The Knight Witch Review

Bullet hell gets Witchy!

The Knight Witch, developed by Super Mega Team, is a super-accessible, user-friendly, and environmentally conscious Metroidvania with a female protagonist. But is it a diluted mess or a comforting, wholesome experience with as much challenge as the best platformers out there? Read our knight witch review below to find out!

Mixed expectations

Within the first few minutes of the game, there is a lot of warmth and love as the female protagonist Rayne is supported by her husband toward her dreams of becoming a Knight Witch. 

However, the fuzzy tone quickly changes as the gameplay comes to the fore, and it becomes clear all is not well in this underground land. The story begins with an enemy invasion, and you begin the fun and challenging gameplay that will have most players dying many times before they achieve objectives in the most rewarding way. Early on, Knight Witch had me hooked.

Swole hubby supports knight witches

The story broadly aligns with the environmental catastrophe and corporate interests of the current-day of western reality. A villain is destroying everything with his robots and dares to blame the ecological destruction on the heroines trying to stop him. And it’s your job as a knight witch in training to lead the war golem invasion defense force.

The story works well within the game world and motivates the player to progress. It is tied into the political concerns of 2022, such as gender politics, body positivity, and environmental awareness. Although this is a little on-the-nose at times, it gives the narrative a clearly warm heart.

Outside the main plot points, plenty of dynamic moments will make you laugh or feel many other emotions toward the characters, each with their own distinctive voices, wants, and needs.

Hand-drawn action game bliss

Knight Witch’s visuals are one of the game’s strongest elements. The hand-drawn art style is vivid and vibrant, making you feel like you’re playing a Metroidvania set in a beautifully hand-drawn world ripped straight from a children’s story.

Forge close bonds in this fast-paced shoot em up

The gameplay loop of Knight Witch is Complete objectives to restore the land to its original glory while destroying lots of evil robots along the way. But it’s more complicated than just aiming with the right stick and moving with the left. 

The difference with Knight Witch is that it allows you to use many spell cards representing magical attacks. These change as they are used up and are allocated points for how many times each can be used. 

The magic attack spell cards work well for the most part, although it can be a massive challenge to keep your eye on the combat and choose the right card from your deck for effective fighting. But I quickly got used to it, despite how many enemies the game decided to throw at me, so overall, this dynamic works well. 

The devastating card-based spells feel beefy and impactful, from the machine gun card to the bomb you place and detonate by firing at it. None of the attacks are mind-blowingly creative at first.

But later in the game, you get the chance to use coins collected throughout the game to acquire ‘wild card’ abilities that are sometimes deadly, sometimes a but useless. But the card system generally works very well and is effective for destroying pesky robots who love nothing more than to try to blow your ass up. This is all provided you have enough mana to wield these powers and new abilities, of course!

A significant aspect of any Metroidvania is level design. Knight Witch shows off skill in creating tight spaces that are a perfectly pitched, fun challenge to navigate, often with spikes or other obstacles to make it more tricky. This is inspired by old-school twin-stick bullet hell games but creates a new knight witch genre as it combines the shooting within a Metroidvania adventure game.

There are also defensive options within the card system, such as surrounding yourself with a circle of rocks and temporary armor you buy from a skeleton baker.

Each boss in Knight Witch is challenging and has slightly different ways to try to win the battle. But none of them are wildly imaginative or memorable.

One of the more creative dynamics is the Link system. This ties into the story that shows us the power of belief and how unity leads to strength, keeping with the social ecology theme. It also gives some profound and impactful moral choices to the player choice, as you decide how you spin events to the public.

Levels are varied, with later levels offering water diving and other exciting environments. Things never get old when you’re a knight witch, it seems. 

The environment is often an enemy in these games, and Knight Witch is an excellent example of how much depth your surroundings can add to the overall experience. 

Song of the knight witches

Like every other aspect of the game, the soundtrack of Knight Witch is well made, appropriate to the tone and setting, wholesome, and enjoyable. There are banjos and many other instruments to make you feel cozy at more relaxed points, and violent violins and angry synths to let you know when bosses are incoming. 

It doesn’t come to the forefront like some soundtracks, leaving you humming them on your commute to work. But it gets the job done very well, adding to the emotion of scenes.

Sound effects are also dynamic and well-made, giving a strong sense of immersion and adding to the importance of place.  

Welcoming the knight witch genre

If there is anything that would have me returning for more when it comes to Knight Witch, it would simply be the beauty of the visuals and because it’s such a solidly built game with challenging platforming and combat. Oh, and I might give it another go to see the multiple endings that depend on what you tell the public in your PR conferences. 

So, all in all, a satisfying experience worth multiple attempts to get the most out of. 

The Knight Witch is available on GOG and Steam for PC, Playstation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch. Thanks to Team 17 for providing a review copy of the game.