The Legend of Dark Witch Episode 2: The Price of Desire

The Legend of Dark Witch Episode 2: The Price of Desire is the second game in the The Legend of Dark Witch series by INSIDE SYSTEM (also called NAN-A). The game released on November 4th 2015 in Japan, releasing a month later for North America, and on February 11th 2016 in EU on the 3DS. It was eventually ported to Steam after New Years in 2017. The game received mostly positive reviews on the game's release. This game is considered to be the best in the Dark Witch franchise.

Gameplay
The gameplay is very similar to Dark Witch 1, with some improvements.

Weapons
The weapons system remains similar to Dark Witch 1. When you start, you have 2 weapons. Liner, and Comet. They are very similar, however comet launches faster, is more powerful, and uses more of your capacity meter. When you beat a boss, you obtain their weapon (excluding the peniultimate and final stages). These also use more or less of your meter depending on how much damage it does. Weaknesses also exist. When you use the right weakness, you can pretty much shut down a boss with little to no effort. The only bosses that have no weaknesses are the second-phase final bosses. Your weapons can also be enhanced by Paplene in the shop.

Enforcement gauge
The enforcement gauge can be used to enhance your abilities. When you spawn, kill an enemy, or parry an attack, you earn tres on the enforcement gauge. When you take damage or die, you lose Tres on the meter. When a bar is filled, it will be highlighted. You can install that ability. If another ability is highlighted, you can no longer install that ability. The abilities are speed, fly, Line and Comet for Zizou, Drop and Plasma for Sola, Fire and Sword for Riva, and finally, power. You can also buy an aditional slot in the shop. It's guard for Zizou, which allows you to block one attack, and Mastery for Sola, which maxes out every ability. You can also slightly modify these slot's placement on the bar. You can also buy other slots. See Characters for more info.

Zizou
Zizou focuses on long-ranged combat. Her two shots are Liner and Comet. As explained above, while the two are similar, Comet is overall more powerful than the Liner Shot. Her exclusive slots are:


 * Express: You move extremely fast (about 2-3 speed slots). Goes over Speed.
 * Dash: By pressing right or left twice, you do a quick dash. You can extend this dash by rapidly jumping. Goes over Wing.
 * Punish: An extremely powerful short-ranged shot. Has to be charged to get any real effect. Goes over Line/Comet.
 * Tail: Automatically shoots bullets over your head. Goes over Power.
 * Mix: Uses your currently equipped weapon with your touch shot. Goes over power.
 * Guard: Blocks only one attack. It gets it's own slot.

Sola
Sola focuses on racking up damage. Her two shots are Bomb and Plasma. Bomb is a long-lasting explosion. As soon as the bomb either A) hits an enemy, or B) hits the ground, it explodes. This effect also stacks, so you can quickly kill bosses if you use it right. Plasma sends balls over the floor, which disappear when touching an enemy. Her slots are:


 * Light: Maxes out your speed slot for a while. Can be stacked, but it only lasts longer if you do this. Goes over Speed.
 * Fly: Allows you to double jump. Set by default.
 * Air: Changes your jump into a hover. You hover even at 0 installed slots. Goes over fly.
 * Circle: Forms a shield around you. Can be launched at enemies. Goes over Bomb/Plasma.
 * Rotate: Copies your attacks. Doesn't copy boss abilities, so you're limited to Bomb and Plasma shots. Goes over Power.
 * Mastery: Installs all slots to the max. Extremely overpowered. It gets it's own slot.

Riva
Riva focuses on short ranged and powerful combat. Her two shots are Punishment and Sword. Punishment is virtually identical to Punish from Zizou, and Sword is a short ranged swing. She also gets only one exclusive slot. The rest are just a mix of what Zizou and Sola have.


 * Knight: Installing this Slot summons Verri, Riva's Guard. When you attack, she will attack behind your back. It gets it's own slot.

