Bullet Witch

Lore & Background

Set on a post-apocalyptic Earth, the story begins after multiple natural disasters and a demon invasion in 2007. By 2013, humanity is near extinction. Alicia Claus, a witch guided by a demonic power called the 'Darkness', enters a near-deserted American city. She helps survivors and local resistance forces led by Maxwell Cougar, eventually learning that an archeologist's ritual to revive a loved one opened a portal for the demons. Alicia discovers she is the archeologist's daughter and is forced to kill her father to close the portal, though demons still control Earth. She and Maxwell defeat the powerful demon Omega, but Alicia continues her wandering mission.

Gameplay involves controlling Alicia through six linear levels with semi-open environments, using a gun rod that transforms into multiple gun types. Alicia has a health meter and magic meter that regenerate automatically. She can use magic spells assigned to three rings, ranging from shields and elemental ammunition to summoning tornadoes and meteor showers. Skill points earned from level rankings unlock upgrades to health, guns, and magic.

Reader's Guide

Bullet Witch was developed by the same team behind Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and was Cavia's first game for seventh generation consoles. Development began in 2004, initially conceived for sixth generation hardware before shifting to the Xbox 360 after the team was impressed by its development tools and Xbox Live functions. The team size was estimated between 100 and 120 people, with 20 to 30 programmers. The game used the NovodeX physics engine (later known as PhysX). Character and monster designs by Satoshi Ueda and Taro Hasegawa fused Western and Japanese sensibilities. The music was composed by Masashi Yano, supervised by Nobuyoshi Sano. The game received mixed to negative reviews. A Windows version was released by Xseed Games in April 2018.

Did You Know?

• Bullet Witch was Cavia's first game developed for seventh generation consoles.
• The game's monster designs were created by Taro Hasegawa, who redesigned the Geist monster several times due to complexity.
• Alicia's gun rod transforms into machine gun, shotgun, cannon, and Gatling gun modes.
• The game's scenario was co-written by director Yōichi Take and Akira Yasui.