Little Witch Nobeta finally arrives on Sony PlayStation 4 console, Nintendo Switch and Windows PC after a debut in Early Access via Steam last 2022 and an official release on the same platform in September last year. How was the controller adventure in the hand of the sweetest (but not so tender) little witch in the world? Well our experience was illuminated by the magic of Nobetahere are the reasons.
An unsolved mystery
Nobeta is a little witch who wakes up in front of a magical castle, stripped of all her memories: the girl has only one goal in mindthat is to say reach the throne site in the center of the castle for recover its memory (or at least that’s what she believes). To guide her in this adventure appears a nice black cat who claims to be the servant of the great Witch Nobeta and who will accompany her on this journey.
From a narrative point of view Little Witch Nobeta’s story is revealed part upon part in layers, like the buds of a rose: if on the one hand it appears trivial and devoid of depth, on the other hand the situation becomes more interesting as we proceed in the odyssey towards the center of the castle. Not being able to reveal anything about the mystery that surrounds our little witch, know that emotions will not be lacking and that you too will fall in love with these charactersa bit like typically Japanese manga or anime.
Magic and logic
In Little Witch Nobeta there is room not only for a good story sector, but also for a gameplay with an interesting approach: it is a 3D action shootingWhere Nobeta turns into a deadly weapon, strengthened by his magical stick capable of the most disparate spells. Nobeta has both a mana cost for the creation of her spells and a cooldown for the most prodigious spells (it being understood that the basic attack, i.e. a small ray of light, it won’t have an effective mana cost).
In the game it is possible to shoot both aiming with a dedicated viewfinder, useful for targeting multiple targets in the case of some specific spells, and without taking aim. Nobeta also has some small “melee” combos which represent a sort oflast resort” when an enemy gets too close. Keep in mind that the game rewards those who hit the target in weak points by generating critical hits, while it will punish you by drastically reducing the damage if you don’t.
Controlling the magic of the wind, Nobeta is able to double jump which, if assisted by a melee attack while jumping, will produce a slight levitation: said this it might seem like a sort of hack of the jumping system, but in reality it is an idea of Simon Games and Pupuya Gameswho have thought of adding this system to make our protagonist reach the most distant points.
Not only magic therefore but also a bar of Stamina which will allow our little witch to dodge or run (and also attack melee of course), but watch out: if you run out of action bar, whether it’s a dodge or a run, Nobeta will fall to the ground and stay there for a few seconds exposing themselves to enemy blows. The basic attack takes place with the square button which if held down will allow a Nobeta to charge a much more powerful punchy magicfor example, always talking about the basic shot, this will be transformed into a cannon shot that will cause area damage at the point of impact.
In the game there are statues of an ancient Goddess, which represent refreshment and upgrade points, the latter takes place in the style Souls or by spending souls of enemiesi, the currency of the game, but with a peculiarity: you can boost Health, Mana, Stamina, Strength, Intelligence, and Speed provided that fill up an energy bar placed next to it to each feature; once filled, the statistic will increase by a single point, placing the cost of the next one at a higher level than the previous one.
A budding witch
Little Witch Nobeta is outstanding: not only the gunplay (being a fantasy shooter) it is well thought out and reminiscent of great productions as dead space or Kratos’ Leviathan’s Ax launch system seen in God of Warbut it is also very satisfying in tactical terms. In the game there will be several puzzles that will make you think on how to overcome them and magic will be the master in supporting you but not only: there will also be times when you will have to use logic combined with a particular magic, for example while Nobeta begins to recite a magic formula of Fire magic, you may find yourself walking through flames without getting burned.
The game is not without some flaws, for example the quality of the backdrops is not always excellent and many enemy monsters have textures that definitely need to be reviewed, as if the development team had focused on something else than polishing these enemies. The bossfights are undoubtedly what the game excels in and, although there are only six of them, they will be very satisfying and varied, also considering the presence of mini bosses within the game levels which are still large and layered.
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