Very pretty game, animations are superb. The visuals are to be hailed. Environmental interactions are also this game's strong side. But everything else is kind of sub par. Sound design and music are bleak, character design is a bit painful and shallow, story is most certainly not innovative and is uninspiringly bad, as for writing - it is intellectually stunted. About where it matters - mechanics, this game seems not to have enough polish and overall design appears to be more idea-oriented than player-experience oriented: oh, let's make this game guro kawaii, punishing and also let's make it think before mash. Well this game does not prioritise your convenience and time for that to work perfectly. It states outright: think your encounters, but when you start thinking - the best course of actions is to be lazy. There are ez ways to bonk your enemies when you analyse, but to enact them is akin to solving a puzzle you've already solved. Which is extremely cursed. The game becomes glaringly shallow on a core level and it doesn't inspire you to replay it because of the gameplay loop design. Iron man mode? Yeah, hard pass, mate. Controls are a bit clunky and unresponsive, movement is non-rewarding, enemy design is placeholder level. Level design can be nice. Atmosphere is unengaging. But most of all, this game is kind of unfair. The difficulty is artificially bumped up by enemy design and imbalanced game economy: brute force is disencouraged because enemies are more brutal than you (cheap deaths and spamming from almost every enemy); your buying capability is much less than the offer. So, game experience prioritizes thought over skill - by punishing you for polishing skills. Imho, game doesn't do enough of what it set out to do. To sum up. Charming game. Visuals are very nice and everything else is about what you would expect from indie studio's maiden voyage. Not a game for gitting gud and overcoming, but a game to grate yerself against if that's your cup of tea.
The game has a certain air about it. It looks and sounds great. But the writing, oh the writing, it reeks of a dungeon master inviting you to spend great time in a world of fantasy and then proceeding to block you constantly and continually punishing you for one reason or another. It disrespects your intelligence, and don't you call it toilet humour, for it is a tad bit less funny than my shoelaces. Just as every single NPC is a cardboard cut-out and sounds same-ish. I got it for less than half a dollar. And I do not regret spending money. I regret spending my time on a game with a story that doesn't want your investment, is a cringefest of writing and an uninsightful tedium of a grind. Still better than a cookie clicker though.
A classic. Replayed it 5 times a while back, thrice with this version. "Witch's House MV" is a truly premium experience for what was a free rpg-maker horror game, one of the best of its kind. Such a novella-like story, moderately fair puzzles, strong atmosphere. If it would be your first encounter - avoiding spoilers is highly recommended, until you get to a true ending that is. What would make you buy the mv version? - Better visuals. Everything is so polished. Comparatively nicer. - New difficulty setting. Offers replayability and extends the enjoyment by completely overhauling puzzles. In conclusion, this is a great game. It belongs to that particular era, but remakes everything for an ultimate experience. "Majo no ie" has been creating many a conversation and is a culturally significant piece of art/entertainment. P.S. watching different people react to the true ending is amazing.
