The Case

Wizard of Legend is an action adventure rogue-like/lite from the hands a duo by the moniker of Contingent99. The game takes place in some other universe as most of this variety do, and this universe has magic. This theme is common but that doesn’t mean it’s old or boring, so I gave them the benefit of the doubt. In a typical run, you’ll enter a randomized dungeon with varying types of enemies. Bows, swords, and pike wielders along with different types of enemy mages make for a formidable dynamic enemy grouping. You clear the dungeon, or just rush to the boss, while collecting gold and crystals on the way. Gold is used during the run to buy relics, spells, and spell upgrades. There are also cursed items that provide benefits at a cost, like giving regen at low health, but reducing your max health. The game touts to be fast paced, action-packed, and have fun gameplay.

The Trial

The goal of this type of game, like most of it’s sort, is to just beat the enemies and get through to the end using whatever random spells and relics you might have at hand. The mini-bosses are tough, but fair, and consist of bigger tougher version of their smaller brethren enemies. The major bosses all are mages representing a single element, and they are truly rough to fight until you learn their patterns. Unlike most other games, the enemies change as you progress through the dungeon-like levels. New abilities, faster movement, and maybe even slightly smarter AI it seems accompanies these changes. Beating them up with spells is the best way to handle them, unless you’re in a room with a pit, you can throw them off it.

Once you’ve pummeled your way through all these enemies, you’ll have to puzzle out the abilities the bosses use and most likely struggle to finish them off without getting beat to death, which can happen all too easily. Ice appears to be the most frustrating as you have to wiggle the stick to break out, but you can be frozen the second after breaking free. Thus if an enemy freezes you with a multi hit attack, expect to get hit by the rest of it before you can get away. This is a moderate agitation, as you can quickly be murdered in a group or against the major ice boss for a single failed dodge. The only other damage in the game that gets really frustrating is actually play physical damage. Pikemen are the most annoying plain enemy in the game due to their extreme range and rather quick speed of attack. The farther you go, the harder everything gets.

There is at over a hundred different spells in the game, however a lot of them seem to follow a rather obvious theme. Jump and slam spells, AOE spells that work just around you, dash and hit spells, and projectile spells. Granted, the thematic variety is pretty great despite my generalizations. I found myself slightly disappointed when I realized there are only a few spells from each element in the Signature spell slot. These are spells that you can supercharge and deal huge damage with, but only when you signature meter is filled by dealing damage. Element variety can help take down different types of enemies in the levels and the relics boost damage, reduce cooldowns, and have other exciting effects. There seems to be almost as many relics, both cursed and not, as there are spells. These relics really boost the gameplay by offering small increases that really add up. The gameplay is fast and hard, and there’s a lot of dodging using a dash ability which has its own unique spell additives.

Even with all that there’s more in the game that tries to make you have a bad day. There are traps, not a lot of them, but a few types. These traps, coupled with room shapes and enemies, that can be bothersome by themselves, they will destroy you if you stumble into them unawares. I have personally been obliterated in a room with very basic enemies but very serious traps. This is done by getting stunlocked from being hit rapidly, or bounced around between hits. This element in the game can be pretty darn frustrating. There’s pitfalls in the game that can be just as frustrating. Just like enemies, you can also fall into these holes in the ground. It also happens sometimes when using certain types of spells, but you can’t run yourself into them without using a dash, spell, or by getting hit. Beating the game awards you with a chaos spell, which I’m sad to say I haven’t obtained. This is because I have never managed to beat the final boss due to never having either enough health or any regen mostly.

There’s also local co-op in the game, and it appears to work out splendidly. Players can compliment spells with one another, and effectively chain enemies into doom. Having a second player makes the game easier, but I’ve only had a little bit of play in this format due to not having a whole lot of people to play with at the moment. The game doesn’t change much with this, so there’s really not that much to say about it. With that, I can safely say this element to the game might be even better if it were online multiplayer, but what can you do. A few other aspects in the game are dealing with the shops, which are where you buy relics and spells in both the town and dungeons. There’s also a variety of cloaks which have different bonuses for you, not to mention nice colors!

The Verdict

The game contains a large amount of combat variety and with procedural generation the maps don’t get boring easily. The game is fast and exciting, which can be both delightful and punishing. The difficulty can be pretty intense the farther you go, and this increase can catch you off guard,  but not in a bad way. With loads of spells, relics, and even colorful cloaks to pick from, you can customize your starting build as much as you want. The action is the best part of the game, and you’re like me, you’ll be playing for hours without even realizing it. The game is well worth the price, and the team that made it should be proud. I’d like to see more added to it!