‘Willow Guard’ might wear its influences boldly on its gilded sleeves, but it is a quirky romp into monster hunting. Developed by MiTale, this single-player game with dungeon crawling and RPG elements is a surprising mishmash of genres, but in a charismatic and amusing way.

You play as an anamorphic Badger named Ghweros, a monster slayer akin to Geralt from the ‘Witcher’ franchise. In a world of talking wildlife, creatures of darkness and evil lurk and cause mayhem. Using your talents and skills, you must investigate the cause of these monstrous attacks and the internal conflicts of the eternal gods.

There are some really interesting characters in the narrative, and I enjoyed watching the story unfold. However, at times, you do get lost in the sauce with the extensive dialogue. The narrative is girthy, has lots of content, and is mostly well-written and entertaining, but it does sag in some areas where you just want to jump into a fight.

The gameplay is extensive but not overtly complicated and has various difficulties. You navigate a map from area to area, some are used to push the narrative with investigations and intel collection, and others operate as dungeon-crawling expeditions.

When dungeon crawling, you will search the area for objectives, but will soon be accosted by the many varieties of enemies plaguing the area. Here, you will use standard and heavy attacks on your mouse. As you damage enemies and obstacles, you will build up a stamina bar; once it’s full, the deck-building comes into play. It’s decent enough combat, though, sometimes not super fluid, but it’s fun, and the enemies are diverse and interesting.

Willow Guard used a card system to build strength and diversity into its gameplay. Using Tab, you can pick one card out of two to enhance your character’s Willow Guard abilities. These might be throwing knives, upgraded dash, healing salves and more. These cards can be upgraded at a camp with resources collected from maps and go back into your hand for the next dungeon exploration.

They add a decent element to the gameplay, but I wish you had a wider variety, more interesting ones and more in your hands to pick from. There are also RPG elements as you craft new, stronger skills from recipes and collect better armour items along the way or from vendors. While crafting skills are appreciated, the gear/armour upgrades feel like a tacked-on afterthought.

As mentioned, collecting information is vital to unlocking pathways and new characters. When you enter an area, you have to use focus points of varying amounts to unlock key observations.  These might lead to new stories or lines of dialogue, new investigation areas with new problems or even whole new characters to send you on missions. Focus points can be earned pretty easily in the dungeon-crawling areas.

The graphics are beautifully designed, with what appears to be hand-drawn, gritty visualisations for narrated scenes. With bold lines and sombre colour palettes, MiTale has developed a rich world through simplistic but charming pixelated in-game environments and character designs. Likewise, the backing music is also very atmospheric to the adventure and peril developed through the narrative. The sound effects are fitting, neither mind-blowing nor lacking. Coupled with the graphics, it makes for a pleasant overall experience.

Willow Guard, overall, is such a solid game. While not completely polished, the fabulous writing and decent combat are enough to keep you entertained for hours at a time. A charming little fantasy title, Ghweros slayed through my heart and monsters just like the best ‘Witcher’ characters.

Written by: Stacey