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Ill start with what I like:
* I like many of the arcana, especially the wind basic arcana. Was fun zooming into opponents and doing a one two, and makes the game alot more fast pased than if you dont have it. Some of the other ones felt nice too like the rock kick. I like the idea of the water yoyo, but I will talk bout that one later. Some of the returning ones, while slower feeling, are just as fun, such as shock assault. I'll go more into it later. I do also like the signatures and them being easier to charge than last game, due to how this games combat works, talk more bout that later too.
* Signatures don’t degrade nearly as much as the first game, making them being used much more often than the first game. This is probably the biggest improvement to the sequel compared to the first game, as signatures feel much more impactful than the first game, especially for how the stagger system works in this one. Most of the signatures themselves are also really good. The only ones I’ll say feel underwriting are the ice one and the wind one, but they do have good aoe and status effects. The lightning one and earth ones are by far the best and most fun ones to use. The fire one is alright, but probs the worst normal arcana to use. I hear that the animation doesn't give i-frames when using signatures, but other than the wind one, this doesn't seem to be the case for me.
* This may be a bit of a controversial one, but I like the spell upgrade system. Theres the basic give spells bonus stat up, and the enchanting it into a better version. I'll talk about the enchants later, but I'll say that there are some fun ones like dragon dance and rock assault. I also like that standard arcana can become second ultimate arcana through evolutions like shock assault, making them give a signature attack when the bar is full. Overall, I do like the system, but not all are balanced equally. Ill talk bout this later. I do like the stat bonuses too, especially giving the wind basic crit up. They are a bit underwhelming though and are only got through random chance. You can buy some evolved ones in the shop too, which is nice I guess. Overall, pretty neet.
* I’m not sure how to feel about the cursed relics, but I think I like them? They're kinda generic so far, but its a demo, so I understand. I do like that there are chaos enemies in the portals to get the cursed relics though. I like the concept of the chaos enemies and I feel like this is something the first game could have, and I like having the cursed relics be a bit balanced by having you work a bit for them. Don’t get me wrong, they’re cursed relics, but some of them are just strictly good with almost no downsides so its neet putting a bit more effort to get them. Wish there was a bit more to it, but again, a demo. Do also like that chaos enemies can randomly take over a standard encounter. Reminds me of risk of rain 2 a bit, in a good way.
* I like fighting optional minibosses. They’re no joke some of the funnest bosses in the demo. You'll rarely see them, but if you do, they’re neet. Except the chest one, but well talk bout em later.
* Umm..... I like that only pots give you gold and resources so you don’t have to individually break every breakable in the dungeon... I’m not sure how true that is, but it seems to be a higher chance for pots specifically.
* Anything else? I guess I like the concept of seeing the final boss at nearly the start of the game? At least I'm assuming hes the final boss since thats what they said in the dialogue.
* This is really oversaid and I don't think it's that bad, but... The graphics. They re okay, but honestly really remind me of a copy pasta of Hades. Other than that, they’re not horrid, they work. But I would’ve either preferred an extension of the pixel graphic or something more unique looking. I feel like a 3d art style could’ve worked. Just look at risk of rain 2, Originally a pixel art game, then transformed game entirely, but kept the basic. And people do like risk of rain 2. They can make it work, they just haven’t seem to have done it.
* The characters and writing. Id rather not dive deep into them, so to keep it short. I don’t mind the tournament guy, the architect can be okay. But everything else, even the things I just mentioned, can be kinda cringe. Its not the worst I've heard I guess, and can sometimes be charming, but usually is kinda eh. My problem however, is the repeating dialogue. For instance, every time you do a certain action, like killing an elite or obtaining a relic, the commentators would say something. This is neet and can sometimes lead to somewhat interesting dialogue. However, they can also commentate on stuff like breaking pots or getting gold. Therefor, these guys will not only never shut up sometimes, but will also CONSTANTLY repeat their dialogue. I have went insane hearing the witch lady chastone me in a non joking manor EVERY SINGLE TIME I break a set of pots. It would go to the point to where I would hear the same exact lines for the pot breaking at least 5~6 times per run depending on the lead commentator. Theres a reason I don’t hate the tordament guy and the architect, because they don’t always say the same exact things. I wont dive more into it since its the least gameplay focused thing, but other than it making me go insane, it meh, moving on.
