Here at Honey’s Anime, we’ve played our fair share of “spirits like” games. When a game tries to reflect themes found in the famous Dark Souls titles and their spin-offs, the internet has dubbed them “Souls-like” and most can range from god-awful to wonderful. One game that took us by surprise was a title released a few years ago on PC and now appearing on PS4 and Nintendo Switch called Little Witch Nobeta. Rather than being about knights and otherworldly locations, Little Witch Nobeta can be summed up as what a third person shooter moe anime is attached to. Does this magic shooter stand out among the titans and does it really deserve to be thought of as a “soul-like” game or should you be playing Hogwarts Legacy? We found out in our review of Little Witch NoBeta for PS4, played on PS5!

The Little Witch is a young witch named Nobeta… Nobeta suffers from amnesia – of course, she does – and the only clue to regaining her memory is a supposed throne she keeps thinking about. Finding her way through a strange maze-like building, Nobeta soon meets a cat – who talks and is kind of rude – who knows the way to the throne and is willing to lead our little witch to it. The story for Little Witch Nobeta is pretty typical, at first glance, as it seems like a typical anime setup. However, Little Witch Nobeta really beats at the heart of Dark Souls as the story is not always told in simple ways, but can be pieced together by fighting various bosses and finding everything that has pieces of the story connected. There are We liked that Little Witch Nobeta is a bit confusing as the story gets a bit deeper as you progress and you’ll soon discover that there’s a lot of interesting lore to be found. Little Witch Nobeta starts off with a typical anime plot but that won’t last forever.

We’ve already said it a few times, but Little Witch Nobeta isn’t a typical Souls title. Nobeta is not a strong warrior like Mash Bernadette from Mashable – great manga by the way – but a cute little witch girl who is beautiful and super moe! That being said, Nobeta isn’t weak either. Our little witch Nobeta starts with a simple spell but as Little Witch Nobeta progresses the player can unlock new spells and enhance his abilities through prayer figurines. However, these idols come at a price, like the bonfire in the Dark Souls games, when you use these idols and level up through points, enemies respawn as you conquer enemies and so on. Still, does it ultimately matter in Little Witch Nobeta or are all these similar gameplay elements lost in the execution? Don’t worry, we’re going to tell you why Little Witch Nobeta is actually a very solid third-person shooter and deserves a soul-like title.

Nobeta may be super adorable and hardcore but her magic is no joke! Players will need to run around a sometimes normal but sometimes creepy maze and fend off enemies with Nobeta’s magic. Again, you start with a simple spell but as you progress you gain new powers based on the elements and each power has multiple uses. For example, Nobata has an early access to ice magic, her ice attacks are like machine guns, and she can create armor made of ice to protect her from damage and various elements. You’ll need to master these various magical abilities not only to defeat enemies but also to solve extremely simple puzzles. Even with simple puzzles and repeated enemy variants—bosses are unique but not so many enemy types—Little Witch Nobeta plays shockingly well! Nobeta can dodge magic powers, attack with very weak melee attacks, and use items for various effects. You’ll never feel that Little Witch Nobeta is extremely difficult like Dark Souls or Elden Ring, but there is some rigidity to it and losing means loss of progress, like most Souls titles. However there are two difficulties and we only recommend choosing the harder of the two for that true soul-like experience.

In the year 2023, we gamers and otaku have become accustomed to games costing around $50 to appear to be part of a $50 game… Little Witch Nobeta doesn’t look like a modern day game and still costs way too much. Don’t get us wrong… Little Witch Nobeta isn’t terrible looking and looks better than many other Soul-like games, but apart from the main character model and the boss itself, most of Little Witch Nobeta looks outdated. The enemies are very generic in design and the different areas you explore have boring designs as well. You’ll go from dark dungeons to lava realms but none of them feel original. That’s our biggest issue with Little Witch Nobeta, at its price and the year it came out, we’re sure many people expected even more.