Review – Wytchwood

Last December, Wytchwood’s fairytale adventure with charming and textured visuals spun spells on Nintendo Switch. Limited to a digital release, at the time, Super Rare Games briefly released it from its digital-only prison with a physical edition in June this year. The time for pre-orders has come and gone, with all 4,000 copies selling out. We managed to secure a copy thanks to the staff at Super Rare Games and give this tale a playthrough. 

 

ONCE UPON A TIME…

You’re The Witch – an odd little Witch who lived in an odd little house in the swamp. One day, you’re rudely awakened by The Goat, who not only made of mess of your home, but ate the pages of your Grimoire! R.I.P. all your Spells and Reagent recipes… but The Goat is no ordinary goat, and has a quest for you. After all, you agreed to a contract? I guess a refresher is needed… You made a deal with The Goat to save The Sleeping Maiden. She was wronged by 12 Wicked Souls and to awaken her you’ll have to collect and deliver said souls to The Goat. Now that we’re caught up, go to sleep and begin your journey tomorrow…

 

 

Yes, Wytchwood is clearly a fairytale adventure from its intro. Gothic tropes are also thrown into the mix, along with an art style that’s storybook-esque – gouache-like paintings that are inspired by the works of Mary Blair and Eyvind Earle. The delivery and progression of the story are split into chapters, 14 in total. The first chapter acts as the game’s tutorial (“First Things First”). Then there are 12 chapters for each of the 12 souls to find (each named “The [insert animal villain that we’re to give a comeuppance to here]”) and they’re released in batches. As for the final chapter, it acts as an overarching objective dedicated to the entire adventure where you’re trying to wake The Sleeping Maiden (called “The Sleeping Maiden”). 

As for how to proceed in this witchy-tale, it all comes back to restoring your damaged Grimoire.

 

GAMEPLAY

Wytchwood is, ultimately, one big crafting, fetch-quest adventure. You’ll be discovering recipes, collecting items, crafting ingredients into Spells and/or Reagents, and using them or delivering them to certain characters/objects that advances the tales. This particular mechanic requires balance, but there are those who aren’t fans of it no matter what. With that said, if you don’t enjoy fetch-quest games no matter the plot, then Wytchwood isn’t a game you’ll enjoy.

Personally, I don’t mind the gameplay style and can thoroughly enjoy it when done right. Luckily, here, the dev team made some smart design choices. Inventory management is pretty easy. Playing into the fairy tale and witchy themes, The Witch has a bag of holding allowing you to collect however many ingredients your heart desires (or what the game’s code limits – I’m guessing 99 of each ingredient). Items that do qualify to be accessed via the Inventory menu are limited to tools (Shears, Logger’s Hatchet, Trowel, etc.) and select Spells. There are 32 slots there, but I barely ever filled up 16 on my initial playthrough. Basically, you’ll be focused on crafting the items needed and not having to fuss with inventory management. Hoard to your heart’s content!

Overall, there are 69 different kinds of ingredients to collect and you’re able to fashion them into 46 different Spells and 30 different Reagents. These all aren’t dumped on you from the get-go either. They become available in batches thanks to the release of different locations and what’s needed for specific chapters. Plus, you get to find the recipes for yourself by picking up the item in question or using the game’s “Witch’s Eye” gimmick of analyzing characters, creatures, objects, etc.

 

 

Depending on your play style though, be prepared to double back to locations – 9 main areas in total. Luckily, there is an overworld hub with portals to help speed up travel, and even an item that’ll magically transport you to the hub!

 

 

As I mentioned earlier, these areas are released in waves, alongside the quests for the 12 souls. Plus, some areas (The Forest, The Swamp, etc.) start out small and expand with the release of certain chapters. The 12 souls you must collect aren’t thrown all at you – you get them in batches of four. The game also allows you to go at your own pace and direction, meaning you can focus on one particular soul at a time or juggle all four that are available. There’s a nice little detailed checklist in the top righthand corner of the screen that will also keep you on track for a particular chapter (and you can swap out which chapter to focus on with a little menuing in the Journal tab). 

