Typing games haven't been relevant for about two decades, yet Textorcist manages to deliver a fresh new take on the genre and makes it feel fun and exciting. I just played through it and it was really fun, but it might not be for everyone.

This game combines the genres of bullet hell and typing games, and it's just as complicated as it sounds. You have to weave through complicated patterns of bullets using the arrow keys while you're typing exorcisms in latin using the rest of your keyboard. There are so many things you have to be paying attention to while you're playing and I absolutely love it.

The typing part of the game is also really fun. While most educational typing games make you write regular sentences so you can get used to the correct placement of your fingers while using the keyboard, Textorcist not only encourages you to try and type everything with just one hand, but it also makes you write prayers and exorcisms in latin. Which, you know, I don't think anybody of us could make use of that knowledge during their daily lives. It's a really fun parody on what the genre was originally about and I really like it.

The presentation is really nice. The sprites are really well done, and the bullets are easy to see and react to, with a few exceptions. Where the art really shines is in the demon design they use for the bosses. They all feel super gross and creepy and sexual, and it's great. It fits the theme of being an exorcist going through the underbelly of the vatican perfectly.

The story isn't anything too great, but it's serviceable. I thought the twist right before the boss was kinda cool, with the wife that's been talked about through the entire game showing up for a bit, even if just as an illusion. Let's just say the story's good enough to make you want to finish the game.

The game doesn't take itself too seriously though, with some intentional spelling mistakes and a bunch of silly jokes sprinkled throughout the whole playthrough, like the vegan metal band making you sing about beets and gardens to avoid their attacks, or Naples being a japanese-styled city for virtually no reason. I think the developers knew most people would only play the game to focus on the novelty of a bullet-hell-typing game, so they didn't focus too much on making a serious, heart-wrenching story. And that's fine.

Most of my problems with the game actually come from a design standpoint. The writing part is cool, and the bullet-hell part is cool, but they don't really mesh together at some points. Most people would find it impossible to type with one hand while moving the character with the other one (not me though i'm built different), yet the game gives you basically no time to breath and type your exorcisms. Moving while typing should feel like a cool extra skill you can do while playing, but instead it feels like something you're required to learn if you wanna beat the game. The UI is also atrocious. It's so small and cryptic, to the point where I didn't even know bosses had a health bar until about two thirds into the game. But other than that, it's a fun experience.

In conclusion: It's a fun game with a few problems. The core part of the game, the bullet-hell/typing game combination is there, and it's fun to play through. While the gameplay feels interesting and innovative, it might be too hard for some people and they really have no choice but to power through the unfair gameplay if they wanna see all Textorcist has to offer. Still, at 3 hours to beat the main story, it was a really nice experience. For me, it's an 8/10

I enjoy indie games because they are bold and experiment with unique gameplay ideas. I also sometimes dislike indie games because they are bold and experiment with unique gameplay ideas. The Textorcist falls into the latter column. The problem with this game is it combines two genres that are simply incompatible. It also doesn't help that the writing isn't great and the narrative didn't hook me in. Oh yeah and before I forget, the game's whole gimmick is you need to type EVERYTHING, even when interacting with the menus.

You play as a priest named Ray that has the power to exorcise demons by typing pages in scripture. Ray seems to be the only good priest in town as it seems that every other religious figure has fallen under some mysterious demonic corruption. The game is a series of boss fights where Ray exorcises his way to figure out what's going on in the city.

As you type away to exorcise the enemy, you are vulnerable to incoming fire. Unless you are some multi-tasking savant, it becomes an absolutely frustrating experience. I didn't find it fun at all to quickly switch between typing and dodging bullets. The best analogy is it's the gameplay equivalent of walking and texting at the same time. There is equipment you can wear to make the experience slightly easier, but even with these handicaps I still didn't find it very enjoyable to stick with this game.

The Textorcist could have had potential solely as a typing game but the bullet hell element completely ruins the experience.

Imagine a game that is a cross between Typing of the Dead and a story-driven bullet hell product + adding in the theme of demon spirits in modern time, you would get The Textorcist for starters. You play as a former Catholic priest and exorcist, who during his freelance service in modern Italy gets drawn in on a conspiracy, forcing him to fight a greater evil and face his buried past.

I notice already that the main experience lies in the boss battles, where you're have to evade the boss's varying attacks while typing in the sermons to do damage. Such demanding maneuvre will depend on your simultance capacity and keyboard familiarity, deciding your survivability and progression rate in the battles. Each battle is unique and will throw in some curveballs for you to solve, which helps keep the game fresh through and through. The wearable items you bring will affect your performance and abilities, ultimately altering your final score of each battle. Despite the unique gameplay mechanics putting the game on the map of action indie games, the story is put on focus and unfolds the background that has shaped what Ray and surrounding characters have become of.

Ultimately, this game is only worth checking out if you have bullet hell experience combined with keyboard memory, otherwise you'll have a hard time but might appreciate rough challenge to up your gaming skills. Besides that, the common theme of religious conspiracy, over-the-top exorcism and quirky characters make this game decently memorable, though I didn't feel like coming back to do extra challenges. In my level, it was about half-way I had to do retries on boss battles between a few and several patience-staking rounds but it was satisfying by a margin in the end, both in story and gameplay for the game's own indie scale.