It takes a lot to stand out with the overwhelming tide of cool roguelikes we have access to, but that’s what Spiritfall does. Spiritfall fuses mechanics from a lot of different genres together, but its two biggest influences seem like they’re Hades and Super Smash Bros.
If you haven’t played Spiritfall, that’s a very hard mix of games to wrap your head around, but trust us, it’s true. After all, while we’d love a roguelike mode in Smash Bros., it’s not something that makes a lot of sense. Regardless, Spiritfall is an excellent merging of different worlds and one that, assuming you gel with it, will hook you hard.
Choose Your God
The ways it’s like Hades are most obvious, so let’s go into that. Spiritfall uses an upgrade system that’ll feel very familiar if you’ve spent any time running around as Zagreus. You take control of a warrior who’s been revived by an ancient magical flame, which means that even if you die, you can come back to life again.
As you fight through different levels, you can choose which room to go to next, and each one has its own rewards. Aside from things like relics, health ups, and currency rooms, you also get blessings from different deities that can impact different parts of your kit. You’ve got your basic attack, launcher attacks, a dash, a spell, and an assist that calls the god’s powers into your body. That’s pretty much what you have in Hades, and likewise, the different buffs can be paired from different deities or you can try and just go all-in on one if you get lucky.
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Different deities specialize in different things, like one being the master of shadows who can increase the damage you deal when behind enemies, while others are good for fire, electricity, or ice. It’s a great system that allows you to craft your build as you want, and different abilities work better with some weapons than others.
It’s Just a Scythe/Staff, No Biggie
Speaking of weapons, good lord, they’re cool. The first weapon you get is a big hammer, but from there, you unlock four gauntlets you can use at once, a bow, a pair of bladed tonfa that are attached by a string, and a scythe that can transform into a staff. The last one is probably the coolest of the bunch, with the launcher attacks allowing you to yeet the scythe head across the screen, dealing damage as it goes. You can also hold the button again to call it back to you and continue to deal damage. So, cool weapons are a go.
As for how it’s like Smash Bros., it’s all about the combat. You can deal extra damage to enemies by smashing them into walls, ceilings, the floor, or even each other. There are even special stages where we aim to “ring out” a weird, inky boss monster three times to get some random upgrades. You’ve also got the ability to dodge in any direction you want, and you can gain special buffs that make dealing damage from above or below deal more damage.
It all meshes really well into the moment-to-moment gameplay, but the meta progression is really satisfying, too. Aside from just learning the attacks and mastering your weapon of choice, you can also unlock different forms for your weapons, unlock permanent passive upgrades, and change the kinds of rooms you can find in each run. It’s very well designed and has one of the clearest paths forward of roguelikes in recent years.
So, if you’re a roguelike fan, a Hades fan, or a Smash Bros. fan, then please play Spiritfall. It’s in Early Access at the moment, but it already feels smoother and more satisfying to play than a lot of fully-released AAA games. It looks and sounds incredible, too, so it’s the full package.
