The Witch and the Hundred Knight - Metallia! Some of the scenes were a bit disturbing.

The Witch and the Hundred Knight (魔女と百騎兵) is an action RPG developed and published by Nippon Ichi Software for PlayStation 3 in 2013. Back when I first played this, I was initially a bit taken aback by the story and gameplay, to the point that I shelved the game for a few months before starting it again. It isn't until quite a few hours into the game that the story starts to take an interesting turn and glues you to the screen.

The story follows Metallia, a self-proclaimed "Swamp Witch" who lives secluded in a swamp with her robot servant, Arlecchino. I say self-proclaimed because she is not a recognized witch, even though she is quite powerful and technically immortal. Her only weak point is the fact that she cannot leave the swamp she lives in. 

In order to reach other places, she concocts a summoning device to create the "Hundred Knight," sending him to unexplored places to release magical pillars. These pillars expand her swamp over new territory. The more the swamp expands, the more places Metallia can reach and explore.

A young girl named Visco changes Metallia's life when she arrives at the swamp seeking help to revert a curse that partially transformed her into a dog. Metallia thinks Visco could serve as an asset and deceives her by telling her that she can cure the curse in the future.

Together, they keep exploring and satisfying Metallia's ego as she exacts vengeance upon other witches and the people who treated her poorly. However, by interacting with Visco, Metallia starts to change. This is the key that leads to learning more about her origins and what it means to expand the swamp as she is doing.

The story is a dark fantasy, and it really shows through the actions committed by both Metallia and the enemies alike. Cruelty abounds, and you only start to see Metallia in a different light much later in the game once you learn more about her past. She does get redeemed, but it was honestly hard to get into the story at the beginning due to her personality.

There are three endings in the story: the Bad, Normal, and True endings. Do not be misled by the name "Bad," because it still contains a lot of extra content if you go through it. It is not a "dead end" that just gives you a Game Over screen. It actually requires you to kill a series of optional bosses to activate it.

The gameplay is a typical action RPG played from the perspective of the small Hundred Knight in a top-down isometric view. The Hundred Knight can equip up to five weapons, allowing him to create combos by cycling through them. You can unlock more skills by talking with Metallia at the base and paying the required cost.

If the player dies in battle during exploration, the game doesn't end there. The Hundred Knight is returned to the base to Metallia, losing all the items he acquired during the adventure. Considering there is no saving during exploration, you have to make strategic decisions about what to explore and what to avoid so you don't lose your progress.

As I said at the beginning, the story is solid. Once it gets going, it truly becomes a masterpiece, but I need to emphasize that the first few hours can be a slog. If you can survive through them, you will be in for a lot of fun, and I can wholeheartedly suggest that you play it.

I am honestly interested in playing the sequel considering how interesting the first one was, but it is not a priority right now as it is not technically linked to the first game story-wise. It is set in another universe, so the chances of links between the two stories are quite slim.