Bullet Witch

2007 | Cavia | Xbox 360

There are two kinds of people who are aware of Cavia’s existence; The first being the one that gets incredibly excited for the journey ahead, and the second that approaches their titles with some degree of caution. I’m firmly rooted in the former team, and every time I get my hands on one of their titles I get a little giddy, especially when finding them in good deals. I got my Xbox 360 fairly late in its life span in preparation for the release of Alan Wake. While that game wouldn’t come out until mid-2010, it left me with a summer of digging through bargain bins at the local game store to find interesting titles to get to know the system a bit better. A few friends and I would get together for a couple of weekends during summer vacation and play through our findings after visiting said game store. Fueled by unhealthy amounts of cheap energy drinks I got to experience games like Quantum Theory, Hunted: The Demon Forge, WarTech: Senko no Ronde and Bullet Witch. And so we’ve come full circle when I revisited Bullet Witch as part of an exploration month of the seventh generation, with a healthier choice of drinks this time around.

Formed in the year 2000, Cavia is probably best known for kickstarting the career of Yoko Taro. While they got their initial start as a developer for hire, working on the Resident Evil: Dead Aim light-gun game for PS2, it’s the 2003 release of Drakengard and subsequent entries into the DrakenNieR series that most people would know them for. As well as the Resident Evil rail shooters for the Nintendo Wii. Following the release of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex for the PS2 in 2004, the team at Cavia started working on the concept for a brand-new IP, Bullet Witch. The game would feature a blend of Japanese- and Western folklore influences in its character design, monsters, storytelling and presentation. The main character, Alicia, heavily leans towards a Gothic design with her personality being more in line with Japanese traditions. The original concept of the game was designed for the older generation of hardware, prior to the reveal of the seventh generation consoles. Excited at the prospect of using the new graphical capabilities, Cavia switched development to the Xbox 360. While there were plans for a PS3 version, this ultimately ended up on the scrapheap, likely due to time constraints and difficulty developing for the notoriously complex system. Bullet Witch was eventually made to release in 2006 in Japan under publication by AQ Interactive (now Marvelous AQL), and in 2007 under Atari for the rest of the world, to lukewarm and rather negative reviews. Part of this can be written off as a somewhat hostile mentality towards games from Japan that permeated through media at the time. Another part is that the game is trying to stay true to its initial concept. Bullet Witch compromises on the advantages that the new hardware may have given the developers, and as such, we got a more uncompromised version that looked and felt out of place within an ecosystem of games who did, thus alienating a potential new audience. But, the game does offer quite a bit of potential that often gets overlooked. And it’s certainly a Cavia game!

*Are you ready for these witchy bullets?*

In the aftermath of a demonic invasion in 2007, the world is left in a desolated state. Within 6 years, humanity is pushed to the brink of extinction with resistance cells fighting back against the demons. Amongst the ruins of the city, the witch Alicia Claus alongside a guiding force, simply known as “Darkness“, try to help survivors flee to safety alongside a resistance group, led by the best named character in the game, Maxwell Cougar (the lovechild of Chris Redfield and Gene from God Hand). As the demonic forces threaten to overwhelm the city and Alicia, a monstrously sized demon appears that seems to be impervious to gunfire and magic. Forced to flee the city, they look for a way to stop this behemoth. Through a journal entry that Maxwell carries with him, Alicia learns of an archeologist that opened a portal that allowed the demons to invade the human realm. Thusly, a perilous journey begins as the group travels to the location of the portal whilst fending off the demonic horde, in a quest for answers, and the salvation of humanity.

