Metroidvania soul-like games are plentiful in the gaming industry. Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree, from developer Primal Game Studio and publisher Knights Peak, attempts the soul-like formula by merging with its own unique blend of medieval fantasy. It succeeds to a large extent, offering extensive character customization and skill tree design, but fumbles on a few occasions on its way to giving me a solid souls-like experience.
Incredible Voice Acting and Character Design
The characters in the game are fully voiced, with the dialogue carrying the subtle nuances of the era. It makes listening a far more interesting and engaging experience. The dialogue does carry the weight of storytelling and compensates well for the lack of cutscene storytelling. While the dialogue hits the nail on the head, it is the setting that betrays it. Unlike the staple of the genre, the world gives out a warm vibe rather than creating a dark setting. While Mandragora has a solid medieval tone in its visual storytelling, it fails in bringing out the sense of despair common in any world riddled with monsters right at the door.
Incredible Tutorial to Start Game
The character screen features 6 classes, 3 of which are locked for the demo. Here you have the option to choose between Spellbinder (Magic), Nightshade (Rogue), and Vanguard (Warrior). You will get to create your own character from scratch, and the game offers good character creation options to change hair, skin color, hair color, set tattoos, and two voice add-ons.
The game begins once you exit the king’s castle. As you make your way to the door to the city, the tutorial of the game takes place when you leave the castle until you reach the city’s exit. It feels genuine, as you are not locked inside a tutorial section, and everything flows well. In 3 minutes, you will pick all the bells and whistles of the game.
The skill tree might scare some people, giving Path of Exile PTSD, but since the demo is locked to one type of skill tree, upgrading the skills felt at ease without any hassle. A lot of build variety options are sure to make the gameplay more diverse.
Traversing the World Felt Amazing
Movement animation flowed like water; everything from climbing to grabbing the ledge of the wooden board at a distance was executed well. I encountered no jankiness, as every input performed well, and my character did what I told him to do without any issue. While it may not seem much, in a Metroidvania character’s movement matters more; a simple jump from ladder to a ledge at a distance could result in imminent death if the animation is not properly made.
From attack animation to movement, the team behind Mandragora has done an excellent job in ensuring the quality of every little action is executed properly every second of the game.
Everything about Combat and Enemies
I decided to go with the Nightshade class, always preferring the Rogue class over anything. The name of the game became rolling, the game doesn’t offer any parry system to deflect the enemy attacks.
A perfect roll has always been the bread and butter of the souls-like genre. After the game puts you against minor enemies, after a while, it will put you against a boss. It felt a little underwhelming considering that the first boss of the game was just a giant version of the common enemies you encounter on your way.
An enemy’s attack can hit other enemies, and they can die from it. It was a nice little touch to see enemies attack, dealing damage to their friends. While the mechanics don’t seem to be present when you are facing thugs with wooden shields and hammers, low-tier enemies were usually the victims of friendly fire.
Annoying Crafting System
Defeating enemies granted money and materials, a whole lot of materials. I couldn’t sell the material because they were labeled as crafting material. Upgrading anything in this game requires crafting materials, which is fine, but a blacksmith will only upgrade your arsenal or new weapon once they are levelled up to Tier 3 or Tier 5. You must level up your blacksmith for them to craft better items. You will need to hunt for diagrams to hand to a blacksmith for them to level up to a certain tier.
It is a bit diabolical, since I could see the weapon or armor piece in the crafting section. I possessed all the material to craft it, but the game refused to do it until I upgraded the blacksmith to Tier 5. So I decided not to engage with the crafting system.
Lack of Solid Rewards
In my 2 hours of Mandragora gameplay, I found myself changing my weapon only once. My default dual blade carried me to the end of the demo without any problem. It’s not because I was good at wielding a dual blade, I never received any new weapon to replace my default gear.
Right at the end of the demo, after defeating a boss, the game finally gave me another set of dual blades. But looking at the stats, it was just a tiny bit better than the default one, so I decided to use my currently equipped dual blades to defeat the final boss of the demo.
Having to defeat the monsters, hoping to drop some good gear, instead of being rewarded with crafting materials that I can’t use because I don’t have a diagram to upgrade the blacksmith. A bit unfriendly to the demo players, I can see the system flowing well in the real game. You will need diagrams and crafting materials to craft good gear. But part of the fun in souls-like games is about getting good quality weapons right away, saving the high-end tier behind a crafting system with its own high quality requirement like a boss’s soul.
Final Thoughts
What works
- Combat Feels Amazing
- Medieval setting done well
- Voice acting is immersive
- Character art designs are drawn to perfection.
What doesn’t
- Annoying crafting system
- Lack of rewards from beating bosses
- Missing the overall depressing atmosphere for a souls-like experience.
Mandragora combat flows well, the dialogue delivery, and the voice acting are what impressed me the most. The team nailed the animation quality and how the combat feels when put into action. The buttons were responsive, since it’s a Metroidvania, a janky roll can decide your fate in the game. But the extensive crafting system and lack of rewards can make the combat a less rewarding experience. While it feels good to slay a boss, I would have loved to get a solid weapon drop instead of crafting material.
Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree releases on PC, PS5, Xbox Series S/X and Switch on April 17, 2025.
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