Developer: Fireart Games
Publisher: Drageus Games
Platform: Android, PC, Switch
Reviewed on: Switch
Spirit Roots – Review
Platformers have always been a genre that is popular for the whole family. There are a few exceptions that were made for an older audience but most of them are playable by young and old. Spirit Roots is a platformer that allows both young and old to enjoy an old school platformer with nice graphics. After living in peace for thousands of years, your planet is falling apart and now to makes matters worse, you got separated from your family. So now you’ll have to cross forbidden borders to return to your loved ones. Spirit Roots was developed by Fireart Games and published by Drageus Games and we got a chance to review the game.
Story
A long time ago many wars were fought. At the present time, nobody even remembers what started those wars, since most who knew, have already passed away. All the planets and their inhabitants were endangered. So before total mass extinction happened, all the races agreed on a treaty. They all agreed to live separately on a planet forged from the remnants of their homes connected by the spiritual roots of their ancestors. For thousands of years, they managed to live together in peace separated by their borders. However, disaster struck and the planet broke apart causing you to be split from your family. So you are left with no choice but to cross the forbidden borders to be able to return to your loved ones.
The background story you get in the intro is actually all the story that is present in the game. It might have been nice to see more of the enemies in some extra story and get their reaction to you crossing the border, sadly this is not the case. You don’t even get any cutscenes after killing the boss of a level. Platformers don’t always need a story but after such a nice intro, it would seem that more story portions would be shown in the game.
Graphics
Spirit Roots looks pretty good. The main character looks pale and has this sort of Frankenstein look to him. His face has a huge scar with stitches and pieces of different skin color as if he was patched together. For some reason, the main character also has three spirits floating around him that don’t really get explained. The backstory doesn’t show his family dying so it’s a bit odd of a design choice certainly when they don’t do anything.
Each level of the game is a piece of a different planet like the background story explained. The look of each world is really different with all the graphic elements fully adapted to the level. You won’t actually see any elements from previous levels return, at least not with the same look. Some basic features still stay the same, such as moving platforms, spikes and checkpoints but in each world they look completely different. The only thing that doesn’t change is; ‘you’ and the collectible spirits. Enemies don’t appear outside their own world but there are similar enemies in each world. The design for each world looks great with some looking more sophisticated than the others.
Sound
The music in Spirit Roots is upbeat and has that typical platformer atmosphere to it. Each world has different tracks that fit the environment. For example, the creepier worlds have eerie music which helps create the right atmosphere. There is no voice acting present since there are no cutscenes or dialogues during the actual gameplay, however, the background story is fully narrated. The narrator did a great job bringing the story in a manner that makes you intrigued. Sound effects are well done and logical.
Gameplay
Spirit Roots is an action, adventure platformer where you travel across different world pieces to try and get back to your family. Before you got separated from your family it seems like you were already some kind of hunter or adventurer, since you already had an awesome sword and gun. You’ll have to use both of these to defend yourself while crossing the borders between worlds. Since the peace treaty had a rule to never cross the borders, everyone acts hostile towards you, as you broke that rule.
There are five big levels in the game, since they each have sub-levels they appear more similar to worlds, even though they are attached to each other. You unlock more worlds, not by finishing previous ones but by collecting little spirits. The spirits are similar to coins you would collect in other platformers such as the Mario games. You can try out multiple worlds before finishing one world if you just collect enough spirits. Each sublevel challenges you to not only complete the level, but to also collect all the spirits and kill all the enemies.
Enemies are different in each world as mentioned above. They, however, don’t only look different, they often also have different attacks. You can only get hit once before you lose a heart and respawn. So when approaching a new enemy, you have to be careful. Some enemies can even attack both from up close and afar, so coming in range might already trigger an attack if you aren’t careful. Some enemies have a shield that protects them from your ranged attacks, so you’ll have to go up close and hit them with your sword.
Sometimes it seems like your hitbox has a little bit of a delay or is located in a weird place since at times when you jump on an enemy you get killed, but sometimes you don’t, even though it’s the same enemy. It’s not only with enemies that this issue presents itself. When you are trying to avoid an obstacle and climb up on a ledge, it seems your hitbox gets delayed making it so you still get killed. Even if you are already on the ledge and not anywhere near the obstacle. This is most annoying when avoiding the spinning blades.
Some basic obstacles appear in every world, with a different look, such as spinning blades and spikes. However, some obstacles are exclusive to that world, for example, the desert world has collapsing platforms and the swamp world has a sort of slime that makes you walk slow and unable to jump. Discovering new obstacles in a world you’ve unlocked is extra challenging, luckily you do get an explanation as to what an obstacle does, when you first encounter it.
Conclusion
Spirit Roots is a pretty fun platformer with nice intricate worlds. It’s a little bit sad they didn’t include cutscenes besides the intro, since finding out more about each world would be interesting. Even just a little cutscene after beating a boss would have been nice to be included, but it seems the developers wanted to mostly focus on the gameplay and not extend the surrounding story. Spirit Roots is definitely a game that can be enjoyed by all ages. If you or your kids enjoy platformers then Spirit Roots is a game worth looking into.
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