So is this basically Magicka 3?

[Gadzooks]

Not that its a bad thing, I enjoyed the Magicka series... but from the trailer, its looks more or less the same.

Are there any features and mechanics that are different that stand out?

[Wyvernclaw Jack]

I was gonna ask that damn you.

[eobet]

So... Magicka was made by Arrowhead Game Studios and published by Paradox... this doesn't seem to have the same studio behind it, nor the same publisher, nor the same name.

It's basically a rip-off?

Because if it is an homage, it's quite close to the original game (and sequel's) release still, and it would have been sort of easy to change the setting to avoid being so uncomfortably close, I guess?

What's the real story here?

[Tintler]

no its not like magicka. you don't combine spells in this game

[Sombrero]

It's actually pretty different from Magicka. You can unlock up to 8 characters with each having 4 different versions that change both appearance and available spells. Each character starts with 3 spells and you unlock a new one you choose among 3 after each boss you defeat. Each spell you have can be used X times and recharge at Y speed and you can quickly swap between your spells.

Overall I'd say the gameplay is a bit faster paced and the game is a lot more charming in my opinion than Magicka is/was (I loved the concept, but it didn't felt as unique). Nine parchments has a very unique touch to it just like Trine did, the atmosphere is mesmerizing and the gameplay is really solid.

[Gadzooks]

Originally posted by Sombrero:

It's actually pretty different from Magicka. You can unlock up to 8 characters with each having 4 different versions that change both appearance and available spells. Each character starts with 3 spells and you unlock a new one you choose among 3 after each boss you defeat. Each spell you have can be used X times and recharge at Y speed and you can quickly swap between your spells.

Overall I'd say the gameplay is a bit faster paced and the game is a lot more charming in my opinion than Magicka is/was (I loved the concept, but it didn't felt as unique). Nine parchments has a very unique touch to it just like Trine did, the atmosphere is mesmerizing and the gameplay is really solid.

Thats for the more detailed and informative breakdown of the games features.

Could you also explain a bit as to whats going on in the trailer video, around the 22 second mark. It looks a lot like 2 players combining their spell beams to create a new beam attack. (and the same thing happening for the 2 casting a lightning style spell). That came across as a very "magicka" like feature from a visual perspective

[Sombrero]

Originally posted by Gadzooks:

Originally posted by Sombrero:

It's actually pretty different from Magicka. You can unlock up to 8 characters with each having 4 different versions that change both appearance and available spells. Each character starts with 3 spells and you unlock a new one you choose among 3 after each boss you defeat. Each spell you have can be used X times and recharge at Y speed and you can quickly swap between your spells.

Overall I'd say the gameplay is a bit faster paced and the game is a lot more charming in my opinion than Magicka is/was (I loved the concept, but it didn't felt as unique). Nine parchments has a very unique touch to it just like Trine did, the atmosphere is mesmerizing and the gameplay is really solid.

Thats for the more detailed and informative breakdown of the games features.

Could you also explain a bit as to whats going on in the trailer video, around the 22 second mark. It looks a lot like 2 players combining their spell beams to create a new beam attack. (and the same thing happening for the 2 casting a lightning style spell). That came across as a very "magicka" like feature from a visual perspective

Beams do work exactly like they do in Magicka. If two beams cross lines they fuse to create a new beam. It's worth noting that fusing two beams of the same element create an upgraded beam of the same element. For example two fire beams will set targets on fire instead of simply doing fire damage and so on.

There is several type of spells such as projectiles, area of effect, channeled etc. It seems that every of the 5 elements can be of any type of spell. Some characters are clearly more inclined towards an elemen. The two first characters seem to be for one the all-around character while the girl has a big healer aspect to her kit (many healer passive skills and healer spells to learn). Then you have the ice, fire, lightning, dark spell users and 2 last characters.

And yes there is experience, levels and skill trees. Each character has access to only one tree at first and two additional ones get unlocked when you unlock the variations of that character (which are unlocked through various mini achievements based on the character, the ice character will require you to do a lot of ice damage etc.). Items can be equipped, the staff gives pretty powerful passive attributes while hats are purely cosmetic.

I tried a bit both starting characters and they really feel super different to play even though they can share common spells and skills at time.

By combining all those elements you can create your favorite wizard or simply replay the entire game over and over with very different playstyles (all unlockables carry-over even if you restart the campaign).

And one quick note about difficulty settings. Hard mode has random enemy spawn mixing things up quite a bit (and is also actually hard, death can come extramly fast if you make mistakes) and hardcore mode features a permadeath system if the entire party is wiped out but is also the only way to unlock the ultimate variation of each character. The idea is that you have to do a specific quest with each character in hardcore difficulty to unlock their variation. Which also raise the level cap of that character to 60 (against 40 by default if I'm correct).

[Gadzooks]

Hmmm... items can be equipped you say?

Are we talking about a normal ARPG loot system like something from Diablo with items dropping from kills and chests?

[Sombrero]

Originally posted by Gadzooks:

Hmmm... items can be equipped you say?

Are we talking about a normal ARPG loot system like something from Diablo with items dropping from kills and chests?

No. It's actually simialr to Magicka if I recall correctly. You can find staves and hats hidden in the game, most are by doing specific things (killing a miniboss, solving a puzzle, finding a hidden chest etc.) and each staff gives a specific bonus while hats are purely cosmetic (unless some give bonuses but I doubt it). For example a specific staff can improve the number of charge of your ice spells and creates an ice burst whenever you use the blink ability (dodge mechanic of the game) while another staff improves your healing power and also give you health whenever you defeat an enemy. Equipment are basically unlockables that allow you to further customize your playstyle.

