Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree Review

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2022 saw me backing the Kickstarter campaign for Mandragora: Whispers of The Witch Tree, a game I’m thrilled to have been part of its journey. Over 5,000 of us gamers pledged nearly $300,000, making it a reality as per the Kickstarter website. Now, this captivating title is available on all consoles and PCs. It’s heartening to witness such passion for a small developer’s vision come to life. This journey serves as a powerful reminder that with determination, anything can be achieved in the vast realm of gaming.

Mandragora is characterized as a 2.5D action role-playing game that blends elements reminiscent of Soulslike and Metroidvania games, which isn’t a common mix in gaming circles. The fusion of these genres sets high standards because it must deliver the intricate map design from Metroidvanias, the balanced challenge and fairness found in top-tier Soulslikes, as well as diverse character building options typical of RPGs.

Following my 30-hour journey through Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree, I find myself with a blend of emotions regarding my overall experience. Given its modest development team, there’s no denying the game’s striking beauty and innovative world design. However, it falls short in several areas that keep it from surpassing other options in its genre.

Hey there fellow gaming enthusiast! You might be curious to know my thoughts on the newest addition to our action RPG collection, Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree. Let me share with you why this game offers an intriguing blend of positives and negatives.

In case you’re wondering, let me start by saying that Mandragora has a captivating storyline and stunning visuals that truly immerse you in its magical world. However, there are certain aspects that may leave you wanting more. For instance, the combat system could be more refined for a smoother gaming experience, and the learning curve for some of the game’s mechanics might be steeper than we’d like.

Overall, Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree is an engaging title that offers a unique adventure, but it’s not without its flaws. I hope this review helps you decide whether or not to give it a try!

A Rewarding And Beautiful Metroidvania World

Throughout my adventure in Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree, I kept noticing similarities to Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. Although the former isn’t as challenging as a Soulslike game, it shares a comparable ambiance and artistic style with the latter in its world design. With a 3D-esque backdrop in its surroundings, an intricate Metroidvania-style map layout, and delightful platforming mechanics, Mandragora carries strong echoes of The Lost Crown from an exploration perspective.

Mandragora excels in two aspects: it blends Metroidvania style gameplay and offers diverse construction. As adventurers traverse the expansive map they’ll come across areas that are currently inaccessible, either because of chasms too wide to leap over or locked locations demanding a key. Players must advance the narrative before unlocking these sections.

Here lies an exciting space for adventurers, where you can tag certain spots and revisit them later to uncover hidden mysteries once you’ve acquired a particular tool or ability, like the power of a double jump or a grappling hook.

In Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree, the quest for completionists becomes even more intriguing as the complete map isn’t shown until players gather map pieces. Once amassed, these map pieces must be handed over to a character at the heart of the game, the Witch Tree. This action gradually unveils hidden secrets on the map, encouraging players to scrutinize every corner and crevice to locate these map pieces. Essentially, if your goal is to gather every item, weapon, enhancement, and so forth, then you’ll need to meticulously explore every inch of the game world to find those elusive map fragments.

The pieces of this map further disclose the spots where essential resources’ components can be found for creation. This enhancement adds a sense of fulfillment to your journey, as you continuously uncover hidden elements from your previous gameplay and vital items to enhance your construction.

There’s A Build For Everyone

In my earlier explanation, Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree is commended for its build diversity and customization options. Upon choosing one of six available classes at the outset, players are granted the flexibility to tailor their builds via six distinct upgrade paths, each offering exclusive passive enhancements and stat-tailored nodes. Players may opt to specialize in a pure Magic build, a pure Strength build, or a mix of both for inflicting both Physical and Magical damage.

The customization for weapons is quite intricate, offering various types such as Greatswords, Daggers, Maces, Swords, and Greathammers. Interestingly, players choosing two-handed weapons won’t be able to use a Relic for casting magical skills. However, the game offers a convenient feature where players can maintain two loadouts simultaneously. This enables them to swiftly switch between a setup centered around magical skills with a Relic and back to a two-handed weapon setup at the click of a button.

In this setup, certain two-handed weapons are designed to align well with a character’s magical attributes, enabling players to excel in both melee combat and magic-based builds simultaneously.

