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Would you battle fearsome monsters for a homemade strawberry pie? If so, you’re in good company. WitchSpring R is a whimsical, story-driven RPG that follows the story of Pieberry, a talented young witch who’s grown up in the woods by herself.
As the name might suggest, Pieberry is a big fan of pies. And strawberries. The story starts off calmly enough, with Pieberry attempting to leave her magical forest home to track down a strawberry pie like the one she ate as a child, all while trying to understand why she was seemingly abandoned by her parents. It spirals from there, with a vast world and vibrant roster of characters, ranging from pudding monsters and lightning lions to witch hunters and celestial beings. It’s a narrative-driven experience, but the gameplay switches from turn-based combat to fun puzzles quickly.
WitchSpring R is divided into seven different chapters, with multiple difficulty options on offer and the ability to create a New Game Plus save file after completing the initial run. Our playthrough took roughly 22 hours overall, although we skipped several extra puzzles, unlockables, and pets, focusing purely on the main story.
The story is undoubtedly one of the best things about WitchSpring R. It dances between lightness and darkness perfectly, offering characters with plenty of depth and a solid pace that’ll keep you hooked until the end. It’s a little cheesy at times but it’s a heartwarming story with characters that have plenty of depth and purpose behind them.
Aside from the narrative, one of the immediate strengths to highlight is the satisfying sense of progression. As you’d expect, Pieberry gets noticeably stronger as you make your way through the game, with plenty of opportunities to train, strengthen skills, and improve her weapons.
In fact, the game punishes you somewhat for not training and boosting Pieberry’s abilities. It is possible to speed through fights under-levelled, but it’s not recommended, especially if you’re newer to turn-based gameplay. The combat is immensely fun and feels impactful, but it can also be challenging. Not building up Pieberry will lead to some bitterly difficult combat encounters, while having the right build, pets, and weapons can make it a walk in the park. At a certain point, you gain the ability to summon missiles on top of her opponents, thanks to a crucial ally.
Pets and summons are particularly important during combat. Pieberry has the ability to mind-control creatures in the overworld, essentially catching them like Pokémon. Having the right critters by your side can make boss fights much more fun, and they can offer other perks like acting as a mount outside of combat or restoring resources in a pinch.
Speaking of bosses, enemy design felt incredibly refreshing here. While there was standard fantasy fodder dotted throughout the game, there were some genuinely striking character designs that felt like fresh takes for the genre. Every enemy dropped items that tied into its design and location, making each fight feel well-planned and thoughtful.
You’ll be doing a fair amount of resource farming during your time with WitchSpring R, as there is a vast crafting system which allows you to enhance weapons, make consumables, and build battle accessories. Crafting feels smooth and efficient, with an interface that’s a little overwhelming at first but easy once you get to grips with it.
Small quality-of-life features are in place to help make farming more pleasant, too. It’s possible to walk around fights you don’t want to engage with, and you’ll be able to auto-battle any critters in low-level areas that you’ve defeated before.
Alongside crafting and farming, there’s a training system which helps Pieberry improve her stats through minigames. There are several other minigames and puzzles throughout the world alongside the training games, and for the most part, they’re fun – the exception being Blacksmithing, which felt ridiculously clunky and out of place on the Switch.
If you’re a fan of secret-hunting and exploration, you’ll be rewarded for doing so here. There are several missable items, weapons, and pets throughout the world, meaning that spending a few extra minutes in a location can be incredibly lucrative.
While this game offered an enchanting world with plenty of bite, there were some issues that are worth going over. The performance was decent enough for the most part, looking fine in both handheld and docked mode, but there were minor graphical quirks and glitches. One particularly prevalent one was Pieberry popping out of existence after teleporting. Her weapon would remain in frame, but she’d be gone from sight – even in cutscenes. This would fix itself after going to another zone, but it made navigating a little tricky. This happened a total of five times during our 22-hour playthrough.
On top of this, we spotted some texture issues and lighting quirks, along with a chunk of typos and grammar mistakes. These issues weren’t glaring by any means, but typos in an emotional monologue or fierce confrontation can be disappointing and immersion-breaking.
Ignoring those graphical issues and the vanishing main character, this game is very enjoyable. The story is rich and immersive, the characters felt soulful, and the world itself is a delight to explore, with a solid mix of gameplay styles, ranging from tricky battles and boss fights to intricate puzzles and light-hearted investigations.
Conclusion
If you’re willing to look past a handful of typos and some fairly significant visual issues, WitchSpring R is a great example of turn-based combat with a strong story to back it up. It’s whimsical and enchanting, and you won’t be able to predict how it all ends. On top of this, the NG+ option gives it an extra splash of replayability for players who like a challenge. That being said, the visual quirks do take a toll on the score here. While they weren’t game-breaking, having the main character pop out of existence during crucial cutscenes was frustrating, and it did affect our overall experience.