It seems that given the time since the release of Vampire Survivors that we’ve begun to shift out of the more “quick and dirty” phase where people are simply looking to grab a little piece of its success, and into a time where some developers are showing a little more care to differentiate themselves. Simply making yet another autofire dodge-em-up with roguelike elements isn’t going to cut it, especially since for the most part nobody has been able to capture all of the more nuanced elements that made the game a success in the first place. Instead, the better efforts are going down the road of Vampire Survivors plus some other element that will hopefully make the experience feel more distinctive. In the case of Wildkeepers Rising that happens to involve the addition of what are essentially pets to the mix.

Set in a world where particular individuals are able to partner with mythical beasts, you’ll start out solo on each run, but will quickly get the opportunity to summon one of the many creatures from your ever-growing stable. Each of them has their own core traits, behaviors, and potential for being powered up, so what you’ll quickly find is that each run has the potential to go quite differently depending on which you summon. Indeed, to some extent which character you choose is of lesser importance since you’ll eventually be able to summon as many as 4 additional creatures to help you out, and their combined attacks and power-ups will more often determine your success.

For the most part this all works pretty well, with you slowly branching out to tackle missions that will continue to unlock new creatures that you’ll be able to summon. There are some aspects that aren’t quite as encouraging though. The first is that in general the controls and speed of the game feel a bit sluggish, and early on this could be a little frustrating since your character can feel quite vulnerable when they don’t have any creatures in tow to help them out. You do get used to it, but whether it’s a performance or pacing issue, there’s no doubt that it feels a little slow. Another issue is that while I suppose there could be some excitement to see what creature you’ll rescue next, there’s not a great deal of pull to come back since the narrative feels pretty well discarded quickly. In addition, when you return to town the management of your equipment and meta progression unlocks feel like they were thrown together without much thought. You’re given zero guidance for any of it, simply needing to walk around and figure out what can be done and how to do it. The fact that what perks you gain are purely stat boosts, and nothing more interesting, also weakens the overall picture.

While I suppose people could latch onto the creature collection element and run with it, for people simply interested in the core action this works to a degree but doesn’t have as much staying power as some of its peers. The creatures and their powers are fun to explore and figure out how to abuse, but since quite a few of them simply feel less helpful than others, more often than not I found myself continuing to go with certain combinations, unconvinced that new ones would be more effective. There’s no question that the game has more of a casual-friendly appeal than the more hardcore variations on this formula out there, but it also feels like it could have used a bit more polish to help reach its potential.