Witchcrafty is a metroidvania platformer with magical action gameplay, exploration of a weird world, and adorable pixel art graphics. Help the little witch solve the mystery of strange events in the Kingdom, and defeat enemies with fire, lightning, and ice magic.
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First time pirating on my vita and decided on this random game. It’s a terrible buggy mess but an easy platinum.
I wanted to like this game as I actually enjoyed it when I can play it. Unfortunately, the game is very buggy as the character often gets stuck or the game freezes and I have to keep resetting to get back in the game. It’s just too hard to keep playing when these things happen way too frequently with the glitches…
Tipico indie de baixo orçamento, bastante bug e um certo capricho no visual.
Chegar até a penultima fase sem morrer para não perder o farm e comprar os 2 itens na loja de uma vez só é bem desafiador (para quem quer platinar com uma jogada apenas).
Chegar até a penultima fase sem morrer para não perder o farm e comprar os 2 itens na loja de uma vez só é bem desafiador (para quem quer platinar com uma jogada apenas).
Intro:
2D side scrolling platformers are one of my favorite genres of games, a love that started with my very first game back when, Mega Man 2. Though games have evolved a long way past the age of left to right running the genre has endured and many indie developers have picked up the baton left by Mega Man and others creating their own unique experiences, many of which top those old classics in many ways. Witchcrafty was no doubt created with that inspiration in mind.
Gameplay:
Though the game touts itself as a Metroidvania type game, a style that lends more towards collection of skills for a character over time in order to revisit old locations to progress, that isn’t as much the case. Truly Witchcrafty is set up more like a more classic style game akin to Mega Man or Super Mario Brothers. Taking control of the unnamed pink haired witch players will traverse areas that progress one ‘room’ at a time and the enemies and obstacles presented to them largely using their close range ability to whack opponents down with their wand as well as collecting crystals strewn about each area that can be used to buy upgrades in health and magic. As the game goes, Witchy (what I’m naming the character until corrected) gains the ability to fire off magic spells of different elements though this has to be used sparingly and saved mostly to clear obstacles to new areas. The game does allow for some rather tight movement, allowing players to double jump, dash, and airdash right out of the gate, a dash that passes through any enemy attack or hazard which is a nice mechanic. The game also does away with the idea that touching enemies automatically harms your character, a time old idea which is neat to see go.
However, despite some good ideas and solid platforming the game has some issues of balance. Many enemies hit for large amounts of health and can pile on the pain which can see the pink witch getting blown away after one misstep and being sent back to their last save with so few means to recover from damage available. Even as a very seasoned player of such games I found myself getting sent back to the last checkpoint losing an abundance of progress rather often on the game’s one and only difficulty mode. Small bugs also plague the game detracting from well constructed movement mechanics. At points I found Witchy falling into ground textures or even falling into a hazard and dying at a boss instantly while the pre fight text played out when I was reloaded to a previous save. Furthermore the magic system that acts as your means of a ranged attack has very little power, speed, range, or availability due to being tied to a gauge that requires beating enemies to refill, which grows over gameplay but never enough to be very useful in the short campaign. The magic system being so lackluster saw me opting instead to beat down my foes but that in turn saw more deaths due to enemies that could obliterate a health gauge in a move or two. Lastly while the game boasts itself as a Metroidvania game the magic types gained aren’t required at all to go back to previous areas instead letting players continue on the very short linear path to the end of the story.
In a more simple styled game like this gameplay is key and it’s a shame that while there are great ideas in this one they are held back by lack of balance, glitches, and under-utilization of the ranged system and its implications.
Story:
Not much to say on this one. Witchy awakens one morning to find that her forest home has been raided by goblins that were once less aggressive while she was asleep. She is charged with finding out the source of the spreading corruption that infects the land and is causing the unrest and saving her home. On the way players do get a sense of the character’s personality and there is a bit of humor between Witchy and the characters she talks with as she moves along that is entertaining and keeps things going.
