Spells & Secrets combines the colour and monster bashing of Pokémon with the school and spells of Hogwarts Legacy.
I don’t know if anyone has ever asked for a crossover between Hogwarts Legacy and Pokémon but, boy, are we sure getting it. Spells & Secrets is a brand new roguelite that sees you explore Hogwa… errr, Greifenstein as you cast spells to rid it of Pokém… sorry! I meant to say miscellaneous magical creatures.
Visually, it’s more Pokémon than Hogwarts Legacy. Alone, or with a friend in co-op, you explore the magical school of Griffenstein from an isometric perspective. The visuals are pleasingly low-poly, and super colourful, harkening to the Switch era of Pokémon games.
As you explore you will encounter students, who you can duel Pokémon-style. That is when you’re not battling back various critters with your surprisingly varied pool of spells. There’s a basic attack, alongside pretty much anything else you could imagine. Reflect projectiles back with a bubble shield, spray enemies with a blast of ice, or pepper them with machine gun-like magic bullets.
Telekinesis also plays a huge part in proceedings, as you can throw environmental objects at enemies to hurt them, or even use them to block attacks. It’s a varied spell system that draws a lot of inspiration from Hogwarts Legacy.
Speaking of which, the school literally looks like Hogwarts. Naturally, it’s a lot more colourful than J. K. Rowling’s world, but the inspiration is clearly there. The only thing that threw me off, though, was the football pitch. As if witches and wizards would stoop so low as to play something as basic as football. Come on now.
If you’d like to check out this intriguing roguelite for yourself, you can go ahead and grab Spells and Secrets from Steam in a handful of hours when the game drops. There’s a demo available right now for those that want to try it right away though.
