The Witch's House

The Witch's House
Developer(s)	Fummy
Publisher(s)	Fummy
Engine	RPG Maker VX, RPG Maker MV
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows, Mac OS
Release	Orig.: 3 October 2012 Rem.: 8 October 2018
Genre(s)	Survival horror Role Playing Game
Mode(s)	Single-player

The Witch's House (魔女の家, Majo no ie) is a freeware puzzle-oriented horror game by the Japanese game creator Fummy (ふみー), created using the software, RPG Maker VX. The game was first released in October 2012, for Windows and Mac.^[1]

Fummy later released a prequel comic book series titled "The Witch's House: The Diary Of Ellen", telling the story of the witch Ellen. The comic book series is four issues long and available for purchase on Amazon.^[2] A manga adaption of The Diary of Ellen, illustrated by Yuna Kagesaki, began publishing in 2017.^[3]

Gameplay[]

The game is a survival horror game in which the main goal is to solve all puzzles correctly and escape the witch's house. It contains a creepy atmosphere, complex riddles and jump scares. This game is played from bird's-eye view using ornate 16-bit graphics, and controlled via keyboard.^[1][4]

A black, talking cat can be met at various places in the house, serving as a save point, as well as something of a companion. Throughout the vast majority of the game, the cat is the only source of conversation, usually talking in a casual, nonchalant manner.^[1][4]

Plot[]

The main character of The Witch's House is Viola, a young girl who wakes up in the middle of a forest, soon discovering that her only way out of the forest is completely blocked off by roses. Her only option is to enter a mysterious house nearby in hopes of finding some means of escaping. Accompanied by a black cat, Viola must try to survive the magical and dangerous house, which is possessed by the spirit of the former witch.

During her stay in the house, Viola encounters many strange phenomena inside the shape-shifting house. She also finds diary entries written by the current house's resident, a witch-girl named Ellen, detailing her past and how she killed her parents due to their mistreatment of her. To progress further into the house and hopefully eventually leave the forest, Viola must solve various puzzles, unlocking doors and other sections in the house. If Viola manages to leave the house, there are two possible endings depending on her actions.

The two endings, commonly referred to as the "Good Ending" and the "True Ending", are essentially identical, with the True Ending requiring the player to revisit a cabinet found early in the game to unlock extra dialogue, shedding light on Viola and Ellen's relationship. Both the good ending and the true ending reveal that Viola and Ellen switched bodies before the events of the story, and that "Ellen" (Viola in Ellen's body) attempted to trap "Viola" (Ellen) inside her own house to regain her body. Ellen's reasoning for this was to cure herself of a terminal illness. In both endings, Viola's father appears to rescue his daughter, not knowing of the switch, and shoots "Ellen" to protect his "daughter". Not being recognized by her father causes "Ellen" to die from despair as "Viola" goes home with her father. The third ending is a "pseudo-ending" achieved by not saving once in the game, and gives some extra context to the story's lore such as Ellen's contract with a demon, previous details of how she mutilated herself before the switch, and other details; either ending is achievable by this point.

A separate ending is also attainable by simply waiting in the starting area of the game for an hour and letting the roses fade away due to "Ellen"'s body dying from the wounds previously inflicted on it.

References[]

External links[]

• The Witch's House at jayisgames.com
• The Witch's House at vgperson.com