There is a health system in place and some “light combat” involved. The Witch has up to 3 hearts and one can be lost due to a successful attack from an enemy. Not all creatures will attack The Witch, and it’s fairly easy to outrun them. Chances are these creatures might get a hit in before you disarm them with a Spell or they caught you off-guard. Replenishing hearts is easy, thanks to the Mending Poultice Spell. If you happen to run out of hearts, The Witch will only drop some of their items and be returned to their home. The dropped items don’t disappear, and you can run back and pick them up. 

 

BONUS – PHYSICAL EDITION

In June 2022, Super Rare Games announced it would be selling a physical edition of Wytchwood. The print run was limited to 4,000 copies and sold out before I received my copy for review. So if you made it this far into the review and want to get the game, you’ll have to either head over to the Nintendo eShop and get the game digitally or get lucky and find one of the physical copies available for sale elsewhere.

The physical release comes with the following: a physical case that features a reversible cover (in this case, having some lovely concept art of The Witch in a field of sunflowers), a physical cart with the current build of the game (no update from the Nintendo eShop necessary), a small full-color manual showing offer various pieces of art from the game’s development (ranging from sketches to the game’s cover to character portraits), a 3-pack of trading cards (with 5 cards to collect plus a shiny variant), and a collectible sticker (plus a smaller one use to close the plastic packaging it was all bundled in). 

 

 

For collectors of physical games, it’s a nice set. While the manual is small (measures 3 5/16 in. x 4 5/16 in. closed, 6 10/16 in. x 4 5/16 in. open), it’s a solid addition that’s been missing from game releases for years and fits easily in the game case. Sure, it doesn’t consist of details like the controls for the game or lore, but it acts as a mini artbook. Easier than trying to find official work online via searching portfolio sites, Reddit AMAs, etc. The cards and sticker are a bonus, but for completionists who want the full set, you’ll have to order at least an additional pack from Super Rare Games and hope RNG is in your favor. Still, it’s official merch, which for die hard fans, can be extremely rare for some of the games selected for SRG’s physical releases.

 

 

Super Rare Games ships their copies out of London, so if you’re local, you’ll get your copy fairly quick. International, on the other hand, has a bit more of a turnaround, but you can always check out the tracking code and see how long it takes to escape customs. My copy arrived just shy of two weeks after I received the “your order has shipped” e-mail. Which, honestly, isn’t bad at all. Keep that in mind if one of their releases catches your eye and you want it in time for a particular event (gift, want to stream it, etc.).

 

OVERALL

I found Wytchwood to be a rather charming game. It’s short (you can finish it in 10 hours, but I took longer with a playthrough of 11 hours and 50 minutes), but man, is the writing fun. There’s whimsy, humor, and some fun altering of fairytales and children’s stories (Three Little Pigs and Puss in Boots). The narration and description of events were vivid and had me imagining what kind of elaborate cutscenes could be drawn up (or board them myself because fan art is a thing). I’d be up for another playthrough at my leisure, like rereading a nice little odd book.

 

 

For all its positives, there are some downsides. I don’t recommend trying to play through the entire game in one sitting unless you love fetch-questing crafting games that darn much. Enjoy it in chunks – a few chapters a session. There was also a bug (not the collectible, ingredient-bestowing kind) I encountered a few times during my run. The Witch, suddenly, would be stuck and I couldn’t move her. Luckily, placing an item (like a Snap Trap) did the trick and I was able to get her back onto the quest at hand (and pick up the item to use again for later). And finally, the ending… with all the build-up of collecting the 12 souls, I thought the ending would answer all the questions I had concerning The Goat and The Sleeping Maiden. To be as spoiler-free as possible, yes, some questions get answered… but I was hoping for a little bit more. At the very least, the ending opens up a possible sequel if the dev team wants to revisit the world of Wytchwood again.  

 

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