Full Review: Witch and Hero (3DS)

First off, apologies that this article is coming out a few days late.  Things happened in the later half of the week that I hadn't anticipated (nothing bad) and I wasn't able to complete this article on time, or even in a form that I could post on Saturday, which is something that I've done in the past.  So now, here is Friday's post today, on Monday.

Witch and Hero is a game that I first saw back in January when the demo became available in Nintendo's eShop, despite the game having been released since April 2013.  The demo was pretty short, coming in at only 19 minutes, but it did everything a demo is supposed to do.  I was introduced to the concepts of the game and played through the first couple of levels.  I was immediately taken with the "retro" visual and musical style, enough so that a week or two later, I bought the game via Nintendo's eShop.  FK Digital, the company behind Witch and Hero have made a game that's charming, fun and can be played in short bursts when you know you'll only have a few minutes while the Top Ramen noodles boil to perfection.

STORY
You probably shouldn't be expecting much in the way of story from this game, as it is attempting to emulate the JRPGs of the late 1980s (Dragon Warrior, Final Fantasy, Ultima: Exodus).  The story is something that you find out before the gameplay begins and it's about as bare bones as an RPG story can be, but it's all done with a sense of humor.  You're told in the intro that the Witch and the Hero go off to kill Medusa, but the witch is turned to stone and the Hero is beaten to a pulp.  The Hero manages to escape with the Witch, but he seeks revenge and must kill Medusa to release the curse on the Witch.  How much more of a story do you need?

GAMEPLAY
The game is pretty basic.  You move the Hero with the joystick.  Your mission/goal is to kill of the hordes of enemies that come at you from all over the screen.  You are to protect the Witch who is sitting stationary in the middle of the screen.  You both have your own health meters and while you regenerate health after you reach 0 HP by lying prone, if the Witch loses all her HP, she crumbles.  You attack enemies by running into them and you damage to each other.  If you attack from behind, you are awarded with a different attack sound, you do more and take less damage than from frontal assaults.

Later in the game when you are able to temporarily bring the Witch back to life (with the blood of your enemies), you can change between two spells she continuously casts with "X" and have her face whichever direction you want her to cast her spells in with the "L & R" shoulder buttons.  Even later, after you find the Holy Sword (of course there has to be a holy sword), you can become super charged and do a lot of damage by charging up a meter that fills as you kill enemies in the stage.

As you go through the stages, you earn both experience points and money.  The experience points raise your level (this is an RPG after all), while the money you use to upgrade your Sword, Shield, Boots (speed) or the Witches Fireball or Storm spell.  I do not know if there is a level cap for experience (I reached level 48), but the equipment and spells max out at level 20.

A lot of the reviews online bring up the repetitive gameplay that makes up the majority of Witch and Hero and I cannot argue at all with this observation.  The game is exceedingly repetitive.  You will often find yourself grinding at the last stage you were able to complete so that you can purchase enough upgrades to get you through the next stage.  If you never played any of the late 80s / early 90s RPGs and were used to grinding levels, then this game probably will become very boring to you very quickly.  What I liked was that I could pick the game up, go through a stage which would take no more than two minutes, maybe raise a level and make enough gold to buy an upgrade or two then put the game back down.

VISUALS

As you can tell, the art style is very similar to something that you would find in the early Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy games.  This is something that really drew me into the game.  Just looking at the world map, I knew what it was that F K Digital was trying to get across to the player.  While there is no exploration of the world and each stage is only a single screen with a graphical style that represents the geographical region/area that you are in, I feel that anything more would have felt out of place.

Even the monsters look like they could be found in Dragon Warrior, although as the game progresses, they look more like early SNES era monsters.  And yes, in classic RPG style, a lot of the monster sprites are reused but given a different pallet, meaning they are stronger.  Little touches like this that harken back to established rules for RPGs are very welcome.


SOUND & MUSIC
I was very pleased with the sound effects in the game.  There was a different tone when you struck an enemy and when you hit them from behind.  It's like the difference between a high five, and one that connects with a satisfying SMACK!  When the Hero gets knocked unconscious, there's a very stereotypical "Wee-wee-wee-woo-woo" sound as you spin away from your last hit and then fall to the ground.  There's even a separate heart crushing sound when the Witch takes too much damage and she crumbles into pieces.  It's a simple sound bite that would be missed if it had not been included.

The music in the game continues to fit with the style set forth by visuals.  During the credits, Sound is credited to PANICPUMPKIN while "Background Chip" is credited to REFMAP.  After some preliminary searching, it appears that PANICPUMPKIN might very well be the composer, but whomever it is that composed the music did a fantastic job.  The overworld and shop themes all sound appropriate for what they are while the battle music is very catchy in the same way that the battle music from Final Fantasy I & II is memorable.  I only wish that I would be able to purchase/acquire the soundtrack.

