The Last Spell is a turn-based tactical game with RPG and rogue-lite elements developed by Ishtar Games. I can safely say that indie games over the last few years have been a constant source of fun and many good ones are making their way out. If you are tired of the usual AAA generic offerings, perusing the indie developers can often lead to discovering gems like this!
Spoiler alert: I like the game.
Building up a base to defend against vast hordes of enemies is a concept I enjoy quite a lot when it comes to gaming. Throw in levelling up your heroes and kitting them out to fight even more effectively on top of it and you have my attention. It makes for a satisfying game-loop which I find hard to put down at times.
I'll note that I have always loved it when games mix genres from as far back as Heroes of Might & Magic 3. The Last Spell does have a good mix in there that just makes it that much more compelling for me. Turn-based tactics, base building, RPG systems and some rogue-lite thrown in for good measure? Colour me intrigued!
Gameplay
The overall objective is to defend the mages at the magic seal in the centre of your town until they cast 'The Last Spell'. Though simple as that concept is, fending off hundreds of horrific creatures who want nothing more than to munch on your mages and heroes like breadsticks is much harder. Keeping the town safe is also part of your economy so to speak, the better you do, the more rewards you get. The more you keep the town safe the more money and resources are spent building new things rather than patching up all the holes. There are a couple of ways to lose either the mages get killed or your heroes die and both are very possible. Any dead hero is gone, no revives here.
Before you start, you select a map you wish to attempt and you unlock more as you complete each one. You even unlock new difficulties and boons to use on each one to tailor that run more to your liking. Higher difficulties net you more meta currency at the cost of... Well, making it more challenging. The boons are interesting, everything from giving your heroes stat boosts, earning more resources or just making certain things more powerful or certain items more likely to drop. Each map has its layout to build around and boss to fight though don't expect it to be easy!
The gameplay is split up into a few distinct phases with the two main ones being the production phase and the night phase. There is a third phase but a deployment phase is fairly self-explanatory and is just deploying your heroes to fend off the income hordes of bitey monsters though best not put them too far forward. Unless you want to turn your heroes into monster snacks on night one.
So, let's start with the production phase which is where you build your town and its defences plus manage your hero's inventory and the like. Gold is used to buy gear and structures such as houses, temples and workshops of various types. Materials are used to build walls and defences like ballista towers and a host of traps. I like the fact the two resources are split in the way they are though gold is generally used for a lot more. You also allocate workers you get from building houses to work in the various buildings for extra things as well. Want more gold? To the gold mines with you. Want more armour for your heroes? Time to work in the armourer's shop. You get the idea.
There are a lot of things to unlock via the meta-progression system which you can do between waves (or days as they are called.) Everything from new weapon types and variants to new buildings, stat increases and the like. Once you've set up your defences, position your heroes to help fend off the waves from the directions indicated during the deployment phase and then you hit the fun bit... The night phase.
Once the night phase begins the hordes of clawers come marching in and it's up to your small band of heroes to fend them off, protecting the town and the mages casting the titular last spell. Each hero can have up to two weapons sets which determines the bulk of their abilities and there are a lot of weapons. Swords, hammers, wands, pistols, crossbows, rifles, axes and more.
While it might seem the challenge comes in the sheer number of enemies at first, once more advanced enemy types start showing up, you have to get smarter. The enemy variety is good, it keeps the combat interesting and that's before we even get into the fact each map has a boss fight with their mechanics. Once the night is over you get your rewards, gear, gold, materials and XP for your heroes and then off you go again. There is a 'panic' level, usually when enemies breach your defences and start rampaging through the town, the higher that goes, the fewer goodies you get... If you survive at all that is.
