How about a combo gameplay idea where you build up a deck to swap out monsters while hacking and slashing your way through levels filled with enemies? Spirit Mancer will get you to try this unique concoction to see if you can drink it all the way through while enjoying it to the last drop. Is it worth your time and money?
Narratively, there is not a lot to say as this is about the chosen one ending up in the demon’s realm, while also having to deal with other people who also ended up with him. There are a lot of dialogues, but nothing that I would rank as particularly interesting, but they do their job to lead the player to the next level.
As mentioned, it is possible to imagine Spirit Mancer as a classic 2D action platformer of the hack-and-slash variety, where the character alternates between melee and ranged combat. But that would be only a part of the picture. If you kill monsters in a particular way, you can add them to your collection and get them to fight for you. That quickly turns out to be another type of attack that you have to master and use.
Enemies have three kinds of specific colored armor/health types that the player has to dwindle to defeat them as quickly as possible. For other types, you can just switch between your melee weapons and ranged ones, so you have to continue attacking while the monsters are helping you. This makes combat quite a bit varied and just the right kind of chaotic. Despite this variety, it might get a little stale, but Spirit Mancer won’t last more than 8-10 hours anyway.
Interestingly, there’s really no limit to how many cards you can use, if you have ten monsters you can spam all ten of them at the same time and defeat anything in your path. This makes some fights that are supposed to be hard, quite easy to get through. Monsters can also heal you, so if you mix in those attacking or those support, you’ll be some sort of invincible. A bit more balancing would have gone a long way.
Despite me not being a fan of games having you collect tens of special items, I have to say that Spirit Mancer would benefit from some kind of unique items to collect. This is because having the player trek through different paths to have them collect simple money over and over or, maybe, a couple of new cards, won’t entice exploration in the long run. Especially if you have a lot of money or you have already the monsters you need, it is safe to ignore any alternative paths and just continue your way through the end of the levels.
The overall deck collecting is a good idea to make Spirit Mancer different but, the way it is designed you can just concentrate on leveling up the strongest monsters and ignore the rest. In the end, you won’t really be using your whole deck but just spawning the same ones over and over so you’ll be sure they get the job done. A bit more strategy would have gone a long way to make it more interesting.
Leveling up your monsters happens through the use of resources that are found throughout the world. These can be mostly gained by either killing enemies or opening up chests, which are your best bets to gain what you need since combat takes far longer and will usually yield much lesser rewards anyway. Overall, while it might be strange to recommend that you skip combat, in the long run, it is not where the juicy meat of the gameplay’s mechanics seem to lie.
Where the game really shines is in the design of the world and the enemies. Not only is the pixel art absolutely beautiful and well above the “meh” level we are accustomed to in many indie games, but the designs are unique and look memorable. Especially the bosses are very well designed, but in how they play and how they look. Two big thumbs up from me.
Overall, Spirit Mancer is one game that is quite easy to recommend to lovers of action platformers, especially those looking for something different. While it comes with a few glaring balancing problems and combat feeling way less “revolutionary” than it might look at first, the game won’t overstay its welcome and never stops looking great.
This review was made possible with a key provided by JF Games PR. Spirit Mancer is available on PC, PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch.
Spirit Mancer: While its deckbuilding action platforming gameplay feels a bit unbalanced at times, the beautiful pixel art and memorable bosses will definitely make up for it. – Damiano Gerli
