Posted on: December 8, 2020
Dreadjaws
Verified ownerGames: 503 Reviews: 43
Fun title, with few reservations
Nine Witches is a classic-style pixel art point-and-click adventure game, except it's not really point and click. It's World War II and Nazi scientists are planning to release an ancient curse to change the tides of war. You play as Professor Krakovitz, occult sciences erudite, and his loyal assistant Akiro, in order to try to decipher their plans and stop them. Krakovitz is quadraplegic, so he can't physically interact with objects, but can leave his body in an astral form. In this form, no physical barriers can get in his path and he can talk to ghosts. Akiro, on the other hand, handles the inventory and is a good marksman (when his pistol doesn't jam). While the bulk of the game is classic adventure talking and puzzle solving, there are a few mandatory shooting sections, though their difficulty can be toned down. They're fun, if a bit hard. Graphically, the game looks nice, if a bit odd. The impression I get is that the sprites were designed as pixel art while the backgrounds were compressed to look like it. They don't look bad, but there's an obvious disconnect. Notoriously, and perhaps due to its console release, the game cannot be controlled with a mouse. You have to use a gamepad or a keyboard. The controls are good enough, but it's weird they didn't just add mouse controls for the PC version. It's not like it's a competitive game and it would give PC players an unfair advantage. The one thing that's hit or miss is the humor. Sometimes it's hilarious, while others groan inducing. Sometimes it's surprising, and others you can see the punchline coming from miles away. Sure, a few jokes are clearly there to troll the audience, but the self-referential 4th-wall breaking stuff almost never lands and feels just lazy. The story is actually pretty good, though. Overall, all the good far surpasses any negatives and I wholly recommend it.
Is this helpful to you?
