By Kurt Kalata

Trouble Witches - Episode 1: Daughters of Amalgam / Tomboyish Witches - PC Windows / Arcade (2007)

Japanese Cover

Trouble Witches

Trouble Witches

It's practically a fact that Touhou games (and their assorted ripoffs) dominate the doujin shmup scene. They're obviously the most popular, but they're a bit of a waste if you're not a fan of their particular brand of bullet hell/danmaku shooters. Studio Siesta feels Touhou is overrated (and actually caused a bit of controversy in the otaku scene when the leader derided them as garbage) has been picking up the ball and releasing a wider variety, starting with their excellent Air Rade (and its revisions/sequels), and the Star Soldier tribute Soldier Force. Following these is Trouble Witches, which, like Air Rade, is a side scrolling shooter with gorgeous sprites, cool mechanics, and, per usual doujin standards, lots of cutesy girls. There are three playable witches in the initial release, with a fourth unlocked later on, and enabled with one of the patches. The playable witches arePril, Aqua, Yuuki and Sies, as they hunt down the titular Sisters of Amalgam, who are naturally the bosses of each level. Each witch fires a slightly different type of shot, and move at different speed. There's actually a relatively expansive Story Mode outside of the usual throwaway boss dialogues, complete with fully voiced dialogue. The artwork in these are generally pretty decent, even if a few of the designs look a little amateurish. Trouble Witches' central mechanic is the Magic Circle, which is functionally halfway between the bullet-sucking of Giga Wing and Mars Matrix, and the time slowdown of Espgaluda. Each witch is accompanied by a familiar, who floats around and supplies a bit of additional firepower. However, they're also used to generate magic circles, based off how much magic power you have. You can create small magic circles, which drain power slowly, or create huge ones that suck up MP pretty quickly. Any bullet that enters a magic circle will turn colors and slow to a crawl, allowing you to more easily manage the onscreen chaos. Here's where it gets fun - if you manage to shoot down an enemy, all of the bullets they've fired that are caught in the circle will be converted to gold coins, which are automatically collected if you let go of the fire button. Trying to catch as many bullets as possible, while also trying to destroy everything on the screen, is the best way to milk this for all it's worth. On the other hand, there are a couple ways this can backfire. If you don't pay attention and run out of magic power, all of the bullets will, of course, resume normal speed. Even worse, if one of the bullets enter the magic circle then exits it, or if the enemy that shot those bullets leaves the screen without being destroyed, those floating bullets will turn yellow and fly directly at you. It's an extremely compelling gimmick that helps liven up the action, along with providing a compelling risk/reward mechanic. Not only does it work as a defensive mechanic, but proper use will also give you additional cash to buy new weapons and items. In a nod to Fantasy Zone, you'll come across a floating pumpkin balloon, twice in each stage. Here, you can purchase a variety of weapons, and even extra lives. (You can also harrass the overly timid shop keeper if you'd like, by click on her chest, but you'll get kicked out really quickly by her sister.) You can store up to three at once, and can be activated at any time. There are nearly a dozen weapons - some added via patches - and last for a limited time, although they can also absorb a single hit. Killing enemies with these weapons will also yield special star medals, which opens up the way for more bonus points. The levels themselves are inventive, although strangely the visual quality degrades as you progress through the game. The first stage features a train zooming against the bright blue sky, complete with subtle scaling effects, while the second takes place in a luscious forest. The third is a frigid ice field, complete with Gradius II-style glaciers that break up when shot, and the fourth is a perilous volcano world. Unfortunately, the fifth and sixth stages are just dark and generic temples, featuring cheap looking 3D backgrounds. At least the sprite work is genuintely excellent throughout. The music is also unfortunately quite forgettable. The difficulty is pretty well balanced, so even though it gets frantic, it's usually manageable. The original release started you from the beginning of the level when you ran out of lives, but later patches allow you to pick up where you left off. You're still limited to credits, and the practice mode definitely helps on later stages. Overall, it's definitely one of the most notable doujin shmups to come out of late, and apparently some publishers over in Japan felt so too. Following the path of fighting games like Melty Blood and Akatsuki Blitzkampf, Trouble Witches will also be ported to the arcade, under the title Trouble Witches AC, and running on the Taito X2 hardware. It seems to feature two additional characters (although it seems to be missing the fourth character introduced in the patch), along with two player simultaneous play. Hopefully these'll be integrated into the PC game, or at least show up in some capacity in the inevitable Trouble Witches: Episode 2. Studio Sierra is also one of the only (if not THE only) doujin team that seems to be aware that, hey, there's a realm of gamers outside of Japan! The problem is that doujin games are ruthlessly hard to find legally, and so most just end up torrenting them. In an attempt to reach out to English speakers, they decided to try "localizing" the game, and giving it a weird new title, "Tomboyish Witches". So far, though, they've only released a few screenshots and put up an English version of the manual. Good for them, though! Links Trouble Witches AC Official site of the arcade game. Tomboyish Witches Official English site, complete with online manual.

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