Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time

Chamber of Time is slow-paced, looks a bit drab and it can be repetitive and awkward to play. In a way, it’s much like Akko herself. She’s far from perfect but spunky and open-hearted, making her irresistibly disarming. There’s a strong positive vibe going on that rubs on you, and it helps in overcoming the game’s shortcomings. Fans of the anime series should look no further and invest in Chamber of Time to get their little witch fix.

While the story may be enticing for diehard fans, those who aren't familiar with the Little Witch Academia franchise will find a little bit stiff and probably uninteresting.

All in all, Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time features intriguing characters, a solid story, tons of dialogue and simplistic RPG mechanics. It was definitely made for a younger audience in mind, and at times seems to forget that the younger audience can take on a challenge. Much like its main character Akko, it is going to be great someday, but right now just needs a bit more balance and work.

I was worried Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time would be a cheap cash grab, but I was wrong. There are some flaws, but the most important aspect — the franchise’s ethos — is fully intact and on full display, making this a game that’s sure to leave fans spellbound.

While not without some criticism, Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time is an enjoyable experience. The time spent running to random points of the academy in order to advance the story could have benefited by being more streamlined to feel less monotonous and the map system could use some tweaking, but the game is entertaining past those shortcomings.

Exploring Luna Nova Academy can sometimes be frustrating until you're able to fast travel throughout it, and trying to complete events can often feel like an uphill struggle against the clock. But as you begin to wrap your head around the game's intricacies and balance dungeon crawling with your academic endeavours, things fall into place.

Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time manages to capture the essence of the anime brilliantly. There’s plenty of fun to be had exploring Luna Nova as well as all the various dungeons. Some slow story pacing and frame rate drops let things down slightly, but if you’re a fan of the series, you should definitely pick this up.

This field trip to Luna Nova is more frustrating than fun, though fans of Little Witch Academia will likely find more enjoyment than others.

Both a fun experience for fans of the series as well as a good introduction for others. While the gameplay is a bit repetitive, it is still enjoyable, and both the visuals and audio make it a joy to experience.

Not a blast to play, but at least this side scrolling beat´em up with light RPG elements is not a mere fan service. It´s fun to play in the short term but gets a bit tedious after that.

Chamber of Time is in fact a runaway-style dungeon crawler with good arrows to its arch, sliding and light, but very rigid in structure and decidedly elementary in its construction of gameplay.

Chamber of Time has its ups and downs. The adventure part is much better than its action part, but fans of the franchise are going to have a great time with it.

With its charming characters and engaging story, Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time could have been so much more. Sadly, the dungeon crawling experience is damaged by bad enemy AI, clunky controls and a terrible performance that make the experience very unpleasant. The game does have some interesting features and mechanics, as well as a well-done presentation, but they're not enough to make the game a must-have for those who aren't fans of the anime.

Little Witch Academia feels like Groundhog Day, but without the fun. Too bad, cause it really has the same feel as the anime.

Fans of the show won't won't want to miss the chance to bask in the wonder of Luna Nova. [Issue#150, p.88]

Chamber of Time is the perfect tie-in for those who love the original Trigger animated series. If you're not one of them... move on.

It’s quite sad that Chamber of Time so actively works against you in many ways. The tediousness of everything, from school exploration to combat, can really start to drag on you after a while, even if you do enjoy the story and characters.

Little Witch Academia is a game that is aimed at the series fans first and foremost. It is hard to recommend this game to anyone else because of its bland environments and repetitive events, despite some unique designs that we liked.

Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time is probably a safe pick up for diehard fans, a gamble for those with a little bit of familiarity like myself, and a dangerous choice for anyone outside of those two categories. For a title based on a world filled with magic, the game itself has very little of it to be found.

The look of Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time and the time it spends with its characters gives the game a great deal of charm, but its play styles continually drag it down.

If you're a Little Witch Academia fan, you may enjoy it even if for the nostalgia. If not, I'm not too sure you'll enjoy it much. I find it pretty hard to think platform fighter fans would jump into this game and find it fun. It's very aimed at the fans of the anime and I can see that the developers hoped that simple fact would draw in the sales numbers.

It becomes readily apparent that those who will enjoy Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time the most will be existing fans of the series. The storyline and new animations are worth checking out, especially since the second season is still a ways out. Even then, they may be hard-pressed to deal with both the tedious exploration and the unreliable combat. For them, the game may be worth getting for cheap. For everyone else, this should be a pass.

Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time is a product made for the fans but they'd rather watch again the show than play this.

If on one hand we appreciate the care from Studio Trigger in narrating the story and the animated cutscenes, on the other we can't ignore the rough gameplay and its limits. The game has still a lot to gift to the fans of the show, but it's hard to suggest the game to anyone else.

This type of design is an infuriating and transparent attempt to pad out the length of the game by making simple quests take longer to complete. Worse still, the occasional need to fire off a spell or two is entirely governed by Akko’s magical potion supply, which can only be replenished by spending money earned by repetitively grinding dungeon battles. It breaks my heart that Little Witch Academia: The Chamber of Time turned out the way it did, because the aesthetic success is undeniable, as is APlus’ attempt to design something that functions on a deeper level than just delivering fanservice.

While Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time’s repetitive and sometimes dull gameplay is a let-down, you’ve got to appreciate the amount of heart and detail that’s been put into it.

Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time represents the show it is based on incredibly well when it comes to the look and the characters. That’s all it gets right, though, as the gameplay is just frustrating and tedious.

Unfortunately, obtaining that blessing requires a two-mile crawl on your knees through the jagged glass and thorny ivy that is the busted, broken, and simply not fun gameplay of Chamber of Time. Battles are aggravating and exploration is mind-numbing. For as brilliant as the narrative and artistic achievements of Chamber of Time are, it’s weighed down by unpolished game design choices that simply make it no fun to actually play at all.

Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time is the video game adaptation you were not expecting and won't care about if you are not an hardcore fan of the anime. The game is a weird mix between an old-school 2D side-scrolling and a PS2 era RPG but does not stand out in any of the genre it tries to tackle. However, only once you forget about the core gameplay and simply wander around the aisle of the Academia speaking with Akko's little friends, then you can really start enjoying Chamber of Time. Not for what it is, but for what it is not: a visual novel set within the world of Little Witch Academia starring the cutest hero of all time, Akko!