Zizou
Syega - a magical stone that allows regular people to take advantage of magic. It has been very benefiting to the human race, but people are starting to abuse Syega's power. They start wars, and kill each other. Next, we learn about Germa. They are the most infamous researchers in the entire story. They're home to group "Ich", a massive threat to other countries. In secret, they move "Ich" to Liana (another country) to continue their research. They then proceed to declare war. Zizou, a.k.a the "dark witch" goes on to stop them. 8 defeated researchers later, Zizou is right next to Germa. She wants to defeat the mastermind Franzer, but she needs some help. So she calls upon Stoj from the first game, Blad (who is also from the first game), Codino, and Pelusa. Eventually, Zizou reaches Vilhelm Castle, where Franzer resides. Eventually, Zizou wins, and the day is saved.

Sola
During Spring Break, Sola is on a quest to find her parents, Trap and Paola. During her search, she incidentally defeats 12 regular humans and a god. At the end, she finds her parents and the family enjoys their Spring Break together.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) The install system returns from Dark Witch 1 with some all new slots. The install system allows you to install abilities, such as higher power, or more speed, and even the ability to float, albeit for a short time, and it's not used for much. The system is also very rewarding as if you take damage (or die), you lose some of your enforcement gauge (or all of it if you die on higher difficulties). However, if you play well and kill enemies, you're rewarded with more tres, which lets you install more abilities on the enforcement gauge. Finding Pure Syega allows you to purchase even more abilities on the gauge.
 * 2) *The alternative slots are awesome as well. Many of them are pretty overpowered too, particularly when it comes to Sola's slots, such as Rotation, which can essentially act as a shield if used right, and especially the Mastery Slot, where it installs every slot to the max. Mastery can be quite useful for Lunatic mode runs.
 * 3) The weapons in the game are decently useful.
 * 4) Liner/Comet Shot: This is the first weapon you have as Zizou! It's a long ranged shot that is useful throughout the game.
 * 5) Punishment: While you don't have this at the start for Zizou, Riva has it at the start! It's a charge shot. It should be noted if you take damage, your charge stops in it's tracks.
 * 6) Bomb: This is one of the first weapons you have as Sola! Sola throws a bomb which explodes on contact with anything. Installing power will make it slightly bigger.
 * 7) Plasma: This is the other weapon you have as Sola at the start. It acts like a search snake from Mega Man 3.
 * 8) Sword: This is Riva's other weapon you have at the start. It's a quick sword slash. Installing Sword will make it swing farther.
 * 9) High Power Beam: It launches a high power beam as the name implies. It also goes through walls.
 * 10) Boing Boing: You throw a Boing Boing, which bounces around for a short while.
 * 11) Dia Missile: You shoot a Dia Missle. Not much else to say.
 * 12) Overhelm: Overhelm is a shield. It's not very strong at first, though.
 * 13) Dark Matter: It lets you make a small black hole. One thing to note is that it does a surprisingly good amount of damage.
 * 14) Time Division: It slows down time.
 * 15) Illusion Shot: Your shots disappear after a while. There's little use for it.
 * 16) Lord Attack: It allows you to do a short dash. It can be useful for some of the the Syega pieces.
 * 17) Great pixel art. Most stages have beautiful backgrounds and bright colors. Some stages are pretty lively, like Kuito's stage. The sprite work on the characters and enemies are detailed and beautifully animated as well. The portraits and the cutscenes are pretty well drawn as well, although there's not many of them.
 * 18) Wondrous level design, and the level design gets even better if you go for all the Syega Pieces. The Syega Pieces are also very rewarding, as you can use these to power up your character in the shop.
 * 19) Phenomenal music, composed by Raito. They even include 8 remixed songs from the original Dark Witch, which are all excellent. Some standouts would be "Dark Witch" (Title Screen theme), "Differetial.Infinitesimal" (Icke's Theme), "Hello Samurai Ninja" (Kuito's Theme), and "Reach For Your Wish" (The Final Boss second phase).
 * 20) There's near-indefinite replayability. The game also has a very active speed-run community and there are about 31 achievements which unlock Concept Art and cute comments from NAN-A (the game's developer). There's also the Syega Shop, where you can buy abilities. For example, you can add up to ~4 hearts, jump like you're on the moon with the Jump Modifier, or play in a Chicken costume. You can also go for all the Syega Pieces as mentioned before-hand, and there are so many factors to keep Dark Witch 2 fresh.
