Harvest Moon Forever: Review of Witch's Witch

Friday, May 7, 2010

Review of Witch's Witch

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Natsume gave me a opportunity to explore the upcoming DS game, 'Witch's Witch', some time ago but I only now have been given official permission to post about it. 'Witch's Wish' is due to be released on 25 May 2010 but can be pre-ordered at Amazon now for $19.99. I have added a link to this post that will take you directly to Amazon if you wish to reserve your copy.

'Witch's Wish' is a delightful little game that should appeal to any one who enjoyed 'Princess Debut'. Your Character is Vicky, an aspiring witch who must solve a mystery and make some critical decisions as to the future of her community in the course of her story. 'Witch's Wish' is not centred on romance as much as 'Princess Debut' but in its own way, shares some of the essential elements of that game and does have its own romantic elements where some of Vicky's friends are concerned.

First of all, there is the Touchscreen action, which is extremely clever, in that you have the opportunity to use Elemental Runes in the true sense of the word (signifying magical sigils) in order to cast spells. Somehow, you have a real sense of casting magic by doing this. A certain amount of accuracy is required to cast the Spells properly. As you gain experience by completing Chapters, you gain more potent elemental spells. Knowing which elemental spell to use at any given time can be critical to your success.

Exploring the Map to speak to the right people at the right time is the key to success in any given Chapter. If you do not receive the information you need from specific Characters, you will not be able to move forward. You can unlock new songs and pictures when you smash objects by casting the proper Spell. As there are three levels of Elemental Spells and you have the power to use them only in specific Chapters, the game very much hinges on knowing WHEN to perform a specific action or visit a specific area.

There is a wonderful arena named 'Witch One' where you can engage in magical duels with other aspiring Witches. Winning matches against the highest three opponents will allow you to gain new Badges and Fruits, the items that unlock new songs and pictures. Again, as you will possess the most powerful Spells only in specific Chapters of the game, it is important to know when to enter a match in the Witch One arena, which is not always accessible to your Character.

Although 'Witch's Wish' is suitable to players of all ages, including children, like so many of the games Natsume produces, it does deal with some very profound philosophical and social issues. This issues are discussed both with passion and with humour. Again, as is characteristic of Natsume games, even minor characters are developed in some detail and there is a wealth of dialogue to explore.

Social issues are evident from the very start in a world where rich and poor are divided by a wall and the shadow of the wall prevents sunlight from reaching Lower Town. Furthermore, only the rich have the means to attend magic schools, which are prohibitively expensive and thus magic has become the prerogative of the rich. Finally, the Wall was created by a 'legendary Witch', who long ago sealed away all the magic of the townspeople in order to prevent conflict between them.

Vicky, a young girl from Lower Town, aspires to become a Witch. Her motives, even at the very outset are pure. She wishes to be able to use magic to 'help others'. She passionately believes that:

'Magic is every one’s hopes and dreams! It’s wrong to seal something so important!'

Against this is the argument that:

'If every one wants to make their dreams come true, they’ll fight. Isn’t that right? Every one has different dreams... There’s no such thing as a world where every one’s dreams come true... Unfulfilled dreams either turn into something ugly and keep accumulating, or break out as conflicts.'

These are profound issues and one easily can perceive 'magic' as the power of technology. The residents of Lower Town who are manual labours desire magic in order to be able to use it to perform their tasks. The rich residents of the Upper Town are opposed to this, wishing to keep all magic power and knowledge to themselves.

There are more fundamental social and philosophical issues at stake concerning government and the right to control others as well as the limits to power and who should have the right to choose how much freedom is allowed to the masses.

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For all Harvest Moon fans and players

As Freyashawk, I have written about 150 guides for games, most of which have been guides for Harvest Moon games. These are published on IGN. IGN has given me the title of 'Mistress of Harvest Moon' and I strive daily to earn the right to maintain that title. Although there is a link page on IGN that lists all the guides published there, they are not organised by game, but rather given in alphabetical order. I therefore created this page in order to provide links to the guides I have created for each Harvest Moon game. If you access the General Guide for any game, links should be included to all other guides for that game in a section at the end. I will try to add links to ALL guides as time permits, but until I do, you always can refer to my user page at IGN for the complete list.

I wrote the Official Strategy Guide for Tree of Tranquility for BradyGames as well.
Harvest Moon Forever!

How to Use my Guides

I write three different basic types of game guides. I usually write a General Guide for every game, which is fairly comprehensive and deals with all aspects of the game. It may or may not be in the form of a Walkthrough, dealing with game aspects as they occur. My Innocent Life General Guide is an example of a General Guide that is organised as a Walkthrough.

After writing a General Comprehensive Guide, I often write a Calendar Guide giving birthday and festival dates, with additional information that may be helpful, such as favourite gifts for each individual. For all Harvest Moon games, I usually write a number of 'mini-guides', such as Events Guides for each year of gameplay, or Recipe Guides that give all recipes one can make. Fishing, Mining, Shipping or Item Value Guides are other mini-guides that can be very useful when playing Harvest Moon. Character Guides give detailed information about every character in any specific game. My Courtship and Marriage Guide is devoted to all aspects of Courtship and Marriage, including schedules of Heart Events, Rival Heart Events and the likes and dislikes of every Eligible Girl and/or Bachelor.

Although this site is devoted to Harvest Moon, I have included links to game guides for other games. I created a separate link section for Animal Crossing Wild World as well, because I wrote more than one guide for that game.

N.B. All my game guides are published by IGN. This webpage has been created simply to allow players to find links to all my guides more easily.

Copyright Infringement Warning

It is really sad to discover that there are individuals who are willing to steal my guides and to attempt to publish them under their names. Fortunately, there are many players who recognise my guides when they see them anywhere on the internet and who are willing to alert me when some one tries to steal my material. I want to thank all those players for their help in these cases.

Some one stole one of my guides and tried to publish it on Gamefaqs under his/her name. The guide has been removed and the poster has been banned. I now have a contact in the Legal Department at CNet. I spend many months sometimes writing a guide. They are available for the private use of any individual without cost, but they are not available for theft!
If you want permission to include a link to one of my guides on your site, please contact me directly.

Friends of Mineral Town and More Friends of Mineral Town

You will notice that I wrote far more guides for More Friends of Mineral Town than I did for the original 'Friends of Mineral Town'. At some point, I would like to publish more specific Events Guides for Friends of Mineral Town, but players should be aware of the fact that ALL Calendar Events Guides for MFoMT can be used when playing the original FoMT. The Events are the same in most cases in both games. If, therefore, you are playing FoMT and you wish to know the events that can be experienced in the third year of gameplay, refer to the 'Third Year Calendar Events Guide' for 'More Friends of Mineral Town'.