What do you do with two of the most popular indie genres? Stick 'em in a cauldron, throw in some cards, mix them together, and voila! The Knight Witch is what appears out of the puff of smoke.
Team17 has revealed that this upcoming Metroidvania twin-stick shooter hybrid will be coming to Switch later this year. The lovely visuals look like a hand-drawn picture book. But combining this with the on-screen chaos of magical bullets, tight spaces, and hordes of mystical enemies, we're sure the underground city of Dungeonidas is anything but lovely.
The publishers had this to share about the upcoming witchcraft wandering adventure:
Combining fast-paced shoot ‘em up combat with Metroidvania traversal and exploration alongside a magic deckbuilding system, The Knight Witch takes players to the underground city of Dungeonidas. The once peaceful metropolis has been besieged by a mysterious threat and their unrelenting army of war golems. Here it falls to the protagonist – Rayne – to be named a Knight Witch and use her powers to fight back and save those she loves. The Knight Witch will launch on Nintendo Switch™, PlayStation®5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC in 2022.
With over 30 unique spell cards to choose from in a magic deck-building system, and Knight abilities to upgrade and improve, players can customise Rayne’s build to fit their playstyle, taking down the invading golems in the most effective way. Like other Knight Witches, Rayne thrives off the love and adoration of Dungeonidas’ citizens, growing ever stronger with their continued support – players can choose to capitalise on this, lying to the adoring denizens for their own means, or they can be honest, sharing the painful truth to the masses.
The Knight Witch Key Features:
1. Shoot 'Em Up Spellcasting Sorcery: Encounter evil foes and choose whether to wield Rayne’s magic or use her weapons and wits to take them down.
2. Body and Mind: The Knight Witch Duality: Customize Rayne’s unique playstyle, upgrading Knight abilities for a more fast-paced shoot ‘em up experience, or strengthen Witch magic and explore different deckbuilding strategies with over 30 unique spell cards to choose from.
3. Build Trust & Make Lasting Bonds: Knight Witches become stronger with gratitude and trust and can earn it in many ways, not all of which are sincere – the choice to choose popularity over honesty lies in the players hands.
4. Forward-Thinking Accessibility: The Knight Witch has been designed as a Metroidvania without barriers; with an intuitive on/off 'auto-aim' system, world-altering 'cheats' and a focused main story navigation system - players will never get lost and can tailor the game to their level of play.
5. Super Mega Team: The Knight Witch is brought to you by a veteran team of developers behind titles such as RiME, Moonlighter, and Plants VS Zombies.
Super Awesome Hyper Dimensional Mega Team, which has a knack for this kind of warm hand-drawn cartoon style, is using its experience with shooters to freshen up an indie darling genre. Not only will you be shmupping your war around various caverns and rooms, but there's also a magic-deck building system that allows you to customise witchy protagonist Rayne to your liking.
It all sounds like a pretty fantastic combination to us! Opening up the Metroidvania genre is perfect — it's familiar to many at this point, and the shmup mechanics are sure to make things that bit more hectic. The addition of a quest system, where you can build up trust and improve Rayne as she becomes more loved, means that exploration is never second to the shooting.
Let's get a better look at this Dungeonidas and see just how good our reflexes need to be. Oh, and admire the scenery behind all of the bullet chaos.
The Knight Witch is coming to the Switch sometime in 2022 — we don't know exactly when, and perhaps it'll just appear in a puff of smoke, but we're incredibly excited to get our hands on this and blast our way through this underground city. You can find out even more about the game on its official website.
Let us know what you think of this fun mash-up of genres in The Knight Witch in the comments!
Comments 28
Looks fantastic, it's like a combination of a 2D shooter, action RPG, and Metroidvania. Definitely checking it out.
Controls will make or break this, but I am curious.
Looks great to me. I even like the deck-building angle as simplified as it looks.
Can't help but notice "Knight" in the name (Shovel Knight, Hollow Knight), but that's fine and they even put it in the middle instead of at the end.
Indie action platform and especially metroidvania developers must all consider including "Knight" in their title. It's a genre staple.
Looking forward to finding out more about this game, though, for sure.
Looked kind of interesting, then BOOM Deck Building.....ah well no thanks
@Bunkerneath In all fairness to the deck-builder adverse, it looks like a light touch on deck building. More like complimentary combinations of boots and upgrades.
This game looks absolutely amazing. I can't wait to play it!
Looks great! Love the art style, and seems like there’s a lot of room for experimentation in the combat. Looking forward to it!
Looking at the site (that still has very little info) and the maps in the trailer, it seems like the size of the maps is relatively small, so it is probably more like mini-metroidvania experiences rather than the sprawling seamless kind some people don't like getting lost in.
This seems like a fun one that doesn't take a huge investment of exploration or strategic deep thinking. Hard to be sure, though.
@aaronsullivan Well why dont they just stick with the equipment trope instead just naming it Deck building, is it just because that's what's cool at the moment?
@Bunkerneath
i was having the same thought, the "cards" are kind of an extraneous metaphor when "spells" and "equipment" are already a bit of a metaphor for added abilities and stats, right? why does it also need to be a "card?"
you nailed it, "deckbuilding" is trendy so thats what they call it. oh well, doesnt ruin the game for me, and the game does look great! cant wait!
The only thing that concerns me, is the movement speed of the character. A bit too slow for my liking. If that can be upgraded in game, cool. If not, here’s hoping the devs add 1.5 times speed to the character movement. Because otherwise, I’m in
Looks really good, hope the controls are the same and that you can speed up the character.
Almost had me, but that art style is terrible. I’m a shmup junky but the way this game looks makes me want to throw up in my mouth lol. Deck building also threw me off, seems out of place.
This looks phenomenal! Thank you for highlighting. Definitely going on my list!
Hopefully we get a physical of the game here.
@Bunkerneath The BOOM deck building part sold me on it, lets go! Stoked.
@Bunkerneath Same. I’m not quite ready to toss it but the reviews will have to be stellar to get me to buy.
With all the metroidvanias coming out, I try to reserve my excitement for only the best ones. This one looks especially promising, so I'll keep it on the radar.
Hm, like a deck building, Gradius cross subterrannia cross metroidvania? I might have to wait for reviews on this one, but I admire the vision
got into it when they showed the deck building, attack variety is a big plus with me especially if the ranges are different.
@Bunkerneath Well a card building upgrade system on a Metroidvania game is nothing new, Castlevania: Circle of the Moon for GBA, PC, and Switch had a similar feature. You're not playing a card game here, the purpose of those card decks are for upgrading only.
Shooter plus metroidvania? Haven't seen many if any of these, looks awesome!
Love it!!! WOW!! Wishlist NOW!
Looked promising and then they showed the deck building system. I shall pass on this one.
(Metrodivania... There's a tyop in the tilte, just poniting out, I do like the new word though)
Always thought adding flying elements sorts of ruins the gameplay opportunity in these games, but this seems more defence based ... Building shields and so.
Definitely interested, but will also look out for reviews.
I prefer normal metroidvania like lodoss war deedlit or bloodstained rather than shooter, but I'm interested if this game is good.
This reminds me of Sisters Mode in Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin.
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