Wizard101

I've played this game since it came out and even throughout all the years, it's always the game I always come back to.
BEWARE, this is a pay-to-play game with a monthly and/or yearly membership, 10 dollars for monthly or 60 for yearly. The memberships give you access to all worlds, and gives you fun bonuses every weekend, events, rewards, and more. Yes, there is fun packs, mounts, gear, and more in the "crown shop" that cost real money but they absolutely are not needed. You can find WAY better gear from loot drops from defeating enemies or even buy stuff with in-game coins.
BUT even that being said, a 20 year old game should NOT have a paywall after playing like two quest-lines. Let people actually enjoy and learn the game before asking for some cash. LET ARC 1 BE FREE AT BARE MINIMUM. I get it, you have to make money, you're a company who has bills and people to pay, but its turning new players away. People would most likely be more willing to actually spend money to continue the game after they start making progression and learning the story than what it is now. A lot of people are downloading this game, playing for 10 minutes, get locked behind a paywall, and then 99.9% of the new players will not return or pay money. The only people actually spending money on this game is people who have played this game for years and years.
YOU ARE ACTIVELY LOSING MONEY AND PLAYERS BY THIS PAYWALL KI, IF YOU WANT YOUR GAME TO SURVIVE, YOU HAVE TO CHANGE

First, let me state that I have over AT LEAST 6000+ hours in this game on the official launcher and my account was created in 2009 when I was 6! I have all schools maxed out and back in 2015-16 prime PVP I was Warlord. I have done EVERYTHING this game has to offer x10.
Yes, this game has a small $10 (per month) pay wall way too early in the game. Now, since that's out of the way 99% of the information you see regarding this game is false (ESPECIALLY FROM HUGE YOUTUBE REVIEWERS) to the point where I someone who has been blasting Kingsisle since 2015 is ripping my hair out with the just flat out false negative reviews due to their pure ignorance. I will simply call out some false information before I get to my genuine review of the game.
1. "You will have to farm for a permanent mount in the mid stages of the game or otherwise spend real life money"
Just blatantly false. You get a free permanent 40% speed mount in the TUTORIAL and even if you didn't by the time you reach level 20 you could have easily saved 80k gold for a permanent tiger mount yourself.
2. "Plants/Fish/Pets gated by energy blah blah so you buy energy tonics"
While TECHNICALLY true, in mid game if you set up correctly you can have a couch potato farm that makes pet training 100x quicker thus costing less energy overtime. Also you can just... play the game and level up to get full energy again... idk I never spent a dime on energy potions and have 50+ min maxed pets, 10+ 69 plot plant farms etc. and its rather simple and just part of working your way up overtime like any MMO.
3. "Pets in the shop being op" "Overpowered plants in shop requiring real money" and comments similar
Yeah those pets are trash and purely cosmetic for hatching purposes as well as pretty much everything else in the shop. Couch potatoes are the BEST plant in the game and it is so easily farmable at level 20..literally NO ONE buys those from the shop unless they don't want to play a MMO. Also 99.9% (seriously) of gear in the shop is worse than gear you can earn farming certain dungeons. You can earn almost every piece of gear in the store for cosmetic or actual use for free. There are very few exceptions though which I don't like but it's def not close to a HUGE problem.
I want to keep going and I could because I saw A LOT more such as "Promoting people to buy treasure card packs"...not even worth debunking that one.
NOW, let's start with the paywall. Yes this sucks, you get 1 hour into the game and boom paywall for 10$ a month and the max level you can get to is realistically 10ish wihtout it. I say this all the time when it comes to this. They should make the first 3 worlds free, I would usually say the entire first arc but 3 should be 100% free, it is perfect to get you to level 30 and FINALLY start the real game. You finally got some actual cool spells. You get introduced to your first real dungeon you farm for your schools gear and it's a pretty big power spike. MOUNT OLYMPUS, not only is it super cool and a big power spike in the game but the SOUNDTRACK BANGS HERE and it's the first taste of a real MMO IMO.
The Combat: Look its a turn based card game and maybe its nostalgia but I LOVE IT but I will say after you realize in PVE it's blade spam then hit for every encounter except against cheating bosses etc. It really does lose it's charm. Now with PVP I really enjoy it because you get to actually use the hundreds of different cards but I will say it is extremely toxic and chaotic nowadays. So sadly A LOT of people will hate this understandably.
The Story/World Design: It is surprisingly kinda awesome a lot of the time. The Story makes it worth one playthrough IMO at least through the 2nd arc. The game actually holds very dark themes in the first arc but the 2nd arc ramps that up a bit with the ending to one of the worlds being actually quite depressing followed by one of the most haunting soundtracks ive ever heard combined with the new atmosphere engulfing the world.
The Worlds are amazing, a few of the early ones look a bit rough but thankfully all slowly being updated to look a lot better and match 2nd/3rd arc worlds. Regardless they are all super unique and have their own great designs.
THE SOUNDTRACK: MAN I HAVE NOTHING BUT GOOD THINGS TO SAY HERE. I am sure it's been countless people over the years behind these and let me just say the soundtracks bang EVERY TIME. Every AREA within a world after the 1st arc has a unique roaming theme AND combat theme fitting the vibe/theme flawlessly and they NEVER miss. I will link two combat themes here that does not really spoil much by the title etc. I hope just one of those people who worked on this games soundtrack sees this. They nail it every time. 300+ soundtracks I believe across 17 worlds each fitting said worlds vibe, theme and story. One of the best soundtracks in gaming
The Spells: Again they nailed it here as well, they get so insanely cool as you level as it should. Shadow Shrike is legit one of the coolest things in a video game. I just wish it was broken again and was forced back into the meta because it is far too cool to be trash now. My only gripe is as stated earlier is outside of PVP you won't get to see 99% of these amazing spells.
Lastly, Customization: Amazing as well. Housing has been updated to be flawless. There is literally not a single limit to customizing houses now with the update a few years ago. Character gear has a lot of cool stitches as well but you'll sadly see 90% of people rocking school insignia gear only. It is popular for a reason but people really need to put more effort into their outfits.
So is it worth it? Yes, it is. The PVE combat will likely be a deal breaker for most. The entire first 2 arcs needs reworked to have a lot more bosses have cheats that force you away from Blade spam - AOE. The last boss of Novus proved that this combat system in PVE can be a lot more interesting.
This game has a lot going for it and thousands of hours of content. You might end up hating it but it is 100% worth a try. I advise pay 10$, try to beat the first 2 arcs while completing/farming the main dungeons along the way while doing activities such as starting your way towards a 69 plot farm, a god pet, farming for certain cosmetics/mounts you want, decorating your house etc. and when that month is up decide from there.

