Recent reviews by Upon Arrival

I was going to write a lengthy review about how awesome this game is but I figure saying this game is perfect is enough. I only have one minor gripe, and this is just me being picky but I thought the twitching of enemies when receiving damage, especially those enormous enemies or bosses, seems way too goofy lol Otherwise, the game is PERFECT!

After 35 hours of gameplay, completing every main quest, side quest, bounty, and exploring all areas, including hidden ones, and defeating every boss, I can confidently say this game is one of the best metroidvania/souls-like games I’ve ever played. Despite a few flaws, its strengths make it a must-play, and I highly recommend it, even though New Game+ (NG+) is not yet implemented (the developers are working on it).


Let’s address the shortcomings first to clear the way for the game’s brilliance:

Timed Doors: Early in the game, you encounter timed doors activated by levers, requiring a quick dash to pass through. These are overly simplistic and only appear early on, feeling like a pointless inclusion.
Entropy Rift Levels: While I understand their narrative purpose, the entropy rifts introduce awkward platforming, vanishing platforms, and one particularly grueling rift with tough enemies. These sections feel jarring and more like a chore than an engaging adventure.
Mana Flask System: As a spellcaster, the absence of refillable mana flasks (like the healing flasks) is frustrating. Relying on purchased or crafted mana flasks, especially when low on gold or resources, forces unnecessary grinding to maintain spell usage.
Crafting System: The crafting mechanics, inspired by MMO-style resource gathering, feel clunky and out of place in a metroidvania game like this one.
Final Boss Phase 2: The second phase of the final boss is excessively punishing, bordering on unfair. I personally think it is PURE BS. Perhaps get rid of the platforming, or the need to sustain Mandragora. Getting rid of either, not both, would make the second phase actually challenging and enjoyable.


Despite these issues, Mandragora shines brightly in nearly every other aspect:

Stunning Art Direction: The game’s 2.5D world is breathtaking, blending 2D visuals with subtle 3D depth to create a captivating atmosphere.
Exceptional Level Design: The non-linear level design is well crafted, with clear pathways, logical shortcuts, and rewarding exploration.
Diverse Enemy Variety: Claims of repetitive enemies are unfounded. Each major and sub-area introduces unique foes, and the bestiary showcases an impressive range of designs.
Engaging Boss Fights: Most bosses are a delight, offering varied difficulty and creative mechanics. While some are reused, the unique bosses are well designed (except for the final boss’ second phase).
Outstanding Soundtrack: The OST, particularly the choral Prelude theme, is phenomenal and worthy of any music playlist.
Robust Skill Tree: The expansive skill tree offers countless build options. While newcomers should focus on a single path to avoid diluting their abilities, the spells and skills are diverse, fun, and feel impactful.
Seamless Fast Travel: The ability to teleport to any checkpoint directly from the map, anytime, not just at checkpoints, is a game changer. Unlike games like Blasphemous, which suffer from tedious backtracking, Mandragora respects your time, akin to Elden Ring’s fast-travel system.

Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree is a top-tier metroidvania/souls-like that excels in art, level design, and gameplay depth. With planned updates like NG+ and potential quality-of-life improvements, it’s already a standout title. Despite minor missteps, this game is absolutely worth your time and investment. Highly recommended!

This game is addictive. Like many rouge-like games, you start to see a pattern. There will be a lot of repetition in some runs but the game is fun regardless. The reason being, your character selection, weapons variety and some randomness in skills and loot. Playing solo was fixed so it is more viable to do so but this game is much more enjoyable by matching with randoms and playing with them. Sure, like many games, this game also has its flaws. Some remembrance quests are bugged not allowing you to match with other players while in the remembrance world. I thin Fromsoftware did a good thing with this game. It has a ton of potential, which I am sure the will unleash as time goes by. Lots of things to add and do with the game. Right now I am just enjoying it for what it is!

After completing AI Limit in just over 16 hours, I can confidently say this souls-like title from Sense Games is a commendable addition to the genre. The game ran smoothly without any noticeable bugs, delivering a polished experience from start to finish.


The combat strikes a satisfying balance, blending the deliberate pacing of Dark Souls 1 and 2 with the faster, more fluid style of titles like Thymesia. This middle-ground approach feels refined and engaging, catering to both methodical and aggressive playstyles. The game offers a diverse array of weapons and spells, though build variety feels somewhat limited, as the mechanics favor specific combinations over extensive experimentation.


AI Limit boasts a solid roster of bosses, though the heavy reliance on lightning-based designs felt repetitive at times. Standout encounters include the creatively designed final boss of the normal ending. It had phenomenal mechanics but falls short in difficulty, and Loskid, a brutally challenging foe that ranks among the game’s toughest.


Overall, AI Limit is a strong souls-like that merits at least two playthroughs to fully appreciate its depth and polish. Sense Games has crafted a worthy contender in the genre!

56 hours into the game and I have finally reached the last boss. Let me begin by pointing out my personal negatives about this game so we can move to the best parts:

1. Boss to elite enemy back to boss to elite enemy repetition gets boring quickly.
2. Level reuse is quire preposterous.
3. Random loot. Not really a big deal but the fact that it is random, to me that makes exploration meek.
4. Points 1 and 2 above make the length of the game seem artificially inflated. This, of course, can be avoided if you skip optional content.
5. Ozma! Really? We have to DELETE 3 HEALTHBARS!
6. This is by far the worst negative things about this game: HISMAR! Fuc* that fight. The camera, the little openings you get when his head is down, it is just a terrible fight through and through.