* Some of the most generic maps ever. Will usually be one path with some paths that lead to one room hordes, a side boss, or a shop. The main path is known through some sparklez that lead to the end. There are probs at least 4-5 manatory horde rooms from the start to the end of the dungeon. A few of them will have an elite enemy or two to make things different. There might be a portal to a cursed relic trial or a tourdament where youll fight either multiple elites or a miniboss. The end will either have nothing the first time, heal the second time, and both shops the third time. There also will be one relic choice at the start, and there will be chests and arcana upgrades. The chests will either have curency, (both types), some healing, and/or a relic. I spent all this time explaining all of this to tell you that this is very generic and alot worse than the first game. The fact that the dungeons are alot more generic and samey than the demo to the first game should say something itself. I dont want to also explain the first games map in great detail or we be here forever, but basically, the dungeon is a whole lot bigger and randomizes all of its paths and rooms. Every floor has a mini boss to fight to get to the next floor so the end actually has some more trial to finish the floor on so theres actually a fun end to the floor. The game doesn't tell you exactly where the end is, so your basically required to explore unless you have the map relic, and to profit from this, there isn't just a side path that leads to one reward every bit and then, there can basically be whatever anywhere and its up to you to figure out your options based on what rooms you can go to. To be fair, the first wizard of legend, you can basically just mindlessly wander around in the early sections and eventually get what you want and there isn't really a strategy to reach the end quicker without the map, so I can see that as a flaw with the first games floors, but that doesn't mean the game should dum its floors down so its basically a straight line that has bonus rewards if i go left for a minute then go straight back on the path. And to continue a bit more, why isnt there a map? Once you get to the end of the floor, you can teliport straight back there from anywhere on the floor. If you wanted to find a shop you were saving for to get that one relic or spell or wanted to pickup that spare healing orb, gotta backtrack and check every room if you dont know exactly where it is. At least you can teliport back quickly from anywhere, so I guess thats the latter half done? For being a sequel to the first game, there doesn't seem to be much of anything besides the basics that these games share map design wise. I could also explain more about gold being stingyer and thus having less kit than in the first game purly because of the map size, but I dont want to go any deeper, since theres alot more to cover, and I want to sleep. Anyways, if there was something that if the devs only took one things out of this quick review, I'd be happy if it was just this.
* The bosses and combat in this game are different. This is probably my most nitpicky part of this review, but lets go anyway. Lets start with the combat first to explain the bosses better later. Specifically with either boss enemies and elite enemies, they will have a bar below their health that will go up as you use attacks on them. Once it fills up to max, it will show that they are staggered and they will be vulnerable to damage for a little amount of time. I don’t personally like this mechanic much compared to the first games stagger. Its more complicated and in my opinion, takes away a bit more of what I like with the first games boss combat. To make it short, bosses in the first game always had a set attack amount they did before giving a window of stagger. When you hit them during this window, they will be staggered and have a certain amount of stars over their head depending on what they were staggered with. You can have them gain stars or lengthen the time it takes for the stars to go away (I’m not going to mechanically research exactly which one it is since I'd rather not this be any longer than it is, but I bet it's one of them) and the amount the stun will either decrease or the amount you can increase the stun will decrease/increase for how long the boss is stunned (again, not going too deep into this, so idk which one exactly. And also, If I’m wrong about how wizard of legend 1’s boss stagger mechanic works at all or if I’m missing something, please tell me since I'd rather not go too too deep with super mechanical stuff and know exactly how everything works before giving my personal opinion, thanks.) This mechanic's whole thing is the opportunity to get your full combo off for a super satisfying combo of spells and frequent enough to where its constantly satisfying and your constantly being able to use you spells as effectively as you can. Now I know that this new system isn't bad. It does encourage you more to do more risky plays than the first one, and i do think that this system can work, its just that there are some problems with it and those problems make me prefer the first games boss stagger more. Those problems being that the stagger is