This is something I was curious about upon seeing the information about it. A remake of a sidescrolling RPG from 2003, The Spirit Engine DX forgoes turn-based combat for auto-battling mechanics. That is what sparked my curiosity. The demo released as part of the game featuring at this year’s Best Indie Games Fall Showcase has given me a strong impression. Developed by Aquellex alongside original developer Mark Pay, The Spirit Engine DX is sure to be a great time from its demo.

A demo that allows the first world to be completed. But first, the characters. There are nine to chose from that come in sets of three. Each set of three includes a mage, rifleman, and a priest. Artwork of the character and a description of who they are will be shown when selecting them, with that description also showing suggested roles and the positive and negative skills they hold. Feeling a balanced approach would be best, I chose one of each.

The difficulty level can also be selected here. Defaulting to normal, there’s the standard other two of easy and hard, but then also absurd. This greatly boosts the damage enemies can do and their health, along with empowering certain actions. For the first run, I kept the difficulty at normal, with my characters being the mage Clara, rifleman Edward, and priest Matthieu.

The first cutscenes of the game show off an accident that the corporation Frontier has caused and is trying to cover up, followed by each character chosen having an introduction before being warped away to the island this has happened. Those introductions give a nice feel for each of the chosen characters before being brought together to face the evils of this island.

Guided on the journey by a magical sprite only they can see, the three chosen head for the nearest town to find out how they can get back home. This being a sidescrolling game, movement can be controlled with the keyboard, or the mouse. In fact, everything about The Spirit Engine can be controlled with the mouse, which I found really easy to do. And so, journeying forwards, it isn’t long before my first battle begins.

Battles begin when close enough, with the commands appearing instantly. A countdown makes sure I’m ready to react once the enemies start attacking. Each character has their health and mana, along with three skills that can be used. There are more skills available to use, with the skills able to be swapped between at any time in the battle. Every skill has a cooldown, with the chosen skill automatically being used once the cooldown ends.

Progressing through the first world introduces new things to be aware of in combat, such as some enemies not being affected by magic, or enemies being able to freeze my own characters. Once mana is reduced to zero, a character will restore what they need to attack automatically, though there is an skill to recharge that mana without attacking. Even from this first world, I can tell there’s a lot of options for approaching battles however a person wants.

That’s also seen with the skill upgrades and items that can be bought at shops. Experience gain is a thing with The Spirit Engine DX, with each level up awarding points to put toward boosting skills. Those points can be refunded and used elsewhere should I want to focus on a different build. At certain levels, new skills will become available. As for the items, merchants in towns will offer rifles, armour, and talismans. These improve certain skills, or in the case of the talismans, offer automatic abilities that mimic skills.

Across the rest of the journey in this first world, I was thrust into uncovering what had been going on across the island, facing off against two bosses while enjoying the interactions between my party members and those I encountered. Completing a few side quests along the way to help buff me up for the final assault. Whether that be through a payment of money or points toward a specific skill.

The demo of Spirit Engine DX has me certain that the full game will be worth a play for anyone who enjoys RPGs. The auto-battling mechanics make for a fun experience, as do all the skills and choice of how to approach battles. The visuals and music are both very retro, which is a delight. It has certainly been a strong first impression for this one, which I will be keeping an eye on.

Thanks to Aquellex for contacting me about their game and delivering the early demo code, bringing my attention to not only The Spirit Engine DX, but also the Best Indie Games YouTube channel and its BIG Fall Showcase. Which provided other interesting games such as mech building roguelike Granvir, the crazy-looking detective game Nirvana Noir, and campervan survival game Outbound. And so much more.

Images Taken From:
The Spirit Engine DX | PC