Bullet Witch

A third person shooter for the Xbox 360.



I'll have to pick this up soon along with ninja blade. Cavia where not the best devs but they tried.

So I've played it until almost finished with the last section of the second to last level(has 6 levels, the last being the same area as the 2nd but with a final boss you couldn't kill from the 2nd level). It's fun so far, if a bit jank and has some mediocre level design. Oddly enough you can download costumes for free(I like the mummy costume) but have to pay for extra dlc missions.

I like the mob types, it's got:

Gun Soldiers, fast bike helmet soldiers, grenade launcher soldiers, shotgunners and snipers.

Tanks

Giants with miniguns.

Weird worm civilians that can spit blood or use ribcage spikes to attack you. Freaky things I'll admit they disturb me, they remind me of shibito in siren blood curse, namely the maggot and crawler shibito.

Floating brain doods who can lift objects to throw at you which is an insta kill.

Weird bloated blob monster which summons floating homing ghost heads.

Hopefully will have my copy today (at work now), really curious as to how the game plays!

Okay I have to admit, this game...isn't that great. First off I have to note that I love how arcade-y it is, the story is extremely shovelware (barely mentioned, apparently her gun talks but we are never told), which I adore. The combat is so-so, you've got quite some nice spells and abilities though it all feels a bit wooden. Lacking the ability to cancel moves into each other, to use a dash better, I'm still learning but it all feels really slow. Not sure what they were going for.
Levels are HUUUUUUGGEEEEE, and very empty. I generally just went where I was supposed to go and sometimes explored a bit but found nothing of interest. Difficulty-wise I haven't been challenged at all yet, but I wonder if higher settings will change that.

My biggest grip though is that there is no music. I heard one tune during a boss and during the menu, and that was it. I'm going to put on some music while playing tomorrow but this game really could've used some epic DMC style music. Can you just imagine something like this playing during all that?



All in all, unlike P.N.03 which clicked with me right from the start, I'll need to dive a bit deeper into this. I'm curious to see how that will go.

Damn it. It did get an EU release but I've never seen it for sale here. Might try Ebay AU or UK.

It's an odd one that's for sure. The level design in particular is baffling, it's mostly WIDE open areas with little to no cover and very little direction, no secrets but you get more points for killing all mobs at the level result screen so check all over the map for stragglers. Level 3 has linear hallways which compliment the gameplay well, level 5 has a spooky forrest full of lots of trees that works well too. It's rough and outright mediocre in many respects but I dig it so far.

I'd like it if it had more tracks especially as the ost is pretty bland. I think it's going for a more ambient desolate feel to emphasize the apocalyptic setting, big silly since it's pretty hokey, this ain't souls fam that's for sure.

Regarding difficulty, you can easily be 1shotted by tanks, snipers, standing near giants when they fall or debris flung by you or those floating brain guys. Higher modes make mobs more durable and deal more damage as far as I'm aware, I've stopped before stage 6 on normal, not very challenging so far but you do need to use the right guns and magic and cover as run n gunning always can get you killed, especially with those snipers.  

The above review explains some things and has some useful tips.

*I've noticed flipping to the left/right is faster than running.

*Using certain magic spells drains magic and decreases the magic bar cap but killing increases magic cap.

*Upgrade machine gun first, as well as buy raven spell which distracts mobs and element shot for extra damage. Get the sniper rifle also it does massive damage and is great for long range foes. I think its last upgrade gives it a scope, not sure but I saw footage where it looked like the rifle could zoom in.

*Reloading costs magic, the lower your clip is the more it costs, mini gun and rifle cost the most so reload them early to make them cost less magic per reload.

*Shotgun is useless most of the time as levels are so open so it's best to use machine gun or rifle for ranged foes. Shotgun can knock down worm men(bloated head wiggly mutant civilians) or soldiers and kill them in 1-2 hits with no upgrades at least normal.

I've noticed the left/right flip thing too, lot faster (which helps since the game is so freak'n huge). Upgrades look pretty cheap so I'm just trying out which-ever. So far the Machine Gun seems the best with the Shotgun being absolutely pointless. I haven't found a single instance when it is useful.

Should be mentioned that melee is beast in this game. While tracking is horrible, it deals monsterous damage. One or two hits can kill anything so far.

Chapter Three was miles and beyond the best the game has offered up until now. Having Elemental Shots makes the game better too as it adds a small amount of meter-management. I like that you can just give all your weapons an element and store it for later use. Is it me btw or does the Elemental Shot Charge animation have i.frames? Not sure to be honest. Haven't used the other spells much yet outside of the cover-spell from time to time and Willpower (which rarely works the way I want to).

