NIS America let me play a little bit of The Witch and the Hundred Knights, an upcoming action RPG in development for PlayStation 3. The part I tried took place in an open field with a top down perspective similar to the classic Zelda games. I took control of the Hundred Knights and ran right up to a monster and started fighting. The controls are intuitive so I think anyone can start slashing away.
Hundred Knights started a combo with a sword and after two hits he switched to a spear then finished using a hammer. While The Witch and the Hundred Knights is easy to get into, there is tactical depth to it since players can create their own custom combo. You do this by picking which weapons you want Hundred Knights to use in a combo. Each combo is five hits, but the weapons you equip and where you place them changes the damage multiplier for each strike. I played around with this and replaced some sword attacks with spear pokes. Damage-wise, this wasn’t as effective since it lowered the damage multiplier for strikes two and three down to 1.2x. A few more weapon switches later and I was able to increase the attack rate up to 1.5 for the second strike.
The Witch and the Hundred Knights also has three types of attacks – slash, blow, and magic. Some attacks just won’t work on certain types of enemies. A bird enemy that I ran into wouldn’t take any damage from the combo I made. Every strike was invalid and a representative from NIS America explained players will need to experiment using different attack types.
I only got to play a slice of The Witch and the Hundred Knights so I didn’t need to concern myself with one of the main gameplay mechanics – maintained Hundred Knights’ hunger. If his Giga Calorie meter drops to zero, you have to return to town. The save file I loaded had plenty of food items so there was no way I would be forced to retreat. However, it feels like The Witch and the Hundred has some roguelike elements. Nippon Ichi Software will release the game in Japan this July. NIS America will localize The Witch and the Hundred Knights, but have not set a release day for the title.
