Would you battle fearsome monsters for a home made strawberry pie? If that’s the case, you’re in good firm. WitchSpring R is a whimsical, story-driven RPG that follows the story of Pieberry, a gifted younger witch who’s grown up within the woods by herself.
Because the title may counsel, Pieberry is a giant fan of pies. And strawberries. The story begins off calmly sufficient, with Pieberry trying to depart her magical forest residence to trace down a strawberry pie just like the one she ate as a baby, all whereas attempting to grasp why she was seemingly deserted by her mother and father. It spirals from there, with an unlimited world and vibrant roster of characters, starting from pudding monsters and lightning lions to witch hunters and celestial beings. It’s a narrative-driven expertise, however the gameplay switches from turn-based fight to enjoyable puzzles shortly.
WitchSpring R is split into seven completely different chapters, with a number of issue choices on supply and the flexibility to create a New Sport Plus save file after finishing the preliminary run. Our playthrough took roughly 22 hours general, though we skipped a number of further puzzles, unlockables, and pets, focusing purely on the primary story.
The story is undoubtedly the most effective issues about WitchSpring R. It dances between lightness and darkness completely, providing characters with loads of depth and a strong tempo that’ll preserve you hooked till the top. It’s a bit of tacky at instances nevertheless it’s a heartwarming story with characters which have loads of depth and objective behind them.
Except for the narrative, one of many quick strengths to spotlight is the satisfying sense of development. As you’d anticipate, Pieberry will get noticeably stronger as you make your method by the sport, with loads of alternatives to coach, strengthen abilities, and enhance her weapons.
In truth, the sport punishes you considerably for not coaching and boosting Pieberry’s talents. It’s potential to hurry by fights under-levelled, nevertheless it’s not beneficial, particularly for those who’re newer to turn-based gameplay. The fight is immensely enjoyable and feels impactful, nevertheless it will also be difficult. Not build up Pieberry will result in some bitterly tough fight encounters, whereas having the correct construct, pets, and weapons could make it a stroll within the park. At a sure level, you achieve the flexibility to summon missiles on prime of her opponents, because of an important ally.
Pets and summons are notably essential throughout fight. Pieberry has the flexibility to mind-control creatures within the overworld, primarily catching them like Pokémon. Having the correct critters by your facet could make boss fights far more enjoyable, and so they can supply different perks like appearing as a mount outdoors of fight or restoring assets in a pinch.
Talking of bosses, enemy design felt extremely refreshing right here. Whereas there was commonplace fantasy fodder dotted all through the sport, there have been some genuinely putting character designs that felt like recent takes for the style. Each enemy dropped objects that tied into its design and placement, making every combat really feel well-planned and considerate.
You’ll be doing a good quantity of useful resource farming throughout your time with WitchSpring R, as there’s a huge crafting system which lets you improve weapons, make consumables, and construct battle equipment. Crafting feels easy and environment friendly, with an interface that’s a bit of overwhelming at first however straightforward when you familiarize yourself with it.
Small quality-of-life options are in place to assist make farming extra nice, too. It’s potential to stroll round fights you don’t need to have interaction with, and also you’ll have the ability to auto-battle any critters in low-level areas that you just’ve defeated earlier than.
Alongside crafting and farming, there’s a coaching system which helps Pieberry enhance her stats by minigames. There are a number of different minigames and puzzles all through the world alongside the coaching video games, and for essentially the most half, they’re enjoyable – the exception being Blacksmithing, which felt ridiculously clunky and misplaced on the Swap.
In the event you’re a fan of secret-hunting and exploration, you’ll be rewarded for doing so right here. There are a number of missable objects, weapons, and pets all through the world, which means that spending just a few further minutes in a location will be extremely profitable.
Whereas this sport provided a fascinating world with loads of chunk, there have been some points which might be value going over. The efficiency was respectable sufficient for essentially the most half, trying effective in each handheld and docked mode, however there have been minor graphical quirks and glitches. One notably prevalent one was Pieberry coming out of existence after teleporting. Her weapon would stay in body, however she’d be gone from sight – even in cutscenes. This might repair itself after going to a different zone, nevertheless it made navigating a bit of tough. This occurred a complete of 5 instances throughout our 22-hour playthrough.
On prime of this, we noticed some texture points and lighting quirks, together with a bit of typos and grammar errors. These points weren’t obvious by any means, however typos in an emotional monologue or fierce confrontation will be disappointing and immersion-breaking.
Ignoring these graphical points and the vanishing fundamental character, this sport may be very pleasurable. The story is wealthy and immersive, the characters felt soulful, and the world itself is a delight to discover, with a strong mixture of gameplay kinds, starting from tough battles and boss fights to intricate puzzles and light-hearted investigations.
Conclusion
In the event you’re keen to look previous a handful of typos and a few pretty vital visible points, WitchSpring R is a good instance of turn-based fight with a powerful story to again it up. It’s whimsical and enchanting, and also you received’t have the ability to predict the way it all ends. On prime of this, the NG+ possibility provides it an additional splash of replayability for gamers who like a problem. That being stated, the visible quirks do take a toll on the rating right here. Whereas they weren’t game-breaking, having the primary character come out of existence throughout essential cutscenes was irritating, and it did have an effect on our general expertise.