So far the Machinegun still rules supreme but the Shotgun with the Wind Element really adds to the combat. Gains some huge AoE to its shot, which works really nicely. I dislike how the fire-element on the Machinegun obstructs your view and lags the game, could have done with some tweaks that's for sure.

Mission 3's boss was pretty surprising, didn't expect that I'd be able to fall off the plane. Also have to say I laughed out loud when they were sitting in a plane with the door open, hilarity haha!

Also do you have a clue on how the final stats work? Survival Percentage? What the hell does that even mean? The remaining HP of your AI-bros?

Yeh level 3 is pretty good, linear hallways keep the pace up and makes use of those worm men well since they are close range foes, and the boss is really cool too(didn't want to spoil that). Level 5 has a good dense misty forrest section for its second half, level 4 has a very short tunnel section but outside of those sections it's all absurdly open spaces, which doesn't lend itself too well to such an arcade like shooter. There's no real design to most areas it's just bizzarly spacious outdoor areas, telling that they had no money/time to make this game.

I'm not sure about iframes on element shot animation but I know that the larger spells(meteor, lightning and tornado), raven and sacrifice(revive npc) spells have iframes, so it's likely they all have iframes. I do really like how each gun has its own element, wonder if it effects damage against certain mobs, I know soldiers burn from machin gun element, only used the cannon's light shot which makes it more powerful and accurate, I've yet to test shotgun or gatling but the shotgun wind sounds good, shame the levels are too open mostly to make use of the shotgun.

Machine gun is by far the most versalite gun, best range/damage/speed/clip overall, all the others are very situational, I haven't got the gatling gun yet.

Best spells are by far lightning for disposing tanks(and choppers, maybe use tornado for same purpose), raven's panic for distracting grunts, willpower(you need to have debris for this and aim well for it to work), ancient wall(I seldom used only against snipers but I know it's useful for higher modes) and element shot for buffed up guns. Rose spears seems useless as by the time it's activated you could have killed everyone but I've not experimented with it yet.

Survival rating is how many npc's you saved, so if you see them in a kneeling down state then use sacrifice on them, I didn't pay attention to level results but I got an S for most stages so I've done something right. Accuracy and kill count are also factors, so search all the alcoves of maps for extra goons lying around.

I've found this: https://www.gamefaqs.com/xbox360/931220-bullet-witch/faqs/48604

I like how when I was watching that review it quickly shows a clip of some other shooting game with incoming GIANT JUMPING SPIDERS. That's my worst nightmare right there.

I'm currently bidding on this game and will know in 6 days if I'm getting it. Starting at $10 so if it stays low we'll see.

@birdman: You might be spooked by quite a few mobs in bullet witch, namely the worm men and screamers(which summon floating heads) whom both look straight out of siren, particularly blood curse, they remind me of the shibito spiders and maggots, even sound like them, I think I've said this before. Where those spiders giant eye spiders? Those are in this game too sadly.

Just got it for $10.
I wouldn't mind the JP version. I read the DLC is included on the disc. Is it still available for us?

Dlc is available in the west but you have to pay for it, the costumes are free though just the extra missions must be bought, it's pretty cheap, about 70p each in the U.K.

Yeah should be noted the dlc is cheap as sin, the costumes are free and the rest is like 25 euro cent a piece.

I was wearing the mummy costume, it looks cool(has cavia printed on the jacket, R.I.P cavia) as I don't care for dresses, I prefer tomboy looks for gals .

I've read that guide it's pretty useful, it notes all the different mob types and a variety of strategies to use against them.
I'd like to note my findings for some mob types, namely the soldier variants as they are quit varied and each plays a different role, like say the squad leaders who wear red berets(chudor collars!?, also have a distinct camp voice) and direct squad fire so kill them first to reduce enemy fire density and accuracy. A skinny crouched soldier that wears a jet pilot helmet is super fast but weak, a larger masked type wields heavy machine guns and have a lot of life and shotgun types who rush towards you. Snipers also, they always 1shot you, the larger and brighter their laser sight beam is the closer they are to firing.

I've beaten it, I've moved onto ninja blade while I dedicate mostly to BB. The level 6 final boss is pretty rad, that huge red serpent armed demon(tri serpent) is the final boss, has a bunch of attacks that are all well telegraphed, pretty epic and impressive for a tiny budget title. I'll have to play the dlc levels, one is a 1shot level oh dear, another sounds like a wave based/survival mode.

Probably going to dive in further tonight, maybe do one more mission. I doubt I'll dive into the higher settings, but so far it has been a nice distraction of a game. The Snipers annoy me though, really weird how they always instakill you - a bit harsh.

