In the words of developer Primal Studios, Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree is “not a typical soulslike.” Challenge, while present, is only one piece of a rather intriguing, violent puzzle that integrates metroidvania elements around its central 2.5D action-RPG core, and, after spending a bit of time with it during a recent preview event, I’m keen to see what the full game has to offer.
Rendered using a beautiful painterly art style, the dark fantasy world of Faelduum sits on the brink of collapse as monsters threaten to overrun it. As an inquisitor, it’s your role to save it. Although conversations help flesh out characters and locations while offering different choices, your main tool for getting things done is violence.
Its flavor depends on your chosen starter class, which – between the Vanguard, Nightshade, Flameweaver, Spellbinder, Wyldwarden, and Vindicator – lets you embody a powerful warrior, a swift rogue who deals in poison, or skilled casters that weave fiery, chaotic, natural, or celestial energies.
I spent my time with Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree, trying out the Spellbinder, whose main ability channels a beam of chaotic energy, dealing a good chunk of damage from afar. Although it did see me spending less time near foes, my sword didn’t stay idle for long.
Enemies – and especially bosses – deal enough damage to quickly highlight the importance of learning attack patterns if you plan on surviving. In melee, I had to roll at the right time and exploit brief moments in between an enemy’s attacks to land hits of my own. When faced with archers, I had to duck under arrows, sometimes as enemy casters prepared to unleash spells right under my feet.
Although I did die, one-on-one combat is more manageable than in your average soulslike. When facing multiple enemies, however, things can get a bit hectic, and avoiding all their attacks proved more than I could handle, so the rechargeable health potion and other consumables saved my skin more than once.
According to the developer, Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree will feature customizable difficulty settings when it launches, allowing you to alter enemy health and damage alongside your character’s stamina consumption. Although generously placed checkpoints refill your health potions while enabling fast travel and leveling up by spending essence, using them also sees enemies respawning.
As I leveled up, spending points in my Spellbinder’s talent tree made her stronger. Minor nodes largely offer stats – occasionally letting you choose which one to increase – while major nodes tweak your main ability. I could spawn chaos fragments that empowered me or refilled my mana upon killing foes, increase the weakening effect of my beam, or make it cost less mana.
Furthermore, you can also tap into the skill trees of other classes after reaching certain levels and, as the developer said, it will be „very easy to respec” in the full game. It certainly sounds like trying out different builds is encouraged. A variety of gear pieces then allow you to further enhance your character’s abilities, while recruitable artisans offer additional avenues of customization.
As far as Metroidvania elements go, many a secret room awaits behind breakable walls, while a variety of traversal tools – like grappling hooks, double jumps, and gliding – allow access to new areas. Furthermore, the map will, according to the developer, clearly tell you which areas you’ve explored and which you haven’t.
On average, a playthrough of Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree that involves „exploring most of the game” should take 40-50 hours, the developer explains. Experiencing all the endings – defined by the choices your character makes throughout the story –, trying out new classes, and leveling the NPCs who join you to max can „easily […] double that time.”
A dark parallel plane of existence through which a force called Entropy is seeping into the world of Faelduum was also teased. While the inquisitor can attempt to push it back by entering specific portals found throughout the world, I didn’t get the chance to see it for myself.
Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree’s approach to blending key elements from three popular genres sees them synergizing well, based on what I have played so far, while its visuals and soundtrack – composed by Christos Antoniou of Septicflesh fame – promise a fair serving of dark fantasy goodness. We’ll see whether Faleduum is worth saving when the game releases on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S on April 17.
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