Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree Reviews
Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree is a very solid first foray into the Metroidvania/action RPG space for developer Primal Game Studio.
Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree is a consistently fun and increasingly challenging soulsvania that should easily satisfy genre veterans.
Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree is an interesting Frankenstein of action-RPG ideas that never quite comes to life.
What’s currently here is an ARPG that nails its setting and core gameplay; everything else is underbaked. Fans of ARPGs will likely have a great time with Mandragora as I did, but those who are more interested in a nail-biting Soulslike or a clever Metroidvania won’t find it here.
Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree is a decent 2.5D action RPG with a beautiful world. However, the game has some serious design and balance issues that prevent the experience from reaching its full potential.
Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree establishes itself as a remarkable soulsvania that, while not reaching the heights of excellence, manages to stand out above many other titles thanks to a solid combination of combat, narrative, and visual design.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree combines souls-like combat and Metroidvania structure in a layered, dark gothic world that's compelling, both artistically and in its setting. There are some technical issues, but it's a 2.5D adventure worth experiencing.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Whether you are a seasoned souls-like pro or a newcomer to the genre, Mandragora has a lot to offer. An ability to tweak the gameplay to your liking by ramping up/down the challenge gives broad appeal to differing skill levels. With a gorgeously crafted fantasy world full of atmosphere to get engrossed in, deep character progression and a tonne of replayability, this is one certainly not to be missed.
Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree turned out to be an ambitious attempt to create a grandiose game. But everything is spoiled by repetitive bosses and dull gameplay.
Review in Russian |
Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree doesn’t veer off well-traveled paths, but that doesn’t mean its familiar combination of mechanics isn’t fun. Though it doesn’t necessarily stand out in any one area, Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree is still a substantial, visually impressive and generally engaging experience.
Madragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree provides the perfect blend of Souls-like and Metroidvania. An engaging story and satisfying combat will keep you coming back even though there are going to be things that annoy you and force you to step away from time to time. In the end, there is an excellent adventure to be found here and I look forward to more like it from this development team.
Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree doesn't aim to break new ground within its subgenre. Nor does it seek to be an absurd or pointless mashup; it simply aims to tell a story about decay in a world where a glimmer of hope still remains, and it's up to us to fight to recover it.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Most evocative are the stunning vistas that serve as the backdrop of your journey. Wind shakes the trees of haunted forests; rows of houses stand humbly in warm, fuzzy light; a swollen sun plunges into the distant horizon. These deeply textured images seem to extend endlessly beyond the frame, suggesting the vastness of the land they depict—and in doing so hint at not just the untold horrors that Faelduum has witnessed but its infinite capacity for further calamity.
Don't overlook Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree. It offers the same frustrations common to soulslikes, but its visuals, soundtrack, and story comprise an experience that can and should be enjoyed by a much wider audience. (With help from its friendly difficulty options, mind you.)
While Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree is a decent mix of search action and soulslike, it's rough around the edges and does not excel in any particular facet.
While it may not reside in the upper echelons of Metroid-style games or Souls-likes, Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree is built on competent foundations and could grow into something special with more fine-tuning.
Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree is a Soulslike fan's must-play, and could be a good option for fans to cut their teeth on if other titles seem too difficult.
Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree is a truly solid and well-crafted work, a significant representative of a genre that has become overly saturated. Mandragora doesn't quite stand out for originality or for that sense of uniqueness one might expect from a title of this kind. And yet, despite offering a lot of déjà vu and familiar tropes, its strong gameplay consistency and its almost always spot-on choices manage to frame it as a game that definitely deserves a fair and confident chance.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree is an example of a game that is "just fine." If you're looking to scratch an itch, then Mandragora might be the one for you.
Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree delivers, delivering an experience of over 40 hours and enough elements to make most of it fun and rewarding. It's no match for the greats of the genre, that's a given, but it's a few notches below, and that, these days, is saying something. The gloomy and nostalgic feel of its dark fantasy reveals a game with its own essence and identity, even when it resorts to tried-and-tested formulas and established elements.
Review in Spanish | Read full review