Product Info

Platform

PlayStation 4

Publisher

NIS America, Inc.

Developer

Nippon Ichi Software

Series

The Witch and the Hundred Knight

Genre

Action, RPG

Players

1

File Size (Minimum)

2.97 GB

Release Date (NA)

Mar 27, 2018

Release Date (JP)

Feb 23, 2017

Purchase From

Amazon

Best Buy

Walmart

GameStop

NIS America, Inc.

The Witch and the Hundred Knight 2 is an action role-playing game (RPG) where you journey across a three-dimensional world, uncovering witchy secrets and obtaining the power of facets. Players will have to endure repetitive battles and dull maps, but the amusing dialogue will keep them entertained.

The Witch’s Disease

The story starts off with Amalie and her younger sister, Milm, living in an isolated town protected from witches. The two already lost their parents to a witch years ago, but one night, Milm went missing and returned not only muddy but also with a witch’s eye on her forehead. Known as the “witch’s disease”, those afflicted have a high chance of transforming into a witch with terrifying demonic power. To prevent this, the villagers effortlessly made the decision to kill Milm, but before they could act on it, Amalie stepped in and chose to take her sister away from the village, never to return.

After leaving, the game’s story jumps forward one year, and during this period, Amalie and Milm were picked up by the Weisse Ritter (WR), an anti-witch organization. While living with them, Amalie trained to become a Holy Valkyrie and Milm received treatment to cure the witch’s disease. During Milm’s surgery, however, her witch’s eye awakened and transformed her into a witch who then went by the name of Chelka.

Taking a doll known as the Hundred Knight which Milm had held onto before transforming, Chelka cast a spell on it, giving it life and making it her servant.

Now, since Chelka’s powers have yet to fully awaken, she counts on the Hundred Knight to fight in her stead. As the player, you control the Hundred Knight, fighting in battles, navigating the game’s world, and providing simple answers during story scenes (confirm, disagree, question). While there really isn’t a wrong answer, it does allow for some interesting and humorous dialogue.

Having a holy organization fight against evil is something every player has heard before. However, having a different viewpoint on witches and how they are created; the struggle between Amalie, Milm, and Chelka; and the entertaining dialogues make the game’s story interesting.

Battling with Facets

Having to only control the Hundred Knight, your equipment is simplistic, or is it? The Hundred Knight can equip up to five weapons, arranged in any order, in addition to two armors and two accessories. However, equipment is not shared between the facets, so pick the right ones for each.

There are a total of six facets that players can acquire while going through the game’s chapters: Wonder Knight, Power Fortress, Marginal Gaze, Shinobi Assassin, Trick Screamer, and Noble Raptor. Facets are similar to Final Fantasy and Disgaea’s character classes in that there are special abilities assigned to each facet and strongly suited for specific weapons. Each facet is uniquely different with their own strengths and weaknesses. For example, the Power Fortress facet has high attack power and excels in defense but is weak against magic, whereas the Marginal Gaze facet is better suited for long-distance magic attacks but is weak against close-up battles.

Once you acquire a new facet, it’s important to know how to use it right away as you explore new territories and encounter new enemies. However, you cannot rely on just one facet. To truly excel, players will need to frequently swap between the Hundred Knight’s equipped facets during battle, which is easily done using the controller’s trigger button. While you can acquire up to six facets, you can only equip three at a time. Choose wisely.

While you can equip up to five weapons per facet, it’s crucial to equip weapons based on the facet’s strengths. If you are using the the Power Fortress, equip hammers instead of wands.

Matrix Dodging

In the middle of fighting, Hundred Knight can cause a time-warp in battle, causing a fight to become slow motion for a small amount of time called “Mystical Dodge.” To pull it off, players will have to barely dodge an attack. It’s all about timing. How do you know if you activated the Mystical Dodge? When the screen turns to a purple tint with the words “Mystical Dodge” animating on screen, a timer will appear. Only Hundred Knight will move at normal speed compared to the enemies on screen. It’s a great feature when battling bosses.

Boss battles in each chapter will test your new facet and fighting skills but while some battles can be aggravating they can also be forgettable. If you can master the Mystical Dodge and the facet’s abilities, boss battles won’t be too much a problem. For those who are still figuring out the battle mechanics, it’s best to have a large supply of healing items.

Crafting with Madness

At the game’s home base, players can upgrade their equipment to improve its status. Players can do one of the following to upgrade their items: forge krafting or catalyst krafting. Forge krafting lets you take any findings picked up while exploring and forge them to level up your item along with boosting its statuses. On the other hand, catalyst krafting uses “catalyst” items to give your weapon and armor new abilities and status enhancements.

However, items have a max level depending on the rarity of the item. Players who are familiar with Disgaea will recognize the different types of the rarity: common, rare, epic, and legendary. Common items can only level up to level 15, whereas legendary can go up to 99. Since equipment cannot be shared between facets, it’s important to pick the right gear for each one.

