Wizard of Legend 2 is, in many ways, like a fireball - it starts with a bang, makes one hell of an impact, and then it just kind of fizzles out. A real shame, but at least it's a blast while it lasts! Greetings and welcome friend, I'm Ash and let's begin by immediately addressing the most common criticism I've seen among Early Access reviews: the performance issues and constant crashing. So is the launch version just as bad? Thankfully, no.
In fact, in my 16 hours with the game I've only encountered a single technical problem, though it was a recurring one. Sometimes, when the game is loading in a ton of enemies, there can be a brief stutter. It's nothing too major as it appears rarely and 'stuns' both you and the enemies, but I'd still like to see it get fixed, and soon. Aside from that, Wizard 2 ran without a hitch. I had no FPS drops, no crashes, and most impressively of all, no gameplay bugs of any kind. It just worked.
Video version of this review (~13 minutes)
Not your grandpa's wizard
I never tried the first game, but what I can say is that after playing the second I can definitely see why people got hooked. These aren't your grandpa's wizards that spend all day wearing bath robes and pondering their orbs. These are martial arts wizards that fly all over the place, shoot dragons out of their wrists, and are just as likely to have a fistfight with boulder-hands as they are polite conversation. Or in other words, they're kinda badass!
It takes a little bit of time to wrap your head around the myriad of different spells, and especially the movement system, but once you finally get there playing Wizard 2 becomes a truly unique and exciting experience. I'd say this is because the combat is both fast and slow paced at the same time. You have to move around constantly as the enemies deal a lot of damage, yet at the same time you have to be careful and time your attacks well because many spells have a little bit of a delay built into them - not enough to be annoying, but enough to make it so you can't just roll your face on the keyboard and hope for the best.
The combat is sort of like a dance, and once you're in the right rhythm you can not only smash through hordes of enemies, but completely humiliate them! Yet at the same time, even brief lapses in concentration can potentially spell your doom. I found it to be just the right kind of difficulty - the kind that constantly keeps you on edge, yet still allows you to overcome even seemingly impossible odds just through skillful spellcasting.
When in doubt, douse it in fire
The art of spellcasting
Said spellcasting is, unsurprisingly, easily the most interesting part of Wizard 2. At the start of a run you'll be able to choose four spells out of, lord knows, how many are actually available. One for your basic attack, one for your dodge ability, one that will serve as your ultimate, and one that's just happy to be included. Some of these spells are melee-focused, some are defensive, some let you crowd control enemies, and some do insane nonsense like throw a giant bowling ball that bounces all over the place. There's a solid variety to them, and so whatever magey playstyle you might already have in mind, chances are good that's one of the builds you can do.
But wait, there's more! Each spell can then be further enhanced through upgrades and variants. The upgrades are your basic RPG-style number buffs, while the variants are much, much more exciting. For example, you can transform your basic fireball spell into a boomerang and hit each enemy multiple times. Or make it so your boulder-hands get smaller yet faster with each strike. Or turn your ice spear from a projectile into an actual spear you can do rapid-fire attacks with.
You aren't limited to only certain types of spells either. If you want to be a purely fire-focused mage you can do that, but you can also just as easily mix and match. You can go for simple combos like making it so enemies fractured by your earth spells explode when hit by fire spells, or completely ignore any specific synergies and just pick the best spells you encounter so you end up with a colorful rainbow of doom and destruction.
When you can't even see your character anymore, that's when you know you've got a good build going!
Best of all, the vast majority of the spells are really fun to use. I've only had a couple that I would rate as 'blah', but that's mostly down to personal preference I'd wager. I simply don't like spells that makes me stand still for long periods of time. Besides those ones, I was perfectly happy to keep trying out new spell combinations with every single run - so much so that I don't think I've done a single repeat!
The big reason for this is that every single spell has its own unique look and feel, as well as limitations you have to work around. You can just chuck fireballs all day as they're a filler spell with no cooldown, but if you want them to be the main part of your build you'll need to invest a fair bit of time and effort into getting them there. Meanwhile the dragonhead cannon... thing requires a lengthy charge up time during which you're super vulnerable, but in return you get one of the most satisfying blasts in the entire game. That thing can obliterate everything and everyone... if you can figure out a way to actually make it work.
One thing you could do is improve the spell by purchasing upgrades in shops found across most levels. These shops can either enhance your spell directly by giving them some kind of a powerful effect, or they can sell relics that give you situationally powerful passive buffs. There's a lot of interesting stuff to experiment with here, and while the top tier relics are in my opinion obvious, even the seemingly trashy ones have a very real chance to shine in specific builds.
