WITCH ON THE HOLY NIGHT

If Alice has a million fans, then I am one of them. If Alice has ten fans, then I am one of them. If Alice has only one fan then that is me. If Alice has no fans, then that means I am no longer on earth. If the world is against Alice, then I am against the world.

Nasu the author has stated "the story is not complete in this game, but is a trilogy" (Interviewed by 4Gamer).
-10 years later-
It is announced that Mahoyo will be made in to a movie and remastered.

Where is the sequel?

A great visual novel and a must read for any Type Moon fans.

Positive:
- Great Story
- Great art
- Great music
- Fully voice acted and it's great
- Moreover it's a good entry point into the nasuverse since you don't need to read or watch anything before and it serves as an origin story for characters which reappear in Tsukihime, Kara no Kyoukai, Fate, ...

Negative:
- No routes, there's no choices to make and no gameplay (aside from a bonus story at the end), so it's really just a book with sound and pictures, it's not necessarily a negative but you need to know it before buying
- The translation could be better, overall it's good but there's a few obvious errors here and there

Also, it runs well on Steam Deck, you just need ProtonGE.

"It was you Aoko! You're the witch on the holy night!"

Good intro into the type-moon-verse and the fate series, despite not being a fate game. Introduces concepts like magecraft and what not that appear in subsequent type-moon works. Fully standalone story with good music, art and story.

I am happy to be able to read this story after so many years (Tears).

Also minor plothole correction to Nasu and Type Moon: If this story took place in the 1980s, then China don't have any Billionaires yet :P

There's an emptiness in my heart after finishing the game, that's how good it was. I went into this knowing really one character but even then my knowledge of the character was really vague. Easily one of my favorite visual novels, from the sound design, music, art, story, and characters, I really love them all. But the thing that stood out to me the most was seeing the bonds formed between my favorite trio. Highly recommend.

Really good honestly. The trio of protagonists are well written and have extremely nice dynamics with each other, compounded with a setting that entertainingly mixes the mundane with the supernatural, and prose that's pretty thrilling and cathartic to read.

Imagine a world where high budget japanese entertainment companies helped & funded projects of writers with actual talent and not scared in experimenting into something new instead of spitting out the shittiest seasonal animes known to mankind over and over again. You get Mahoyo.

Now for Mahoyo itself, Kinoko Nasu show us that Kino in his name is not here for nothing, artistically phenomenal on every points from the art to the choreography to the writing. Could even be easily recommended to someone who's not interested in anime or absolutely despite anime.

PS:If you can't decide between reading it or waiting for the anime, if you are not illiterate and can see quality above a superficial level 100% read it there is no world where an anime could match the quality & Nasu poetic prose of the VN.

I had a ton of fun with this visual novel.

It's a bit lower scale in terms of scale of (story and # of characters) than the other Type-Moon novels I've played. That isn't a bad thing at all. It allows for more significant character exploration while still managing the urban fantasy schtick Type-moon does. I felt a lot closer to the characters in this novel than in Fate Stay/Night or Tsukihime. The level of art design is also a whole higher level than those older works. Finally, the voice acting is great (and freaking hilarious at times). Makes me really look forward to Tsukihime remake later this year. I wholeheartedly recommend this visual novel, with the following two very minor caveats:

1. The core storytelling is typical Type-Moon/Kinoku Nasu storytelling. It's somewhat more mature (and less tropey) than other Type-Moon visual novels, but if you're bounced off Nasu storytelling in the past, there's little here to change your mind.
2. This second part requires some *very* minor spoilers. Unlike Fate Stay/Night or the original Tsukihime, this novel is obviously intended to have direct sequels. There are many storyline elements that are not fully cleared up in this work. The novel does come to a satisfying stopping point (without a major cliffhanger), and even has a fairly creative way of teasing future installments (you'll know what I mean when you play it). But be prepared to be left wanting more, and knowing that you'll get it...when Type-Moon gets around to it.

Witch on the Holy Night is another decent Type Moon visual novel with an outstanding produce value that really shines because of its well-written main character trio. However, as the supposed start of a trilogy, it doesn’t feel as complete as it should be at certain occasions and leaves you wanting for more

In a sense, Witch on the Holy Night (Mahōtsukai no Yoru) could be described as the origin of all Type Moon works, since it was the first novel that co-founder Kinoko Nasu ever wrote – although at that time (1996), it was but a manuscript that was merely shared among his friends. Many years and successful Type-Moon franchises (Kara no Kyōkai ,Tsukihime, Fate) later, said manuscript got realized as a visual novel (2011) and finally received an official Western localization through this enhanced version that released in 2023.

As such, Witch on the Holy Night presents itself as an easy entry-point into the wider “Nasuverse”, acting as a prequel of sorts to Tsukihime in particular. I won’t deny that those familiar with the Nasuverse are going to get a little more out of certain moments in Witch on the Holy Night than those who are entirely new to it, but it never reaches a degree to which I’d advise newcomers to engage with other Type-Moon works beforehand. This is not the type of prequel that demands you to be familiar with the “sequels” beforehand, since Tsukihime has not yet been officially localized in the West for example (although the first part of the remake is set to be released over here in Summer 2024).

One of the most striking things about Witch on the Holy Night is its absurdly high production value for a visual novel. It features an incredible amount of beautiful & unique artwork, great looking effects and voice-acting for all dialogues (although there’s no lip-syncing). If this is your first visual novel, you might actually get spoiled here compared to the more common standards in the genre. Witch on the Holy Night looks and sounds absolutely stunning, to the point where it occasionally feels like watching an anime rather than reading a visual novel.

