Prayers? You should have done that before
Despite its many, many problems, I like this game. I liked it when I picked it up for tuppence back on Xbox 360 and I like it more now that I played the PC version in the original Japanese (which you have to mod the game with an undub patch to access).
Getting rid of the awful American voice work gives a whole new dimension and gravitas to protagonist Alicia, who no longer sounds like a valley girl bimbo, rather a lot more like the tragic character she is supposed to be in the (admittedly underdeveloped) story. Not that the writing is any good, mind you, but there is intensity to the quiet, tormented character Alicia is, and having it demolished every time she opens her mouth in the English language dub was a shame, and probably contributed to many people in the west disliking the game.
I say contribute because, no point hiding behind a finger: the gameplay is pretty bad. Not unplayably bad, but you can tell there was a much cooler game in the design document, which never quite made it into binary code form. The idea of playing as an agile witch vaulting and somersaulting around while firing a machine gun broom and casting a wide array of spectacularly destructive spells at horrid demons is simply awesome, especially if you consider this was three years before Bayonetta. It's too bad none of the elements are executed well enough to bring out the true potential of the concept.
The shooting, while serviceable, tends to be quite dull due to the lack of impact your basic rapid fire weapon has on the enemies, who lack pain states and just appear unphased by your fire, until they die with their canned animations. The shotgun and rifle form of the broom fare a little better, as they send enemies flying backwards in a much more satisfying manner, but are situational weapons that don't quite replace your workhorse. Ammo is infinite, save for one late game form, so this is definitely a game where you can pull on the trigger and never let go, which works in its favor.
As for the spells, they are gradually unlocked with experience points as you progress through the campaign and range from elemental boosts for your guns to spikes coming out of the ground to impale enemies, a stone wall to protect yourself from snipers, force push, swarms of crows to distract and impede your foes and a variety of devastating lightning strikes, meteors and tornadoes, all introduced by highly choreographed cutscenes which are very impressive the first few times you see them and not as much later on. Trouble is, none of the spells work quite as intended: the spikes may or may not connect with the enemies, seeminly at random, the meteor strike is just as likely to kill you as the demons and you'll rarely ever use the push and crows. There is even one revive spell which is used to heal wounded civilians and friendly NPCs, though this serves virtually no purpose at all, since it gives you no benefit at all, perhaps being a vestige of a much more in-depth scrapped mechanic.
The level design is messy and confusing, often requiring you to navigate ruined city blocks looking for a gap or alley not blocked by arbitrary impassable barriers. There aren't any health or ammo pickups, so there is no incentive to explore either.
The enemies on the other hand are quite interesting: you are essentially fighting a demon army whose grunt soldiers are evil flayed men who wear their own skin as a scarf around their necks. Aside from them you will face floating brains projecting barriers and hurling cars and buses at you, stationary tanks, possessed rage zombies, demons who hide and spawn homing ghosts and giants armed with gatling guns which satisfyingly fall to the ground causing a tremor when they die. one of the highlights of the game is a boss fight on top of a flying jumbo jet, fighting off killer eyeballs as you try to direct your lighting strikes on a massive skeletal serpent attacking the plane. It's good stuff conceptually, but the janky unpolished nature of the game gets in the way. It's also really short, clocking in at 4 hours for a normal run, though three more unlockable difficulty settings are available to add some value.
So yes, many problems, but also a lot of charm. It's the sort of game I ackowledge as a fairly poor one but I enjoy that it exists, not unlike another personal guilty pleasure of mine, Vampire Rain. Bullet Witch begs for a remake: a remaster wouldn't cut it but a full remake handled by a competent team could propel this to great success. Considering I was already shocked to see a PC release twelve years after the fact, I won't hold my breath though. But hey, if you can think of many other games featuring a literal bullet witch, I'd sure like to hear about them.
Getting rid of the awful American voice work gives a whole new dimension and gravitas to protagonist Alicia, who no longer sounds like a valley girl bimbo, rather a lot more like the tragic character she is supposed to be in the (admittedly underdeveloped) story. Not that the writing is any good, mind you, but there is intensity to the quiet, tormented character Alicia is, and having it demolished every time she opens her mouth in the English language dub was a shame, and probably contributed to many people in the west disliking the game.
I say contribute because, no point hiding behind a finger: the gameplay is pretty bad. Not unplayably bad, but you can tell there was a much cooler game in the design document, which never quite made it into binary code form. The idea of playing as an agile witch vaulting and somersaulting around while firing a machine gun broom and casting a wide array of spectacularly destructive spells at horrid demons is simply awesome, especially if you consider this was three years before Bayonetta. It's too bad none of the elements are executed well enough to bring out the true potential of the concept.
The shooting, while serviceable, tends to be quite dull due to the lack of impact your basic rapid fire weapon has on the enemies, who lack pain states and just appear unphased by your fire, until they die with their canned animations. The shotgun and rifle form of the broom fare a little better, as they send enemies flying backwards in a much more satisfying manner, but are situational weapons that don't quite replace your workhorse. Ammo is infinite, save for one late game form, so this is definitely a game where you can pull on the trigger and never let go, which works in its favor.
As for the spells, they are gradually unlocked with experience points as you progress through the campaign and range from elemental boosts for your guns to spikes coming out of the ground to impale enemies, a stone wall to protect yourself from snipers, force push, swarms of crows to distract and impede your foes and a variety of devastating lightning strikes, meteors and tornadoes, all introduced by highly choreographed cutscenes which are very impressive the first few times you see them and not as much later on. Trouble is, none of the spells work quite as intended: the spikes may or may not connect with the enemies, seeminly at random, the meteor strike is just as likely to kill you as the demons and you'll rarely ever use the push and crows. There is even one revive spell which is used to heal wounded civilians and friendly NPCs, though this serves virtually no purpose at all, since it gives you no benefit at all, perhaps being a vestige of a much more in-depth scrapped mechanic.
The level design is messy and confusing, often requiring you to navigate ruined city blocks looking for a gap or alley not blocked by arbitrary impassable barriers. There aren't any health or ammo pickups, so there is no incentive to explore either.
The enemies on the other hand are quite interesting: you are essentially fighting a demon army whose grunt soldiers are evil flayed men who wear their own skin as a scarf around their necks. Aside from them you will face floating brains projecting barriers and hurling cars and buses at you, stationary tanks, possessed rage zombies, demons who hide and spawn homing ghosts and giants armed with gatling guns which satisfyingly fall to the ground causing a tremor when they die. one of the highlights of the game is a boss fight on top of a flying jumbo jet, fighting off killer eyeballs as you try to direct your lighting strikes on a massive skeletal serpent attacking the plane. It's good stuff conceptually, but the janky unpolished nature of the game gets in the way. It's also really short, clocking in at 4 hours for a normal run, though three more unlockable difficulty settings are available to add some value.
So yes, many problems, but also a lot of charm. It's the sort of game I ackowledge as a fairly poor one but I enjoy that it exists, not unlike another personal guilty pleasure of mine, Vampire Rain. Bullet Witch begs for a remake: a remaster wouldn't cut it but a full remake handled by a competent team could propel this to great success. Considering I was already shocked to see a PC release twelve years after the fact, I won't hold my breath though. But hey, if you can think of many other games featuring a literal bullet witch, I'd sure like to hear about them.
very messy and kinda ugly maybe a bit too ambitious for the time period and budget this was made in