Witch on the Holy Night

Your enjoyment of Mahoyo will heavily rely on its narrative and characters. Despite lacking multiple routes found in later Nasu works, such as Tsukihime and Fate, Mahoyo's story remains highly engaging and is truly worth the long wait in English. If you're into the Nasuverse, do yourself a favor and give this game a read.

Despite a slow start, Witch on the Holy Night does earn its reading time. It takes well-established character paradigms and works them in fun ways. The limited animations punctuate and accent the words, creating vivid action scenes with color choices that pop. This is a title for kicking back and relaxing, as there isn’t anything happening on the gameplay front.

Though it's part of a vaster universe, Witch on the Holy Night is a self-contained story, a small piece that represents TYPE-MOON's visual novel catalogue. With impeccable direction and writing, this is definitely the best entrypoint for those who wish to know the universe created by Kinoko Nasu, besides being an easy recommendation to those who still hold prejudice against the genre.

Before jumping into Witch on the Holy Night you should understand what kind of story it is. It's not a long drawn out experience filled with tons of action and drama, but instead a quick read that sets up exactly what it needs to. It introduces the characters, sets up the world's lore, brings in the main plot, and throws in a key event that brings our main cast together. From that point on, we get to see the characters learn more about each other and develop their relationships, as we eventually make our way to the climax. It's a more grounded story, and it uses it's setting and atmosphere to help draw it's readers in. The "Holy Night" in the title refers to Christmas, and the snowy backdrop of the game really helps set the mood. Sure, there are some laughs here and there, but overall this is a melancholic tale that features a group of characters you'll want to hold onto.

As far as visual novels go, Witch On The Holy Night stands among the best in the genre. Strong writing, great characters, and stellar world-building make this a memorable experience. While chapter length is all over the place and some plot points feel a bit forced, Witch on The Holy Night keeps you well-invested and rewards you with a strong body of work from beginning to end.

If you're going to get into Witch on the Holy Night, perhaps while waiting for someone to tie George R. R. Martin to a chair long enough to finish off their magnum opus, it's going to be a commitment. 20+ hours of either nudging an analog stick to stop the system from going into screen saving mode or jamming A will get you a well-written story that sets up a lot of things for the future.

Overall, Witch on the Holy Night is an excellent visual novel that shows why the studio behind it is so famous and responsible for some of the biggest franchises of the genre. Apart from some minor criticisms, such as the localization and the balance of the scenes, this might be the genre's best release this year.

With a few translation errors and some pacing issues aside, Witch on the Holy Night serves as a great introduction to the Nasuverse. Type-Moon newcomers will find the story to be accessible, and old fans will want to support this English release as well. This is an easy recommendation for those who are fond of visual novels.