Death By a Hundred Cuts : The Witch and The Hundred Knight 2 Review

<p><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400&semi;">To say that my opinion of The Witch and the Hundred Knight 2 is conflicting would be a huge understatement&period; For everything I like&comma; there is something else I dislike&period; This makes it very difficult to summarize my feelings for it&period; But I will try to vocalize those feelings and show what I like about it but also note where the game falls flat on its face&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2><strong>The Story<&sol;strong><&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400&semi;">To start off&comma; the game’s story centralizes around two main characters&period; The first protagonist is a girl named Amalie who is a Holy Valkyrie in training&period; Her main goal throughout the story is to find a cure for the sickness called witch disease&period; It is an illness that happens to turn young girls into evil witches by growing a third eye on their head&period; And her younger sister happens to have it&period; Our second protagonist is Chelka&period; She is a witch that awakens from Milm when her third eye opens after a failed surgery&period; Then she brings her Hundred Knight doll to life as her servant&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"size-large wp-image-137758" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;05&sol;01132718&sol;hundredknightwitchdisease1-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400&semi;">You play as the Hundred Knight&comma; punching through whatever Amalie or Chelka need&period; The characters are interesting&period; And the game has a colorful cast of supporting characters&period; From Amalie’s Holy Valkyries to Chelka’s crow servant there are lots of characters in this game&period; None of them were flat parodies of Japanese tropes&period; And I enjoyed a good number of them&period; The plot is there to drive you to the next boss fight&period; But as it kept adding more questions&comma; it kept me invested&period; It talks about dark issues but also can be as lighthearted&period; The story stands well by itself and is what kept me going to the very end&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>The Visuals<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p><span data-offset-key&equals;"duq0r-0-0">The graphics of Hundred Knight 2 aren&&num;8217&semi;t bad&period; The 3d cartoony style in the game do well to complement Nippon Ichi’s signature style&period; But let&&num;8217&semi;s be honest&comma; the hand-drawn characters look better than their 3D models&period; Not that they are bad&comma; but the detail on the hand-drawn characters shows the vast difference between the two&period; The enemies and aren&&num;8217&semi;t <&sol;span><span class&equals;"adverb"><span data-offset-key&equals;"duq0r-1-0">badly<&sol;span><&sol;span><span data-offset-key&equals;"duq0r-2-0"> designed either&period; But a lot them are pallets swaps of earlier enemies&period; The environments are the most impressive of the 3D elements&period; They are <&sol;span><span class&equals;"adverb"><span data-offset-key&equals;"duq0r-3-0">brightly<&sol;span><&sol;span><span data-offset-key&equals;"duq0r-4-0"> colored and pop&period; They change enough that they don&&num;8217&semi;t become boring&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"aligncenter size-large wp-image-137759" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;05&sol;01133204&sol;hundredknightgameplay-1024x579&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"565" &sol;><br &sol;>&NewLine;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>The Music<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>The music in the game is upbeat and instrumental&period; Every track fits well with the environment&period; And there is even a little jingle at the end of every boss fight&period; Here Hundred Knight does a little dance&period; The soundtrack is very well orchestrated&period; And it helps complete the atmosphere of the game&period; Sound effects are passable and do their job&period; But they aren&&num;8217&semi;t anything to write home about&period; The voice acting is great whether you choose to listen to the English voice actors or the Japanese ones&period; The sound quality of the voices is great&comma; bringing the characters to life&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>The Gameplay<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>We come to the gameplay&comma; unfortunately&comma; Hundred Knight 2’s weakest bullet point&period; Before I get into the nitty-gritty of what doesn&&num;8217&semi;t work&comma; I want to get into what does&period; The controls are responsive and work well&comma; which is crucial to a game based on a mythic dodge mechanic&period; Whenever you dodge an enemy&&num;8217&semi;s attack right before it hits&comma; you get a mythic dodge&period; This slows down all the enemies and allows you to attack them while they are in slow motion&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"size-large wp-image-137760" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;05&sol;01133355&sol;hundredknightgameplay2-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>The Mechanics<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400&semi;"><span data-offset-key&equals;"dlteq-0-0">I will first go over specific mechanics then I can get into more detail on why they don&&num;8217&semi;t work&period; The game has a basic combo system&period; You can press square up to five times in a combo after which the combo will reset and start over&period; You equip weapons&comma; but each attack requires a different weapon&period; Weapons come in 5 different types&colon; Swords&comma; Spears&comma; Staves&comma; Hammers&comma; and Lances&period; Each type of weapon has their own unique properties and attacks&period; Weapons are also either sharp&comma; blunt&comma; and magical&period; Enemies will usually resist one or two types of damage&period; This makes it impossible to rely on one type of damage&period; This makes sense&comma; as the game is about using <&sol;span><span class&equals;"complexword"><span data-offset-key&equals;"dlteq-1-0">multiple<&sol;span><&sol;span><span data-offset-key&equals;"dlteq-2-0"> tactics and switching between