Developer: APLUS Co. Ltd
Publisher: BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment
Platform: PS4, PC
Tested on: PS4
Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time – Review
Little Witch Academia is a lively and cute anime that is quite popular. Now Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time is a game that follows the storyline of the anime but lets you play with the cheerful Akko. Discover the mysteries of the secret chamber together with Akko and her friends. Little Witch Academia was developed by APLUS Co. Ltd and published by BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment and we got a chance to test the PS4 version of the game. So with a controller in hand, we were ready to go on a magical adventure with Akko and her friends.
Story
Little Witch Academia: Chamber of time is set in the world of the anime Little Witch Academia. The game can almost be seen as an extra or OVA to the anime. You play as Akko and get to meet all the great characters from the series. The story plays out at the start of the summer vacation. Akko is excited to get some time off but her happy mood gets ruined quickly when she gets called into the Student Counselling office by professor Finnelan. She gets reprimanded for destroying Academy supplies with magic. Now as punishment she needs to organize the books in the library. Luckily her roommates Lotte and Sucy promise to help her out.
The next morning Akko goes to the library and discovers a huge mess of books. At first, she tries to encourage herself and starts organizing. After a while, she can’t stand it anymore and takes a break. While taking a nap a mysterious person drops a book right in front of Akko. She doesn’t notice anything and keeps sleeping until Lotte and Sucy wake her up. They start helping her clean up the library and make good progress. Akko then discovers the mysterious book and puts it on one of the shelves as she does this some of the shelves move to reveal a hidden door. Of course, Akko being Akko she can’t help being curious and opens the door. A light flashes and the door opens revealing a stairway.
At the end of the Staircase, they find a room with a weird clock. As they look around they also find a big door. This door opens up a way to a “dungeon” of sorts. They discover this when Akko clumsily falls in when opening the door taking both Lotte and Sucy with her. Once they manage to get out of the dungeon they go to bed exhausted promising to maybe inform the teachers tomorrow. However, when they wake up the following morning it becomes quite clear that something is wrong. After a while, they realize that they are stuck reliving the same day over and over again and that it has something to do with the mysterious room that they found. The story plays out really nicely and really feels like you are “playing” the anime instead of watching it.
Graphics
The graphics of Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time are pretty great. You get to see your favorite characters in 3D but still now and then get cutscenes in the same style as the anime. The transition from 2D to 3D for the characters has been done pretty well. Sometimes the models can be a bit wonky but nothing too bad.
Backgrounds in the game are designed very well. It includes every detail from the backgrounds you see in the anime. You can walk through almost the entire school grounds which is quite a big place. The dungeons look quite similar to each other and the rooms seem to get repeated in the same dungeon but they still nicely designed.
Sound
The music in the chamber of time is really similar to the music that you hear in the anime. While you roam the school grounds a nice upbeat tune plays. Some characters or rooms make the music change into something more dramatic or suited for the occasion. Dungeons all have a more exciting music that makes you ready for a battle. Voice acting in the game is really great as they used the same Japanese voice actors as in the anime.
Gameplay
Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time is an Action, Adventure RPG where you help Akko and her friends discover more about the mysterious chamber. After Akko and her two roommates discover that they are stuck repeating the same day over and over again. They figure out that it has something to do with the mysterious chamber and the big clock inside of it. Not long after they are trying to figure out what to do; Amanda, Constanze, Jasminka, and Diana show up. Together they are able to discover that the dungeons should hold clues to their situation. Diana discovers that the big door that leads to a dungeon has a broken magic sigil.
After Diana fixes it they can freely teleport to the dungeons and back. The door needs to be unlocked by a key but different keys can be used. Each key leads to a different dungeon. Keys are given to you by characters as you progress the story. Inside dungeons, you go into a more side-scrolling combat mode. Dungeons can only be entered by three characters at the time: one leader and two supporters. You play as the leader and the supporters are controlled by CPU. In the dungeons, you can do several attacks from weak to stronger ones. You can also use different kinds of spells including a healing spell. These spells can be upgraded when the characters level up. You can also unlock different spells and change the button combination to use them.
In some dungeons, you have to watch out for traps. Sadly the A.I. doesn’t really handle traps well. They normally follow you but when you sprint they sometimes don’t follow until right next to you or they run off to attack an enemy. This way they always get hurt by traps which is a bit annoying when you can run past them perfectly but the A.I. stops right underneath the trap. Other than that they luckily heal themselves when they are hurt and help attacking enemies and bosses.
Outside the dungeons, you get free roam of the Luna Nova Academy while you complete quests to get more keys and progress the story. You can choose each day which quest line you will focus on first. Besides the main quest line, there are also several side quests that you can complete. Main quests are marked in red and side quests are marked in yellow. While roaming around you find random magic sigils on the floor. On these spots you can use specific magic but since Akko isn’t good at magic (besides in the dungeons) you need potions. Even the spots that you can save on require you to unlock them first by using a potion and magic. The first Save spot you get a potion from Lotte so you at least always have one save spot. You can get potions in the Academy’s shop but these cost in-game money which you get from dungeons. So it’s not as easy to unlock save spots which can be annoying if you are quite far away but can’t save because you don’t have a potion.
While you are roaming you can also go into the menu. There you can equip accessories on the characters to make them stronger. You can also upgrade characters’ stats, edit the spells buttons or equip new spells and/or upgrade spells. Upgrading or unlocking spells is done by unlocking horoscopes and upgrading each spell by unlocking stars. Once all stars are unlocked the spell is at its strongest. One of the horoscopes can only be used by Akko as it uses the Shiny Rod.
Conclusion
Little Witch Academia: Chamber of time is incredibly fun to play. You really live the anime as you experience the story from the “inside”. Every character that you see in the anime has been included so you are almost sure to run into your favorite. The gameplay is simple but fun to play. There will be quite some running around the school but luckily there is enough to see and discover. If you are a fan of Little Witch Academia then definitely give Chamber of Time a try. If you haven’t seen the anime yet you could also play the game but it’s definitely more enjoyable if you have watched it.
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