What would happen if Scrabble, a Suika game, and a roguelike had a baby? Lexispell is the answer!
Players are presented with a cauldron that is full of letters in bubbles, and the idea is to create the highest-scoring word possible with what letters you’ve got in hand. The main game asks you to clear 12 rounds within a certain word limit to reach a set score. If you need more letters, you can ring a bell to drop more into the cauldron, but you cannot overfill the pot. As matching letter bubbles touch, they’ll merge and grow bigger, just like a Suika game. The points the larger bubble will score also increases, too.
At the start of each run, getting the longest word is best, as each letter brings a letter score, before a multiplier is added to the mix. Between each round, a shop presents scrolls, runes, and items to buy with the in-game currency earned by reaching the target score quickly. Scrolls are incredibly powerful, and there are lots to choose from. Some will increase the letter score of certain letters, or add a multiplier to specific word lengths. They can also offer bonuses for words that start or end with specific letters, or create palindromes. Runes usually relate to bonuses when you ask for more letters to be dropped. You only get a few drops per round, but these give you chances to have gem letters, which are worth more points, or the chance to have bonus letters drop. Items are single-use only, and usually let you change the status of a letter or add a wildcard bubble to make a word. You can buy and equip up to 10 scrolls, 6 runes, and 3 items, and over time, this may change what makes the highest scoring word. Maybe aiming for an 8-letter word to get the 3x multiplier is better than a 9-letter word.
Every third round is a boss battle. There are over 20 bosses, and each one brings a new rule that will disadvantage you. Most of the time, bosses limit your bonuses, such as removing all points from vowels. Sometimes bosses reduce the letter pool or make the Suika growth much larger, so there is less room to play with in the cauldron. This is where Lexispell’s main game difficulty comes into play, and it keeps the game fresh as you’ll get assigned bosses at random each run. That said, Lexispell’s base game isn’t terribly difficult. It comes with three difficulty levels that inflate the score threshold required.
The hardest mode of Lexispell is the frantic timed mode. In this variation, there’s only one round, and letters keep pouring into the cauldron. All players need to do is keep matching words as fast as possible using all the letters in the pot to keep it from overflowing. If it stays at the brim for five seconds, it’s game over. The online leaderboard is a great hook to keep players returning back for more. It is both stressful and fantastic. A non-timed mode for relaxed gamers is also available, and is worth it for practicing for the leaderboards.
The way Lexispell balances a word game with roguelike elements is well done. It isn’t overly complicated and could be a great gateway title to see if you fancy going deeper into the genre. My two minor niggles are that scoring words takes a while in the main mode (although you can speed this up in the options) and Lexispell has inconsistencies in its rules about pluralisation, the use of people’s names, and sensitive words like genitalia. Once you get used to its dictionary, however, Lexispell will keep you amused for hours. A run takes about 40-45 minutes if you win, and you’ll be replaying the game to see all the bosses and variations for a while. Enjoyable.
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