The Knight Witch Review

The Knight Witch takes a genre that we are very familiar with — Metroidvania — and combines it with a twin-stick shooter, takes away gravity, and lets you fly. Toss in a deck-building game, and we have The Knight Witch. This sounds like a crazy mix, but it creates a unique game from what we usually see. 

The world was once unified under a single banner — the House of Daigadai ruled all. They believed in science, technology, and progress, so the future looked bright until they started to run out of resources. The Daigadai did horrible things to the planet to try to sustain the way of life they were used to. So they did whatever it took to maintain it, even if it meant destroying the planet. 

In response to their actions, a group called The Children of Gaia was formed to save the planet no matter the cost. The group's efforts were in vain; the world continued to weaken as time passed long enough that the sky shattered. Without weapons or trained soldiers, they could not stand up to the Daigadai army. That was until the Knight Witches awoke. These beings could fly, use magical powers, and their strength was legendary. They were the real heroes of the battle. The more people believed in them, the stronger they became — they were a beacon of hope. You start the game fighting as the captain of the Knight Witches, Robyn. Working with the other witches who sacrifice themselves to ensure she survives, they face off against the golems and Emperor Erebus to punish him for what he has done.  

Fast-forward 14 years and the player takes on the role of Rayne. With the world still destroyed by the Daigadai family, people have resorted to living underground in a new area called Dungeonidas. A machine has been developed that produces everything humans need to survive: food, water, and oxygen to breathe. The castle is celebrating Robyn's victory over Emperor Erebus years before, and she is set to appear for the event. Dungeonidas now faces a new threat; enemies defeated years ago have started to appear again. The inhabitants that live here rely on Rayne to help protect them from these foes.

Rayne is a Knight Witch in training, so she can fly and fight like one even though she is not one officially (yet). The Knight Witch is a bullet-hell-style game; hordes of enemies will continuously keep shooting at you until you take them down. Luckily Rayne is equipped to do so, but at first, she is less strong and fast-moving than Robyn, who you controlled earlier. You can aim at a specific target using the right thumbstick and fire with the right shoulder button. If you shoot without aiming, it will automatically shoot at the target closest to you. It will do less damage than if you would target the enemy yourself. Still, it's nice to concentrate more on getting out of the way of the projectiles coming at you, as it can be tricky when you are moving slowly compared to the shots coming at you. If you are in a big empty room with lots of space to manoeuvre, it is easy to avoid being hit. But when you are in a small room with objects in the environment getting in the way, it gets challenging!  

Rayne also has the ability to use magic against the enemy. These attacks are determined by the spell cards that you are holding. Arcane Beacons spread throughout the land will replenish your health, act as a checkpoint, and allow you to test out unlimited spells and reorder your cards. You can use Y coins that you find in the levels to purchase new cards to add to your deck, but there is a limit to how much magic you can use that is determined by how many mana points Rayne has. At the beginning of the game, she only has three, but as you find large seed pods, this number will increase. Whenever you level up, you decide if you want to focus on your Knight abilities (Health upgrade) or the Witch abilities (Mana upgrade). I kept them as even as possible, but you can focus on whichever one you like. 

Rayne levels up when she gets accolades or gains people's trust, giving her more chain links. While exploring Dungeonidas, you will find villagers captured by the enemy and stuck in cages. When you save them, Rayne will earn chain links powering her up. The more people you save, the stronger she will become, just like a real Knight Witch. While playing, it felt that shooting at the enemy was never as effective as using a spell card. Some of the enemies took a huge amount of shots to take down compared to using a card. The problem is you have a limited number of mana points and only three cards available from your deck at a time. Once those are used, random cards will be put in, but they may not be what you need. It was tricky to figure out which cards to use when you don't want to look away from the enemies firing at you because, chances are, you will get hit if you take your eyes off the screen. 

You have a map that will show you all the areas you have visited thus far, but it does not show you what you have yet to see. Luckily when you meet a skeleton baker who will help you by baking armour for you, he puts a cupcake sticker on your map so you can find your way back to him again. Though I question if it's worth paying hundreds of green shards to get armour that only lasts for one shot. I found it hard to remember which of the rooms had passageways that I wasn't yet able to access requiring a re-visit once I had a new powers and abilities. There is no way to mark the map, so at times I needed to figure out where I was supposed to go next. Luckily, after wandering for a while, I found a room I had yet to explore. Beacons are spread throughout the underground world and act as a checkpoint in case you die. Though chances are you will have to travel far to get to where you previously were. 

The Knight Witch has a beautiful hand-drawn look; with cute characters, and intimidating enemies able to swarm you. It's always scary when tons of bullets are flying across the screen, however you can hide behind objects and walls in the room to avoid those bullets. This also means that the enemy can also be behind the barriers making it harder to hit them. The music consisted of fiddle and flute music, which I'm not the biggest fan of on the best of days, I got pretty tired of hearing it repeatedly while going around and exploring Dungeonidas. At least the boss fight music was more upbeat! If you are a fan of music like this, you are in for a treat. 

The Knight Witch is a game that tries to do several different things, some working better than others. Still, this is a title worth checking out if you enjoy bullet-hell-style games with a card-building twist incorporated. I suggest grabbing some paper and a pen and making your own map to keep track of areas you need to visit again to save time for yourself. Focusing on cards and your mana points may make your game more successful than focusing only on your weapon and shooting. If you ever get frustrated and stuck, a cheat option is available to help you out. You won't be able to get some of the achievements, but it's worth it if you were contemplating quitting.