Witch Explorer review

Delightful art and an intriguing blend of genres just might cast a spell on you.

Many early tower defense games had stretches of downtime. After strategically placing turrets, you’d often sit back and watch as your tactics were put to the test. The moments were undoubtedly tense. But except for the possibility of enhancing existing towers or ordering the construction of new ones, there usually wasn’t much else to do. Let’s face it, even PixelJunk Monsters’ upgrade dance wasn’t that involving.

With Witch Explorer, Pico Games adopts an opposite approach. Here, the Osaka-based, solo developer offers a consummate test of your multitasking abilities by blending the tower defense and shoot ‘em genres. In between rounds, you’ll use any acquired food ingredients for recipes that provide permanent stat boosts and perks. Yes, it’s an ambitious amalgam. But save for a bit of excessive grinding, Pico mostly manages to pull it off.

Entering ‘The Cave of No Return’

Unlike most tower defense games, Witch Explorer establishes a bit of dispensable context. Struggling to keep the magic item shop once opened by her parents, Tia the apprentice witch sets off to reduce her debts. While on a mineral-gathering expedition, she runs into Maat, The Spirit of Life. The deity, who resembles a giant blue cat with wings, says that element gathering has been impaired by the presence of malevolent monsters. The two strike a win-win deal that sends Tia across five different worlds to combat the creatures, while a mannequin named Doll runs the market. As you can probably tell from the figurine’s name, the script isn’t sophisticated, but it helps justify your assortment of duties.

The first world functions as a tutorial, with individual stages demonstrating the abilities of Witch Explorer’s different defensive monsters. If you’ve familiar with the genre, expect to see the basic unit types, with monsters that attack across short and long ranges, as well as launch projectiles, or slow down enemies. Unsurprisingly, your creature emplacements can be upgraded, but you’ll have to unlock each tier of augmentation first. Unlike some tower defense games, you won’t be building circuitous pathways to maximize damage. Stages customarily don’t have a lot of excess space for your units, which helps to keep things manageable.

Broomsticks, Bullets, and Battlements

While the constant cavalcade of enemies marches toward the crystal you’re tasked with protecting, Tia takes to the air. Much like a traditional horizontal STG, the broom-flying character lets loose with a cascade of projectiles that can help defeat enemies. Once you’re six levels in, you’re simultaneously placing new monsters, dodging bullets, flying to capture mana pellets, and shooting away to help stop the most resilient monsters. None of these tasks would be difficult on its own but when they are layered, Witch Explorer drinks up your brain’s processing power. If you enjoy the feeling of being mentally inundated, there’s a good chance Explorer will enthrall.

Of course, there are a few irritations. You can move the cursor for unit construction either under or to the right of Tia. But sporadically, a dense queue of monsters can prohibit access to some of the spaces you might want to drop a defensive creature. But the bigger issue is that grinding is mandatory, at least if you don’t select the proper power-ups in a very specific order. So, if you’re playing Witch Explorer without the benefit of a guide, expect to replay each world a few times. Although the game touts five different areas, it’s unlikely you’ll make it to the final, boss-filled world without a failure or three. And while win streaks can pad your pockets, Explorer is a bit tight-fisted with the money and materials, seemingly to stretch out the game’s playtime.

Conclusion

On the upside, the Switch port is based on the update that tweaks the way the lunchboxes are handled. These are used to restore health between stages, which can prolong your winning streak. Interestingly, each world offers a straightforward shooter stage. There are no defensive worries here and you get to select monsters to help keep the skies clear. The catch is that your units deplete your mana supply, goading you into gunning down every on-screen opponent.

At its core, Witch Explorer leans mainly on its tower defense elements. As such, fans of the genre will find the habitual allure of creating a seamless placement of defenses. The shooting comes secondary, as Tia isn’t strong enough to repel the invasion on her own. Before tackling Witch Explorer, make sure you’re OK with that arrangement and that you’re not bothered by a need for grinding.

Witch Explorer was played on Switch with review code provided by the publisher.