Spellspire (PlayStation 4) Review

There is something truly attractive about the whole premise of spelling the spells. Not only because of the wordplay of it (the beauty of which shouldn't be underestimated), but also because of the fluff surrounding most fantasy magic as a heavily academic endeavour. The brainy wizard trope runs strong throughout Spellspire.

This is quite a quirky and fun edutainment experience, mixing simple RPG elements with a quite simple, yet addictive, spelling game in which the player is challenged to spell a number of words using 10 letters on the board. It has a strong arcade feeling, with a hook of "just one more level" attached to it that makes it feel clever, fun, and entertaining.

It is almost quite a perfect title. It is long and has a lot of challenging and entertaining content attached to it. It has everything people are expecting from both RPGs and a spelling game. Cheat items, gear to level up, and, of course, mighty boss battles. It seems like Spellspire spelled out the formula quite perfectly.

However, some letters were misplaced in a way that makes it easy to miss during a quick read-through of the final word. One problem in Spellspire is that there are some quite nasty difficulty spikes during the experience, which might require some farming, mixed with the fact that the most fun and rewarding farming dungeon is locked until the player is at the final level of the game. That is right, the main farming feature in the game first appears at the very end of the game, which is a complete wasted opportunity, as most people are going to just stop playing once they have beaten the final boss.

Beside some misplaced features on the progression ladder, Spellspire is actually quite an entertaining title. It does get grindy sometimes, especially if working towards those no damage challenges. It is a worthy challenge for wordsmiths, though, yet easy enough if deciding to play casually, so that people who are just looking into improving their vocabulary can fully enjoy themselves while sharpening their pens and tongues by spelling spells.