I'll have this soon. Hopefully this week.

Snipers are a bitch but more than manageable(at least on normal).

*They always seem to appear in fixed locations.

*Their laser sight helps you gauge their position and the brighter the laser is the closer they are to firing.

*Break line of sight, summon wall is invaluable for this due to lack of any substantial cover in most levels.

*They are weak and can be stunlocked with any gun, best to use cannon for sniping or machine gun if your close enough.

*Raven spell can be used to distract them also.

Arrived today but I probably won't be touching it for a while.

Let us know what you think about it Birdman! Personally, I just finished it. And I'll probably never touch it again. The concept is cool and it has some really good ideas and scenarios, but it just doesn't work for me. The game is laggy, slow, low on variation and has one of the most spongy final bosses I've seen in recent history. 

The atmosphere was really good in the final few stages though, but outside of chapter 3 - which was a more small scale encounter - I wasn't really having too much fun. I feel that the game had all the right ideas, but really suffered in terms of budget and execution. Still, really glad I dove in. I'm richer by one experience :)

About to start. Just installing it now and wondering if it's ever going to happen because the disc looks like someone took a steel wool scrub brush to it. Oh well, it was only $10.

I checked out the boards on GameFAQs and saw someone mention this is up on the store. You know, I play the 360 so rarely that I forgot it even had a store. There are very few games on any of the Xbox consoles for me. I think the X1 might not even have a single game I want to play. Scalebound was going to be my reason to buy one.

I'm really looking forward to trying this anyway. It's one of those games I looked up years ago and meant to buy but never did.

I have the exact same problem with the store haha, I always forget it exists. That said older games are generally really expensive on the store compared to real life, and I prefer having a case anyway. Games will be worth money, and you can always sell them compared to digital games.

Let me know what you think!

The biggest tip I can give is to get Raven Panic and Elemental Shot first, they make the combat a lot more fun.

Part way through stage 2 now.

My view is pretty much identical to your initial impression.

Strangely, I feel like I've played this before, in that it's very similar to some other game I've played but I've forgotten what it was.

I don't like the dodging. Too floaty and doesn't actually work very well at dodging anything. I've found just peeking around corners is a good way to take care of anything rather than using Ancient Wall though that's a good spell if you have a sniper on you in the open.

Got element shot and I want the raven one next.

The levels are pointlessly huge and require too much running around, back and forth. They've purposely put targets and objectives as far apart from each other as possible it seems.

Somehow reminds me of Drakengard and something else. I'm on the verge of remembering.

Stage 2 is a nightmare as it is absolutely one big huge empty space to walk in. I feel the game has some really great ideas and is actually very neatly balanced in some ways, but some others are just stupid. I'm just going to list some pros and cons, I might do a Stinger piece on it one day because it really is that example of a game that could've been great.


Good:

• the magical balance is very well done. Your max magic regeneration lowers every time you cast magic, to increase your maximum magic you have to kill enemies. But to kill enemies you need bullets, and to reload you need to use magic (but doesn't count as magic, so won't lower the max). It's a very neat balance and in some cases can lead to you rushing in to get higher max magic so you can cast lightning.
  
• the whole elemental system is neat, as are some of the spells like Willpower and Raven's Panic
  
• the artstyle is pretty cool, at times.
  
• the costumes are pretty cool!
  
• Goku as the voice for that one soldier guy. No joke, it's Goku haha.
  
• some of the bosses are really grand scale epic encounters, especially one around the halfwaypoint really blew me away.
  

The "could've been done better":

• enemy variety is very low, only around 5 types repeated over and over. Thankfully most function differently, but they could've done so much more.
  
• combat is sluggish, you'd think they'd go for a more arcade'y feel but I'm not sure what's going on. They want you to stop and heal everyone for a high score for instance and the missions are huge boring wastelands with nothing to do.
  
• damage is really inconsistent, sometimes you can stand in the middle of 20 guys and just tank it, other times the shockwave of a guy falling nearly 10 meters away will kill you instantly. 
  
• most spells have insanely long animations, cool the first time...boring the second and thousanth.
  
• the final boss is a nightmare, probably the highest HP bar I've seen in some time.
  
• THERE IS NO MUSIC, I honestly don't understand why they did this. Get some cool goth music in there. I mean look at Painkiller. Give Bulletwitch this soundtrack, would fit perfectly:
  
  
  
• Honestly just more of a vision would've been great, a style direction. I'm not sure if it wants to be this slowpaced shooter or this high octane action extravaganza.
  
• A radar or something of a like. Especially Mission 5 would have benefited from this as it is a giant open place with nothing and no indication of where things are, or where enemies are. 
  
