Trouble Witches FINAL! Episode 01 — Daughters of Amalgam review

With its debut at 2007’s Summer Comiket 72, Trouble Witches Episode 1 ~Daughters of Amalgam~ quickly seized attention. Although prominent doujin-developed STGs like Gundemonium Recollection, Ether Vapor, and Die Feen were all on display, Studio SiestA’s horizontally-scrolling shooter stood out thanks to exuding plenty of kawaii charm. Its pastel palette, expressive character art, and irresistibly cheerful presentation predated Cave’s Deathsmiles by two full months, staking its claim as one of the forerunners of the witch shooter subgenre (Yes, we’ll get to Cotton in a minute).

Had Trouble Witches been little more than adorable sprites and anime-style title cards, it might have been quickly forgotten. Instead, the game proved sturdy enough to endure nearly two decades of iteration and refinement. What began as a small-scale doujin release gradually evolved into an arcade cabinet and, later, a 2011 Xbox Live Arcade title. Each version sharpened its mechanics, added modes, and reinforced a design philosophy where adorability met accessibility.

Bullets, Brooms, and Mid-Stage Shopping

That doujin heritage remains in the Switch port of Trouble Witches FINAL! Episode 01 — Daughters of Amalgam. This is a shooter built on sheer enthusiasm and a willingness to bend genre conventions and that energy still radiates from every screen-filling pattern. Only now, there’s an ample amount of polish and an accumulation of updates that built on brawny foundations.

While each of the game’s twelve playables have their own distinctive weapon, Trouble Witches’ signature mechanic is the inclusion of an in-stage shop system.  After earning currency by gunning down foes, you can do a bit of shopping for Magic Cards. Each of these sits in your spellcaster’s satchel, until they’re unleashed on enemies. When activated, you might get reflective R-Type-style lasers, a wave attack, a wide shot, or even vertical beams that can repel both opponents and their projectiles. Best of all, there’s a bit of eccentricity in these temporary sub-weapons, which injects quirkiness on the lower difficulties and help you survive if you choose the fourth and topmost challenge setting.

When Familiar Elephants Fly (and Protect)

But that’s not Trouble Witches’ only quirk. There’s also the magic barrier system, which functions as both a panic button and a strategic scoring tool. By summoning the circle, you’ll create a temporary shield that cancels incoming bullets and converts them into valuable coins, instantly clearing breathing room in the densest of patterns. The catch is that the barrier drains a limited resource and leaves you briefly vulnerable once it collapses, discouraging overuse. On lower difficulties it feels like a generous safety net. But on higher settings it becomes an essential tool for survival, asking you to time barrier activations precisely to survive bullet floods while maximizing currency gain. Used well, the Magic Barrier reinforces the game’s broader philosophy: survival, scoring, and resource management are all entwined, and every defensive decision is tied to economic consequence.

Another layer of risk-and-reward is the way you’ll fund those mid-stage shopping sprees. While you can collect coins by flying near them, chasing money can land you in the middle of a projectile cloud. Instead, you’ll want to momentarily lay off the rapid-fire button to attack magically pull in all on-screen currency. Expectedly, asking players to stop firing even for a fraction of a second is a big ask when you’re making your way through the latter half of Daughters of Amalgam’s stage.

Numerous Witching Hours Worth of Enchantment

Because upgrades are randomized and transitory, each run feels flexible rather than scripted. A risky early purchase might help you make it through a tough section, while saving some coins can enable powerful late-stage bursts of damage or scoring multipliers. This shop-driven pacing is what gives Trouble Witches its idiosyncratic tempo and forces you to play improvisationally instead of relying on rote memorization.

The game’s modes support a wide range of players. The arcade delivers a succinct run through the stages, with the option for continuing sweetened by three free cards. Story mode injects a bit of visual novel-style exposition and voice acting. While the banter isn’t going to win any awards, it helps flesh out the cast’s personalities. Valpurgis Night is more than just a reference to obscure German folklore. Here, it offers an expert mode with powered-up enemies, converting the action into a true danmaku. The self-explanatory Boss Attack, Score Attack, Practicer, and Endless modes round out the variations.

100% Cotton-free without DLC

So, what’s missing? The appearance of Cotton, Success Corporation’s progenitor of the cute ‘em up. She’s available and arrives with Silk, but only as a separate piece of paid DLC. Sure, five dollars for an extra character isn’t a complete swindle, but the absence of the candy-coveting cutie is noticeable given her influence on Trouble Witches.

But other than that gripe, Daughters of Amalgam is a rousing success on Nintendo latest hybrid. When playing on Switch 2, the improvements from previous iterations are evident, with an increased fidelity for the 2D character sprites, tag-along-familiar, and the 3D backdrops. Performance-wise, you can expect rock-solid, sixty frames-per-second output in both docked and handheld mode.

These Witches Show No Signs of Aging

Trouble Witches FINAL! Episode 01 — Daughters of Amalgam is both a preserved piece of doujin history and an STG that’s still remarkably engaging, nearly twenty years on. Offsetting stagnation through a gradual succession of iterations, Trouble Witches might not be the top horizontal shooter. But the game’s blend of charm, individuality, and crushingly kawaii visuals mean that any respectable genre fan should add these witches to their library.

Trouble Witches FINAL! Episode 01 — Daughters of Amalgam was
played on Switch 2 with review code provided by the publisher