This review was written using AI after 30 hours of gameplay. Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree is an atmospheric metroidvania-"RPG" that captivates from the very first moments. One of its greatest strengths is the beautiful visual style of environments and hand-painted designed NPCs, which create a dark, fairy tale world that draws players in. The game features a variety of locations, each with its own identity, which pleases the eye. The character development system allows players to mix abilities from different skill trees, offering a high degree of freedom in shaping one’s playstyle. Class and weapon choices significantly impact combat, encouraging experimentation and multiple playthroughs. Unfortunately, the game also suffers from some notable flaws. Enemy and boss recycling quickly becomes apparent, reducing the excitement of progression. The controls often feel clunky and unresponsive, which is especially frustrating during platforming segments. Level design can be aggravating. Most disappointing is the game's disregard for the player's time—like having to trek a long, repetitive path to a boss, only to be swiftly defeated and forced to repeat the sequence all over again or the exciting quest not to move for 2 minutes. Another incomprehensible decision is how you obtain more advanced traversal skills. It was done fine only with hook, other skills is simple notification after you reach certain checkpoint, which is disapointing at the same time. In the end, the true measure of any game should be the fun it delivers. Despite its tremendous potential and unique artistic charm, Mandragora too often replaces enjoyment with frustration, mainly due to questionable level design.
This game is far from AAA, but who tells it has to be to have fun while playing. It is obvious that the budget for this game was limited and some aspects are medicore, however overall experience is worth recomendation. PROS: - world map and exploration as well as unique aproach to magic aspects - nicely written characters and overall plot - decisions made have consequences CONS: - combat system - characters face models (expression and mimicry are not so great in comparison to the city you explore) FOR WHOM?: For everyone, who doesn't like overpriced games with cut content and generic world telling the same story about saving the world. Nice story compensate shortcomings and keeps you in front of the screen.
Game is really great, I accidentally found it and bought after seeing promising reviews. Totally worth it and I recomend it too all fans of XCOM like genre. I have just 2 request that will improve QoL in the game: 1) implementation of mute button- right now, when I want to listen podcast and play, I need to click several times to set volume of voice and music and do this again to undo. Implementation of mute buttopn in settings would be great. 2) implementation of "undo last move" button- several times I made mnistake and moved wrong character. Right making this mistake is pernament and there is no option to correct it. It would be great to introduce this functionality like to have at least limmited number of uses per battle (i.e. 1 or 2) to allow players reversing misclick, but not to abuse the game by scauting and having advantge of that information. Lastly, please invest in marketing, becasue this game deserves to be known to broader audience.