The RPG system for the heroes also keeps things interesting as well. The usual array of gear slots and stats to dig into saw me spending as much time tinkering with what worked best as fighting. Each level up your heroes can improve a primary and a secondary stat from a randomly rolled pool plus a perk which helps nudge them in whatever direction you feel best. Sticking the glass cannon perk on my magic users for the extra crit always felt good. It can be a lot of number crunching at times which I know might put some people off but it's not as complex as the UI makes it out to be. If a hero is killed, that's it, they are gone which can be pretty tricky to recover from. There are perks to consider, builds you can make, synergies between weapon sets to the point early on it can feel a little overwhelming. However, once you learn your way around the UI it becomes easier.
It's not an easy game, especially once more exotic enemies begin to turn up amid the masses requiring a different strategy to beat and protect your embattled town. Yet the meta-progression system means even a defeat will usually net you some more unlocks or improvements to make the next time a bit easier. Honestly, I like the challenge but your mileage may vary. Especially when you factor in the multiple difficulties you can unlock, so if you like a challenge this game has you covered.
Graphics
The Last Spell's pixel art style is definitely among the better offerings I've seen over the past few years. The action is easy to follow despite the number of enemies on screen and I only occasionally lost my melee heroes due to excess aggression on my part. Also, I appreciate pixel art games as they don't cause my old GPU to start sobbing in the corner.
The animations are also pretty darned good and help make the combat much more satisfying. Watching a fireball crashing into the middle of a pack of clawers or a lightning bolt surging through before they explode is good. I always look for feedback on attacks as there's nothing worse than flinging a powerful spell or ability and not getting the feeling of it in the animations and sounds.
Sound
The stand-out for the sound is the music, especially when you shift to the night phase and the battle begins. I mean it may sound strange to liken a turn-based game to Doom but that is what the music evokes despite its obvious fantasy leanings.
As mentioned above, the sounds help give a good sense of feedback in combat making the attacks feel extra satisfying to use. Whether it's the sound of a hammer slamming into the ground and tearing up chunks of it along with the enemies beneath it or the rush of a fireball descending from the sky and blasting apart the centre of an enemy formation, it's good stuff.
Story
While the story is definitely not the focus the cut-scenes and what there is prove to be well animated and at least give some context for your monster horde slaying antics. Honestly, that is all it needs to be in my mind, would I have liked more story to it? Sure but it's not needed as it's the gameplay that keeps you going in its place.
In a way, the battles and rogue-lite nature almost tell their own little stories in a manner not unlike XCOM. Losing a hero in a desperate last stand as they try to hold a breach or watching them carving their way through entire ranks of enemies can be small stories in themselves. If you are expecting more overt storytelling you will be disappointed though.
UI & Controls
The game controls mostly through the mouse and keyboard hotkeys so it isn't too hard to figure out the basics. There are some awkward quirks, especially with construction as backing out of building placement doesn't put you back in the construction menu meaning a few extra clicks.
The UI itself can be a little overwhelming as it throws a lot of information and numbers at you though once you learn it you'll be navigating your way around quickly enough. It's very numbers heavy as you might expect so consider that fair warning!
Otherwise, I could best describe it as functional with some occasionally clumsy quirks that can sometimes make you want to grumble.
Overall
You get a lot of game for your money with The Last Spell, tons of unlocks and meta progression, multiple difficulties with which to tackle each map and some satisfying turn-based combat. All set to an awesome sound track which just makes slaying the hordes of foes trying to overcome your defences that much better. It is a very satisfying game to play when you start getting into a groove during a wave or gear up that hero with some amazing loot and watch them go to town on the monsters.
If you are a fan of turn-based games and love the idea of a base defence-style game with lots of loot and RPG stats and mechanics, you can't go wrong with this. Having said that if you don't like turn-based games this probably won't change your mind anytime soon. I mean they aren't for everyone after all.
So, if slaying hordes of enemies in turn-based combat, building up a town and its defences and unlocking tons of new things all the time appeals to you I can highly recommend The Last Spell.
On PC it is available on Steam or Good Old Games.
Any constructive feedback is welcome, it's the only way I'll improve! If you like what I do and wish to support me a donation on Ko-Fi or a sub to Patreon would be massively appreciated.
Thanks for reading!
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