Spirit Mancer is a co-op hack-and-slash action game with a monster-summoning twist. The game gets a decent amount of mileage from its unique mechanics, buoyed by some varied enemy designs and an interesting fusion of action game and Pokémon-style monster-collection gameplay. Unfortunately, the fairly solid combat system is marred by some very hit-or-miss boss fights which impact the overall experience.

Long ago, humankind discovered how to access Inferno, the mystical world of demons. After a period of peace, a cataclysmic war between humans and demons broke out, leading to contact between Earth and Inferno being cut off. During a secret military operation, protagonists Sebastian and Mary find themselves trapped in Inferno and in possession of the Spirit Mancer, a mysterious weapon with the power to seal and summon demons as they fight through the demonic realms to depose the tyrannical demon queen and save their friends. It isn’t the most detailed of narratives, but the comedic tone and retro stylings of the graphics and UI go a long way towards ensuring that the lack of substantial plot is not a big problem, even if the game’s finale feels a little abrupt in terms of lack of build-up or sense of adequate conclusion.

Levels in Spirit Mancer are a fairly straightforward hack-and-slash affair, with Sebastian and Mary able to take on demons with a melee and ranged attack, as well as their collected spirits. You have a permanent melee weapon as well as a selection of disposable ranged weapons that can be purchased or swapped out during levels. Enemies each have green, blue and purple shields, which are weak to melee, ranged and summon attacks respectively. By destroying all of a foe’s shields and reducing their hit points to a low amount, the player can seal them and add them to your deck of Spirit Cards, as well as recover a bit of health. You can choose to play as either Sebastian or Mary, or play as both of them via two-player local co-op.

I found Spirit Mancer’s combat system to be quite intuitive, with a fairly large number of Spirit Cards to choose from with a variety of effects. Some spirits have hugely damaging AOE moves, some are good for drawing enemy aggro, and others can simply buff the player by healing them or increasing their damage output. When assembling a deck out of Spirit Cards that you acquire, you have a limited number of points and with more powerful spirits taking up more room, there can be a trade-off between stacking your deck with a large number of weaker spirits, or betting on just a few really powerful ones. Any enemy can be sealed, and the game is fortunately somewhat flexible if you go slightly over your limit when sealing an enemy during a level. While spirits are single-use, you can restock your deck to full at any checkpoint for a small price, ensuring that I never felt like using my arsenal was too risky.

In addition to the main missions in Spirit Mancer, there is an assortment of bite-sized side missions that have more varied objectives, such as hunting down specific demons or rescuing captured villagers. Players can also take part in optional activities like fishing, gardening and sending villagers out on quests, all of which provide gold and materials with which permanent upgrades and new Spirit Cards can be purchased. While the process of purchasing village upgrades felt a little opaque, with the upgrade option often locked out even when I had more than enough gold, these activities were fun and charming distractions to accomplish in between missions.

There is at least a decent variety to them, with most having unique gimmicks to set them apart. That said, many of the boss fights also take an absolute age to get through, featuring multiple sections where the boss is invincible and forcing you to wait out their attack pattern to get a shot at damaging them again. The fact that Spirit Mancer grades you on your speed (along with other metrics) at the end of each level makes such stalling tactics during these encounters particularly frustrating.

Spirit Mancer at least consistently looks and sounds fantastic. The designs of the summonable spirits hit a nice middle ground of being both adorable and fearsome, whether it’s a little ghost with a spear or a giant flaming elephant. The retro-styled soundtrack is also pleasantly energetic, with the exception of an odd recurring bug that occurred in multiple boss fights where the background music didn’t play at all, only the ambient sound effects, adding to their languid feel.