Wizards War Demo Version

Wizard’s War is a game made with the RPG Maker XP engine. In it you play a young wizard who is trying to collect enough crystals to be accepted into the wizard tournament. Once you collect the crystals and win the tournament, then you're supposed to assume leadership of an army of wizards in their battle against a woman who killed her husband (the man who fathered the bastard twins that rule the wizard society.)

Unfortunately, I never got that far. I never collected any crystals, never got into the tournament, and never defeated the woman. I tried. God knows I tried. But I just couldn’t get anywhere in this game. Every time I found another wizard in town, he destroyed me almost instantly. Consequently, I got to watch the intro over and over…the same intro where you can see a guy standing there before the screen goes black to show the above backstory.

*Hint for game makers: If you want to have an intro scene in your game, use a character without a sprite as your starting party member in the database. After the opening scene you can change to someone with a graphic.*

Another thing that was strange was that the text had some weird formatting. For example, instead of using normal text followed by a dot dot dot the game uses caps and comma comma comma ie. “WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT THAT,,,,” That may seem petty but it was really just a glimpse of what was more to come (including spelling errors like “torniment”)

Once you get control of your character, you will probably notice that many things in the environment are interactive. One of the things I particularly enjoyed was the seemingly psychic piano that somehow spoke to me on multiple levels. Not only did it notifying me that I don’t know how to play it but the piano also foreshadowed what would be my experience with the game at large: “YOU DON’T KNOW HOW TO PLAY THIS.”

I found some wizard juice and after wandering around looking for the guy I was supposed to find I remembered how much I hate aimlessly wandering in Rpg Maker XP. Walking is slow and towns are so spread out that it’s difficult to figure out where you are supposed to be going. I found the npc Axyas and apparently the bar is set pretty low for teaching wizards because Axyas thinks I shouldn’t have any “probems” finding things.

My first death happened while walking through town. I tried speaking to an npc. It was a wizard who one- hit killed me before I could act.

Since my gender/element type didn’t work out so well last time, I restarted using a different combination. Instead of going male thunder/sky wizard, I figured I’d try playing as a female earth wizard. This time I spotted an exit to town and went outside where I encountered a random battle and was killed the first turn.

I realized that I had forgotten to equip my clothes so I decided to give it another try. This time I made sure that everything was equipped, that I had my wizard juice, etc. An npc said that the only place where I can save is an inn but when I get there I didn’t have any money. To get the money I tried talking to the sinister looking man in the inn and die again.

At this point, I was getting a little annoyed but I didn’t want to give the maker a raw deal by half-assing the game, not checking every single spot for healing supplies, money, equipment, etc. The next time I went fire wizard. I figured “Why not?” because every time I died, I passed a witches shop first and the only thing she sold was a fire spell. But then I realized it costs 2,000 platinum and I didn’t have any money.

Axyas, the teacher for beginners, had pointed me towards the “Thunder Hall” in the north. I checked every spot, I wore my clothes and my Wizard Stick. I enter the hall and was approached by a woman who initiates a battle. One hit wounded me. The next did double my max hp. Game Over. I surrender. I am a muggle.

I really wanted to get a foothold in this game. I thought, if I could just win a battle, maybe I could build up enough strength to get somewhere. But it never happened. No matter where I went or who I fought, I died. Then every time I died, I had to rewatch the intro and do the slow crawl all over town to recollect the items that didn’t save me last time.

I suspect that if I chose an element that was strong against another element and only fought that battle, I might have had a slightly better chance of winning but I don’t know. There might have also been one specific npc that you had to find and fight first but I didn’t see him (and the teacher wasn’t doing me any favors pointing me to him/her). Everyone I fought overpowered me immediately. If there was a different way that the player should go then the game needs to do a better job presenting that lone way that works because failing and watching the intro over and over then re-collecting the items just isn’t that much fun.

This game seems like it could be interesting if you are able to get a few wins under your belt but it's just too hard figuring out how to do that at the beginning. I'd be interested to see if others are able to make it in this wizard world.

Anyway, thanks for the game DeAndre!

2/5