A Witch's Tale

Gameplay consists of a mixture of battles and puzzle solving: the player must complete certain tasks in order to proceed to the next world in the game. Battles are fought by having players correctly draw runes with the stylus on the Nintendo DS touch screen to attack enemies. Monsters appear randomly in the game and in certain situations such as boss battles. Players are given the opportunity to collect various dolls throughout the game, several of which are based upon the characters in the game.

The dolls have the ability to launch attacks, give boosts to various stats, or heal the player depending on the type of doll. The dolls can become damaged, making repair necessary.

The game's plot is set within several different worlds, many of which are loosely based upon various fictional characters and stories such as The Little Mermaid, The Wizard of Oz, and Alice in Wonderland. Thousands of years prior to the start of the game, powerful witches existed below the surface of the earth in a world that was filled with darkness and decay. They soon grew jealous of the beautiful surface world and with the assistance of the Eld Witch, invaded the surface world. The ensuing battle was filled with violence and bloodshed, but was stopped after the mysterious and magical Queen Alice sealed the witches away by using their own rune magic against them. After the battle, rune magic was considered to be lost and forbidden.

Liddell is one of several young girls that are training at an academy to become a witch. She is, however, often scolded for her rude behavior and her attitudes towards the magic classes, which she views as inferior to ancient magics. After speaking with a classmate and the witch Babayaga, Liddell is informed of the whereabouts of a magic castle that potentially holds an ancient magic. She proceeds to the castle despite warnings from Babayaga, where she discovers the vampire Loue, whom she awakens after breaking into a nearby room in search of magic.

After releasing Disgaea and Puchi Puchi Virus for the Nintendo DS, NIS America announced in the summer of 2008 they would also remake Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure and release a new game, A Witch's Tale, in October 2008. Nintendo Power described the game as an "action-RPG with a The Nightmare Before Christmas-esque art style" in their August 2008 issue, before they had a chance to play it. A Witch's Tale was developed by Hit Maker, known for Blade Dancer: Lineage of Light and Dragoneer's Aria and is their first Nintendo DS game. According to Haru Akenaga, the President of NIS America, A Witch's Tale targeted a North American audience. The game was initially planned for a Q4 2008 release, but was pushed back to 2009.

The game received "mixed" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. Reviewers typically praised the game's story line while criticizing the game's battle system as "slow" and "lackluster". IGN commented that "for a game that starts off so strongly with its excellent theme, characters, visuals and audio, it just completely falls off in the critical category of actual gameplay" and that "getting to see and interact with any of the interesting elements means slogging through a whole lot of sluggish battles that really feel like the Plan B option we know they were." RPGamer gave it a mixed review, a month before it was released Stateside. In Japan, Famitsu gave it a score of 25 out of 40.