Witch 4 Hotel

Witch 4 Hotel
TownDarkTales followup to the original Witch trilogy is their most refined game yet, but ultimately still has some jank that fans of the series have become accustomed to over the last 5 years. For people wanting an immediate answer of whether or not this game is worth the 9 USD, it will depend on a couple things which I will put at the top of this review.
Disclosure: I received a key for this game, as I supported the development process financially.
How do I know if this game is worth buying?
You have played the three previous installments of Witch Chronicles
If you played and enjoyed the previous three games, the gameplay evolution should be a pleasant surprise unless you were completely married to the previous formula.
You have never played a game from this developer
If you have never touched this developer's work before, I encourage you to look at their other games. They have a very unique proprietary visual style combined with a very strong atmosphere. This is not the place to start, as it continues the story from the previous installments and has references to other games outside Witch Chronicles, such as Code: Pandora. While you can play it as a standalone title, it benefits greatly from playing his other works in terms of atmosphere and story. If you're just here for the hentai and don't care about all of that, this probably isn't the game for you.
You have played TDT games before, but none in the Witch Chronicles series
This isn't necessarily the worst place to start, as it is the beginning of a new story arc that ended in Witch 3. You will already be familiar with what kind of game this is, but I believe you will be doing yourself a disservice by ignoring the greater story and starting here. Your choice.
Game Stats
Total time to complete: 5.4 hours
The game can easily be completed in less time, probably 2-4 hours.
Number of animations: ~40
This game has between around 40 animations despite the gallery only displaying 32 of them. Besides the endings, only the h-scenes are displayed. Left out are two or three. One which occurs 30 seconds after hitting new game, and another in some of the hotel rooms. This means there are about 31 h-scenes total, the rest being endings. For the first time in Witch Chronicles, a scene is played upon exorcism or banishment. These are not stored in the gallery.
The story
The story this time around felt sparser than the last installments. There are only three NPCs to interact with, an expository intro, and two or three sentences for each ending. This is slightly disappointing as one of the main strengths of TDT's games are the atmosphere. There's enough to be serviceable, but I wish the player actually learned more about the hotel.
Spoiler warning for those interactions: The hotel owner's dialogue never changes depending upon what route Chelsea and Melissa are on. This becomes frustrating as it reduces the replay value of the game. Additionally, there is nothing else presented in the game to give his character meaningful context, unlike the Jester from previous games. The Puppeteer's dialogue is minimal, and so is the Goblin's. I really do wish there was more story to find in the game, as the Jester also reappears with no explanation despite the previous games.
I hope the explanation for this issue is not the developer saving it for DLC. But, I also can't fault them too heavily for it as it is not noticeably different from the other games in Witch Chronicles.
The Atmosphere
I am separating story and atmosphere because while they enhance each other they are two separate concepts. This game nails it, with the color choices and return of the Dark Hour in the form of the Wolf Hour. Specifically, the colors used during the Wolf Hour are eyecatching, and I would always pause to just take everything in, despite the impending danger. The muted colors of the past for Melissa's gameplay are interesting at first, but become a bit dull by the last play through to get the final ending. The music choices and sound design are also classic TDT. I wished that there was a bit more variance in the assets created for the hotel rooms, as floors 2 and 3 look almost identical, but that's the only other nitpick I have.
The Animations
While the "movie" animations are the same as they've been, the scene based animations where the player clicks through have been majorly improved. Unlike the charming inconsistency of the movies that is a staple of their art style, the scene animations are all well proportioned and have appealing colors. Going in depth for these in the review would probably get it banned, so I will leave it at this; fans of the previous works will certainly appreciate them.
The Gameplay
The game follows the same format as previous Witch Chronicle games. This time though, the player gets to control both Chelsea and Melissa in the same game. The idea, which unfortunately seems to have not been fully baked, is that changes made in the past affect the future. As Melissa does things in the past, the present hotel will change for Chelsea. This fundamentally, is a great idea. The only issue with this is that it only happens a couple of times. You can choose to take the easy route and tame the ghosts, or banish/exorcise them by finding items based on hints. Melissa passes information from the past to the present, so Chelsea is given hints on how banishing.
This presents two main issues: the player doing things out of order, and artificially constraining Melissa's complexity. Melissa's process to banish the creatures is generally too easy, while Chelsea's can be complicated. Not as complicated as in older games, besides the mannequin, but it just felt weird.
Finally, there's two new elements to this game. For detractors of TDT's games, they will surely not be excited by the addition of a second dimension. Those who are though will surely love the new RUN mechanic. I was never bothered by the not having a run in past games, as being able to just sprint through the areas causes the player to lose out on the atmosphere of the backgrounds. Though, I guess it is better to have it and allow the player to not use it than not have it at all.
The ability to not only walk left and right, but also forward and back is underutilized in this game. It certainly gives the player eye candy, as the model must be viewable in four directions now. It is still puzzling to me why after so many games, the dev still just mirrors the sprite instead of creating a new one. This was an issue especially in the first game, due to the text on Chelsea's shirt, but here it is also apparent due to the belt. That aside though, there was nothing in the game that particularly warranted being able to walk forwards and backwards besides purposefully placed map geometry. While it is unfortunate that it turned out this way, I hope to see it interesting implemented in new games of TDT's in order to solve puzzles. In this game it feels as though it was just put in to be there, and doesn't have any justification to exist. The hotel could be represented in the old 1D movement axis present in the other Witch Chronicles games.
Finally, the most important section saved for last, the run mechanic. People have been asking for this for so long that it's basically become a meme. Witch 3 had one, but it was tied to a stamina bar. In this game, Chelsea and Melissa can sprint for an indefinite period of time. I would suggest the developer fixes the acceleration speed in their next, as it feels incredibly sluggish. It's the point where while holding down the sprint button and pressing left and right Chelsea and Melissa stay in place.
Thanks for reading this far, might as well just buy it.

