TYPE-MOON Magic-ology 101: Witch on the Holy Night Review
In December of 2022, something miraculous occurred. For the first time, a TYPE-MOON visual novel received an official English-language localisation. With no need for potential readers to acquire game files by surreptitious means, nor to rely on the good will (and spare time!) of fan translators, this now-including-full-Japanese-voice-acting remaster of 2012’s Mahotsukai no Yoru (often shortened to Mahoyo) came to North America on both PS4 and Switch in a beautiful Limited Edition box set, under the name Witch on the Holy Night. Unfortunately, the UK and Europe only got digital releases, so for the purposes of this review, I had to track down and import a physical copy, which was an adventure in itself. Anyway, months later than planned, finally, the fabled item recently arrived in my possession.
So why did TYPE-MOON decide that Mahoyo deserved the localisation treatment, while its other, more well-known works languish in unofficially-translated hell? Probably because it’s a version of the first (unpublished) novel written by Kinoko Nasu from back in 1996, before even his Kara no Kyoukai (The Garden of Sinners) novel series. Mahoyo introduces and explains much of the lore that Nasu would use to inform his later works, including the much better known Tsukihime and Fate. Nasu’s worldbuilding is intricate, obtuse, and not always easy to understand, so Mahoyo functions as an excellent entry point. That Mahoyo’s worldwide release seems to have been a successful experiment is likely to have influenced TYPE-MOON’s welcome decision to finally officially release a version of Tsukihime — albeit the 2021 remake Tsukihime: A Piece of Blue Glass Moon — in English next year.
Mahoyo isn’t just important from a lore perspective — the story features the first introduction of two prominent mages who later appear in important roles in Kara no Kyoukai and Tsukihime, plus fighting game series Melty Blood, amongst other cameos in the multitudinous aspects of the sprawling TYPE-MOON/Nasuverse. The most recent iteration of Melty Blood — Type Lumina — is already available in English on PC/PS4/Xbox/Switch, though it’s primarily developed by veteran fighting game developer French-Bread (known for the not-exactly snappily-titled Under Night In-Birth series) rather than TYPE-MOON themselves. Melty Blood players will likely recognise several of Mahoyo’s main characters.
If you’ve read my recent articles, you’ll know I’ve been on a bit of a TYPE-MOON kick lately. Following a lengthy delay, I finally finished the Fate/Stay Night Heaven’s Feel route, and read through Fate/Hollow Ataraxia soon after. I did plan to read the original 2000 version of Tsukihime via fan-translation next, but as Mahoyo is so easily available, plus functions essentially as a prequel to Tsukihime, this is the route I have chosen.
Anyone familiar with artist Takashi Takeuchi will feel instantly at home with Mahoyo’s presentation, and I was surprised to learn that it wasn’t Takeuchi himself who provided the art for this release, but Hirokazu Koyama, another artist who’s worked with TYPE-MOON since 2001. Koyama’s character designs, especially in Mahoyo, are eerily similar to Takeuchi’s — though perhaps this shouldn’t be surprising as Takeuchi is credited as providing the “original” character designs — presumably based off Nasu’s original novel, almost 30 years ago.
Mahoyo’s art is downright gorgeous at times, from the often muted, sepia-toned colour scheme during scenes of ordinary life, contrasted with the neon colours and otherwordly glows of the magical fantasy scenes. For such a relatively short visual novel (20 hours for the main story, plus up to another 10 or so for the side stories unlocked after completion), Mahoyo features an incredible amount of art. Visual novels can sometimes be criticised by detractors as an overly static medium, but the graphics engine used here facilitates all sorts of character sprite manipulation and special effects to simulate more motion than I’ve seen in almost any other VN except perhaps Danganronpa or Muv-Luv. The magical battles especially feature all kinds of complex swirly lights that really captured my attention! (I like shiny things. I think I may be part magpie.)
Although the story is overall fairly serious, there’s a great helping of goofy humour to leaven what otherwise could have been a somewhat dour, pedestrian story. With a very small central cast of characters (it’s mostly a three-hander, with supporting characters popping in and out), Mahoyo is a much more intimate story than the Fate visual novels. This isn’t exactly fate of the world stuff — it’s set entirely within the confines of a small Japanese city, and essentially boils down to a conflict between opposing mage family members, with a couple of onlookers dragged into the magical battle. Even during relatively austere scenes, it’s not unusual for one character to say something absurd, causing the opposing character’s expression to deform into an adorably cartoony derp-face. Your mileage may vary with this.
