![]() On top of all of this there are so many related gameplay systems tied into the dungeon crawling. At least some of the monster designs are fun. While the tileset may change occasionally, each environment type only has a handful of room types, none of them interesting. The dungeons themselves are astonishingly monotonous too. You'll still need to invest time, resources and loot into keeping them levelled and equipped in order to not become entirely useless, but it all just feels like busywork and padding. Those NPCs do add a little damage to the mix, but for the most part they're just an enormous liability, as likely to run wildly in glitchy circles or insisting in standing on top of a trap as they are to lend assistance. Worse still, it constantly commits a cardinal genre sin, with enemies getting stuck off-screen leaving you with no option but to wait for them to slowly walk back into punching range. While some of the seven playable characters are more melee-centric, most just throw blasts of magical energy as their standard attacks, which robs the game of a combo system, and makes close combat with one player character and two NPC helpers so visually messy that it's nigh impossible to keep track of what's happening. ![]() Even using a gamepad, movement is limited to the analogue stick only, and running and dodging are assigned to separate buttons. Little Witch Academia's combat is an awkward, sludgy mess. Pick a dungeon type, pick three girls, go punch and zap monsters until the boss is down and loot/XP is gained. Inside the Chamber of Time itself is a magic door which leads to monster-filled dungeons. These two halves don't so much compliment each other as constantly gouge chunks out of each other.Īfter an awkwardly paced opening hour, you finally reach your first save point and what had previously been a glorified visual novel with an overly complex map to navigate explodes messily into a twisted ball of interlocking but undercooked gameplay mechanics, all in service of the dungeon crawling side of the game. The other half of the game is a semi-randomly generated dungeon crawl RPG/brawler hybrid that so desperately wishes that it was even a third as good as Dragon's Crown. Split into roughly two halves, the game alternates between a gently paced game of wandering the halls of Luna Nova as Akko, chatting with people, eavesdropping on conversations, picking up minor fetch-quests and generally living the anime witch-school dream. It's just a pity that Chamber of Time does so much to undermine itself. It's charming stuff, and arguably tells a better, more coherent story than the anime series itself. The story is nicely self-contained too: magically less-than-gifted protagonist Akko and her oddball friends find a hidden chamber in the school on the first day of summer holidays, and find themselves trapped in a time-loop, doomed to repeat the day forever unless they can unravel the mystery of this hidden annex in-between goofing off because it's an endless summer holiday now. ![]() The core concept is immediately accessible - The Worst Witch by way of Harry Potter plus a few more explosions - and the early game offers a narrated introduction to each of the major characters if you want to quickly get up to speed on what their deal is. Surprisingly, even the most minor of characters is fully voiced, although the audio is only available in Japanese with subtitles in a variety of languages. There's even a few cutscenes direct from the anime studio. It's a microcosm of the issues that plague the entire game's design - there's soul here, but the systems here just aren't built to support it.Ĭhamber of Time is surprisingly friendly to those who have never seen the show before. Rather than present it as a cutscene, Chamber of Time torpedoes the joke by using the default conversation UI for the talking, then cuts away to a screen showing the in-game clock ticking forward to show the passage of time. The headmistress of the Luna Nova academy for witches is delivering an overlong speech to the students. The very opening scene of the game felt almost like a warning. It's a game with grand ambitions that go unfulfilled. ![]() What used to be a dumping ground now contains a growing stable of games blending compelling mechanics with 3D art that captures the look of the original 2D animation.īased on the popular Netflix-backed anime series, Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time is sadly not one of those, but not for lack of trying. The past few years have been good for TV and film-licensed games, especially anime tie-ins. ![]()
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