Or to give the full title "WitchSpring3 Re:Fine - The Story of Eirudy" tells a classic tale of good versus evil.
In a world where the conflict between humans and witches is approaching its climax, witches like Eirudy are forced to flee into solitude to escape persecution. Hiding deep in the Misty Forest, the lonely witch one day makes an encounter that leads to a fateful decision and begins an adventure to seal the fate of humans and witches in Derkarr.
WitchSpring is a franchise of RPG lite mobile games from Korean developer Suyoung Jang, founder of Kiwi Walks.
The franchise kicked off back in 2015 and there are currently 4 games available. WitchSpring 3 is the first one to make the transition to Nintendo Switch and is itself, a standalone entry, playable without any prior knowledge of the previous games.
The Switch version is a graphically enhanced, fully voiced version of the mobile game and has been brought to us via ININ games (who brought us the fantastic CrossCode).
WitchSpring 3 is at its heart a JRPG, it's obviously heavily influenced by Atelier, but unfortunately not in the same league.
It's limited by it's mobile roots and source material, despite visual and audio overhauls, it never quite escapes the claustrophobic feel of a mobile game. Play areas don't so much scroll as you explore as they do load in small confined chunks.
That's not to say it's a bad game, as an RPG there is still a lot to do, a lot to explore and a lot of progression. Be it the "Rocky" style training montages to boost base stats, the cooking and crafting for item enhancements and the (genuinely cool) doll making; which enables you to eventually summon 3 golem like pets with various stats and abilities to fight alongside you.
The narrative is pushed along via the Witches journal and daily goals, which can be a little cumbersome to manage as opposed to if they had implemented a mini map, but ultimately serves its purpose.
Combat, as you'd expect from a JRPG, is turn based and works extremely well. Fun abilities and interesting synergies with your dolls give enough flexibility in a tactical approach to keep you entertained.
The overall look of the game is really nice, just the game as a whole is a little sluggish to move along and load in.
The adventure is now fully voiced in either Japanese or Korean with English subtitles. The subs are a little hit and miss in places, but nothing that would cause any confusion.
However the voice acting is quite disparate between the two languages. The Japanese voice actress for Eirudy is Marika Kouno who has voiced many successful games and anime (including the recent Scarlet Nexus), however the lackadaisical drawl and cadence of the protagonist gets annoying very quickly.
I found the Korean voice actors to be much more in keeping with the style of the game.
WitchSpring3 is, at its heart, a good game, there is plenty to do, it does bring its own unique stamp on the genre and is genuine fun to play and progress.
It is perfectly suited to portable platform and therein lies the rub.
This is being sold on Nintendo eShop as a $39.99 game. Despite having some upgrades and enhancements over the original mobile game, you can simply pick the mobile version up for under $5 !
Even if you aren't comparing versions and prices it's just not a $40 game. It's a shame that its been priced so high as a lot of people are likely to pass this over, if it had been reasonably priced at around the $19.99 mark, I think it would gain a lot more traction and attention.
Overall a good game, but add it to a sale tracker such as DekuDeals and grab it on a deep discount.
WitchSpring3 Re:Fine - The Story of Eirudy is a standalone game and can be enjoyed even if you haven't experienced the previous adventures of the WitchSpring universe.
Customisable Magic System
Turn Based Battles
Different Story Paths
Multi Language Support
Superb Crafting System
Unique Atmosphere
A Lovable Protagonist
Individual Characters that develop and evolve
Fabulous Soundtrack
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