 * 21) To add to that, like the first game, there's a lot of things added in for speedrunners.
 * 22) *The game is pretty open. The pure Syega pieces can be used for any slot now, and you can swap slots as well, so you can prioritize which slots get Tres faster.
 * 23) *Weaknesses also exist, so battles are mostly quick and painless.
 * 24) *The Install System is very speedrunner friendly.
 * 25) *You can freely select all the bosses, except for the last one.
 * 26) Franzer is an excellent and intimidating villan. She has 4 stages that build up to her reveal, which show her castle in the background. Zizou even shows fear at the entrance of her castle. Her bossfights are also tense and epic. The second phase music gets your adrenaline pumping, too.
 * 27) Great boss fights. The original bosses in Dark Witch 1 were very easy after the first 2 attacks. In this game, it's still hard even when you figure it out.
 * 28) The game has a better difficulty curve than Dark Witch 1. Dark Witch 1 was difficult, but sometimes sporadically. In Dark Witch 2, the difficulty is often high, with a minor difficulty spike in the penultimate stages.
 * 29) The shop got an upgrade. Pure Syega pieces are used to get more enforcement gauge abilities, or you can enhance your current slots. You can also purchase items to assist with your Journey, which you can activate in the middle of a stage. You can also upgrade these items to make them more powerful.
 * 30) The After-Talks are pretty funny. Once you beat a boss (or multiple depending on the After-Talk), you unlock their After-Talk. You can then talk to them to either learn about some of their abilities or about their backstory.
 * 31) The enemy design is very creative. Every boss has around 3 new enemies, so it keeps things fresh. In fact, NAN-A held an art contest called the "Mob Contest" for enemies in the game.
 * 32) There are some pretty funny lines throughout the game, too.
 * 33) *Icke says "GOT A PROBLEM WITH THAT!? ... I can tell that you think I have a big voice for my size." Zizou replies with "A little, yeah" Icke then says, "Ugh, so annoying! Get out, out! Or I'll force you out! ... I can tell that you think I have a big attitude for my size." Zizou yet again replies with "Very much, so." Icke finally snaps, with Zizou commenting "(I have a feeling things are progressing on their own...)"
 * 34) *Urken starts off with "So it was you.'" Zizou replies "Huh? You know me?" Urken says "No, I don't. But I was waiting for you." Zizou says, "Aren't you glad it was a beauty[?]" Later on, Urken says "Wow, you're a nasty one." Zizou then says "I know, I get that all the time." Urken says "That wasn't a compliment." Zizou shouts "Repent!"
 * 35) *"Well, better get going."
 * 36) There are 3 playable characters, and they're all fantastic to play as. Zizou and Sola also have different stories and final bosses.
 * 37) *Zizou, the main character, is pretty similar to Dark Witch 1. She can shoot, um, "liner shots"? And her second ability is comet, which is slightly faster than Liner. She ends up fighting Franzer as her last boss.
 * 38) *Sola, the second character, throws bombs, and her second ability is similar to Snake Man's ability from Mega Man 3. She fights Zizou as the final boss.
 * 39) *Riva, a character exclusive to the Steam version, gets her move set renovated from Dark Witch 1. Her main shot is Punishment, and her second shot is a sword slash, akin to Zero's sword in Mega Man Zero.
 * 40) They added some more minigames from the first game.
 * 41) *Poker is... Poker... but with a Dark Witch theme.
 * 42) *Syegacha is a new minigame which allows you to unlock pixel art from the game.
 * 43) *Rudymical is the other new minigame. It is a rhythm game containing 8 remixes from the first Dark Witch game. This was expanded into Dark Witch Music Episode: Rudymical.
 * 44) The PC Port is fantastic and is the best way to play the game.
 * 45) *This port adds Riva, a returning character from The Legend of Dark Witch.
 * 46) *This PC port also adds high quality art, which makes the game look even better!
 * 47) *You can participate in Leaderboards.
 * 48) *And of course, all the Steam benefits are here as well such as achievements and Trading Cards.
 * 49) Lunatic Mode has some issues with the bosses, but the enemies are perfectly adjusted, so the game still feels fast paced.
 * 50) The sound design is massively improved from the original, so you can wear headphones in peace (somewhat).
 * 51) There are lots of eater eggs. An example would be in the Zizou fight where you hear "Dark Witch" if you play on Expert or below, but if you play on Lunatic Mode, it plays "Grand Final Battle!!". Another one is where Blad lands on her feet in her Revenge Attack in Lunatic Mode, but she falls on her face in Expert or below.

