Spiritfall is a platform fighter roguelite that became one of my favorite games of 2024 through its incredible combat and polished gameplay loop.
As the Omenforged, your goal is to cleanse the world of the corruption caused by the Brink. To get there, you’ll have to travel through five different realms ranging from hostile forests to icy caverns, inhabited by enemies including plant ninjas and living rocks.
The moment-to-moment gameplay has you going up a Slay the Spire-esque map where you choose which rewards you want in each randomly chosen room. Rooms usually have a few traps to avoid, at least two layers of platforms to jump on, and multiple waves of enemies to bash through. Runs are generally only about half an hour long with very little downtime between the action.
Spiritfall’s enemies are decently varied and most of them have multiple attacks they can perform. There are a fair few enemies that require a slightly different approach when handling them, such as the totems with detached crystals and the drone-spawning spaceships. The difficulty progression leans more towards foes covering the room with projectiles rather than relying on bloated healthbars.
Bullet Hell in Smash Bros.
However, the boss fights are a bit of a departure from the combo focused hit-stun oriented room clearing. Instead, it’s all about finding the right timing to get hits in and more of a patience game.
The bosses are aggressive, attacking often and filling the screen with bullets to dodge. Some people find them to be a big detriment to the game because there aren’t very many windows to get small combos in, but I think a change-up that forces you to play differently is a good way to break up the gameplay.
The Omenforged has a choice from five weapons with alternate forms, each being different enough to require playstyle adjustments. The gauntlets and alt link blades are great for fast-paced comboing while the dual hammers and scythe are slower heavy hitters. Most weapons have unique little quirks such as the drill spear being able to shoot out its drill head or the link blades working like a grappling hook.
Best Movement in a Platform Fighter?
If you’re gonna make a platform fighter, you need to prioritize movement and tight controls. Spiritfall’s Omenforged feels perfect to control, being in that sweet spot between light-weight jumps and fast-paced dashing.
You’re able to dash out of any attack at a moment’s notice. This means that you aren’t going to struggle with overcommitting to attacks you don’t want to.
The character is able to ping pong around the arena at high speeds and not once did I ever feel like I lost control, to the point I’d say that Spiritfall feels better than most platform fighters I have played.
The Divine Spirits
Throughout your run, you will find blessings from seven different spirits. Each spirit is tailored towards a different gameplay style such as Kelumin focusing on critical hits, Navolik for movement and cooldown speed, while Zalvoon is about dodging and weak points.
Each spirit also has their own active abilities to mix and match with. There are also synergy blessings that combine the powers of two spirits for powerful abilities, such as Sharbora’s Twister assist ability gaining Yamphas’ stun stacks and increased vertical range.
Spiritfall is visually and audibly impressive. The hand drawn visuals are fantastic while keeping the chaos easily comprehensible and the sound of your dual hammers bashing heads in feels great. The soundtrack has this sort of smoothness to it that keeps you immersed in the world.
Everything feels seamless while being very easy to look at. It’s also worth mentioning that there’s a decent number of accessibility options, including game speed and damage modifiers, plus it’s fully possible to rebind controls.
I absolutely love Spiritfall. It is everything I could ever want from a mashup of Smash Bros and Hades. It’s currently only available on Steam for $19.99 and I would say it’s well worth your time!
Thank you to Gentle Giant Games for the review code!
