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The Witch's House
Jun. 2nd, 2023 08:19 amThe Witch’s House is an RPG Maker horror game from 2012 that was released in a remastered edition for Nintendo Switch in October 2022. The game consists of cute environmental puzzles presented in gorgeous 16-bit pixel graphics, and it’s brutally violent in an over-the-top and almost cartoonish way. It takes about fifty minutes to play if you’re good at video game puzzles, and maybe an hour and twenty minutes if you need to consult a guide like I did.
You play as Viola, a 13yo girl who finds herself alone in the woods outside a mysterious mansion. A black cat greets her and invites her inside to wait until her father comes to pick her up, thereby trapping her in a hungry and malicious maze. Your job is to find a way to escape the house learning the story of the girl who lives there, a young witch named Ellen.
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I think some people might complain about how short the game is; but for me, The Witch’s House was $15 and two and a half hours well spent. I think other people might complain about how the game relies on jumpscares, which is fair… but they’re very good jumpscares. I feel that The Witch’s House presents a perfect short story with excellent pacing that continually surprises the player and doesn’t overstay its welcome. The puzzles are clever without being difficult, the 16-bit graphics are beautiful, and the translation is excellent.
Speaking of beautiful 16-bit graphics, playing The Witch’s House inspired me to try the Final Fantasy VI Pixel Remaster for Nintendo Switch, and it’s fantastic. In all fairness, the turn-based gameplay hasn’t aged well, and a lot of the writing feels silly. Thankfully, they’ve based the remaster on the original 1994 game, so you can go through the story fairly quickly without having to worry about level grinding or stat optimization or tracking down super-rare monsters to complete a bestiary. The full-screen pixel graphics are very pretty, and the new music arrangements are surprisingly creative. I’m having a great time.
Damn I love 16-bit JRPGs. I know this is a character flaw, but I refuse to apologize.
You play as Viola, a 13yo girl who finds herself alone in the woods outside a mysterious mansion. A black cat greets her and invites her inside to wait until her father comes to pick her up, thereby trapping her in a hungry and malicious maze. Your job is to find a way to escape the house learning the story of the girl who lives there, a young witch named Ellen.
( Read more... )
I think some people might complain about how short the game is; but for me, The Witch’s House was $15 and two and a half hours well spent. I think other people might complain about how the game relies on jumpscares, which is fair… but they’re very good jumpscares. I feel that The Witch’s House presents a perfect short story with excellent pacing that continually surprises the player and doesn’t overstay its welcome. The puzzles are clever without being difficult, the 16-bit graphics are beautiful, and the translation is excellent.
Speaking of beautiful 16-bit graphics, playing The Witch’s House inspired me to try the Final Fantasy VI Pixel Remaster for Nintendo Switch, and it’s fantastic. In all fairness, the turn-based gameplay hasn’t aged well, and a lot of the writing feels silly. Thankfully, they’ve based the remaster on the original 1994 game, so you can go through the story fairly quickly without having to worry about level grinding or stat optimization or tracking down super-rare monsters to complete a bestiary. The full-screen pixel graphics are very pretty, and the new music arrangements are surprisingly creative. I’m having a great time.
Damn I love 16-bit JRPGs. I know this is a character flaw, but I refuse to apologize.
