“Nah, this should be easy and short. All you have to do is smack all of the ghosts in the area. The usual. . .”
I’ve had a small fascination with Digital Happiness for some time now. An Indonesian studio originally founded in 2013, they would quickly mark themselves on the map of indie releases with 2014’s DreadOut, a game that was as charming as it was rough around the edges. It was akin to something like Deadly Premonition, something that shined in spite of its technical issues and an overall lack of polish, made all the more impressive by the near-total absence of a traditional games industry within Indonesia at the time. It even spawned its own domestic feature-length film adaptation.
But we’re not talking about DreadOut today, and neither is Digital Happiness. No, they’ve branched away from their third-person survival horror roots in favor of something a bit bolder and a lot more animated. However, the ghostly apparitions that defined their previous games are still plentiful. Broomstick Exorcist had its demo debut during the Steam Next Fest, and I just had to know how it played based on its current, limited state. Needless to say, I was quite surprised.
Sweeping the Streets of Ghosts
Despite what you may believe, not all spirits of the dead rest peacefully. Who can help when the dead walk the Earth once more? Enter the world of Vikka, a spiritual street sweeper armed with nothing more than her own brawn and a hefty broomstick, as she ventures into the dead of night to put these unsightly ghouls and ghosts back into their eternal slumber. The game’s setting isn’t made all too clear yet, but you can at least glean a few things from the demo’s brief gameplay.
Broomstick Exorcist is a 2D beat ’em up where you’ll guide Vikka through dark streets loaded with spooky spirits. It’s pretty standard for the genre, admittedly. You’ll run from left to right, bash ghosts in the head with your broom, and occasionally take on a terrifyingly silly boss. The demo itself is barely 10 minutes long once you know what you’re doing, though it does give you a decent idea of the stuff Vikka can do.
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You have a basic multi-hit combo, a block that doubles as a functional parry, a drink that can replenish your health, and a handful of abilities that each serve their own useful functions. Holding down the left trigger puts you into an ability stance, and in this stance, you can unleash a deadly ranged attack, a complete time stop, or a powerful strike with your broom to hit multiple foes. If you get the timing down, you can even stack your multi-hit combo with the latter for an even stronger combo attack. Positioning isn’t as complicated as it would be in other beat ’em ups, however, since you’re stuck on a single plane of movement. Vikke can go left and right but that’s about it. It’s more reminiscent of something like The Ninja Warriors, albeit without nearly as much complexity — or giant killer robots.
There is some interesting stuff going on in Broomstick Exorcist, at least. For one thing, your health drink is pretty cool. Instead of having to bust up trash cans for cooked turkeys or salads, you can just pop a quick sip every now and then to top yourself off. Your block also has some interesting functionality. You can’t just hold the button down and absorb a portion of incoming damage, no. You’ll have to time your block to successfully parry the enemy’s attack — and you can only do this so many times. There’s a limit on how many successful parries you can pull off within a specific span of time, with the ability to parry being tied to a series of shields just above your health bar. A single parry burns through a single shield. They reappear after a while, but it’s definitely something that I wouldn’t have expected. You can dodge in addition to parrying, and that seems to be the more consistently dependable defensive option.
As for bosses, they’re fine. The demo gives you access to Vikke’s Qareen, a superpowered form that gives you brief invulnerability and some more elaborate attacks. Using this typically softened bosses up enough to make the ensuing fight not all that difficult. There are two total here, and they do demand a bit more out of you compared to the typical ghouls you’ll fight leading up to them. They’re certainly nice to look at too, melding Eastern mythology with some delightfully cartoony designs.
In fact, Broomstick Exorcist may very well be the best-looking game Digital Happiness has ever put out. The hand-drawn art for Vikke and the many ghouls you’ll fight looks smooth and charming, and the monochromatic color scheme ties the simple 3D geometry and flat sprites together in a satisfying way. It’s simple, sure. But it makes for something that’s both cohesive and visually appealing.
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Should You Play Broomstick Exorcist?
Admittedly, the demo for Broomstick Exorcist comes off more as a proof of concept than something that teases the quality of a full game. That’s not a bad thing necessarily. But I do think it’s worth keeping in mind if you want to check it out for yourself. What’s here is nothing more than a very, very small slice of something that’s still very much incomplete.
But I’d like to think that there’s potential here. Despite their many faults, there were a few moments of brilliance in the DreadOut games that made wading through the bog all the more rewarding in the end. Even beyond the novelty of Digital Happiness taking a swing at a brand-new genre, there are some mechanics here that I would absolutely love to see fleshed out in a meaningful way. Having played several of this studio’s games in the past, I’m curious to see how they can break out of the niche that they’ve carved for themselves over the past few years.
You can check out Broomstick Exorcist for yourself on Steam. No concrete release date has been announced for the full game as of writing.
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