queen.
  • The Witch Queen is said to have first struck out after she was rejected by the King, who she was in love with. In Alain's route, we see how it happened, revealing that while her unrequited love did contribute, she wanted power for herself already anyway.
• Love Martyr: Both Alain and Helena served the Witch Queen out of love, which she was all too willing to use to manipulate them.
• Marry for Love: Altea grew up thinking of marriage only as something she'd do to ensure heirs of her own - once she realises that she could actually marry the MC and form a family with her, she's a little stunned, but very happy.
• Massive Numbered Siblings: August has five sisters. The elven royal family also has quite a lot of children, but so far only two of Iseul's siblings - Imohn since season 2 and Iraia in season 7 - have appeared onscreen.
• Mayfly–December Romance: The MC and Iseul in his route.
• Medieval European Fantasy: The setting is based on this.
• Mindlink Mates: At the start of Saerys's third season, he saves the heroine from death by performing a demon soulmate ritual, transferring half of his soul into her to sustain her life. As a result, they are thereafter able to sense one another's feelings.
• The Mirror Shows Your True Self: In August's route, the heroine first catches a glimpse of the Witch Queen when she looks in a mirror and sees the Witch Queen's face looking back at her.
• Modest Royalty: While Iseul does like to boast about himself, he otherwise doesn't give off any particularly princely airs, and actively dislikes the responsibilities placed on him by being royal.
• Morality Pet: Although less extreme than most versions, neither Alain nor Helena is very used to being good even after they defect from the Witch Queen, leaving the MC to try and steer them into a more honest, pacifistic future.
• Mystical White Hair: Many elves and most of the elven royal family have long white hair, highlighting their otherly nature.
• The Night That Never Ends: In Reiner's route, the Witch Queen covers the human domain in darkness when she takes over during the fifth season.
• Noodle Incident: According to Saerys's third season, Sophie has a spare key to the heroine's apartment because of something she refers to only as "the Incident."
  Sophie: [grumbling to herself] Had to get the whole damn thing reupholstered.
• Only One Name: Saerys has no last name.
• Our Elves Are Different: The Wood Elves variation. However, despite the increased life span and nature magic, personality-wise they're not so different — though both Imohn and Ishara are highly regarded, both are perfectly capable of being petty or wrong.
• Queer Establishing Moment: After having been confirmed by Word of God earlier, in Iseul's season 7, it is stated in-universe that Imohn is Aromantic asexual.
  Imohn: Leave me out of this. You all know full well I have no natural inclination toward romance or desire for marriage, and never will.
  Iraia: Exactly! Have you so soon forgotten how Imohn dodged their last arranged betrothal?
  Imohn: The duties of the Dragon Master leave no room for a spouse.
  Iraia: But let us be honest… even without the pressures of their position, Imohn would still insist on remaining unwed.
• Parental Marriage Veto: In August season 5, when his father Bayard learns of August and the heroine's engagement, he refuses to give his blessing as he doesn't know her. When he learns that she was suspected of being the Witch Queen, he rejects their relationship even more. However, she's able to win over his trust and he comes around.
• Peerless Love Interest: Altea has a crush on Ishara. It says something that even in her route the MC never feels jealous, just teases her for her obvious hero-worship.
• Platonic Life-Partners: Altea and Iseul are very close friends. When he's trapped by the Witch Queen in her route, the MC says that she perfectly understands Altea's distress, because if platonic soulmates are a thing, that's what they'd be.
• The Power of Friendship: In Reiner season 6, he and the heroine temporarily break through Saerys' brainwashing by reminding him of their friendship and taking his hands.
  Lennox: I spent months conditioning him. And you break my control by holding his hand?
• Power Perversion Potential: In Reiner's seventh season, he learns to use his healing magic for sexual stimulation. In Iseul's route, he and the MC also discuss the potential uses of control over plants.
• Really 700 Years Old: All the elves are hundreds of years old.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: As the local lord, Reiner is the most immediate authority figure in the area where the heroine finds herself, and it's because he's willing to hear her out and give her a fair shake that she doesn't end up simply rotting in a dungeon — or worse. He's similarly fair-minded on Alain and Helena's routes when the heroine and either of the Witch Queen's former generals show up on his doorstep asking to join him, again despite the misgivings of his retainers.
