I love spooky games. And I love cute games. After catching my eye on a random sale, I realized The Witch’s House MV was both spooky and cute, and I was sold before even knowing the plot. A pixelated rendition of the original 2012 indie game The Witch’s House, let’s just say there’s a reason this remake was released on Halloween.
The story behind The Witch’s House MV is simple, as you play as a little girl named Viola who is out exploring in the woods and comes across an old mansion, only to step inside and find out that the doors won’t open. What follows is, quite frankly, a terrifying array of traps, enough to make Jigsaw flee from the grounds in terror.
Every corner you turn, every step you take, the house is watching you and trying to kill you. As you and Viola move further along and solve puzzles to unlock more areas of the house and more deathtraps, you’re followed by a mysterious black cat who acts as a save feature. Thank god for saving, because if I had to play the whole game through without saving, we’d need to do a Rage Quit: TechRaptor edition. The puzzles themselves are fairly easy to figure out, but escaping the traps requires quick thinking and a deft hand on the keyboard.
Despite the cute look of the game and the adorableness of Viola, the game pulls no punches with its content or graphics. There’s copious amounts of blood, graphic deaths and what is revealing itself to be a sadistic backstory to the house and the witch herself. As you go through, you find books detailing the history of a girl and her parents, which are hinted to be the story of the witch.
The graphics and music stand in complete contrast and yet perfect harmony with each other. The pixel graphics are cute and unsuspecting, until blood splatters all over your screen. The only thing that hasn’t been freakishly terrifying yet, other than Viola, is the save cat. On the other hand, the music is constantly menacing and was making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up while I played. This, combined with the fact that scares can get you out of nowhere, made for a very apprehensive experience.
While this is billed as a horror RPG experience, it’s heavy on horror and light on RPG elements, though they are present. Don’t go into this expecting a 20+ hour RPG and witch slayer campaign quest, because it is most definitely not that. On the other hand, you probably also shouldn’t play this at night, alone, with the lights turned out.
The mystery of The Witch’s House MV is definitely going to keep me coming back for more. Between the cute protagonist, the unusual story of the house and the frankly bizarre deathtraps and puzzles, there’s more than enough to keep any horror fan occupied with this homegrown creation.
The Witch's House MV was played by TechRaptor on PC with a copy purchased by the reviewer.