# Witch Time

> An unofficial native PC port of the Switch Bayonetta 3 for Windows and Linux, recompiled on your own PC from your dump, with 4K, FSR and 120 FPS.

Web page: https://emulationking.com/nintendo/switch/games/bayonetta3/ports/witchtime/
Page updated: 2026-11-07

- Developer: Zexyen
- Port type: Recompilation (A tool translated the game's original machine code into C automatically, which was then built as a native PC program.)
- Game: [Bayonetta 3](https://emulationking.com/nintendo/switch/games/bayonetta3/index.md)
- AI use: AI-assisted. An AI coding tool is credited as co-author on 244 of the repository's 324 commits.
- Source code: /opt/buildhome/repo/content/nintendo/switch/games/bayonetta3/ports/witchtime/index.md
- Runs on: Windows, Linux

What you need: Your own dump of Bayonetta 3 for the Nintendo Switch with update 1.2.0 applied, as plain extracted `exefs` and `romfs` folders (the builder accepts only that exact version). The Old Picture Book prologue also needs program 1 of the update in a `program1` folder. Windows 10 or 11 64-bit, or a Linux desktop, with a Vulkan graphics driver.

Witch Time is an unofficial static recompilation of the Nintendo Switch version of Bayonetta 3 for Windows and Linux, by Zexyen. It is not an emulator: on the player's own PC, the builder checks their dump, translates the game's AArch64 code to C and compiles it with the copy of clang that comes in the download, then runs it on a reimplemented system layer for threads, files, audio, input and the Switch's NVN graphics on Vulkan. The download holds no game code, assets, keys or SDK code and decrypts nothing. The project started as a copy of B2recomp, the Bayonetta 2 port, and shares its lifter and runtime.

The game boots and plays, and the developer has tested the Tokyo and Shibuya chapters at 60 FPS, with short hitches now and then. It renders at the Switch's 1600x900 by default and can scale up to 4K, with FSR 3.1 anti-aliasing or upscaling and 90 or 120 FPS modes marked experimental. Cutscenes keep their 30 FPS unless a setting raises them to 60. The PC settings sit both in their own panel and as rows of the game's own Options screen, labelled in each of its languages.

Controllers can be rebound per character from the game's own menus, with button prompts that follow, and keyboard and mouse work with a mouse camera. Discord Rich Presence shows the current chapter and verse. The Old Picture Book's Bayonetta Origins prologue works too when the player adds its program from their update. The release files are not code-signed, so Windows Defender may flag a new version; the developer publishes a SHA-256 checksum beside each one.

## How to set it up

1. Download the zip for Windows or the archive for Linux and unpack it into a folder of its own.
2. Start `witch-time.exe` (Linux: `build/witch-time`) and pick the folder that holds your `exefs` and `romfs`.
3. Wait while it checks your dump and compiles the game, which can take ten minutes or more. The launcher then starts it.
4. Press F1, or Start and Select together, in the game for the PC settings: resolution, frame rate, FSR, vsync and window mode.