The Legend of Dark Witch: Chronicle 2D Act

The Legend of Dark Witch (魔神少女 -Chronicle 2D Act-, Majin Shoujo) is a 2D platformer developed by INSIDE SYSTEM. The inaugural game of the Dark Witch series, it was first released to the Nintendo 3DS eShop on August 6, 2014. On October 24th, 2019, NAN-A released a remake of The Legend of Dark Witch for the Nintendo Switch and Steam platform. The game received a sequel in 2015 titled The Legend of Dark Witch 2.

Overall
Syega, crystals that allow humans to harness the power of magic, have suddenly gone missing throughout the country. Without the ability to start fire or perform medical duties, the people face a catastrophe.

A goddess in charge of maintaining the balance of magic, Zizou Olympia, is sent by her sister to solve the crisis. Disguised as a minstrel, Zizou searches the land for the culprit. Along the way, she encounters a librarian, a treasure hunter, a beastkin, an information broker, a student, and a fairy, all of whom she bests in battle. Her search leads her an ancient temple, which is guarded by the head of the nation of Rasil's Royal Army. Zizou enters the temple and, after conquering its traps, encounters Princess Riva of Rasil. The two battle, with Zizou emerging as the victor. Riva however refuses to give up, and taps into the power of the stolen Syega crystals. With her newfound power, Riva attempts to dispatch of Zizou, but Zizou emerges victorious after Riva exhausts all of her energy. Zizou retrieves the stolen Syega and all returns to normal.

Riva's story
Riva's story has minor changes. It is set up as a prologue to Zizou's story, and it is told through the perspective of Riva. In Riva's story, she steals the Syega from the 6 bosses.

Before the story, Riva is tasked by her father to steal some Syega, and she sets out on her journey.

The ending is slightly altered as well. After defeating Zizou, Zizou congratulates Riva, and then threatens her to return the missing Syega. When Riva refuses, she quickly changes her mind when Zizou threatens to tell everyone who took the Syega, and then Riva agrees. In an epilogue, Riva is reporting to Verri that she failed her quest.

General
The Legend of Dark Witch is an action platformer heavily inspired by the Mega Man series of games. Upon starting a new game, the player is given the option to challenge one of six bosses. After choosing a boss, the player enters their stage, where they use Zizou's jumping abilities and magical projectiles to bypass the stage's hazards. At the end of the stage, the player encounters the chosen boss. If the player emerges victorious, they will obtain a Technical Skill from the boss, which will allow the player to use the boss's weapon. After clearing the first six bosses, a seventh stage is unlocked where players battle Verri, followed by an eighth where players encounter a "boss rush" before taking on Riva.

At the lower end of the playfield is a meter listing various types of powerups, named the Enhancement Gauge. As enemies are defeated, they release Tres, which fill said gauge. By pressing the Install button, the player is given the benefit of the rightmost-filled Slot. However, if the player takes damage, they will lose a percentage of their Enforcement Gauge based on the difficulty level. Using Technical Skills also drain the Enhancement Gauge, which causes their use to require special attention from the player. Dying causes the player to lose all of their built-up enhancements.

Hidden in the games' stages are Pura Syega, gems that are normally invisible but are capable of being collected once either the player or their shots come in contact with them. These gems raise the maximum number of times that a specific slot on the Enforcement Gauge can be increased. After finding all twelve among the first six stages, a thirteenth Pura Syega becomes available in Verri's stage, which allows the player to activate a barrier once collected. By pressing forward in the exact instance that a projectile is about to hit the character, the character will block the hit, gaining Tres and extra invincibility in the process.

The Tres that the player collects is not only helpful in the short term, but also acts as currency for a shop accessible between stages. The player can buy Growparts at this shop, permanently enhancing their health, lives, Tres gain, or weapons.

Playing Levels
Similar to "Achievements", Playing Levels reward players with art and developer commentary for passing certain in-game milestones.

Riva Mode
After clearing the game once, players gain access to Riva, who has a different set of default weapons and different interactions with the various characters. At the end of the game, she faces Zizou as the final boss.

Bosses
Zizou (or Riva) encounters several powerful, if a bit strange, adversaries in their journey. They are:
 * Klinsy: A ditzy teen genius who currently serves as the librarian of Heaven's Garden.
 * Al: A treasure hunter who is currently exploring The Silent Ice Roads.
 * Papelne: A beastkin who is the daughter of Ports-math City's mayor.
 * Blad: An information broker and delinquent student found at the ghastly Twilight Prison.
 * Sola: A well-off student, currently attending Chelsea School.
 * Stoj: A chatty Fairy who makes the Belfer Islands her home.
 * Verri: The leader of Rasil's Royal Guard, fought as the seventh boss after traversing the Forest of Dreams.
 * Riva or Zizou Olympia: The princess of Rasil, or the goddess in charge of maintaining the balance of magic. Both are encountered in the Deep Remains.

With the exception of Riva and Zizou, each boss has a weakness to one of the other boss's weapons. Discovering this weakness will make for an easier battle.

Development
FlyHigh Works had requested NAN-A to create a game, so he came up with a concept about two 14-year old girls named Emerald and Ruby. This project was called 'Jewelry Girl". This project was ultimately cancelled due to time constraints.

The game was initially going to be developed for 6 months, but due to the size of the project, development was extended to 10 months.

The Legend of Dark Witch is based on a series of Touhou "doujin" games developed by INSIDE SYSTEM. Like Dark Witch, these games are platformers heavily inspired by Mega Man and Gradius. Many of the original enemies and concepts in these doujin games appear in Dark Witch. NAN-A has also shown off some early concept art and screenshots in the 5th Anniversary Livestream.

Reception
The Legend of Dark Witch received a positive reception. The 3DS version received a 77.5% on GameRankings. The PS Vita version received a more mixed reception with a 61% on GameRankings. Audience reception was also positive as well. Criticism was thrown at the difficulty and short length. This is also the highest rated game in critic averages.

Speedrunning
The Legend of Dark Witch has a small but dedicated speedrunning scene, both in Japan and internationally. In addition to fans performing standard start-to-finish speedruns, INSIDE SYSTEM ran several single-stage contests via Twitter, with Dark Witch-related merchandise given as rewards. Unlike many games, Easy difficulty is the difficulty of choice for speedruns, as the game moves at a much faster pace than in Normal or Lunatic.