A Witch’s Tale Hands-On First Hour Impression

First impressions are an important thing. Whether it’s a date or an interview, a good first impression goes a long way. So, what kind of first impression does A Witch’s Tale leave? Read on and find out.

Let’s start with the intro. It begins with a two-minute text crawl explaining the back-story. This is boring, and it’s quite annoying when a game starts off like this and it certainly doesn’t inspire the player to take much interest in the story. The basic story is that a powerful princess named Alice sealed an evil witch away 1000 years in the past. Lidell, the main character, is a young witch who seeks to become the most powerful in the land.

After heading to the castle that holds the legendary magic, Lidell releases the evil witch from her prison and now has to find the scattered pieces of the legendary magic to help seal the witch once more.

So far the pacing in this game has been much too fast. Everything happens literally in a flash. Lidell goes to an old lady and asks about the legendary magic and after a short conversation, is instantly transported to the castle. There’s a lot more, but that can be saved for the full review.

The gameplay is similar to the old school dungeon crawlers and Dragon Quest games. You’ll wander around different worlds, searching for keys, bombs, and other items to help clear a path and continue on your journey. All the battles are in first person, exactly like the classic Dragon Quest games. Everything is done using the touch screen. Battles, field movement, even menu selections are all done using the touch screen.

The music so far is fitting, but the lack of voice is disheartening, especially since the first screen of the game features a voice welcoming you to A Witch’s Tale. The sound effects are fine for what they are, but nothing amazing.

Overall, this seems like the usual fair of a fantasy dungeon crawler RPG. The opening text crawl can be a turn off to some people, and the pacing could be better. Still this is after having only played one hour, so this game could get much better. Check back in October for our full review of A Witch’s Tale.