So before I talk about what I played, take a look at this.

    Can you believe that! Now who would put an N64 strap on a Sega Dreamcast bag? That's just not right! First of all, why would you ruin a perfectly good N64 bag; and secondly, why would you ruin a good Sega Dreamcast strap? Anyway, I'm just giving my buddy Mark a hard time.

    Mark and I spent most of the day at Longwood Gardens, a very large landscaped area with a huge greenhouse that used to be the estate of The Duponts. We did a lot of photography of plants and a few of Pokemon for Professor Oaks (what I mean is that I photographed some insects). 

     Then it was carnivor time at Outback Steakhouse and then back to Mark's place to game it up. 

    I set up my PS3 for the first time in about eight months. I had to reistablishing a wireless internet connection (why the PS3 can't just remember several setups is beyond me). Then I had to wait for the system to update (this took more than a few minutes). Then I looked through the few friends I have on PSN and tried to compare trophies. I don't know why you can't highlight individual trophies a friend has and see what they are. You can see the total progress comparision for each game but not see details on individual trophies. Maybe there's a way, but it wasn't obvious at first glance. Finally I popped in The Witch and The Hundred Knight. I picked up the game in the morning by trading in Lego Hobbit and three other games I'd already played: God of War: Ascension, Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus, and Ni No Kuni. I also preordered Diablo III: Ultimate Evil Edtion for Xbox 360 with the left over trade-in money. 

                     Metallia will curse quite a bit in the game. The words will be

                      replaced with symbols but the voice actor says them clearly.

    The Witch and The Hundred Knight is really attractive to look at. The cut scenes are done in a partially animated comic book style (see above) that's very colorful and fully voice acted; and the active parts of the game look a lot like Diablo III (see below).

     The story is you are a demon summoned by Metallia, Witch of the Swamp, a waifish girl with a bad attitude in a giant wizard's hat (she's the one on the cover of the game). You are tasked with helping her defeat Malia, The Witch of the Forest, by turning the forest into a swamp. To do this you have to explore the forest, defeat creatures, and activate pillars that convert forest into swamp. There are lesser pillars and then the main one for each location on the world map. This last pillar is always guarded by a large beastie that you have to defeat. It's funny that you are supposedly playing an evil character pitted against the good Malia. It reminds me of the Overlord series in that way and lends itself well to humor.

     The game is viewed much like Diablo from top down, and you fight it out hack and slash style (spells must happen latter on, or not?). You can equip up to five weapons and each is used in turn as you attack. You can do a dash attack and get combos with successive hits. As you are attacking, you are given quick messages as to how effective your weapons are on a particular creature. In one fight, I noticed all my attacks were bringing up the words "ineffective" after each hit, so I ran away, quickly switched weapons, and went back and did much more damage. 

   There's also this time limit mechanic. You are lit up by a magic flame that slowly ebbs as you play. When it gets really low you have to return to Metallia's house or become immobile. I guess it's a way to keep you moving forward, but I like to explore, and this kinda made me do less of that. 

     So far the in game music is pretty good. Each location has a different theme that plays and, except for the tune at Metallia's house, none have sent me to the controls to turn any of it off. There's also some battle music for the boss fights at the end of each location which is exciting. It came with the soundtrack, so I'll be listening to that. 

    I got to level 6 and into the second location on the world map when the day ended. I'm really liking the game so far.