Game Review: Enter The Witch’s House

Just as promised a few days ago, I plan to review many classic/cult RPG freeware, manly of the horror genre, that I believe deserve more recognition despite being out for a few year now. I started this new segment with my personal favorite, probably because it was the first of its kind that I have played, Misao. Today I’ll continue with an even harder and in my opinion darker game, The Witch’s House which was created by Fummy back in 2012 with the newest version being version 1.07 and it was developed on RPG Maker VX. Originally it was a Japanese game but just like Misao, it has been translated to English.

Plot

The game tells the story of a young girl named Viola who visits the forest and for unknown reasons finds herself trapped by thornned roses that prevent her from exiting the forest. Her only course of action is to enter a mysterious big house that lies up ahead and find there refugee and probably some answers as to why she is trapped. Accompanied by a talking cat she will face many scary enemies and curses, all connected to the witch’s house.

Gameplay

The game is puzzle oriented which means that as the player you will have to explore all around the house, find hidden items, use them correctly and avoid traps. You can’t fight enemies (vengeful spirits, monsters and more) and you can only run away from them or outsmart them.The controls are simple; you press Space or Enter to interact or to collect items, and Esc to open your inventory. You can also press Shift to run and trust me, this action will prove to be very useful in certain events. You can save your progress by interacting with the cat and because unlike Misao, you can’t perform a Quick Save, I suggest you always return to the last known position of the cat after you complete an event because you never know when the next save point will be.

In your quest you will have to do things that will probably make you cringe e.g. mutilating a teddy bear, but everything is necessary in order for you to advance and unlock new tasks. The story itself is also very dark and you will discover that step by step while coming across the witch’s diaries and you realize what horrors took place in that same house. Saying more could easily spoil the plot and as a result, the fun and excitement of figuring out the truth yourselves. Some puzzles are harder than other but with a little clever thinking you can figure everything out. There is also a walkthrough available at the game’s main page.

There are a total of 2 different endings that you could end up with, 1 normal ending and 1 true ending but there are 2 more “endings” that you could try to get after you have finished playing the game, as they add more content and they will only make sense if you already know what’s going on. In addition, Fummy has written a novel titled The Diary of Ellen that acts as prequel and I suggest you read it after completing the game with the True Ending. It sheds light to many things because, trust me, you will want to know more after finishing the game.

Prepare for plenty of pixelated gore and eerie encounters and don’t be tricked by the cute graphics, because a horror game is a horror game no matter wat it looks like. All it takes is a good story and everything else then follows.

Graphics & Sounds

The Witch’s House is a 2D game built on RPG Maker VR, with pixalated graphics and retro sound effects. It has a few hand-drawn animations, especially during interactions but that’s about it. Most of the game takes place inside the house with little light and dark colors, which makes the game more spooky and scary. The BG music is also very eery and fits the atmosphere perfectly.

Conclusion

All in all, The Witch’s House is a horror puzzler that will keep reminding you of its genre from the start till the very last second of the game. It will be really hard to let go once you start playing and it won’t surprise me if you finish it in one day. Definitely a game worth trying out. Let us know your thoughts and impressions in the comments below.

Download The Witch's House here.

The Witch's House screenshots