New indie Metroidvania and Souls-like games seem to appear every few days, but few make as good a first impression as Mandala.
Primal Game Studio doesn’t shy away from highlighting the similarities between its new game and recent award-winning titles like No Rest for the Wicked, and that could be its greater marketing advantage. Knights Peak (publisher) doesn’t mince words either: if you like side-scrolling combat with gorgeously stylized 3D visuals, Mandragora might have what you’re looking for.
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I personally jumped into the Steam Next Fest demo and didn’t watch anything other than the trailer. Unless the controls are broken, I’m locked out. Not many can replicate the aesthetic of something like Moon Studios, but Primal comes pretty close to it, though its characters and landscapes aren’t quite as twisted as in The Evil Dead. Still, it’s hard to ignore the similarities in color palette and overall presentation approach. This is not a knock on Mandala. Quite the opposite; more games should iterate on what works elsewhere, as long as developers understand Why It turns out it works.
In the hour or so I spent playing Mandala, I got the sense that Primal has a solid handle on this scary-dark fantasy adventure: It’s not as sprawling as your average metroidvania (at least not in that sense). part), but it’s not a linear experience either. Again, combat is everything you’d expect from a base FromSoftware emulation, but the 2D encounters play out quite differently. It’s not a snappy metroidvania, but it’s not unnecessarily heavy either. Vanguards (the only class available in the demo) are tanks, and like regular warriors you can get them with warrior-like adventurers, but running past enemies and rolling away from a barrage of attacks always felt the same as using mine Effective (if not exceeding) the shield.
Potions, bandages, and other consumables are scarce, but enemies never feel overwhelming… as long as you don’t go into battle blindly. Even if I encountered a bigger rat than I wanted in some abandoned sewer, rolling away from the immediate danger and focusing on taking out the smaller pests first helped me get the upper hand. These are basic things, but it works. Too often, I find myself playing indie games, aiming for stardom, and landing with a bang. Primal seems to have solved this problem by making things simpler.
The story comes from Brian Mitsoda, screenwriter of Vampire: The Masquerade, which is a fair amount of flexibility. The basic summary is as follows: “Humanity has given the world over to monsters. The people of Fedum hide behind brick walls and fences of ignorance built by their leaders. Joy and joy are coveted jewels, out of reach of the masses.” It’s not the night-walk-and-bring-it world you were promised. In the demo, my actions didn’t get much context, but the world immediately felt textured and the atmosphere only picked up once I reached the area’s major towns. It gets better. Again, we’ve seen something extremely similar before, but Mandragora feels very polished and cohesive.
Perhaps more variety and a unique flavor can be found in its progression system: in addition to spending “souls” from downed enemies to level up, talent points can be spent on a series of more reminiscent In terms of the ability and benefits of action – a role-playing game like Path of Exile. This layer, along with the design of each category, may end up being Primal Game Studio’s trump card, but the demo only showed off these elements and potential.
Of course, it’s difficult to predict whether the full version, still slated for release in Q4 2024, will be able to deliver the same instant thrills and powerful world-building on a larger scale and over a longer period of time, but after this powerful demo, I’m very Would love to know the release date.
Mandragora was previewed on PC and Steam Deck via its public Next Fest demo. The game will currently be available on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch. No release date has been provided yet.
