In a world where a witch can be anything, why would you want a wand when you can carry a Semi-Automatic with an AK-47 for backup? Zelda meets Gungeon, Witches, and Warlocks; This is Trigger Witch.
A Tale As Old As Time
Trigger Witch is set in a high fantasy world where dungeons and dragons meet guns and ammo. Colette is a budding witch and keen member of a school called “The Stock”. One final test which serves as the player tutorial sees her join the elite Witches in “The Clip”.
A mysterious man is seen on the outskirts of town. Colette has to perform a list of fetch quests and other adventure tropes to solve the mystery behind this and prove to her peers that she is a viable member of “The Clip”.
While the story and characters aren’t exactly mind-blowing in terms of depth and intrigue, they play the cliche well. It adds to this tongue-in-cheek adventure, with shades of humor and self-awareness.
The game is a 16-bit “Throwback” and the story manages to capture that goofy and magical time for gaming. Despite this, it doesn’t come off as too overbearing.
16 Bit Gaming, Reloaded
Trigger Witch takes its inspiration from two titles I mentioned earlier, the exploration and puzzles from a certain Hyrulian series and the combat and gunplay of the Gungeon series. Minus the completely random weaponry that it. Sorry to say it folks; there’s no procedurally generated content here.
Trigger Witch sports a top-down view that anyone with a link to the past would be familiar with. Paired with a control system that feels universal for any twin-stick shooter, you should be more than familiar with the controls and general gameplay loop by the end of the tutorial.
Initially, you’re given a pistol. Soon after you’ll unlock an AK-47. These not only kill your enemies but are often used in puzzles. They’re quite literally problem solvers.
Your handgun is the basic weapon and has the shortest cooldown. Additional weapons such as the AK take a lot longer to cool down until you upgrade them using gems and upgrade kits found in the world. This means it’s a delicate gun ballet of which weapon to use and when.
C’est La Viable Handgun
Combat is that familiar brand of dodging attacks thrown at you by stuff like Mushrooms and more. This is done using the handy quick dash button and then aiming with the right stick to aim your hail of bullets fired with the shoulder button.
Witches are really good with potions and rather than finding health you brew it each time you kill an enemy. This works as a brilliant risk/reward system because you’re going to need to get stuck into the fray if you want to survive longer in this world of guns and fantasy
Puzzles usually involve a mix of destroying switches, playing with conveyor belts, and bouncing shots off of reflective surfaces along with the standard key hunting. It breaks up the action well, despite not exactly reinventing the wheel.
Later in the game, you get the ability to fly a broom just like a real Witch. Naturally, this lends itself well to a Shmup section and has you dodging bullets and shooting foes down with ease.
Now while this is all well done and perfectly enjoyable, it is slightly held back by more ambition than budget it seems. Reskinned enemies and reused designs come into the game far too quickly. The game throws all of its tricks out so early that the later hours in the game seem rather tame in comparison.
It’s an Adult Magazine…
Visually Trigger Witch takes inspiration from titles like Zelda and the more recently released Blossom Tales. It uses a 16-bit art style, CRTesque effects, and includes an eclectic use of colors.
The cutesy graphics are marred with awkward-looking gun sprites added to them. Fortunately, this is balanced by the enemy design. There is also the little fact of the blood; there’s so much blood that initially it’s quite jarring, then amusing, and then it’s just there after the player becomes used to it.
The areas and dungeons are the usual fantasy affair though some slight deviations. The main example would be the gun factory because you know Witches gotta gun.
Verdict
While I liked Trigger Witch, I must say I was done with the game a while before its credits rolled. To be frank (and vulgar), it shot its load long before the crescendo which was a shame. It’s a fun and charming game with some ambition, containing quirky writing but hampered with wonky pacing and asset reuse.
TRIGGER WITCH IS RECOMMENDED
If you would like to see more Action-packed games, you may be interested in our review of Battle Axe.
Many thanks go to EastAsiaSoft for a Nintendo Switch review code for this title.
Pride of utopia & greatest thing ever, I found the One Piece, Collected the Dragon Balls & won the Mortal Kombat Tournament in one night, it was quiet for me that night! Follow me on Twitter @powahdunk
