Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time features intriguing characters, a solid story, tons of dialogue and simplistic RPG mechanics. It was definitely made for a younger audience in mind, and at times seems to forget that the younger audience can take on a challenge. Much like its main character Akko, it is going to be great someday, but right now just needs a bit more balance and work.
Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time released this past Tuesday and our first foray was an interesting experience. The story is simple. It’s an anime-led adventure about a goofball budding witch named Akko that discovers a giant clock in a hidden library room. The clock can shift time back and forth, and somehow Akko has screwed up time (at least at the beginning) because of it. Desperately not wanting to mess up anymore as a budding which, Akko is trying to figure out the chamber before there are disastrous consequences, which could mean her expulsion from the school, or possibly worse outcomes. Little Witch Academia is not a bad story, as you get a Harry Potter set of characters mixed with anime. I can dig that, especially when the wide variety of personalities are put in play with the overall story (you’ll see a lot of fun characters to help push Akko along).
Beyond the story, which is pure anime at its finest, the gameplay is a simplistic RPG at the core. You find items to upgrade equipment, spells, and generally, make Akko and her team a formidable set of protagonist. There was a lot of thought and love put into the RPG aspects of this title and it turns out well. When you’re not gathering and upgrading your character, then you’re traversing dungeons, as well as other places, fighting baddies, and living inside an action-led RPG experience. It’s a neat balance and the game seems to be okay with pulling off that balance, though the complication of one outweighs the other.
Outside of the upgrade system, which is more complicated than I expected from this game, we are talking about close to Skyrim level of complication (more complicated than other games geared towards kids), the actual action shows you for whom this game was meant to be played by, which is a younger demographic. The bosses in this game are easy to overcome, which can be taken down by button mashing and identification of patterns. The controls are overly simplistic, which helps that demographic out that has not ever played an RPG before. For example, if you need to cast a spell during a fight, you hold down L1+R1, then hit a corresponding button. It’s simple, it’s easy, and it fits the younger demographic audience.
Getting back to action, the first big boss I found in my first dungeon was a demon that was in the shape of a castle. To get to that demon/castle I traversed halls of baddies, including smaller demons, skeleton knights, blobs, and various traps. While that sounds like a lot, the fighting took no effort whatsoever. I simply angled Akko slightly below the line-of-sight of the baddies and just kept pressing the attack button. Eventually, I got through the bad guys, made it to the castle, and found another simple pattern to quickly dispose of the giant beast. While this type of fighting may not be my cup of tea because of its simple patterned outcome, I can respect that the audience playing a cool looking game that happens to be an RPG, maybe the gamer’s first RPG, can ease right into this genre through this game and start to grasp the usual gameplay suspects that come with RPGs. I get that and respect the hell out of it.
Having said that, I still think the game could have been a bit more difficult in the A.I. department. Kids are smart folk, and they can figure out difficult and complicate situations sometimes, even better than adults at times. More moves, more complicated ways for the enemies to dodge the player’s attack would have gone a long way to making this game a bit more entertaining and engaging for a younger audience. Heck, my nine-year-old enjoyed a bit of it, but quickly went back to playing Super Mario World on the Super Nintendo because LWA simply didn’t feel like a challenge. I think that could have been improved with better A.I. from the enemies. Trust that kids can overcome frustrating situations. They’re capable beasts.
Beyond enemies, the exploration part of the game and the problem solving is spot-on for a younger set of gamers. The puzzle solving, such as putting the right books back in the library, or helping out fellow teachers or students with their issues is a positive piece to this gameplay puzzle. It is small tasks that need a bit of thinking applied to get through, but nothing too incredibly out there that would make a kid not want to play this game. That part of the game is engaging and helps to grow the type of gamer that would enjoy the heck out of Bethesda titles in the future.
The other positive of this game, and a negative if you’re a grouchy old-man like me, is the dialogue. Spoken in Japanese, the players must read the dialogue, which seems endless at times, and keep track of the discussion. There is a ton of dialogue, folks. I mean, just gobs and gobs of it. I didn’t discover the ‘O’ button on the controller, which skips dialogue, until later in the game, which saved me some time. Again, I’m an old guy, so I understood exactly where the story was going most of the time and didn’t require that much dialogue thrown at me. For the younger gamer wanting to get involved with the characters, the crisis, and the general wackiness of the story, the dialogue creates a nice adventure. Kids will adore where it all goes, the personalities of the characters that flow through the dialogue, and will enjoy how the story turns out. To help make this less of a book and more of a balance for kids to enjoy what Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time is about, A+ Games made sure the visuals were solid and followed the off-beat animated style of franchise to push the aforementioned dialogue from one scene to the next. They did a solid job in that department.
Sticking with the animation, I felt like this was the strongest part of the game. Having never seen the anime it was born from, I enjoyed how the visuals, even down to the running and stopping, were just 100% pure anime. The textures, the background art, and even the enemies created a world within Little Witch Academia that made it look and feel more than it was just a game. It was visually stunning and appealing to see in motion. It goes perfectly with the One Piece and Naruto’s of the Bandai Namco Entertainment family. Nothing felt at all mechanical, rather it visually flowed perfectly from one scene to the next. Bravo to A+ Games for doing a great job on that aspect of the title.
All in all, Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time features intriguing characters, a solid story, tons of dialogue and simplistic RPG mechanics. It was definitely made for a younger audience in mind, and at times seems to forget that the younger audience can take on a challenge. Much like its main character Akko, it is going to be great someday, but right now just needs a bit more balance and work.
