The game follows the usual Souls-like formula of a focus on dodging and evading enemies and bosses with pushing combos, but with shooter-type gameplay in the form of magic spells being the primary attack. The game also uses enemy soul essence to buff Nobeta.
Little Witch Nobeta first launched in early access for PC via Steam in June 2020. The game would get a full release worldwide on September 29, 2022, launching on PlayStation 4 and the Nintendo Switch in Japan and Asia.
Little Witch Nobeta contains examples of the following tropes:
- 100% Completion: The game has both spell upgrades and lore items to collect throughout it, with the lore items being required to view bonus videos on most of the female bosses' backstories before they became crafted souls.
- Bears Are Bad News: The third boss, Monica, has a phase where you fight her monstrous teddy bear.
- Blackout Basement: The first part of the fourth stage has dark areas where you need to find an orb to restore normal lighting.
- Bloodier and Gorier: The game doesn't show anything in the way of blood and gore beyond Crafted Soul bodies dissipating into light after defeat. In contrast, Nobeta's own focus motion comic, "Wanderer in the Dream", shows the intricacies of her respawn mechanic by starting with her dying brutally with one shot of her being split at the waist before she wakes up in cold sweat by a Goddess Statue.
- Bookends: The game starts with Nobeta walking into the castle and ends with her leaving it but with Nonota in Black Cat's body joining her.
- Boom Stick: Nobeta uses her Magic Staff to fire shots this way like in a Third-Person Shooter. While the Arcane Element seems like your standard Magic Missile spell straight out of Dungeons & Dragons or any other similar media, the rest of the three elements, at least with their basic attacks, correlate to one firearm of the Standard FPS Guns:
- Your melee staff swings are the equivalent of the knife, an Emergency Weapon meant to recover your mana with if you run out or get too close to an enemy.
- The Arcane Element's basic shot is a simple blast, making it the pistol of the spells, although it can be charged to fire a more devastating, piercing blast like a Hand Cannon.
- The Ice Element has a rapid fire basic attack like any automatic. Its charged cast then turns it into a Magic Missile Storm that locks on those you point at in your widened reticle.
- The Fire Element acts more like a Shotgun than a Flamethrower, throwing a spray of embers that are best done up close enemies. The charged shot has you lob a fireball that explodes on contact, making it your Grenade Launcher.
- The Lightning Element is your Sniper Rifle (or a single-shot Lightning Gun), complete with Bullet Time as you aim. Charging it offers you a thunderbolt that razes down a huge area as your portable Kill Sat.
- Boss Rush: A later free update gives the Trial Tower, an option to run a gauntlet of all the bosses faced in the game, complete with a time attack record. In-story, it takes place a while after the game's ending, where Nobeta builds the tower to practice her combat skills against the memories of bosses Nonota faced, Nonota's disembodied self included.
- Charged Attack: You have a dedicated button that makes Nobeta chant until she charges up a spell of the Element she is equipped with currently (this can be sped up if Nobeta receives mana in the middle of chanting, or does a perfect dodge when attacked), which then gives you two choices: release the charge through its unique attack, or remain in that charged state until the Charge Meter depletes, which itself offers its own benefits like elemental melee attacks.
- Corrupt Church: In the game's backstory, the human nations are under the control of the Church, which is responsible for numerous brutal conquests, and is perfectly willing to label any groups that question them as heretics and eliminate them. That's not even getting to the cruel human experimentation involved in the creation of Crafted Souls.
- Cute Monster Girl: Many enemies are non-sentient Perverse Puppets with there also being some shadow witch enemies.
- Darker and Edgier: The game already makes it clear that the world it's in is far from nice, but the motion comics you can view in the video section, particularly the uncensored versions, show all the atrocities the humans have committed.
- Dueling Player Characters: The final boss, Nonota, is a form of this being the false Nobeta that the player had been controlling during the first half of the game. She even fights with the Elemental magic Nobeta uses.
- Fire, Ice, Lightning: Besides the base Arcane Element Nobeta gets at the start, she'll find grimoires to learn the Ice, Fire, and then Lightning Elements in order as she progresses.
- Haunted Castle: The first stage and last-half of the fifth are this by the nature of the being full of Perverse Puppets.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: In the game's backstory, humanity was once oppressed by other races until their discovery of the Throne marked a turning point, ultimately leading to the creation of powerful super soldiers called Heroes and later the development of the Crafted Souls. That's when they went to becoming the oppressors of all non-humans under the tutelage of the church, also being responsible for Monica's home being razed and turning her into a slave.
- Improbably Female Cast: Most of the bosses and many enemies are either female or have feminine designs outside the usual shadowy Mooks.
- Lava Is Boiling Kool-Aid: Lava in the game is treated more like hot water than anything else, with Nobeta even sinking to the bottom.
- Lethal Lava Land: The third stage is underground ruins, with lava pits that serve as a One-Hit Kill being a frequent hazard.
- Living Shadow: A lot of the common non-puppet Crafted Souls resemble some kind of shadow creature.
- Lore Codex: The game has a gallery for items obtained during gameplay that contains tidbits of lore.
- Meido: Some Crafted Souls in the later stages are dressed as maids. Nobeta can also get a maid outfit after beating Tania, the second boss.
- Permanently Missable Content: There is the optional boss of the Deranged Spectre Armor which cannot be challenged once Nobeta reaches the throne.
- Perverse Puppet: Many enemies, including most of the bosses, are some kind of living puppet with varying levels of monstrousness.
- Point of No Return: Once Nobeta reaches the throne, the player will be warned that this will lock them out of any unfinished business in the castle once they proceed.
- Recurring Boss: Vanessa is first battled and defeated near the throne and is then fought again in Nobeta's thoughtscape in a more powered-up form.
- Respawn Point: You can pray at Goddess Statues to set as your respawn spot if you die.
- Sad Battle Music: The first phase of the final boss theme, "Absolution", is a somber piano piece, which is fitting for a boss that simply doesn't want to be erased.
- Snarky Non-Human Sidekick: While the black cat helps Nobeta along, it is not without some snipes aimed in her direction.
- Soul Power: The Crafted Souls are powered by this. Also serves as the game's Practical Currency in the form of Soul Essence.
- Standard Japanese Fantasy Setting: From what little is gleaned of the game's item descriptions and motion comics, the world is set in a Medieval Fantasy where humanoids known as "demi-humans" apart from plain old humanity exist, which includes beast-like peoples, elves and ever-violent orcs. Judging by how Crafted Souls are a Lost Technology, it implies there used to be Precursors. And to top it all, there's a church called "The Church" that seems like a Saintly Church on paper but is in truth a Corrupt Church gathering power for its own ends.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: Monica serves as a huge spike in difficulty compared to the bosses that came before, and sets up for the kind of challenge the player will face from here on out.
