Magic school Stardew-like Witchbrook gets its first proper trailer
Out holiday 2025
Stardew Valley publishers and Starbound developers Chucklefish have conjured up the first proper trailer for Witchbrook, the magic school life game some have called isometric Little Witch Academia, and others, “a reworking of The Worst Witch books”. Me, I’m going with “isometric Kiki’s Delivery Service”, given that there appear to be delivery missions and also, you do get to fly on broomsticks.
I italicised that “do” in honour of Alice Bee (RPS in peace), who threatened in 2020 to institute scoring on RPS specifically in order to give Witchbrook 0/10 if it didn’t have flying broomsticks. Nice save, Chucklefish! Here’s that trailer.
And here’s the Steam page. Witchbrook seems like pretty standard, albeit beautifully presented Stardewlike fare, but it’s glamorised considerably by the fact that you can learn spells and potions, read the stars, and participate in occult rituals while pursuing your education at the titular Witchbrook College.
When not hitting the grimoires, you’ll also get to decorate your very own witch’s cottage and pursue a range of relationships in the town of Mossport, with its many persistent NPCs. The Steam blurb suggests that you can form a coven. I’ve always wanted to form a coven. They sound like unions but you can hex people instead of going on strike.
There’s also scope for such non-witchy, extra-curricular and/or entrepreneurial activities as shopping at the boutique, selling goods at the Sunday market, founding a business and playing local photographer. The witch of today loves to diversify, it seems.
Witchbrook will launch in holiday 2025. In her article threatening to give the game a 0/10, Alice also demanded pet options besides dogs and cats, an occult range of things to farm, the ability to get put in detention for skipping classes, and *squints* the right to fuck a ghost. I’m pretty sure 50% of that is in the trailer.
Myself, I will only add that I feel like Witchbrook’s witches could be wickeder. I get that this is another idyll for people who seek relief from reality’s cares in the endless watering of pixelart turnips, but I would quite like to build a gingerbread house and start a business catching and roasting small children. I won't give the game a 0/10 if it doesn't meet my needs, but it's definitely not scoring above a 7.