When I first wrote about Mandragora: Whispers Of The Witch Tree in January, I worried I might have spotlighted a dud. Or at least, something fairly routine. Mandragora sure does look like a lot of dark fantasy side-scrollers - gritty yet plump and colourful, like they stuck a bike pump in Castlevania, or took a chisel to Trine. It sure does have RPG classes and skilltrees. It sure does have crafting, with hundreds of items to acquire.
I confess, I covered it in large part because they have Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines writer Brian Mitsoda on the ticket. But then I read the comments on that piece, weeks later, and there were a few lost souls raving about playing the demo for hours. Mandragora launches today. I've now spent an hour or two with a full build myself, and yeah, this feels like the good stuff.
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