Being a novice in magic comes with its issues. As one Bosorka finds out, correcting magical mistakes is not so easy.
Magic can be a fickle thing. Activate a spell and interrupt at the wrong moment, and chaos can ensue. Jump on a broom as Horpyna in Bosorka, from Sengi Games. Wield a variety of spells with different base elements. Fly through a magical roguelike, using special brooms and dropping enemies with all manner of crazy magic. Need to keep your distance? Direct a swarm of insects that repeatedly pelt the enemy. Want to make the area hostile? Unleash a swarm dance of insects. Whichever way you choose to dispatch the enemy, you’ll have to master every spell you find.
Horpyna, a novice witch of the wilds, has arrogantly unleashed the power of an old grimoire. Despite successfully gaining a familiar, the book releases an uncontrollable stream of magic. Pouring out of its pages are monsters and evil that will stop at nothing to infect the world. The young witch will have to correct her mistake or die trying. What will happen when she finally finds the grimoire?
Movement throughout the game was simple. Using the w, a, s, d scheme for movement shift would make the witch’s broom dash. Space would flip Horpyna and her broom. If any enemy had the misfortune of being in one’s path, they would suffer damage. Each important key, except for the movement keys, was displayed at the bottom of the screen. This was also true of currently equipped spells. It felt nice having a visual representation to see what spells one had equipped.
The left mouse button, conveniently, was mapped to wielding projectile spells. In the bottom right of each spell was a number anywhere from 50 to 200. The number corresponds to how long the button can be held down to shoot the spell at the enemy. It’s unfortunate they were limited, but seeing how powerful they are, it’s understandable they would only allow its use for a short time. The right mouse button would trigger a more powerful spell that sometimes had a specified AOE.
One of the top spells for that slot had to be Swarm Dance. It is unleased about four clouds of bugs that would ‘dance’ around space, doing about 5-6 damage a second for 5 seconds. If one managed to get two or three clouds to hit a boss enemy, it would do an amazing amount of damage.
By default, the player is accompanied by a creature called an Oko. This bat-like creature shined a beam of light from its one eye, indicating which direction Horpyna’s attack would go. It was indeed useful for seeing the basic direction a spell would go. But it was not a good gauge to aim with. Additionally, other Oko were available for recruitment. All one had to do was spend a set amount of gold, and the creature would fly and assist.
Finding as many as four Oko was an amazing experience. Using a handful of ‘companion enhancement’ runes, each Oko’s normal hp of 20 was increased to about 50. Thanks to the increase in hp, it wasn’t hard to take out a boss the first time around. Picking up apples is also important to ensure this strategy works. When a Bosorka’s companion takes damage, an apple tree sprouts and begins healing any companions in the vicinity.
Fighting through hordes of evil enemies is fun, but fighting a whole boss is another story entirely. Some of the Bosorka bosses were easy to take down simply by having the right spells. Others, because of their ability to infect their environment, were extremely hard to deal with. One creature could make almost every inch of an arena completely hostile, making it nearly impossible to dodge any major attack.
The brooms themselves were an interesting set of objects. The default broom in Bosorka, designated as “Ordinary”, had an ‘amulet’ that granted the Wind Gust attack. It was activated by hitting the left mouse button. Secondary to that ability was the ‘Tornado’, a strong AOE activated by hitting RMB. The Storm Broom was much faster in comparison, and its amulet ability was Inroad Toad. The thunderstorm was the stronger spell, but Inroad Toad was fantastic for hitting swarms of enemies with little effort. Out of every spell available throughout Bosorka, it had to be my favorite.
Lastly, there was the ghost broom. The amulet ability, Swarm Dance, unleashed clouds of bugs at the enemy. It helped make a small area hostile to enemies for a short time. Ghost Broom’s special ability was Mirage, which helped Horpyna become invisible for a short time. It was extremely useful for getting away from a horde that’s become too much. It was the only broom ability to have no offensive traits whatsoever. Being able to unleash a flurry of critical strikes while invisible would have been pretty cool.
Because Bosorka is a roguelike, one must ensure they can survive for as long as possible. Make the wrong move, and Horpyna will have to start at the beginning of a level. Choose the ‘golden kitty’ rune, and Horpyna will have the great fortune of being resurrected at least once. Luckily enough, death is not the end for the witch. Make it far enough through a level, gathering relics along the way and unlocking a set of brooms with their own unique abilities.
The graphics of Bosorka were a wonderful sight to behold. The intro video was a fantastic animation with no object or character in it outlined in any way. It was as if one were watching a living painting flying across the screen. For having such a dark tone to the story, the color palettes for each of the three levels were surprisingly colorful. Seeing the animations for each spell was a treat as well.
Elements like wind and fire were represented by the colors green and orange, respectively. Bug-themed spells in Bosorka were typically associated with the color red. It helps a great deal when trying to figure out what specific abilities to enhance. Choosing the same spell over would exponentially increase its capabilities.
Accompanying the fantastic artwork of Bosorka was an intense set of music. When a battle broke out between Horpyna and any enemies, battle music would drum into one’s eardrums, provided the right headphones were plugged into the computer. Hearing music that carried such intensity, it was hard not to get psyched up to take on any enemies that came my way.
Bosorka was a fun ride through a roguelike adventure. The magic combos were some of the most interesting I’ve seen in a witch-themed game. Minion-level enemies were relatively easy to dispatch, no matter the chosen set of spells. The difficulty of some bosses made the title a little harder to enjoy but it felt so rewarding once they were down.
Bosorka is likely to be fun for anyone who is into roguelike titles. One of my biggest gripes with the game is how unbelievably short it was. Just as I was getting into Bosorka and all the spells I could wield, the game was over. Personally, I believe there wasn’t enough content for how amazing everything turned out to be. At $5.99 on Steam, it’s not a bad price for the magical adventure one can go on. Hopefully, developers choose to expand on the Bosorka story and add more content in the future.