In terms of “gameplay” however, Witch on the Holy Night can be classified as the “kinetic novel”-type: A visual novel where the player can only read through the story instead of interacting with it, there are no choices to be made or multiple routes to play through here. There’s a slight exception to this rule: Witch on the Holy Night features multiple “bonus” chapters that aren’t part of the “main” story. They become available after reading through certain story chapters (I recommend reading them as soon as they appear) and offer additional insights into the story. The extra chapter that unlocks last does actually feature choices for the player to be made, but as a bonus comedy chapter, these are more of a gimmick than anything else.

However, as a visual novel, the main draw of Witch on the Holy Night is the story itself to begin with. And although it’s not an excessively long one (expect your playthrough to last between 16-22h, depending on the amount of extra chapters you read), it’s especially the main character trio that really makes it a memorable experience. The three protagonists are extremely well-written and characterized, which makes it a joy to see how their different personalities influence their interactions with each other. It’s simply impressive how the tone of the story can change from tense to calm moments without ever feeling unnatural while simultaneously allowing the group dynamic to develop naturally and the characters to grow.

It's also impressive that the game doesn’t really have a “main” protagonist – even though the game is called Witch on the Holy Night, the other two protagonists are just as well-realized and got their fair share of moments to shine. In fact, I’ve rarely seen a character-trio handled so well as in this case, which is an achievement in itself. I could easily read another 20h visual novel with just these three characters around. However, while Witch on the Holy Night is definitely at its best when it focusses on its main characters and their circumstances, these are unsurprisingly shaped by a larger plot that serves as the main driving force behind the story. Unfortunately, this is also where the visual novel struggles a bit.

Witch on the Holy Night was planned to be the first game in a trilogy (back in 2012!), with its two sequels unfortunately yet to show up. As such, even if you read through all extra chapters, there are some questions left unanswered and plot developments that have yet to show their consequences. Witch on the Holy Night can feel like a prologue to bigger events at times, which makes for an unwelcome surprise when the ending credits suddenly start to roll. I wouldn’t go as far as to call Witch on the Holy Night an unfinished story, it’s really not, but I do wish we got more closure regarding certain plot points - lingering questions even the “sequels” didn’t answer. That said, a more positive spin on this would be that wanting more after finishing a game is definitely a good thing.

Additionally, I also feel like side-characters could’ve been treated a bit better. Compared to the extremely well-realized main trio, it’s almost jarring how little characterization some (!) of the side-characters receive. It’s not that they’re badly written, it’s simply weird how some of them show up for a few scenes and never re-appear again. For example, one character only shows up for a about five minutes (!) during the aforementioned last extra (!!) chapter and is only briefly mentioned (!!) during another - why even introduce them to begin with?

Still, apart from these small issues, I consider the story of Witch on the Holy Night to be quite good. It starts out with small conflicts that gradually grow bigger in size but it also manages to keep the build-up believable, with even the big events never feeling out of place. The re-introduced magic system remains interesting and unique, the battles are intense and well-realized, and the story is paced well (apart from some minor exceptions, like the second half of the first proper battle). I found myself to be so involved in the story at certain moments, that I was simply unable to stop reading until I knew how the current conflict turned out.

Witch on the Holy Night is a great introduction to the wider Nasuverse and recommendable to everyone who likes character-driven stories with magic elements and smaller, more personal stakes. The high production value might convince even those who don’t really like visual novels to give it a try but don’t make a mistake: That doesn’t mean you won’t spend a lot of time just reading. If you don’t like that or visual novels in general, Witch on the Holy Night won’t change your mind. But if you do like visual novels and are interested in the setting, you’re in for a great time!

Starting up the game and reading through the prologue while Liebestraum by Franz Liszt is playing in the backround, being hit with multiple shots of indoors and hearing raindrops while slowly realizing the scene isn't played in one character's perspective, this game immediately drops in a cozy yet mysterious atmosphere that dragged me in for a ride that left me eager for more by the end.

Unlike most novels I've seen, the main story in this one is as linear as it gets, there are no decisions to make whatsoever, you just sit back, relax and read while enjoying the music, visuals and voice acting. Its also one of the most cinematic VNs I'm aware of with battles that are done as well as they can be in this genre without becoming straight up animated cutscenes, and outside of battles you won't stare at character portraits looking directly at the player as much as I've seen in other novels, but will instead look at the scenery, characters being positioned to face someone off screen and similar.

Because I don't know jack about Type Moon or their other works, there are moments where I feel like I'm missing extra context for certain side characters, but WITCH ON THE HOLY NIGHT as a standalone experience works, although because I did play Melty Blood fighting game for a bit I still have some questions that I'm hoping to get answers for in the future.

Excellent visual novel, and fun experience. The sprite work and art is incredible, and the soundtrack really helps you settle in. I will say it's slow the first couple chapters, but intrigue kicks in by chap. 3 and by the time you hit chap. 5 you'll be hooked. I just wish Nasu would have gone forth with the two sequels he had in mind.

this junk is the bees knees ive never read a visual novel prior to this and i was blown away and always captivated never really a boring moment where i just turned my brain off to get through the text to something more interesting. i wish nasu verse women where real

What else is there left to say? Many say the visual novel industry is slowly dying as people prefer video games for the dynamic feel of action or more interaction with the player. However, Witch of the Holy Night is a piece that stands out in its genre. It provides a great experience that does not matter what form its story is portrayed in; it will surely deliver its plot. If you're unfamiliar with the franchise this series shares settings with, you may get lost in certain scenes as a complete newcomer. Fortunately, this game works as a standalone for anyone looking for an excellent read interested in the genres it falls under. The action is visualized and can seriously hook any anime fan in if they're looking to play this game, whether they are into visual novels or not. This game will be a treat if you are familiar with the Fate series or any of type/moon's works.

