WitchSpring R Review (PlayStation 5)

by Jim Smale · Published August 30, 2024 · Updated August 30, 2024

WitchSpring R Review is a story-driven RPG combining elements of simulation, collecting & crafting, and battling. Play as Pieberry, a white-haired, bunny-eared witch growing up in a forest filled with monsters. To relive her childhood memories (eating delicious food!), she longs to venture among humans, but she can’t find a way to the outside world… until your story begins! A world of new experiences is waiting for YOU to explore with her.

WitchSpring R Review Pros:

Decent Anime cel-shaded style graphics.
5.50GB download size.
Platinum trophy.
50 save slots.
Japanese voice work with English subtitles.
Four game difficulties – Easy, normal, hard, and very hard.
Clear tutorial pop-ups as you play.
A 3D game world set on an isometric camera angle.
When using a bow it goes into a close-up view and you have control of aiming.
Crafting plays a huge part in the game with the many potions a particular highlight. When crafting something 3 times, you master it which then rewards you with a bonus item/potion when crafted.
Dialogue can be set to auto-scroll and skip.
Turn-based combat.
Earn turn bonuses by knocking down an enemy with a physical attack, finishing off an enemy with a physical attack can also fill your turn bonus meter up.
Counter-attacking an enemy’s attack is automatic.
Magic, physical, and pet attacks are at your disposal.
Damage numbers pop up during combat.
You automatically loot enemies after a combat encounter.
Every four physical attacks trigger an instant powerful burst of magic.
When encountering an enemy you initially get an overview of their stats and you choose to then engage or run away.
Such a charming colourful game world.
Soft enchanting soundtrack.
The controls are easy enough to learn.
Collect resources and materials from the world and from the inhabitants.
Training is where you select which stat to level up, each training session triggers a mini-game.
Mini games can be practiced beforehand or you can just set it to autoplay.
Set up training schedules.
Doing the mini-games rewards more than autoplay.
Cool little animations of each available training session and a brief description of what stats they change.
Sleeping in your bed advances game time and also heals you and replenished the mp.
Save and load when you want within your house.
One cool thing is if you use a magic attack and then a physical one, magic stays on the weapon and does a bonus explosion.
Viewpoints to interact with to see more of the world.
Mini map that shows Collectibles, enemies, and objective markers.
Find and activate altars for fast travel.
Enemies have a circle around them and entering it triggers combat.
The enemies will respawn over time as will resources and animals.
Memorable characters to meet.
Earn exp from fights.
Recovery stones can be activated to heal you and help you recover some mp.
Setup auto craft for particular potions so that when you enter your house they all get crafted and put into your inventory automatically.
Take on dungeons complete with puzzles and boss encounters.
Pets are where you get their health down low and they use a magic circle attack to hopefully capture them, which then means you can use them in battle.
Some pets can be used to ride or fly around the world, or you can place pets in your home.
Different pets make traversal over certain terrains possible that wasn’t before.
The game does boast some great set pieces and cutscene spectacles.
Has a lot of the Pokemon game DNA in the gameplay.
Feeding pets will increase their affinity with you which in turn increases their skill power in battle.
At any time you can bring up your objectives.
The world map fills in as you progress in the story.
Earn and equip different outfits.

WitchSpring R Review Cons:

No initial game settings.
Cannot skip the opening cutscene or any story-based cutscene.
You can only save at set places.
Slow starter.
Quite a lot to take in, especially with the combat as you get bombarded with all the attacks then the magic then the bonuses, and finally the defending of attacks.
No English voice choice.
The early game is very guided and won’t let any deviation from the flow of tutorials.
A lot of extra button presses which are not needed like one for accepting going in and put of the house.
It can be hard to tell at times when an enemy is down or is dead.
A lot of the game is stop-start and never just flows.
No dedicated pause button.
Does that annoying thing of not letting you go somewhere or do something until the game says so.