Overall

 * 1) It's somewhat easy compared to the original, and sometimes it's even unfair to the game itself. Also, sometimes level design is basic and not very challenging. Some examples of the game being a bit too easy would be:
 * 2) *If you die enough times, you get forbidden skills, some of which are pretty overpowered. These do disable achievements however, so that's good.
 * 3) **One of them is just flat out invincibility.
 * 4) *In the shop, you can upgrade your hearts, and you can do this up to 10 times. If you factor in the Syega Shop, which allows you to add ~4 hearts, you can have up to 18 HEARTS! Granted, it's really tedious to get the 10 hearts from the Shop and the 4 hearts from the Syega Shop, but that's still way too many hearts for an already easy game.
 * 5) *Boss Weaknesses are still present, and they make some the bosses absolute jokes. For example, you can stun Rudy with the Slow down time ability, and she can't do anything about it.
 * 6) Bosses are a joke on Very Very Easy, but too stretched out on Lunatic Mode. Boss weaknesses are pretty much mandatory on Lunatic, or you're going to be on a boss well into your 70's.
 * 7) The story, while not bad, is not very impressive. It feels very episodic (ironically).
 * 8) The last 4 main stages can sometimes be a little cheap, with Codino's stage getting the worst of it. You'll most likely die from the knock-back, making you fall into a pit and dying.
 * 9) The Capacity Meter can feel super inaccurate. It severely limits special weapons, but your standard shots use barely any meter at all, so you're inclined to use your normal shots.
 * 10) Zizou can come off as unlikable at times, as she constantly looks down on people for no reason at all.
 * 11) Poor English translation.
 * 12) * "'Bring it on!' means enemy is ready for you. Your attacks will be countered, so don't try!" is an infamous line in the English version. This would be fine if the characters actually spoke English, however.
 * 13) *Most of the errors were fixed in the Steam port, but this specific one still persists to this day.
 * 14) Franzer's Revenge Attack can be quite unsettling to some players. Her portrait used in the attack is really creepy, and it does 2 damage, which is really unfair once you realize you have 4 base hearts.
 * 15) The hidden Syega Shop gives no hints on how to unlock it, other than the developer's official website showing how to unlock it.
 * 16) Despite the sound design being improved, the game is still very loud, so make sure you turn down your volume.
 * 17) While all the weapons are good, some are really stupid, like the Boing Boing. Some also aren't all too useful in stages, like Time Division.

3DS

 * 1) The 3DS port has a 60 FPS cap, but sometimes it chugs at less than 30FPS, especially in the later stages. This wouldn't be so bad, but the first game always ran at a stable 60FPS, even with a lot of action on the screen. This is very noticeable when playing as Sola, or Zizou with upgraded slots.
 * 2) Touch shots can be inconvenient to use unless you map then to a button.
 * 3) There was a bug where you couldn't unlock the final After-Talk, but this has been fixed.

