Most of Spirit Mancer is played in 2D action stages, with some platforming and lots of combat, where our protagonist Sebastian fights with a close range demon sword and a gun, at least initially, and also the ability to dodge roll around to avoid damage. Combat in Spirit Mancer is focused partially on using this arsenal to take down enemies once you find there weak points and each enemy you fight has a weakness or two you’ll need to exploit. Using the weakness will deliver more damage and also allow you to trap them in a card once you break their guard, and these cards can be used against other enemies in one time uses.
These enemy cards come in a variety of styles, as some will provide support attacks while others deliver truly devastating specials, and some will help you such as by healing you. In addition to gathering enemy cards, you will also have a deck that you can build with your own cards that will refresh when you heal. It sounds impressive, and it is at first, but the deck ends up feeling superfluous as the game goes on, because the enemy cards can be gained in a vast number, making it not worth it to use the deck, especially since it costs currency.
Spirit Mancer does have a lot of interesting details, such as the level design being top notch quality, with a wide variety of worlds to go through, all of which have their own theme. The boss fights are also well done and extremely creative, creating a perfect balance of challenge and fun. It helps that Spirit Mancer has amazing music that really stands out, along with the excellent art style.
But then there are the down points of Spirit Mancer and they really bring it down. The combat was used as a selling point for the game, but it just does not work well. It ends up being boring and repetitive and some of the mechanics feel unneeded or underutilized. This alone is bad but the game pushes you to fight every enemy for the chance to earn currency needed to upgrade cards and abilities. You can look for hidden chests instead, to get more currency, but this is a band aid solution to a bigger problem.
The simple fact is that, as mentioned, the deck builder elements just are not handled all that well. With how the cards end up working, some basic elements of a deck builder game just feel like they have no purpose whatsoever here, and get in the way more than anything. And with the combat getting dull and boring to the point where you just want to skip everything, there is clearly a problem that went unaddressed.
Again, Spirit Mancer has some great ideas and some very good points, but the developers failed to use these ideas in a way that creates a well-rounded package. Instead, we have a weird mishmash that feels incredibly uneven and at times frustrating to play. It could have been so much better, which is what is frustrating.
I wanted to like Sprit Mancer, but cannot recommend it as is. It just fails to stick the landing and leaves a feeling of unfulfillment. Alas, it could have been great.
Disclaimer: A review key was provided