This brings me to the first strength of this game and what most people read and bought for The story. It's a simple story at its base, albeit having complex terminology and definitions here and there, and it practically throws you into the fire. Still, with its length and time, it was just enough to introduce people to the world of magic in this setting and how magic works and believe you, me, provokes interest at the insane contrasts that this series utilizes. If you were a Fate fan, this game helps you understand the basis of how magic itself works, as this franchise is also part of the Nasuverse. (The universe of stories created by the same author, Kinoko Nasu, usually falls under the same setting). I'll admit, I sometimes got lost with how stuffed the set can be with magical backgrounds, but that's to be expected with the title's name. It's not your ordinary witch story; however, if you are familiar with the Fate series, it follows a similar rule of thumb with how mages are, but this series goes more in-depth with that concept. You have to be patient with this game, however, as it starts a bit slow and eases you into its plot, but it is worth it with the experience the game itself provides. My only honest criticism about the story is I believe it ended up being cut short at times, and you can easily see where whole scenes that could've been shown were skipped, but I'm holding on to the hope that a sequel will come soon if the game is received very well, as I genuinely believe there is nothing like this game.

With the story mentioned out of the way, I'd like to say the characters next. I did not expect to end up loving the whole cast, or at least the main ones, to the point of wanting them to have even more screen time than they already have. Every character here is unique, as they should be, with specific characteristics that define their place in the game, even the minor characters that don't play much of a role in the main story besides world-building. Still, they sell the fact of the setting that, yes, this is a school, and the students reflect that in their personalities. This may be a common thing with anything that may have a school theme. However, Witch of the Holy Night's portrayal and direction felt the most natural despite having fantasy and supernatural elements in the setting. As I mentioned earlier, every character has a distinct trait/characteristic. I believe this because none of the characters feel the same to me (which is a common problem with school themes). There's also something to each character that allows anyone to like at least one character from the relatively small cast of characters in this game. The character design for some characters, I'd like to mention, is probably nothing exceptional in their uniqueness; however, they reflect their personality ideally in their expressions and designs, so that is good enough for me, and as the game progresses, you start to see the charm in simplicity to some characters, and also an understanding of the complexity of why said character looks a certain way in the first place once you start to learn more about them.

We can only talk about the characters by mentioning the impeccable voice acting that brought them to life, too. So, regarding the voice acting in this game, I've always had a very high standard and generally always had high expectations for Japanese voice acting as I believe they're consistently good; however, for Witch of the Holy Night, I found myself sometimes laughing and smiling at certain scenes with how exceptional the voice acting is. As I said earlier, I've always had a very high standard of Japanese voice acting, and I've seen plenty of anime, but even then, as surprised as I am to admit, somehow, someway this game managed to exceed that even with the expectation of a very stacked cast. It does not disappoint.

Next, we have the game itself. What I mean by this is its functions as a visual novel. It has quick/autosaves that you can instantly continue from at the title screen, music replays, and a very easy-to-navigate UI that'll allow you to get back right into the action and where you last left off. While these are the basics that most visual novels require, this game is much quicker and more straightforward than other visual novels. Not to mention the archive, for you to look through if you're interested in replaying or reviewing a particular chapter that caught your interest, paired with scene jumps from looking through the backlog if you missed what a character said or if they were too fast in speaking, you could quickly jump back to that line with ease, and quicker than I imagined so it instantly became a function I appreciate personally.

Now, onto the music. An incredible job with the direction of the music, always managing to fit in with the mood of whatever is going on at the moment of the game, especially the action scenes and, my favorite, the comedic scenes with fabulous timings and transitions. You are even met with a fantastic theme right at the game's start menu, and I'll tell you right now: I've listened to it for countless minutes and still appreciate its beautiful tones. The music for this game is composed by many people. However, they managed to work with a variety of composers and STILL tend to make and use all of the tracks and make them feel like they belonged to Witch of the Holy Night, in the sense that none of them felt out of place at all despite being from so many different people. The blend of genres and harmony with scenes shows how well thought out the music direction for this series was, as not a single moment did I feel like a particular scene should have this or that.

Next up would be the art. It is self-explanatory, as shown in the store page screenshots and right in the title image. Many modern visual novels share a common trend: no matter how bad or good they are, they will always have fantastic time and effort put into their visuals, as this catches most people's attention at first glance. Witch of the Holy Night is no stranger to this art trend. Now, I am biased toward who the artist is, but it's for good reason. I'm always left speechless and appreciative of how beautiful the art is in this game. The sprites, the backgrounds, the items and objects, and the portrayals. It takes up to 5 seconds to see that this art was thoroughly thought out in each scene of the way. You end up being captivated one way or another with what this game shows you, and not to mention the beautiful animations in specific cutscenes that leave you stunned and questioning if this game is a visual novel or an anime. Now, if you're still getting familiar with visual novels, this is no standard. A visual novel often will not have animations at the level of this game, and sometimes not at all. An enormous amount of time is put into this game, which shows in the scenes that count the most.

