A Witch's Tale
A Witch's Tale is an RPG video game developed by Nippon Ichi for the Nintendo DS. The game revolves around a feisty witch-in-training, Liddell, who aspires to be the greatest witch in the world. After entering a mysterious castle and opening a Tome of Eldritch Lore, Liddell releases the Eld Witch, an evil being who was sealed away by Queen Alice thousands of years ago.
The castle's owner, the narcoleptic, tomato-eating vampire Loue, tells her that she must take responsibility for her actions and work to save the lands she put in peril. While at first resistant, Liddell agrees, and they go to save the land's princesses.
Not to be confused with the DS game Witch's Wish.
Tropes used in A Witch's Tale include:
- After the End: Florin is like this, after dark magic wiped out the race that used to live there. You get to see past!Florin in the New Game+.
- Alice Allusion: The game has characters from Alice in Wonderland, including the Cheshire Cat, Jabberwock, Mad Hatter, March Hare, White Rabbit, and Dormouse. The main character, Liddell, takes her name from the last name of the real Alice.
- All Just a Dream: The entire first playthrough is this, brought on by Queen Alice to test Liddell. The New Game+ is the real adventure, and contains story elements not seen in the first one.
- The second playthrough may also be this, depending on how you interpret its ending.
- The second one is still canon though
- An Ice Person: Hansel's doll ability.
- Big Bad: The Eld Witch.
- Bishonen: The March Hare, to the point of Viewer Gender Confusion.
- Loue is one, too.
- Blush Sticker: Liddell, Kitty, Gretel, Hansel, Aquell, Rapunzel
- Brick Joke: Babayaga hitting Liddell on the head.
- Catgirl: The aptly-named Kitty.
- Cats Are Mean: The Cheshire Cat is pretty insensitive to Liddell, not caring when she cries.
- In the unlockable Blackjack mini game, expect him to tease you. A lot.
- Cats Hate Water: Averted, as the Cheshire Cat meets you above and below the ocean. He has no problem teleporting you underwater, either.
- Cherry Blossoms: Florin is filled with these; there's even a Fetch Quest where you help two souls in different gardens reunite. When you first see a particular sakura tree, the Mad Hatter talks about their connection to death.
- Cheshire Cat Grin: The Cheshire Cat.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Aquell is this towards Liddell, believing Loue is hers.
- Cool Old Lady: Babayaga.
- Cute Witch: Liddell. And the princesses, with their magical abilities.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Dorothy.
- Everything's Better with Princesses: Each of the lands except for Queen Alice's is ruled by a Princess.
- Everything's Better with Sparkles: Pretty much wherever you touch with the stylus, sparkles appear.
- Exposition Day: Lampshaded by the Dormouse.
- Face Heel Turn: Loue seems to undergo this temporarily when you fight him for his doll.
- As with Anne growing up to become the Eld Witch.
- Fairy Tale Motifs: Aside from familiar ones, like Snow White and Hansel and Gretel, it also has references to "The Snow Queen" and A Thousand And One Nights.
- Princess Kaguya is a reference to Kaguya-hime, a princess in Japanese folklore who came from the moon.
- Gainax Ending: Both playthroughs.
- Gender Blender Name: Princess Hansel.
- Green Thumb: Kaguya's doll ability.
- The Grim Reaper: Appears in preset treasure chests. Luckily, he's pretty easy to beat.
- Guide Dang It: Finding all the cards can take quite a while. You can't get them all until the New Game+.
- It's quite hard to find your way around and get the required items for each world, so the whole game can qualify for this.
- Heroic Albino: Loue.
- Level Ate: The kingdom of Rem Saccharas is made of sweets.
- Making a Splash: The mermaid Aquell.
- Metal Slime: The card monsters. Luckily, if you fail to defeat them you can leave the room and come back.
- Mind Screw: Both endings, as befits the Wonderland theme.
- Mood Whiplash: At the end of the first playthrough, we get a scary scene and then not two seconds later, the happy, peppy end credits music.
- New Game+: Unlike other cases, it is actually incorporated into the plot: this is the real adventure.
- Nice Hat: Liddell makes this remark to Jabberwock right before he introduces himself.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The game starts off like this.
- The Nightmare Before Christmas: The art style was based on this.
- Our Vampires Are Different: Rather than feast on blood, Loue eats tomatoes.
- Parental Abandonment: Poor Liddell...
- Peek-a-Bangs: While in human form, Loue always has his hair covering his right eye.
- Pink Girl, Blue Boy: Gretel wears pink while Hansel wears blue. Otherwise the two girls dress quite similarly.
- Playboy Bunny: The March Hare (only with more clothes).
- Playing with Fire: Lyra's doll ability.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: The Eld Witch and the Cheshire Cat.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: The Eld Witch.
- Sequel Hook: After the second playthrough, we see Loue watching Liddell from a rooftop.
- Shock and Awe: Dorothy's doll ability.
- Shout-Out: To The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, The Tale Of The Bamboo Cutter, and The Little Mermaid, to name a few.
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Hansel's kingdom. It has sections where you move the stylus and go flying in one direction, and must navigate icicle mazes.
- Stock Control Settings: Averted, as the entire game is played using the touchscreen, despite the existence of SNES-style buttons on the DS.
- Tomboyish Name: Hansel is a girl.
- Tsundere: Liddell expresses elements of this.
- Vegetarian Vampire: Loue.
- Winter Royal Lady: Hansel.
- You Gotta Have Green Hair: Kaguya and the March Hare.
- Hansel has light blue hair, while Lyra's is a darker blue.