As with almost anything ever written by Kinoko Nasu, it takes forever for the story to get started. Through the first few chapters, especially considering the soporific effect of the gentle bucolic background music, I’d find my attention spacing out and I’d have to rewind back several lines to re-read what I’d skimmed over in a trance. This almost hypnotic first couple of hours is important for scene-setting I suppose, but it takes until the story’s fifth chapter for anything to actually happen.
I should also note here that the main story has no player choices to make. At all. This is basically Nasu’s novel put to pretty pictures and classical music, with zero player interaction, no alternative scenes, no multiple endings. Just click the button, read the words, listen to the voices and music, watch the pretty pictures. I have no problem with this, but some (obvious philistines) may feel they’re stuck in an eternal cutscene where the gameplay never starts. There is no gameplay. This is of the “kinetic novel” branch of the visual novel genre. You read it like a book, because that’s essentially all it is. A very attractive book with added bells and whistles. If you don’t like the idea of reading instead of playing, then this genre, and this title isn’t for you. Now go bugger off and play some FIFA or something, why don’t you?
Now say what you will about Sony’s inexplicable, poorly-conceived and hopelessly limited upcoming “Playstation Portal” handheld device, but there is something special about playing certain types of console games on handheld screens. This is why visual novels work wonderfully well on Switch, PS Vita and Steam Deck systems. As an owner of the PS4 version, I had various options to achieve a handheld experience. Mahoyo doesn’t lend itself to playing on a big living room TV in my opinion. With the PS4 remote play app, there’s an option to stream remotely to the PS Vita, a Mac/PC or a smartphone/tablet.
I use a 3rd Generation iPad Air, and I’m often frustrated by the lack of decent translated visual novels on iOS. With PS4 remote play, I experienced almost the entirety of Mahoyo on my iPad screen, and it worked fantastically well, apart from the occasional blurriness due to poor signal. The added bonus is that on iPad I was able to take numerous screenshots that would otherwise have been blocked on the PS4 itself. (I guess TYPE-MOON is as paranoid about fans posting spoilers as ATLUS tends to be.) As Mahoyo doesn’t require complicated button mashing, or a super-responsive connection, using the touchscreen controls to mimic the X, circle, triangle and square buttons was all that was needed. Effortless to use, and great when lying in bed at night. Mahoyo is quite a cosy story at times, best consumed under a blanket, sipping your warm drink of choice.
Unlike TYPE-MOON’s prior visual novels, Mahoyo is not an eroge — which means — hallelujah! — no deeply uncomfortable, horribly-written porn scenes. The female characters are treated with respect, and one adult character’s miraculous thighs apart, there’s an almost total absence of fanservice. As an introduction to TYPE-MOON (apart from the 7-billion-dollar-earning gacha monstrosity that I love wholeheartedly to my eternal shame Fate/Grand Order), I can’t think of a better alternative.
Mahoyo’s story is worth experiencing without spoilers, hence the reason I’ve kept specifics to a minimum so far. I’m going to discuss the characters now, and although I’ll continue to be spoiler-lite, if you want to experience the story as uninformed as possible, perhaps now is the time to skip ahead to the end of the article.
The main character’s name is romanised in that same infuriating fashion that gave us the abomination “Altria” instead of the far more sensible “Artoria” or “Arturia” in Fate/Grand Order. What is it about some Japanese creators who refuse to listen to feedback from English-speakers about their weird translation choices? Anyway, it should be “Sojuro Shizuki” to give correct pronunciation, but instead we get the unwieldy and just plain wrong “Soujyuro Sizuki”. This weirdness is a result of TYPE-MOON using the Nihon-shiki romanisation system rather than the more commonly-used and widely-accepted Hepburn romanisation system. It’s a minor criticism, but persistently annoying. I guess in order to get a legal English version of a TYPE-MOON visual novel, that monkey’s paw had to curl and give us something to complain about.
Soujyuro really isn’t the most interesting and dynamic of characters, and that’s kind of the point. His role in the story is to be the perpetual fish-out-of-water, and to be continually abused/taken advantage of by the two main female characters (not in a sexual way, I must add.) He’s improbably innocent in the ways of modern life — though this is set in the late 1980’s so there are no cellphones or ubiquitous PCs and internet — having been brought up in the most deep rural technophobic environment possible outside of an Amish community. His backstory sounds very similar to F/SN’s Soichirou’s, if a bit less overtly murdery. Somehow, one evening, Soujyuro witnesses fellow co-protagonist Aoko Aozaki and her compatriot Alice Kuonji magically battle a mysterious assailant.
