After about six hours of side scrolling through the dark fantasy dystopia of Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree, I find myself equal parts captivated by a detailed world Iâve only just begun to understand, and worried the combat that takes place within it could wear thin throughout the supposed 40-hour runtime. The story has been really compelling so far, full of body horror monsters, an extremely dark society controlled by the creepiest people imaginable, and decisions that are designed to make you squirm. But in between visits to the nearest town and chatting with my growing party back at camp, Iâve been blowing my way through fights that arenât very novel or challenging â and while itâs too early to say for sure, that already seems like kind of a big problem for an action-RPG with soulslike sensibilities.
Ah, yes. The olâ âis this a soulslike?â question. Is every game in 2025 technically a soulslike? I dunno â at this point, probably. Do genre labels matter even a little bit? Absolutely not. Well, regardless, Mandragora definitely borrows certain ideas youâll recognize, like save points that respawn enemies, highly deadly bosses, and a leveling currency that can be permanently lost upon death if you fail to retrieve it. But itâs also got a bit of 2D platforming and exploration, dense skill trees for each of its six character classes, and some pretty in-depth equipment and crafting systems that place it pretty squarely in the action-RPG space. (No, not an ARPG, because those are⊠you know what, nevermind.) Itâs a good mix that stands out as its own kind of thing, but the important part is that youâre going to be swinging melee weapons, dodge rolling away from attacks, slinging spells, and swinging across gaps with a grapple hook.
As you do so, youâll get to know Faelduum, Mandragoraâs pessimistic and creepy world thatâs been overrun by evil creatures who have left humanity cowering behind city walls. You play as an inquisitor who gets involved in a witch hunt and is sent out into the world in search of evils to kill, all while the creepy voice of a monster you sympathy murdered whispers things in your head (long story). I donât know where this is all going just yet, but Iâm intrigued by its setup, and thatâs despite the fact that Iâm pretty over edgy fantasy settings in general.
This has got to be my 30th soulslike in the past couple of years, many of which really love the whole creepy fantasy vibe, so I was worried Mandragora would be more of the same â but that fear has been unwarranted. Iâve been impressed with the depth of Faelduum, the cast of characters who occupy it, and the troubling choices Iâve been asked to make within it. Iâm very curious why witches in this universe traded in their pointy hats and broomsticks to appear as overly large flesh monsters, or why the entire world has been consumed by evil creatures while humans hide in ruined, deeply unjust cities, or why the heck my character has been absorbing dark energy called Entropy into his body, which really seems like something thatâs probably not going to work out for him later on.
The environments can admittedly look a bit generic on the surface when running from place to place, but Mandragora uses a really neat painterly art style during cutscenes or when talking to other characters, with animated portraits youâd expect to find hanging in the halls of Hogwarts. Iâm also genuinely interested in the characters Iâve met, like the reckless treasure hunter and incorrigible ladyâs man whoâs been making my maps or the kind-hearted blacksmith who builds weapons heâd never have the heart to use himself. Their dialogue has been pretty decent, and Iâm excited to see where the larger story goes as a result.
However, when it comes to the action itself, so far Iâve mostly been fighting a whole lot of sluggish soldiers and pushover rats, which have me dodge rolling back and forth each time they take a swing, then getting a few hits in before doing so again. Not only does there not seem to be much to the combat, Iâve already seen repeated boss fights after just a handful of hours â usually not a great sign for overall enemy variety. That said, Iâve also only played as one of the six classes as of now (a dual-bladed agility-focused warrior) and perhaps I simply chose one of the more milquetoast characters or havenât hit the point where they start to become interesting. With dense skill trees filled with powers to unlock and lots of equipment left to loot and craft, thereâs plenty of time for me to potentially fall in love with these 2D bouts.
As a side scroller, thereâs also a fair bit of platforming and secret hunting to be done, but those sections have mostly worked as the most minor of breaks in between combat sequences. Thereâs been little in the way of puzzles to solve or any memorable sections where dodging traps and perilous pitfalls was front and center in these early hours. Of course, there are clear metroidvania-style tells that I still need to obtain some special tools or abilities to unlock more options, like the grapple hook it feels very obvious I am eventually going to get, so hereâs hoping that whatever lies âround the bend will add a little more depth to this aspect of Mandragora.
As we didnât get review code until close to launch, the PlayStation dashboard estimates Iâm only 20% through the campaign, and the description on its Steam store page claims the story is 40+ hours long, so only time will tell if the platforming and combat can rise to the same level as the story and art. As of now, Iâm certainly enjoying myself enough to keep pushing through and see how things develop at least, and if Mandragoraâs RPG menus filled with an insane number of possibilities are any indication, thereâs quite a bit left to see before my final review next week.