them&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"aligncenter size-large wp-image-137762" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;05&sol;01133855&sol;hundredknighttext-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;> <&sol;span><&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400&semi;"><strong>Facets<&sol;strong><br &sol;>&NewLine;<&sol;span><&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400&semi;">Facets are costumes and armor&period; Hundred Knight can equip up to three and can switch between them during battles&period; Facets each have their own strengths and weaknesses&period; Each excels at using a different weapon&period; Facet abilities can be used with a mana bar&period; The bar slowly refills from hitting enemies in combat&period; But you can use the mana in exchange for high damaging skills&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400&semi;"><strong>Giga Calories <&sol;strong><br &sol;>&NewLine;<&sol;span><&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400&semi;">The most important mechanic is the Giga Calorie mechanic&period; You start off your Giga Calories at 100 and they tick down until they hit zero&period; You can also lose them by dying&period; And if you die at zero you have to start the level over again&period; You can regain some by using special attacks&period; you gain from doing combo attacks which will also give you more mana&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400&semi;"><strong>Elite Enemies and Boss Battles <&sol;strong><&sol;span><&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400&semi;">The whole game is present in a single world map&period; Different enemies are present in different areas&period; There are even elite variants that have different attributes&period; Strong elites do more damage&period; Hardy ones have a bigger health pool&period; And Mutants can resist the weapon type they are normally vulnerable to&period; Due to their difficulty elites drop better loot and provide more experience&period; At the end of each area&comma; there is a boss battle&period; And with each boss having its own weakness they each require a new strategy&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"size-large wp-image-137761" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;05&sol;01133716&sol;hundredknightbossbattle-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>The Problems<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400&semi;">Even though you get different weapons&comma; you won&&num;8217&semi;t use them as you&&num;8217&semi;ll likely keep your facets the same&period; It makes no sense to use magic swords since the magic facet is frail and meant for staves so&period; This makes alternate weapons almost useless&period; <&sol;span><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400&semi;">Equipment is also really hard to upgrade effectively&period; You also have to switch it out constantly&period; Upgrading any early equipment a waste of resources&period; Any equipment that isn&&num;8217&semi;t legendary and of a high grade is a waste&period; In addition&comma; require five weapons for one facet rather than one makes it even hard to keep up with equipment&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3><strong>Notorious Enemies and Boss Battles <&sol;strong><&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400&semi;">Then there are Notorious enemies&period; The elite enemies I mentioned earlier that have more health and attributes&period; As you get to higher levels&comma; it takes less than a combo to kill regular enemies which makes it hard to refill your Giga Calories&period; This makes the mechanic more like a timer&period; Even with fully upgraded equipment&comma; I still found Notorious enemies taking almost no damage&period; And if I got hit even once&comma; they could kill me from full health&period; This led me to flee from them and altogether avoid them&period; <&sol;span><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400&semi;">Bosses also have huge health bars that take that take so much time to widdle down&period; This wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t be a problem if the Giga Calorie &&num;8220&semi;timer&&num;8221&semi; didn&&num;8217&semi;t make death a full level restart&period; Battles feel like an ultimate test of patience&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"aligncenter size-large wp-image-137755" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;05&sol;01131222&sol;hundredknighttext3-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><br &sol;>&NewLine;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400&semi;">These issues might not seem major at first glance&period; But they undermine the whole experience&period;Notorious enemies aren&&num;8217&semi;t worth fighting because of the time limit&period; Bosses became frustrating time sinks that made me reload my saves&period; These two things&comma; combined with the hard to upgrade weapon system stripped the enjoyment of the game&period; I found myself growling in frustration when I would be one shot by an enemy that I just spent around 5 minutes attacking&period; <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>Conclusion<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400&semi;">However&comma; all this doesn&&num;8217&semi;t mean that The Witch and the Hundred Knight 2 is a completely bad experience&period; The story is interesting enough that it made me endure the frustration&period; And the visuals only helped with that&period; The problems could easily be fixed by tuning down boss health amounts or tweaking numbers to make Notorious enemies less of a pain to deal with&period; But the end result is a game that&&num;8217&semi;s held back with cracks in its foundation&period; This makes The Witch and the Hundred Knight 2 a game that could be so much more if it weren&&num;8217&semi;t for the few flaws it has&period; There is so much potential&comma; but it&&num;8217&semi;s held back by frustrating flaws&period; The Witch and the Hundred Knight 2 is a game that will reward those looking for a good story&comma; but will frustrate because of its potential to be so much better&period; <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;

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