Soulslikes are a dime-a-dozen. A lot of people appreciate the formula and want to take their own spin on it. And sometimes you come across one that really gets it, they know why certain mechanics are good. They know how to make fights interesting and challenging without making enemies unreasonable HP sponges. And well, with some luck, one of those has landed on my lap.

I’ve had the honor of having an early look into Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree, big thanks to Primal Game Studio an Epicsoft Asia for giving us access to see what they’ve been working on. This game is best described as Metroidvania, think of Igarashi’s Blood Stained, and you have a good idea of what the game will be like. It also takes heavy inspiration from souls-like combat with stamina management, limited but replenishable healing, and bonfires—that and a few more twists that you might be able to identify from other titles. Let’s have a closer look, shall we?

You take on the role of an Inquisitor who has suddenly awakened to a new power. You are then tasked to capture another witch, which you had failed to do previously.

Presentation

The game presents you with a world wrought with decay, demons, disease, and degenerates causing suffering amongst the populace. Houses are abandoned or empty, and people are hardly able to travel out in fear of the monsters that await them beyond their walls. The colors lean more toward muted, neutral colors, saving the brighter and more vivid colors for enemies, their attacks, and interactable objects like levers and doors.

Much like Bloodstained, Mandragora makes use of 2.5D visuals, meaning it has 3D assets but the game is designed to be played like an old-school 2D side-scrolling action platformer. This makes judging distances much easier, being able to tell if you can make jumps if your targets are within reach, or if you’re about to get hit.

While models are generally of the lower-poly kind, Primal Games has given good attention to detail in making the most of the resource pool they’ve decided to limit themselves to. This results in me having a game with no issues for smoothness or framerate. If there was anything I’d want them to improve, it might be the sprite effects that pair up with the enemy attacks, as some of them are hard to understand to be seen as something to block or avoid.

When it comes to the conversations you get to have with other characters, I’m actually quite impressed with the level of delivery of every character. Their lines are written in a way that sounds apt for their setting, and they are delivered in a borderline caricature manner without leaning into it too heavily. The acting is done in earnest, is probably the best way to put it. This paired with well-executed animated portraits I would argue is on the same level as one of my favorite studios around, Vanillaware. When paired with the voicework, complete an image of a character that is unmistakable and clearly conveys what they’re all about just from the way they portray themselves.

Gameplay

Mandragora is a combination of several games, the Metroidvania exploration, mixed with a combat system from Soulslikes, and finally a skill and gear system that reminds me of Diablo.

Let’s get to the bones of it. Your buttons will let you attack, dodge, guard, and parry. Your move set will vary depending on the weapon you’re carrying. Daggers attack quickly, hammers are much slower but deal decisive blows. There’s also magic which I didn’t choose to go for, but maybe I’ll try it on a separate run.

Your capabilities around these are commanded by the stats you have, including your defenses and the stamina you have to manage your movement around with. When you level up, you can invest points into what looks like a Skill Tree that has stat nodes around it. If you’re old enough to know what the FFX Sphere Grid system is, that’s more or less it. Upon death, you drop any experience points you were carrying which you can retrieve.

Impressions

The reason I’m speeding through all of this is because of how familiar it is to anyone who’s played similar action games before. Boss fights become a battle of attrition and pattern recognition, exploration is a constant risk-reward question of heading back to replenish your health or push forward in hopes of finding the next resting point. Hearing the sound that you can level up is exciting because it inches you closer to that next skill you want to try out.

The sense of discovery, the tension of dungeon raiding, and the excitement of finally defeating that boss that was giving you a hard time, it’s all there. What I wish wasn’t there was the inventory management from Dark Souls, guys there has to be a better way to hot swap between healing items.

Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree shows that it has experience with designing not only good boss encounters but fights with regular grunts. Simply making you deal with a sniper, or an additional unit or two makes you think a few steps ahead. The way enemies move, for the most part, gives very fair tells on what to expect. They have also considered build variance as weapons aren’t just similar stat sticks with weaker or stronger damage. If there was anything I wasn’t too happy with about their game it was the abundance of giant rat mini-bosses, but I see that as a small gripe, if anything. It’s clear to me that whoever’s at Primal Game Studios knows exactly what makes the games they’ve mixed, tick. They’re aware of what exactly makes these experiences fun and engaging and are aware of when to pull back and just let the player figure things out. This game is without a doubt, in the care of capable hands.

By the time the “thank you” message appeared on the screen at the end of the demo, I felt like I wanted to explore the game more. Even after clearing three bosses, I was excited to see what other surprises lay in wait in the world of Mandragora. And well, that game is releasing this April, so let’s see what the witch has to say.

Check out their Steam Page, but it’s also coming out on consoles! More details on their website!