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The Witch and the Hundred Knight: Revival Edition
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Graphics & Sound:
About two years ago, The Witch and the Hundred Knight was released for the PS3. Now, they have released The Witch and the Hundred Knight: Revival Edition for the PS4 with better graphics and some added content.
Since I haven’t played the original, I can’t directly compare them, but based on screenshots, what I see on my PS4 is a lot smoother and crisper than the original. Considering the PS4’s stats, this is really to be expected. At a first glance, you can tell that this is a Nippon Ichi game. The graphics have the same feel to them as the Disgaea games. You would expect to see these characters walk right into Disgaea and you wouldn’t know the difference. The same goes for the world. The Witch and the Hundred Knight is set in a swamp, forests, and old towers. Everything is dark, but colorful. The swamp looks like a swamp and the forests are lush green with trees everywhere. They did a really good job with the details and appearance of everything.
The music in The Witch and the Hundred Knight is quite haunting. That’s the best way I can describe it. Turn off the lights and you’ll find it’s just a bit creepy being in an overgrown forest with haunting music surrounding you. The game defaults to English, which I do like, but if you want you can switch to Japanese for either text, voice, or both. Fair warning, there is a lot of cursing in this game. Metallia has a very foul mouth. A statement like "you puking slut" is on the very mild end of what she says. Between her language and a variety of sexual references, The Witch and the Hundred Knight is definitely not for kids! |
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Gameplay:
The Witch and the Hundred Knight is an action RPG where, for the most part, you are playing as Hundred Knight, a familiar to a witch named Metallia. Metallia summoned you expecting a huge demon, but instead you’re a bit small. It doesn’t matter since you are able to do her bidding. The witch can’t leave the swamp, which is why you have to do her dirty work for her. She wants to cover the whole world in her poisonous swamp goo. If the whole world is covered then she could go wherever she wants. As you spread her swamp, Metallia can go further into the world. The Forest witch Malia is Metallia’s worst enemy and she is determined to stop Metallia from spreading her swamp.
To spread the swamp, you will need to find pillars and release them. You can use them to travel around areas or back to home base. You do have a map, given to you by the butler, Arlecchino, but it fills in as you discover areas. This means that it is helpful after you’ve found something, but until then, you might want to keep an eye on your GIGAcals. You get 100 GIGAcals when you start a board and they will slowly whittle away to 0. If you run out, you will be sent back to Metallia’s home base. As you are battling, you will find chests that you can open. Enemies will also drop items after you kill them. When you pick these up, they will all go into your Stomach Stock. You can only hold a certain amount in there, but you can find items that will increase your stomach size. Once you return to base, these items will be added to your inventory. You can choose which items to take into battle with you.
You also take weapons into battle with you. You can take up to 15 weapons, which will be arranged into three sets of five weapons. It’s up to you how you want to arrange things, so that you always have a weapon on hand that will beat the enemies. The different enemies are either more or less vulnerable to various weapons, so make sure you’re using the right weapon. Otherwise, you’ll never be able to please your master.
Strangely enough, on your journey you will also meet Lia, who will also make you her familiar. She looks just like Metallia, so you have no clue what is going on. You can summon Lia to play as her. She can do magic attacks as well as physical ones. You only get her for a small period of time, based on the meter that you have filled. This is all going on in the tower, which is the area that has been added for the Revival Edition.
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Difficulty:
When you start up the game, you can choose between Normal or Casual. If you decide you want to switch to the other, you can talk to the Lamptree in your home area. Personally, I didn’t find that Normal was too difficult, but it does get harder as you go. If you get stuck, try switching to Casual and see if that helps. Also, you can equip two "protector" items and two accessories, so if you find you’re having trouble surviving, you might want to try upgrading your equipment. If you do happen to get killed, you will be returned to the beginning of the area (or your last marker) and you will lose some of your GIGAcal, but that’s all that will happen to you, so dying isn’t really a huge deal.
As you get stronger, you will get new Facets. You will look different and your other things like skills and stats will increase differently as well. You can equip up to three Facets and swap between them as needed. These can be helpful to get you through various situations with differing enemies. Also, find Anima and bring them to Metallia. Anima are left sometimes after you kill things. Make sure to pick them up as you can make Metallia’s wishes come true with them, and you want to keep on Metallia’s good side (or slightly less bad side, since I don’t think she has a "good" side). |
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Game Mechanics:
It’s odd, but when you first boot up The Witch and the Hundred Knight: Revival Edition it defaults to Load Game, which is nice after the first time, but it’s not obvious (at least it wasn’t to me) to press left on the D-pad to get to New Game (and press right to get back to Load Game). Anyway, maybe that was just me. Once you get the game started, the controls are pretty easy to get the hang of. Plus, they’ll go over them with you during the tutorial. You use (LS) to move and (RS) to move camera. (R3) re-centers the camera to North and press (Square) to attack.
You go to the Main Menu to equip weapons and armor. Use (O) to flip switches, chat with NPCs, basically to interact with things. You can Hold down (X) to "dash." (R1) will let you lock on to an enemy and use (Triangle) to raid a building with a door. You can get things from raiding places. When you go to a door, you can see the facts about what is inside and your odds of winning. You can choose to visit rather than raid with (O). (X) will let you dodge during battle. If you manage to dodge at just the right time, you can activate the Mystical Dodge. It’s pretty helpful in that your enemy is slowed down and you can attack without being harmed. To start a Chaos Revelation, press (L1) and (Triangle). The one thing I did not figure out easily was how to use items. You have to press on the left of the Touch Pad and it’ll bring up choices in the center of the screen.
Overall, The Witch and the Hundred Knight: Revival Edition is not my favorite game that I’ve played lately, but it does have its merits. While I just didn’t like the character of Metallia, the further I get in the story, the more I enjoy the game. If you’re looking to be the servant to a foul-mouthed witch, check out The Witch and the Hundred Knight: Revival Edition today! |
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-Cyn, GameVortex Communications AKA Sara Earl |
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