Mika and the Witch’s Mountain – Early Access Review (PC)
I was offered the chance to play the recently released Mika and the Witch’s Mountain, a new release from Chibig the team behind games like Ankora and Stories of Mara.
It’s a charming little adventure game about learning to be a Witch…and delivering parcels along the way.
It released a few weeks ago on the 21st of August so I’m a bit slow behind writing my thoughts but we’re here now and you can read about it below.
Story
The story of Mika and the Witch’s Mountain starts you out as the eponymous Mika as she sets out on her journey to learn how to be a witch and follow in her mothers footsteps.
However shortly after meeting the Witch of the Mountain we are unceremoniously shoved off the mountain and crash land on the Island of Mont Gaun.
Broom broken from the fall, we pick up a job delivering parcels on the island to make funds to get our broom repaired and upgraded so Mika can get back to the top of the mountain and begin her witch journey.
Along the way we make friends who give us advice as we reciprocate and deepen these friendships by helping out on side missions around the island.
Its this journey making these bonds that truly makes Mika and the Witch’s Mountain a really nice and cozy game to play.
It’s a pretty feelgood game that does have an issue of there being a main fleshed out set of characters and characters that appear that feel like they should be fleshed out more who kinda just vanish after you’ve dealt with them.
Graphics and Music
Both the Graphics and Music of Mika and the Witch’s Mountain exude a comfy vibe. The graphics being especially reminiscent of Zelda Windwaker. With the designs of the characters and environments being especially bubbly and vibrant.
You can really tell if you look at the games Chibig has published that they have a love for this particular style of art and graphics and it really is nice.
The music is cozy and a perfect accompaniment to flying around the island as you unlock new areas and find hidden nooks and crannies with more things to do.
You can unlock extra outfits an broom trails by finding collectables around the map which adds a little extra fun.
Controls and Gameplay
The controls of the flying can feel a little strange at the start and a little floaty 😊 but as you pick up more parcels you quickly learn to master the movement and ability to avoid obstacles.
It certainly is a pad orientated game so make sure to have one handy if you decide to play.
The main gameplay loop is nice and simple. Find a person who needs something delivering and pick it up and deliver it for them.
At the start you can only take a few items with you each time and there are few things to watch out for. As you progress through the story and your broom gets stronger, you can take more and more parcels and fly faster. Its here that parcels tend to have a few more restrictions for delivery, such as not getting an item wet, or making sure it stays unbroken, or having a timer to get the parcel to the recipient.
Overall though Mika and the Witch’s Mountain is pretty lenient with these challenges and you’ll unlikely to be too worried about being unable to get them where they need to be.
As you progress the story and missions, you unlock more of the map to play with leading to more side missions and interesting characters to meet.
The NPC’s roam the map as you progress as well, though thankfully once you’ve met them once they’ll show up on the map as an icon so you’ll always know where they are.
Roaming the map also allows you to find items that you can find that need delivering. With these acting more like little puzzles as you need to understand from the item who is the person it needs to be delivered to.
Final Thoughts (that are probably too long)
The game in its current form is a pretty short romp. I managed to beat the main story in around 5 hours. This with a bit of collectable finding and completing side missions along the way.
Mika and the Witch’s Mountain as the title of the review *is* in Early Access though and they do have a plan for adding extra content to bulk up the game over its lifetime before a full release.
The features listed for expansion include the below:
- Pet the animals and companion.
- New side quests.
- New broom tricks.
- Churro Express minigame.
- Fishing minigame.
- New cosmetics and collectibles.
- More languages.
- Dungeons.
As a game released for £16.99 I have to admit, I find the price reasonable enough and it has enough going for it to make it worth it.
The game is not without issues, the story feels like it has a focus specifically on Mika and her progression and other parts that you might feel are core to the story just kinda end up being villain of the week.
One part in particular is the owner of the big factory, who we deal with a few times, they are played like they should be the big bad of the story but after we finish a later mission they kinda just disappear. We don’t defeat them, we don’t see them leave, they just don’t exist anymore.
The Music in the game has an issue in the same area as this person as well and others where if you are flying, it will just end and take a bit of time to kick back in. Leaving you flying around in silence.
I’m sure these will be looked at as the game progresses through Early Access and I am looking forward to playing it as new updates are released.
Overall though I really enjoyed Mika and the Witch’s Mountain. It may be short but it’s a fun cozy game with nice art, music and a really comfy story.
I would like to thank Chibig and Keymailer for providing me with a key for the game you can check out the game over at https://store.steampowered.com/app/1819460/Mika_and_The_Witchs_Mountain/
Disclosure: I received a free review copy of this product from https://www.keymailer.co