Normally in the Nasuverse’s Mage society, all magic is kept secret on pain of death (of any accidental witnesses), so Aoko and Alice at first intend to kill him to keep him quiet. One thing leads to another, some of those things being demonic nursery rhyme monsters given free reign of a decaying amusement park, and a deranged and disturbing humanoid puppet with long human hair, and Soujyuro ends up as houseguest/prisoner/general skivvie in Alice’s stately mansion, where Aoko also lives as her apprentice.
Nasu is on record as stating that Aoko is the template for many of his later female heroines, including F/SN’s Rin Tohsaka. The similarities are readily apparent. Aoko is also an aloof, high-achieving student, idolised by her fellow pupils, always maintaining an air of mystery by declining to interact with the common rabble. She’s from a longstanding lineage of mages, and has inherited her grandfather’s magical crest, and rights to the family’s magecraft secrets, after her older sister was skipped over. Especially in terms of her interactions with Soujyuro, she’s alternately cold, or concerned, or furious, or attentive. Something of a tsundere, then. Like Rin, she also has a habit of firing magical bullets from her fingers when irritated. And at one point she fits a magical control collar around poor Soujyuro’s neck, so she’s clearly the magical dom to his mundane sub.
Alice, the third main character, is a bit more of a mystery. At times childlike, others malevolent, she’s a powerful witch rather than a mage — though the story doesn’t really dive into the differences between these categories in that much detail. Alice’s powers involve high-concept magical devices called “ploys” that I probably couldn’t explain coherently even if I tried. Their functioning is a prime example of Nasu’s overcomplicated Magical Bullshit, but it’s entertaining anyway, so let’s not worry about the impenetrable details. Alice gradually warms up to Soujyuro throughout the story, and she’s frequently adorable. She’s even more terrifying than Aoko when pissed off.
Although the majority of the story is laser-focused on these three central characters, plus the eventual main antagonist (whose identity I won’t spoil, but attentive TYPE-MOON fans can probably guess already from context), there’s a colourful collection of supporting characters who pop in and out of the story frequently. There’s a trio of school friends, a shady priest and a terrifying nun (it’s a Kinoko Nasu work. Of course there are wierdo church people), plus some other randoms, supernatural or otherwise. Many of them don’t even appear prominently until the end of the story, and at least one character doesn’t appear until after the main story is complete!
Although Mahoyo starts off slow, once it really gets going it hardly lets up. The last few hours of the story are exceptionally entertaining, with spectacular magic battles, time-and-reality-twisting storytelling, and well-earned character development. I found myself wanting more from these characters and setting, which is just as well, because apparently there are two further sequels in development. Even after the credits roll on the final chapter and sweet epilogue, you’re not done — you’re only two thirds of the way through! Acccess the library menu, and you’ll see there are now lots of little extra chapters to read through — some of which are just funny slice-of-life interludes that would have bogged down the flow of the main story.
Others give detailed (Magical Bullshit) explanations of Alice’s Ploys, some give interesting backstory, and one is a choose-your-own-adventure style detective story with a dizzying number of choices. It’s like it was made purely to make up for the completely linear main story. There are 26 story decision points and ten possible endings. I confess I used an online guide to get through this very funny, extremely weird story, thank God for the save and fast-forward functions. I’ve never laughed quite so much in a story involving brutal serial murder.
High quality of the story aside, even for hardened TYPE-MOON veterans, Mahoyo is an essential read — even if anime studio Ufotable recently confirmed work on a movie version for release at some point in the unspecified future. Within Mahoyo are the origins for such deep lore terms as “The Swirl of the Root” and “The Second Magic”, explanations for the differences between “Magecraft” and “True Magic”, along with exhaustive explanations that make a lot of other Fate-adjacent things make sense. And of course all mages are arseholes. They always are in Nasu’s works, and this story definitely commits to that premise.
Mahoyo can sometimes strain the reader’s patience with its early pacing that errs on the side of anaesthetic, but it’s otherwise a fascinating primer for the worlds of Fate and Tsukihime, as well as being a fantastic story in its own right. Hideyuki Fukasawa’s music is a perfect accompaniment to a classy story filled with literary, classical and fairytale references. Pull up your softest blanket and your favourite steaming cup of hot whatever, curl up, and let Kinoko Nasu read you a delightful, beautiful bedtime story.
Witch on the Holy Night
Developer: TYPE-MOON
Publisher: Aniplex
Genre: Visual Novel, Fantasy
Platform: PS4(played), Switch
Writer: Kinoko Nasu
Art and Character Design: Hirokazu Koyama
Original Character design: Takashi Takeuchi
Music: Hideyuki Fukasawa
Original JP Release: 12th April 2012 (Windows PC)
Worldwide release/JP re-release: 8th December 2022 (PS4/Switch)
Text Language: English
Audio Language: Japanese
PEGI rating: 16+ (strong violence)
