Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree

Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree is a game that precisely blends the best of Metroidvanias and Souls-likes. With a well-told narrative, intense combat, powerful ambiance and an evolution system full of possibilities, it delivers an experience that goes far beyond expectations.

Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree offers a lot of content, great gameplay, with a quality graphical presentation. Hours of fun and searching for answers in a dark fantasy world.

With a story that is happy to take a backseat to exploring its dangerous, beautiful world, Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree delivers everything a fan of the genre could want.

Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree combines souls-like combat and Metroidvania structure in a layered, dark gothic world that's compelling, both artistically and in its setting. There are some technical issues, but it's a 2.5D adventure worth experiencing.

Mandragora successfully blends metroidvania and soulslike elements, offering meaningful character progression and excellent dialogue filled with bizarre characters. It’s wrapped in a striking dark fantasy aesthetic and backed by a strong soundtrack. However, the experience stumbles in frustrating platforming sections where a single mistake can mean death, especially during repeated treks to boss fights. The main story also never rises above a basic and predictable premise. It’s not a masterpiece, but still a very solid soulslike that will keep you entertained for many evenings, even if it occasionally drives you mad.

Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree is a truly solid and well-crafted work, a significant representative of a genre that has become overly saturated. Mandragora doesn’t quite stand out for originality or for that sense of uniqueness one might expect from a title of this kind. And yet, despite offering a lot of déjà vu and familiar tropes, its strong gameplay consistency and its almost always spot-on choices manage to frame it as a game that definitely deserves a fair and confident chance.

Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree is a unique and fun-to-play side-scrolling Soulslike, with great gameplay and an original world that’s easy to get immersed in. While I’d make some minor changes, the intrusive EULA policy is the biggest downside and prevents me, in good conscience, from giving it a higher score.

It would be easy to let Mandragora fade into the crowd of Soulslike Metroidvanias, but it’s so much more than the sum of its parts. I’ve avoided a lot of Soulslike games over the years for what felt to me like focusing on difficulty to the exclusion of all else. But while Mandragora can be extremely punishing, it’s a reminder that difficulty can also be an expression of a game’s world, and pushing through that challenge can be far more satisfying than completing a game that doesn’t take such pleasure in pushing players to their limits. Mandragora is one of the most nerve-wracking games I’ve played in years, and I’m already eager to pick up another of its classes and wallow in its infuriating joy all over again.