Steam User 9

Reviewed last year

Witch 4 Hotel
TownDarkTales followup to the original Witch trilogy is their most refined game yet, but ultimately still has some jank that fans of the series have become accustomed to over the last 5 years. For people wanting an immediate answer of whether or not this game is worth the 9 USD, it will depend on a couple things which I will put at the top of this review.
Disclosure: I received a key for this game, as I supported the development process financially.
How do I know if this game is worth buying?
You have played the three previous installments of Witch Chronicles
If you played and enjoyed the previous three games, the gameplay evolution should be a pleasant surprise unless you were completely married to the previous formula.
You have never played a game from this developer
If you have never touched this developer's work before, I encourage you to look at their other games. They have a very unique proprietary visual style combined with a very strong atmosphere. This is not the place to start, as it continues the story from the previous installments and has references to other games outside Witch Chronicles, such as Code: Pandora. While you can play it as a standalone title, it benefits greatly from playing his other works in terms of atmosphere and story. If you're just here for the hentai and don't care about all of that, this probably isn't the game for you.
You have played TDT games before, but none in the Witch Chronicles series
This isn't necessarily the worst place to start, as it is the beginning of a new story arc that ended in Witch 3. You will already be familiar with what kind of game this is, but I believe you will be doing yourself a disservice by ignoring the greater story and starting here. Your choice.
Game Stats
Total time to complete: 5.4 hours
The game can easily be completed in less time, probably 2-4 hours.
Number of animations: ~40
This game has between around 40 animations despite the gallery only displaying 32 of them. Besides the endings, only the h-scenes are displayed. Left out are two or three. One which occurs 30 seconds after hitting new game, and another in some of the hotel rooms. This means there are about 31 h-scenes total, the rest being endings. For the first time in Witch Chronicles, a scene is played upon exorcism or banishment. These are not stored in the gallery.
The story
The story this time around felt sparser than the last installments. There are only three NPCs to interact with, an expository intro, and two or three sentences for each ending. This is slightly disappointing as one of the main strengths of TDT's games are the atmosphere. There's enough to be serviceable, but I wish the player actually learned more about the hotel.
Spoiler warning for those interactions: The hotel owner's dialogue never changes depending upon what route Chelsea and Melissa are on. This becomes frustrating as it reduces the replay value of the game. Additionally, there is nothing else presented in the game to give his character meaningful context, unlike the Jester from previous games. The Puppeteer's dialogue is minimal, and so is the Goblin's. I really do wish there was more story to find in the game, as the Jester also reappears with no explanation despite the previous games.
I hope the explanation for this issue is not the developer saving it for DLC. But, I also can't fault them too heavily for it as it is not noticeably different from the other games in Witch Chronicles.
The Atmosphere
I am separating story and atmosphere because while they enhance each other they are two separate concepts. This game nails it, with the color choices and return of the Dark Hour in the form of the Wolf Hour. Specifically, the colors used during the Wolf Hour are eyecatching, and I would always pause to just take everything in, despite the impending danger. The muted colors of the past for Melissa's gameplay are interesting at first, but become a bit dull by the last play through to get the final ending. The music choices and sound design are also classic TDT. I wished that there was a bit more variance in the assets created for the hotel rooms, as floors 2 and 3 look almost identical, but that's the only other nitpick I have.
The Animations
While the "movie" animations are the same as they've been, the scene based animations where the player clicks through have been majorly improved. Unlike the charming inconsistency of the movies that is a staple of their art style, the scene animations are all well proportioned and have appealing colors. Going in depth for these in the review would probably get it banned, so I will leave it at this; fans of the previous works will certainly appreciate them.
