Agatha Knife (Switch) - Quick Review

Agatha Knife is a 2D point and click adventure about a young seven year old girl who works at her mum’s struggling butchers. She loves animals just as much as she loves killing them for their meat, but she doesn’t like the looks of terror the animals give right before the deed. So in order to rectify this and save her family’s business, she sets out to create her own religion – Carnivorism.

Good

The concept behind Agatha Knife is… creepy. It’s certainly unique, making it stand out amongst the many point and click games that seem to be available today. The game takes a very no-holds-barred approach, with oddly graphic images and dry humour that comes as a surprise considering the cartoony art style.

Agatha Knife has the ability to be played in touch screen whilst in handheld mode, which makes the game easier to navigate through. If you’re wanting a game that utilises the touch screen on the Switch, Agatha Knife is a good place to start.

Agatha’s dialogue is perfect, speaking her mind just like most seven year olds do. These make for some brutally honest conversations and uncovers more of the world’s demons through seemingly innocent dialogue. The dialogue is often quite funny, but with a weird and creepy overtone. It often tackles mature adult themes in a very humorous way.

There are some fantastic pop culture references in the game that will certainly make you stop and take in the surroundings; which for a point and click adventure, that’s half the fun!

The art style reminds us of an edgy teen cartoon, very Adventure Time like but with a gothic tone. The music is either eerie and creepy or jolly during a serious scene… which makes it even creepier.

Bad

Agatha Knife can often be very confronting and graphic which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it can be a bit much for those with a weak stomach. The game is also quite forefront about its atheism which again, can be a bit much for some people.

For a point and click adventure, the choice to have all the dialogue written in cursive seems an odd choice. For those who aren’t adept at reading cursive (like myself), it makes it difficult to read. Luckily, the game lets you change the font of the text when you enter the start menu, which we gave a tremendous sigh of relief when we found out. We can see why the developers wanted use cursive initially as it seems to fit the tone of the game better, but the regular printed text makes it so much easier in a game that is all about dialogue (for me, anyways).

Travelling and exploring can be quite a slow and frustrating experience. The main street that you play majority of the game on is a long straight road, with loading times to break up the sections. You will often find yourself simply running back and forth and growing increasingly frustrated.

The cursor can be a little frustrating for a console game, but that just seems to be a given for PC point and click adventures that are later ported to console. However as mentioned previously, the better way to play Agatha Knife is in Handheld Mode using the touch screen with the Joy-Cons detached.

Final Score: 72%

Agatha Knife shows that a classic genre can still be taken in new directions. With its wacky, yet unsettling, plot coupled with colorful aesthetics, it brings forth a gaming experience all to its own. However, the game suffers from some quality of life issues that will often lead you rolling your eyes out of frustration; but if you can get past that, then Agatha Knife is certainly one to consider if the tone appeals to you.