Spirit Mancer by Sunny Syrup Studios immediately draws you in with its charm. The whimsical 2D art style, retro soundtrack, and animated cutscenes set the stage for a nostalgic experience showcasing the developer’s passion. Unfortunately, my time with the game was marred by a game-halting bug right before what I assume was the epilogue, preventing me from seeing the story through to its conclusion. That said, bugs can be squashed, and there’s still plenty to enjoy up until that point worthy of discussion.
Spirit Mancer’s story follows Sebastian and Mary, two members of the Soul Keepers organization who have been tasked with preventing another demonic invasion of Earth. After your mission to prevent a portal to the demon realm of Inferno from opening ends with you and your team being sucked into it (thanks to Sebastian being a little too trigger happy), you must regroup with your missing teammates and rethink your next steps. You start out playing as Sebastian, but after the prologue players are able to play as either Sebastian or Mary, or split the screen and play local co-op with a friend. Functionally, the characters play identically, with the only notable difference being their aesthetics. They’ll both be present in cutscenes no matter what, so it’s not like you can escape Sebastians’s foolhardiness anyway. It really just depends whether you want to play as an aloof anime cat girl or a hot-headed Markiplier lookalike. Sorry, I think it’s just the red hair.
Overall, the story is fine. It’s lighthearted and whimsical; the demons you fight have a kind of charm to them reminiscent of Undertale’s cast. Most of your enemies wind up joining your side as you defeat them, except it doesn’t ever really feel like you defeat anyone since most of the boss fights end with a cutscene of you about to be defeated and someone stepping in to save you. An annoying trope, to say the least, especially for the few difficult fights where you may have been looking forward to the emotional payoff of a victory. The most difficult fight for me was against a certain demon with a sniper rifle, and while the game does actually allow you to defeat them in a cutscene, you’re immediately whooped by another even stronger demon right after. So goes the cycle.
Spirit Mancer’s gameplay blends two seemingly disparate genres, combining the fast-paced action of a hack-and-slash game with the strategic depth of a deckbuilder. It brings to mind Phantom Dust’s real-time deckbuilding combat. Spirit Mancer’s deckbuilding aspect comes into play through different demon spirits you can capture and summon. Players can construct a ready-made deck at any checkpoint from the cards they’ve already collected, or add new cards on the fly by capturing demons mid-battle. As for the hack-and-slash elements of Spirit Mancer, players have three methods of attack. The game color-codes attacks as blue (weapons), green (elements), and purple (demons). The colors aren’t just arbitrary, either, as players have to deal the corresponding damage type to break through an enemy’s guard. This leaves them vulnerable, open to either attack or capture.
The default weapon is just a standard gun, but you can acquire temporary upgrades ranging from a missile launcher to a balloon bubble gun. These vanish once their ammo is exhausted, but they can be upgraded for extended ammo capacity and increased damage. The default element is a sword (or katana for Mary), but there are five different elements to choose from as you progress the story. Each element has its own upgrade tree with stat increases and unlockable abilities. My favorite was definitely the whip, taking advantage of its range and its ability to strike multiple foes easily.
Demons are probably the most complex aspect of Spirit Mancer, from acquiring them to using them in battle. While demons can be captured mid-battle, this process doesn’t automatically add their corresponding card to your collection. Demons will occasionally drop their card, or it can be acquired through fishing or summoning. Fishing requires bait and gives you three random cards loot-box style, while summoning requires specific, difficult-to-acquire resources to produce a particular demon. I found that the cards I acquired through natural play and the occasional fishing trip were more than enough to get me through, but there’s over 100 demons to collect for the completionists out there.
It’s worth noting that the ability to upgrade everything isn’t available from the start. You’ll pretty quickly unlock a hub town where the people you encounter throughout the game begin to set up shop and offer various services, such as banking, alchemy, and weaponry. Unlocking the hub town and its various buildings settles you into a nice gameplay loop where you can set up your time-gated activities like farming and the adventurer’s guild, upgrade your weapons and abilities, and then go out on a mission. The merchants that sell seeds for your farm are only encountered out on missions with a random stock dependant on the area, so it can be helpful to bring a fair amount of gold along with you in case they’re selling anything worthwhile.
Holding onto a lot of gold isn’t without risks, however, as running out of lives causes you to lose any of the gold that you haven’t deposited in the bank. Not losing gold is ideal, of course, since gold is important for buying and upgrading weapons, and also for sending adventurers out on missions at the adventurer’s guild. The quickest way to get more gold is to grow the most valuable seeds you can find between missions, although its up to players whether their harvest is better put towards gold or for summoning new demons at the alchemist. Spirit Mancer’s first bottleneck is gold, with the second being the various gems needed for demon card, element, and player upgrades. Those, in turn, are most readily acquired at the adventurer’s guild.
Spirit Mancer is at its most fun when you can lose yourself in its world, following a rhythm of your own making. It’s simply dissapointing when that rhythm is interrupted as much as mine was. I experienced several crashes at both the beginning and end of various missions in addition to the game-halting bug I mentioned at the beginning of this review. I tried accessing the epilogue about a dozen times and still was unsuccessful in getting past the first cutscene without crashing. There was even a point during a pivotal part of the story where some of your allies are apparently kidnapped that I missed entirely since the game crashed. Imagine my added surprise when I tried to talk to a different ally after this glitch and they casually dropped one of the upcoming surprise twists of the final confrontation, spoiling me before I had even started the mission.
Spirit Mancer clearly has a lot of heart, blending humor, a creative world, and an innovate mix of genres. While the experience is hindered by technical issues, its charm and potential and undeniable. The combat mechanics are fun, and the ability to capture and summon demons adds an interesting nuance to gameplay. The lighthearted tone and whimsical design make it an enjoyable journey despite its flaws. If the developers can smooth out the rough edges, Spirit Mancer could truly shine. But for now, it’s a game that’s easy to get lost in if you’re willing to forgive the occasional hiccup.
Austin played Spirit Mancer on Nintendo Switch with a review code.
