Arcane Blast Review

Arcane Blast is a third-person roguelite shooter developed by Campfire Studio (not to be confused with CampFire Studio, developer of Soulmask). They’ve done some pretty cool games like My Dream Setup and Catch & Cook: Fishing Adventure, but this game is a lot more action-orientated than their previous titles. It was annoying to do preliminary research on this game though, because it’s a little too generic. It’s the name of an in-game spell in several other games and the name of a mobile game studio. Still, from what I’ve seen, it looks damn fun as there's a cat to boot, so let’s conjure the elements and conquer whatever challenges I will face.

You play as Adrian, a powerful sorcerer who is betrayed by his student and now finds himself trapped in the world of Shadowvillie. Also, he has been transformed into a cat. Now, he must regain his powers, vanquish hordes of unrelenting enemies, uncover secrets and master the elements all in an effort to return home. A largely ignorable story and set-up to get your adventure underway. Not much to say about it. Although, I think one character said something to the effect of “Place Holder Text”.

Arcane Blast is awfully quiet. There are only some soft sound effects from the spells being cast and there is music, but I expected something a little more bombastic or motivating here. Like it’s on a low priority. I do tend to tune out sounds when I’m focusing on surviving a fight, but it is jarringly noticeable how silent the game is. I do think the character designs and graphics are nice though, with a cel-shaded effect that makes things clear even in the heat of battle.

Now, let’s get into a run. You start off with a basic dodge roll and two types of spell shots, but as you travel through a map full of encounters and rewards, you’ll discover powerful spells that will turn you into a magical god with enough time and effort. You can cast breaths of fire, call lightning upon your foes, fly around on a nimbus cloud, or summon a rock wall. Every enemy and spell has an element associated with it, and they interact with each other in unique ways. For example, splashing water on enemies and hitting them with a lightning spell will cause a chain reaction and take out every enemy that was soaked. All seven elements have a unique reaction to one another, from wind affecting nature and fire vaporising water. This could lead into some seriously insane builds you can experiment with. You can even play with your spells in the hub, where you can freely use the ones you’ve unlocked and test out their effects. It’s all great and leads to some insane feats of magical chaos.

It feels very good to play. Although I do think Adrian’s animations are a little stiff and don’t match the speed of his movement, you’re still very agile. However, I do recommend turning up your sensitivity if you’re playing on a controller like me. It is horrendous how slow turning left or right is.

Oh, but you don’t have to cast magic alone. You can also play the game with friends in co-op, with up to three other players to conquer the magical realm together. While I was unable to test it out personally, from what I can see, you can combine your spells together and take on more difficult challenges. If you die in the run, you can still play as a ghost, shooting an element of your choosing so you can still have fun even without any HP left.

In between your runs, you’ll be plopped right back at the hub where you can spend green and purple crystals on upgrades, change your outfit, and even have some practice and fun with the various spells you’ve obtained at least once. You can even pick your poison with how hard your run will be before you enter the portal. Now, here’s something a little awkward. I can’t really tell how good the progression is because… well… I sort of broke it on my first play session.

Now, I was playing a pre-release version, but there were some bugs that I encountered throughout my playthrough that I feel I should note, such as when I could exchange my health at sacrifice totems for gold and not lose any HP. And before an update, when I checked out my upgrades, I quickly discovered I could buy them all without having anything to spend. I went into the negatives and bought everything in five minutes of playtime. There was an even worse bug, which prevented me from progressing past the first boss, but that aforementioned update did resolve it and allowed me to beat the game. I could even play New Game Plus and kept my run going… until at around level 50 where no enemies spawned and all I could do was go back to the hub.

There were also a few minor issues that could make the game a little better. I think the button prompts should be icons instead of words. Playing on a controller, needing to read “Triangle” takes maybe a half-second longer for me to recognise what button to press, which feels a lot more annoying than you think. In addition, bringing up the prompt to interact with something is a little finicky at times. Still, the game held up at a consistent 60 FPS that rarely dropped. It’s smooth a majority of the way to the end and beyond.

Arcane Blast is great at its core. The spells and upgrades available are fun to experiment with and the various reactions of different enemy types with the elements can create some incredible combos. It’s fast-paced and really encourages creativity and forethought into your build. However, I think the UI could be a little bit more refined, the sound design improved, and the story… well, it was barely there I feel.