• The shotgun sounds like a pee-shooter, sorry.
  
• Truly god awful story haha, the 'twist' was hinted at too early and the ending is just insult to injury.
  

If the game was shorter in its mission, it would really be a game I would replay more and more as the combat, while flawed, is fun. But every mission I was thinking "man I really never want to do this one again", which shouldn't be the case. Glad I played it, but I probably never will again haha.

Cavia made this nier and drakengard, but notably the bullet witch team previously did a ghost in the shell shooter similar to bullet witch(same 1hit snipers too). I get the same sort of deva vu for some reason, it has the same sort of odd shiny look to many textures like nier.

Dodging is best for avoiding thrown rubble from the physic brain guys(walnut heads), and dodging ghosts as they can chomp on you but disappear right after, dodging as they go to chomp avoids it and kills them for free.

Level 3 and the second part of stage 5(foggy forest section)are the best, due to focused linear design. Other than that level design is awful.

Edit: yeh same thoughts as roy haha.
The final boss is cool and his absurd life I didn't find to be an issue, I spammed Gatling gun and then lighting on the serpents heads, was so silly when I still had to nuke the damn boss when he didn't have any snakes left haha.

The dragon(drakobat it think) boss reminds me of ninja blade's airplane level, you even fight a flying hydra too.

I'll have to replay on hard and test the soldier grunts, I know if the red beret solider is around he can direct fire so take him out first, he's also got a noticeable camp tone to his voice and wears a Tudor color!?

HAHAHAHA!!!

That's was it! that Ghost in the Shell game on PS2!

I remember now. It had the same floaty dodging and 1 hit snipers lol. Even the running and shooting was more or less the same.

That's some nice info on the ghost heads. I was trying to shoot them out of the air.

Gatling gun or shotgun are good for ghosts as then you can spray n pray, I didn't bother shooting them outside of the final boss as I used those ghosts to regain magic. Kill the bloated ladies that spawn the ghosts ASAP, super annoying otherwise.

Also ghosts poses friendly soldiers or civilians to become worm men(wiggly big head guys straight out of siren blood curse, so freaky). Also Maxwell cougar somehow became a worm man during the final boss, no penalties which gave me a chuckle.

Well, my motivation to continue just died.

I'm up to that part where you defend a base from three helicopters. You learn tornado here.

One of the helicopters got stuck on a cliff outside the area and can't turn around to drop off more guys. I can see it trying to turn but it can't so it just resets its position.

I have nothing to kill, so no MP to launch another tornado.

Well, my motivation to continue just died.

I remember that part, got stuck there too..it is really annoying. Also that you have to cast the Tornado from really far away otherwise it will just straight-up miss. I wish I could say it would get better, but it doesn't. The highlight of the game was chapter 3, great fun, not too big, lots of close quarter fights and a great boss.

I never used the tornado, it's easier to use lightning on the choppers, you might be able to shoot them down like the tanks with enoug shots. I'd say stick it out to see the cool misty forrest section at the end of chapter 5 and the final boss of 6.

Ng+ will make things easier, heck I only got the gatling gun on the last level, I'd like to test all the magic and guns fully upgraded, test the mobs too.

I'd love to dive further in but..the whole game just doesn't sit well with me with its levels. How are the DLC missions? Are they better? Have you tried them? Are they..well...smaller?

Haven't touched them yet, still on BB, I'd like to finish ninja blade after that but I'll try them for sure, but more than likely fuck that 1hit kill mission, oh boy.

Any idea what the ranking screen means? What's survival? Any reason to revive NPCs?

I just bought the cannon and it's ok. Didn't know that elemental shot lowers the clip though. That sucks but its elemental shot zoom is cool.

Oh ok so lightning works too. That will make it way easier.

So fire shots have a percentage of setting the enemy on fire? What is that based on? Level, amount of shots? I notice it never happens immediately on normal guys but sets the brains on fire pretty fast.

Once a guy is burning, they go into that running around screaming state. I like stuff like this, where your abilities have an actual effect rather than straight damage. I saw some guys running away from the tornado as well, but sometimes it didn't register with them and they all just stood there while the helicopter got trashed.

> Survival rating
Yeah it's the percentage of your allies that survive. Gotta give the Sacrifice talent some usage haha.

> cannon
For some reason the damage seemed really bad to me, not sure why.

> fire shots
I believe it's just a cool death animation that triggers randomly, haven't seen enemies like combust after 1 or 2 shots.