The Gameplay
The game follows the same format as previous Witch Chronicle games. This time though, the player gets to control both Chelsea and Melissa in the same game. The idea, which unfortunately seems to have not been fully baked, is that changes made in the past affect the future. As Melissa does things in the past, the present hotel will change for Chelsea. This fundamentally, is a great idea. The only issue with this is that it only happens a couple of times. You can choose to take the easy route and tame the ghosts, or banish/exorcise them by finding items based on hints. Melissa passes information from the past to the present, so Chelsea is given hints on how banishing.
This presents two main issues: the player doing things out of order, and artificially constraining Melissa's complexity. Melissa's process to banish the creatures is generally too easy, while Chelsea's can be complicated. Not as complicated as in older games, besides the mannequin, but it just felt weird.
Finally, there's two new elements to this game. For detractors of TDT's games, they will surely not be excited by the addition of a second dimension. Those who are though will surely love the new RUN mechanic. I was never bothered by the not having a run in past games, as being able to just sprint through the areas causes the player to lose out on the atmosphere of the backgrounds. Though, I guess it is better to have it and allow the player to not use it than not have it at all.
The ability to not only walk left and right, but also forward and back is underutilized in this game. It certainly gives the player eye candy, as the model must be viewable in four directions now. It is still puzzling to me why after so many games, the dev still just mirrors the sprite instead of creating a new one. This was an issue especially in the first game, due to the text on Chelsea's shirt, but here it is also apparent due to the belt. That aside though, there was nothing in the game that particularly warranted being able to walk forwards and backwards besides purposefully placed map geometry. While it is unfortunate that it turned out this way, I hope to see it interesting implemented in new games of TDT's in order to solve puzzles. In this game it feels as though it was just put in to be there, and doesn't have any justification to exist. The hotel could be represented in the old 1D movement axis present in the other Witch Chronicles games.
Finally, the most important section saved for last, the run mechanic. People have been asking for this for so long that it's basically become a meme. Witch 3 had one, but it was tied to a stamina bar. In this game, Chelsea and Melissa can sprint for an indefinite period of time. I would suggest the developer fixes the acceleration speed in their next, as it feels incredibly sluggish. It's the point where while holding down the sprint button and pressing left and right Chelsea and Melissa stay in place.
Thanks for reading this far, might as well just buy it.
Steam User 2

Reviewed last year

Pretty interesting concept!
Gotta love coming back tho this series, and having this way to deal with present and past collecting clues in both timelines is super interesting.
Getting some of that lovely mystery back on the menu is super nice! Specially with the added lore to some ghosts like the Mannequin which has the most intriguing and unsettling presentation of em all, with the dark room interactions and stuff, definitely a personal favourite!
I really liked way the game is structured giving loads of freedom in how you deal with the ghosts.
Steam User 5

Reviewed last year

Full of content, love playing these kind of games. Be sure to create separate save states to get all endings and discover all secrets
Steam User 3

Reviewed last year

It's a great game, and all the characters are in one place at once. The updated gameplay makes the game more interesting in a series of games about a witch
Steam User 6

Reviewed last year

love the new gameplay approach and thank you so much for adding the ability to run :)
Steam User 2

Reviewed last year

Love this Witch series if there is going to be a Witch 5 that'll be cool and awesome and i like and love these's Witch game's so much keep on making more or is this the end for the Witch but i'm for sure the Dev's well keep on going until there is a end to it but who knows but hey this game give's a 5 out of 5 and a 10 out of 10 best game ever like every Witch game there is today?
Steam User 2

Reviewed last year

Thank you so much for the new game. When I get to play your games, it's quite fun. The new gameplay looks great

Witch 4 Hotel

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