Labyrinth Of The Witch Switch Review

Review by Matt S.

Just yesterday I wrote a review for Black Futurity '88, a game that I criticised for existence far too appreciative to the indie trend of making everything into a "roguelike." Well, Black Future '88 looks like a masterpiece of innovation when compared to Labyrinth of the Witch – a traditional roguelike that does admittedly aught to differentiate itself from the original Mystery Dungeon roguelike. Which, for people playing forth, was dorsum in 1993, for the Super Nintendo. It would be quaint for existence so traditional if there weren't so many of these games already out in that location.

Hell, the Nintendo Switch itself has the very pinnacle of the genre already bachelor for it. Chocobo Mystery Dungeon: Every Buddy is everything that Labyrinth of the Witch wishes that it was. You take control of a cute little protagonist (though Chocobo Mystery Dungeon, starring Chocobo, can't exist topped there), and and then get into randomly-generated levels, fighting a gauntlet of cute, but increasingly difficult enemies, with a boss boxing thrown in every so oft. Yet, information technology'due south worth noting that while Chocobo Mystery Dungeon's gauntlet is a treasure trove of classic Concluding Fantasy enemies and bosses, Labyrinth of the Witch's is generic pixel anime stuff. Information technology's even so cute, but it'southward oh-and so-vanilla.

Chocobo's Mystery Dungeon also has all kinds of beautiful little distractions, and an actual narrative to follow forth with. Labyrinth of the Witch has… a bill of fare organisation, and a chip of dialogue when you meet a boss. I retrieve there might have been an introduction that lasted a few seconds as well, only I honestly can't recollect what data was shared in that cut scene. The narrative, such that information technology is, certainly isn't important to Labyrinth of the Witch. Oh, and Chocobo'southward Mystery Dungeon features a soundtrack of the greatest hits of Final Fantasy music. Labyrinth of the Witch uses muzak. If that.

Peradventure it is unfair to compare a humble little indie roguelike to something that Square Enix itself produced, but that's the trouble with Labyrinth of the Witch – apprehensive footling indie games demand to try and practice something to differentiate themselves. The keen thing about indie development is that there aren't the same commercial demands on projects, so they can be more daring, more artistic, and more than innovative. For a indie roguelike to identify itself in direct competition with a Square Enix JRPG, by doing the verbal aforementioned matter equally that JRPG, is asking for punishment. And however that's exactly what Labyrinth of the Witch has done. In that location's no try to tell a dramatic story. No subversion in the mechanics. No effort to practice something unique with the visuals or the music. This is as safe as the genre gets, and as such the comparison to those bigger games that do it better are fair.

In fairness, Labyrinth of the Witch does work well. The difficulty level is stiff (as you want from a roguelike) without feeling unfair (which has allow down more than a few roguelikes in the past). There's a good range of loot to option up and play with, and the permadeath feature is not too punitive. Every roguelike needs to strip your character back to level 1, and take the spoils away from them, if they dice in the dungeon, but in Labyrinth of the Witch you lot actually get one revive as a 2nd gamble, and if you die a second fourth dimension, you will exist returned to level 1, but you'll get to proceed the equipment yous were belongings. And, as an added bonus, yous'll be able to restart the dungeon from the midway point if you got there before your character died. They'll start at a reasonable level if you take this option up, and information technology can save you lot a lot of time from having to replay the before levels over and over again.

There are also a couple of overnice variations on the basic dungeon crawling, such as a speed run mode and a puzzle mode. These, too, were features in Chocobo Mystery Dungeon, simply the variations are welcome even if they're non exactly artistic. On the other mitt, Labyrinth of the Witch's attempts to get you to replay dungeons are terrible pull-overs from mobile gaming. Clearing a dungeon will net yous from one to three stars. Yous'll get one star for just clearing information technology, only additional stars by limiting how yous play. Clearing a dungeon without using items, for example.

I really don't enjoy this approach. If someone wants to claiming themselves to a "no detail" run, then that's on them, and no dubiety they'll go a sense of personal satisfaction from doing and so. To attempt to force players into playing in a restricted style in club to properly complete the game is a recipe for fatigue. Mobile developers get away with it, considering in the mobile space the goal is merely to get players playing for as much time as possible, and the challenges, such as they are, are over in seconds. Games like Labyrinth of the Witch are meant to have compelling gameplay loops that last for a period of time, and to restrict players from making the virtually of that loop means dulling the game right downward for far besides long.

There'due south cipher offensively wrong with Labyrinth of the Witch. It'due south a cutsey Mystery Dungeon-like roguelike. There are already so many examples of that genre, though, and the Nintendo Switch didn't need some other one whose only innovation was to bring a mobile gaming grind to proceedings.