The Other 99 Knights

Hundred Knight isn’t the only fighter. In the game, players can call upon the other knights called “Tochkas.” There are seven different types of these creatures that come from Hundred Knight, and some can be used to attack and defend. Different types of Tochkas require a certain number of bodies. (One type of Tochka can take up to 42 bodies.) Having up to 99 at your disposal, you can have a fair amount of help on the field. Of course, not all Tochkas are available from the start, but as you progress through the game, you can unlock them.

Can’t Fight on an Empty Stomach

While many RPGs have extra storage containers, The Witch and the Hundred Knight 2 is a bit different. Item storage in this game uses Hundred Knight’s stomach in what’s called “Stomach Stock”. At the beginning, you are limited on space, but as you level up, more will be available. Once you run out of space, you’ll have to digest the item, which will regain some GigaCalories. With such limited storage, it’ll be difficult for players who are looking to grind and obtain items for krafting.

The Power of the Eye

When things get too much for Hundred Knight, players can activate the ability to call upon the “Third Eye,” a jolt of status boost for your little knight. Attack power, speed, defense, and other statuses are given a timed boost. Before activating the Third Eye, players will need to fill the Third Eye’s gauge while battling. Once the icon starts to glow, you can activate it with a simple button command when ready (similar to Final Fantasy’s Limit Breaks).

Once you are far enough into the game’s story, you can sign petitions to gain certain abilities such as transforming shells (currency) to mana or acquire Tochkas. Signing a petition will cost players mana that they have collected. However, there isn’t much for players to strive for on these petitions and can be easily skipped for the most part. Players who have played Disgaea will recognize these petitions as a familiar setup in the series, but there are more to choose from than here.

This Beautiful, Yet Ugly World

As you explore the world of Kevala, a once-beautiful world before witches turned it into darkness, you’ll encounter many enemies. As you control Hundred Knight, you can choose to wander around, attack enemies in real-time, or flee. Some enemies can easily be destroyed while some will take time to take down. However, players can expect to become tired after repetitive battles and some level grinding. While attacking, you’ll have to be aware of your surroundings as enemies can suddenly enter the fight, and some will even attack with high-power attacks that can actually take you out. You won’t lose anything if you decide to flee, except the experience points to level up and the pick-up items from enemies for your krafting. Also, when there’s a large amount of enemies on screen, be prepared to see some frame rate drops.

When Hundred Knight dies in battle, you’ll lose items you’ve picked up and will be teleported back to your last save point. However, your GigaCalories, Hundred Knight’s life span, will decrease to regain your health points (HP).

While the game has its standard RPG HP and AP (special attack) meters, Hundred Knight 2 has a unique meter called the GigaCalories. Unlike the HP meter, the GigaCalories is your life span, and it’ll look like a blood bag on the screen. It starts at 100 and counts down once you leave your home base. Ironically, GigaCalories is something you’ll want to maintain and not burn. Once you reach zero, the GigaCalories will start depleting your HP meter until there’s nothing left. Fortunately, you can restore GigaCalories by consuming the enemy.

In the middle of battle, players will be prompted to initiate “Depletura,” consuming enemies to retrieve GigaCalories. Once you trigger it and your enemy’s health is low enough, Hundred Knight will dash towards the enemy and devour them. You can manually tell the direction Hundred Knight should dash towards, but if you do not attack an enemy, nothing comes out of it and you’ll have to wait for another turn in battle. It’s an interesting idea, and compared to your normal action RPG, it makes players be more cautious when they explore.

Once you run out of GigaCalories, your HP and statuses (attack and defense) will begin to deplete. Once you run dry from your HP, it’s game over.

Colorful Art, Dull Surroundings

The Witch and the Hundred Knight 2 has beautiful illustrations even if the world of Kevala feels dull and archaic. It’s from the same studio that created Disgaea, so players will recognize the character illustrations and the music in the game. The Witch and Hundred Knight 2’s music has an impressive soundtrack, though when comparing it to the studio’s other work, it’s not as inspiring and energetic.

The character illustrations are what’s best in the game, with rich and unique designs, especially for Amalie and Chelka. Similar to many Japanese role-playing games (JRPGs), the game uses the illustrations for basic movements, with mouth movements being the most animated part. When the illustrations move on the screen, you cannot tell what they are doing unless the dialogue explains what is happening, making it look odd and somewhat entertaining.

The game’s 3D models feel outdated for PlayStation 4 standards, and while enemies are auto-generated on maps, players will yawn after exploring through the dull-looking map areas. Almost every area looks identical, which would’ve made it easy for players to get lost without the aid of a map, so thank goodness one exists. Leaving the map area and returning to the location will respawn enemies, but at least you can avoid them easily. Of course, that also means you miss out on battling and leveling up.

Summary

The Witch and the Hundred Knight 2 has interesting characters and conversations and a few unique gameplay elements that differentiate it from other JRPG titles, but with dull maps and repetitive battles, exploration will make players yawn.

A PlayStation 4 review code was provided by NIS America, Inc. for this review.