Mandragora mixes Metroidvania and Soulslike design with a killer 2.5D aesthetic to great effect

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. Likewise, the combat has everything you'd expect from an imitation of FromSoftware's basics, but the two-dimensional encounters play out very differently. It's not a snappy Metroidvania, but it isn't needlessly weighty. The Vanguard (the only class available in the demo) is tanky and as vanilla you can get with a warrior-like adventurer, yet running past enemies and rolling away from flurries of attacks always felt as effective as (if not more than) using my shield.

Potions, bandages, and other consumable items are scarce, yet the enemies never feel too overwhelming... as long as you don't rush into combat mindlessly. Even during my encounter with a larger-than-desirable rat in some godforsaken sewers, rolling away from immediate danger and focusing on cutting down the smaller pests first helped me gain the upper hand. It's all basic stuff, but it works. Quite often, I've found myself playing indies that shoot for stars and land with a thud. By keeping things simpler, Primal appears to have nailed this one.

The story comes from Brian Mitsoda, writer on Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, which is a pretty big flex. The basic synopsis reads as follows: "Mankind has surrendered the world to the monsters. The people of Faelduum hide away behind walls of brick and palisades of ignorance, constructed by their leaders. Joy and delight are coveted jewels, out of reach of the masses. This is not the world you were promised. Travel by night and take it back." In the demo, I wasn't given much of a context for my actions, but the world instantly felt textured, and the vibes only got better once I reached the main town in the area. Again, we've seen extremely similar stuff before, but Mandragora feels extremely polished and cohesive.

It's perhaps in its progression systems where much more variance and a sort of unique flavor could be found: On top of spending 'souls' from felled foes to level up, talent points can be spent on a web of abilities and perks more reminiscent of action-RPGs like Path of Exile. This layer, alongside the design of each class, could end up being the ace up Primal Game Studio's sleeve, but the demo only teases such elements and potential.

Of course, it's hard to predict whether the full release, still slated for Q4 2024, will be able to deliver the same moment-to-moment thrills and strong worldbuilding on a larger scale and over many more hours, but after this robust demo, I'm dying to get a launch date.

Mandragora was previewed on PC and Steam Deck via its publicly available Next Fest demo. It's currently set to launch on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch. No release date has been provided yet.