No, it's not missing a "th" or a "s", that's the title of the game.
In short, you are a magical demon that has to beat the crap out of other things to do a witch's bidding, whose name is Metallica (Metallia in the US version).
No, the game doesn't use a metal soundtrack: it's a Nippon Ichi game, and it sounds exactly like every other Nippon Ichi game.
It surely doesn't look like a Nippon Ichi game, because instead of those beatiful sprites, this games uses pre-rendered sprites; they hide their pre-rendered nature rather well, thanks to a lot of coloured lights, but it's not what you would expect from Nippon Ichi.
The opening sequence of the game is a tutorial, and it's the perfect example on how in-game tutorials should not be done: when it's time to learn how to attack and defend, the game only mentions square for attacks and that you can equip different weapons, without explaining what different weapons do or...how to defend, which was one of the main topics. During the tutorial the game tells you that "in the real game" you'll have a stamina bar that limits the time you can dash or how many attacks you can string together, and that you'll be limited by Gigacals, and if you run out of those, your HP will start to dimish, and if your HP reaches 0 you'll be brought back home and lost half of your Anima...sorry, what was the purpose of this tutorial? To tell me that red switches are inactive (this actually happens)?
Anyway, after the tutorial you're left to your own devices (and the manual doesn't tell much), wondering why your stomach acts as a temporary item bag, manage Tochka points, APs, facets, enemy behaviour, weapon combos, pillars...again, what was the tutorial about, colour of switches?
You can equip up to five weapons; weapons belong to various classes (swords, hammers, magic, lances, spears), have different attack powers and properties (like poison), damage type (slash, thrust, blunt), and "circle number". Each press of square during a combo will use the subsequent equipped weapon, and by creating the ordering "circle numbers" you'll get more damage out of your combo.
It's possible to lock on enemies, that will make you strafe around them, and will also show the behaviour, that will change based on your attacks: enemies can be afraid (they will try to escape battle), angered (they will pursue you), or in love (I don't know).
Killing enough enemies will increase your grade and bonus points: grade points are used to improve your stats, but will be lost once you leave the current map; bonus points will award more and better items when you leave a map (just like Disgaea). Your character, the Hundred Knight, will level up when he leaves the map.
Map exploration is time-limited, by Gigacals. You can replenish Gigacals by spending grade points at the Pillars scattered around the map, that will also work as spawn points when defeated and checkpoints when you revisit the map.
Animas are rare items dropped by certain enemies, and will be used to ask Metallica for favors; haven't seen "bring back Napster" or "stop doing s****y albums" yet, but I don't think they'll work anyway.
Ah, forgot to write that The Witch and the Hundred Knight is an overhead hack-and-slash, but the amount of stuff thrown into the mix is absurdly high; on maps you can also find villages, where you can talk to NPCs and conquer or visit houses.
Not only the whole system feels overcrowded, but controls are as well: the d-pad is used as a quick-link to your item bag (stomach), weapon equip, and other things; every button is used for soemthing, with some actions requiring to use the shoulder buttons as modifiers for the face buttons...and I still don't know what APs and Tochkas are.
This oversaturation is also visible on the screen, with the terrain often obsucred by trees: you can rotate the camera, but actions are primarily mapped to the face buttons, so it's kinda pointless. Once you start attacking an enemy, the stamina bar pops up, along with the enemy's health bar, damage points done, if the attack was effective or ineffective; on the left side of the screen text messages about damage and behaviour start to scroll, and then on the top-right corner, the behaviour triangle will pop up to show the enemy's temperament in real time...ugh, it's a complete senroy overload for what looks like a button masher.
I don't really know if I'll play more of this, but the first impressions aren't particularly good.
In short, you are a magical demon that has to beat the crap out of other things to do a witch's bidding, whose name is Metallica (Metallia in the US version).
No, the game doesn't use a metal soundtrack: it's a Nippon Ichi game, and it sounds exactly like every other Nippon Ichi game.
It surely doesn't look like a Nippon Ichi game, because instead of those beatiful sprites, this games uses pre-rendered sprites; they hide their pre-rendered nature rather well, thanks to a lot of coloured lights, but it's not what you would expect from Nippon Ichi.
The opening sequence of the game is a tutorial, and it's the perfect example on how in-game tutorials should not be done: when it's time to learn how to attack and defend, the game only mentions square for attacks and that you can equip different weapons, without explaining what different weapons do or...how to defend, which was one of the main topics. During the tutorial the game tells you that "in the real game" you'll have a stamina bar that limits the time you can dash or how many attacks you can string together, and that you'll be limited by Gigacals, and if you run out of those, your HP will start to dimish, and if your HP reaches 0 you'll be brought back home and lost half of your Anima...sorry, what was the purpose of this tutorial? To tell me that red switches are inactive (this actually happens)?
Anyway, after the tutorial you're left to your own devices (and the manual doesn't tell much), wondering why your stomach acts as a temporary item bag, manage Tochka points, APs, facets, enemy behaviour, weapon combos, pillars...again, what was the tutorial about, colour of switches?
You can equip up to five weapons; weapons belong to various classes (swords, hammers, magic, lances, spears), have different attack powers and properties (like poison), damage type (slash, thrust, blunt), and "circle number". Each press of square during a combo will use the subsequent equipped weapon, and by creating the ordering "circle numbers" you'll get more damage out of your combo.
It's possible to lock on enemies, that will make you strafe around them, and will also show the behaviour, that will change based on your attacks: enemies can be afraid (they will try to escape battle), angered (they will pursue you), or in love (I don't know).
Killing enough enemies will increase your grade and bonus points: grade points are used to improve your stats, but will be lost once you leave the current map; bonus points will award more and better items when you leave a map (just like Disgaea). Your character, the Hundred Knight, will level up when he leaves the map.
Map exploration is time-limited, by Gigacals. You can replenish Gigacals by spending grade points at the Pillars scattered around the map, that will also work as spawn points when defeated and checkpoints when you revisit the map.
Animas are rare items dropped by certain enemies, and will be used to ask Metallica for favors; haven't seen "bring back Napster" or "stop doing s****y albums" yet, but I don't think they'll work anyway.
Ah, forgot to write that The Witch and the Hundred Knight is an overhead hack-and-slash, but the amount of stuff thrown into the mix is absurdly high; on maps you can also find villages, where you can talk to NPCs and conquer or visit houses.
Not only the whole system feels overcrowded, but controls are as well: the d-pad is used as a quick-link to your item bag (stomach), weapon equip, and other things; every button is used for soemthing, with some actions requiring to use the shoulder buttons as modifiers for the face buttons...and I still don't know what APs and Tochkas are.
This oversaturation is also visible on the screen, with the terrain often obsucred by trees: you can rotate the camera, but actions are primarily mapped to the face buttons, so it's kinda pointless. Once you start attacking an enemy, the stamina bar pops up, along with the enemy's health bar, damage points done, if the attack was effective or ineffective; on the left side of the screen text messages about damage and behaviour start to scroll, and then on the top-right corner, the behaviour triangle will pop up to show the enemy's temperament in real time...ugh, it's a complete senroy overload for what looks like a button masher.
I don't really know if I'll play more of this, but the first impressions aren't particularly good.
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