Bullet Witch

Bullet Witch

Developers
Original game	Cavia
Windows	Marvelous
Publishers
	XSEED
	Marvelous
Release dates
Windows	April 25, 2018
Reception
IGDB	75
Metacritic	51
OpenCritic	47
Taxonomy
Modes	Singleplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Third-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Action, Shooter
Art styles	Realistic
Themes	North America, Post-apocalyptic, Supernatural

Bullet Witch is a post-apocalyptic supernatural third-person shooter game originally developed by Cavia, ported by Marvelous, and published by XSEED. It is the spiritual successor to the Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex game for the PlayStation 2.

The game was originally released in Japan for the Xbox 360 on July 27, 2006. It was previously localized by Atari and released overseas on February 27, 2007, however, unlike the Japanese version, Atari was charging players for all of the Conception Missions downloadable contents that were originally free for the Japanese version while lying about other changes for the game during localization. A PC version was later developed by Marvelous and XSEED, which was released through Steam and Humble Store on April 25, 2018. The PC version is based around the game's original Japanese version's gameplay elements, features higher resolutions and framerates over the Xbox 360 version, includes all of the game's downloadable contents, and implements a dash ability that was initially cut from the Xbox 360 version.

The PC version received some updates to address some major issues such as facial animation errors after casting the Meteor spell, the game not working properly with Steam in Offline Mode, and restricted resolution options. Unfortunately, Marvelous stopped supporting the game as of v1.05. The game also lacks dual-audio support and uses only the English dub, even in the Japanese release, however, a Japanese voice mod by NSM53 PROJECT is available.

General information

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Publisher website
Humble Store		Available as DRM-free or Steam key, not both.
Steam

Version differences

The DRM-free version does not have achievements or access to online leaderboards.

Downloadable content (DLC) and expansions

All the extra costumes and Conception Mission DLCs from the Xbox 360 version are built-in for the PC version.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\SystemSetting.dat <path-to-game>\BulletWitchLangauge
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/696180/pfx/

SystemSetting.dat stores general game settings. BulletWitchLangauge stores language settings.

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\savedata\
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/696180/pfx/

BulletWitchSaveData and BulletWitchSystem are the game's save game data files. BulletWitchRecord stores mission score data.

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Steam Cloud

Video

Configuration tool.

General settings.

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen		Ultrawide resolutions can be selected from the launcher, but in-game graphics will be stretched. The aspect-ratio can be hex edited to fix the issue, but the Steam version's DRM prevents hex edited executable from running.[citation needed]
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		Can be forced via GPU control panel.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		Unknown anti-aliasing method.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		On by default with no option to disable.
60 FPS and 120+ FPS		Option for 30, 60, 120, or Unlimited FPS.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Input

Keyboard remapping.

Controller remapping.

Advanced control settings.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		Some HUD elements still uses Xbox button prompts.
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity		Adjusted from the configuration tool.
Mouse input in menus		Mouse wheel can be used to navigate the menus, while left and right mouse buttons act as Confirm and Cancel respectively.
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support		Configuration tool when launching the game requires mouse input, however it can be disabled afterwards if desired.
Controller remapping		Movement and aiming are bound to left and right analog sticks respectively, and cannot be remapped.
Controller sensitivity		Handled through Turn Speed setting.
Controller Y-axis inversion		X-axis can also be inverted.

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration

PlayStation controllers		No vibration support (tested on V2 controller).
PlayStation button prompts		Some HUD elements still have Xbox buttons prompts.
Light bar support
Adaptive trigger support
DualSense haptic feedback support
Connection modes	V1 untested.[citation needed]

Generic/other controllers		DirectInput controllers are also supported.
Button prompts

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Audio

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		BGM, SFX/Voice
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
French
German
Italian
Japanese				The PC version lacks dual-audio support and only uses the English voice-overs. Japanese Voice Pack by NSM53 PROJECT, download.
Korean				Korean translation patch by NSM53 PROJECT, download. Uses the Japanese Voice Pack for audio. Some elements are still in English.
Spanish

Issues fixed

Heavy stuttering during gameplay or freeze while loading game unless a gamepad is plugged into the system

This is caused by the engine incorrectly overpolling the USB I/O in Windows in keyboard and mouse mode.

Plug a gamepad into the system
Issue does not arise if the game detects a gamepad plugged into the system. Keyboard and mouse can still be used to play the game as long as a gamepad is present. This may be complicated on Windows 7 and earlier due to XInput support issues.

Disable unused HID devices in Device Manager
Open the Start screen/Start menu, type devmgmt.msc and press ↵ Enter. Select "Human Interface Devices". Disable all "HID-compliant consumer control device" and "HID compliant device" ("HID compliant vendor defined device" in Windows 10), you should not need to disable anything else. It is advised to re-enable the devices after the game has closed.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9.0c
Shader Model support	3.0

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Physics	PhysX

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	7
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core i5-6300HQ 2.3 GHz	Intel Core i5-6400 2.7 GHz
System memory (RAM)	4 GB	6 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	5 GB
Video card (GPU)	Intel HD Graphics 530 DirectX 9.0c compatible	Nvidia GeForce GTX 950

Mimimum requirements are based on the game running at 720p at 30 FPS.