WitchSpring R Review – What Would You Do For Pie?

I am a big fan of the Atelier games regarding gathering and crafting, so looking into WitchSpring R was a natural evolution. It is a game that grabbed me just from the artwork and persuaded me to give it a go.

Game Name: WitchSpring R
Platform(s): PS5 (Reviewed), Nintendo Switch, PC
Developer(s): KIWIWALKS
Publisher(s): KIWIWALKS 
Release Date: August 29th, 2024
Price: $39.99

WitchSpring R begins as you play as Pieberry. She is a witch hiding from the world in an enchanted forest. One day she notices some warriors from the world outside come into the enchanted castle and they want to kill all witches. In the midst of this, she meets a merchant who asks if she wants a piece of pie for some of the gold she gets after defeating a warrior. This pie after tasting it becomes a new obsession. She wants to meet the pie maker and get more pie.

The Good

WitchSpring R has a lot of reasons to love the gameplay. You can gather resources along the map once you get access to it. Each day the spots you can gather reset and you can grab resources all over again. There are also animals you can strike with a bow to get animal hides or meat.

Combat happens when you select to engage with a group of enemies on the map. When you get close to a group of enemies, a dialogue box will appear asking if you want to fight them and reveal their stats. This is very helpful in case you go to an area you want to explore and suddenly there is a bunch of new enemies. Some of these enemies in new areas can be a lot tougher than you. Being able to leave the combat before getting one shot is nice.

During combat in WitchSpring R, the turn order is at the bottom of the screen. During your turn, you can do a normal attack with your staff, a special magic skill, or a magic ability. You get abilities by finding them in treasure chests or crafting them from magic books. Also, you can use items on your turn, though in the beginning, it takes up the whole turn when you use an item. Later on, when you start unlocking pets, you can use an item alongside a normal action on your turn.

I love the characters and the story of WitchSpring R. Pieberry is a fun character who learns when she can’t mind controlling an owl with her new mind control spell and decides to use force to make him do her bidding. By force, she uses fire to burn the owl close to death. If that kind of humor makes you laugh then this is the game for you!

Your party in WitchSpring R is based on the amount of animals you have mind-controlled as well as your level. Higher levels allow you to have more animals in your party. The enemies will only target you so you need to only worry about your health pool.

The artwork and the art design of WitchSpring R is fantastic. Meeting new characters and fighting new enemies was a delight thanks to the character designs.

The Bad

WitchSpring R has a weird way of having more grinding than is necessary. The first time you fight a particular enemy mob on the map you gain experience points to level up. However, when the enemy respawns to the spot on the map you no longer get experience points and can only get materials from fighting them. Retreading ground in a dungeon then does very little to level up. That means to gain more experience points you are forced to explore new areas and fight new enemy mobs.

The Verdict

WitchSpring R is a solid experience and is a must-play for those wanting a fun charming and engaging game. Other than some of the grinding aspects and some story choices later on, I find this game much better than it had any right to be.

WitchSpring R will be available on Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 5 on August 29th, 2024. It is available on PC.

Review Disclosure Statement: WitchSpring R was provided to us by KIWIWALKS for review purposes. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please review our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy.

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