• Rebellious Princess: Altea, who was raised for the sole purpose of serving as an heir, and who defected so she could study magic and help fight against the Witch Queen.
• Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated:
  • In Reiner's route, his brother Aldric, long thought to have died in the war, is discovered to have lived… and defected to the Witch Queen.
  • Iseul in season 7, revealing how he escaped the Literal Cliffhanger he was left on at the end of the previous season.
• La Résistance: While Reiner and the heroine are stuck in Chicago during Reiner's fifth season, the Witch Queen overruns the human domain. A resistance comes to exist, led by Caligo Hawkeye.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: The elf royal family took a very proactive role in the previous fight against the Witch Queen, and are always quick to respond when Reiner calls them up for help again. Iseul himself is something of a complicated case, however - he was sent to live with Reiner mainly to uphold their relationship, giving him little else to do but hang around and nap by the riverside when he wants to. Once things get serious and he starts being given actual responsibilities, it takes him a long time to get used to it.
• Schrödinger's Gun: The nature of the heroine's connection to the Witch Queen varies by route.
• Sharing a Body: The heroine and Witch Queen in Reiner's route.
• Shout-Out:
  • A lot, particularly to anime, particularly in Altea's route, given her obvious inspiration. For example, when the MC jokes that she's found their joint daughter, the player is given three name options: Usagi, Anthy, and Rue.
  • Altea's staff is a dead ringer for Raising Heart. Given Lyrical Nanoha's LGBT Fanbase, the reference was almost certainly intended.
  • In August's Season 3, Episode 6, August says he needs to get oil for his armor.
    MC: (The last thing we want is him going all Tin Man in the middle of a fight.)
  • Sophie asks the MC about the 'other world' in August's Season 4, Episode 1.
    Sophie: "The other world sounds interesting. Did you meet a talking lion, or anything like that?"
    MC: "I met an evil witch, but…"
  • As the fantasy alternative to relaxing by watching television, the MC and August go to the library in August's Season 6, Episode 4. MC find's August's favorite story and offers to read it out loud for them both. But when August is apparently not paying any attention, the MC has the option to take the story far off the rails.
    MC: "Though the terrain was too rough for riding, their trusty squire banged together the halves of a coconut to provide horse-like sound effects."
  • At the start of Iseul's Season 2, Episode 7, Iseul's sibling Imohn bursts through the door, possibly after the MC and Iseul have been having sex.
    Imohn: "Iseul!"
    Iseul: "Imohn!"
    MC: (Doctor Scott! Rocky!)
  • Again from Iseul's route, when Iseul, Imohn, and MC are sneaking into the Witch Queen's castle in Season 2, Episode 9, they need to search for something.
    Iseul: "We should split up. Cover more ground."
    MC: "Cool! You be Fred, and I'll be Velma."
  • At the end of Iseul's Season 5, Episode 1, the MC is beginning to worry about the difference in expected lifespan for the two of them.
    MC: (I'm reminded of an old B Movie Sophie forced me to watch once, the one with the moody Scottish immortal not even played by a Scot. Cheesy movie, impossibly good soundtrack, but with a suddenly relevant theme… Immortality as a blessing and a curse.)
  • In Iseul's Season 5, Episode 12, the MC gets Isuel to declare himself "a free elf" and asks if someone gave him a sock to make it official.
  • In Iseul's Season 7, Episode 2, while he's explaining why he's alive, he mentions an isle of Sirens, related to mermaids, who take in "poor, unfortunate souls". The MC can't help but snicker. Said isle is where Iseul rested for some time. Given Iseul's known affection for mermaids, the MC asks if another name for this isle was Castle Anthrax.
  • While discussing what royal weddings are like in the MC's world during Iseul's Season 7, Episode 5, she mentions how much merchandising there is.
    MC: "They put the couple's faces on teacups and bobbleheads and collector coins. Like MERCHANDIZING, MERCHANDIZING! Royal Wedding: the t-shirt! Royal Wedding: the coloring book! Royal Wedding: the flamethrower."