Sound:
This is the area of the game that does quite well, surpassing the rest of the experience by a good bit. Composer Ryan Avx does a great job bringing together a collection of tunes that give each area a sense of identity that are distinct from each other and kept me bobbing my head as after each, often unfair feeling, reset to a checkpoint that kept me playing onward. Near as I can tell Avx hasn’t done many works and I would hope he continues to make music, I’d look forward to hearing it in other games.
Presentation:
The game is done in a simple but well detailed pixel style that is vibrant and pleasing to look at. Animations of Witchy and the various enemies look great and were clearly done with love for the project. Art for the game such as Witchy and the small cast of characters she encounters is drawn in a cute style that helps give the experience a light hearted cartoon sort of feel that made it an attractive buy. Even the pause screen being Witchy’s spell book littered with silly doodles and her notes helps to give the game flavor.
Conclusion:
While it has charm in the artistic style, mechanics, and music the game ultimately falls short of reaching the heights of some of the classics or making a place for itself among the new greats of the genre due to half baked ideas. It’s not a terrible experience by any means and I had fun but there are better titles to go to first if you are wanting a 2D gaming experience, even if looking for something more cute and light hearted. It’s worth it to grab if you’ve exhausted the genre and can grab it on sale. While it has its faults Witchcrafty was clearly made with love and I’d hope the team behind it can go on to make something even better using what they may have learned from this one.
Pros:
Cute cartoon like style that is well done
A great soundtrack that keeps the action flowing
Solid idea of 2D platforming that give players plenty of movement control
Cons:
Glitches and lack of balance hold back the fun factor
Ideas that don’t get utilized fully to make the game evolve much from the start
Very short length of about 2 or so hours even on a first time with no additional modes
Final Rating:
2.5 out of 5: Witchcrafty has heart but the magic is still in training.
2D side scrolling platformers are one of my favorite genres of games, a love that started with my very first game back when, Mega Man 2. Though games have evolved a long way past the age of left to right running the genre has endured and many indie developers have picked up the baton left by Mega Man and others creating their own unique experiences, many of which top those old classics in many ways. Witchcrafty was no doubt created with that inspiration in mind.
Gameplay:
Though the game touts itself as a Metroidvania type game, a style that lends more towards collection of skills for a character over time in order to revisit old locations to progress, that isn’t as much the case. Truly Witchcrafty is set up more like a more classic style game akin to Mega Man or Super Mario Brothers. Taking control of the unnamed pink haired witch players will traverse areas that progress one ‘room’ at a time and the enemies and obstacles presented to them largely using their close range ability to whack opponents down with their wand as well as collecting crystals strewn about each area that can be used to buy upgrades in health and magic. As the game goes, Witchy (what I’m naming the character until corrected) gains the ability to fire off magic spells of different elements though this has to be used sparingly and saved mostly to clear obstacles to new areas. The game does allow for some rather tight movement, allowing players to double jump, dash, and airdash right out of the gate, a dash that passes through any enemy attack or hazard which is a nice mechanic. The game also does away with the idea that touching enemies automatically harms your character, a time old idea which is neat to see go.
However, despite some good ideas and solid platforming the game has some issues of balance. Many enemies hit for large amounts of health and can pile on the pain which can see the pink witch getting blown away after one misstep and being sent back to their last save with so few means to recover from damage available. Even as a very seasoned player of such games I found myself getting sent back to the last checkpoint losing an abundance of progress rather often on the game’s one and only difficulty mode. Small bugs also plague the game detracting from well constructed movement mechanics. At points I found Witchy falling into ground textures or even falling into a hazard and dying at a boss instantly while the pre fight text played out when I was reloaded to a previous save. Furthermore the magic system that acts as your means of a ranged attack has very little power, speed, range, or availability due to being tied to a gauge that requires beating enemies to refill, which grows over gameplay but never enough to be very useful in the short campaign. The magic system being so lackluster saw me opting instead to beat down my foes but that in turn saw more deaths due to enemies that could obliterate a health gauge in a move or two. Lastly while the game boasts itself as a Metroidvania game the magic types gained aren’t required at all to go back to previous areas instead letting players continue on the very short linear path to the end of the story.
