The land of the Rising Sun is known for a great many things in videogames such as outrageously cool character design, male protagonists that look like women, and aesthetic flair in presentation are all staples of Japanese games. But looking at the slumping sales and poor debut of the Xbox 360, it seems buying into the American console is not one of those traditions. Developer Mistwalker, having planned three games to support the new Xbox system, is hoping that their shooter title Bullet Witch will turn things around by putting up impressive numbers both here in the States and across the Pacific.

The land of the Rising Sun is known for a great many things in videogames such as outrageously cool character design, male protagonists that look like women, and aesthetic flair in presentation are all staples of Japanese games. But looking at the slumping sales and poor debut of the Xbox 360, it seems buying into the American console is not one of those traditions. Developer Mistwalker, having planned three games to support the new Xbox system, is hoping that their shooter title Bullet Witch will turn things around by putting up impressive numbers both here in the States and across the Pacific.

In the year 2013, most of the world has been decimated by war, disease, and natural disasters. To make matters worse, the remaining human population, which looks remarkably good considering all they’ve been through, is being hunted by freaky, mutated demon soldiers. Taking control of hottie gunslinger Alicia, armed to the teeth with a five-foot long rifle and magical abilities, players will put a stop to the chaos by blasting everything in their way.

Taking a look at some gameplay footage from the import release, which just came out in Japan, one would have to be a little pessimistic about its chances here in the States. All of the action takes place from over-the-shoulder of Alicia as she plunks enemies with her rifle. The angle that you get from this vantage point seems limited, leaving enemies that are on the peripherals shoot away unseen until you spin around to greet them. By looking closely at the clips I’ve seen, it appears that player uses the left stick, or the movement stick, to line up their shots instead of the right stick, or the actual aiming stick. This would be indicative of a control scheme that doesn’t allow for accuracy with the right stick, either because of the odd angle of the camera or simply an over-sensitive control setting.

Magical abilities or genetic powers are always cool in a shooter such as this. In Western shooters like Deus Ex, Project Snowblind, or Advent Rising, players don’t have to simply rely on their weapons to dispatch of enemies. Here, the magical abilities are just as pivotal to the action. One of the featured powers in the gameplay clips was a brick-wall that can, obviously, block enemy gunfire and buy the player time if injured or low on ammo. Some powers trigger cool little Final Fantasy-esque cut scenes such as taking out formidable opponents with lightning bolts summoned from the sky. The only problem we can see from here with this magic system is its integration within the gunplay. The menu that pops up during spell selection is disruptive and difficult to manage during a shootout, leaving much of the screen blocked out while you figure out what you want to cast. Perhaps looking to the successful quick-casting formats that Deus-Ex 2 used could help the situation, but its tough to tell.

Blowing up buildings and shooting down giant floating brains could be an incredible experience, but some of the technicalities seem to be an issue thus far. Reports of questionable level design and poor enemy A.I. could cripple the work that Mistwalker has put into its support of the system. Shooting titles such as this is not a genre that many Japanese developers are very familiar with. Hopefully, translation to the U.S. is handled with care to show 360 owners here in the States that Japanese developers can produce quality shooter titles for their favorite system.

By Patrick Evans
CCC Former Staff Writer