The Last Spell (PC) Early Access Preview

I have made myself clear in probably dozens of articles at this point, that I think fairness, accessibility, and difficulty spikes can impact enjoyment for a lot of players. When you play a game for fun or to relax after a long workday, you often find that being frustrated is not exactly your goal. It can sometimes be an unintended side effect that (depending on the source) can dampen your experience.

The Last Spell surprisingly strikes a very delicate balance between hard gameplay, skill-based gameplay, and accessibility that even in its early stages is very compelling. The Last Spell is a Roguelike, Tactical, grid-based, turn-based, Strategy game that blends elements of City Builders and Tower Defense games with other small elements thrown in.

In truth, it feels like Fire Emblem had a lovechild with Darkest Dungeon, minus the sanity mechanic. The Last Spell takes place in a world in which a magical apocalypse has covered the world in a purple mist. You are a part of the last bastion of humanity and must protect the last mages as they attempt to destroy magic itself by casting the titular last spell.

You must survive for twelve in-game days, with each night leading to hordes of monsters trying to destroy your town and stop your mages. You begin each day in the production phase, which allows you to send workers to destroy ruined buildings and gather resources. You can also use your workers to help work in various resource buildings.

For example, once you build the temple, you can use it to heal your heroes after battles. You start out with 3 randomized heroes for each run, though I suspect that you can get more later on, or at least I hope you can. If you turn on one of the several “Easy Mode” options, you can have quicker resource accumulation, as well as getting an extra hero. However, the game is fair and enjoyable without the Easy Mode modifiers (at least for me).

Regardless of that, I’d recommend using them if you want to. They can make the game less stressful, help if you can’t sit at a PC for long stretches of time, or need to speed things up for some reason. The runs in The Last Spell take a while, though you can save and exit whenever you need to. Personally, I don’t recommend leaving the game in the middle of a fight but in between battles would work fine.

I should also mention that the twelve in-game days are all that is available in the current state of Early Access, aside from the boss at the end. However, the developers are hoping to at least double that amount of content. There is also a fair bit of replay value there as well, with run modifiers and things to unlock even after you finish the current build.

During the production phase, you can buy weapons and armor for your heroes, level them up if they have the requisite XP, and go about building up your defenses for the night ahead. This is where the game really has some randomness to it. The heroes (and their classes) are procedurally generated, so you never know what group of classes you’ll get each time.

On top of that, the choices of things you can increase upon leveling up are also procedurally generated. However, you can reroll the options of stat increases that you get, and they have their own rarity as well. For example, you could reroll your potential stat increase choices and find a rare physical damage upgrade of +14% instead of 8% as a base rarity.

By completing certain milestones, you unlock new buildings, items, and other useful upgrades via the Oraculum. You can also turn tainted essence (from fallen enemies) into other potential boons, and unlock new armor and weapon sets, among other things.

There is a lot to see and do in The Last Spell right now, even if it is still early in its Early Access adventure. You will die a lot, but as you get better at it, you’ll find yourself getting more and more accustomed to things. It has that same rewarding “die, upgrade, repeat” thing of Hades, but in a Tactical turn-based sector instead of an action game.

I would argue that The Last Spell is well worth its price, even in Early Access. If you like games like Fire Emblem or defense-genre games, give this one a look. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

An Early Access preview key for The Last Spell was provided by The Arcade Crew for this preview.