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Little Witch Nobeta is a competent anime action RPG with a focus on magic. It isn’t as in-depth as others in the genre, but it’s still a fun entry!
Little Witch Nobeta allows the player to live out their fantasy of being a loli witch in an anime. Wait, what? You’re saying you never had that fantasy and that I’m weird for even mentioning something like that? Well, first off, my feelings are hurt. Second, fine, you might not have that fantasy, but there’s a lot more to the game than just this.
And if you’re worried about spoilers, rejoice: this review is spoiler-free!
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Little Witch Nobeta is an anime souls-like. At least, that’s what most people describe it as. And truth be told, a lot of the actual gameplay elements you often see in games of the genre are here. You get your dodge-roll, your heavy hitting enemies with plenty of opportunities to die, your interconnected map with some shortcuts here and there… but at the same time, there are some key differences that make it, unfortunately, just not as in depth as the inspirations for the subgenre. Allow me to explain.
You play as a witch, the titular Nobeta, throughout the game. When you think of a witch, what exactly do you envision? Pointy hats, flying brooms, staffs and spells? Well, I’m pleased to say most of those are in - sorry, brooms, you didn’t make the cut this time, try again next game. Nobeta’s iconic outfit has a pointy hat, but most relevant to us at the moment are the other two elements. The protagonist’s only weapon is a staff, that she can use to both do melee hits and cast spells. There are 4 elements of attack spells in the game, all of which are unlocked as you play, plus two other support elements that add passive abilities: one that increases your air game, with abilities like double jump, and one that gives and improves parry.
The game revolves around mixing and matching both forms of attacks, physical and magical, and systems are in place to really ensure one supports the other. Casting spells, for example, uses up MP, and one of the main ways to get MP back is by hitting your enemy with melee moves.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2894931575
At the same time, spells can be chanted to give them special effects. Gameplay-wise, this means pressing a button and waiting for a bar to slowly charge. Your character is also slowed while this happens and becomes more vulnerable to attacks. You can, however, still dodge, and in fact, dodging attacks at the right moment makes the chant charge up faster. One of the elements’ chant power is actually to massively enhance your melee attacks. Both sides of the combat end up complementing each other, even though magic ended up doing most of the damage in my playthrough. In fact, late game upgrades end up more or less being vastly overpowered, even on the highest of the two difficulty settings.
While this system is nice and works well, it’s also very… simple, and not necessarily in a good way. There is no way to defend, for example, which means the parry involves just attacking at the last possible moment that you’re about to take damage. It’s a risky move, and the parry window for the un-upgraded version of the parry is not good.
The healing/item system is also not the best: you drop healing/mana orbs from destroying stuff in your environment, but the main way to heal is via items. You start with 4 slots, and can find bag expansions hidden around the world to increase that number. What you then choose to hold is up to you, but there are 6 types of items. You can both buy these items and collect them from the environment, but if you have no money and you’re stuck at a boss fight, you might find yourself letting the boss kill you just to get the health drops to respawn and fill up your item bar with healing before attempting for good again.
Furthermore, the game has no actual build variety. Sure, you can level different stats, but your moveset and your equipments will remain the same throughout the game. Well, kinda. As you play, you can find items that are very well hidden that upgrade your magic spells. That’s the only way you can enhance them, and it isn’t something that’s playthrough dependent. The chests will be there for all players, and all spells will always be usable by everyone that finds them. So basically, the only variation possible between playthroughs is what stats you level up. If you want a different build aside from that, you’ll have to force yourself to not use some of your spells. You can’t even change your weapon - your original staff is all you get. This simplification of the combat is why I say that the game is not as in-depth as the inspirations for the genre, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad. Far from it: it’s solid, and I had fun… just won’t play it past one playthrough.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2894931730
But what exactly can you expect to fight with this combat? Well, turns out, quite a few things! The game has okay enemy variety and very nice placement. There are also lots of reskins, but those change their attack pattern quite drastically. Quite often, from any given zone, I can see and snipe enemies that are ahead in the zone if I pay attention to my surroundings and notice these opportunities, which is something I really appreciate in a game like this. No joke, a lot of my zones were at least partially cleared before I started traversing them. And speaking of enemy variety, the game doesn’t have too many bosses in its 9h of playtime, but the bosses that are there are really, really cool! I had a blast with all of them. Monica was my favorite.
Gameplay aside, the story is not spectacular, but it did keep me interested for the duration of the game. It employs the one tactic that always gets me: mystery. From the beginning, you’re Nobeta, and all you know is that you’re looking for the throne room of a specific castle. You begin the game entering said castle, and soon find yourself a guide: a black talking cat. Even if the story isn’t anything extremely memorable, the way it’s slowly revealed is done really well, which I always appreciate.
In terms of graphics, the game has an anime artstyle that lots of people will most likely either love or hate. Personally, I’m a massive fan, even though I don’t actually watch anime. Weird, huh? The level design is… not the best. There’s not much variation in the actual environments for a lot of the game. But again, it ended up being something I could overlook. There are also plenty of secrets to be found and collectibles that add a bit of lore to the game. You even get a voiceover option for them.
As for the soundtrack, it was alright. Some of the tracks that were there, especially the main menu and the credits tracks, were good, but there were plenty of moments that lacked background music, relying instead just on ambient noise and the player’s sound effects. Some others had background music that fit the ambience, but wasn’t really noticeable. If you care at all, the game is also voice acted by hololive members. This does mean that the game’s only language for voices is japanese.
All in all, I had a blast with Little Witch Nobeta. It’s a fun and decently challenging little action RPG - just don’t go in expecting vastly different experiences with each playthrough. And if you want more of this world, rejoice: there are animated comics unlockable with the collectibles you get, and they’re pretty nice! If you do pick up the game, I hope you enjoy it - and feel free to hit me up so we can chat about it. I’m always down for meeting new people, especially those who share my gaming passion.
If you want to see this review in a video format, click below!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9j_ZRtgt9s