Absolutely beautiful.
I've waited for years for Mahoyo to be translated and now that I've read it, I'm not disappointed at all.
I've heard that this is the first of three prequels to Tsukihime Remake, Fate/Zero and Fate/Stay Night and, honestly, I can't wait for the other two to be released as well in the future.

This visual novel holds a special place for me. It's not only my first foray into the Nasuverse, I started it right when i was diagnosed with cancer so it was with me in those first few terrifying weeks. It's not only beautiful (probably the most well produced VN I've seen) it has amazing voice acting and music to go along wit those visuals.

Alice, Aoko and Soujuro's journey through troubles and friendship was really meaningful for me in those times and now I'm going through it at the one year anniversary of my diagnoses, and it's really amazing to see all the moments I missed on my first play though on switch.

Hopefully we can get a sequel someday to see how Aoko came to be in Tsukihime!

(Also, you should read the side stories as they show up in the extras menu! I didn't know they were there on my first time and they provide tons of context for the story!)

Already finished this game on switch and its easily one of the best visual novels I've read and I hope that this port can lead to more type moon works being ported to pc in the future with translations

The story is beautiful, as you'd expect from a Type-Moon work. I've been hooked from the start and it managed to keep deliver in every aspect that comes to my mind, either being characters, plot, drama, dialogs, all of it. Recommend to anyone who's interested in the supernatural/drama genre. I'm looking foward to the release of the other visual novels made by Type-Moon on Steam.

Probably one of the most impressive 2D sprite based visual novels. Especially during the major fight scenes, the effects help create tension and excitement in a really unique way. The story is pretty charming and the characters are lively, but are dragged down by awkward translation choices and typos. I recommend checking it out once it goes on a larger sale.

Mahoutsukai no Yoru (2022-2023) - is the Tsukihime Remake prequel from Kinoko Nasu
This Visual Novel is pretty amazing, if you never read a novel from Type Moon (Tsukihime/Kara no Kyoukai/Fate Stay Night) you should start reading this first, The novel introduces you to the universe of Type Moon with the basic concepts of magic and sorcery/magecraft. Main plot is about Soujyuro Sizuki a young man from a rural location who is still adjusting to living in the Misaki city and as a normal high school student and Aoko Aozaki a prodigy in sorcery from the Aozaki mage family who learn sorcery from a young mage, Alice Kuonji whos is a natural born mage, and is rumored to be the witch of the mansion on the hill from Misaki city. However mage world has strict rules.

After 43 Hours I have completed this Novel Game, and while it is not exactly my style, It is an absolute masterpiece in terms of how it uses the medium of the VN, the 'animated' scenes are impressive, the music is marvelous and in general this entire experience screams "quality". The entire experience- minus the translation, which despite being serviceable, is riddled with literally dozens of typos, badly flowing sentences, and frankly hard to understand sections. I have read alot of Nasu going back for almost a decade now, and this difficulty in reading some sections clearly comes from this translation, and not his style.

That being said, I feel the shifting perspective, which is never really locked in 1st person to a 'protagonist' personally grated on me a bit, but maybe that is just preference.

As to the story, it feels alot less tense and dark compared to Tsukihime Blue Glass Moon or Fate/Staynight Realta Nua, and while there are a few moments of conflict, overall this entire VN is more 'laid back'. I think this comparative lack of tension is shown best in the complete absence of choices, and as a result, bad endings, at least until the final 'extra' chapter.

Overall, I admire the obvious quality and restraint of this VN, but It didn't grab onto me or have me thinking about it for weeks like Nasu's other Novels. It isn't a fight story, it isn't really a romance, it's just the story of a guy stepping into a strange and dangerous world, but feels like only the first act. My opinion of this VN will certainly improve if the sequels they have already claimed are coming iterate and add more stakes in.

9/10 for quality, 7/10 for my own preferences.

Type Moon ate and left no crumbs. The fight scenes and visuals looked absolutely amazing and the characters were also very well written, but at times I did find the story a bit slow and I was getting a little bored. Despite that, the last 4 chapters do more than make up for that, as they had me so engrossed I was unable to put this down for even a second. If you like other Type Moon series or if you even like stories that have epic magical fight scenes with great characters, then you'll definitely love this KN.

Potentially Type-Moon’s best VN; certainly an amazing game.

Mahoyo is a beautiful game; visuals, sound, everything is well-made and well-put together. Especially noteworthy is the, for lack of a better term, cinematography; Mahoyo’s high production values allow it to have an almost film-like quality, and the “cinematography” of that film is amazing, and somewhat unique for a VN (in my experience).

For all its aesthetic beauty, Mahoyo’s greatest strength is undoubtedly the writing the story, and as ever with Type-Moon, especially the characters are deeply engaging and endearing. It’s a calmer and more deliberate tale than its siblings, which combines with the aesthetic elements to create an incredibly atmospheric experience. As mentioned, not only does Mahoyo have individually strong aesthetics, writing, etc, but they are well-combined and complimentary, and the game is more than the already impressive sum of its parts.

Mahoyo’s primary flaw is that it is supposed to be the first part of a trilogy, but as of yet has no sequels and is unlikely to be followed up any time soon. The expectation of an eventual follow-up means that there are a few loose ends here and there—unfinished character arcs, opaque lore, mysterious characters, etc—that are currently dangling. The game is by and large a self-contained story, though, and a good one, and this is ultimately a minor problem.

Having just recently finished playing another Kinetic Novel, I was very hesitant on picking another Kinetic Novel to read right after. Not to mention that the game felt expensive and that regional pricing was really bad for my case. However, it was almost Christmas Eve and I wanted to have myself treated in some capacity so I ended up buying it. A game originally released 2012-04-14 only in Japan, now rereleased as HD for International audience as well.

