Witchspire is a very lovely game. From the simple yet colorful art style to the soft melodies playing faintly in the background, this is one of those games you jump into when you just want to relax for a while. After reaching level 18 and spending just over six and a half hours with it, I'm genuinely impressed by how much this Early Access title already has to offer. I called it "literally Palworld but with witches" the first time I saw it, and I was pretty much spot on. One of my buddies even compared the visuals to Genshin. The pause menu survey even asks if you've played stuff like Palworld, Minecraft, Genshin Impact, and Abiotic Factor, so yeah, that tracks. Thankfully, that's not a bad thing. I love games that let me explore at my own pace, build to my heart's content, and generally do whatever I feel like doing. As the designated base ♥♥♥♥♥ of my friend group, it's safe to say I enjoy building. Whether that's extravagant decoration in Terraria or carefully organized houses in Palworld, I enjoy having a place to unwind and get creative. Witchspire immediately sold me on its building system because of one simple feature. When placing structures, you can freely fly around in all directions. No more building temporary towers to finish a roof. No more running laps around a structure just to place a few walls. You simply fly where you need to go and build. I haven't even unlocked the decoration options to really build a base yet, and I'm already looking forward to it. Building revolves around Hearths, which I've mostly been calling Hearthstones because old habits die hard. They serve as build zones and fast travel points, allowing you to quickly move between islands as you progress. My biggest gripe with the system is that Hearths don't seem to prevent familiars from spawning inside them. My first Hearth on the starting island along the beach constantly spawns two Spectres, or whatever those crab things are called, with one appearing inside the Hearth itself and the other right beside it. It's not game breaking, but I really hope the devs patch this and prevent familiars from spawning within Hearth zones. The world itself is majestic too. Simple art with vibrant colors, gentle wind that makes the grass wave, floating rocks on the horizon, beautiful waterfalls with secrets, ancient ruins with pressure plate dungeons. The first starting island is kinda limited for loot, but once you hit the second island (I'm just now prepping to head to the third island), exploring really pays off. Good gear upgrades in chests, rare or stronger familiars to bond with, and occasional one-off stuff like a lucky clover at the top of a tall rock. I've had a great time sightseeing and hunting for new familiars and goodies to boost my stats. The creatures you'll encounter are called Familiars, and they're the game's equivalent of creatures to collect. Unlike Palworld, you don't throw spheres or cast spells to bind them. Instead, defeated familiars have a slim chance to linger (which can be increased with Incense), allowing you to bond with them. Once bonded, you can either have them assist with crafting stations or join your active team of three to call upon when fighting. You start off with one during the tutorial, and it really boils down to which you like the looks of more or which style of attacks you'd prefer. A lot do ranged attacks, some do melee attacks, and some do DOT or AOE attacks. You can rename them too which is nice. Performance has been surprisingly solid. I ran it on High (defaulted for me) with some Ultra options available. For most of my playtime I averaged 60-80 FPS, with occasional brief hitches dropping to 50-60, but it usually recovered within a few seconds. For an Early Access game, I really don't have any major complaints. The audio is equally pleasant. The music stays where background music should stay, in the background. Soft chimes, gentle vocals, and calming melodies blend nicely with the environment without constantly demanding your attention. The combat music is slightly more noticeable, enough to alert you that something wants to pick a fight with you without completely breaking immersion. Leveling gives you Luminaries, which are basically perk points for a combined skill and tech tree. You spend them on inventory upgrades, stat boosts like health, crit chance, or damage increases, or unlocking new craftables like storage chests, farm plots, structures, and crafting stations. The progression feels fair, but since I spent so much time exploring before pushing the story, I actually ended up progressing my Hearth several levels at once, which was pretty funny. Combat starts off fairly simple. Early on, most fights boil down to holding M1 and watching health bars disappear. Dodge is bound to CTRL, transforming you into an orb that quickly shifts a short distance while avoiding attacks. My biggest complaint is that the dodge never seems to evolve. At level 18, I'm near the end of the skill tree and still haven't found upgrades for additional charges or increased distance, which feels like wasted potential. By the time you're on the second island, you'll have options to unlock books, new wands, and new swords. Each weapon has a basic M1 attack and a stronger M2 special that costs mana for binds, stuns, or attack speed boosts. My favorite strategy has been stacking the sword's attack speed buff before swapping to a wand and turning into a magical machine gun. Once I hit level 15 and got some health buffs, I could handle most groups of enemies without issue. First death was to a pack of Shardlings (I think) that all aggroed me. One stunned me, allowing the rest to deleted my health bar with up-close AOE attacks. When you die, your inventory (minus hotbar and equipment) drops on a stone with a flower on top so you can recover it. The only downside is that the game doesn't mark its location, so hopefully you remember where you got killed. As for things I'd like to see added or improved, I hope the devs continue expanding combat. More active combat options, controllable ranged attacks, and better familiar companion mechanics would go a long way toward making fights feel more engaging. Being able to do drive-bys on a broom and blast enemies as I fly past would be pretty funny too. I'd also love to see vanity slots or a transmog system so players can wear their coolest outfit over their ass kicking outfit. More equipment options would be welcome as well. Right now you have two rings, two trinkets, and a necklace, which is nice, but my chests are already filling up with gear that I'd love to use but simply can't justify equipping over my current setup. Giving players the option to spend Luminaries on additional equipment slots could be an interesting solution. Things like shoulder slots for scarves, capes, or other cosmetics would add even more room for character customization. Finally, the map could use another pass for collision fixes. I've managed to walk through textures quite a few times, mostly around rocks and mountains, so there's definitely some cleanup that could be done there. From what I can tell from their Steam page and website, this is the developer's first game, and with over 170 "Envarians" working on the project, they have a sizable team behind it. Based on what I've played so far, I think Witchspire has a real shot at a successful 1.0 release. They've already put out two patches, which is a good sign that they're actively listening to the community through their Discord server and Steam. I've thoroughly enjoyed my time with it and can easily recommend it to anyone who enjoys exploration, base building, progression systems, and creature collecting. Now I just need a few friends to pick it up so we can see how chaotic the multiplayer gets!