Trouble Witches Origin: Episode1 Daughters of Amalgam
- November 21, 2016
- Studio SiestA
Get on SteamTrouble Witches Origin: Episode1 Daughters of Amalgam is a sidescrolling shoot 'em up game. Players control magical girls fighting against evil forces in a variety of stages with multiple difficulty options. The game features a unique "Support System," where allies can provide assistance during gameplay, and numerous customization options for characters and playstyles.
PC
Windows
Reviews
- Bright, colorful graphics and an engaging soundtrack enhance the overall experience.
- The unique Magic Circle mechanic allows for strategic gameplay, turning enemy bullets into coins and providing a fun scoring system.
- The game offers a variety of characters and power-ups, making it enjoyable for both casual and hardcore players.
- The game suffers from significant bugs, including crashes at startup and issues with fullscreen mode.
- The English translation is poorly done, filled with typos and grammatical errors, detracting from the overall experience.
- The absence of cooperative play and the need to purchase additional characters as DLC can be frustrating for players.
- gameplay42 mentions
- 38 % positive mentions
- 55 % neutral mentions
- 7 % negative mentions
The gameplay is characterized by tight and responsive mechanics, featuring a unique bullet freezing system and an engaging scoring mechanic that encourages aggressive play. Players can utilize a magic circle to slow down bullets and convert them into coins, while a shop mechanic allows for mid-stage power-up purchases. Overall, the game offers a rich content package with a high degree of difficulty, making it both fun and challenging for players.
“The gameplay is tight and responsive with a surprisingly high degree of difficulty.”
“There's a lot going on mechanically in this game so it'll take quite some time for me to get decent at it even though I'm generally quite good at the genre already, but the magic circle system is extremely intuitive and fun to play with once you get the hang of it, and the shop system is really unique.”
“Basically, you have a very good, simple but really hard to master mechanic for scoring; your 'B' button is a protective shield that creates a big 'magic circle' around you, which slows down bullets. When you defeat enemies, you collect gold coins, even if you apply a magic circle to the bullets they shot at you.”
“During normal gameplay, the player must release the shot button for the coins to be absorbed.”
“Unlike other games where your special resources, aka bombs or survival tools, are very limited, this game actively wants you to keep spending the power-ups you buy in the middle of a run via the shop mechanic you fly into mid-stages.”
“The gameplay is still the same as the previous versions: shoot stuff, earn coins, get cards, and survive, with the use of the magic barrier system.”
- graphics30 mentions
- 60 % positive mentions
- 30 % neutral mentions
- 10 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game are widely praised for their colorful, charming, and hand-drawn art style, which enhances the lighthearted tone of the gameplay. While the visuals are detailed and vibrant, the resolution is capped at 720p, potentially leading to blurriness on higher resolution displays. Overall, the combination of stunning visuals and an impressive soundtrack contributes to a delightful gaming experience.
“Beautiful and charming art/graphics that looks like it's hand drawn and good character designs.”
“The game has absolutely stunning visuals and an impressive soundtrack to boot!”
“Gorgeous cartoony graphics and great music.”
“This is a port of a possibly Japan-only arcade game, which can best be described as a super-kawaii (cuteness overload) horizontal-scrolling bullet hell shooter with anime-style graphics.”
“Based around the original PC version, but with different artwork and easier to play controls, it is Trouble Witches Origin, which is yet another re-release, besides the Neo version that used to be on the Xbox 360.”
“+vocals and artwork differ between versions as stated.”
- music24 mentions
- 75 % positive mentions
- 17 % neutral mentions
- 8 % negative mentions
The music in the game is widely praised for its upbeat and engaging soundtrack, complementing the colorful and cartoony graphics. Reviewers highlight the impressive audio as a significant aspect of the overall experience, enhancing the fun and charm of the gameplay. Additionally, there is an option to purchase the soundtrack, which some players find appealing, though opinions vary on its value compared to the base game.
“The game has absolutely stunning visuals and an impressive soundtrack to boot!”
