Spellagis (Nintendo Switch) Review

A few seconds after booting this up and 'Bam!' You are looking at the title screen, but it doesn't feel like one. Players are presented with a few simple options, like New Game, Settings, and so on, and that's about it. Dark Souls kept things minimal as well, but it also had a kickass intro cut-scene, and it's simplistic title screen perfectly captured the game overall feel. Well… the same kind of happens here as well, to be honest, as this "dry" introduction to Spellagis is nothing more than a great example of what foreshadowing is.

It all begins and you are given control of the distant cousin of Final Fantasy's Black Mage (yes, the NES one). As this is an auto-shooter, all this practitioner of the dark arts can do is move around while small critters and slime monsters approach from every angle. Aiming and spellcasting is automatic, thus one only needs to be careful to not let enemies come too close, while also making sure to grab every single piece of gold. Note that the hit detention is a bit… interesting, meaning that enemies get to touch the hero before actually coming into contact with him. Annoying, but a relatively easy thing to stomach as this isn't that challenging.

Unfortunately, there are no extra abilities to use while running around as is customary in the sub-genre. This makes the experience a bit repetitive and boring, with the only thing left to spice things up being the items that can be bought. The collected gold can be spent once after a wave of foes is wiped out, in a pop-up shop window that offers a choice of three items. These are boosts that provide some sort of advantage, be it something simple like "+3 Attack" or "+10 Health Points," to more specialized perks such as the ability to shoot a lot faster when standing still, a chance to briefly freeze monsters, the addition of helper units that shoot along with the mage, and many more.

The problem is that simplistic is the word that perfectly encapsulates Spellagis. The arenas? Mind-numbingly empty rectangles with a couple of pixels looking like rocks or grass. The music? Generic NES copycats with no soul. The enemies? Snakes, blobs, ghosts (the typical, bed sheet ones), crabs, and more blobs, with nothing that really differentiates one from another besides their health points. Completing Stage 1 and going to Stage 2 means that you are doing everything all over again, but this time enemies are, say, +5% faster or something along these lines…

Sadly, the items themselves are simple as well, and not exactly that varied. After a couple of stages, you've pretty much tasted all of them and know which ones are of any worth. Don't expect any grand strategic planning to be made. Just put all your points in offensive or gold-making abilities, and you can complete every single stage without breaking a sweat. Having said all that, Spellagis is fun, enough so that most won't put the Switch aside before doing everything that can be done… which translates to an evening or two, and that's stretching it - and that's the issue with this title. It could, with a little more effort, be a bigger recommendation.