FloraMancer: Seeds and Spells (PC)
FloraMancer: Seeds and Spells sees you growing your own magic, but rather than this being some slow farming game, you can actually sprout your new spells somewhat swiftly if you have the right resources. Cultivating a magic garden isn’t the point of this action-adventure game, but the ideas of altering the land to suit your needs do extend beyond just planting the seeds needed to keep your spellcaster well equipped.
The player finds themselves as the last surviving Floramancer in a world almost wiped out by rampant unchecked industrialization. The automated machines responsible have started pushing into the last stretch of green in the world, so it’s up to you to fight back, the primary focus being on getting to three generators that help protect the true source of the calamity. To have a hope of fighting back against the robots though you’ll need to use your mage’s unique magic system, which is where the seeds and spells come in. The FloraMancer can only carry so many spells at once, and using them will gradually drain a spell’s mana until they’re no longer available. To replace your magic you must find and plant seeds, and from there, a new consideration arises. Plants will gradually grow on their own, but not really in a way where it’s smart to just wait on them. You can plant them near something like a water source to potentially speed it up, but spell seeds react differently to the elements, so you wouldn’t want to place a fire plant by the water for example. You can technically dig up the plant before it’s fully grown, but letting it grow to its max size creates a more powerful spell that is almost always worth the investment comparatively. There is one way to rapidly take a seed and turn it into a full grown plant, and that’s to start using spells to make new spells.
FloraMancer: Seeds and Spells is technically a twin stick shooter, the player able to freely aim with one hand while moving with the other. This will mainly come up when you’re actually casting the spells you’ve collected, and there is a decent range of different magics on offer. Water is definitely the most inclined towards plant cultivation, the little bubble spray not the strongest in combat and not even spreading out that far from the Floramancer. Other foundational spells like earth, fire, and wind are much better battle tools, most magic manifesting as some sort of spray so when you are fighting the unfortunately small range of robots out in the world, you will often need to keep up a sustained assault with the magic as you move your mage around to keep them safe. While the generators put up a decent fight, most robots out in the world are mild concerns most of the time but made a touch more potent when you’re locked into a space with them or when they prove quite persistent. If you catch the attention of a mobile machine they will follow you across the ends of the map as best they can, meaning even a safe area can come under attack if you aren’t wiping out the enemies you encounter. This means, on top of spending spell energy on growing replacements, you’ll also be exhausting it on culling the enemy forces.
Where things get truly interesting though are the ways magic can help you explore. FloraMancer: Seeds and Spells’s world is set in stone in some places and changes with each death in others. The Shifting Lands don’t change too drastically though, you can even find many of the same magic plants that were there last time so you can replenish the more unique seed species like Healing and Ice. More importantly, a great deal of useful items and areas are much easier to reach if you can learn how to use your spells to alter the landscape. Certain rock walls can be broken through with strong enough spells, the player able to tunnel their way to their objectives so long as they have enough magic. A spell like Air that mostly seems fit for growing plants gains a surprisingly useful use in overcoming natural navigation barriers, and here lies one of FloraMancer: Seeds and Spells’s greatest strengths. Uncovering the broader potential of your spells beyond plant growth and battle while out exploring a world with an unclear layout definitely provides the most interesting form of play. Finding a new spell, wondering about its utility, or pressing into an area where you’re still learning how your magic can overcome the new barriers makes cultivating magic plants feel more worthwhile than if they were all just ways to fight the simplistic robots that oppose your progress.
In fact, the battle applications are hampered a bit by the basic design of the enemies you face. The boss fights at least restrict movement so you’re more at risk and there can even be an element of needing to grow plants on the fly to replenish your magic, but normally it feels like you’re in very little danger. In my main save file I didn’t die once, so I made a second purely to test out things like the Shifting Lands changes and see the penalty for a death. Oddly enough, the punishment for a death is actually put into your hands, the game presenting you with three doors each time with a different option for how you’ll be impeded. Some of these only last one life like taking more damage or plants growing more slowly, but others are surprisingly harsh like reducing how many spells or seeds you can carry by one. There did seem to always be a door that simply wiped out all the spells or seeds you had on you which feels like a reasonable punishment for failure, so the options feel more like a way to keep your spells if you had a particularly good batch you’re reticent to part with. There are not too many unique spell types in total across the game though, although many of the ones present at least have multiple uses or lead to interesting considerations.
Your limited spell and seed slots does mean you’re often making choices on what to bring with you and what spells or seeds you might just have to leave behind, hoping you can come pluck them again another time. You might exhaust a spell in battle that you needed as a tool and need to go out in search of a replacement, although there are a few teleport points and a way to go back to your home garden any time you like so you can make some safe places to grow back-ups. Still, the limitations on how many you can carry do make one other element of exploration feel more valuable, Power Stars offering upgrades should you manage to find them. The game does not label them on the broader map and they can be hidden quite well, but finding one will let you pick from a set of three potential upgrades. Seed and Spell slots are definitely vital for long term success, but a boost to movement speed or health also can be valuable in the long run. Power Stars definitely give deeper exploration the extra boost in value needed to motivate you to do more than work towards opening the paths to generators, but they might also be why the regular enemies are soon not much to worry about, the game not really rolling out anything tougher to remain competitive as you rather quickly gain the means to dispense with them without much of a fuss.
THE VERDICT: Gradually uncovering the new uses for spells that you grow and manage yourself makes exploration in FloraMancer: Seeds and Spells inviting and engaging, but there are limits on how far it goes that lead to it not being all that difficult. The robotic enemies don’t require much to deal with, often more a drain on your resources than potent threats. There isn’t a wide range in spells on offer either, so while there is an interesting learning period, it feels more like you’re cultivating and managing a small tool kit rather than doing too much farming or fighting. The multifaceted nature of many spells does make discovering how to approach the world exciting for a while, but the game doesn’t evolve enough to keep pace with your own growing abilities.
And so, I give FloraMancer: Seeds and Spells for PC…
An OKAY rating. It’s very easy to say that a game would be better if it was longer, but FloraMancer: Seeds and Spells being short does feel like it’s keeping it back from growing into something greater. The enemy types you face are fine for when you’re coming to grips with your spells and their many uses, but there’s not much of a reason to really prefer attacking with Earth over Fire save for trying to save a spell for later. More demanding or dangerous enemies feel like they could add even more new considerations to your range of spells, but it also feels like there could be more spells in general to keep up the sense of discovery that makes exploring work as well as it does. Right now, growing spells is mostly just a means to an end, and while generator fights sometimes ask for the interesting idea of needing to potentially grow replacement plants on the fly, it could be more interesting to crossbreed plants to make new magics. FloraMancer: Seeds and Spells just needs the room to keep evolving, to keep exploring new applications of spells and introduce things that expand how you manage what you’re cultivating. At present it is engaging to figure out what spells you want to carry and what seeds you want to pick up for potential replacements or so you can have a more situational magic when you desire it, but it feels like there are greater depths the concept could delve into. Areas like the shops where you pay with debris from things you destroy feel like they could be expanded into something with more purpose than just a means to get certain seeds without finding them, but FloraMancer: Seeds and Spells didn’t feel like it needed the rogue-like death punishment or Shifting Land concepts. More compelling mechanics are already found in its marquee magic system, and while there are plenty of concrete areas that have clear challenges, focusing in more on specific puzzles could lead to the spells feeling even more like a multifaceted way to interact with the world.
FloraMancer: Seeds and Spells plants the seeds of some interesting ideas, but it might take a sequel to see them bloom into something truly magnificent.