In my gameplay, I kept toggling between various builds to experiment with distinct weapons and abilities, which I then tested in the handy training zone near the Witch Tree. It was fortunate that every build I sampled seemed unique and potentially useful for different situations.

For instance, using one setup, I could summon flying hammers that surrounded my character and inflicted harm, making it perfect for managing groups of enemies. Conversely, another setup was strictly combat-oriented, featuring a skill that transformed me into an “Enraged” state. This enabled me to dish out higher overall damage.

In this game, since each construction process may demand varying attributes, it streamlines the respecification process by allowing you to gather Essence, which acts as the game’s equivalent of “Souls” for enhancing your character. You can then exchange these Essence at an altar, making the process significantly less time-consuming compared to searching for specific items like in other Souls-like games.

Every time you make changes to your character, or “respec,” the amount of Essence needed for this action progressively grows. To put it in perspective, with each respec, the Essence cost doubles. This doesn’t become a significant issue unless you frequently use this feature extensively.

Exploration Is Bogged Down By Too Many Badly Placed Enemies

In Mandragora, there are notable issues with its design, particularly in the creation of its adversaries and boss battles. The main issue arises from the positioning and quantity of enemies across the game map. The number of enemies, especially in the advanced stages, is overwhelmingly high.

In this game, it would make the challenges less daunting if there were more “Witch Stones” or resting spots where players can recuperate their health. However, the current placement of these stones makes them seem too distant, forcing players to either repeatedly battle the same group of enemies to advance or simply sprint past them due to frustration. Given that the combat isn’t particularly engaging, I generally opted for the latter option.

The game presents an illusion of complexity, making it appear more difficult than it actually is in reality.

The enemy arrangement is infuriating, as it appears intentionally set up to cause the player’s defeat rather than due to lack of ability. For instance, enemies are often stationed at the very edges of platforms, with no protective barriers during evasion, resulting in players falling off repeatedly. Moreover, adversaries are frequently positioned adjacent to hazards, so that if you dodge to avoid them, you might immediately perish from an ax swing or sustain damage from spikes that shoot out.

The game creates a deceptive sense of difficulty by making it appear harder than it actually is. Enemies have predictable attack patterns and the game allows you to become excessively powerful quickly. To counterbalance this, the game employs unnecessary tactics like poor enemy placement, overcrowding small areas with enemies, and intricate gimmicks in boss fights. Let’s delve into those challenging boss encounters as well.

Most Boss Fight Designs Are Flawed At Their Core

In the game Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree, the bosses are quite impressive, but there’s a problem from a Soulslike perspective. Most of the bosses in this game require you to figure out and overcome a trick or gimmick, instead of defeating them through skillful combat.

Alternatively phrased, these tactics involve battling hordes of enemies alongside a boss, vanquishing an adversary that regenerates the boss’s health, or, more challenging yet, overcoming a boss before a strict time expires. Essentially, you must juggle monitoring the time limit and evading the boss’s attacks simultaneously.

This game repeatedly creates a false impression of belonging to the Soulslike genre by contriving challenges rather than crafting a genuinely skill-testing boss. Instead of developing complex bosses that players must learn and master, it frequently uses deceitful tactics to appear difficult, which suggests poor boss design in disguise.

The leaders themselves aren’t difficult, but the excessive distractions caused by the numerous events on-screen make successful attempts challenging. Instead of concentrating solely on the leader, you often find your focus diverted elsewhere, which is frustrating. And let me tell you, the final boss fight is an absolute head-scratcher – it’s unlike anything I’ve experienced in a Soulslike game. Plus, some of these bosses have questionable hitboxes at best.

Closing Thoughts:

Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree Review

The game Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree offers a visually stunning 2.5D action RPG experience, but falls short in some key areas that hinder its overall appeal. While it boasts a captivating world, the game’s design and balance flaws hold it back from reaching its full potential.

The game is plagued by artificial challenges such as boss fights relying heavily on gimmicks, strategically placed enemies throughout levels that can be frustrating, and tiring runbacks after unsuccessful boss attempts. At times, Mandragora seems to lose sight of the primary reason people play these types of games – enjoyment.

Despite its design shortcomings, Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree remains an entertaining experience for the most part, thanks to its diverse character build options and Metroidvania-style map exploration. However, the negatives seem to outweigh the positives, making me hesitant to revisit this game in the near future.

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2025-04-22 21:11