Trigger Witch Review – Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Cauldrons

Publisher: East Asia Soft | Developer: Rainbite | Platforms: Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S (PS4/PS5, Reviewed) | Code Provided to We Got Comms for Review Purposes

Trigger Witch’s main shtick is excelling at being a twin-stick shooter set in an SNES era Zelda-inspired world. The classic trappings of a top-down shooter are here, but the fantasy setting, dungeon puzzles, and pixel art help distinguish it from the rest of the field. The gunplay can get frantic really quick, flooding the screen with hefty amounts of enemies and enemy types, and there’s also neat dungeon specific wrinkles that add to the strategy of shooting – like bouncing shots off of massive gems lining an underground mine level. The difficulty is just right on normal settings, although I did experience a minor difficulty spike at the first castle. Something that was easily remedied by upgrading my weapon load out. The area puzzles aren’t difficult to solve, but the amount of backtracking required to navigate and solve a puzzle can become tiring – nothing game-breaking, just tedious. Overall, it is a solid shooter for most players looking for a quick shooting dungeon crawler. Fans who love this genre will endear themselves immediately, but some casuals may get bored if they’ve played something similar hundreds of times before. If this game ever comes to Xbox Game Pass, it’s a must try.

7/10 – Good

Review Notes:

It’s All in the Writing

A notable part of Trigger Witch is the writing. You play Colette, the main boss witch, as she practices becoming a disciple of the “The Clip,” a coven of witches who practice Ballisticism.

Rainbite did a good job establishing the lore of the land and what stood out to me were the movie quotes and video game references sprinkled on top of the dialog. It’s the “Captain America, I get that reference” vibe when something like that happens. “The Princess Bride” scene was especially appropriate and perfect for this game’s setting.

The ending is so bonkers and out of left field that it truly had me rolling around laughing and utterly stunned. I’m trying not to spoil anything, but…wow. Many games can benefit with surprise endings like the one presented in Trigger Witch.

Witches, Cannon Fodders, and Jugulars

While playing Trigger Witch, it took a while for me to get in the mood to play it, if that makes sense. I’ve played many shooters of this ilk before so I’ve stayed away from this genre for quite some time, but eventually (around the 1.5 hour mark), I got hooked on it’s gameplay loop – and 2 hours turned into 8 hours really quickly.

An easy feat, considering the game bestows unlockable guns and upgrades like grenade launchers and uzis akimbo to deal with the multitude of cannon fodder gunning for your jugular.

What I didn’t get to try is the co-op experience. You can play the entire campaign with a friend, which should make the experience even more bombastic than before. If a buddy of mine even mentions this game, I will press them to play along with me.