Nippon Ichi is an odd developer when you are a Westerner looking in. They have strong tenancies to make games that are always a bit on the wacky side, as was made famous in the Disgaea series. The Witch and the Hundred Knight is certainly no exception to this rule. However, Nippon Ichi is very good at creating interesting characters, and Metallia, the main character in this game, benefits from this specialty. At its core, The Witch and the Hundred Knight is a JRPG through-and-through, but there are traces of dark humor and a sometimes overwhelming crassness surrounding Metallia, that give audiences a difference spin on the superficial elements of the genre. When it comes down to it, if you don’t like JRPGs, you probably won’t like this game. If you like JRPGs, but want something with a little edge, this game is certainly a strong contender.
In the game, you play as the Hundred Knight, the minion of the swamp witch herself, Metallia. Metallia cannot live outside of the swamp, but she does want to expand her territory. It is up to you to engage “the enemy” and expand the swamp as much as possible. Basically, Metallia will bark out orders and its up to you to do her bidding, which brings us to the first issue in the game. Metallia as a character is interesting because she is not the typical hero in any sense of the word. Getting to be the bad guy is an interesting concept, and one that isn’t often explored in gaming. However, since Metallia is the bad guy in the game, she often comes across as unlikable, nasty and even crass. Many times you won’t want to do her bidding, but you have to move the story forward, so you do it.
The issues of character extend outside of Metallia herself. Many of the characters you come across in the game fail to grab your attention. Many are dull and uninspired, especially when you take into consideration that many of Nippon Ichi games have very vibrant characters. This may have been due to translation, which does loose some context from time to time, but either way this felt like a missed opportunity. The other issue is that you’ll be spending a ton of time with these characters and not enough time playing the game. Often, you’ll be faced with getting through walls of text and this feels like a chore to get through when the characters fail to engage you.
Characterization aside, The Witch and the Hundred Knight is an action RPG at its core and a fairly competent one at that. The combat happens in real time and the battle system is intuitive. Simply hit the attack button and you’ll dispatch enemies as efficiently as your load out will allow. The world the game takes place in is separated into stages. so the progression is smooth and you always know what you have to do. However, there are tons of hidden actions that can be experienced in each stage, so going back and replaying levels is encouraged and rewarded. In the game, you have access to five different weapons, all of which are used in succession. You can change out these weapons to combine effects and deal more damage. In the beginning of the game, it is very clear and rewarding to get new weapons and swap them out for bigger effects. However, as the game goes on, the system breaks down a bit and you’ll rarely swap weapons since the more powerful weapons don’t need to be swapped and you can cover your needs for damage types rather easily. It would have been nice to see this customization and weapon system carry through the game more consistently.
While much of the game uses traditional RPG elements, there was a rather unique element used in the game that yielded mixed results. That mechanic was the raid feature. In the game, you can raid NPC houses to net powerful items. The game doesn’t really punish you for this outside of a higher price at the shop, which doesn’t give you the best items so you never go to the shop. This questionable morality and consequence system leaves an uncomfortable feeling for some players since you almost have to raid an entire village to get the best items. This is by no means game-breaking, but it surfaces an interesting video game trope.
Most of the issues with the game were forgivable and didn’t mess with the enjoyment of the game to any great degree. That is until you encounter the Gigacals system. Essentially, every level has a time limit which is controlled by the actions you take in the world. You can walk around as much as you want, but if you attack enemies, you’ll soon reach the limit and be sent back to the overworld. There are ways to get around this system, but it is a distraction from the rest of the game and fails to add any value to the game as a whole. It just succeeds in wasting your time and frustrating you as a player.
Overall, The Witch and the Hundred Knight is a decent game. There are a number of issues that you should know about before you get involved with the game, but as long as you are informed, there is some enjoyment to be had. This game dares to be different in some respects and with that comes risk of loosing the player along the way. While I would stop short of saying that this game lost me, there were certainly some bumpy roads in front of me. If you are a fan of NIS, or especially Nippon Ichi, then you should definitely pick this one up. However, if you are looking for the next great JRPG, this may not be what you are looking for.
This review is based on a review copy of the PS3 version of The Witch and the Hundred Knight developed by Nippon Ichi, published by NIS America
- Fluid RPG Elements
- Weapon Chain System
- Lack of Characterization
- The GigaCals System