Spirit Mancer Review

Spirit Mancer is a recipe produced from a multitude of familiar ingredients. The foundation of Sunny Syrup Studio’s 2D effort is a combat system that extends quite a bit of flexibility. Protagonists Sebastian and optional co-op partner Mary can freely switch between green-hued melee and green-colored ranged attacks.

While each enemy is more susceptible to a specific kind of offensive strike, both deliver damage so you can brute force your way through stages, if you must. Additional variety is found in the frequent weapon drops, that range from boomerangs, machine guns, and even a laser gun. While they have limited amounts of ammo, they punch harder than your standard issue Blaster.

The Spirit Within Me

Attack a foe with the proper type of assault and you can stun or even capture them. When the latter happens, you’ll seal their spirit, adding their form to a deck of cards located at the bottom of the screen. Conveniently, you can them summon at any time as long as you have enough spirit points.

When brought back to life, they fight on your behalf, releasing their signature strikes at your enemies. Given that your dodge roll doesn’t have quite enough i-frames, and it’s easy to find yourself sandwiched between demons, spirit summoning can be a lifesaver. The downside is demons are disposable, disappearing after a single use. But since any creature can be sealed, conserving spirits is rarely a concern.

Fishing, Farming, and Keeping Fresh

The inclusion of Pokémon-style monster collection is an undoubtedly intriguing component, especially since you can modify your deck at intermittent waypoints. These rest spots also offer to rejuvenate your hit points, purchase life insurance in the form of extra lives, as well as vend weapons and supplies.

Combined with mechanics that include managing an adventuring guild, fishing, and farming back at your headquarters, it feels like Thailand-based Sunny Syrup filled their inaugural outing with a multiplicity of ideas. I appreciated unlocking and learning about new gameplay elements hours into the campaign. This kept Spirit Mancer feeling fresh even when combat grew predictable.

Disturbing the Spirit

Yes, this ambitious project commits a few forgivable missteps. Unless I overlooked something, there’s no indicator that reveals a bosses’ health level. Another issue with these stage-ending showdowns is that they’re obviously geared for ranged attacks, but boosted guns are notable absent. Occasionally, an adventuring menu lingered onscreen even after Sebastian exited the building.

Then there’s the issue of level balance. At present, it’s more efficient to sprint through a stage and loot treasure chests that earn resources by fighting enemies. Level design begins to weaken as the game continues, with finicky platforming across the train chase and cavern stages. Fortunately, none of these issues are dealbreakers, and you’ll probably just not play Spirit Mancer as the developers intended.

Simple Storyline Strengthened by Animated Cinematics

Spirit Mancer’s backstory tells of a feud between humans and demons, with the former sealing fiends away behind a magic gate. But when Sebastian rashly drops down ahead of his strike team to confront some escaped demons, he accidentally opens a gateway to the Inferno. What starts as a simple rescue mission to liberate the other members of his team becomes a comedy of errors, with the protagonist mistaken for a savior and inadvertently outfitted by a mysterious green-hued power. Although not all the plot developments and boss backstories work, the use of low-res animated sequences provides Mancer with charm.

Yet the real highlight is Spirit Mancer’s spritework, which recalls the skill found in the Metal Slug and Shantae franchises. Sebastion and Mary explore some alluring locales, from subaquatic grottoes with maniacal mermaids to Egyptian-inspired cities layered with shimmering gold. Character animation is moderately fluid, providing evocative postures and gestures, as well. Expectedly, the soundtrack favors retro-style synth work, which inexplicably drops out during boss matches. But these multi-round face-offs are so intense and lengthy, you might not even notice.

Spirit Mancer was played on PC with review code provided by the publisher.