"Charming witch sanctuary, undercut by lost levels and host-only loot"
About
Witchspire is an open-world survival-craft RPG where you play a witch gathering resources, building a sanctuary, and taming creatures called familiars, solo or in online co-op. Minute to minute you gather with a magic pickaxe and axe, craft tomes and wands, catch familiars through timed encounters, and fight the corruption spreading from the Witchspire tower. Movement leans on blinking and double-jumps, later broom flight and hearth fast travel. A skill tree hands out three points per level, and a Luminaries system upgrades gear. It is Early Access, and the review reflects that unfinished state.
Verdict
There's a likeable game inside Witchspire, with a handcrafted world, a soundtrack worth turning up, and a gathering-and-building rhythm that pulls you along. The trouble is how much of that goodwill the bugs spend: workbenches that stop working, inventories that freeze, and saves that roll your witch back several levels. Co-op, which the marketing leans on, treats everyone but the host as a second-class player. Early Access buys some patience, and the foundation is worth watching, but right now the fun comes with a real risk of losing it.
You'll like it if …
- +You want a cozy witch fantasy to gather and build in, and you don't need deep combat
- +You're comfortable buying into an unfinished game and following its patches
- +You enjoy slowly filling out a familiar roster and decorating a sanctuary
You'll dislike it if …
- −Losing progress to a bad reload would end your run for good
- −You're buying primarily for co-op and expect both players to get rewards
- −RNG on top of RNG for creature catching wears you down
Breakdown
- +The gather-build-explore-bond loop lands for most players, and movement feels smooth once blinking and double-jumping open up
- +Spell tomes and spell blades let you tweak how your witch fights rather than locking one style
- −Combat stays basic, mostly swapping abilities against enemies that don't demand much
- −Familiar catching stacks RNG on RNG: whether it lingers, whether the catch succeeds, whether it's a creature you wanted
- −Quests gated behind specific creature drops turn progress into a grind
- +Crafting, building, familiar bonding, and exploration give the world plenty to poke at
- +The magic system offers real customisation through spell choices
- −Content is thin and the upgrade tree runs short, even by Early Access standards
- −Survival and building systems stay shallow, more decoration than system when you play alone
- −Build variety is limited despite the options on paper
- +The handcrafted map and cozy witch setting create a world worth wandering, and you can feel a human laid it out
- −The corruption plot and its mysterious lady are flatly generic
- −Quest guidance and NPC presence are sparse enough to leave you unsure where to go
- +Colorful, cohesive witch art direction that players single out as the game's strongest draw
- +The soundtrack earns specific praise
- +Runs well on Steam Deck
- −Crashes, infinite loading screens, and the whole map turning black are common complaints
- −The image looks blurry and washed out at 1080p
- +Crafting itself is quick and undemanding to use
- −Save corruption is the worst of it: reloading has cost players levels and familiars, one dropping from 31 back to 26
- −Workbenches can become permanently unusable, blocking crafting entirely
- −Co-op is rough: quest rewards go only to the host, one-time chests drop single-player loot, and characters are instanced per world
- −Inventory gets stuck on screen and forces a relog, which then triggers the rollback
- −Building tools and menus are clunky, with no quick transfer or blueprint presets
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