I've not studied the rank screen, but survival rate is ally npcs left alive, if you see any soldiers or civilians in a kneeling down state then use sacrifice spell on them to revive them, it costs a slither of life and magic but both regen right away(don't think it has iframes, I'm sure I've been hit during it). Kill all enemies(search all the out of the way spaces) for better rank also.

All the guns have a unique element effect, shotgun has larger radius wind blasts, chaingun/gatling gun has lightning that can chain to nearby foes(haha chain gun=chain lightning), cannon light shot is just damage but can stun giants with each shot. Upgrades increase element powers, you can also save the element you have cast and switch to another gun, but eventually it runs out. Flame shot seems like a percentage, likely the upgrades increases the fire effect chance/potency. Maybe fire once and wait to see if it's from successive hits.

Grunts have a few states, they can surrender also, though just kill them as they can attack you after and likely stall for a fellow sniper. Shotgun can knock them down, I think melee can stun lock them also. Worm men can be knocked down and stun locked by shotgun/melee as well. Crows also distract them.

I've posted a link to a gamefaq guide a few posts up, it explains the above things.

EDIT: the cannon does seem weak, and its shot speed is super slow too, it's not hitscan i take as you can see the projectile. Upgrades likely increase damage.

Yeah it's the percentage of your allies that survive. Gotta give the Sacrifice talent some usage haha.


So is the rank not affected at all when they kneel, but if you leave them like that? I know they can permanently die, or at least I think they can because I blew up a tanker and it killed two civilians.

Getting on their knees counts as them 'dying' too but this is negated by you using Sacrifice. So if you leave them as that, you're fucked.

Any idea if the combat score requires you to kill every enemy in these obscenely huge levels? Does damage taken factor in at all?

I'm probably not going to bother with getting perfect ranks because traversal is just too slow and boring. The dodges definitely move you faster but they are awful to do. I can't stand it.

Kill all enemies in a level for better score, that's why they are spread throughout the massive levels for padding. I think accuracy might be a factor, damage might be. Don't know what the highest rank is but I mostly got S somehow.

Check out this guy. So the highest rank is SS.



Kill point, clear time, survival, no miss clear and a multiplier for difficulty.

I'm sure I saw misses though. At one point he was shooting a wooden post obstructing an enemy. What counts as a miss then?

Damage clearly has NOTHING to do with it. He gets destroyed and it's Hell mode so any damage is nasty. Got to see how Raven Panic works. So effective.

So when you cast Ravens, does it follow you or does it stay where you casted it?

I think it follows you, and it looks like if you kill a crow bothered enemy the crows flock to another grunt, upgrades add more crows, might increase spell duration and distance covered, not sure I upgraded to level 2 I think.

Not sure about no miss criteria, might be a ratio per hit, so it gives you a margin for error. Maybe the percentage rises with each kill, and goes down if you miss. Accuracy scores can be lenient, I've missed plenty of shots in re5 but I'd still get a high accuracy rank.

Damn that looks hard as hell. Still also...looks pretty interesting. How many difficulties does it take to get to HELL mode?

I was thinking of RE4 when I was looking at the no miss score. For a second I thought it was a percentage. Like in RE4 if you fire a shot anywhere it lowers it, or with the shotgun it will lower even if you hit them. It has to be dead center on their chest. At least that's how it was explained to me by someone who got 100% on every chapter.

In Bullet Witch, the scoring looks more similar to Shinobi on PS2 where there is an overall score and each category contributes points towards it.

I remember going for 100% accuracy in RE4 once, but it can get really screwed up. I screwed up my run once by using just the knife one chapter which resulted in a 0% accuracy (since I didn't fire a shot, and thus didn't hit anything haha). Game was weird that way, but still such a charm. I did get it eventually, mostly just a knife-only run where you're carrying only really powerful weapons like Red9, Sniper and Broken Butterfly. Krauser's chapter was pretty hard though since there aren't any enemies in it, so you have to shoot one of the robots to get 100% accuracy (since hitting Krauser is...lol). Damn this brings back memories. Just like my pacifist and "kill all" runs, fun times. Handcanon only run was also pretty fun and, actually, hard (due to high lack of ammo).

I wonder if they'll ever remake it? Or just re-release it into oblivion. 

On topic: you finished Bullet Witch yet Bird?

Haven't passed that part with the helicopters yet. Lost motivation after it glitched. Will get back to it once I'm done with EW2.

http://www.siliconera.com/2018/04/11/cavias-xbox-360-action-shooter-bullet-witch-headed-pc-april-25/

The game is coming to PC with all its DLC included and quality of life improvements (whatever the hell that entails). Think this will do the game a lot of good, using the mouse to shoot while having a stable fps.

Well that’s nice, especially since Cavia is long dead. Haven’t played the dlc yet.