• Price: $19.99 USD
• Developer: Super Awesome Hyper Dimensional Mega Team
• Publisher: Team17
• Release Date: November 29, 2022

A review code was kindly provided by Team17 on behalf of Super Awesome Hyper Dimensional Mega Team. We thank them for being able to cover something they’ve worked so hard on.

The Knight Witch is a Metroidvania adventure game with “shoot ‘em up” combat and supplementary card-based spells. I usually have a hard time with shoot ‘em up gameplay, but between the trailer, gorgeous art style, and the “forward-thinking accessibility” features, I was more than willing to give this a…shot. 😉

The story goes that fourteen years ago, the world almost ended. Although everyone came together and lived in harmony under the banner of House Daigadai, the planet started running out of its natural resources, and the ecosystem was being irreparably harmed. A rebel group known as the Children of Gaia formed to protest the Daigadai’s (mis)treatment of the planet – but the Daigadai had a golem army on their side. Things were looking grim for the rebellion…until the Knight Witches appeared and saved the day.

There were four Knight Witches who fought for the planet; Robyn, the “Angel of Destruction,” serves as the captain – and face – of their squad. Fourteen years later, everyone is living underground in the city of Dungeonidas, and today they are celebrating “Robyn’s Day.” Unfortunately, peace doesn’t last forever, and war golems come out of nowhere and invade the city.

Instead of playing as Robyn, you will act as Rayne, a woman who trained to become a Knight Witch but was ultimately not ready to fight as one fourteen years ago. But now Rayne has no choice but to act, with civilians being taken away and placed in cages. You’ll have to shoot your way through hordes of golems, and eventually you’ll make your way to a castle that acts as your home base for the game.

The city’s leadership decides that Rayne is now worthy of being an official Knight Witch. Her first task is to fix Dungeonidas’ infrastructure, as the enemy has disassembled the water and oxygen systems, among others. As you go into each dungeon, your secondary objective will be freeing the caged civilians. Knight Witches can fly and have other magical powers. They’re like Tinkerbell in that the more people believe in them, the stronger they become: “We simply had to believe in [the Knight Witches] with all our hearts and souls!”

Rayne is an unknown Knight Witch at first, and saving people will earn you their gratitude, which “links” you together and helps you level up to learn more skills. (You can also earn additional Link points during post-mission press conferences.) Every time you level up, you can choose to improve Rayne’s Knight skills or Witch skills, which can increase things like your rate of fire or your mana drop chance.

Mana is used to cast spells with your spell cards, which you will find in various places over the course of the game. The cards can be used again after a cooldown period, so don’t worry about using them as needed. You can choose to add whatever cards you want to your “deck” – play more offensively if you’d like, or more defensively, or even a mixture of the two methods. Unfortunately, there isn’t a healing card from what I could tell, but otherwise you can really customize your combat experience.

And speaking of customization, the “Cheats” are a highlight of the game for me. Input the cheat codes (here is an article from GameRant if you want to use them), and you can make the game much easier or a bit harder for yourself. I played the game with some cheats activated the entire time, and with invulnerability about half the time due to my general lack of skill/dexterity. 😅 They also made it so that you can choose to manually aim to do more damage when you shoot, or you can hit enemies with auto-aim for less damage. I love the accessibility options here – even an inexperienced player can succeed, and I think that shoot ‘em up fans can also really enjoy the game (without any cheats or with the “Glass Rayne” option turned on).

Now, turning on the cheats can make your life easier, but when you explore the dungeons there are still environmental hazards or barriers that can give you some trouble. Lasers and thorns will damage Rayne if you’re not careful, and you’ll need to manage bombs that follow you when activated in order to break through special barriers. One dungeon will require you to pilot a submarine that only shoots horizontally, which complicates combat that occurs underwater. There are four main dungeons, and some have secondary areas attached to them. (Loading within each individual dungeon was pretty smooth, but going from one dungeon to another could take a while.)

Whether you are in the air or underwater, you’ll find that there are many hidden items and areas in Dungeonidas. Some will be inaccessible until you’ve acquired the necessary skills to get through to them. Eventually, you’ll unlock the ability to see how many hidden items you still need to find, and when you’re in a dungeon the map will have a pattern over the rooms with undiscovered secrets. If you’re a completionist, you’ll find yourself backtracking a decent amount. I enjoyed finding the collectibles for the most part, although I was a bit fatigued by the end.

Most of the regular cards you collect can be duplicated with the assistance of a woman back at the castle. A quirky man down in the basement will let you choose one of three cards in exchange for collectible coins that you find in the dungeons. If you really want to challenge yourself and get special collectibles, you can activate a feature that allows you to replay the Ambush battles in certain rooms. There are two challenges attached to each Ambush battle, and if you earn enough gems by beating enough of them you can get those special collectibles!

I enjoyed the way that some characters poked fun at RPG tropes (“Aren’t you excited your first quest as a Knight Witch is a fetch quest?”), but unfortunately, there aren’t many opportunities to get to know many of those NPCs. I’d say that there’s more dungeon exploration than character interactions. That could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your preference. I would have liked more plot and maybe even the ability to level up NPCs’ character links through additional quests.

I will say that I loved Rayne’s husband Akai, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that there are two endings, which are based on a single decision at the end. Even with a smaller amount of character interactions, I thought they did a good job giving Rayne an appealing personality. I would love to see an animated series as well as character plushies for The Knight Witch; the engaging combat and exploration in the game were complemented very well by the beautiful character art, breathtaking environments, and sensational soundtrack. So I could see this translating well into other artistic directions.

Switch it ON or Switch it OFF? The Knight Witch is a lovely Metroidvania/shoot ‘em up game that seems suitable for newbies or veterans of the genres due to the player’s ability to tailor their experience to their liking. While there is the occasional difficulty spike in battles/environmental obstacles, and I would have liked to get to know the characters more, as a shoot ‘em up novice I had a…blast…as Rayne. The combination of shoot ‘em up combat and card-based spells felt unique, and in terms of artistry and accessibility, I thought that The Knight Witch was top notch. 8.5/10