The Legend of Dark Witch: Chronicle 2D Act

The Legend of Dark Witch, also reffered to as The Legend of Dark WItch: Chronicle 2D Act, is a sidescrolling platformer developed by INSIDE SYSTEM (NAN-A in Japan). It is the first in the long-running Dark Witch franchise. The game released in Japan on August 6th, 2014 in Japan, October 10th in America, and December 4th in Europe on the 3DS. In the following year, it released on the PS Vita, PSTV and PC. It recieved a remake titled The Legend of Dark Witch: Renovation on October 24th, 2019 for the 5th anniversary of the series. Later, Renovation was ported to the PC on November 14th of the same year. The game received generally positive reviews.

Weapons
At the start, you only have access to one weapon, which is the Liner shot for Zizou and Cobalt Fire for Riva. If you install Comet/Sword, you have access to that weapon, but you lose the Liner/Fire shot until you install Line/Fire, unlike The Legend of Dark Witch 2, where you can freely switch between the two with no penalties. When you defeat a boss, you obtain one weapon. These use up the Tres in your Install Meter, so be careful using them. These allow you to use weaknesses, so you can beat bosses faster. These can also be enhanced in the Shop, to up to Level 3.

Install Meter
The Install meter - a staple across the entire series - allows you to enhance your abilities, such as being able to move very fast, or have your shot do more damage. When you kill an enemy, you earn Tres, which fills up the install meter. When an ability has an orange border around it, you can install that ability. If the next bar fills up, it moves on to the next ability. The more powerful an ability is, the more Tres it will cost. Collecting Syega pieces allows you to install more slots, which allows you to get more powerful.

Zizou
Zizou focuses on long-ranged combat. Her two shots are Liner and Comet. Both of them are identical, however Comet is slightly faster and overall more powerful. Her slots are:

Speed: Lets you go slightly faster. Both Zizou and Riva have this.

Wing: Lets you fly for a short time.

Line/Comet: When you install this, it either makes your shots slightly wider, or switches your main shot, depending on what you have.

Power: Makes your shots do more damage.

Spoilers Ahead!

Guard: Unlocked by finding the last Syega Piece. Allows you to negate one attack. Unlike Blocking, this gives you no Tres upon hitting an attack. Both characters have this.

Spoilers End.

Riva
Riva has two shots; Cobalt Fire, and Sword Rain. Colbalt Fire is a short ranged charge shot, akin to punishment from the second game, and Sword Rain drops swords from the sky. Her slots are:

Dash: By pressing Right/Left twice, you can dash. Can be be extended by by rapidly jumping in the original game. Installing this ability again will let you dash longer.

Fire/Sword: Identical to Line/Comet's abilities.

Extra: Allows you to shoot Fire's maximum charge without charging, and spawns more Swords.

Plot
Syega is a magical stone which allows humans to use magic. Humans used it to their benefit, but without warning, it suddenly disappears. Zizou, the "Dark Witch", goes on a quest to find the missing Syega, getting info from the 6 main bosses. After this, she breaks into Riva's castle, and finds out she has it. After a short battle, Riva nearly kills herself trying to use the Syega to defeat Zizou, but after another battle, she somehow survives (but she is very fatigued), and Zizou reminds Riva that she is only human, and even with Syega, she cannot defeat a god. Riva reluctantly agrees to return all the Syega pieces, and the day is saved. In the so called "True Ending", Riva wins, but she still returns the missing Syega. In this ending, it is revealed that Riva's dad sent Riva on this quest.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) Very good level design. It always keeps you on your toes no matter what.
 * 2) The game is very speedrunner-friendly, and it's clear that this game was designed with that in mind.
 * 3) * For example, the first stage - Klinsy's stage - has a Speed Syega. This allows you to install another speed slot. Then they give you Blad's weakness - the Dia Missle. Blad's stage also holds the second speed Syega.
 * 4) *Speaking of which, the Syega pieces give you different abilities, so everyone can create their own preferred route.
 * 5) * You can freely select the first 6 bosses.
 * 6) *Every boss has a weakness, so this can help speed up the game.
 * 7) *There are a lot of alternative routes.
 * 8) The install system absolutely rocks.
 * 9) *First, this adds to WIW#2, where it's designed with Speedruns in mind.
 * 10) *There's a lot of strategy to this system. Do you either save your Tres for a Power Slot, or trade it in for a speed slot to beat the stage faster?
 * 11) *Zizou and Riva's upgrades are absolutely awesome. Speed lets you go really fast, Line/Fire and Comet/Sword upgrade or change your weapon, Wing for Zizou allows you to float, Dash for Riva allows you to speed around, and the secret upgrade is very good. It’s a nice reward for getting all the Syega Pieces.
 * 12) High replayability. Even though it's not as high as Dark Witch 2, there's about 23 extra things to do. You can also speedrun it very easily.
 * 13) Blocking allows you to completely negate damage. If you press right or left when a projectile hits you, you earn Tres and you won't take any damage. This can save you if used properly.
 * 14) Catchy music, composed by Raito.
 * 15) Solid boss fights. These are even better in Dark Witch Renovation!
 * 16) The 2 playable characters are unique. They both bring something new to the table.
 * 17) *Zizou is the main character. She has a liner shot, and the Comet Shot. She fights Riva as the final boss.
 * 18) *Riva is the antagonist. You unlock her once you beat the game, She has a charge shot, and a falling sword attack. She fights Zizou as the final boss.
 * 19) The Syega Shop is a very nice bonus once you beat the game.