Story

Witch On The Holy Night takes place in a 1980s small city that has gone through economic growth. The story revolves around three people. The boy that has lived most of his life in a mountain, and the two girls that have the secret identity of being witches.

The boy, Shizuki Soujuurou (静希草十郎), is a kind-hearted man who is trying his best to adapt to living in the city society. Due to his upbringing in the mountains, he lacks the kind of common sense that one would normally expect to have such as thinking that it is ok to enter or exit through the windows. Aozaki Aoko (蒼崎青子) is one of the two girls. She is a prideful fledgeling witch that is attached to the non-witch lifestyle. Living the life of a normal school girl by day, but a witch by night. Kuonji Alice (久遠寺有珠), the other of the two girls, is aloof and detached from non-witch world. She also acts as Aoko's mentor in regards to witchcraft.

The story kicks off during the end of November when one of the girl is being called out to guide the boy around the new school he'll be attending starting December. They part ways to continue their own independent lives until an incident takes place that ties the three characters together. What follows after are their daily lives through the month of December as they strive to mind their own business while once in a while clashing with each other due to the differences of their background, personalities and values.

The narrator of the story varies. Sometimes the narration is done as a neutral narrator, and sometimes in character's personal point of view. Sometimes the sudden shift of narrator position confused me. Each time it happened, it did make me re-read the previous lines to make sure I understood correctly. Fortunately though, this didn't happen often.

Being a Kinetic Novel, it was nice that the main story was split into chapters. I could pace myself to reading one chapter a day. And if the chapter length was short enough, I would even read two chapters in one go. I would personally recommend others to read at most one chapter a day. Without spoiling much, most of the chapters were more of a build-up for the chapter with actions, and the chapters with actions tend to have a bit of a length to them. As for the action scenes in the chapters, I was impressed. I was very impressed how the action scenes were depicted. The scene transitions, animations and music were so well done together. I honestly didn't expect such vivid animations from a Kinetic Novel, but I could probably attribute that to not having consumed a lot of Visual Novels.

After the main story is done, the game rewards you with additional side chapters to read. All, but one, side chapters are short. TYPE-MOON was friendly enough to put a warning that the lengthier chapter one is long. I'd also advise other reads to heed this warning. The long side chapter is also the only chapter that has multiple dialogue option selection so you would not be playing a Kinetic Novel at this point.

Localization

So the point of localization is to convey the underlying core message and meaning for the local audience to understand. Direct word for word translation is not enough. I'd say for the most part the text was done well. When it comes to puns and idioms, I was more forgiving as those are not really easy to convey to the international audience.

There were some design choices that makes me wonder. Such as the choice of "Shizuki Soujuurou" named as "Soujyuro Sizuki". I'm personally fine with the first name and surname being flipped, but the choice of "shi" vs "si" or "juu" to "jyu" is odd. There were other Japanese names too where "shi" became "si". It's fine if the localization made this call, but there was a mention of an actual real Japanese place that didn't have "shi" to "si" conversion. I think this should've had the one doing localization to at least amend the previous Japanese "shi" to "si" name conversions.

With no context given to avoid spoilering, one quote stood out to me: "それまでは, せいぜい華麗に踊ってやるわ". English localization was: "Until then, hear me roar". I didn't understand the reference at all so I consulted with someone regarding this. I learnt that it is a reference to a song about a woman empowering herself and proud for being a woman. Given the context of the whole dialogue, this is the part I felt the localization failed as, to my memory, there was nothing about the dialogue that made any level of mention about gender. Localizer could've done better.

Also they used imperial units in the localization instead of the superior SI. They should've used SI units.

Features

As not all Visual Novels share the same set of features. I'll list them here that stood out positively for me.

• Windowed or Borderless Full Screen: Windowed mode unfortunately does not come with pre-fixed resolution, you can manually adjust the resize. Aspect ratio is retained.
• Auto Read Mode: Also lets you adjust the speed of the Auto Read Mode.
• Expanded volume controls: You can also adjust individual character's voice volume. Side-character reveals are spoiler protected so they are marked as "???" until they make an appearance in the game.
• Multiple saves: Might be bit overkill with 120 save slots for Kinetic Novel, howerver. This is very much needed for one of the side chapter. Nevertheless, all PC games should come with a lot of save slots.
• Backlog: Allows you to re-read the previously appeared text, re-play their voice audio and jump back to previous pre-determined point.
• Highlight read text: May not be necessary for main story, but will be very helpful for certain side chapter.
• Localization change on the fly: It was awesome that I could change localization between Japanese and English. However, I think they could've followed Stella of The End's example and have a shortcut to quickly change the language instead of having to go to the option and change the whole game's language.
• Chapter selection: More chapter selection becomes available as you progress through the main story.
• Gallery: Contains most of the CGs, Backgrounds and music tracks used in the game. They get unlocked as you progress through the game's content. My biggest disappointment was lack of 星が瞬くこんな夜に by Yanagi Nagi. The song is played within the game, but not found in the game's music gallery.
• Does not pause when game is unfocused.

To sum it up

All in all, I personally enjoyed experiencing the story of these three protagonists. The talented voice actors, well-executed transitions and well-suited music were well combined to give me an enjoyable ride. There were a lot daily slice of life content that may not appeal to some readers. Some of the proofreading mistakes like typos and comma mistakes can be an issue too for some readers, but I believe if you can over these then you'll be in for a long ride.

