Combat is primarily based around using Alicia's "gun rod" weapon and magic abilities against normal enemies and during scripted boss battles. While Alicia mainly fights alone, she is joined by NPCs for later major battles. Her gun rod transforms into multiple types of guns, each with different ammunition types, firing rates and damage. When the game starts Alicia only has access to the rod's machine gun mode, but skill points acquired after completing levels can be used to unlock shotgun, canon, and Gatling gun modes. Reloading after a magazine is exhausted costs Alicia magic points. Each gun type can be augmented with additional functions or deal higher damage by using magic. Alicia can also perform a melee attack when close to enemies.
Alicia has access to magic spells, which are assigned to three rings based on their strength. Basic spells include creating a temporary shield, imbuing ammunition with elemental damage abilities, and spearing enemies from beneath; second level spells include throwing objects, summoning a hoard of ravens to attack enemies, and giving up a portion of health to revive injured allies and non-playable characters; the third level summons powerful natural phenomena such as tornadoes, meteor showers and lightning storms to destroy large groups of enemies. Using spells cost varying amounts of magic points depending on their level, and each can be upgraded using skill points. Upgrades to health, guns and magic are unlocked with skill points earned based on a ranking, which takes in damage taken, enemies killed and the length of time it took to complete a level.
Synopsis
In the wake of multiple natural disasters culminating in a demon invasion in 2007, Earth has become a wasteland, and by the year 2013 humanity is on the brink of extinction. Alicia Claus, a witch guided by a demonic power dubbed the "Darkness", enters a near-deserted American city. Despite the Darkness saying the city is doomed, Alicia helps the survivors and ends up helping local resistance forces led by Maxwell Cougar evacuate survivors. During her time there, she and the resistance are forced to flee from Omega—a powerful demon immune to magic and gunfire—and Maxwell asks for her aid in saving humanity. While they work together, Maxwell gives Alicia a journal fragment revealing that an archeologist performed a ritual to revive a loved one after she died in a plane crash—his actions opened a portal allowing the demons to attack humanity.
Alicia accompanies the resistance forces to the location of the portal, aiding them and further survivors along the way. When she reaches the portal's location, she discovered the archeologist still alive as a prisoner of the portal. Receiving the remaining journal entries from him, Alicia discovers that she herself is the archeologist's daughter and is only alive and able to wield magic due to his actions. Alicia is forced to kill her father to close the portal, although the remaining demons still control Earth. Alicia and Maxwell return to the city and finally defeat Omega through their combined strength, liberating the city from demon control. Despite this victory, the battle is far from over, and despite Maxwell's growing attachment to her Alicia decides to continue her mission. Newspaper articles during the credits show humanity defeating the demons and recovering from the natural disasters while Alicia continues wandering the world.
Development
Development of Bullet Witch lasted approximately two years, being handled by the same team who developed Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex for the PlayStation 2. It was the first game developed for seventh generation consoles by Cavia. The concept for Bullet Witch originated from loosey inspired Mahōtsukai Kurohime manga before the next generation of hardware had been revealed to developers, beginning its concept development for sixth generation hardware. After the developers were shown the Xbox 360, they were impressed with its development tools and additional features such as the Xbox Live functions, deciding to develop Bullet Witch for that platform. While development for the PlayStation 3 was considered, the team had begun work on the Xbox 360, and decided to stay on a single platform to deliver the best possible experience. The game used both internal and external staff, with a team size estimated at being between 100 and 120 people. Between 20 and 30 programmers worked on the game.