very in-balanced. You see, there is a specific boss in this demo that perfectly shows all my problems i have with this games boss stagger. That being the stupid Fera-Torr clone boss. Or the ogre ill call it for short. You see, bosses attack patterns in this game are very different from the first game. Elites are basically the same from what I can tell, they just pause instead of giving a stagger window like the last games mini bosses. The main bosses however act a bit differently. This now sounds very obvious, but imma mention it anyway since i wrote the earlier stuff anyway just for this stuff, so lets go. So when the boss does an attack, they will pause for a moment, the time differs between each boss, and then attack again. The attack will be ranged or melee depending on your distance to the boss. This isn’t a major problem, but I personally think the pause times should be a bit longer because some of these attacks can be kinda mean. Especially with some of the bosses, there is little choreographs for when they are doing certain attacks, especially melee attacks. This can be a problem with the ogre boss with him constantly using melee swings anytime your trying to up his meter, it can catch you of guard many times before getting used to it. Doesn’t help either that he has another melee attack that he slams into the ground and then slowly has the green stuff go forward (idk why its green, but its see-able so I guess it works) to where if you dash backwards, it’ll hit you most likely, so your best bet is to dodge to the side when dodging ogre melee. Another boss imma bring up to help show my point sis the lightning mid boss. Since his little ring attack he does as his melee goes as he does a dash, pauses for a tiny time, then does an orbiting boomerang lightning attack. Probably the second meanest attack a boss can throw at you, especially for newer players that would assume that very brief pause would be longer and would be an opportunity to attack (defiantly wasn't something I did myself a few times). So why am I bringing this up. My main problem is the best way to dodge any boss attack, especially their melee attacks is to abuse dodge i-frames. For all of the boss attacks that I mentioned, I would normally tell myself that its just skill issue and that I should just learn their patterns better and defeat them once I've done that. Even if all of that is true, (I wont lie), I personally feel like learning their attack patterns turns into just learn what attacks give you time to up the stagger bar and press space at the right time when the enemy does their attack. And since I’m up in their face most of the time, they will mostly do only their melee attacks and move twords me or do maybe one dash to the side, so especially with the earth mid boss, if you are rushing him, he will ALWAYS only do his one two dash punch, or his 5 punch attack, and if you don't kill him fast enough, he will maybe do his aoe earth signature. Ive only seen him do his drill spam and his other moves if he is at a distance from me when I retreat to far from his melees. The i-frames abuse being basically the best choice is perfectly shown with the lightning bosses lightning chain attack, as with the slower movement in this one that the first one, and that the area to get to the safe zone is a long distance that I’m not actually sure you can get to unless you already knew exactly where it was going to be, so instead of dashing to the safezone and taking damage, just abuse i-frames until he is finished, then go back to getting his stagger bar up. Just one other thing I want to mention about bosses, especially with the ogre boss, if you don’t have the right spells or the right spell combo prepared for staggering elites, especially against the ogre boss, then these boss fights become alot more of attrition fights where you poke the boss and sloowwly get his meter up til you finally get the stagger so you can use your combo. Someone else explained this perfectly where it just turns into dodge, attack, dodge, attack, dodge, attack, etc. This can make a fight last much longer and in my honest opinion, less fun. Also, last thing since this is super long and this has been going on too long, the chest optional boss stinks Its water ball attack has basically none and is annoying as all to dodge, it spams homing air tornadoes, and by the time one of these attacks are done, it can already have another one at the ready, or even before the first attack is even finished. Basically all I think would need to be done to make boss combat funner would be make the stagger bar be slightly easier to raise and have the stagger time last a bit longer to have it be more in line with he first games stagger. It should also have the stagger meter lower slower since especially with ranged kits, it can take a really long time to stagger a boss effectively. Also make bosses not repeat the same attacks based mostly on your distance to them. Have them dash more to evade you if you must, just let them use more of their attacks. And lastly, make these bosses have a bit better indicator for when they will attack. Thats it, now onto the next point. If there was something in this long page of text that seems wrong, tell me since I wanna move on.