  • When the heroine and Saerys end up transported to Chicago in Saerys's third season, Sophie initially takes Saerys for a cosplayer and asks if the heroine met him at ACEN (aka Anime Central, a popular real-life anime and manga convention held in the Chicago area).
    Sophie: Oh my God. Have you been at ACEN this whole time? I cannot believe this, you catastrophic weeb.
  • Saerys's visit to Chicago also finds him wearing a borrowed "Astoria College" hoodie sporting what appears to be the logo of Astoria: Fate's Kiss, and watching a TV show which by its description is based on Mackenzie's route of Havenfall Is for Lovers.
  • In Season 4, Episode 2 of Saerys's route, the MC is excited to visit the mermaid realm.
    MC: (I want to know if mermaids would actually use forks to brush their hair!)
  • In Saerys's Season 4, Episode 8, Altea asks MC what kind of spell she cast to be struck by lightning and emerge unscathed.
    MC: "As far as I know, I'm still thoroughly unmagical. I have been since I never got my letter to go to wizarding school when I was eleven… I'm still bitter about that."
• Someone to Remember Him By: At the end of Iseul's season 6, he reveals that the MC is pregnant - right as he's hanging from a cliff edge, begging her to let him go so she can save herself at least.
• Spikes of Villainy: The Witch Queen's castle. One dialogue option has the heroine complain that everything in there looks like it's going to poke you to death.
• Stacy's Mom: Altea has a crush on Iseul's mother, Ishara. It helps that she's an elf.

• Strictly Formula: While the details of each route can change quite a bit, all of them revolve around the Witch Queen coming back to power and needing to be defeated again, and the routes tend to follow similar timelines, with season 4 being the break-up season and season 8 being the climactic Final Battle and wedding. Alain and Helena's routes are different, starting from a different initial point than the other routes, and while their first seasons are pretty similar, they diverge a lot after that, with Helena's route being more mundane and character-focused and Alain's more fantastical and lore-heavy.
• Super Mode:
  • After Altea takes on the power of the faeries and mermaids to fight the witch queen, she gains a new Valkyrie-esque costume and appearance which she can now transform into at will with a magic shell.
  • Unfortunately, the Witch Queen soon develops one of her own, too, through sucking magical power away from Helena.
  • Beginning in his second season, Saerys becomes able to tap into his power as a "True Demon" and shift into a more powerful form in which he has glowing red eyes, horns, tattoo-like markings covering his skin, and the ability to generate fire. This "turbo mode" is powered up even further at the beginning of his sixth season after Saerys is possessed by the vengeful souls of the murdered demon race.
• Taking the Bullet: In August's route, Alain ends up jumping in front of a fatal blast intended for the Witch Queen.
• Talking Weapon: Aisetha, the Sword of Theramis.
• Took a Level in Badass: The heroine learns to fight and gets her own suit of armor.
• Trapped in Another World: The heroine is transported to the fantasy world.
• True Love's Kiss: Helena regains her memories, which she had lost as a side effect of the spell-gone-wrong that transported her and the heroine to Chicago, after kissing the heroine again in her fourth season.
  • The same thing happens in Reiner’s fifth season When he lost his memories after waking up in Chicago, he only remembers after kissing the heroine during their wedding in Vegas.
• Tunnel Network: There's a secret network of tunnels throughout the Wolfson castle.
• We ARE Struggling Together: As shown in Alain’s and Helena’s routes, the generals, in contrast to Reiner and the retainers who bicker but are ultimately True Companions and care about each other, are shown to usually not get along. Lennox and Magnus who are shown to genuinely agree with the Witch Queen’s beliefs and stances are constantly fighting and arguing with Helena and Alain, who have been twisted by years of service to the Witch Queen, are still the most moral of the generals. Jinhai generally stays out of these fights because his alliance to the Witch Queen comes out of mutual convenience and not any true loyalty. Even Alain and Helena, while generally allied with each other against the other three, constantly bicker due to being in competition for the Witch Queen’s affections.
• Wrecked Weapon: In August season 6, his sword is broken by Alain after the Witch Queen freezes it.
• Year Inside, Hour Outside: Time flows differently between the two realms. The heroine spends days in Chicago while months go by in the other world.

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