In a more simple styled game like this gameplay is key and it’s a shame that while there are great ideas in this one they are held back by lack of balance, glitches, and under-utilization of the ranged system and its implications.
Story:
Not much to say on this one. Witchy awakens one morning to find that her forest home has been raided by goblins that were once less aggressive while she was asleep. She is charged with finding out the source of the spreading corruption that infects the land and is causing the unrest and saving her home. On the way players do get a sense of the character’s personality and there is a bit of humor between Witchy and the characters she talks with as she moves along that is entertaining and keeps things going.
Sound:
This is the area of the game that does quite well, surpassing the rest of the experience by a good bit. Composer Ryan Avx does a great job bringing together a collection of tunes that give each area a sense of identity that are distinct from each other and kept me bobbing my head as after each, often unfair feeling, reset to a checkpoint that kept me playing onward. Near as I can tell Avx hasn’t done many works and I would hope he continues to make music, I’d look forward to hearing it in other games.
Presentation:
The game is done in a simple but well detailed pixel style that is vibrant and pleasing to look at. Animations of Witchy and the various enemies look great and were clearly done with love for the project. Art for the game such as Witchy and the small cast of characters she encounters is drawn in a cute style that helps give the experience a light hearted cartoon sort of feel that made it an attractive buy. Even the pause screen being Witchy’s spell book littered with silly doodles and her notes helps to give the game flavor.
Conclusion:
While it has charm in the artistic style, mechanics, and music the game ultimately falls short of reaching the heights of some of the classics or making a place for itself among the new greats of the genre due to half baked ideas. It’s not a terrible experience by any means and I had fun but there are better titles to go to first if you are wanting a 2D gaming experience, even if looking for something more cute and light hearted. It’s worth it to grab if you’ve exhausted the genre and can grab it on sale. While it has its faults Witchcrafty was clearly made with love and I’d hope the team behind it can go on to make something even better using what they may have learned from this one.
Pros:
Cute cartoon like style that is well done
A great soundtrack that keeps the action flowing
Solid idea of 2D platforming that give players plenty of movement control
Cons:
Glitches and lack of balance hold back the fun factor
Ideas that don’t get utilized fully to make the game evolve much from the start
Very short length of about 2 or so hours even on a first time with no additional modes
Final Rating:
2.5 out of 5: Witchcrafty has heart but the magic is still in training.
My short experience thus far with Witchcrafty:
-- Boot up game
-- Check out the controls and find out I can't rebind them, I'm sure we'll get used to them...attack on Circle, Dash on Triangle, Jump on X...sure, that's going to be fine!
-- Set my button display to PSX style instead of XB style...and find magical confusion in that all the prompts for the game (including in the main menu) are off by 90 degrees (Square prompt = X, X prompt = Circle, info points tell me to attack with X, dash with Circle, and interact with Square)
-- After you get out of the first few rooms, you're treated to what is a tutorial area...and the game neglects to tell you that you have a double-jump right off the bat when you need it in order to do the first tutorial room efficiently.
-- Did I mention that the area hazards actually look like background pieces of the game? Uh-oh.
-- I hit a mushroom. It hit me. I died and went back to...the start of the game and all the things I collected are gone. All of them? Really? Couldn't just drop me back there while letting me keep what I picked up? Eh, whatever.
-- Ouch! That hazard that looks like background still looks like background!
-- I hit mushroom. It doesn't hit me back. I am a true champion among witches.
-- I wander a couple more screens and get my third and fourth progress achievements in the same room and finally pick up magic.
-- Do I test magic? Nah, I put the game down and decide I'll come back later today.
On a brighter note, the limited amount of soundtrack I've gotten to experience is pretty good stuff.
UPDATE:
-- Continued the game (using CONTINUE!), only to find it started me all over again from the beginning, when it seemed like getting a major power-up should save the game. Whoops!
-- Made it back to where I was, went up one screen, found the Save Game location. Yay!
