Cordels & Spells Review

A Roguelite Built Around Brazilian Folk Literature

Cordels & Spells is a 2D action roguelite from Brazilian studio Supernova Games, set in a magical version of the Sertão, the arid backlands of northeastern Brazil, and built around cordel literature, the region's tradition of illustrated folk chapbooks and woodcut-style print art. Runs send a lone hero or a two-player co-op pair through procedurally arranged arenas, fighting toward boss encounters styled as "Commanders of the Sertão," while collecting Cordels, the game's build-defining perk system, each one explicitly modeled on a real piece of cordel literature complete with a short in-game description players can read in an in-fiction library. Enchanted Cordels layer unique attacks on top of a base kit of fast, frenetic 2D combat, with permadeath runs feeding into persistent meta-progression that unlocks new weapons, characters, and Cordels over time. It released on Steam on September 9, 2026, priced at $9.99, with local split-screen co-op, controller support, and Steam Achievements and Cloud saves.

A Small, Strongly Positive Launch Pool With a Few Detailed Dissents

Cordels & Spells launched quietly, with 21 total reviews across languages, 19 of them positive, for what Steam's small-sample system would classify in the strongly positive range. The overwhelming majority of that praise, in both English and Portuguese, centers on the same thing: the strength and specificity of the cordel-literature theming, which reviewers consistently single out as something they haven't seen attempted in this genre before. That said, two detailed Portuguese-language reviews marking the game negative are worth as much weight as any of the shorter positive ones, since they're by far the longest, most specific reviews in the entire pool, and they raise concrete mechanical complaints that the positive reviews mostly don't address at all.

Unique Art, a Playable Library, and Genuine Co-op Charm

The reviewers recommending Cordels & Spells keep returning to its cultural specificity as the reason it stands out. One Portuguese-language reviewer, writing as a fan of roguelite action games, says they were "immensely satisfied" discovering the game, praising the "genius touch" of having every in-game perk correspond to a real cordel from Brazilian folk literature, complete with a short description readable in an in-game library, and calling it clear evidence the team "made this with love." English-language reviewers focus more on tone and feel, with one calling the art style "nice" and "unique" and describing playing "a lot" of it with a partner, and another highlighting the visual presentation specifically, noting how "images popping from the book to become the playable stage are super cool." A co-op-focused reviewer calls it "a great fast-paced coop game to play with a friend," acknowledging it's "a little difficult at the beginning" before the starting-village upgrades make runs more manageable. A fourth reviewer praises the weapon variety as "very interesting" alongside a real sense of challenge. Across the positive pool, the throughline is less about deep systems and more about presentation: a small team translating a specific, under-represented regional art form into something that feels lovingly, distinctly made.

Stiff Combat, Aim Limits, and a Co-op Mode That Isn't Actually Online

The two detailed negative reviews, both from Brazilian players who bought the game specifically to play together, raise a cluster of concrete complaints that stand in sharp contrast to the shorter positive reviews. The most immediate is a mismatch between expectation and reality: one reviewer explains they purchased the game believing its co-op was online, only to discover it's local split-screen only, which they acknowledge was partly their own assumption but flag clearly for other buyers. On the combat itself, that same reviewer describes the moment-to-moment feel as "quite stuck" (travada), with balance that felt off in two-player runs, a limited aim arc that leaves the player unable to respond to enemies approaching from directly below, weapons that run low on ammunition quickly, heavy-fire weapons that feel both slow and weak by comparison, and a dash that takes too long to recharge against enemies the reviewer calls "ridiculously fast." Because the two co-op characters share collision with each other in the game's tight arenas, that reviewer says the whole co-op experience becomes noticeably harder to manage than solo play, to the point of requesting a refund despite genuinely liking the premise. A second reviewer, playing with her partner and reaching the same conclusions independently, calls the gameplay repetitive, the soundtrack pleasant at first but grating over time, and specifically criticizes the dodge-roll's cooldown timing as getting in the way more than it helps, adding that runs don't produce a meaningful feeling of the character growing stronger between levels. Both reviewers are explicit that they consider the story, art, and central concept to be genuinely strong, and frame their critiques as constructive rather than dismissive, but both concluded the game currently needs more polish before its combat systems match the ambition of its presentation.

Verdict

Cordels & Spells succeeds completely at what almost nobody else in the roguelite genre is attempting: building a real, specific piece of Brazilian folk literature and regional identity into every layer of its perk system, art, and lore, and its launch pool rewards that ambition with a strongly positive reception from players charmed by the concept and the two-player local co-op. But the small handful of detailed critical reviews in the pool, all from players who engaged deeply enough to complete runs and articulate specific frustrations, describe stiff and unbalanced combat, a restrictive aim arc, ammunition-starved weapons, and a co-op experience made harder rather than easier by shared hitboxes in cramped arenas — complaints the shorter, more enthusiastic reviews largely don't engage with. At $9.99, it's a reasonable gamble for players drawn specifically to its cultural hook and willing to overlook combat that multiple detailed accounts describe as needing real refinement, but it's not yet a combat system polished enough to recommend on mechanics alone.