Steam

 * 1) While the Steam port is great, it's priced higher than the 3DS version for seemingly no reason other than adding Riva.
 * 2) Riva feels out of place as a playable character. She has no voice clips, no After-Talks, or even a story. While Riva makes a cameo in the story, she has no large role.
 * 3) The Keyboard controls are downright horrible. For example, Jumping and shooting are apart by one key, not together.
 * 4) *There's also no in-game key mapper for keyboards, you have to edit a config file inside the game's files.
 * 5) *And finally, XBOX 360 prompts only, like Sonic Generations' PC port.

Tips

 * 1) Pay attention to the enforcement gauge. This really helps on Lunatic Mode where Tres is more scarce.
 * 2) Boss weaknesses are helpful on Lunatic Mode.
 * 3) Press L, R, L, R, L, R, L, L, R, R, and X in sequential order to access the secret Syega shop.
 * 4) In Poker, hold Y to bet up to 20 pieces of Syega instead of up to 10.
 * 5) If you're still having a tough time, try the Syega shop. You can get stronger abilities.
 * 6) If you get a game over, the game gives you a hint. Pay attention to these!

Reception
The game currently isn't eligible for Critic scores on Metacritic as of now, but user reviews for the 3DS version received a 7.6/10, indicating positive reviews. It also received a 60% on GameRankings. Video Chums gave the game an 8.4/10, stating that there was more polish, but a lot of the downfalls of the original were still there. FNintendo and Brash Games came to similar conclusions. They stated it was improved in many ways compared to the original. They both gave it a 7/10. Nintendo Life was less favorable. They stated it felt half-baked, and it had a lot of good ideas, but they weren't used at all. They gave it a 5/10. In terms of user reviews, the 3DS and PC version has a 4/5 on GameFaqs, and as stated before, this game is generally considered to be the best in the Dark Witch franchise.

Trivia

 * Blad has a different Revenge Attack animation in Lunatic mode. Instead of falling on her face, she sticks the landing.
 * Holding R on the title screen will show an entirely new (and most likely unused) logo.
 * There was a translation error prior to 1.1. Franzer's title was the Emperor, but it was changed to Empress because Franzer is female.
 * When you unlock Codino's concept art, the developer comments that Codino would be more important in The Legend of Dark Witch 3: Wisdom and Lunacy, but she has no mention in that game, and currently no mention in Brave Dungeon: The Meaning of Justice.
 * Fans have speculated that that Codino, Toni, Gila, and Pizarro go to the same school because all 4 have similar outfits and are a part of the same universe
 * Codino lost use of her right eye due to a magic accident, which explains why she has a large scar on her face..
 * In Mari and Litty's Steam Background, Litty uses her portrait from the alternative title screen, not the one seen in game like everyone else.
 * The main theme and intro theme of Dark Witch 2 has became a staple in the series starting with Brave Dungeon.
 * On the 3DS home menu, if you hover over the demo, Zizou says "The Legend of Dark Witch: Episode 2!", but in the full game it just plays the default 3DS icon noise, which is 5 low tone beeps.
 * In the Steam release, hold D on your keyboard when starting a save file that uses Zizou. Zizou will have a new color pallet based on Riva, the villain in The Legend of Dark Witch.
 * There are 3 missing songs in the soundtrack release. "Well Done", "Grand Final Battle", and the Speedrunner Card theme. These are not available in any other soundtrack release in this series.
 * NAN-A held an art contest for enemy designs in this game. An example would be the Pink Old Man on a chair.
 * If you 100% the game, the title screen changes.
 * According to the developer, the enemy "Shady" wears white panties.
 * Unused songs are present (referred to as Unnoted) in the soundtrack release.
 * Start Learning sounds more energetic. It's completely different.
 * "The story begins" has a completely different second part. Other than that, it's identical.
 * Research for Truth (Unnoted 1) has a completely different main instrument.
 * The other version uses bagpipes as it's main instrument.
 * Happy Times contains no vocals and is missing an entire section compared to the final version.