100+ Metroidvanias beaten, and THIS was the one I most often had no clue how to progress in!
Witchroidvania came somewhere in the middle of my current journey through the genre, so it’s not like I was new to the genre, but it still left me stumped more often than just about anything that came before or after it.
The game follows Lily, a young apprentice striving to become a full-fledged mage. I started it, put it down several times, and finally got into it and beat it last November. It is a game with potential but fraught with downfalls. One of the biggest issues is its, at times, utter lack of direction and obtuseness. Some of that was fixed in updates, but it wasn’t always clear how to proceed. With secrets and hidden treasures, this would make sense, but it shouldn’t be the case for the main path.
The way the game is built, I was never fully confident in my ability to eventually reach the end. Partially because HP and MP increase at a snail’s pace, and levels never seemed to make much of a difference. Things might seem easy enough in the present, and platforming was never difficult, but I always felt like I was one screen away from potentially being pulverized. In new areas, enemies often hit hard, and bosses were exceptionally strong. Quick maneuvers and timely healing were the order of the day, which needed to be sustained over a long period. Being even a split second late in dodging or using a potion could spell doom. However, boss move sets didn’t change much throughout the game. Generally, the controls are responsive, and I never felt that any game over was cheap.
That’s not to say the game isn’t rewarding; it is. Whenever I made meaningful advancements through the map, I was always thrilled, but it took too long between those progressions, and excessive wandering can undermine motivation. Getting to the next area might require a roundabout, less obvious route, which makes the game feel unstructured. The world is interconnected, but not always in an explorer-friendly way. Warps are sporadically placed, so backtracking remains necessary.
Plenty of monsters and beasts are ready to get in the way, too. Unlike most Metroidvanias, all attacks are long-range magic attacks: fireballs, ice balls, lightning, and more that level up with usage as well as deathblows. I had no complaints about hit detection, but too many foes were damage sponges, which is nauseating, especially when lost and/or trying to clear a screen in the interest of focusing on a specific puzzle. Some puzzles, like the above, were fun to solve but more often than not they were too cryptic or involved excessive traveling.
This is a colorful game, at least, though I’ll stop short of calling it beautiful; it certainly isn’t bland, with a diverse range of environments to get lost in. Reaching new areas was always fulfilling. Lily’s character sprite is cute, and the enemy sprites are surprisingly endearing more than anything, including being intimidating. The music complements the game without being obtrusive or obnoxious. It was fairly catchy but not memorable.
Witchroidvania isn’t a groundbreaking game, and it can be frustrating figuring out how to reach the next objective. Still, it’s decently enjoyable and, more than anything, satisfying. It’s not essential for fans of the genre, but it’s suitable.