The Witch and the Hundred Knight

« It's always difficult to rate niche games like The Witch and the Hundred Knight, and this one moreso because it takes a certain degree of patience to mentally work into the game before it becomes enjoyable as a twist on a dark fairy tale. But I enjoyed myself and found the combat engaging enough to be confident that niche JRPG fans will get a kick out of it. »

« While far from Nippon Ichi's best game, The Witch and the Hundred Knight's interesting interlocking game systems and unconventional, dark narrative make it an enjoyable affair well worth spending some time with, assuming you have the patience to deal with its quirks along the way. »

« This is a great example of what NIS can do focusing a little bit more on action. It is, indeed, a good game, even though we think there's some aspect that need polishing or further development. »

« An authentic JRPG full of charm, unique characters and well crafted gameplay mechanics. A bit odd, too. »

« The Witch and the Hundred Knight is a great buy for fans of top-down J-RPG’s. »

« Pleasantly absorbing. [Issue#243, p.62] »

« The vile, scheming, cursing Metallia might be too intense a main character for some, and the combat is more serviceable than outstanding, but Nippon Ichi fans who’ve felt a lack of innovation in some of the twisted Japanese developer’s more recent fare should find a refreshing change of pace here. »

« As far as hack and slash titles go, The Witch and the Hundred Knight makes a horrible first impression – the story presentation is vulgar and the gameplay is initially lacking. But it’s a game that truly builds and builds into a freakishly beautiful abomination, should you give it enough time. »

« The combat looked kinda cool but I played for 1 minute and saw someone get almost rapped by rats. »

« 7/10 is being a bit generous to this game, while the combat is simple and usually fun what isn't fun is your characters "power" continuously dropping just by exploring an area, nor is it fun the game dragging out certain parts which just makes it boring and feels like the devs were really stretching out the play time. Further to the un-fun elements it's boring having several hours of no story only to then have a massive story drop you have to sit through for 10-20 minutes, its just poor pacing being very stop-start in a very jarring type of way. More and more as the game goes on you'll find yourself battering enemies senseless only for out of nowhere for one or two of them to be some sort of "elite" that will one or two shot you regardless of how good your weapons/armour are. If this happened just with regular encounters you could probably deal with it but when this issue also extends to bosses one or two shotting you with no window to block or dodge and/or the enemies/boss stun locking you so you just end up dying without being able to do anything about it to say those situations become infuriating is a monumental understatement. How much fun you get out of this game will depend on how much fun you have with typical action RPG mechanics, I can easily see the vast majority of people who try this game rating it 5/10 at best, higher scores are purely from people that enjoy RPGs. If you want an RPG with a humorous dark story then you might want to give this a go, otherwise steer clear and look elsewhere because for as much as there is here thats potentially enjoyable in equal measure there are things to turn you away. »

« Hundred Knight might not be everyone's cup of tea, but it's my kind of game. The combat is a bit simple to learn, but it does take a bit of time to master. You do have to manage the Hundred Knight's hunger, as well as HP during combat and exploration. Some critics weren't fans of Metalia's characterization, though they fail to realize that Metalia is a bit more complex, and she's not really intended to be a good person (after all, she's a witch). It is somewhat visually dated, hence why the grade is not any higher. But the artstyle in the hand drawn character portraits are amazing. The music is also very enjoyable. If you can find a copy at a good price, I'd strongly recommend The Witch and the Hundred Knight. »

« Man. This game is so bad. »

« I think this game is under rated however it does present a few problems that can ruin the game depending on your personality. For a quick background, I enjoy western action RPGs a lot and don't really care for t/ j-RPGs. However, I am a big fan of rogue elements in those games whether they are loot drops, random enemies or hidden rooms. Unfortunately most of the best games utilizing these features are the old turn based games like disgaea and makai kingdom. Unfortunately again all these games have super annoying pre-pubescent characters and ultra annoying personalities. Somehow there is a market for these Spongebob Squarepants wanna be's and I'm not one of them. That said I do wonder why western games haven't explored some of the features in these older games that despite being annoying as can be have a huge fan base. Seriously that must mean the gameplay can be ultra **** in walks this game, a hybrid between everything I just mentioned. I must say I both like and dislike this game. All those "disgaea" like elements are there and I liked the various elements being blended into an action rpg. Unfortunately, the game has retained lots of reading and humour which isn't humorous but it does succeed in presenting a decent immersion of its story none the less. What sank me was the game has technical difficulties the most annoying to me was a subtle but noticeable stun lock or delay during combat. One other feature of this game I would like to touch on is the 100 second time limit for most battles. While in general I don't enjoy timed battles I did feel it was integral to how the game dished out rewards/drops and you do earn better stuff if you are decent. I guess this is why I was so annoyed by the stun lock/delay those two things do not mix. Overall I could go either way on this game. It does have a unique hybrid approach to two different game styles however looking back its probably better just to stick with what you love best than settle for a blend of "Mey" which is ultimately how I decided to score this one. For people less fussy I think this could be an overlooked under rated game so if you seem as intrigued as I was about this hybrid game I'd still recommend trying it out and seeing what you think. It does have a lot of interesting features and they may not annoy you as easily. At least I can say I tried, you never know til you do. »

« [SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.] »

« Nobody can agree on anything about this game, but i'll try explaining it's appeal like this: If you're genuinely open-minded about other cultures and not some coffee shop liberal, try playing the whole game before making snap judgements about someone else's sense of humor. The Witch is deeper than i expected, and i expected a JRPG, which are not notoriously shallow as a class of experiences. It get a little slow in places, gameplay wise, despite offering a lot to do in the meta game, but i enjoyed the characters and the plot so much i kept coming back (ahem, Drakengrad 3, ahem). For once in my life i believe it's probably pretty fair to judge this one by it's cover. If it looks good, and you want it to be, it probably will be, but if you go in expecting to be disappointed, you'll undoubtedly find stuff to complain about. It might win over a skeptical first-time gamer, but there are none of those here, just whiny/effusive otaku. Just like me. Holla. :D »

« The storyline is fine with it's take of playing on what is like being on the villains side being a fresh air. I enjoyed the storyline completely but an RPG isn't just a story it also has to have it's gameplay function. That's where it trickles down to cataclysmal levels. The gcal system is a good concept and all but most rpg's try to encourage exploration and it's pretty cannibalizing in that regard and rather encourages jumping the gun and going from waypoint to waypoint and you'd make it through the boss just fine if you armed yourself properly. The camera angle is the absolute worst in this game as you'll be fighting the nauseating perspective point while still not have the camera black out because of a wall, and it constantly readjusts so there isn't anything to do but hope your eyes don't hurt after this. The music is overtly repetitive as I'm trying to explore and hear the same 2 minute soundtrack 20 times with no variation at all it becomes where I just muted the music. The fighting is repetitive as there are only 5 weapons in the game and rarely ever does it change due to either needing to be adequately armed in blunt, slash, or magic damage discourages using the other two and some animations lock you in which isn't wise to take (spear and sword at 5.) Another sin is its inconsistency to maintain what it's doing. One map you have the objective on there clear as day and the next one it asks you to find 5 things with no indicator on the map whatsoever. The only other thing that also comes to mind is the animation during dialogue cutscenes: It's just a bare minimum with a limited amount of animations put in altogether and it just feels lazy as I've seen the exact same animation 40 other times. So I will say there is hardly anything wrong with the story aside from some of the dialogue scenes being repetitive animations, but the gameplay is just a giant mess of linearity, inconsistency in conveyance, discouraging of exploration, and overall frustrating or boring »