Game Review: Little Witch Nobeta

By Manuel

Player(s): 1
Platform(s): PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch

Little Witch Nobeta is an Action Shooter, with Action RPG and Souls-like elements. It's developed by Simon Creative and Pupuya Games, and originally dropped onto Steam Early Access back in 2019. This new console release, by way of Idea Factory International, brings it to the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch, and it's the latter that we're going to specifically look at today. A Souls-like Action RPG Shooter, complete with a magical girl main character? Sounds like quite the wild game, so let's take a look and see if it's something you're going to want to pick up!

Let's begin with a bit about this game's genre. As stated earlier, Little Witch Nobeta identifies itself as an action shooter, but I'm not sure if that's wholly accurate. It's true that your attacks, and those of the enemies, are mainly projectiles, but prior to reading the official description on store pages I would've labeled this as an Action RPG. This aside, Little Witch Nobeta definitely earns the Souls-like part of its label. The emphasis on projectile attacks may derail the concept a bit, but I immediately got Dark Souls vibes as soon as the game got going. It doesn't have the same level of difficulty which most people associate with the Souls titles, but it just feels similar. Going back to the projectile argument, you can also attack close range with your staff (though these attacks are relatively weak), and many enemies forego projectiles entirely and rush straight at you. Dodging also leans into Souls territory as you roll, jump, and run to safety with a stamina meter seeing how many times you can do these actions without incurring a penalty; in this game's case you literally fall down. The setting, a mysterious castle filled with reanimated dolls referred to as "crafted souls", even feels like it would fit in within a Souls title. Nobeta also levels up her various stats at Goddess Statues in a fashion that one doesn't typically associate with shooters, but can find in Soul-likes. It's all somewhat complicated, and mostly up to personal opinion, but there is definitely a wide mix of genres at work here and they do compliment each other fairly well for the most part.

A rare outdoor scene.

No Body, No Life

Let's move onto story, or at least as much story as this game provides. Nobeta arrives at a large foreboding castle and has a very simple task: get to the throne room. Don't know the way? Well don't worry, you have a guide. Early on Nobeta befriends a snarky black cat who serves as both a walking tutorial, and ensures that you have someone to talk to during cutscenes. The last point might seem flippant, but you spend so much of the game in silence that the black cat's presence is much needed, no matter that they spend much of their screen time running off ahead.

​I already briefly mentioned the crafted souls earlier, but they make up the enemies and boss characters. Various crafted souls block your way to the throne room, so you have to defeat them no matter how briefly tragic their individual stories might seem. The boss characters, Nobeta herself, and the black cat make up pretty much all the characters within the game and it's hard to fully describe any of them without giving away spoilers. Every single character initially comes off as mysterious, and each have their own motivations that are only revealed following their defeat (in the case of bosses) or towards the game's end (for the main characters). This may sound like I'm describing a very thin story, and admittedly it sort of is, but everything fits well and serves to keep the action moving. There is something of an extended story though, but it's one told mainly told through items you find scattered around the castle, and occasional subtle background elements. It took me a while to realize that much of the world-building is in these random items you find on the floor, within barrels, or when smashing discarded dolls, but it also made me want to carefully search for them all once I did.

A Talking Cat?!?

An early boss.

​Time to talk a bit about gameplay. Nobeta's journey to the throne room is anything but easy, and there's both combat and puzzles that keep you from progressing. The puzzles in the game are mainly of the "destroy the crystals that have set up an impassable magic barrier" variety, but a few of them seem pretty well thought out. Now I had trouble with some of the puzzles not really explaining what I was supposed to be doing, and I'm pretty sure this wasn't just me not getting it. As mentioned earlier, this game had a Steam release and just about every part of the game I was stuck on had a thread dedicated to it with others wondering exactly what they're expected to do. Let me clarify that "stuck" is in no way referring to a difficult section due powerful enemies or the like, but literally a puzzle paired with a tutorial section that is very poorly explained in-game. This happened a couple times throughout my playthrough and I wonder what I would've done if not these already-existing threads. These sections did not feel like they were meant to stump the player at all, but there's clearly several players, myself included, that were lost enough to try to look it up online.

​Puzzles aside combat has close and long-range variants, with your long range spells being the most used. Each spell has variety in how it shoots; i.e. rapid fire but weak, strong but a single shot, etc. If you want to power up your spells (necessary for some puzzles and bosses) you have to chant, and avoid being attacked until you complete the casting, and keep avoiding as you aim and unleash it. This is easier said than done, and many boss fights were mainly a battle of me trying to actually complete the casting process, both in the chanting and in the release of the spell. Seeing as shooting is a focus, you'd think there'd be a good lock-on mechanic and while there is, it feels half-broken. Locking on seems to work when it wants to, and every magic attack drifts upwards due to recoil and that will cause you to lose any and all lock-ons no matter what after a couple seconds. This can be really annoying as every fight seems to go the same way: Lock-on, attack, and then run as the target reticle inevitably drifts off the enemy and they get in their attacks. One probably shouldn't be standing still too long in this game though, but it happened so often that I couldn't help but complain about it. There's actually a lot more to be said about controls now that we're broached the topic...

Taking screenshots during combat is difficult.

No stamina means falling flat on your face.

Controls deserve their own section as, when it comes to their effect on gameplay, I feel that they have a strong effect on difficulty. First off, we need to talk about the game's camera. Not only are camera controls a little finicky, with small precise movements nearly impossible, but the camera is also far too closely zoomed into Nobeta. This makes seeing things ahead of you difficult as the character model takes up much of the screen with no way to pull the camera further back. This is even more annoying when you chant a spell as it brings the camera in even closer. Perhaps this all wouldn't be as strong an issue if you weren't often quickly overwhelmed with attacks from off-screen enemies, everyone's favorite kind of attack.

