The Steam Next Fest has numerous new demos. Among them is Witchspire, which at first glance looks like Palworld in a magical world full of witches. MeinMMO editor Jasmin checked out the demo and is especially in love with the setting.
I am a big fan of magical beings, especially witches. This might come from the fact that a large part of my childhood consisted of the anime Doremi. I spent a lot of time with the series and talked and thought a lot about it outside of it. I would have loved to become a witch myself. But the flying broom has yet to reach me.
No wonder that the visuals in Witchspire immediately appealed to me. I have had some touchpoints with survival games. For example, I played Enshrouded for several hundred hours. And also, I really enjoyed Palworld because of the monster collecting aspect.
However, in Palworld, the visuals somewhat put me off. You use different weapons for attacks, and the world doesn’t look so colorful but is held in more realistic colors. That looks quite different in Witchspire. After several hours, I can say that I am incredibly excited for the full version. However, a lot still needs to be done beforehand.
Surviving as a witch among magical creatures
In principle, Witchspire is a survival game. You have to roam the world and gather resources to craft certain materials from them. You can then use these to create equipment or other objects.
When I saw the game world for the first time, I immediately felt like I was entering a beautiful fairy tale. The character can be equipped with a witch hat, a cloak, and a stylish outfit.
The creatures also look simply adorable and harmonious. Their fur appears particularly fluffy, and with their big button eyes, they wrap me around their finger. They still look like they are from a fantasy world and not overly catered to “kawaiiness” like in Aniimo.
The creatures are also the big highlight for me. You can control your companion in battles against others and catch them. The captured monsters, or protective spirits, can then be used at the devices in the base to speed up work. This totally reminds me of Palworld, where you can also have the captured monsters work in your base.
Alternatively, the captured monsters can also be used in battle. Each monster even has its own skill tree that strengthens them, for example, in attack speed or resistances.
However, a bestiary in the future would be good, in which all monsters can be viewed. This way, you can keep track of which monsters you have already captured and which ones are still missing from your collection.
A survival game that still needs its polish
In the game, it is possible to set up a cozy base. You can, for example, build a large log cabin, where you can then decorate freely as you wish. Unfortunately, I have not progressed that far in my playthrough. However, I have already been able to build a crafting table and an oven.
Here, you can unfortunately also notice a bit that the game is still before the early access phase. There was no encyclopedia or lexicon to look up how to get or craft certain resources. I got stuck because I couldn’t find a ritual candle. Where should one find such a thing in nature?
To normally obtain the resources, they must either be gathered in nature or taken from monsters. To defeat the monsters, you don’t need weapons, just your wand and your companion. Instead of heavy weapons like swords or machine guns, you will only encounter spells in Witchspire.
I find the spells a refreshing idea. I hope that over time, more spells will be added to the repertoire. In many role-playing games, I always have the most fun as a mage, and I love attacking from a distance with my diverse spells.
All in all, Witchspire still needs a lot of refining, but if that happens, a great game could emerge from the survival game. What games have impressed you at the Steam Next Fest? Have you perhaps already tried Witchspire? Feel free to write it in the comments!
Another game must unfortunately be closed on Steam. I noticed this at the latest when I was refunded money by Valve. Perhaps you will soon discover a positive amount from Steam in your account: Steam refunded me €7.50 because yet another game from Amazon Games has failed
