I'm pretty heavy into the spells and I don't know what's considered overkill for spell caster builds but, I've got 20 points into Spirit by the 5th episode. I got lightning ball really early but, didn't use it often until the desert levels. That's where I started to see a problem. In the heat of the moment when I'm outnumbered with lots of enemies that could kill me in a few shots, I had a stratagy in mind. I would run in the middle and cast the lightning ball for max damage. Sounds great, right? Except that sometimes it won't cast at all.

I got the mana and I have the spell selected. The first few times it happened, I thought "Does this area have an anti-magic field or something?" but, after it happening again in the military base with all the laser shooting giant robots, it really got me upset when I'm running in only to waste lives trying to cast the dang thing. Is this a bug or was my gut feelings right? I love the game so far but, that's probably my only issue. I've read other issues but, I couldn't find mine anywhere. Any thoughts?

Are you holding down the button to cast spells, or just tapping it? I remember having trouble with spells not casting on occasion, as I would click right mouse, see the start of the spell animation, and then... nothing. Holding down the button longer worked for me.

I know what you're talking about and that's not it. That issue has happened to me too. Lightning ball isn't an instant spell as you might think, the button must be held down for a bit. I would've put two and two together had I hear the lightning spell activate and then disappear. I've looked at that post and I can't say for sure. I've noticed that sometimes animations seems to get stacked like the double barrled shotgun. You'll be fighting, shoot someone with shotgun, then realize you need a different weapon because they're too far. Then after you switch back, the reload animation starts. That could cause input issues maybe but at this point, we're playing guessing games. I just ran into a different issue now that's game breaking and I got to look for a related post before I post it myself. I love this game but, the bugs are frustrating at times.

Actually, this is a bug I discovered some time ago. You can't cast lightning ball if you don't have any dynamite :D

It has the same check as bomberman spell.