Mandragora’s Folklore Approach Explained

A member of the development team behind Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree recently revealed where the idea for the game’s medieval story came from. Mandragora is a sidescrolling, Metroidvania-like action RPG that tasks the player with saving the world from an encroaching alternate reality named Entropy by fending off monsters and leveling up their character through one of six playable classes.

Mandragora wears the influence of classic RPGs and Metroidvania-style side scrollers on its sleeve, featuring experience-based skill trees and backtracking through old sections of the map after the player unlocks new abilities or gains new items. The game’s world could easily draw comparisons to dark fantasy titles like Elden Ring and Dark Souls, with plenty of blood, grime, and gruesome creatures standing between the player and their next objective.

Game Rant recently interviewed Alex Pearson, Community Marketing Manager at Primal Game Studio, to learn more about Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree following its full launch on April 17. One of the first topics discussed was how the developers first came up with the idea for Mandragora’s story and setting, to which Pearson explained that the game’s two creative leads were inspired by a trip to Ireland back in 2016.

Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Inspired By Trip to Ireland

Pearson went on to say that Mandragora’s story went through many iterations before the team at Primal Game Studio came up with the version that players can experience today. Having legendary Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines writer Brian Mitsoda on hand as the Narrative Lead for the project certainly helped, with core elements like witchcraft, secrets, and corruption being part of Mandragora’s story from the start.

[Mandragora’s creative leads] were deeply inspired by Ireland’s natural beauty and rich folklore, which was then blended with influences from other mythologies around the world and elements they admired from their favorite games.

Alex Person says that it has been a rewarding experience to read players’ feedback from playing Mandragora, with certain characters already becoming favorites among the game’s fanbase. So far, Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree’s story has been considered by some players as a high point for being more direct and easier to follow than other titles in the growing soulslike genre. Mandragora features 60 playable quests, so there is plenty of lore for gamers to sink their teeth into if they wish to uncover all this dark world has to offer.