I didn't really like Palworld all that much—granted, survival and crafting games are hit-or-miss subjects with me, but I also just couldn't quite get past the whole 'isn't it funny how your little critters get depressed if you put them on the assembly line for too long' thing. Witchspire solves those problems, then, by being altogether charming and lovely with much the same gameplay loop.
Released into early access this week, Witchspire's core loop is as follows: You are a witch who has arrived into a mysterious land, there are familiars there, you have a wand. You are tasked with tracking down your fellow arcane alumni, building a base, and chopping trees—just, a whole lot of trees.
You're also able to capture and tame familiars, too. This happens mostly at random, with slain familiars dropping orbs that'll sometimes let you attune to them—though you can find or make items that increase the odds of this happening.
Familiars serve as either combat pets, or you can assign them static positions around your hearth—your base of operations. For example, I have a little rock guy sat on my workbench that makes all of my crafting faster.
The real advantage Witchspire has going for it, though, is the magic theming of it all. Instead of finding various gats lying around, you find wands, swords, and magic spells—each with their own unique properties and cast spells, bound to your left and right mouse button. Combat with these things feels nice and fluid, thanks to a nippy dodge and just a whole bunch of double-jumps the game outfits you with.
This extends to the tools, too. It's just a reskin, sure, but there's something imminently more satisfying about flicking a wand and firing a bunch of specialised wind blades to cut a tree into chunks, rather than doing the same-old axe whacking I'm used to in every survival crafter ever.
The building elements aren't half-bad, either. You're able to gridlessly clip things to your heart's content for the most part, with a snapping option to make getting the foundations of your witch hut actually feasible.
This is buoyed mostly by the exploration, which rewards you with lots of little chests, mini-puzzles, and experience points to funnel into your Luminaries skill tree—a somewhat linear progression path that nonetheless makes poking your head around the world feel rewarding.
Early access is as early access does, however—there are some quality of life features that are clearly absent. For instance, there's no way to look at recipes once you're out and about in the world, or bookmark things you might want to craft. Hot-swapping to consumables mid-combat also feels a little clunky, though that can be somewhat jury-rigged with keybinds.
But for its first debut? Witchspire's a deeply warming and welcoming bath to sink into if you like to collect little critters, pick up lots of crafting materials, find little chests, so on and so forth. I can very much see the scope of the game widening as developer Envar games layers more systems on top of its comfortable foundation.
