#98

Under the Witch By NumericGazer

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[Summary]

An aspiring Hero trying to make a name for himself by hunting down the infamous kidnapper Dealer Witch, only to end up as a toy...
A stunning U4 engine RPG about power and humiliation.

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Review:

OH. MY. GOD.

Just LOOK at these delicious animations!!!
Let me tell you something about 3D animations - they're usually either:
A. Low detailed.
B. Short loops.

Now, I'm not trying to belittle any 3D projects out there that do these, because there are plenty of good ones.
But there are different forms of quality, to the point where a dev actually goes through the effort to add realistic skin textures and a full 5-7 minutes scene with voice actors that actually give a shit about their job.
As I tend to say - the quality of a project is ALWAYS in the smallest details.

So what is Under the Witch even about?

Our protagonist is a "Hero" who hunts a supposedly big name witch.. or at least he believes he can, until he gets completely destroyed and humiliated.
And this is what the game is basically about - taking the "man" out of the "hood", leaving you a shell of a human being left for the queens of our adventure to toy with you.

I should split this review into two parts. UtW had two major unique releases:

0.1.4 -the original concept of straight up fighting the "Dealer" witch.
In this version you gain experience after repeating the fight against the witch while getting to experience different outcomes based on how far you get.

The quality of each animation is insane with great voice acting as mentioned earlier.
I really like how the whole combat concept is used in this game. Defeating the witch isn't as big as the process to get to that point. Every time you'll get a bit stronger, and in return get "rewarded" for continuing the struggle further.

That's the gist of the first "release". Down the development road, NumericGazer met a HUGE amount of support on their Patreon, and I believe that they felt they could do more with the big bank they were making. Making so much money only to make an H battle simulator probably didn't feel right.

That's when 0.2.0 was released - right off the bat we get an actual legit action scene with great animation as expected already from Numeric.
In 0.2.0 however, the Dealer witch content was completely cut off, and very likely saved for a later release down the roadmap, as her storyline wasn't implemented yet.

Instead we get Alice, a true queen through and through, without a shred of empathy towards our Hero.

When you first gain control of "Hero", you'll be introduced to a very vibrant world, albeit small, with the ability to run around and do a bit of parkour movement.
There are collectibles lying around to sell later, and 2 house - your own and Alice'.
The new take about the whole project now is heading more towards a true RPG experience, with quests, exploration, and their appropriate "rewards".

The previous combat system in 0.1.4 has been preserved, and makes a return with a more slick UI, but this time VS Alice.
The concept of rewards through persistence is the same, but with more RPG elements of chatting to Alice, running around, changing daytime, and going to visit her room.

In this new setting we also gain access later to another character, and what seems to be a locked door in her place leading to a new undeveloped area.
A quick look at the dev's Patreon will show you they already have new characters in development with their own unique areas.

Overall, I wouldn't call this experience fleshed out, but in terms of adult gaming it's a very promising and even ambitious.
Even if the project will never see an end, I've already grown to terms that we should never expect an ending to an H game until the developer itself wants to wrap it up and move on to something else.

My philosophy is that as long as there are quality updates and the dev cares - the support they get serves its purpose. I mean, why finish a project that can keep on giving?
In some circles people may call it milking, but ending a project means that you ran out of ideas to keep it interesting and relevant.

With such a sick & thicc animations of beautiful models, and if you're into queens and humiliations, then Under the Witch is tailored for you.
Real talk though? even if you're not, just check it out. This kind of production quality and attention to details is simply out of this world.

You can get Under the Witch and also support NumericGazer on their Patreon.
They're also on Twitter!

❤️ For relevant H content of this title you may contact me in DM for referrals.