Developer: Nippon Ichi Software, inc
Publisher: NIS America, inc
Platform: PS3
The Witch and the Hundred Knight – Review
Witches have always been a popular item in fantasy movies and games, but sadly one never gets the chance to play as one of them. The Witch and the Hundred Knight offers you the chance to finally take up the role as an evil witch’s minion, who is ordered around to help dominate the world.
Story
You, a seemingly small minion, have been summoned by a witch in the middle of nowhere. Seeing you lack the basic knowledge to handle the most simple of tasks, this witch tells you how to communicate, move around and after a while the world becomes a tad cleared for you. Soon after you’ll be named ‘The Hundred Knight’, which just happens to be the name of a being of legends, a minion that is undefeatable, yet you’re so small.
Of course not everything goes as smoothly as planned. For some reason, someone wants to prevent you from going with the witch that summoned you and thus you are already fighting for your newly established life. In the end this all contributes to proving you’re the being that earns the name ‘The Hundred Knight’.
When you finally escape you find yourself in the mansion of the witch Metallia, who just happens to look like a fifteen year old with a very bad attitude. Metallia explains that to be set free once again you’ll have to undergo a contract of vengeance with her. Long ago, Metallia was banned to her mansion in the swamp and her body is only able to transport itself on other ‘swamp grounds’. Here is where your services as ‘The Hundred Knight’ come in handy. You’ll have to occupy yourself to find ‘Pillars of Temperance’ in order to bloom them and cover the world swamp goo, making it a glorious world of swampiness.
Whilst this is the basic plot you’ll find yourself constantly amused by interactions between all the main characters, especially Metallia and weird butler Arlecchino, who happens to have several issues with multiple personalities. You’ll constantly see Metallia doing her best to brutally conquer her foes, with the necessary dark humor thrown in to the mix. Be prepared to plunge the world in to darkness, all for a witch who wants to exact her revenge upon the world.
Graphics
The Witch and the Hundred Knight offers us with a fairly amusing art style that suits the story in all its craziness. Whilst most of the villagers will come across as the same, the main characters have enough personality to instantly love or loathe them.
Not only the overworld and its characters look amusing, also the dialogue screens are brought to you in a fairly typical manga/anime style that again matches the overall story very well.
The areas themselves are filled with a decent amount of details, but are not really the main reason that this game turns out to be as pretty as it is.
Sound
As with the graphics, the game gets a lot from its charm from the voice acting. The overall dialogues are funny, vulgar and most of all a tad on the grim side. Each character seems to have the right voice for the job, even you, the fairly mute Hundred Knight.
Music wise the game has a fairly comical soundtrack, making every grim act you perform a lot lighter. You’ll constantly catch yourself either humming the songs or just wiggling your head in accordance to the tunes played.
Gameplay
The Witch and the Hundred Knight is a fairly original RPG game with a lot of hack ‘n slash elements implemented in to the game. The game itself is divided into chapters, and in essence these are just levels you unlock as you go. These levels can be played over and over again at any given time, for you to farm items, explore or earn more experience.
When starting the different levels you’ll have to fight your way through, you will have to keep in mind that you are only able to stay out for a limited time, without having to recharge at Metallia’s mansion. This timer is actually the amount of ‘GigaCals’ you have, and when the timer reaches zero, your health will start to decrease, until you are ‘dead’. You can recharge a limited amount of GC at the smaller pillars you find during the different levels. If you don’t do this you are able to return yourself by exiting the zone, by walking through the entrance or using a pillar to teleport. If you decide to keep on fighting, and you happen to die, you will lose all the items you have gathered during that level.
Leveling is, as is typical in the genre, done by killing monsters and defeating bosses along the way. When doing so, you will of course gain experience, even if you fail to complete the level. These experience points are then added to the level of your ‘facet’, providing you with stronger stats. These facets are pretty much an equivalent of different types of builds, that just have different base stats and thus when leveling up, these will eventually differ a lot from each other. For examples, the facet you start out with is fairly balanced, whilst later on you’ll find ones that focus more on defense or attack.
During each zone you will also earn grade points, and these can be distributed in the area themselves, in order for you to get temporary stat boosts, like hp, attack, … . These upgrades happen at smaller pillars, that you need to activate in the zone you’re in. When leaving a specific zone, your progress concerning the grade points is lost and you will have to start over again.
Not only grade points are earned, but also bonus points. The more you achieve in a zone, the more bonus points you will receive (you can also use grade points in order to get more bonus points). The more bonus points you earn, the better your rewards will be at the end of the level. These rewards are always certain consumables, money, mana or even certain weapons.
World domination only goes so far, if you’re not able to pillage villages and ‘enslave mankind’. Luckily in a fairly simple way, you are able to control the masses by pillaging one house at the time. You’ll be able to raid all the houses you come across, in order for you to get some extra goodies or better gear. When raiding, you’ll have to make sure you’re up to the task, by checking out the level requirement of the inhabitants. Sadly this all happens by a single press of a button, giving you no control at all. In the end it turns out to be a small ‘fight’ in which you have no say, over and over again.
The combat system in the game might be one of the most unique combat systems, in combination with a typical hack ‘n slash set up, we’ve seen in a long time. You are able to equip 5 different weapons at any given time. Each of them will be used in turn, in order to create different kinds of chains and thus finding out new builds as you go. Each of the weapons you equip can in turn be leveled as well, becoming better with each level. The higher the rarity of these weapons, the higher you can level them.
Difficulty is something The Witch and the Hundred Knight does not lack, you’ll often find yourself backtracking in order for you to gain better gear, or more experience so you can stand up to the harder challenges.
In short, the game has a lot of things to offer, that you will have to keep track off. Mastering this many tasks at once will take some time, as well as some patience before you truly get started with The Witch and the Hundred Knight.
Conclusion
The Witch and the Hundred Knight offers a lot of nice ideas when it comes to style and gameplay. You’ll find yourself entrapped by the beautiful world you’re slowly turning into a massive swamp for your mistress, as well as the many things the game offers you.
The Witch and the Hundred Knight - Review,
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