Ah, the humble fetch quest. Staple of RPGs looking to pad out their hundreds of hours of content by making you run back and forth like a glorified courier but with even less benefits that an Amazon delivery driver. It’s often criticised as being a lazy way of handling quests, and yet it has also become a genre itself. There are heaps of games out there built around delivering parcels, and Mika and the Witch’s Mountain is the latest, inspired by the classic Japanese 1990 animated move Kiki’s Delivery Service.
The game’s development and release is worth commenting on before we delve further into this review, though. You see, Mika and the Witch’s Mountain actually launched on PC and Switch in 2024. Weirdly, though, it launched on PC as an Early Access game while the Switch version was sold as normal. The explanation was that more content was going to be added so developers Chibig and Nukefist felt it made sense to launch it as an Early Access title. Now, it’s coming to Xbox and PlayStation, with all of the planned content included, meaning aside from updates for bugs and glitches this should be the full, final game in all of its magical glory.
Available On: Xbox, PlayStation, PC, Switch
Reviewed On: PS5
Developed By: Chibig, Nukefist
Published By: ChibigReview key provided by the publisher,
The game stars the titular witch Mika, a young lass of indeterminate age and seemingly infinite cuteness. The beautifully animated opening sequence sets the scene: armed with her broom and a hat, we find her heading to the top of a mountain where a old witch lives and will supposedly teach Mika the secrets of magic. But instead of imparting wisdom, the old bat explains that there’s an important tradition to take care of first, designed to teach witches a lesson. And with that, she yeets Mika off the mountain.
Tossed from the mountaintop, little Mika finds herself in an idyllic village and the owner of a broken broom in desperate need of repair before she can hope to make her way back up the mountain to her potential mentor. Luckily, she has landed in a town full of kind-hearted people, and the first woman she meets agrees ton help mend her broom. She’s going to need a few coins to fund the repairs, though, and that means getting a job with the local courier company, delivering parcels to the varied and colourful inhabitants. Before long, Mika finds herself caught up in all the stories of the people around her: the loving bond between a grandfather and his grandson; an artist struggling to find inspiration; a loner who hides herself away; a scientist who thinks her passion bores everyone else, and so many more. And she learns more about the people and is welcomed into the community, Mika begins to enjoy her new job.
Thus the core of the game’s loop is formed: grab parcels from either the depot or directly from the people themselves and deliver them. Some cannot be got wet, some cannot be damaged and a few might have to be delivered at a rapid pace, such as some tasty ice-cream. As the story progresses the deliveries become trickier, requiring you to visit new areas of the small island or reach places that can only be accessed by using ancient floating fans or by finding handy funnels of wind. It’s never particularly challenging stuff, mind you. The hardest it ever gets is maybe figuring out where get some height from to make it out to a boat, or needing to spend a bit of time exploring to find a path. The simple nature of the gameplay is part of the charm, though, letting you sink into the cosy warmth of cruising around, enjoying the scenery and finding a few collectibles along the way.
Mika’s big advantage in package delivery is her magical broomstick which lets here cruise along the ground and soar through the sky. Well, kinda. She may be a witch but Mika isn’t capable of flying. Instead, her broom floats a few feet above the ground and can perform a little hop for added height. But should she fly off something tall the broom is capable of gliding for a considerable distance, and its flight is aided by various boost rings, winds and more. You may not be able to fly fully, but you can get close to it. The controls are simple and easy to grasp, and while Mika’s broom isn’t the most precise tool in the world you can usually pull off pin-point landings or breeze through gaps with ease. Of course, it helps that Mika can fall from great heights and be perfectly fine, too.
The writing does drop the ball a little in the form of two people who live on the island, both of whom serve in a more antagonistic role. There’s no enemy or villain to fight in this relaxed delivery game as such, but those two are meant to be some mild opposition to the otherwise friendly vibes of the game. Unfortunately, they just kind of vanish at a certain point in the story, leaving their narrative thread dangling in the breeze. It’s not a massive problem but I would have liked more closure, especially since the story would seem to naturally push Mika into a situation where she competes with one of these people directly. That never happens, though.
The issues aside, the writing does a decent job of painting its characters as charming, simple people whose lives are improved by Mika, just as Mika finds her life bettered by their presence. It does a good job of capturing that classic animated feel-good factor. Yes, it’s fair to say that the writing and characters lack any substantial depth or nuance, but given what the game is aiming for that’s perfectly okay.
I was also surprised that Mika’s witchiness didn’t come into play more. Aside from her broomstick and a pointy hat, Mika is just a little girl. It would have been fun to bring some more magical elements into the gameplay for Mika to use, but alas she has all the magical ability of a Muggle. But then again, I guess that’s why she needed to go to school.
As satisfyingly simple as the gameplay loop is, I’m glad Mika and the Witch’s Mountain doesn’t overstay its welcome. You’ll probably wrap up the game in 3 or4 hours. You can tack on a few more for side-quests, and if you want to chase the Platinum Trophy like I did you’re probably looking at under 10 hours. The point is, the gameplay couldn’t really support anything longer, so I’m glad the adventure ends when it does. That said, if feel that good value equals how many hours a game lasts, Mika and the Witch’s Mountain might not be for you. And it does feel as though there was room to expand on the gameplay a tad more, providing room to expand on the characters and maybe even have a few more of those gorgeous cutscenes.
In Conclusion…
Mika and the Witch’s Mountain did hit me at the right time as I’m going through a phase of reading a lot of cosy fantasy books, so the low stakes and warmth of the game remind me a lot of that genre.
Mika and the Witch’s Mountain is a heart-warming game, a warm hug transformed into a delivery game packaged up in a cutesy wrapper. It’s the kind of game I can see appealing to a very specific crowd, the kind who are just looking for something cosy and cute, easy and fun.