​Camera aside, the rest of the controls are a mixed bag at best. Every button press feels like it has the slightest of delays, with some actions feeling that they take place full seconds after you input the command. An example can be the game's running jump, which always feels a bit off when performed. You have to master running jumps though as this game has a surprising amount of platforming, even if the control scheme doesn't feel like it's built for that. The input delays go both ways though as the game also feels pretty lenient when it comes to pulling yourself out of danger. More than once I dodged attacks that I'm sure should've landed, but I'm not sure if that's something I should be complaining about. Lastly, item selection/use is done with the d-pad and I can't even begin to mention how this seems to lead to accidental use. I don't think I ever intentionally used an item once throughout my entire playthrough.

Sound is a topic hard to analyze as it's by no means bad, it's just not really there. The music is very soft and atmospheric, and can get a little tense during the boss battles, but none of the tracks feel particularly memorable. It does help with the lonely atmosphere the game has at times so I guess it's not totally out of place. Voice acting is well-done here, even if there aren't tons of scenes that feature it. My only true complaint about the sound is that the sound effects can be a bit loud in the mix and be a little jarring at times when things get intense. Many was a time when I was being utterly decimated only to nearly be jump-scared by a loud bang of an off-screen enemy hitting me with an attack, but maybe that was intentional.

One of the aforementioned lore items.

An example of simple atmospheric storytelling.

I played Little Witch Nobeta on the Switch purely in handheld mode, and even in these sub-optimal settings I was not let down by the game's graphics. Beyond that the character designs are well-done and even some of the normal enemy designs feel unique. It takes a while to see anything beyond dark blobs and simple brick rooms though, so you'll have to hang in there a bit to meet more of the crafted souls and more impressive settings. There are times this felt like a PS3-era game, but I can say that the game ran perfectly and despite the mainly gameplay problems this game had, it didn't have an issue with slowdown that I experienced. Elsewhere, elemental attacks, environment effects, and the aforementioned bosses, look great and who doesn't want to play as a cute anime witch sometimes?

I just love this game's art style.

I mean, just look at it.

I don't want to end on a negative note, but I find myself unable to wrap up this review without talking about the level of frustration this game brought on. The earliest parts of the game are deceptively easy both in terms of enemies and in platforming. Rooms with one or two enemies quickly give way to big open areas where a half dozen enemies come at you from every angle, including many from off camera. You can very easily get overwhelmed by enemies and find that you die really fast if you're not constantly on the move, or careful about entering every new area very slowly. You aren't even able to effectively dodge in some areas of the castle as you often find yourself fighting on platforms, narrow walkways, or even over pits of lava. The latter nearly made me quit the game as I died more times than I care to admit rolling into lava, or being knocked back into it from an enemies' attack. Good luck trying to chant and cast spells in some of these areas. Dying from pushback is just an annoyance that I didn't think I'd have to deal with in a modern game. Oh, and there's no instant continues in this game, if you continue you're sent back to the most recent Goddess Statue sans some of the souls (read: experience) that you earned. Was that last statue really far away? Well too bad because you have to repeatedly travel over the same areas before you even get back to where you died. Add to this the fact that you're rarely given a save point before boss fights, and I'm actually surprised that I even managed to complete the game at all. I guess one can argue that all this is just leaning into the Souls-like thing again, but much of it felt like poor game design instead of challenging gameplay. I was able to overcome most of this nonsense though, and the uneven difficulty actually made it feel that the early middle section is the hardest part of the entire game, so if you're able to push through that you might be able to complete the rest of the game with little trouble. Even if much of the difficulty felt unfair at times, I'd be lying if I didn't say that clearing certain sections, and the game itself, came with a sense of accomplishment.

The road to this boss was infuriating.

Monica didn't kill me. The knockback did.

Overall Little Witch Nobeta can be an enjoyable game. I had a lot of small problems with it, but I found myself enjoying it despite all the negatives. I'm still pretty impressed with how well the game drew me in, even when it was responding badly to my inputs and knocking me into lava. If anything, it left me wishing there was more to it. It's difficult, but not overly so, it's engaging, but ends rather quickly, and the world is surprisingly deep, but there isn't much of it to explore. One can probably get some sort of replay value playing on harder difficulties, setting challenges, or attempting to collect every item in one playthrough, but it does feel a little hard to recommend this game at its current $49.99 price. With that said, there is a launch sale going on at the time of this review and if you're someone who wanted to play a Souls game with an anime overlay, and you can overlook camera and control issues, then you probably can't go wrong with Little Witch Nobeta.

For More Information on Little Witch Nobeta:
http://ideafintl.com/little-witch-nobeta/

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Story: B
Gameplay: C
Graphics: B
Sound: B
Value: C

OVERALL: B-

Pros:
+ Mixing the Shooter, Action RPG, and Souls-like genres comes together surprisingly well for the most part.
+ The game's story isn't particularly deep but the atmospheric storytelling, through found items and small details, does feel rather unique.
+ Character designs are great and the large boss fights are impressive.
+ The game might be on the shorter side, but it's an enjoyable experience that could lead to further replays to complete all the side content and modes.

Cons:
- Camera and control issues can often lead to frustrating deaths and setbacks that don't feel like they're entirely the fault of the player.
- Sound design in general is a bit lacking.
- The difficulty can be very uneven at times. Also, dying from knockback is something left in the NES days.
- While an argument for quality over quantity could be made, it's worth noting that you can complete this game in about 10-15 hours, making this very hard to whole-heartedly recommend.

A copy of this game was provided to us free-of-charge by the publisher for the purpose of this review. This did not affect our review in any way.

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Later y'all!