Welcome to the wonderfully hectic adventure of young Thomas and his aunt Alice in this beautifully made visual novel known as My Aunt is a Witch. During this adventure, you will learn more about each character as you progress through multiple scenes, allowing you to create your own opinions based on the story at hand. Thomas, with the help of his aunt Alice, sets out on an unexpected journey to become a potion-making apprentice whilst escaping his difficult life living with his dad and step-mother who genuinely can not stand Thomas. It’s somewhat of an escape route but not one he ever could have imagined being involved with. Visual novels I find can often be hit and miss to most depending on their content. Developed by Garven Visual Novels and Published by Sometimes You, I believe My Aunt is a Witch is definitely one of my more enjoyable games of the VN genre with the engrossing plot and unique characters always keeping you entertained and wondering where you will be taken next. Whether it be making new potions, collecting ingredients, travelling through portals, or getting yourself out of dangerous situations; you will always be pleasantly surprised.
VicciVulpix played My Aunt is a Witch for six hours on Xbox One S.
What we liked!
- Intriguing characters – I must say that the various characters who you meet throughout the game have been made to all have their own unique feel to them. Thomas, his aunt Alice and her boyfriend/cat Grimmor (yes, you read that correctly) are the main three characters the game revolves around the majority of the time. You will of course meet other people and mysterious things along the way but these definitely continued to add more character and general story to the title that I appreciated as it created more depth to everyone you bump into. Obviously, everyone will form their own opinion but I was really happy to be greeted with a great variety of personalities, humour, seriousness, and quirkiness to keep you entertained.
- Colourful and gorgeous visuals – The wonderful art style and vibrant colours I found made the game feel alive which managed to grasp my attention further. All the scenes are different which means they all have a fresh appearance. The drawn graphics pop and give the game a quaint but especially attractive look in each aspect of the game, whether it be a still or moving scene.
- An adventurous and enjoyable plot – From dangerous homes to mixing strange potions, to meeting suspicious beings – My Aunt is a Witch has it all and even more. The game starts with you travelling to your Aunt Alice where you come across the shocking discovery that she is indeed a witch. You then are given tasks to complete around the house but mainly to find various items so you may begin your journey as a potion-making apprentice. You will then continue by jumping through portals to other areas where your story will continue with some foes and challenges to overcome. I believe the story was told rather well and I’m looking forward to seeing what occurs next.
Somewhere between
- Interactive elements – There are four elements that make up this game for me – some of which have been made and implemented better than others. The reading of the story itself, the point and click aspect, the small mini-game, and very few options to make decisions that affect your story. I thoroughly enjoyed the story and found myself constantly wondering what was going to happen next. The point and click aspect was also fun when your objective was to find things for your aunt Alice with the sensitivity being just a little on the high side. With regards to both the mini-game and dialogue aspects, these really could have been improved upon as the mini-game you only get to play twice very close to the beginning of the game and the dialogue option does not affect your story other than having to start from your previous save if you choose incorrectly which was mildly disappointing.
- Abrupt and unexpected ending – Admittedly, I have previously said I would really like to experience a visual novel game that had more story and I feel like My Aunt is a Witch has exactly that, with the game ending with “to be continued”, implying a sequel which I’m already excited and looking forward to playing. My criticism comes from how hasty and sudden the game concluded which certainly made it feel rushed towards the end and not in a good way as events just happened far too suddenly.
- Audio kept the game alive – Animated sound effects made the game feel like more than just a visual novel to me. They enhanced the feelings and more intense scenes to grab your attention should there be large sections of text to read where I will admit I found myself zoning out. They definitely made me feel more immersed throughout the game and were somewhat amusing and tense at times when they really needed to be. The game also changed volume depending on the overall intended atmosphere for whichever frightful or relaxed scene you found yourself involved in.
What we disliked
- Text could be difficult to get along with at times – There is no doubt the game suffered from a poor translation in areas. The story starts off being fairly well written but it, unfortunately, doesn’t take long for this to be short-lived with sentences failing to make sense and typing mistakes popping up that lose any immersion you have built up fairly quickly. With any VN game comes the assumption that you will be spending the majority of your time reading the story, leading to disappointment when this becomes more of a chore than an enjoyable main element.
- Unnecessary over-descriptive writing – Visual novels are exactly what they say. They are pretty much the equivalent of a storybook with pictures instead of just writing. The imagery is a huge element to the game but having to read descriptive writing of the environment when you can clearly see what the area looks like was in no way necessary. It didn’t add anything extra to the gaming experience other than to the word count.
CONCLUSION
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Hello, I’m Victoria. I’m from the UK and have been playing video games for as long as I can remember; back on DreamCast. I’ve pretty much fallen for Xbox since I was around eight years old and remember BioShock being my first game on the Xbox360. Although I find it thoroughly enjoyable to not only experience gameplay, I also find comfort in getting lost and engrossed in the online worlds that sometimes differ greatly from what we know. Another side of my Xbox passion would be achievement hunting and gamerscore. I thrive when I hear the little sound of one popping up on the screen and I’m always finding ways to work on my backlog when possible. Horror is my favourite genre so if you have any recommendations, don’t be afraid to send them my way!
