[Nintendo Switch] The Last Spell Review

In Rated M for Mature roguelike tactical RPG The Last Spell from The Arcade Crew and Ishtar Games you must do whatever it takes to put a stop to the horde. Check our The Last Spell review!

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In Rated M for Mature roguelike tactical RPG The Last Spell from The Arcade Crew and Ishtar Games, you must do whatever it takes to put a stop to the horde. You’ll need to give it your all to battle it out if humanity is to have a future. You’ll be taking on a journey that presents you with turn-based battles with procedurally generated groups of enemies that won’t stop until they’ve slaughtered everyone on their path.

In an effort to try and end all war and bring peace to the world, the mighty mages ended up provoking an event known as The Cataclysm. With huge balls of pure magic, almost everything was burned to the ground. Unfortunately, a strange purple mist propagated through the lands. And from that purple mist came a horde of blood-thirsty mutants. To fix everything before it’s too late, it’s time to remove all magic from the land. In a desperate attempt to solve the very problem they caused, it’s time for the mages to cast The Last Spell.

The bad news is that for such a powerful spell, days of continuous incantation are required. And this is when the heroes that you’ll command will come into play. The mages must be protected at all costs, so you’ll have to prepare for the worst and hope for the best. During the day, you’ll be able to prepare your heroes and choose how to use the resources at hand to build up your Haven’s defenses. Plan things just right because when night falls, it will be time to take on the many enemies that will want to break down the walls. There are five Havens that need to be rebuilt, outfitted with defenses, and protected from the hordes. Each one will have its own setup and challenges to which you’ll need to adapt to. Protecting the Magic Circle is of the utmost importance.

Here’s how you’ll take care of all that. While in the Production Phase, you’ll be taking care of fixing up Haven based on the resources at your disposal. Gold is used for building structures and purchasing equipment. Materials are needed to build your defenses. Workers are very valuable since they’re needed for triggering the abilities of some of the buildings. Then we have the Deployment Phase. During this part of the game, you’ll be able to position your heroes by placing them with the cursor that you’ll move with the left analog stick, choosing your heroes with the A button. Once it’s night, you can move your heroes and use their skills as needed. Once you have no more action points to spend, or if you’re done making choices, you can end your turn and trigger the horde’s turn by pressing the X button.

The items that you collect will have randomized stats and attributes, so you’ll need to check them to get a better view of what you have. You need to check their level, which is the Roman numeral at the bottom of an icon, as well as if it’s an enhanced item of the “+X” variety. Said value can be as high as +5. There’s also rarity to consider. Items can be Common, Uncommon, Rare, or Epic. You’ll be able to easily tell this because they will be color coded for brown, green, blue, and red, respectively.

This is why you should keep an eye out for corpse piles once the night is over. Corpse piles can pop up at spots where a lot of enemies died. You can send your workers to scavenge in them so that they can hopefully bring back resources and items, as well as some Tainted Essence. Tainted Essence is what will allow you to progress in The Last Spell since you can trade it to unlock permanent upgrades that will make subsequent runs a bit more manageable. You could, for example, unlock a health boost for all heroes, increase their overall mana, or unlock additional weapons sets for your heroes.

The skills of your heroes will depend on the gear they have equipped. Something else to remember is that the health and mana for your heroes are not fully regenerated at the end of the day. HP and mana regeneration are attributes that you must consider so that you can know what you’re getting yourself into. Heroes will level up based on their performance and will gain one perk point per level gained. These can be spent at each hero’s perk tree to improve them, unlock extra abilities that can help them compensate for some of their weaknesses, or improve on their strengths.

On top of that, you can customize heroes even further by taking advantage of their weapon sets. Each hero can have up to two different weapon sets at all times. All attribute modifiers granted by said equipment are always applied, even if a weapon set is not currently set to active. You can swap between weapon sets by using the ZL and ZR buttons. Oh, and don’t be shy about using consumable items! These items include stuff such as, say, potions, and they will have a limited number of uses per night. Once daylight hits, and it’s time for another Production Phase to begin, all consumable items will be completely refilled!

If you’re up for the challenge, then The Last Spell is a good roguelike tactical RPG worth checking out on Nintendo Switch. There’s plenty of content to enjoy in this one, and you’ll be playing for dozens of hours before you’ve even managed to scratch its surface. On that note, due to its mix of genres and its Rated M for Mature, this one is not going to be for everyone. There are also some elements that have made the jump from its PC roots that will make some of you feel a bit claustrophobic with all of the information and different things that you can do at any given time. The Last Spell is out today on Nintendo Switch with a $24.99 asking price.

Disclaimer
This The Last Spell review is based on a Nintendo Switch copy provided by The Arcade Crew.