Rogue Spirit | Preview of a spiritistic roguelite

The beauty of the videogame world is also that, although a genre is in vogue and abundant in exponents, it is always possible to decline it in some particular variant, capable of putting everything in a new light. Let's take for example those that are the roguelite, one of the most popular and widespread trends of recent years, dotted with works such as the recent Returnal or those masterpieces by Hades and Dead Cells. In short, a highly versatile and successful genre, which in recent days has also welcomed Rogue Spirit, a work by Kids With Sticks and 505 Games, which has just landed on Steam in early access, in its ranks. Rogue Spirit is a roguelite that tries to further vary the formula at the base of the genre, hybridizing it with some simple stealth element, and on which we have extensively got our hands on in recent days.

We tried the game with the following PC:

GPU: Zotac RTX 3070 Twin Edge OC MOBO: Asus ROG STRIX Z370-F RAM: G.Skill Trident Z RGB 16GB DDR4 3200MHz CPU: Intel i5 8600k 3.6 GHZ SSD: Sabrent SSD 2TB Rocket NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 Keyboard: Corsair K70 LUX LED Red Cherry MX Brown Mouse: Fnatic Flick 2 Headphones: Logitech G930 Monitor: Samsung C27HG 70 Quad HD 144Hz HDR

The beauty of being spirit

Before continuing further in our analysis, however, it is necessary to underline how Rogue Spirit is, as we said earlier, an early access title and as such is not yet 100% complete. The state of the work by Kids With Sticks is however already more than satisfactory and the meat on the fire is present. In short, don't expect to be able to see what the final title will be from A to Z right now, but there is enough to play.

Returning now to what the real game is, Rogue Spirit is a roguelite that puts us in the shoes of the spirit of a prince, called to free his kingdom from the armies of chaos and from demonic invaders. A simple and linear opening, from which all the peculiarities of the work start. Since our protagonist is a mere spirit, he will not be able to directly attack the enemies that rage in the game maps and will therefore be forced to take possession of some poor opponent in order to defend himself.

On the basis of which body we will decide to possess change the cards in the player's hand, with Rogue Spirit offering a fairly wide range of choice. Agile spearmen, elusive ninjas, mighty thugs and so on: in the Kids With Stick game we can decide to impersonate different fighting styles, also based on the different situations we will be called to face. To date, perhaps you could perhaps do a little more on the variety in battle of some characters, who are now a little too similar to the test of facts, but the idea behind everything is already valid and promising.

The spirit form, however, is fortunately not a mere narrative device to justify the different playable characters, but it also has its own dignity in terms of gameplay. Thanks to it it is in fact possible to embark on some simple and basic stealth section, with which to come out behind some unsuspecting opponent or quickly escape from the enemy ranks. As a spirit it is also possible to identify the road that leads to the end of the area, which is procedurally generated each time, and to find small hidden treasures. Intriguing but not too developed mechanics, which can and will have to be expanded in the coming months. Everything, however, works and has fun right now and, in the end, this is the most important thing.

Families, powers and technical aspects

To complete the content offer of Rogue Spirit are then a whole series of perhaps secondary elements, but that make it clear how it is a title capable of being able to have its say. For example, they find space in the work of Kids With Sticks and 505 Games of familiars, that is small spirit beings who accompany us in the course of the various missions helping us with their powers, and abilities, such as ice mines, with which to remove the chestnuts from the fire or devise particular strategies. Finally, given the roguelite nature of the game, the various merchants, with which to definitively enhance statistics and other characteristics and thus maintain a sense of progression in the title despite the cyclical nature of the whole, are inevitable.

Very nice , although certainly not unforgettable or noteworthy, is finally the artistic aspect, which offers a very colorful and nice oriental style, even if sometimes a little too anonymous in some setting. Nothing to say, however, about the performance of the game, with Rogue Spirit that, maxed out in Quad HD with the configuration present at the beginning of the article, did not show the side to technical uncertainties whatsoever during our test.

Rogue Spirit: in conclusion

Rogue Spirit is therefore in conclusion from now on a good game, which, although still in early access, manages to entertain and turn out to be quite complete. There is still a little way to go, but the work of Kids With Stick seems from now on to have all the credentials to prove to be a good exponent of the genre, capable of entertaining for dozens and dozens of different games. So if you are looking for a good roguelite that is different from the crowd, Rogue Spirit could just be the answer to your research, as well as a faithful companion for well over a few afternoons.

You want to immerse yourself in Rogue Spirit ? Get it right now for a great price on Steam!