Warning: This article may contain spoilers…or may not contain. At least I’ve tried to avoid major ones.
Seven years have already passed since I’ve got into freeware games made via RPG Maker or similar engines. By now I’ve played to the point, where it becomes hard to be impressed by something, since I’ve seen it so many times that I’ve stopped counting. But recently I was finally able to play Witch’s Heart. This game is still yet to be completed, but there’s already enough playable material available to write an article, since this game is one of those hidden gems that leaves very strong impression after you play it.
When I’ve just started to play Witch’s Heart I wasn’t expecting much from this game. I’ve thought it would be another gothic shoujo-horror where form prevails over contents. But I can gladly admit that my first impression was wrong and the story of this game is, in fact, its strongest point. Indeed, the beginning of the story is pretty common - while seeking shelter from rain several strangers get trapped in the old demon-infested mansion, where twelve years ago a mass murder took place. At the present moment, game consists from four character’s scenarios (only two are available from the start) and a bonus stage, which takes place after them. To get the whole picture you should play all five, since each scenario adds many important details to the main story as well as gives to all characters further development.
Story of this game is pretty complicated and everything in it is not what it seems from the first glance. Every time you think that you know what will happen next –an unexpected turn of events occurs, sometimes for better, but most of the time for worst. But despite being horror Witch’s Heart has plenty of humorous and heartwarming moments. All of the scenes (either funny or serious) are very well-written. The main plot has no visible logic holes, full of good twists, strong scenes and keeps player in suspense until the very end (which is sadly still in development, but at least we have a semi-final).
Additionally I would like to praise characters of the Witch’s Heart. It’s been a while since I’ve seen such memorable and sympathetic main cast, where everyone deserves attention. All of the main characters are complicated and have their own unique personality. Yeah, they may be wrong at some point, they make mistakes, jump to conclusions-they are humans after all and that’s what makes them believable. Yeah, I admit this game has way too much tragic backstories, but they are all interesting and help if not to sympathize with the characters, then at least understand them better.
Oh well, story is sure important, but aside from it this game also have wonderful presentation and entertaining gameplay.
Visual part of this game is bright and stylish. Character’s designs and illustrations are very well-drawn and somewhat reminiscent of old anime shows straight from middle of 90s. In-game sprites are high-quality either, especially considering that game uses pretty old RMK 2000 engine.
In-game music is borrowed from many free and paid resources and perfectly matches the mood of the various locations and story scenes (personally, theme from the Rouge’s Fantasy Space is my guilty pleasure).
Gameplay of the Witch’s Heart varies from exploration to action. Player’s activity is separated to daily and night. During the day you mostly explore the mansion, talk to other characters and perform small tasks like cooking. At night you fight demons, and more areas of the mansion becomes available for exploration ( to be fair, some of those areas are available during the daytime either). At some points you’ll be prompted to fulfill demon’s requests in order to proceed -tasks are simple and mostly consist from bringing right item to the right character. Additionally you can play various mini-games (some of them are mandatory during the main course) and do side-activities like fishing or growing flowers. Also after beating each route you’ll be given special item, which opens previously unavailable area in the next route, further expanding gaming space and adding more demon’s requests. This and many other features makes game quite lengthy (around 15 hours to beat the whole thing) and very fun to play. To the cons I can add only the fact that game is pretty easy, aside from several boss fights enemies remain the same during the whole game, and demon’s requests sometimes turn repetitive-but honestly, it doesn’t spoil an overall impression at all.
In conclusion I would like to say that I’ve played many great games, but Witch’s Heart is one of those few games, that made me feel so deeply involved with the story and the characters. It made me express the whole ton of feelings-joy, sadness, excitement, fear and many others. The story of this game kept me motivated to see things to the very end. So, I wish to BLUE STAR Entertainment to keep up the great work and I hope that we would be able to see the ending of the story (or several endings to be exact) in the near future.
Final score: 9,5 out of 10.
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