Enchanted Portals Review: Not So Enchanting (PS5)

When I first saw Enchanted Portals my mind instantly flashed back to my wonderful time playing Cuphead in 2017. It was a challenging game to beat with numerous boss fights, a gorgeous art style, and fun gameplay. Truly an indie gem, which brings me to Enchanted Portals, a game that was heavily inspired by Cuphead. This inevitability was assured due to Cuphead‘s popularity, inspiring copies with new twists and takes on the formula. Sadly though, Enchanted Portals struggles to replicate the magic of its inspiration and offers little variety in its genre. It definitely captures the look of what made Cuphead unique but fails in almost everything else. 

Enchanted Portals is available on PS5, Steam, and Xbox Series X/S. 

Story – Basic but Colourful

When it comes to the narrative of Enchanted Portals, it’s not as fleshed out as other games. To put it simply, Enchanted Portals stars two magicians in training, Bobby and Penny. Whilst cleaning they stumble upon a magic book which they use to open up a portal to another world. This begins the game’s events with both magicians being pulled into the portal alongside the magic book and the cat. The rest of the game’s story involves the two magicians chasing after the magic book through numerous worlds. 

The story is told through its cutscenes which are really just static images with no dialogue written or voiced. Many games have used this format to tell stories however Enchanted Portals definitely missed the mark. It’s easy to understand but there’s just no interest in what’s happening by just looking at the image. Comparing this to Cuphead, even though it wasn’t voice acted, there’s dialogue from other characters making the narrative clearer and entertaining. 

This is an example of the static images used in the cutscenes

Gameplay – Needs More Polishing

On paper, Enchanted Portals looks like it would play similarly to its inspiration, however, it barely touches the basics. The overall level design struggles to stay unique with each level. Yes, each level has a unique theme containing plenty of obstacles, enemies, and patterns to manoeuvre through. But then it just starts repeating itself alongside increasing the difficulty by spamming a bunch of enemies at you. The jungle level on World 3 is a prime example of this where if you died, the level would reshape so that it seems new but with the same obstacles, sometimes increasing or lowering the difficulty of the section. Speedrunning through levels is somewhat impossible since a bunch of enemies will just spawn in, creating a one-sided scenario.

Enchanted Portals comes with numerous bosses including Beethoven for some reason

To make Enchanted Portals even more tedious, if you were to leave a world on the final level, you would have to start from the first level. I stumbled upon this when the game did not have a retry button available (luckily it was updated) and lost all my progress for World 2. One aspect of Cuphead I liked was that if I died, it would tell me how far I got in the level. This would let me strategise on what I could do due to me knowing how much was left. In Enchanted Portals, you don’t get that it’s just the level reset. Luckily it does send you back into the level quickly, even giving you the option to skip cutscenes. 

Controls – Slow and Uninspired

Enchanted Portals has you jumping from platforms, dashing over enemies, conjuring shields to protect you, meleeing obstacles, and using magic to defeat enemies. Sadly, these controls feel sluggish and at times unresponsive. For example, jumping comes off as floaty, making you miss the desired landing location or getting hit by a flying enemy/projectile. The shield feels useless at times, only working when stood still and lasting for a split second. Alongside this, there’s a recharge, making it difficult to pick the right time to use it in hectic situations. The melee attack is probably the most useless mechanic since it was only used in a handful of situations. It was never needed for most levels, making me wonder if it was worth having in the game at all. 

The second biggest gameplay mechanic is the shooting, which unfortunately falls flat. For the entire game, there are only three types of spells to use as projectiles. All three spells are similar since they do the same thing, pardon one which is slightly weaker as it splits into three lines. They’re themed after elements, red for fire, blue for ice, and green for wind. Some enemies have a specific colour surrounding them, making them invincible unless hit with the right spell. This is the sole reason for the colour coding, making them a lame addition with no real skill required. What’s worse is that if you want to change a spell, you have to stand still in order for the input to go through. Unlike in Cuphead where you can change on the go, Enchanted Portals completely kills any momentum and causes more chances to lose health. 

Not So Helpful Tutorial

The biggest issue with Enchanted Portals is that the tutorial doesn’t go through everything. In the first level, you are greeted with background illustrations that hint at what to do. However, it never gives you the exact control input, making it difficult at first. One example of this is with the melee attack, you are greeted with an obstacle but no way of knowing how to get through it. The image explaining what to do is located behind the obstacle but because there’s no button prompt, It took me a little bit to figure it out.

The Haunted Forest acts as both a tutorial and the first stage of World 1

Backtracking to the shooting mechanic, you are also never told what each spell represents. Throughout the game, I mainly used the red fire spell and wondered if the blue ice spell did more damage due to it not firing as many projectiles per second. However, after testing this on a boss, it seemed like there was no change in how long it took to get to the next phase, adding to my disappointment. They do provide a control map in the options which is very nicely illustrated in a storybook style. However, not everyone looks there and it would have been beneficial to have had button prompts for all the controls in the tutorial. 

Boss Battles – Where The Rage and Fun Begins

On a brighter note, boss battles are what Enchanted Portals get right. Boss stages seem to have the most creativity and work put into these battles. There’s plenty of variety in each fight with multiple phases changing up the gameplay. That said, there were some fights where I could just get through phases by simply staying still and jumping on occasion. Luckily it didn’t spoil the fights and I managed to get through every one of them with only some aggravation towards the boss.

The Space Cow was definitely my favourite of all the bosses

There were also unique animations for boss fights where you could get crushed by a hammer and your player model would reflect that for a few seconds. There was a similar one in the Beach Boss fight where you would get inked by the octopus and be blind for a few seconds. Like Cuphead, some boss fights allowed for unique fights where you drove vehicles. In Enchanted Portals, you’re able to ride a magic broom and at one point transform into a mermaid. I found these to be one of the highlights of Enchanted Portals. Honestly, I would have preferred Enchanted Portals to contain only boss fights with the occasional change in style like the boss chasing you. 

Graphics & Sound – Cartoon Magic

On to some positivity now since we’re on Enchanted Portals‘ greatest asset, the art style. This was the sole reason why I wanted to play Enchanted Portals since it reminded me of Cuphead. Visually it’s a treat, with every enemy design being unique and with that classic cartoon flair. Boss fights definitely have more imagination with different designs and phase transformation sequences. Certain phases of boss fights change the design of the playable character, matching the design of the theme. This could be from Anime to a stick figure-like design. I absolutely loved this feature and would have liked to have seen it on other levels too. The sound design is decent and achieves a fitting theme for each level. Whether it’s a spooky theme for the haunted forest level or a Sci-Fi theme for the UFO level. 

Enchanted Portals was reviewed on PS5 with a key provided by Perpgames.