A Thief that casts spells…? Maybe a…. Rogue Wizard! – PC Review

After a successful Kickstart campaign, Spellbind Studios’ rogue-like dungeon crawler Rogue Wizards is available to everyone on PC and Mac through Steam or Amazon.  The game brings out a cute drawn art style which I enjoy in the sea of pixel art and retro themed games.  Without redefining the genre, Rogue Wizards does bring a few fun elements that made it stand out for me.

In Rogue Wizards, if you decide to play the story mode, you are a Banlit Thief (read Rogue) being recruited by an Elam due to your affinity for magic (read Wizard) in the hope of defeating the leader of the Elam Council that has been tapping into the different planes of magic so much that it is weakening the boundaries protecting the world, allowing monsters to cross over.

The story mode kind of takes a bit away from the rogue-like elements of the game, making it more a dungeon crawler by providing you a safe haven to store items, buy and sell items and the other basics of a town in any RPG.  As you go through the quests, you also unlock allies that will follow you along in dungeons, providing support spells and attacking with you. The story is pushed along by a string of quests making you visits the various corners of the world for various reasons, most being find an ally or stop an enemy.  The story offers a nice offset to the gauntlet mode which is more of the traditional rogue-like games.

Gauntlet mode is a quick mode for playing.  Following the traditional rogue-like dungeon crawler formula, you start at level 1 and just keep going through until you die.  Many merchants make it easy to dispose of your loot and stock up.  The one noticeable thing is that you can store items in a chest that lets you carry items over between characters, giving you a chance considering that the first few floors are harsh without equipment.

The game plays in the traditional grid system with a click to move.  The option to use the keyboard to move is also available but I personally got confused by it and much preferred using the mouse and clicking to where I wanted to go.  Survival being a key factor, one would often think that you need to upgrade your equipment all the time with better pieces you find in the dungeons but items have levels as well. The more you use the equipment, the more it will level, providing a new ability for each level.  This often factored my choice in gear as some abilities are much better than a few more points of damage or defense.  Spells are handled more traditionally in the sense that you need to spend skill points to learn them and higher levels need to be unlocked by reaching certain skill levels with previous spells in that tree.  There is no MP in this game, all spell casting are handled through item count, which is a double edged sword.  You have limited inventory space and the resources to cast spells take precious slots but the trade off is that spells are quite powerful.

Visually, the game is pleasing, offering a hand drawn look with fluid animations for all the characters, spells and monsters while sporting a wide pallet of colors.  The audio queues are also quite on point, from the casting of spells to the flapping of your owl companion all the way up to the music make for an immersive experience that is more relaxing than stressful despite the genre of the game.

I took the opportunity to record a run through of the gauntlet mode to display the visuals of the game and gameplay. The video is a bit lengthy as I didn’t expect to live that long.

All in all, Rogue Wizards offers a great experience for a rogue-like dungeon crawler. The story may not be a redefining the genre kind of plot but does make the game enjoyable if you crave something more than just a mindless journey to see how far you can go game.  The spells are well diversified, same as weapon type and their effects.  One thing that would make the game a tad more enjoyable for me would be the addition of character customization as the story mode shows multiple different characters with different skin tone and hairdo almost all using the same base model but that’s just a tiny detail from my own opinion… I mean, I’m the kind of person that bought every outfit option in Pokémon Y just to play dress up.