Spellbound Survivors Preview

The debut title by developer ToastedSquadStudios, Spellbound Survivors, is a roguelite “bullet-heaven” akin to Vampire Survivors or Soulstone Survivors, where you play as a… erm, survivor facing an endless onslaught of enemies, armed with various spells and weapons. The result is a heart-pounding fight for survival as the influx of enemies heightens with the length of your run and as you grow stronger each time you level up.

When the evil Overlord Wizard unleashed his horde in an attempt to overthrow and occupy the realm, a band of fearless warriors rose against him to face the legions of enemies and foil his dastardly plan. We’re given access to the first of these warriors, Rounin, at the beginning of the game. As a samurai warrior, Rounin wields a sword as their initial starting weapon, dealing out slashing damage every few seconds. Similar to other games in the genre, levelling up allows you to further expand this weapon’s ability, with further slashes, increased damage and a wider radius of damage being a few of the upgrades. After you’ve collected enough gold — dropped by destroying various parts of the level scenery — you can unlock the second warrior, Raven, a plague-doctor-inspired madman who wields poisonous jars, which are thrown wildly around to damage foes.

It's raining blades. Well, also rain, but mostly blades.

Movement is a crucial part of Spellbound Survivors, as you’ll need to be constantly mobile to avoid the encroaching beasts intent on slaying you. The controls are fluid and simple, with the WASD keyboard keys — or your left analogue stick on a controller — being the main bread and butter of the gameplay. Attacking is done automatically at set intervals, which can be decreased and upgraded for faster strikes — both within a run and with gold accrued during your session in the “Power Up” menu for a permanent bonus. The only other controls you’ll need are the standard options of selecting a level-up bonus after you’ve collected enough gems from slain enemies. Each time you gain a level, you’re offered a choice from three random upgrade options, each providing either a new ability or weapon or upgrading the powers you’re already wielding.

The game wastes no time immersing you right into the depth of the action, with Boss encounters seamlessly intermingling with regular enemy encounters. You’ll be surrounded by dozens of enemies of a similar height and stature to your warrior when suddenly you’ll see a ginormous foe slowly dredging its way closer. These Boss enemies are deadly, depleting your health almost instantly, so you’ll have to stay clear of their reach whilst ensuring you do enough damage to stop them. Once killed, they’ll drop a decent amount of loot, usually a chest, which will increase the level of several of your items at once.

Zombies in a graveyard. Gee, that's a new one.

The “Power Up” book on the main menu provides the critical opportunity to permanently enhance your stats using gold, a crucial part of ensuring your future runs last longer. This option also allows customisation to suit your preferred playstyle, as you might prefer a tank warrior that can survive longer or a glass cannon that does huge damage in exchange for being more vulnerable. Additionally, the flexibility to refund and reallocate gold ensures adaptability as you progress, eventually leading to an all-around powerhouse of a character that will have even the toughest of the Overlord Wizard’s forces begging for mercy.

With graphics that draw inspiration from retro titles, Spellbound Survivors would be right at home on the Super Nintendo or Sega Mega Drive. The main menu displays some lovely glowing visuals, whereas the levels provide decent pixel-art environments, with both the enemy and player sprites having their sort of old-school charm. The orchestral epic soundtrack toes the line nicely of sounding somewhere between the MIDI-driven compositions of yesteryear and more modern scores that have less of an artificial sound to them. That is until you get into the actual levels, where the orchestral music takes a backseat in favour of metal-infused guitar riffs that sound fresh out of a climactic anime battle.

Spellbound Survivors has plenty of room to bloom into its own special entry in the heavily settled roguelite genre. If you’re a fan of similar titles, then it is well worth keeping this one on your radar.