Now, let's talk about the positives:

1. Pretty much everything else I didn't pointed out above.
2. Combat mechanics.
3. Skill Tree
4. Most boss fights (main boss fights).
5. Enemy placements.
6. Level design.
7. Art design.

Overall, I highly recommend this game to anyone, but more so any souls-like player that loves a challenge. This game is fantastic!

I completed the game just last night. This is a solid souls-like metroidvania game. The pixel art is beautiful. I loved the voice actors. The story and lore are amazing with so much depth to them. I just have a few gripes about this game. The biggest one for me was the lack of fast travel between all checkpoints. There are transportation teleports scarcely sprinkled throughout the map but if you want to reach certain locations, you have to trave to the nearest porta, which may not be as close to the location you want to go, and traverse traps and enemies again to get there. The good things about this is enemies do have have an aggressive aggro so you can get away with running past a lot of things. Still, this lack of transportation between checkpoints has you backtracking a lot... and I mean A LOT! My first souls-like metroidvania game was "The Last Faith", so maybe I am spoiled in that regard. Also, the bosses in this game don't seem to be difficult. The Last Faith bosses were more punishing, with more move sets and a ton of aggressiveness. The bosses in this game are creative, but lack that difficulty that defines a good souls-like game. Still, I reccomend this to anyone who enjoys souls-like metroidvania games, or just metroidvania, or just souls-like games. Great addition to the genre.

Just a little over 19 hours and I have managed to beat this game. The art for it is incredible. I also loved the music. The bosses were quite fun. I did NOT enjoy the three main Golem bosses. They seem a bit difficult for my liking but more than that, they were just a repeat of the previous one with a slight variation to their super attack. That seemed to me lazy design. There are a ton of shortcuts you can open up that loop around many areas. There are a ton of secrets to discover. Combat feels smooth. I've seen many people complain about input lagging and input queueing but I felt none of it. The input was smooth and very responsive. Your attacks are also quick, and this is even before you equip yourself with the trinket that allows you to slash much faster. I did not feel any input queuing either. My rolls were fast and even though you cannot cancel your attacks, enemies are slowed down significantly when taking damage, which allows you to see when they start to wind up an attack and roll out of the way. Some enemies toward the later half of the game start having different timed delays which forces you to adjust your gameplay a bit. The things I did not like about this game were the lack of a map, the tedious backtracking if you intend to collect as many items as possible you can only get after obtaining certain abilities, but worse of them all for me was the lack of a boss health bar! I know there are indicators as to how damaged an enemy is, but the lack of health bars, at the very least on bosses, was pretty bad for me. The last two main bosses were tedious in the sense that you keep slashing away, even with the indicator that they are about to die, but the death never comes when you expect it. I like to know how close I am to defeating an enemy or at the very least a boss. With all of that said, I still reccomend this game. It was very fun. It is very challenging in the second half and some enemies though BSish, were not bad to defeat once you learned their movesets. Buy it if you can and enjoy the combat, and somewhat exploration as well but be ready to get lost, A LOT, since a map is lacking.

A little over an hour of game play and I beat the game. Now, this is a rogue-like game so the game play is far from over. The first play through won't allow you to tackle and beat every boss. Also, your first play through is quite easy. I have unlocked difficulty level II and there are more difficulty levels to unlock. Also, you can choose a different path to tackle the remaining areas and bosses. There are quite many achievements to be had and some of them are challenging. So far the bosses have been fun. They are unique and have different mechanics and abilities. The final boss was a bit disappointing but fun nonetheless. Overall, this is quite a fun souls-like/rouge-like game. You won't be disappointed.

The design is beautiful. The English voice acting was phenomenal. Customization is fantastic as there are a lot of ways to do it. However, that is where the positives end. There are way too many cutscenes. Way too many. Each time you turn in a set of vestiges, you are transported to the flashback world to listen to parts of the story but they are too tedious to sit through. So, you end up skipping and miss on a lot of the story. You also get a lot of random cutscenes throughout the world as you reach places, and they feel like a soap opera with too much unnecessary dialogue. Thus one cannot properly connect to what is going on in the world of Code Vein. Another horrendous thing for me about this game is not being able to somehow customize your equip load. You are stuck with a light, medium or heavy roll depending on your weapon. I love STR builds, just big bonk sticks. Wanting to use them in this game means you HAVE to heavy roll. There is no way around it. There are no shields available either so you either are forced to parry or know EXACTLY how to roll with a heavy roll to avoid being hit. That's just not right. I finished Ruined City Underground, Ruined City Center, Howling Pit, Dried-up Trenches and Cathedral of the Sacred Blood. Probably not even half way through the game but I did everything possible to try to like the game and I just could not.

This game is a hidden gem, though disappointingly short. It's incredibly fun with its fast-paced gameplay, offering a variety of special weapons and an excellent range of skills. I particularly enjoy how easy it is to respec your skill tree, allowing you to adapt your playstyle for different bosses, enemies, or levels without any cost. While you need a special item to respec attributes, it's readily farmable. The game boasts some spectacular bosses and outstanding level design. Unfortunately, even after completing all side quests, achieving all endings, and spending considerable time farming Mutated Odur, I finished the game in under 14 hours. Despite its brevity, this game is absolutely worth buying for any fan of souls-like games; it's fun, engaging, and a commendable addition to the genre.