I know some likes to say Witch On The Holy Night is part of Fate universe and whatnot. I'd say no need to think about those multi-universe stuff. I'd say Witch On The Holy Night's relation to other TYPE-MOON series should be considered the same kind of relation Final Fantasy 7 has with 8 or 9. Similar concept and terminology, but still completely different and their own story that can hold on its own.

PS: I hope TYPE-MOON will put the game's music and track on sale on Steam. I know this game's tracks can be listened on Spotify.

This is a story about a guy who can punch bears into submission and a girl who shoots magical railguns that somehow manages to beautifully invoke every moment of existential dread, every intrusive thought and painful moment of regret about your meaningless life at 3AM in the morning. And bring closure to it, with beautiful nuance and heartbreaking honesty. Magic, like feelings, is both ephemeral and all the more beautiful for how fleeting it is.

And I still CANNOT believe the same author also made a gatcha game where at one point you and your haremites fight Zeus, who is a giant robot, with the help of Ares. Who is also a giant robot.

Hell has frozen over

is the first thing that came into my mind when Mahoyo PC port localisation is announced. Now if Type-Moon will do the same for the rest of the VN they have as well, it would be great.

It's my pleasure to finally able to enjoy Mahoyo in its entirely, I'm totally pleased through the entire ride.

I had no idea this was such a beloved visual novel until I stumbled upon news about this getting a Steam port months ago. Wishlisted it so I wouldn't forget about it and I bought it day one on hoping people were right about it. Well they were right. Witch on the Holy Night is an utterly fantastic VN and I cannot recommend it enough. Dare I say, one of the best VNs. Everything about it was just so good and special.

Now that I am aware of who Type Moon is after playing this, I do hope the rest of their visual novels can come to Steam one day. And that a sequel to Witch on the Holy Night can happen in the future, since there were definitely plot threads and signs this wasn't supposed to be the only one.

I finally finished reading Mahoutsukai No Yorou and on new years eve! Perfect timing since this is the same setting as the VN. Mahoutsukai No Yoru is an excellent read and I would say that there is no pre-requirement towards beginning to read it. You do not need to read fate before you start this, you can simply jump straight to this and learn about the mage portion of the Nasuverse which is a lot more interesting in my opinion than the servant gimmick from Fate.

Pos/Neg:

✅Not designed in any way to appeal to modern western sensibilities.
✅Great music add the ED to your playlist, atmospheric accompanied with classical music just like in Evangelion. It contrasts fairly well with Alice, my beloved.
✅Good animation and fight scenes were actually hype af.
✅Excellent voice acting
✅The best Type-moon work I've read so far and it has restored my faith on anything type-moon as I believe the fate series is overrated.
✅Great characters - Shizuki is the giga-chad every man should strive to become. He is stoic, reasonable and cool af.
⛔️Bad translation - There were some words that were translated quite literaly, part of Aoko's name is "blue" for "ao" and in one instance the text said blue instead of her name! There were quite a few other mistakes that I picked up just because I understand a tiny bit of spoken japanese after watching animes since the 90's. Character name's are also botched.
⛔️Does not work on Steam Deck needs tinkering
⛔️Aoko is the one character I have issues with. At first it felt like she was one of Rin's many clones but she later developed to be her own character. She's not just a tsundere, she is truly a devil and I can't really support her in how she treats Shizuki, it's extremely dehumanizing and it gives you the idea that people can do whatever they want as long as they are more powerful. Where is the concept of noblesse oblige? Even as a mage where some characters are just morally bankrupt at least Rin from Fate had some heart in her. I'm not really a big fan of Aoko

I give this VN a 9/10

I played this for the first time 6 or 7 years ago in Japanese, and the passage of time hasn't worn away its charms in the least. I was trepidatious about the addition of voice at first, but they did fantastic work here.

Witch on the Holy Night, also known as "Mahōtsukai no Yoru," has ascended to the top of my favorite visual novel of all time , perfectly capturing the ambiance I've craved since I first delved into this genre. Set in a frosty Japanese town ✓, features two intriguing girls living in a mansion ✓. Their engagement in tea time in the drawing room, intertwined with discussions about eliminating anyone who gets in their way✓
I find myself completely absorbed by Aoko and Alice.

Unlike other visual novels, which often require an hour of reading before the story becomes engaging, I find myself wanting more. The atmosphere in Witch on the Holy Night is particularly noteworthy; I'm instantly transported to Misaki town, vividly feeling each scene's distinct mood alongside characters like Aoko and Sojuro. It feels like I'm present in every scene, experiencing the aroma of the tea, sitting in a classroom, feeling the chill of a cold day, stepping on leaves while melted dirty snow makes a mess of my shoes, or exploring an abandoned theme park.

Alice's character is exceptionally crafted, resembling a beautiful doll, and Aoko is equally compelling, with her assertive yet elegant demeanor. Both characters are wonderfully designed and written. Credit must also be given to the composer, Hideyuki Fukasawa, for enhancing the storytelling experience.

As an occasional Type-Moon enthusiast, I regret not discovering this gem earlier. Although I haven't finished Witch on the Holy Night and am hesitant for it to end, I'm eager for the possibility of a sequel. This novel has surpassed all others in delivering what I seek in a visual novel.

Update: Nooooooooooo I finished it (╥﹏╥). Well time to hit the archives...

