Blog:The Legend of Dark Witch Episode 1: Founding a Legendary Series

''After reviewing Episode 3, Blad, formerly the Goose, had asked what game to review next in the Dark Witch franchise. The outside force that tortured then-known Zeus decided to not respond. She can be a cruel mistress, sometimes. So after being fed up with Dark Witch 3, Zeus forged his own path. He had picked up the game that started it all. The Legend of Dark Witch: Chronicle 2D Act.''

So, the first game in the franchise. Chronicle 2D Act, also apparently known as Episode 1. Like Episode 2, I love this game. I haven't played it as much as Episode 2, but I still come back to it a lot.

A lot of fans seem to really hate Episode 1, but I'm not one of those people. Fans often cite the high difficulty as an issue, but then go and claim 3 is the best game in the series. Many also despise the slot system. I disagree with all those statements, and I'll explain why. I think the game is amazing, and it's absolutely my second-favorite game in the series. But let's start off with the best part, the music!

Music
Raito went off the walls for this one. Every single song in this game is amazing. Sanctuary, Freesia, Get Justice, Sleeping Rock 'n' Roll, Not Glamorous, Vacations Noisy, Vulgaris, What's Safeguard, Mirror Trap, Or Not to Break, Melody Yasuragi, Blue heat Haze, Good Luck, Blue Heat Haze again, Raito, my guy, it's an obscure 5 dollar eShop game on the 3DS, calm down. Needless to say, the OST is oddly amazing. Seriously, it's criminally underrated. I love all of the tracks, easily one of my favorite soundtracks of all time. It doesn't top 3 or 2, but it deserves some points on the board. And if you haven't listened to it, go and do it. I love it, and you'll love it too. Anyways, onto the game.

Story
The story is simplistic and not really important, but I should still mention it regardless. Riva (the bad guy) secretly stole all the Syega from the Old Islands, and Zizou Olympia goes around the Old islands in search of the culprit. As she travels, she collects information about Syega and the culprit. Eventually, she stumbles upom Verri, a knight protecting Riva's castle. After she has been defeated, we encounter the fugitive, Riva. They duel, and Zizou wins. Riva then taps in to the power of Syega, in a last ditch effort to defeat Zizou. Riva fails again, and she agrees to return all of the Syega. All in all, the story isn't really important, but I think it could've been handled better. I do like the characters here, save for Riva. I've heard a lot of people dislike Riva, one (Dupli) even calling her the worst Dark Witch character of all time. I honestly don't see why she got a bunch of hate. I'm not saying that she's an amazing character, but she doesn't do anything too terrible to deserve all the hate she gets. The worst thing she did is be egotistical, which, while kind of annoying, isn't a big deal. In my opinion, the true villain of 3 is worse than Riva. At least you can love to hate Ru=iva. Simeone is a disappointment.

Gameplay
So The Legend of Dark Witch plays like Mega Man... sorta. You have the buster shot, a slightly stronger buster shot, and all the abilities from the bosses you conquer, excluding Verri. The main appeal of Dark Witch is the slot meter. Killing enemies will increase this meter. The meter will highlight a skill that it will install. You can also skip over this skill by killing more enemies. Once you install a skill, the meter resets, but your stats improve, depending on what skill you install. Getting hit will make you lose part of this meter. I love this system, and it adds risk/reward to the game. Better skills are typically at the end of the meter, but speed is at the beginning. Do you go for speed, or risk it and go for power. And power is pretty overpowered. You can do an insane amount of damage by upgrading power alone. One minor annoyance is death. Dying resets your slots. Personally, I'm a fan of this system as it adds to the risk of the system, but when it sucks to lose all your slots due to a missed button input, it REALLY sucks. Even then, The Legend of Dark Witch is looking pretty good so far, and it gets better in the stages.

Stages
The stages in 1 are pretty good. I love every stage in this game, and they're great for speedrunning. Here's a review of every stage.

Klinsy
I think Klinsy's stage is the best-designed stage in the entire series, bar none. It knows exactly what it wants to do and it does that very well. This is the first stage ever, and most players played this in The Legend of Dark Witch demo. Therefore, it's likely that most players played this stage first. Or, maybe they played the stages in a linear order on their first go. I know I did. The stage starts out very simple, showing how stages transform. Once you get into the main stage, you're on a flat runway. If Players will notice the danger icon on the top, with the books raining from the sky. This gives the player information to look out for. Granted, it's not used in game too many times, but it's still good to know nonetheless. The next section will show the player what to look out for. The elusive Syega. This tells the player that these upgrade your slots and are good to get. The books could be a good tutorial for parrying, which is done here by quickly pressing left. The only bad part of this section is the waterfalls, which slow down the pace. The next section has several pitfalls, which increase the difficulty, but even then, a first time player can easily beat this section. Then you enter the garden, which has several keys that you need to pass through doors. This section is easy and non-life threatening. After another short platforming section, you are offered the first alternative path. Taking this path is risky, however. You have a chance of dying while trying to get the key, as a book rains down pages at certain intervals, over a pit. Timing your moves is essential to getting this path. Getting this path offers a much faster route, along with more Tres (at least I think so), and a Syega Crystal. The final section teaches the player the coyote time mechanic. Normally, you can't get up to the key you need with a regular jump. But if you walk off a platform and quickly jump afterwards, you extend your vertical distance when you jump. If you have 3X Speed, this jump is possible. Many players grabbed the Speed Syega, but if you survive until this point and have 3X speed, you get a Tres bonus. Finally, the level finishes out with an easy platforming section. Overall, this is one of the best Dark Witch levels, and an amazing tutorial. I think this level is genius. 10/10.

Boss
This boss is pretty good. Klinsy will shoot pages at you, and you have to jump up to avoid the ones on the bottom. If you jump at the ones in the sky, you'll take damage. You can also block these projectiles, and take no damage. Her next attack is Dia Missile, which will have her summon a bunch of needles. If you jump around a lot, you can disrupt the missiles, making it harder for them to hit you. In harder difficulties, you can do a precise jump by inching forward a little and jumping. At this point, she'll use rain clouds to keep you in one section of the arena. At around the same point, she'll summon a phoenix that shoots at the player. This is really annoying to deal with on lower difficulties, but I found you can minimize damage by rhythmically jumping. And that's the fight. It's pretty fun, and I always look forward to it each playthrough.

Al
Al's stage takes place in an icy land, where buff, fire breathing snowmen exist, and the penguins go way, way too fast. Other than that, it's another really good stage. I don't have much to say about it, other than it's fun, and it has some alternative paths, which are always nice. One bad

Conclusion
Episode 1 is an amazing game, and one I often revisit. While it does have some minor issues, the game is still great. It's indefinitely replayable, one tough game, but more importantly, a fun one. I can easily recommend it to newcomers, although I still think Episode 2 is a fair bit better. As for Renovation, it's also pretty good. Where it lacks in graphics, it makes up for with some additions that, while aren't completely necessary to fully enjoy the game, make the experience better as a whole.