Here at Honey’s Anime, we’ve played our fair share of “Souls-like” games. When a game tries to mirror the themes found in the legendary Dark Souls titles and their spin-offs, the internet has dubbed them “Souls-like” and most can range from God-awful to amazing. One game that caught us off guard was a title released on the PC a few years ago and now is making an appearance on PS4 and Nintendo Switch called Little Witch Nobeta. Rather than be about knights and otherworldly locations, Little Witch Nobeta could be summed up by saying if a 3rd person shooter fused with a moe anime.

Does this magic shooter stand among the titans and does it really deserve to be thought of as a “Souls-like” game or should you just play Hogwarts Legacy? We find out in our review of Little Witch Nobeta for the PS4, played on a PS5!

Little Witch Nobeta stars a young witch named…Nobeta suffers from amnesia—of course, she does—and her only clue to getting her memory is an alleged throne that she keeps thinking about. Finding her way to a strange labyrinth-like building, Nobeta soon meets a cat—who talks and is kind of rude—who knows the way to the throne and is willing to lead our little witch to it. The story for Little Witch Nobeta is pretty generic, at first mind you, as it just feels like the usual anime setup. However, Little Witch Nobeta does indeed beat with Dark Souls' heart as the story isn’t always told in simple ways but can be pieced together by fighting various bosses and finding items that all have story snippets attached to them.

We did like that Little Witch Nobeta is a bit deceptive as the story does grow a bit darker as you progress and you’ll soon discover there is quite a bit of interesting lore to be found. Little Witch Nobeta does start with a generic anime plot but that won’t last forever.

We said a few times already but Little Witch Nobeta isn’t a typical Souls-like title. Nobeta isn’t a strong warrior like Mash Burnedead from Mashle—great manga by the way—but is a cute little witch girl who is petite and super moe! That being said, Nobeta isn’t a weakling either. Our little Nobeta starts off with a simple spell but as Little Witch Nobeta progresses the player can unlock new spells and level up their abilities via prayer statues. However, these statues come at a price like the bonfires in Dark Souls games, when you use these statues to heal and level up via points you gain as you defeat enemies and other means, enemies respawn.

Yet, does that ultimately matter in Little Witch Nobeta or are all these similar gameplay elements lost in execution? Don’t worry, we're about to tell you why Little Witch Nobeta is actually a pretty solid 3rd person shooter and is worthy of being considered a Souls-like title.

Nobeta might be super adorable and stoic but her magic is no joke! Players will need to run around the sometimes generic but sometimes creepy labyrinth and need to dispatch enemies with Nobeta’s magic. Again, you start off with a simple spell but as you progress you gain new powers based on elements and each power has multiple uses. For example, Nobeta gains ice magic early on, her ice attacks are like a machine gun and she can create armor made of ice to protect her from damage and various elements. You’ll need to master these various magic abilities to not only beat enemies but also to solve super simple puzzles.

Even with simple puzzles and repeated enemy variants—the bosses are unique but not so much the enemy types— Little Witch Nobeta plays shockingly well! Nobeta can dodge, power up magic powers, attack with a pretty weak melee strike, and can use items for various effects. You’ll never feel Little Witch Nobeta is as extremely hard as Dark Souls or Elden Ring but it does have some toughness and losing means the loss of progress, just like most Souls titles. There are two difficulties though and we highly recommend choosing the harder of the two just for that true Souls-like experience.

In the year 2023, we gamers and otaku have become used to games that cost around $50 to look the part of a $50 game… Little Witch Nobeta doesn’t look like a modern-day game and is still priced pretty high like one. Don’t get us wrong… Little Witch Nobeta isn’t horrible looking and looks better than a lot of other Souls-like games but aside from the main character models and bosses themselves, most Little Witch Nobeta looks dated. Enemies are very generic in design and the various areas you explore also have boring designs. You’ll go from dark dungeons to lava locations but none of them feel original. That is our biggest issue with Little Witch Nobeta, at its price and for what year it came out in, we are sure many will expect more as well.