I took a longer lunch break today, and must now Pay The Reaper by staying after work. Fortunately, I’ve spent my penance playing the demo for Witching Stone, which applies the magic of shape-matching to the magic of, well, magic. Out on 16th September, it’s a pixelart charmer that “combines elements of puzzle games, roguelites and deckbuilders”, much as you’d combine a red circle and two golden triangles to spark a lightning bolt.
The setup: you are an anime sorceress exploring a node-based dungeon map. Some nodes harbour treasure chests, campsites and shopkeepers. Others trigger battles, which are turn-based affairs. Rather than just choosing Firaga from a menu, however, you’ll need to string together the raw materials on the grid display below the warring characters.
Each spell needs a different mix of shapes, and while you can cast several simultaneously, you can only draw a line through a certain number of squares per turn. Firing off a spell also deletes those shapes from the grid, causing others to fall from above, so in addition to selecting the optimal wizardry, you’re trying to clear away undesired shapes and set up combinations for your next turn.
If you’ve ever played the glorious Puzzle Quest games or Capcom’s Puzzle Fighter series, you’ll find all this very intuitive. As in Puzzle Quest, there’s a progression system. In this case, it’s about expanding your spellbook and modding your spells. The Giant Slayer mod, for example, makes your lightning bolt deal more damage at the expense of always targeting the beefiest opponent. Even based on the 15 minutes I’ve played, it feels like there’s scope for some hair-raising concoctions, and what is a witch who doesn’t deal in hair-raising concoctions? A sham, that’s what. An embarrassment.
All told, this was well worth loitering after five for – find the demo on Steam. In general, I’m always in favour of video game sorcery that involves the actual assemblage of spells – it stops them feeling like guns. If you despise grid puzzles and would prefer a real-time incarnation of all this, let me join up three squiggly blue diamonds to make a Hex Of Greater Displacement and warp you in the direction of Magicka.
