A charming game with surprisingly good voice acting even on side characters you will talk to only once ruined by a paywall you can get to in less than a day, slow combat with spell animations that get old after so many battles, a lack of players in a genre that requires other people, and archaic "go here kill x enemies and pray they drop the correct quest item after several battles" quest design the slow combat does not gel well with.

It is actually a very scummy practice to advertise a game as FREE TO PLAY to an audience of children, and not even have the first arc be free to play. For anyone with a fully developed brain, Gamigo being involved in this game should be enough of a red flag for you to run as far away as possible.
Nostalgia will only get you so far in an MMO that can't even hit 1000 players (according to steamcharts), your game has to be good too, not just remembered as good from memories you can't trust. The only players you will likely see are confused new players that have wandered into your fight by accident, or afk players spinning around for no reason in what feels like a dead world.

There is no reason for players to pay to even finish the first arc when you do not even do anything to get them hooked to play up to that point, unless you are a child that doesn't know any better. And that says a lot about the companies running this game.

The first few hours are crucial to keeping players invested, if the first thing you want to show a player is combat that gets really slow really fast, then they are not going to stay long enough to even know there is a paywall. And it really is a shame because I like card games I like the combat mechanics I like the charming and humorous world they set up.

I first played Wizard101 as kid, and my original KingIsle account dates all the way back to the 2009. As a kid, I used to play Wizard101 a lot, although I didn't get very far since there was -- and still is -- a limited part of the very first world that's already unlocked for free players.

Without having a paid membership or crowns (the premium in-game currency) to unlock the locked areas, you can't do much in the game story-wise beyond the tutorial and the Unicorn Way questline. Once you get to the Olde Town quests where you have to help fight off the mobs in Cyclops Lane, Firecat Alley, and Triton Avenue, you have to either have unlock those three areas with crowns (which you need to buy with real money) or have a paid membership.

That being said, the game is fun for people who are willing to shell out some money to enjoy the full game. The entire game has voice-acting for the majority of the characters, which adds to its charm. Admittedly, I do view the game with a nostalgia lens since I originally played the game as a kid. I can't really speak to how much the game has changed over the years, since I only recently got back into playing it a few years ago, and even then, I haven't played it constantly. As a casual player of Wizard101, I've definitely found enjoyment in playing it as someone coming back to a nostalgic childhood game.

Whether or not the paid membership is worth it really depends on how often you -- or your kids, or whoever else plays it -- will play the game. If the account you play on will get a lot of use, then yeah, go for it! But in my opinion, buying crowns is the better option either way, since unlocking a world's area will permanently unlock that area for every single character on the account.

wonderful