Read. Worth every cent and maybe even more, depending on how much you like insanely well-written and crafted stories, with an insanely charming cast to boot. I want to say 10/10, but it comes and goes pretty quickly if you get entrapped reading for hours on end like I do, so it's a 9/10. Still, going to be thinking about this one for years to come.

the story that started it all
and le funny origins of 236B spammer aoko and better explanation about magecraft
please more nasuverse thing that is NOT FGO
buy this game NOW so we can see more type moon stuff on steam
we are so back
its EPIC

Wonderful and delightful visual novel by Type-Moon. Before this game was made available on Steam, I already owned both (there are two) soundtracks, which are worth for additional purchase. Also, it was recently announced that there will be an anime adaptation of the story, which will be animated by Ufotable.

If you are not used to reading a visual novel (or even reading long books at all), I will say that the build up of the story starts to accelerate starting chapter five. Stay patient with the slow but increasing pace of the first few chapters, and you will appreciate why a lot of people waited over ten years for this official English release.

I finished the game on New Years! I find it quite a coincidence that I did. It made it way more memorable for me. The music was great and the visuals were a lot better than I was expecting. I would love to recommend it people. I personally enjoyed watching the characters personalities unfold and finding out new things about the characters. If any of you get the game and play it. I hope you enjoy the game as well!

Genuinely one of the best visual novels I have read, with amazing art, characters, magic, music, and scenery, but also the first ever Type-Moon work to get an official English translation, and now the first to come to Steam. Couldn't recommend this any more if you're looking for a good VN to read

Firstly, this is less a game and more a novel with music and pictures. There are no choices in the main story and your main interaction is reading text from the screen. Lines of dialogue are voiced in Japanese only. By word count it's about half the length of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and it took me about 16 hours to read through the main story.

Having accepted that it's a novel, I'm happy to say it's a great one. The setting is a magic society hidden within the everyday, with the story perspective switching between the girl who is part of that society and the boy who stumbles into it.

For me, the high points were when the action picks up. I think the music and visuals really enhance the text and help to build the tension and excitement. While the two main characters have almost unbelievably extreme personalities, I did come to like them both and it was always interesting to see what they'd do next.

The music and art are both fantastic throughout. No further comments.

On the technical side I experienced no issues and the game has all the QoL features I'd expect for a visual novel: options for text speed, auto-read, controller support with controller button prompts on screen and character voice options so you can turn off specific voices if they annoy you. The one issue I did see was quite a few typographical errors in the English text, it could definitely have done with another pass of proofreading but otherwise wasn't a big issue.

Overall, Witch on the Holy Night is a great story, I thoroughly enjoyed my time reading it and I'm excited to see a Type-Moon visual novel finally being translated officially into English and made easily available.

Played on both a mix of Steam Deck and PC...both play perfectly

Played it on PS5 on release, double dipped for the PC release cause this game is honestly that VN of all time. Honestly Witch of the Holy Night should be played even by people who don't care for Visual Novels. The music is fantastic, the art is really good, everything is good. If I had to maybe give it a single flaw it would be that the game takes a tad bit for things to really pick up but even then the slower stuff is really good cause it just adds to the story and sets up for some amazing action and events. Do yourself a favor and pick this game up

First and foremost, I don't know anything about this VN beside it is related to Fate somehow. I just brought it cuz the TITLE and the GIRL in thumbnail? LOL I even planned to refund if it suck.
However, I'm glad that I have brought it.

I heard some people complained about the price. I just don't really understand them.
This is arguably the most impressive VN I have ever seen and tried.
Put the story part aside cuz I haven't finished it yet, the presentation was so impressive.
It made me realize how impressive the presentation of an VN cloud be not just a Power Point slide show with texts.
Purely the animation, art, music, voicing is already worth the price
Just buy and try it !!!
Source: Trust me bro am a VN expert :>

This was a genuinely incredible story, full of extremely well written and fleshed out characters, beautiful soundtracks, mesmerizing visuals and nearly flawless writing. I didnt know if this would be as good as everyone said, but it far surpassed my expectations. I really loved this visual novel and I plan on reading every single other Type-Moon work. Also Alice is best girl I love Alice

The best media Type-Moon and Nasu ever made, I love Fate, I love Tsukihime, but the script, characters and storytelling just on another level of every previous and future TM works. Art is amazing, one of the best I've seen in visual novels, the music is really nice, both original and used classic. Worth reading, even if you don't like other Type-Moon franchises

Been waiting for the english translation of this VN since 2013 or 2014. Mahoyo was my introdocution to the TYPE-MOON universe. Thanks to it I learned about Fate/Stay night and Saber, even though I never got that into the other series as much as I am into Mahoyo. Been following fan translations that never got finished after years, so color me surprised when I found out this was out on Steam suddenly after not following news on it for awhile. Very happy to find out not only do we get this out finally on Steam, but it's also getting an anime I'm shocked and very very happy. This VN has beautiful art, soundtrack, visuals/animations and even has the new addition of actual voice overs for the characters now after playing the original. Not a fan of the controls, compared to the original controls, still taking awhile to get used to, but not a big deal. I just have to fight muscle memory.

The only gripe I have is for AMD cards you get weird pixelation/artifacts often. I have a 6800xt AMD radeon card for example, but on my laptop with a 1050 Nvidia card its fine. It's not gamebreaking, just annoying and I hope a resolution could be found. But 1000/10 recommend Mahoyo to anyone new to the TYPE-MOON series or experienced.

After more than 20 years we have got Tsukihime remake and i hope we will get it on steam this year (not only on ns)
After more than 10 years we have got Mahoyo on steam
Maybe on 20 anniversary we will have some information about english version of Fate/ stay night

Still peak game, Alice best girl.

