Full transparency: I’m not a big fan of Soulslikes. “Soulslikes” are games that share so many similarities to From Software’s Dark Souls series that they formed their own subgenre. I like role-playing games. I like role-playing games with action in them. Don’t really like Soulslikes all that much. I can respect them, at least, for effectively carving out a niche that still demands attention and passion from hundreds of thousands of players today.
So why did I take a look at Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree, a game developed by Primal Game Studio and published by Knights Peak? On paper, it sounds like it has just about everything that I don’t really enjoy compared to the typical types of games I play; it’s a Soulslike with some additional Metroidvania elements, a sprawling skill tree to fill out, and some other noteworthy additions. What happened? Why did I look at this?
Call it a case of good production values or a desire to challenge my own preconceived bias, but something compelled me to give Mandragora a shot. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to check out a preview build during the Steam Next Fest. Here are my thoughts.
Playing Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree
The narrative is arguably the most important part of a role-playing game. After all, if you’re meant to fulfill a specific role in the story, you need a good story to get invested in. Though incomplete at this time, the narrative in the preview build I looked at was compelling enough to keep me interested. The story kicks off in Crimson City, set in the equally dark world of Faelduum. Things aren’t going so hot. Tears in the fabric of reality are unleashing all kinds of mayhem, and bad actors are using the chaos to exert control over Faelduum’s innocent population.
You are an Inquisitor under the cruel eye of the lithe King Priest. When the King Priest places a particularly volatile witch in an excruciating torture session, you find yourself putting the witch out of her misery—leading to her sudden death and the inexplicable transfer of energy from her body to yours. While the King Priest would normally punish such a discretion, you’re instead given a second chance. A second witch is known to be in the area, and while your few friends are hesitant to see you investigate their presence, you’re given no choice in the matter. Unfortunately, what amounts to a typical hunt gradually mutates into something nobody could’ve ever expected.
It’s pretty good. You can only really get so much out of a demo, but the gorgeous character illustrations and engaging voice performances brought enough to the table for me to feel invested. I’d call that a win.
RELATED: ‘FEAR FA 98’ Game Preview: A Horrifying Soccer Game
But what might catch most off guard about Mandragora is the level of star power involved here. Just off the cuff, the game’s narrative was primarily penned by Brian Mitsoda of Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodlines fame, a game whose narrative practically carried it out of obscurity into cult-classic status. Likewise, Christos Antoniou of Septicflesh composed the game’s soundtrack, incorporating his experience in both brooding metal music and concert arrangements into a cohesive whole.
What also threw me for a loop was how the game was structured. It’s not strictly linear, but it’s not a giant sprawling map either. You have some free reign to explore off the beaten path, but at least during my time playing, figuring out where to go was fairly straightforward. Secrets and hidden areas required a bit of ingenuity to discover, like breaking open loose walls with your melee weapon. It’s a bit different compared to something like Salt and Sanctuary.
Speaking of Salt and Sanctuary, Mandragora also opts to take a 2D approach to its gameplay. Like most other Soulslikes, you have two different meters to manage as you traverse your dangerous environment:
- Health, which is fairly self-explanatory. Keep it full, or else you die.
- Stamina, which governs just about anything and everything you can do. Jumping, dodging, sprinting, attacking, blocking, and anything that involves a modicum of athletics, you need Stamina for.
But then we get into what makes Mandragora more distinct. While character classes in something like Dark Souls more heavily affect your initial stat distribution and starting equipment, Mandragora goes the more traditional route with each class’s devoted talent trees. Defeating enemies grants you Essence, and you’ll spend this Essence to improve your character, unlock special passive buffs, and even eventually branch out to other talent trees. This also has a slight impact on the equipment you can wear as well, as what you’ll be able to physically carry will compel you to craft or purchase equipment that doesn’t overburden you.
Which class you go with at the beginning will largely determine how you play up until you’re able to mix different skills from different classes together. If you prefer a traditional sword-and-board approach, go with the Vanguard. Want to play around with long-range magic? Pick Spellbinder. A total of six classes will appear in the full release, with the latest preview build even adding in the Nightshade class—a fast, poison-based class that relies on dual-wielding daggers. I initially went with Spellbinder, but I started over to play as a Vanguard to capitalize on the game’s melee combat.
RELATED: ‘Twisted Tower’ Game Preview: A Madcap Amusement Park
How does it feel to play? Admittedly, I was surprised. It’s your standard Soulslike combat at a glance—wait for an attack, back away, get a few hits in, back away again—but the sheer amount of effort placed into the game’s animations made every movement feel deliberate and weighty. Everything from snarling wolves to sword-wielding monsters had a slight exaggeration to all of their movements, making their attacks, their idle animations, everything, feel so nice to look at and engage with. Even the player character looks great in motion. It’s snappy, but you still have to put some thought into your actions instead of just mindlessly mashing. The game has been in development for several years up until now, and you can really feel that effort in its overall presentation.
Some effort has also been made to improve the game’s overall accessibility. Beyond just featuring full controller support along with standard keyboard controls, a decision was made to add in three sliders that can affect the game’s overall difficulty: one for adjusting overall enemy health, one for adjusting overall enemy damage, and one for tuning the stamina cost of all your skills. It’s a nice compromise in maintaining the game’s original difficulty while allowing you to customize your experience more fully.
Should You Play Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree?
Is Mandragora ultimately worth checking out? Is this game just another indie title to throw to the wolves, or is there something really interesting lurking underneath the surface?
In the same way that I was fascinated by Moroi, Mandragora brings an engaging mix of differing elements to the table. Only this time, it has some of the finest polish I’ve seen from an indie production in quite a while. Some occasional performance hitches throughout the demo did appear every now and then, but they were pretty minor in the grand scheme of things.
There’s so much to look forward to as well. A permadeath mode, dozens of hours of gameplay for a first playthrough, expanded crafting options, multiple endings, and the promise of an alternate dimension known as Entropy outweigh the few negatives I can find here. If the preview I got to experience is any indication, Mandragora may very well be one of this year’s most content-rich titles—especially for a price below that of a typical AAA production. It’ll certainly be one of the most gorgeous productions I’ve seen this year, at the very least.
Ultimately, I think Mandragora deserves at least a passing glance if you’re at all interested in action RPGs. I liked what I saw in the preview, even though I usually stay away from games like this. While its mishmash of differing ideas may not appeal to hardcore fans of the Soulslike subgenre, it may be different enough to grab others who feel like I do.
Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree will release on Steam and the Epic Games Store on April 17, 2025. The game will also come to Xbox and PlayStation.
We’re hardworking geeks who love to geek out, but we can’t do it without you! If you enjoyed this article and want to see more like it, please consider tipping our writers. Also, as an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