“This is an excellent little shmup, surely one of the best available on Steam (probably the best horizontal, or in the top 3 of these at least). Solid mechanics, great art and music, and nice characters/story.”
“Very good horizontal shmup with good music and is fun to play, especially if you are constantly looking for good shmups on Steam.”
“If you already own Neo but love the soundtrack, you may want to wait until a sale to purchase this.”
“The only DLC I would recommend besides the soundtrack is Cotton; the AC characters are pointless because there is no two-player mode.”
- story24 mentions
- 17 % positive mentions
- 71 % neutral mentions
- 13 % negative mentions
The game's story features fully voiced narratives for each character, including DLC options, but suffers from poor English translations filled with typos and nonsensical dialogue, often leaning into toilet humor. While the overarching plot involves collecting pieces of the drapunir ring and confronting antagonists, the execution is criticized for its lack of coherence and quality. Despite these flaws, the story adds a unique charm to the gameplay experience, making it a notable title in the shoot 'em up genre.
“Story mode is voiced, which is a nice addition.”
“In story mode, all of the characters (including the DLC characters) have a fully fleshed-out story, for better or worse.”
“The game's story per character varies by version, but more or less the same/different, where finding the pieces of the drapunir ring would grant one's wish and taking down the daughters of Amalgam which are causing trouble, and rendezvous with Amalgam herself (and the entity possessing her).”
“Each playable character comes with a fully voiced story mode, but the English translation is hilariously bad.”
“The rewritten story mode is okay, but it’s filled with typos and grammatical errors that make it feel like it was cheaply translated.”
“There are multiple versions, but for the most part, they are all the same except for some HD optimizations and story mode adding very silly dialogue with kind of bad English translations.”
- humor20 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is characterized by its hilariously bad English voice acting and translations, which some players find endearing. The dialogue often leans into toilet humor and food-related jokes, complemented by charming characters and colorful graphics. Overall, the game's lightheartedness and quirky humor resonate well with fans, particularly those who appreciate anime culture.
“It has bright, colorful graphics, an amazing soundtrack, interesting gameplay, lots of modes, and funny and charming characters.”
“And also the sense of humor as the dialogue scenes in story mode tend to divulge into toilet humor and food-related jokes.”
“I'm completely in love with this game: runs buttery smooth, plays great, the characters and their stories are adorable and funny.”
- replayability10 mentions
- 20 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 30 % negative mentions
The game offers significant replayability with a variety of characters (up to 12 with DLC), multiple game modes, and online leaderboards, making it engaging for players. While the differences between game modes are minimal, the overall experience remains enjoyable, especially at a budget price point. Players are encouraged to consider DLC purchases for enhanced content, although the base game still provides ample replay value.
“A great 'cute 'em up' game that really deserves more recognition; cute, colorful, with lots of characters (as extra DLC), weapons, and game modes to choose from, plus online leaderboards that add more replayability.”
“A well-made horizontal cute 'em up shooter with a good amount of replay value.”
“Although there is very little to no difference in each game mode, you still get a lot of replay value for the $10, although I'd wait for a sale to get the Cotton character DLC as it's not in the additional character pack bundle.”
“There is also a lot of replay value as you have 7 characters to choose from, but DLCs take that total up to 12 if you buy them all.”
“This is the only proper version you can get your hands on now since the 360 version (which has more playable characters) was taken off Xbox Live.”
- optimization4 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 25 % neutral mentions
- 25 % negative mentions
The game's optimization is generally decent, preserving the core experience while introducing HD enhancements and new spell cards. However, players are limited to a maximum resolution of 720p, which may detract from the overall visual experience. Additionally, the story mode features some poorly translated dialogue that may not appeal to all players.
“The core game is preserved nicely, the new spell cards are fun to use, and the optimization is decent, although there is no way to change the resolution to anything other than 720p.”
“There are multiple versions, but for the most part, they are all the same except for some HD optimizations and the story mode, which adds very silly dialogue with somewhat poor English translations.”
- character development2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The reviews highlight that the game features beautiful, hand-drawn art and charming graphics, which contribute to strong character designs. However, there is no specific mention of character development in terms of narrative or growth.