I know a lot of people are going to disagree with this, but upon reflection, I really just think this game falls flat on every step.

The game has three main characters. Aoko, Alice, and Shizuki. Right from the outset it is established that Aoko is just not a likable character, and not long after you find out that Alice isn’t very likable either. Shizuki is a transfer student and a blank slate. None of these things are faults on their own, in fact they add flavor. The problem lies in that not a single character in the game experiences character development. You would expect Aoko, and possibly Alice, to have some kind of development to be less insufferable, but every time there SHOULD be character development following specific events, the game immediately backpedals on it and both girls are just inexplicably awful again. The only character that has any development is Alice, to the extent that she tolerates Shizuki slightly better. That’s it. When the main antagonist is revealed to Shizuki and gives him a chance to join them, I legitimately felt like he would be better off joining said antagonist. That’s how unlikable Aoko and Alice are due to any lack of character development.

Here’s the thing though. The game starts off with everything it needs to be great. Great setting, great premise, great predicament to get the main characters together, and great foreshadowing of the main antagonist. But it feels like, after the amusement park scene, the game just drops the ball. You never see any of the school again and it becomes established that there will be no character development. Without the school, there isn’t much opportunity to keep learning who Aoko is as a person, so that you can actually start to like her. Without the school, there’s no slower paced sections to balance out the tension and allow the player to immerse themselves in the world. And beyond that, three characters are just dropped from the story completely once the school stops being relevant.

I want to point to a couple of other visual novels. The first is Katawa Shoujo. Unlike Witch on the Holy Night, you get to make choices that shape the direction you go in the game. It also has much more memorable music, better pacing, and I believe every path (besides the Shinji path) is longer than the entirety of Witch on the Holy Night. When Hanako, one of the dating options, becomes a side character in Lily’s story, she ends up pushing herself to join a club and takes it quite seriously. This alone is more character development than all of Witch on the Holy Night combined. And Katawa Shoujo is FREE. I certainly don’t expect this game to be free, but I would expect a game selling for $40 USD would be able to beat a free game on at least one aspect, but no, the free game completely outclasses this in every area.

Next, I want to talk about the Utawarerumono trilogy. It’s a hybrid visual novel and turn-based combat RPG series. These games outclass Witch on the Holy Night, but debatably also Katawa Shoujo (you don’t make dialogue choices in Utawarerumono, so that’s the debate). Music is phenomenal, with every song in the games sharing a prominent motif with the main themes. Story is so well-developed that you would be hard pressed to define who is a main character and who is a side character. The world has its own politics, and every character has a story. Every character that has art is more fleshed out than anyone in Witch on the Holy Night. Not to mention, the story is paced out very well between tense moments and relaxed moments, and uses both to great effect for building the game to an intense moment and to give characters time to interact, respectively. It is, frankly, a masterpiece of a series, and having finished it makes me feel like I’ve had to say goodbye to the characters I got to know well.

The second and third games of the Utawarerumono trilogy are the same price as Witch on the Holy Night. The more recent remake of the first game is $60 USD. My time on each of the three games clocks in close to 30 hours. My time on Witch on the Holy Night is just around 18 hours. Do I really need to say much more? I didn’t expect perfection or even for it to be as good as Utawarerumono, but I expected a VN to do a little more to be a moving story.

I was legitimately expecting an Okami moment where the game kept going after the credits and there was much more, but... no. It just ends on an unsatisfying note, and then has a short epilogue that ultimately means nothing and makes no sense.

As a someone who walked into hell (thanks Archer), I wanted to expand further more on what I already know about the Nasuverse and such. I already played the original FSN vn's and have been playing FGO non-stop till Tunguska so it was kinda natural that I would be finding more related content. The Witch on the Holy Night gave me some answers that were failed to be explained in the FSN vn's such as a much more clearer explanation of the Root, the five different magic's, and of course learning how power scaling isn't all about in this Nasuverse. I am now waiting for the English remake of Tsukihime to come out and I suggest for all fans and upcoming fan's of this legendary hellscape of a series, its worth giving this a shot since my standard's for story telling and visual novel's have increased by a milestone ever since I started the story of a broken guy who just wanted to be a hero, and a girl who was forced into her current situation but also wanting to live her life in her own honest way.

Absolute average VN . I dont know why this painfull average VN has so many positive reviews?
The protagonist never changes and it end as it started . Same dumb annoying "pure" mountain guy . No other character dies...there is no tension or real stakes . The author wanted to play it safe but it makes one of the most boring pieces of literature i ever read.

This VN is good, but Tsukihime is still my favorite VN from Type-Moon

I guess it has the best-looking art and graphics in all VNs I played. The amount of CG, the details, sprites and facial expressions, presentation - it's all very gorgeous. I read slowly in beginning, because I was just in awe at graphics and overall atmosphere. Big price is justified for it.
Chemistry and relationships of the main characters are very interesting and funny to watch. There was time, when I wanted more slice of life scenes to see their dynamics more.
The translation is not the best, but still better than most of Shiravune's works.
It's a shame that game was written with a second and third instalment in mind, which may never be completed.
In general Mahoutsukai no Yoru is good, but not on my Top 20 list.

You ever get into something so deep when you finish it you feel a little empty momentarily? You ever finish something and take an entire day contemplating what just happened before moving onto the next thing?

Not even a big VN guy, but this was definitely that. The characters were very fleshed out to the point they felt real and felt some melancholy reaching the end.