-- Found diverging paths, took the lower path because it looked like a logical loop that might let me get some useful stuff out of it.
-- Top path took me to water, which I quickly learned by falling into it is something your witch can't swim through, so I despawned, lost a heart, and respawned next to the water. Guess I'll try the downward path in the loop!
-- Bottom path involved some obnoxious projectile dodging, which seemed fine at first. Got to the bottom and went right, only to find a dead end because I didn't have the necessary power-up to make further progress. Game wants me to go back the way I came just to get back to that split right after the save point! I could just nuke myself, but then I'd lose all the crystals I collected, so I should work my way back, right?
-- Tried to work my way back and encountered a problem that several other Steam players commented on, in which jump inputs would sometimes just get eaten. In a place where I needed to double-jump to go back up and also jump-dodge enemy projectiles, jump inputs were being eaten over and over. I died, lost the crystals I had and got spawned back at the save game.
-- Submitted a request for a refund, because I don't want to make further progress, only to find myself starting to possibly enjoy the game and then have it really screw me with more jump inputs being dropped or maybe something even worse.
One star for the music and that's it. This game is a mess.
-- Boot up game
-- Check out the controls and find out I can't rebind them, I'm sure we'll get used to them...attack on Circle, Dash on Triangle, Jump on X...sure, that's going to be fine!
-- Set my button display to PSX style instead of XB style...and find magical confusion in that all the prompts for the game (including in the main menu) are off by 90 degrees (Square prompt = X, X prompt = Circle, info points tell me to attack with X, dash with Circle, and interact with Square)
-- After you get out of the first few rooms, you're treated to what is a tutorial area...and the game neglects to tell you that you have a double-jump right off the bat when you need it in order to do the first tutorial room efficiently.
-- Did I mention that the area hazards actually look like background pieces of the game? Uh-oh.
-- I hit a mushroom. It hit me. I died and went back to...the start of the game and all the things I collected are gone. All of them? Really? Couldn't just drop me back there while letting me keep what I picked up? Eh, whatever.
-- Ouch! That hazard that looks like background still looks like background!
-- I hit mushroom. It doesn't hit me back. I am a true champion among witches.
-- I wander a couple more screens and get my third and fourth progress achievements in the same room and finally pick up magic.
-- Do I test magic? Nah, I put the game down and decide I'll come back later today.
On a brighter note, the limited amount of soundtrack I've gotten to experience is pretty good stuff.
UPDATE:
-- Continued the game (using CONTINUE!), only to find it started me all over again from the beginning, when it seemed like getting a major power-up should save the game. Whoops!
-- Made it back to where I was, went up one screen, found the Save Game location. Yay!
-- Found diverging paths, took the lower path because it looked like a logical loop that might let me get some useful stuff out of it.
-- Top path took me to water, which I quickly learned by falling into it is something your witch can't swim through, so I despawned, lost a heart, and respawned next to the water. Guess I'll try the downward path in the loop!
-- Bottom path involved some obnoxious projectile dodging, which seemed fine at first. Got to the bottom and went right, only to find a dead end because I didn't have the necessary power-up to make further progress. Game wants me to go back the way I came just to get back to that split right after the save point! I could just nuke myself, but then I'd lose all the crystals I collected, so I should work my way back, right?
-- Tried to work my way back and encountered a problem that several other Steam players commented on, in which jump inputs would sometimes just get eaten. In a place where I needed to double-jump to go back up and also jump-dodge enemy projectiles, jump inputs were being eaten over and over. I died, lost the crystals I had and got spawned back at the save game.
-- Submitted a request for a refund, because I don't want to make further progress, only to find myself starting to possibly enjoy the game and then have it really screw me with more jump inputs being dropped or maybe something even worse.
One star for the music and that's it. This game is a mess.
Great music and visuals but the controls are counterintuitive and you can't change them. It's a bit glitchy at times and the controls aren't as responsive as they should be. Alost there are very few save points and if you die you lose all progress after your last save. Lot of potential in this game but it feels half baked unfortunately.