Final impressions with Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree - A challenge even for the most hardened of us

It's been a long time coming, and even the creators themselves admit that it's been an arduous road, almost like your character's own journey to release Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree. Change of name, change of publisher, change of release schedule? The people at Primal Game Studio haven't had it easy on their way to April 17th, a release date now etched in fire and blood, but before we get there we've already had access to an early build of the game, much more extensive and complete than the one we knew almost two years ago.

In fact, this time the leap is ambitious, and it shows from the very first moments. Mandragora has an impressive pre-launch demo of around eight hours of gameplay, in which we can explore four of the six classes that will be available in the release. And, above all, we have explored (or been reminded of) the true and broad meaning of the word patience. Because to progress and succeed in Mandragora you're going to need a dose of skill and a patience that you probably left behind in the last Souls or Metroidvania action game you played. My mate Ben recalled when he played in 2023 that Mandragora's story and presentation wasn't very clear back then, but it's all very different now.

Without going into too much detail, we are a chosen one who is given the honourable mission (or perhaps punishment?) of hunting down a dangerous witch who threatens our Empire. Single-handedly and armed with nothing but the bare necessities, we set off in search of our enemy, traversing lands cursed, supposedly, by the actions of these witches. The narrative is much more interesting to follow now, and the voice acting is really good. There are a lot of supporting characters and each has their own voice that gives them some background, despite only appearing in one or two scenes at most. Also, everything is presented in real time conversations, so there are no cinematic scenes. Simple, but certainly much easier to understand than a Souls where you have to piece together unconnected pieces and then draw your own conclusions. No, Mandragora has a story, and as the developers told us, it has a unique ending before the credits roll.

Mandragora is part Soulslike and part side-scrolling Metroidvania, so you can think of something similar to a Blasphemous skeleton, but with a much more classic fantasy, almost cartoonish look. The modelling of the characters and the monsters you face are very well done, and the particles in the air, the fog, light, and flame effects help to create a dark atmosphere, but without being perceived as decadent. It's a sick world, not a dead world, and the vegetation and creatures that populate it reflect this perfectly.

To tackle our mission we will have to move more or less freely through a world that interconnects large regions and secondary areas, making our way through forests, caves, and hidden paths in the walls. The latter is important, because the developers acknowledged that they might have gone a little overboard with the secrets. "Watch out for the walls," they said, and we can attest that there are plenty of them in the test version. To open these paths, simply hit the wall with a spell or weapon. And the reward is almost always worth the effort of constantly hitting the walls.

The combat system, on the other hand, is no longer a cakewalk. Fighting in Mandragora becomes a real challenge for those of us who aren't so used to these real-time ARPGs, and it's more about leveraging a few action controls with precision dodging or blocking than crazy button combinations and combos. In fact, much of the combat is won with a hit button and a dodge button at the right time, but every enemy has its timing and rolling doesn't always give you many iframes. I make no secret of the fact that it took me much longer than I expected to beat the first four bosses in the demo. And that's not counting the secret ones...

In short, Mandragora is proving to be a challenging surprise that is sure to delight fans of these Metroidvania-Souls. One to which you will dedicate many hours (they estimate that a normal run will be about 50 hours of gameplay) and whose story for now seems intriguing enough for us not to give up after perishing eight times against the same enemy. Time to go on an adventure.