* The rougelite elements are really generic. First off, the weird orb in the top of the hub basically is your basic rougelite make game easier with currency thing. Want a ton of starting money? There you go. Want extra hp, you got it. Want more loot from destrucatables? Sure, there you go. Want to dash above pits? Sure thing buddy. Basically some very generic, 'make game easier' options. Can't say I enjoy this, and can't say anything more since I never used it, but I’d assume that it’d make the game a whole lot easier, especially the max hp one. Same with the robes as they are alot more generic than in the first game. The only two robes that wernt just minor buffs or something that only mattered at the start were the signature charge one and the damage one. Those ones I could see in the first game, but still could be better, since at lease the signature charge robe in wizard of legend 1 has at least two buffs and not just one. Also, just a pet peeve, but hope they make the red robe actually give a buff after getting other robes like the first game so its not just useless. Thats it, there ain’t much compared to the nightmare paragraphs above.
* The arcana and their 'enchants'. Just to keep this short since I already explained it above in balancing a bit. I will say, I do like many of the arcana. Some of them being from the first game, some of them are new. And as I said, I like about half of them, the other half are kinda meh though. A pattern you will see with many of the 'new' arcana. Lets take the fireball basic for example. When you use it, just a basic fireball combo. Okay, guess its new, kinda seems a bit more generic than before. But then you find its enchant, and its literally just the fire yo-yo basic from the first game. As you will see, many of the current arcana are just downgraded versions of a first games arcana, then they have an enchant that just brings them back to form. I can understand why they did this, as theres theoretically alot of arcana in the full version, and at least twice as many enchanted versions. So I can understand that part, but still feel kinda lazy. I would prefer they either just bring back the arcana and make better enchanted versions of those, or just focus on making more new arcana.
- Refuse to lock onto the target leading the orb to spin around aimlessly or stall for a second before listening to more commands.
- Lock onto something out of its range, making it so its pointless to attack with it more at it will struggle to find anything since its out of anythings range.
- Miss the target you are trying to hit, having it spin around a few times before it either comes back to you or tries to attack the enemy again.
Now I’m sure that this can be attributed to some lack of skill in using the yo-yo, as it is fundamentally different than all the other basics in both wizard of legend 1 and 2. However, with how the lock on system ‘functions’, the water yo-yo suffers the most, making it the most inconsistent basic in the game for little reward as its damage and stagger are not all that great. All I can recommend for you if you do use it is to stay at a consistent range and click in a slower rythem to have it consistently hit the opponent in front of you. However, this still isn’t perfect, as if you fighting farther or multiple enemies, the problems above can happen more frequently, making this basic also the most terrain specific out of all the basics in wizard of legend 1 and 2. This isn’t even mentioning that it just ends if it hits any unbreakable terrain, making less open and wally areas detrimental for this basic. To summarize my experience with this arcana, even though this arcana’s concept is very fun and unique and was fun when it worked, it was mostly me fighting then yo-yo, hoping that it wouldn’t screw me over and just decide to do its own thing. This arcana is awful and perfectly shows my hate for this lock ons inaccurate systems. Please improve!
* The Hub. This one short, but hub boring. You cannot talk to any of the npc other than the five basic ones and maybe the broom stuff. You could talk to so many more people in the first games 1 courtyard than in this games 3 rooms. Sure, there is more diologue, but I would love to talk to anyone else besides the people hosting the trials. Maybe would give more world building to these people that are eventually gonna die anyway. Also, the closet and spellbook being right before the portal and not in a spot where it would make sense to change clothes and change spells is weird. You could also do this in the first game, but they were located in both the courtyard and dormroom. Thats it, way shorter than the other things.
- I will mention this again. No map. Would love a map in a dungeon crawler.