FINAL THOUGHTS
Witch and Hero is not going to be a game for every person out there.  It is a short game, taking me 5 hours 24 minutes to complete; I reached level 43 and maxed out everything except the Fireball spell.  On one side, I would say that the game is marketed towards those who grew up playing NES era RPGs, but on the other side, it could be aimed at people who are looking for a pick up and play RPG-type game that doesoften  require you to grind for a while just through the next stage.

The only thing that I felt the game lacked was any 3Dness, despite being sold/marketed for the 3DS market.  While any 3D effects would have potentially conflicted with the visual theme, I feel that I would have been a simple endeavor and would have only added to the "charm" factor.  That being said, not have any 3D effects did not in any way detract from the game or my overall feelings towards my enjoyment.

Normally retailing at $3.99, Witch and Hero is currently on sale via the Nintendo eShop for only $2.79 until May 1st (2014).  I find the price to be about right for what the game is, which a single screen combat game stylized after NES era RPGs, and if that's your thing, you will have fun.


~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
With Action Overcomes Death

My Time In Evoland (PC)

Dr. Potts already did a full-on review about Evoland, which you can read here, and I highly recommend it, and not only because we share the same space here in internetland, but because it's a good article.  I however, after only just finishing the game not 10 minutes ago (upon writing this, not publishing today on Monday January 6th, 2014), wanted to give my own thoughts.

I really liked Evoland, although knowing from Dr. Potts that it was a short(ish) game probably helped in the development of my feelings.  By "short," I expected the game to be somewhere between 2-5 hours in length, and it took me about 3.5 hours from start to finish, although some of that time was spent trying to raise levels only to realize that that didn't matter outside of overworld battles.

As the good Doctor stated, I too wish that more time was spent in the 2D pre N64/PS1 era.  There was an area where you reverted back to Legend of Zelda (circa 1985), but that was only after you had been playing in 3D-Land for a while.  One aspect of reverting back to 2D graphics, was that the music also switched back to the classic NES 8-bit tones, but the music itself was the same.  I enjoyed hearing how the layering of instruments changed based on what "era" you were in.

But game length is very important here.  I felt that 3.5 hours was a perfect length of time for what the game was trying to accomplish.  If the game had been longer, I definitely would have felt cheated by how much time was spent in the early 2000's (Final Fantasy IX and beyond).  If the game were to have been twice as long, I feel that more time would have been spent playing as Gameboy Clink, or maybe even started at an earlier point in gaming history, such as with the Atari or the Intellivision.

All of that aside, again, I really enjoyed Evoland.  I feel that I was able to pick up on most of the references to video game history.  Even non-video game history, but general fantasy works, such as including A'Tuin from Terry Pratchett's Discworld series.  Other references  include Super Mario Bros., Diablo, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Final Fantasy VII and a whole helluva lot more, which is where I found a lot of the fun with Evoland.  I'm sure/positive that there were references that I didn't get, but I can't/won't mention them because I don't know what they were, hence the not getting the references bit.

It kind of reminded me of the way that "Weird Al" does his parodies.  They are often shorter versions of the original songs, but he gets his point across with what he's trying to do, although this is not always the case.

I will say that around the time that the game took on it's definite Final Fantasy VII and beyond tone, I did lose some interest.  Upgrades to the look and mechanics of the game became less and less and treasure chests which once held quips directed towards the video game industry and semi-ridiculousness of certain RPG rules, these chests started to contain Stars and Cards (Stars are there just to collect and Cards are used for a TCG, similar to the game card game used in Final Fantasy IX).  I felt as if I had reached the pinnacle of game development too soon as there was at least another hour of gameplay left.

Unlike Dr. Potts, I don't know if I see myself going through the game again, even  knowing what I now know about the overall length of the game.  The story was not very engaging, but I never felt that the story was a driving part of the narrative, or lack thereof.  It would be like playing Final Fantasy IV minus emotional investment and 50 hours of additional gameplay and story arcs.  So then why even play Evoland?  Because it's a game that knows who its target audience is and I like getting the references to other video games that I played 20 years ago.  In short, because Evoland is fun.

You know, I could easily see this concept used for other over-arching gaming genres such as Doom-style FPS' or even a Streets of Rage / Double Dragon type brawler-beat-em-up.  Although at the moment, it looks like Shiro Games is in development of a multiplayer adventuring game called Until Dark, which by the name and font alone sounds promising.  And now, a new video game development company to keep our collective eyes on.


~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
A Future That Ain't What It Used To Be