Witch-hunting fantasy action-RPG Mandragora is out now and feels like a gem
With words from the writer of Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
When I first wrote about Mandragora: Whispers Of The Witch Tree in January, I worried I might have spotlighted a dud. Or at least, something fairly routine. Mandragora sure does resemble a lot of other dark fantasy side-scrollers: gritty yet plump, like they stuck a bike pump in Castlevania, or took a chisel to Trine. It sure does have RPG classes and skilltrees. It sure does have crafting, with hundreds of items to acquire.
I confess, I covered it in large part because they have Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines writer Brian Mitsoda on the ticket. But then I read the comments on that piece, weeks later, and there were a few lost souls raving about playing the demo for hours. Mandragora launches today. I've now spent an hour or two with a full build myself, and yeah, this feels like the good stuff.
The key opening draw is that for all the emphasis in certain trailers on systems and craftables, Mandragora seems very story-led. It takes place in an apocalyptic world where a sepulchral King Priest holds sway over the Crimson City, promising to keep the nightspawn at bay. The King Priest looks a bit like Judge Claude Frollo from Disney's The Hunchback Of Notre-Dame, and shares Frollo's enthusiasm for torturing witches.
You play a Crimson City inquisitor who intervenes to mercy-kill one of said tortured witches, saturating yourself with a mysterious power in the process. Seeking to save face, the King Priest anoints you as one of god's chosen, and sends you forth to track down another witch. Meanwhile, a voice starts whispering in your head.
The opening tutorial sections are filled with sturdily voiced NPC chit-chats that thicken the setting like delicious fistfuls of cornstarch. The character portraits twitch and glare like possessed oil paintings - some of the commenters on my last piece found them off-putting, but for me, they're the best thing about Mandragora's visual direction so far. Hurrying through the Crimson City, you bandy words with some fellow inquisitors and pick up the rudiments of dodge-rolling. Then it's off to the woods to rescue a blacksmith and bother some massive wolves.
As an action-RPG, Mandragora appears to have plenty going on, striking a balance between the lean feel of classic Castlevania and the unlocks fusillade of, say, Path of Exile 2. You've got a primary weapon and an auxiliary such as a spell or shield, a jump, a ledge-grab and a spread of gear slots. The combat goes heavy on stamina management and evasion, with the promise of stirring abilities and passives together into bespoke methods of monster-murderment.
The animations and controls are a bit halting, but it all seems engrossing enough. Still, I'm more interested in the gently labyrinthine levels, which are woven around Dark Soulsy altars where you can fast travel and level up, and are nicely abundant in secretive high platforms and concealed entrances.
Again, though, what grabs me upfront is the centrality of the story and writing. Even at its gamiest, Mandragora appears to be going for a certain consistency. There's a tutorial beat early on where you smash some crates and the merchant who owns those crates cusses you out, only to realise that you're an Inquisitor and beg for forgiveness. I like a game that knows how to turn an everyday Crash Bandicootism into characterisation. I'll hopefully have more thoughts down the road (Mandragora is an estimated 40+ hours in length). In the meantime, here's the Steam page.