Mandragora isn’t reinventing the Metroidvania nor Soulslike wheels, but it’s got a solid grasp of what it needs to do to enchant players.
New indie Metroidvanias and Soulslikes seem to pop up every few days, but few have made such a good first impression as Mandragora.
Primal Game Studio hasn’t shied away from highlighting the similarities of its new game to recent winners such as No Rest for the Wicked, and that may be its bigger marketing strength. Knights Peak (publisher) isn’t beating around the bush either: If you enjoy side-scrolling combat with gorgeously stylized 3D visuals, Mandragora probably has what you want.
I personally jumped into the Steam Next Fest demo without having looked at anything beyond the reveal trailer. Unless the controls were shite, I was locked. Not many people have been able to replicate the Moon Studios-like aesthetic, but Primal lands quite close to it even though its human characters and the scenery aren’t as distorted as those in No Rest for the Wicked. Still, it’s hard to ignore the similarities in the color palette and overall approach to the presentation. This ain’t a knock on Mandragora. Quite the opposite; far more games should iterate on what’s worked elsewhere as long as the devs understand why it worked originally.
During the hour or so of Mandragora I played, I got the sense that Primal has a solid grasp of what it wants to do with this grimdark fantasy adventure: It’s not as sprawling (at least during this section) as your average Metroidvania, but it’s not a linear experience either.
