When Hades released in 2020, it opened the floodgates for fast-paced action roguelikes. Many of the roguelikes that have launched in the years following Hades have failed to live up to Supergiant's high bar, but a rare few have managed to meet it at the top of the heap. Those rare few have often taken the roguelike genre in a new, never-before-seen direction, and Gentle Giant's Spiritfall is one such game.
Spiritfall originally released on PC in early access back in April 2023, when it received a generally positive reception from early adopters. Flash forward a little over two years and Spiritfall has just landed on consoles (Nintendo Switch, PS4/5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S) in its fully-fledged form. And after beating the fast-paced action roguelike, it seems fair to say that Spiritfall might just be one of the best entries in the genre since Hades. Though it isn't without one or two minor faults.
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Spiritfall's Story Is Propped Up By First-Class Presentation
Spiritfall sees players take on the role of the 'Omenforged,' a seemingly immortal being who's tasked by the Divine Gods with removing a mysterious Blight that's corrupting the land and all of its inhabitants. In a run, players need to progress through a total of five regions, defeat each of the regions' bosses, and eventually remove the Blight's roots one by one.
Spiritfall's story is a pretty standard fantasy affair, and its immortal protagonist, corrupted world, and Divine Gods will feel familiar to fans of other action roguelikes of the last few years. Spiritfall's story remains fairly one-note throughout its runtime, but the game's presentation does some serious heavy lifting.
Put simply, Spiritfall's presentation is excellent across the board. Spiritfall's visuals are incredibly crisp, with its stylized environments appearing vibrant and colorful, its enemy and character models appearing varied and distinct, and its weapon and ability visual effects looking weighty and elegant in equal measure.
Spiritfall's UI is also wonderfully streamlined while still giving players enough on-screen information. Enemy attacks are clearly telegraphed and indicated, and on-screen menus are clean, providing players with a clear definition of key status effects and currencies when they hover over a Divine Blessing power-up or Relic.
Spiritfall's sound design is just as impressive. Each region has its own set of distinct music tracks, where the instruments chosen perfectly suit the environment players find themselves in. Weapon attacks and abilities also sound suitably punchy and powerful.
There are also plenty of smaller touches in Spiritfall's presentation that go a long way in making it feel like a thoroughly polished product. For instance, Divine Blessings change the visual appearance of weapon attacks and abilities, and landing the final blow on the level's last enemy results in a satisfying explosion of slow-motion particle effects.
Spiritfall Puts an Innovative and Captivating Spin on the Action Roguelike Genre
Spiritfall Is Packed With Roguelike Features
But Spiritfall's greatest appeal by far is its engrossing action roguelike gameplay. On the surface, Spiritfall's roguelike elements aren't anything revolutionary, but everything fans have come to expect from the genre's best entries is here in full force.
Each region in Spiritfall sees the player gradually making their way up a map, choosing from a set of branching rooms, each with its own clearly labeled reward. These rewards range from Divine Blessings that grant the player unique abilities to Relics that give the player stat boosts, to max health increases, and more. There's a lot of strategy to be found in this level design, with players needing to plot their route in advance and make careful decisions to build the perfect loadout.
There's also a lot of depth to Spiritfall's progression systems. Along with a vast number of Divine Blessings and Relics that drastically change the player's build from run to run, Spiritfall also features a wealth of permanent unlockables that carry over. Esoteric Scrolls are used to unlock new room types and add more rewards to pre-existing rooms. Dormant Embers are used to unlock a bevy of genuinely useful permanent skills, and unlocking a certain number from each tree rewards the player with a new wearable mask that comes with its own unique set of abilities.
Players use Combat Runes to unlock Spiritfall's weapons. There are five weapons to unlock initially, each coming with a wholly distinct moveset. Each of these weapons also has an alternate form, which itself has a completely different set of attacks. What's more is that each weapon and alternate form can also be permanently upgraded.
Spiritfall's Platform Fighter Mechanics Give it a Strong Sense of Identity
This substantial assortment of roguelike elements goes hand in hand with Spiritfall's most defining feature: its platform fighter mechanics. Spiritfall's combat revolves around Super Smash Bros.-like inputs, with each weapon having a unique set of neutral and directional attacks and launchers.
Spiritfall's environmental design caters to these mechanics well, with players being able to launch enemies into walls and bounce them off ceilings, and use the stage's platforms to gain a height advantage or attack from below. Spiritfall's enemy design also embraces this core premise, with there being plenty of varied enemy movesets that force the player to quickly maneuver around platforms and use the full suite of their abilities.
Spiritfall's bosses don't embrace these mechanics quite as wholeheartedly, however. While some of Spiritfall's bosses do a good job of encouraging the player to use the entire space of a stage, some feel a bit too restrictive, essentially forcing the player to keep the fight on the ground, which can be an issue if players have invested in air-based abilities. Some of Spiritfall's bosses also share a handful of very similar attacks, which is a bit of a shame, given there are only five boss encounters in the game.
Spiritfall Might Be a Short But Sweet Adventure
To complete Spiritfall, players need to beat all five biomes and their respective bosses a total of five times. One successful run of Spiritfall can take around an hour or so, which means that skilled players can technically beat the entirety of Spiritfall in just five or six hours. Spiritfall's runtime may not be as long as some of its roguelike competitors, but its constant sense of progression and its thrilling moment-to-moment gameplay ensures that those five or six hours are packed to the brim with fun and memorable moments.
Completing a run in Spiritfall will also unlock a range of mutations that players can add to their subsequent playthroughs, and a handful of additional game modes like a Boss Rush sequence are also available, so there's plenty of content there for fans who want even more bang for their buck.
Spiritfall Feels Tailor-Made for the Switch
We played Spiritfall on a base model Nintendo Switch from 2018, primarily in handheld, and it performed surprisingly well. Spiritfall's vibrant visuals popped in handheld mode, the FPS was smooth and consistent, and load times were shockingly quick. And as a nice little cherry on the cake, Spiritfall didn't even drain the Switch's battery all that much. Given the fast-paced nature of Spiritfall's runs, it's actually the perfect game for a handheld console like the Switch.
While Spiritfall may be a bit short, its story might not be anything to write home about, and not all of its boss fights live up to their full potential, the game's enthralling combat and consistently gratifying sense of progression make it an absolute must-play for roguelike fans, especially if they have a penchant for platform fighters.
- Released
- February 28, 2024
- Developer(s)
- Gentle Giant
- Publisher(s)
- Gentle Giant
WHERE TO PLAY
- Platform(s)
- Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X
- Genre(s)
- Action, Roguelike
- Presentation is stellar across the board
- Platform fighting mechanics work really well
- Progression systems feel rewarding
- Bosses don't live up to potential
- Might be a short experience for some
Spiritfall is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. The Best War Games was provided a Switch code for this review.