Bullet Witch is a third person shooter where your primary weapon is a shape changing, broom-like gun that allows you to switch between various modes of fire. These range from a shotgun blast that goes a surprisingly long way, an assault rifle that shoots rounds at a rapid rate, a mini-gun that shoots more rounds at a faster rate, and a sniper. Most of the game you’ll be using these to take care of the demonic soldiers you’ll be facing. Alongside a surprisingly versatile arsenal, you’ll also have access to a wide variety of spells. From a devastating lightning strike, to stone barriers, telekinetic shoves and sudden meteor showers. By killing enemies you’ll build up energy on the magic meter located underneath the health bar in the top right corner of the screen, which allows you to actually cast these spells. Although the concept of a gun wielding witch sounds easy enough to understand on paper, the application of each tool has a wild variety of uses. Sure you can shove a few enemies down with your telekinetic powers, but what if you use that same power to hurl a pebble into the nearest fuel truck? One of my favorite aspects of the game is that, not only are environments destructable, the same environment can be used to your advantage. From impromptu cover, to loading up a tornado with enough cars to cause a local traffic jam in someone’s face. On a surface level, Bullet Witch feels a bit stagnant in its gameplay, but that is mostly because your tools are locked behind a rather tedious to unlock progression system. Once you’ve bitten through the sour apple of fizzling out of existence like a piece of paper in a wood shredder, and unlock a few extra bits of health, magic points and spells, you’ll quickly find an addictive layer of pure mayhem hidden underneath.

While this does make the game a hell of a lot more fun, it makes the early stages of the game feel sluggish and repetitive. What leveling doesn’t fix though, is weapon accuracy. With the exception of the sniper, most guns have a rather unpredictable spread to them. This can be fun when faced with multiple enemies directly ahead, but sometimes you’ll shoot at an enemy on the right only to have a bullet explode the car directly to your left, leading to a sudden and frustrating game over. Luckily these situations are easily remedied by not standing too close to things that have a tendency to spontaneously combust. Despite my grievances with the accuracy, the guns feel incredibly satisfying to use most of the time and, along with the stage structure, give the game a distinctly arcade action feel. Once you get to the point of unlocking all the health and magic upgrades, you’ll be able to invest in the weapons themselves. These upgrades are largely focused on ammo capacity and damage, but they also give every shot a whallop. While movement in the game feels somewhat stiff, there is a dodge button that lets you flip out of most dangerous situations. This is particularly useful during the late game, when enemies start hurling meteors at you with the same casual recklessness as you’ve been using to level the city. It also allows you to position yourself for the lengthier spells. The stronger the magic you’re using, the longer it takes to cast and the enemies don’t have the polite patience to stick around until you’re done. Overall, the gameplay does improve the more you play the game, but that doesn’t really excuse the initial tedium to get to a point of having the right tools for the job. It would’ve helped to make Alicia a little less frail at the start so you actually get to play before reaching a game over screen.

Bullet Witch is in a very interesting position between console generations. A lot of its original concept is intact, but there are elements of Cavia using the newer hardware for more detailed environments and character models. It is, however, wildly inconsistent in how it applies this. Alicia often stands out among the barren villages comprised of the same four houses and this goes for the city landscape as well. It’s not detrimental to the experience, but it is very noticeable. Despite the problems the game has in its pacing, narrative delivery and visual consistency, it does have that oh so delicious Cavia feel to it. I really like the concept for the story and the way it tries to execute on that concept, the key word being ‘tries’. Most of the story is a bit haphazardly sprinkled throughout the handful of cutscenes and interactions, and is mostly relegated to bits of unlockable data entries. I have a deeply rooted love for the slightly clunky, unpolished, but incredibly unique feeling that games like this bring to the table. I started this playthrough with a few mocking jabs, and quickly started having a great time shooting demons and doing backflips whilst homing in lightning strikes on a unit of tanks. It’s fantastically over the top and does a proper attempt at telling an interesting story. I will say, though, that each boss battle felt like a chaotic nightmare to go through. The camera actively works against you at the best of times, and the health bars of the bosses deliver on a multiple hour long experience of walking to the other side of an arena to shoot their indicated weak spots, at the worst of times. Bullet Witch is, at its heart, a solid attempt at a great third person shooter, but sadly falls more than a bit short of reaching the finish line. It might have something to do with the short development time and the unfamiliarity with the hardware, or stubbornly latching onto the original concepts without any compromise. Maybe with a little bit more time in the oven the developers at Cavia could’ve really baked a delicious cake out of Bullet Witch. The foundation is there, but it plays its cards too close to its chest, and ends up with one foot firmly planted in both platforms.

Forecasts of thunder/10