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Quantum Witch – Review

Some games set out to blow you away with challenging gameplay and innovative mechanics, while others simply want to tell you an immersive, thought-provoking story. Quantum Witch is very obvious about falling into the second category. Made as an indie developer’s first project, the charming pixel art of this game hides a layered story that you’re going to want to experience multiple times to get the full scope of the world. Story You play the game as a young woman named Ren, who lives a rather simple life in the farming town of Hus. Everything seems peaceful at first glance, but when Ren’s faer (like sheep but bouncier) escape, this sets into motion a chain reaction of events that can include anything from multiverse portals, eldritch gods, to a cult. Or not a cult, if the members are to be believed. The game is almost open-world in nature, allowing you free rein to explore and interact with whatever and whoever you want. Your choices will shape the town and the people around you, opening up paths or having long-lasting consequences. While playing the game once only takes a few hours, the choice-based narrative is set up in such a way as to encourage multiple replays. Making different decisions can lead to completely different outcomes, and you can use knowledge gained during one run to unlock things in another. Overall, the narrative of Quantum Witch is an engaging and inspiring one, with well-handled themes of taking responsibility, queerness, and a hopeful touch. Graphics Quantum Witch has a charming pixel art style that seems inspired by retro games and the NES era, and presents itself as a 2D side-scroller. We personally thought the style was well-utilized, even if we had some trouble getting around at first. A more easily accessible map would have been a nice addition. The art style also allows for plenty of visual gags and easter eggs. We can tell there is a deep-rooted appreciation for the classics here in the references that are present. For a game made by a single person, we thought the graphics were great. Sound We absolutely love the soundtrack of this game, too. Every single song stood out in its own right, and several got stuck in our heads for several days. The game seems to utilize mostly very simple sound effects, perhaps from a stock library of some sort, but that didn’t bother us. It’s to be expected from a solo dev. The lack of voice acting didn’t bother us either for the same reason. We’d say that the music is more important than those other two things anyway, and as mentioned, that part of the sound design was top notch. Gameplay Quantum Witch doesn’t make it easy for us to categorize the game, since the main asset is the storytelling and the choice-driven adventure you get to embark on. There is a lot of platforming and plenty of puzzles to get through. But the gameplay definitely took the backseat compared to the story. The controls are finicky at times, which did make the platforming a little tricky here and there. But we enjoyed ourselves plenty exploring the town and seeing what wacky characters we could meet, and what hijinks would lead to unexpected consequences. There is a day-and-night cycle in the game. You can nap in your bed to skip the night, or if you go to sleep in the middle of the day, you can wake up in the evening. Some events or locations will only be available during a certain time of day, and some characters won’t want to talk to you in the middle of the night. This added a fun extra layer to the experience, where you can encounter new things in familiar places if you go there during another time of day. If you want to invest the time into multiple runs – which we highly recommend – then half the enjoyment of Quantum Witch can definitely come from exploring and seeing the different outcomes. Do not mistake the laid-back description of the game for it being easy, though. Dying is common enough, and some sections are timed or include high stakes. The game also has a very quirky sense of humor. Whether this is your cup of tea or not might depend on personal taste. We found some of the jokes a touch too meta, but some people really enjoy self-aware humor. Conclusion Quantum Witch is a very unique experience that’s unlike other games. If you give it a shot, you’ll quickly find yourself absorbed in the magical world this story takes place in, and it’s a lot of fun to try and find different paths or outcomes that you haven’t seen before. Just keep a box of tissues at the ready, as this game might bring you to unexpected emotional places.