Developed by Nippon Ichi Software
Published by NIS America
Reviewed on  PlayStation 4 (also available on PlayStation 3)
The Witch and the Hundred Knight was an interesting title when I had first heard about it prior to its release back in early 2014. It was developed by trust worthy developer Nippon Ichi Software, creators of the notorious Disgaea series, a series of hard core RPG’s with a difficult but mostly fair level of challenge and nearly infinite replayability. During its initial release I got swept up in a lot of different things, and sadly this title went by the wayside. I just never got the opportunity to get back to this one. Well roll forward a couple of years and the game gets a remastered edition, The Witch and the Hundred Knight Revival Edition on the PlayStation 4. I snatched this opportunity to try out something I missed. The results were….well mixed. Here’s why: Nippon Ichi tried their hand at something new with a third person action RPG with dungeon crawling, . For the most part there is some satisfaction to be had, but the game tend to clash too much into a rather noisy mess where parts began to grind against one another.
Usually in games like this, there tends to be a focus on either gameplay, story, or loot and equipment. The game attempts to strike a balance between the three. If I’d have to sum up the story in a single word, I’d probably go with unconventional. The Witch and the Hundred Knight could have been about a lot of things, conquest, revenge, maybe even a conspiracy. There was a reason to keep going, though sometimes I wondered if I really should keep going. Frankly, I felt this was a fairly weak story over all. Not a chore to get through but not very exciting either. That said, Nippon Ichi’s awesome ability to craft likeable character’s are still here. Metallia is likeable, but she just seems mean and angry for the sake of it. There is something weirdly refreshing about her foul mouth though. Hundred Knight is extremely simple, but at least he’s adorable. As for the rest of the cast, they have a very wide range of personalities. No one is uninteresting enough that I couldn’t pay them any attention. Too bad all the big players just don’t seem to be around for long.
The core story is this: Swamp Witch Metallia summons the Hundred Knight, a legendary creature with unbelievable power capable of crushing continents in the course of a single night. What she gets is an adorable little imp of a creature who can barely utter a word. Convinced she may have summoned something potentially awesome, she send him on a series of missions to break open pillars that will expand the swamp Metallia is trapped in so she can take over the world. Breaking them open not only expands her swamp, but to some extent disrupts the natural order of things. The group continues on until an opposing force attempts to stop or manipulate them. Metallia is usually taken advantage of and Hundred Knight fixes the issue. The plot continues. Universe hopping is introduced late in the plot to change things up.
Gameplay is fairly hit or miss as well. Mechanically speaking, the game is well tuned. As you adventure through the world Hundred Knight finds various weapons and armor that allows him to increase his stats and offers new ways to attack. You can equip the weapons a specific order to set up unique combos. This sounds great on paper but it ultimately devolves into button mashing. The idea of a string of weapons to eviscerate enemies in a multitude of ways sounds very enticing for an action game. Regrettably, I never really gained any personal attachment to anything because the weapons themselves lack depth in ability and being anything more than a piece of a sequence. Without any real ways to fight besides hitting a single button over and over again the potential depth hits the floor quickly. The combat gets stale pretty early on. Boss battles can pick it up, but those generally don’t last too long. There are also several mechanics involved with magic usage, enhancement, and  raiding villager’s homes. These break down into padding in the grand scheme and I didn’t use them too much. I can give credit for the game running smoothly during my play time. I didn’t encounter any issues that I would have stopped playing. Small gripe: Loading times were horribly inconsistent. Sometimes short, sometimes unbearably long.
This was the studio’s first attempt at bringing their creative art style to 3D and I felt there some success. The characters are all very charming.  The protagonists and a large chunk of the villains are quite well designed. The monsters are pretty neat as well. I expect nothing less from them. Their transition to 3D while stabilizing what makes their style so unique needs a bit of work but I feel they will nail it with time. The character models move nicely when they are moving, but they remain stationary if they’re not part of the gameplay. Considering the story is told in mostly visual novel style, this isn’t too much of an issue but it would have been nice to see them doing more. I don’t really have any other complaints about the visual style but I do wish the weapons were a bit more appealing on the aesthetic level.
I REALLY liked the soundtrack for this game. Long time studio veteran Tenpei Sato returns to craft a score that is both fitting to the world and captivating on its own. Lots of brass instruments and nice mix of piano, guitar and vocals bring out some of the quieter moments, while guitar and some solid drum work round out the action. This is not really surprising because Sato’s work is consistently good for the Disgaea series. The vocal work for the English dub is a bit hit or miss. Metallia’s voice casting was perfect but everyone else was not what I was expecting. The Japanese dub seems to have a much better handling of the characters, so I recommend this version. Sound effect wise nothing is worth really noting, nothing too flashy.
Overall all, if you need something that can fill a good 30 hours of your time this might be a worthy endeavor, especially if you like Nippon Ichi games in general. I’ll make you a deal Nippon Ichci, if you take another pitch at this kind of game I’ll be happy to give you another swing!
