The Knight Witch Review
Summary: The Knight Witch is a super fun game an original take on a few different genres. While the game isn't perfect, I do think people should go out of their way to try it out.
4.1
Fun
In today’s gaming landscape, I feel like you have to do a lot to be able to standout, especially among the indies. Great games come and go every single day without anyone noticing. You have to have a hook of some sort. The Knight Witch’s hook is that it takes a traditional Metroidvania, adds Bullet Hell elements and a hint of Deck Building, that create a unique experience I personally haven’t seen, nor experienced before. I don’t think it’s a perfect game, but I do generally see a reason to go out of your way to play it.
As mentioned above, The Knight Witch is a Metroidvania Bullet Hell mashup and as such you’ll find yourself flying, shooting, and backtracking a lot. All of the basics are there when it comes to both genres. On the Metroidvania end, there are 5 fairly big areas that slowly open up as you progress through the game. You get to these areas as you unlock new abilities earned throughout your adventure. As an example, you unlock a dash that allows you to avoid bullets, but also get through most walls standing in the players way. On the Bullet Hell side of things, there are times in which there are just a metric ton of enemy fire on the screen, and it really can feel like you’re playing through Ikaruga. The Knight Witch combines these elements brilliantly, and effortlessly. It feel like the game was made with the intention of fusing the genres from the ground up, and not just using it as a gimmick. There isn’t quite a feeling in most games like narrowly avoiding a ton of bullets and then getting an upgrade at the end of the encounter.
Speaking of the encounters, the boss fights are definitely a huge plus. They are large, and the designs can be super fun, and challenging. None of them (aside from the final boss) will make you want to throw your controller at the wall, but they will provide a challenge for sure. One of the main reasons that the combat feels as good as it does, is the movement system is super smooth. As a Knight Witch, you move through the air effortlessly. I never felt like I wasn’t in full control of my character, and all of the many deaths I experienced were my fault, not the games. That being said, an element in the combat that I feel like could have used a little work is the card system.
Aside from your normal shot, you unlock new abilities and methods of firing with these cards. Just like in other card games, you use mana to cast them, and it does something. You gain mana in The Knight Witch by killing enemies. The problem lies in the fact that a lot of the cards in my personal playthrough felt really underwhelming. I found myself just using cheap cards as filler to get to the ones that made a bigger impact. I do want to mention however, that the way you get a decent amount of these cards is through a special vendor that gives you a random choice of 3, so I potentially just got unlucky. The other vendors in the game however are much more in your control. There are the skull muffin vendors that you can spend the in game currency on, these give you temporary armor boosts that come with an effect of some sort. For example, there’s a piece of armor that will shoot out swords that stun enemies when the player gets hit. There is also a vendor that allows the player to copy cards they already own, this is useful as it trims down on the filler I mentioned earlier.
That all being said, there were a couple of things in The Knight Witch I thought were genuinely excellent. Firstly, the art style of the game. A lot of love went into this, and it all looks amazing. From the scrolling backgrounds, to the character design/art it’s all amazing. The music isn’t far behind either, with a score that I’d listen to even if I wasn’t playing the game. The last thing I feel like I should mention is the story. When I first started the game, I was worried that the story would be super generic, but as I kept going that opinion quickly changed. The story adapts and changes to the decisions you make, and overall is a fun time. The writing in general is strong in The Knight Witch. Every character you meet has a personality, and makes it worth it to check in on them after missions. I particularly thought the player character Rayne and her husband Akai had great writing. I won’t get into specifics of course, but I was pleasantly surprised to say the least.
Final Thoughts?
The Knight Witch is a super fun game an original take on a few different genres. While the game isn’t perfect, I do think people should go out of their way to try it out.
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