Little Witch Nobeta has just the right amount of Souls-like about it | Hands-on preview

Although I’ve never quite been able to see the appeal of FromSoftware’s Souls games, I keep finding myself enjoying games inspired by them. Last year’s Ghost Song combined Souls mechanics with Metroid and captured my heart, and I love Hollow Knight as much as the next guy. So with an open mind I decided to give Little Witch Nobeta a try, and I’m really glad I did.

For this preview I was given access to the first two hours of the game which featured two boss fights and a significant amount of exploring and blasting enemies with spells. The full game is estimated to take around ten hours to complete, so I’ve played a good chunk of our charming witches’ adventure.

Nobeta is a witch with a goal, to get to the throne of the castle she’s arrived at. While on the way to accomplish this goal she saves a black cat from the monsters that infest the place, who turns out to have magic powers and the ability to talk. The feline is a bit reluctant but joins the adorable protagonist on her adventure to make it through the castle. The story so far honestly seemed a little throwaway, but the characters are pretty entertaining and it didn’t get in the way of the action.

Most of your time in Little Witch Nobeta will be spent wandering around the winding corridors of the castle setting and dispatching the monsters that cross your path. You do this by casting spells, which you blast out of your staff from a third person over the shoulder perspective. In the first couple of hours I had access to two different spells – one that fired a single precise shot and another that was more of a machine gun, with the rest of the game promising two more if the menus are anything to go by. Switching between the two different powers made killing creepy dolls and blob monsters a rather entertaining experience.

As well as just blasting the baddies with your basic fire, you can also charge your staff to unleash a powerful alt fire. If you want to use the powerful grenade function of your basic arcane weapon you’ll need to stay out of the way of damage though, as any hits you take will disrupt your focus and reset the meter.

This is where the dodge rolling comes in, which is the first Souls adjacent mechanic to joins the party. The dodge rolls works just as you’d expect, and makes you invulnerable to damage for a very generous amount of time. If you time it right and dodge at the last moment you’ll also charge up any attacks you’re preparing extra quickly, and with a bit of practice this will become a staple of your witching arsenal.

Little Witch Nobeta wouldn’t be a Souls inspired game without massive bosses to take down, and the two I fought provided just the challenge I needed. You’ll need to learn when the bosses are telegraphing their screen-filling attacks and dodge accordingly if you want to win, but once you do and overcome the odds you’ll feel like a bit of a star.

When you aren’t fighting magical nasties, you’ll probably be exploring the castle for all manner of secrets. As you progress you get access to different abilities like a double jump to help you get around, and the different spells are used outside of battle too for navigation purposes. For example, a fully charged ice spell in your staff will protect Nobeta from fire and allow you down flaming hot corridors with ease. No stone will be unturned once you master all your witchy skills.

You’ll want to check every one of those unturned stones too, because there are plenty of collectables and optional upgrades to find in the world. Whether it’s just a bit of lore or an upgrade to the size of your inventory, it’s always a treat to find an item or two to help you on your way.

As well as getting new spells and upgrades on your quest, you can also make Nobeta stronger by spending souls at one of the goddess statue save points. There are a few options of stats to upgrade, which are thankfully very easy to understand. You can power up your spells, reduce the charge time on your alt fire or just pump up your HP or MP, and regardless of what you pick the difference will be noticeable almost immediately.

Little Witch Nobeta has just the right amount of Souls mechanics sprinkled in for my taste, and the magical combat is certainly satisfying too. With a couple of extra spells to experiment with and plenty more bosses to beat, I’m excited to see what the rest of the game has to offer for me and my black cat.

Little Witch Nobeta is coming to PC, PS4, and Nintendo Switch on March 23, 2019.