Witchfire has one of my favorite HUDs in recent memory. Not because it’s flashy but quite the opposite actually: It gets out of the way.
I spend my day designing interfaces, so I have a bad habit of noticing every little UI decision. Usually it’s because something annoys me. Witchfire kept doing the opposite. I’d catch myself an hour into a run and realize I hadn’t thought about the HUD once.
That’s a compliment! It also isn’t perfect. There are definitely a few places where the game asks the player to figure things out a little more than it should.
The Minimap Isn’t Really a Map
The first thing I noticed coming back after a long break was the minimap. It barely shows a map.
No terrain. No roads. No compass stretching across the top of the screen. Just enough information to tell me where the important stuff is.
Normally I’d hate that - Turns out… I don’t. I don’t actually care where the path bends. I care where the enemies are, where the event is happening, and roughly where I’m headed. The environment does the rest.
I think that’s why it works. The UI isn’t trying to solve every problem. It’s solving the important one.
Everything Knows How to Introduce Itself
This was probably my favorite design decision in the whole game. Every single thing you can interact with follows the same language.
It glows. It animates. It plays the same style of audio cue. The interact prompt always appears in the exact same spot near the bottom center of the screen.
Not attached to the object. Not floating around depending on where I’m looking. Just… there.
I didn’t realize how much I appreciated that until I noticed I had stopped looking for interaction prompts altogether. My eyes already knew where they were going to be.
That’s one of those little UX wins that almost nobody notices because it quietly works.
One Menu System, Two Different Worlds
The menus surprised me.
Whether I’m standing safely back at the Hermitorium or halfway through an expedition, I’m basically looking at the same interface.
Inventory. Stats. Progression. The functionality changes depending on where I am, but I never have to relearn where things live.
That’s something I wish more games did. The Hermitorium itself is interesting too. Instead of clicking through menus, you physically walk to most of the stations.
It makes the place feel like a real location instead of a fancy menu. Later, once you’ve unlocked most of what you need, it feels a little less necessary since you’re just ultimately using just the 1 station until you level Gnosis again. I don’t dislike it, but I also wouldn’t complain if a few shortcuts showed up later in progression.
Witchfire Doesn’t Explain Everything
This is probably my biggest criticism; Not because the mechanics are bad, but because a few of them aren’t communicated very well.
The Vault is the best example. The first time I entered one, I saw the timer and immediately assumed I had to beat it before time ran out. Apparently… no.
You can keep going- Nothing really tells you that.
Same thing with the statues that apply effects. I had no idea I could simply hide behind cover to avoid them. I eventually looked it up online.
I don’t mind games asking me to experiment; I do mind when the answer lives on a wiki or general internet comms. Don’t you sometimes miss when you couldn’t look up how to play a game like Mario or Golden Eye? I do.
Progression Mostly Gets It Right
Compared to when I first played Witchfire a few years ago, progression has exploded. Back then it was basically one map and “go shoot things.”
Now you’ve got Gnosis, weapon unlocks, Arcana, relics, rings, rosaries, echoes, multiple maps, workshops… there’s a lot more going on.
Somehow it still doesn’t feel overwhelming. Gnosis took me a little while to wrap my head around, mostly because of the Vault confusion, but once everything clicked it made sense.
Where progression slows down for me isn’t understanding it - It’s momentum. I’ve hit the point where most of my upgrades are unlocked, and now I’m mostly repeating runs waiting on bosses or specific progression requirements.
That’s probably the first time the game started feeling a little grindy. Not enough to make me stop playing.
Just enough that I noticed it.
The Pause Button Deserves an Award
This might sound like a weird thing to praise.
Pause. Actual pause. I’m playing solo; Let me pause.
Witchfire does. It’s amazing how many games still don’t.
Looking at you… Windrose.
The pause menu also has an Unstuck button. Funny enough, this is probably the first game where I’ve never needed it.
A Couple Little Things
Nothing here is game-breaking. Mostly just things I noticed after dozens of hours. The loading screen is a little confusing. It’s mostly black with a quote, a fiery skull in the corner, and “Compiling Shaders.” If you’ve never launched the game before, it’s hard to tell whether it’s still actually open or… waiting for something.
Creating a second character sends you through the tutorial again. I love the tutorial for new players. I don’t think I need to prove I know how to walk twice.
The expedition map ordering still feels… random. I still click the wrong map more often than I’d like because my brain expects progression to read left to right.
Final Thoughts
Witchfire doesn’t have the most feature-packed interface.
It has one of the most disciplined ones. It knows when to get out of the way. It knows when consistency is more important than style.
It also isn’t afraid to trust the player—sometimes a little too much.
There are definitely things I’d clean up before 1.0, mostly around communicating mechanics and smoothing out progression. None of them feel like they need a redesign.
Just a better conversation with the player.
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