Apprentice Witch Moco and her Friends

In April I downloaded a demo for a game that had just gotten released in Japan, with the translated title of Apprentice Witch and Moco Moco friends. It caught my interest as it looked cute and sweet, and you know me: I’m always into cute games. Something else in gaming must have distracted me back then, because I didn’t remember the demo until recently. Nippon Columbia announced they were going to release the game in the USA, with Aksys doing the localization. For Nippon Columbia, it’s a first!

So today I decided to play the demo, to be able to give you some insight into the game, just in case you are interested too in cute and colorful. Because that’s the first thing that comes to mind: lots of color, happy music and characters with bubbling enthusiasm. I don’t mean that in a negative way, if you want to play a happy game, this one is it. Meet the apprentice witch, Moco, who is training to become the ultimate moppet master in this RPG. Yep, moppet, the literal translation from the Japanese game, not to be confused with muppets.

Moppets, called Plushkins in the American version, are uber cute, and there are 120 Plushkins in the magical realm of DreamTopia. You cannot play this game without comparisons to Pokémon or Yokai Watch to come to mind, but that’s only true when thinking about the monster-collecting. Moco travels various dungeons, dungeons that are randomly generated and with a map on the bottom screen, looking for new Plushkins to befriend ( and fight first). The battles run along the lines of the triangle of fire beating grass, grass beating water and water beating fire. The battles are turn based and the Plushkins evolve in the right circumstances. Aside from the battles you can do side quests in the game, and there seems to be a garden where you can grow crops and collect items. A garden that has plants growing in real time, by the way.

What stood out to me in the demo? I already mentioned the cute and happy. No ugly demons, no dark secrets, but an overall nice feeling. A lot of the backgrounds and buttons are of a texture like in Kirby’s Epic Yarn: knitted, patchwork, needlework, all giving it a great look. The Plushkins look very good, it would be a pleasure to collect them. And when you fight them, it’s so adorable the way the cotton stuffing bursts out of them when they are hurt. Items to get their special attacks up and life force back to full aren’t just bottles of potions, but cupcakes, waffles, chocolates and macaroons! After having beaten a Plushkin Moco can purify it using a spell, making it a friend.

The game will be released in the US on November 17- 2015, no date yet for Europe. If you want an RPG that’s a bit different then what you normally see, and you like cute and happy, than this would be a good game to go for!