[sauliFB]

I haven't played Magicka 2, so hard to say how similar it is to Nine Parchments, but first one isn't really that similar. Nine Parchments is more like twin stick shooter with spells instead of guns and some Magicka inspired elements like beam combining and elemental effects.

[BlackjackGT]

Keep in mind Arrowhead had no involvement with Magicka 2, is no longer involved with that IP or Paradox and probably couldn't care less if another European dev wants to make an overhead mage blaster with friendly fire and screen lock and beam attacks (which Diablo 3 got fixated on as well). Probably they welcome it.

While I love Arrowhead's Helldivers and to some lesser extent Gauntlet, I never liked Magcika's combo system at all. Made no sense to me, especially frustrating on kb/m, couldn't get comfortable with it and aside from a few brief periods struggling to play it during free weekends, spent no time on it. I'm hoping Nine Parchments is more straightforward to play.

[Wyvernclaw Jack]

Originally posted by sauliFB:

I haven't played Magicka 2, so hard to say how similar it is to Nine Parchments, but first one isn't really that similar. Nine Parchments is more like twin stick shooter with spells instead of guns and some Magicka inspired elements like beam combining and elemental effects.

Sadly the rip-off effect is pretty close. If you post this trailer without the name, most will assume it's a magicka game. There's a lot of likeness, and sure there's few changes, but this impacts first impressions.

Curious how no one went "Is this too close to magica?" during development.
"Add jumping and quirky characters." doesn't change much of the look/feel.

[Gadzooks]

I just watched a stream of about the first 40 minutes of gameplay.

Originally posted by sauliFB:

Nine Parchments is more like twin stick shooter with spells instead of guns

What I saw was so slow paced that it hardly felt ANYTHING like a twin stick shooter. Its even slower paced combat than the first 30 minutes of Magicka 1. So in that regards, Magicka actually feels MORE like a twin stick shooter just because its a lot faster paced, with a much larger assortment of attacks you can do. (at least early on)

The "slow pace" might have to do with the fact that you have 1 spell, and a staff attack for a large portion of the first 20 minutes. Im fine with slower pace, especially in RPGs, but this game seems to lack many RPG elements needed to fill in the gaps.

It looks beautiful though. Id love to play a more in depth RPG game in this games world/engine.

[Darkness]

It reminds Magicka a little, with the overall theme, characters, and spell usage. But it doesn't have the Magicka gimmick, which was conjuring elements to compose spells.

Originally posted by Gadzooks:

What I saw was so slow paced that it hardly felt ANYTHING like a twin stick shooter.

The combat here is basically divided between, well, "combats". You trigger spawns, monsters appear, you have to finish them to continue. Indeed, it doesn't seem as fast-paced as most twin-stick shooters that throw monsters non-stop.

But considering the mechanics, where you have multiple spells and they have their own mana, feels really like you have mutliple weapons and they have their own regenerating ammunition, so maybe that's why it can be considered a twin-stick shooter (and of course, as you have the second analog for aiming... lol).

The combat can be very intense at times, depending on the combination of enemies. Having to blink, or at least to know when to use it or keep it for an emergency, is really hard.

As you don't really conjure elements in Magicka, and enemy reaction times seems to be better than Magicka in general, in the end it's actually more fast-paced than Magicka, imo.

[Sombrero]

Originally posted by Gadzooks:

I just watched a stream of about the first 40 minutes of gameplay.

Originally posted by sauliFB:

Nine Parchments is more like twin stick shooter with spells instead of guns

What I saw was so slow paced that it hardly felt ANYTHING like a twin stick shooter. Its even slower paced combat than the first 30 minutes of Magicka 1. So in that regards, Magicka actually feels MORE like a twin stick shooter just because its a lot faster paced, with a much larger assortment of attacks you can do. (at least early on)

The "slow pace" might have to do with the fact that you have 1 spell, and a staff attack for a large portion of the first 20 minutes. Im fine with slower pace, especially in RPGs, but this game seems to lack many RPG elements needed to fill in the gaps.

It looks beautiful though. Id love to play a more in depth RPG game in this games world/engine.

Then you watched a very slow player. Because the game can be extremly fast paced if you want to play quickly. And will be a good candidate for speedrunning. Reasons for that are automatically refill of health, mana and dodge after each battle. The fact that battles have a set number of enemies so if you find a quick way to get rid of them you can quickly move forward.

The only slow down there is it to find the secret quills and moving between battles but I think it participate to the pacing of the game. Having a game being only one thing 100% of the time always create pacing problems.

[EllaFB]

Originally posted by Wyvernclaw Jack:

Curious how no one went "Is this too close to magica?" during development.
"Add jumping and quirky characters." doesn't change much of the look/feel.

Magicka is a fair comparison as it was definitely an inspiration for Nine Parchments. We wanted to make a fun chaotic co-op game with a lot of action and friendly fire. And with smooth controls so you can enjoy the game even with controller and consoles. :)

We did receive a lot of feedback in events that on first look it looks similar to Magicka but in the end it's quite different. I haven't played Magicka that much myself, but one important difference for me is that I don't need to learn so many combos right from the beginning. And I can play this on my console! I know, this is an awful thing to say at Steam forums.

For some reason the twin stick mechanic reminded me of Diablo 3, even though the game is nothing like it. It's not as fast paced as Diablo as you can't just dash to the middle of enemies and burst figuratively into flames (well, actually you can as this is the strategy of one of our QA members). You can also jump and move while casting spells, so not similar in that way either.

It's interesting to hear your feedback, so keep'em coming! :)