PS Vita Version And Onwards

 * 1) This version mostly focused on fixing some issues.
 * 2) The disappearing shots glitch was fixed.
 * 3) This version adds HD art.
 * 4) There were some bonuses in the Syega Shop.
 * 5) Cloud saves are supported via PSN.
 * 6) The original Steam Version adds new features, and is still supported to this day.
 * 7) You can now unlock achievements.
 * 8) The Leaderboard feature was added.
 * 9) More languages were supported in 2019.
 * 10) Some other unlockables were added in the Syega Shop.

Renovation

 * 1) Even more bonuses are added.
 * 2) You can view the Dark Witch anime and a handful of the comics.
 * 3) Once again, the Syega shop has new stuff.
 * 4) For whatever reason, if you don't like Renovation, you can just play the original game.
 * 5) Some characters have new voices.
 * 6) Many issues are fixed. For one, the older weapon system is fixed. Now you have the meter from Dark Witch 2.
 * 7) The bosses are even better, and actually decently challenging in this version. They usually have one new attack, and one modified attack to spice things up.
 * 8) The DLC Stage, Day's Stage, is fun.
 * 9) Two new minigames were added.
 * 10) Avoid Runner is an endless runner, returning from Brave Dungeon.
 * 11) Breakout is... Breakout... but with a Dark Witch Theme.
 * 12) The new graphics - while not the best, can look pretty good at times.
 * 13) For the first time in Inside System PC Porting history, PlayStation icons are supported!

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Many of the stages have bottomless pits near the end, creating a ton of do or die moments.
 * 2) * In Al's Stage, there's 3 one block wide platforms over a bottomless pit with ice physics on top of them. If you die, you go back to the middle of the stage.
 * 3) *Verri's stage is one of the most infamous in the entire franchise due to it being absolutely loaded with bottomless pits. You will die once, no matter what.
 * 4) Speaking of which, Verri's stage is the worst in the entire game. Hands down. There are so many bottomless pits, and the boneheaded enemy placements makes it insufferable.
 * 5) Checkpoints are pretty scarce, too. Every stage only has 2 - at the scenery change, and at the boss room.
 * 6) Some weapons are implemented poorly.
 * 7) *Riva's weapons suck. Her Cobalt Fire is near useless without installing it's upgrade, and even then, it's still pretty weak without charging it. And her Raining Sword attack is super situational, and even then, it’s still pretty bad. Not only is it weak, but the swords will barely hit anything even at max install power.
 * 8) *The Comet shot is not a separate shot, so if you install it accidentally, not only do you lose your Line Shot, you lose one Power Slot as well.
 * 9) * The technical skills are very situational. They also use up Tres, so that makes them worse (this only applies to every version before Renovation).
 * 10) The bosses are an absolute chore on Lunatic Mode. Without boss weaknesses, they're damage sponges.
 * 11) There's a lack of story illustrations. There's the Intro, and the ending.
 * 12) *This also leaves a plot hole, why does Zizou go to Verri's Stage? She never found out who stole the Syega Pieces!
 * 13) *Riva doesn't get exclusive story illustrations, they just put 2 PNGs of Riva and Verri talking to each other.
 * 14) Somewhat poor English Translation.
 * 15) *Thankfully, the game isn't as text heavy as 2, so this fact doesn't affect the game that much.
 * 16) The sound design can be hilariously bad at times.
 * 17) *Some sound effects are annoying, like the scream playing everytime you kill a skeleton.
 * 18) *Sometimes, it can actually be pretty funny, such as when Riva awakens, the scream sound plays.
 * 19) *Voice clips can play very loud, creating borderline ear rape for headphone users, such as Verri's fight intro.

3DS Version

 * 1) Sometimes your shots won't fire for no reason. This might be a optimization quirk, but it can screw up speedruns.

PS Vita Version

 * 1) The border is somewhat distracting.
 * 2) *Did we really need the border considering the PC Port didn't have one, yet it came out 6 months after this version?
 * 3) The US version came out very late, taking around 2 whole years for it to be released. To put that in perspective, Dark Witch 2, it's PC Port, and Brave Dungeon were already released by then, and Dark Witch 3 was on the horizon.

PC Version (2015)

 * 1) The keyboard controls suck. They are the same as Dark Witch 2's. Thankfully, in Renovation, you can change the controls by holding ESC on the title screen.
 * 2) *Also, XBOX 360 prompts only.

Renovation

 * 1) The graphics are inferior to the pixel-based sprites, but thankfully you can switch between the two once you beat the game.
 * 2) The PC Port often hangs when starting the game.
 * 3) There's no way to upgrade to the Original Game to Renovation on the PC Version.
 * 4) *You also can't transfer your save file from the Original to Renovation. However, you can play the original version within Renovation, and your save file from Renovation will convert as normal.
 * 5) When you play the original game within Renovation, some menus are still in Renovation’s style.
 * 6) The UI no longer supports languages other than English and Japanese.
 * 7) The leaderboards feature was removed for no good reason.
 * 8) There's a hint of false advertising. In the trailers, they say you can read all the comics and anime that was released at that time. This is true for the anime, but not true for the manga as there were over 50 strips produced, yet you only see 9 in-game.

Reception
The Legend of Dark Witch received positive reviews from critics on the 3DS, however the re-releases saw generally weaker scores. NintendoWorldReport gave the game an 8.5/10, FNintendo gave it a 8/10, and NintendoLife gave it a 7/10. VideoChums gave the 3DS version an 8.3/10, and Renovation an 8.4/10. It had a GameRankings score of 77.5% for the 3DS version, and 61% for the PS Vita version.

Trivia

 * Sanctuary was remixed for the Space Jam Charity SLAM! event by SilvaGunner. You can listen to it here.