While there are quite a number of tower defense games on the Switch, I’ll admit that I’ve been somewhat baffled that there haven’t been almost any that I’ve seen made in the spirit of Plants Vs. Zombies. Granted, a version of that classic will be finally making its way to the Switch later this month, but given the wild success of that title, you’d think someone would have seen the opportunity and tried to seize it. Playing through this indie title though, perhaps it has some clues to why others have avoided it.

What really makes this an odd bird is that it’s a mesh between two very different genres, binding together storytelling that has the feel of a visual novel, with the tower defense elements involving your main character and her classmates trying to repel an attack of a Demon Lord. The contrast between the somewhat perky character dialogue interspersed with what eventually becomes more focused strategic play is striking, and the fact that the visual styles of the two couldn’t be more different, further drives a stake into the heart of trying to put together something cohesive.

Working in its favor, there do end up being enough types of units you have at your disposal, with enough enemy types to try to deal with, that it does feel like you have options as you set up your defenses. Incoming enemy lines will need to be dealt with, but initially you might not always be able to adequately assume which types you may be dealing with, or in what concentrations. As you’re planning your stacked positions on each of your lines that means you’ll need to carefully account for each unit’s range and what they’re able to counter, being sure not only to have everything you need in place to stop the incoming hordes, but that you make them available at the right time since you won’t initially have the money to get everything in place. In the end, there’s some semblance of the feel that made Plants Vs. Zombies a wild success here, but I do wonder why they tried to stitch together two experiences that don’t look or even feel very compatible with one another. Worse, I wonder if the inclusion of both could end up making the overall package less appealing to fans of either genre.