- When you change the volume settings and exit the game and reopen it, the settings only apply after the loud intro. My ears hurt and would prefer the whole experience to be quieter.
- When I change the controls, the UI that displays the button to press to interact or use the arcana doesn't change. So if you change interact to r and your artifact slot to f, the interact button UI will still be f and the 5th arcana slot button will still display r. This is a simple thing that messes with my brain and thus forces me to keep the default controls. Please fix.
- I miss the dash arcana. They’re relegated to being a relic now. Other than wondering if you can stack them, I do miss them dearly.
- The basic arcana upgrade crystals let you choose a basic Stat upgrade for one of your spells, a total of three options, with one being free, and the rest being 25-50 gold. Now, my problem with this one is that you can't opt out of choosing an upgrade once you click on it. So if you are short on gold or maybe want to save the gold just in case a shop shows up with a good relic, you can't exit and save the crystal. Now maybe this would be fine and could see this maybe being another thing to manage, if it weren't for the fact that if you want to find it again, you have to backtrack to each room until you find it again since again, no map. Not something big, but pet peeve I had with the upgrade system.
- There should be a relic encyclopedia. I cannot tell you much about the relics because I just straight up remember very few of them and wish I could have a list to look at them in game.
- No I frames after being hit. This normally isn’t the biggest deal. The first game had this as well. However, since you have significantly less hp than the first, knockback is less of a thing, and bosses have attacks that hit you alot of times very quickly, (the earth bosses drill attack and the lightning bosses disc attack), this can lead to some fairly unfair damage taken and possibly being one shot at full hp. Please make this a bit nicer.
- For some reason, if an enemy, mostly bosses, gets hit with several attacks in a quick succession, (this is mostly speculation since I’ve only replicated this once with air aoe and earth aoe spells), the game and enemy with slow down drastically, making their attacks off in their pattern. Idk if this intentional or not, but I mention it anyway.
- Please explain the stagger meter in game. I’ve seen many people just simply not understand how to stagger bosses in this game and a quick explanation would help these players immensely against bosses.
- Alot of people complain about this so I’ll mention it here. The game is much slower feeling the first one. Your character moves slower and dashing feels like it lasts much longer and it takes longer before you can dash again. Its not a huge issue to me since it still works and the game is still pretty fun anyways, but should be mentioned anyway.
- Melee is by far superior compared to range in this game. Especially in boss fights with stagger, melee attacks will almost always fill the stagger meter more than any range projectile at a range, (the only exception I can say is air arrows to face, but that should be clear), and the fire ultimate arcana hurts the most from this. This is a balancing issue that should likely be fixed.
- The ogre boss when he does his throw boulders and fire every 1/3 hp loss, when he jumps in the center, his stagger meter will never increase until he jumps again at the end of his frenzy. This is very awkward and clunky and honestly, is very silly. I understand the reason why but still very silly.
And those are my main thoughts on the demo. Overall, I do like this game and do think its pretty fun, but I do see alot of problems with it and for now, prefer most things from the first game. Even if this is a demo, it does reflect on where they play to take the game, so I think its fair to compare this to the first, at least to a certain extent. And I do like thing in this demo, and hope they keep and improve on those elements, as it still is pretty fun and does captivate me. However, these things don’t make me ignore the things that just seem worse or more generic than the first game, having it lose plenty of its charm that the first one thrived in. I hope they take some of the feedback and evolve what they have and not just repeat the first game like what many people in the general discussions seem to want. Anyway, I tired and want this quick review to be over, so I'll stop here. If I got anything wrong or if theres anything more you want to say, just comment below and tell me something.
Oh yea, almost forgot:
6/10
For ranged you generally don't need to interact with fights at all and can abuse I frames while chucking spells across the field.
Melee has to actually interact with the boss mechanics and find moments to throw in damage when they're finally not being barraged with attacks.
I said that I didn't notice any of the signature attacks having no i-frames. This is mostly true. However, if you evolve/enchant the earth aoe spell to have a signature attack, that one won't have i-frames during the animation. I don't know if they're may be any others, but this is one to note.