Something that I feel is important to note is that I'm approaching this game, and review, as someone who likes, and has a lot of experience in this genre of gameplay. I'm here for the experience of the game, and everything that entails, and not much besides. That being said, I enjoyed LWB a fair amount. It's a flawed game, and a weird game sometimes, but I enjoyed it a lot. Despite all of my issues with it, it's one of the first games in a long while that I felt sadness at feeling the ending draw near.

For starters, there's the elephant in the room. I'll get that out of the way. I don't feel like mentioning it, if you really don't know, you can look at any number of reviews surrounding this one and I'm sure you'll get a fine idea. You can largely ignore it, the game doesn't make it terrible, despite what others may have you think. Though it's a shame that there are no alt costumes that I really feel like using. A request like 'more alt costumes plz' is a weird one to make, because if they wanted more in the game, they'd have added more. (They did, through DLC, though they're mostly in a similar state to the ones in the base game, so I'm probably not dipping into those any time soon.) As a personal anecdote, I really really would've loved an alt costume of Nonota for beating the game. I feel like that was a missed opportunity.

Over to more practical matters, there's something to be said about the game's use of assets. For what they do have, it's great; I am glad that the devs were able to make something as good as they did with what they had. That being said, the game definitely could have benefit from some variation in assets, and just a bit more polish in the map-making side of things. Things like rocks poking through walls (only seen twice in the game), and Nobeta clipping into some of the walls if you press against them (much more common, though never detrimental) are things that I can't help but take notice of as I was going through the game. This, compounded on top of the game reusing assets shortly after having used the same assets a few areas ago lends a somewhat 'thrown together' feel to the maps, which is a shame. I think it harms the game's visual style, which isn't helped by Nobeta's somewhat clashing aesthetic with her surroundings. Both foes and friends seem to have a much higher amount of love and attention spent on them. Usually, that's how it should be, but in this case, the game could've benefit from a wider variety of map assets, and more careful map planning in order to make the map feel more alive. As it is now, it feels somewhat empty. A wood pile here, a torch there, with some weird.. wood.. structure.. thing.. there, it's sparse. Especially in the first half of the game, before the 'point of no return' the game gives you.

The gameplay can get repetitive, though despite that, I didn't get tired of it throughout my time in the game. It's good combat, for the most part. I think that there should be some countermeasures that enemies can use against some of the Charged Incantations, as when you pull them out, enemies are largely useless to defend against them. This can outright trivialize some boss encounters, like the Enraged Specter Knight and the Ice Incantation . Encounters like that, which are designed for use with the Arcane Incantation, get harmed when faced with other forms of attack. It's an arguably more enjoyable fight when the player is forced to come up close and personal with the enemies; you're forced to dodge, or parry, get melee hits in for mana, but when the player is able to shut down enemies with a single spell spam, it's a questionable design decision, or perhaps even an oversight. I'll reiterate, I do enjoy the combat, there are parts in which it definitely shines, and feels good to pull off, but there are low points just as much as there are great high points.

Overall, I think it's a great game. The music was on point, the story, while a bit confusing, had a great and satisfying conclusion, exploration and keen eyes were both rewarded throughout. There's a lot that this game does right, and I think that's something worth commending very much. I'll have my eye on the devs to see if they do anything else in the future, because if they use LWB as a learning experience, it could be great. I think the game is worth full price, as it does have a NG+ mode with increased difficulty, making multiple playthroughs for completionists viable and less frustrating than starting from scratch multiple times, but if these described drawbacks seem hard-hitting enough to detract from your enjoyment, feel free to wait for a sale and pick it up then. It'll be worth either way.