There are 3 types of players in this game
-Autistic people
-Groomers
-Nostalgic people
Notice how I didn't say children?

---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☐ Beautiful
☐ Good
☑ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS
---{ Gameplay }---
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't
---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf
---{ Audience }---
☑ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☐ Grandma
---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☑ Potato
☐ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer
---{ Game Size }---
☐ Floppy Disk
☐ Old Fashioned
☑ Workable
☐ Big
☐ Will eat 10% of your 1TB hard drive
☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it
☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data
---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls
---{ Grind }---
☐ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☑ You'll need a second life for grinding
---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☐ Good
☐ Lovely
☑ It'll replace your life
---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☐ Average
☐ Long
☑ To infinity and beyond
---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☐ Worth the price
☐ If it's on sale
☑ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money
---{ Bugs }---
☐ Never heard of
☑ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs
---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☑ 8
☐ 9
☐ 10

Its been over a decade and you still dont have the first arc free? How are you expecting a new player base when you dont give them enough time to get into it? i know so many people that arent willing to spend the money for a membership because they dont think they like the game... almost like you dont give them enough content for them to know its actually a good game.

This game is like the sex worker I swore I'd quit seeing. Expensive, degrading, and traumatically unforgettable. Every year, Kingsisle clutches me by the balls like it's my birthday, robs me blind after grinding another death wizard to a paywall, and I'll swear it's the last time. I come back every year.

Its hard to tell someone "Play Wizard101".
I have thousands of hours in the non-Steam version, but everyone Ive met in recent years has just been an adult returning for their childhood memories.
Its all still here.
100+ hours of objectively simplistic, mindless grind with hit or miss storytelling and incredible world building just to get to the end. Fantastic music. But the kind of game you usually play while multitasking.
Pushing 20 years, but its still just as predatory and flawed as ever.
10/10