The Extra Mode really make this game feels like new!!!
Really cool, especially for me who already play the original one a couple times..

Overall RatingStoryGameplayGraphicsSoundtrackSound DesignDifficultyBug free ?PC RequirementsReplay Value

As a big fan of indie games and more specifically indie horror RPGs since I was young, I decided to do a marathon of all the iconic games that I was able to play when I was younger of the genre and even some that I have never been able to do before ! And what better way to start this marathon than to replay after so many years the bronze medal of the indie horror RPG podium : The Witch House !

Welcome to the witch house ! In this story, we play as a young girl named Viola who finds herself visiting a strange house deep in the forest after waking up stuck in the forest. We quickly discover the true dangerous nature of the house and we find ourselves looking for an escape from it being stuck inside. The house changes constantly and death can surprise us at any moment accompanied by game over, that's basically all I can say to summarize the basic plot narrative of the game. Now let's talk about it in more detail ! (Spoilers warning obviously ^^)

In this game, we are permanently immersed in a surreal universe, halfway between "Alice in Nightmareland" (we can notably attend a memorable tea party between flowers, who will ask the heroine to go and massacre the flower in the next room who thinks she is more beautiful than them) and a vicious tale (to complete the game, you will have to accomplish many actions that are quite filthy and not very glorious morally speaking). The atmosphere is really very successful on this point, the Witch House does its job very well.

It is nevertheless a little less interesting in terms of gameplay, because despite a well-mastered adventure / puzzle orientation (gameplay that obviously inspired the excellent Ib, which I can only recommend to you if you like The Witch's House, it’s the silver medalist game on the podium of indie rpg horrors). We are entitled to too many passages of chases that are quite unwieldy (the RPG Maker engine is really not made for that unfortunately). The progression is therefore done through some pretty nice puzzles to solve, accessible to everyone without being too complex most of the time (I exclude the difficulty of the puzzles in EXTRA mode for the review, since it is optional).

In addition, for the 2D survival horror level there are some very good ideas put to work : the sudden changes when you are in a room, the movement of furniture when you return to a room already visited, the objects that move when you are leaving the room but which have remained unchanged when you return to check, the deaths so obvious that you still get fooled, the very short and intense chases (even if as said previously given the basic rpg maker system which is not made for it and the kinda useless script for walking diagonally does not make the chases easier) and a really good use of the void to increase the tension.

Speaking of sound, the game does not offer original or striking music sadly, but it is mainly the well-placed sound effects and the music timing and use that stops to warn of danger that will do a good job on your level of fear and paranoia during the visit of the house.

Then the story... I remember that when I was little, I thought that the game did not really have a story and that it was just horror gameplay, like : "I am imprisoned in a witch's house and I must escape!" but the details transmitted by the books inside the game and by the multiple endings make us discover a background and a story much darker than we could have imagined at the beginning. The story itself is told to us through the witch's diary, the chapters of which are scattered during the progression in the house, relating page after page the macabre history of this house and its resident.

And speaking of the end of the Witch's House or rather the two endings... I remember that it completely blew me away at the time. I absolutely did not expect it, and I think that the biggest part of us cannot expect it. The first ending (called END?) leaves us with a feeling of success but confusion, because after all : we escaped and the witch did not kill us ! It’s supposed to be our Happy Ending ! Why would it not be a real ending..? And here comes the plot twist and the real ending, which we can unlock by recovering Ellen’s, the witch, knife in the closet of one of the rooms before running away from the house : We learn that the girl we play was in reality the witch of the house, Ellen, all along, having stolen the body of the young Viola after having used the body exchange spell with the real one as we can read in her diary in her room before the last chase !

So, what turned out to be the True and Good Ending is actually a terrible Bad Ending for Viola ! Disturbing, that's the word. Especially when you can see her own father kill his daughter imprisoned in the witch's mutilated body with a gunshot and then leave with the witch laughing in her daughter's body... just a terrible ending, I feel still so bad for the little Viola, it's terrible...

In the end, The Witch House was the very good horror game I remembered that is certainly not revolutionary in everything it does, but it does its job very well. I highly recommend it whenever I can to fans of the genre, or to people who think that a 2D game can't scare them ! And last little thing, the game got a manga adaptation in two volumes that I recommend to read after playing since it’s a prequel to the game and give us more information about our characters !

play it and get all the ending, hint hint there are 4 of them <3