While exploring the randomly generated maps, you'll also run across events that will give you a bunch of different upgrades... provided you can square off against a slightly stronger challenge. My favorite of these is the event for cursed relics because not only does the fight take place in a deadly void full of the most annoying enemies in the game, but the relics themselves all come with massively powerful upsides... and also downsides! Choosing any one of them is generally a very serious commitment as you can't ever drop them, but that hardly ever stopped me from snagging one since even if they aren't the best, they always gave my builds a lil' bit of extra spice. And really, if you aren't trying to make the stupidest, most busted build in a roguelike, what's the point?
Heavenly?
A fireball burns fast but bright
Unfortunately, this is where Wizard 2's biggest problem starts to rear its ugly head. While you have access to a wide variety of different builds and playstyles to mess around with, the enemies and the maps do not. Each of three main worlds you'll get to visit have a very small amount of enemies you're going to be seeing every single run, over and over again, until they lose all of their luster.
What really hurts is that they're not bad by any stretch. In fact they're the types of enemies that kick your ass early on, but once you learn how they work and how to counter them they become a genuinely fun obstacle to overcome, especially since you're constantly going to be fighting them with different types of spells. The problem is that you're going to be getting better and better with each run, while they'll always remain the same, so once you really figure them out the fights are just going to become routine at best, and tedious at worst.
The same thing goes for the bosses. You'll meet 3 out of 6 mini-bosses on each of your runs, seemingly chosen randomly, as well as the exact same four main bosses in the exact same order. And since they're designed in such a way that you can avoid or counter literally everything they do by learning how their abilities work, they very quickly stop being all that exciting. Which is a shame because they're fun fights - the stupid wind boss and his stupid 'I'll spawn a bird directly on your head' garbage notwithstanding.
Same story with the maps. They're all made out of randomized parts, but since the amount of different parts is very low, you're going to become intimately familiar with every single nook, cranny and event found within them. So while they're fun to explore the first couple of times, they just don't have the kind of staying power needed for a roguelike of this scope.
Those accursed things have ended so many of my runs!
The endgame loop
In theory the optional difficulty modes and the fun spells you get by beating the final boss multiple times should be able to address the repetitiveness, but in reality they're just slight spins on the same old story. You can make enemies tankier, make traps trappier, or if you're feeling particularly brave, remove the vast majority of healing from the game - but you're still fighting the same old enemies and getting poo'd on by the same ol' birds.
In my opinion these difficulty runes should've been a lot more game-changing than they currently are. For example, why isn't there a rune that randomizes which world you start on? Or even just randomize which enemies and bosses you encounter throughout the world? That would instantly alleviate some of the repetition as you won't always go through the exact same loop. Alas, the current difficulty modifiers are a fun little challenge to overcome, but they don't really add anything substantial to the gameplay like the difficulty modes in, let's say, Dead Cells.
Runes are a great idea, but they need to have a much bigger effect on the gameplay
Visuals and music
The final thing I'd like to briefly talk about is the presentation. The original game had a charming 2D pixel art aesthetic, while the sequel is a 3D game with a very colorful yet basic cell-shaded style. I've seen a bunch of people argue about how much of a visual downgrade Wizard 2 is, though personally I don't really see the issue. Wizard 2 has a relatively simple style, sure, but that's mostly there to help the spells and their effects stand out. If it was any busier I probably wouldn't even be able to see my character in most of the fights, so as far as I'm concerned Wizard 2 has a nice and functional style with just enough flare to make the big moments exciting.
The audio I'm not quite so keen on. The soundtrack, while not bad by any stretch, just doesn't feel like it fits a game where you're constantly throwing out spells. There's just so much noise it gets completely drowned out. Even the final boss track feels more like the sort of music you'd hear while fighting a random encounter in a JRPG. And honestly? I think that's a real shame since a bit of bombastic music can really elevate a boss fight and make the whole experience a lot more memorable.
Boop!
Closing thoughts
Wizard of Legend 2 is a great game, but it's unfortunately one that burns fast and bright. However, if you can deal with its fleeting nature, there is a lot to enjoy here: the spells are varied and exciting to use, the challenge level is just right, and it really makes good on the promise of you becoming a powerful, legendary wizard.
So if the short runtime doesn't scare you, I think I can recommend giving Wizard 2 a try. I certainly had a lot of fun with it over the past week, and while I'm done with it for now, I'll be eagerly looking forward to future updates.