Mages of Mystralia
In the kingdom of Mystralia, it takes more brains than brawn to succeed. You will face down giant, powerful creatures and navigate treacherous terrain. You will encounter puzzles that confound even the wisest of the old sages. And you must overcome obstacles put in place by people who do not want you to succeed. Your path will not be easy. In Mages of Mystralia, you play as Zia, a young girl who discovers that she has been born with an innate sense of magic. Unfortunately, magic has been banned, so she strikes off to train on her own to gain some control over her powers. On her journey, she meets other exiled mages and, discovers runes with magical properties and realizes that she can combine these runes in millions of different ways to come up with completely new spells.
Game Discussion
Steam User 7
Honestly, a pretty dope game. Never heard of it until it popped up on Humble Bundle then I saw that you could make your own spells and was sold. I'm an absolute slut for games that make me feel like how a mage is meant to feel. A legitimate mage would never settle for the arbitrary ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of pre-defined spells. A fireball that travels in a singular straight line? Please... that's ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. I want a fireball that hits a target summons more fireballs that then in turn, summon even more fireballs.
Only drawback is that the random rune makes spells way too powerful. Oh, you mean I can kill the last wave of the Mage's Trial with two spells? Because with random, you can! Slap that badboy on a Creo path spell that summons more Creo paths and g ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ g... you've nuked all of them.
Steam User 7
Spellcrafing & wizardry
Mages of Mystralia is THE game that always is recommended when someone wants a magic game with custom spell making and rightfully so, while it isn't perfect the combination of old school rpg with unique puzzles that only work because of the way the game is made.
Spellcrafting
The spellcrafting system is a simple to understand and extremely free system,you have 4 spell types: close range/projectile/aoe/defensive, these spell then can have (later on) their element changed between air/water/fire/earth ande each have a hexagon area with 19 slots, in these slots you place runes of 3 types that have connection spots in up to 6 direction so you have to match them in order to make your spell, these runes are split into 3 categories:
Behaviours - these runes will affect the way the spell behaves, things like homing, movement, bounce,...
Auguments - basically upgrades that affect connected behaviours, improving duration/direction/size
Triggers - condition for activating other spells, like on contact/over time/...
So you can basically make thousands of spells by mix and matching different elements and then even more by nesting them with triggers like a fireball that will start a fire rain on impact
Puzzles
This game has 2 types of puzzles (technically 3 with spellcrafting):
Rune walls - where you have to basically rearrange runes in order to connect them all similar to how spell crafting runes work
Puzzle chambers - where you have to craft a spell in order to complete the puzzle, things like hitting hard to reach braziers with bounces or hit multiple targets at once, easy to understand what you have to do with the difficulty being actually achieving it.
Progression
While the puzzles are great the progression is the same this game being a lite-metroidvania with every area being unreachable until you unlock a specific spell/element and then the area being centered around that new spell, this is a way better feeling than just locking areas behind a key since you physically can't go there instead of just having a big closed door.
Collectibles done right
The map of Mystralia isn't that big. but there are a lot of things to collect, while the main one are purple beads used to upgrade hp/mana you can also find wands/runes/items, this is also made greater by the area tracker on the map, where you can hover over an area and find out how many collectibles there are and how many you got, so 100% the game is easier since you won't have to search every corner for that last bead instead knowing it's general whereabouts
Quests are also great, while the story behind is lacking they are relatively quick (instead of grindy) and fun to do, and the reward is always worth the trouble.
The bad
the game isn't perfect by any means, story kind of basic and game is short (it only takes around 8 hours to 100%, my play time for example is combination of current complete run and a 6h 80% run i did 6 years ago)
the combat is also it's weakest part, not only having an extremelly limited mana pool so you can't make any insane spells but with the end game dark enemies completelly disabling you magic on hit, making you run around for a couple seconds waiting to be able to attack again. bosses are also extremely easy (had to go out of my way to die for an achievment),
Final Thoughts
Mages of mystralia is one of the best magic games out there not only adding an in-depth spell crafting system but most of the game being designed around it perfectly so I definitely recommend anyone try it out.
Steam User 5
A very earnest and solid video game.
I can't say anything about the atmosphere is particularly exceptional. The world, story, and characters are meh.
The 'main' draw of the spells is definitely interesting! And the progression is really quite good for the first half. These runes give some serious upgrades that feel great. And the puzzles are really quite good! Definitely fun to figure out and seeing the new options afforded by these spells.
The biggest criticism I'd give is that 90% of enemies can be 'solved' in the same way - especially after the midpoint. The magic system makes it so that most damage dealing methods are pretty equivalent - and in order to do more damage you must spend more mana. So even though new opportunities are afforded by new runes and spells - they don't really serve to change how you might play or deal with enemies. In the end, you are just trading mana for damage.
It would definitely be cool to see some more enemy variety or obstacles that reward players for having a diverse set of spells lined up. Or create more interesting/impactful runes.
Overall though I enjoyed myself. A solid 7.5/10.
Steam User 3
this is a wonderful game!
my only critique is that some puzzles are unsolvable without google. its a very small number, but still.
also runes. you have to try a lot of combos to make a spell work how u want it to with the runes. its a little frustrating but fun. personally, i like it. but its def not for everyone.
Steam User 3
This game is one of the most enjoyable I've played in years. The puzzles give me huge Zelda vibes and they really do just let you go crazy with the ability to manipulate and shape your own spells. Top it all off with the fact the art style and visuals are pretty damn adorable. If someone was on the fence about purchasing it, I would 100% recommend this game.
Steam User 2
Love this game, charming and wonderful gameplay. The magic craft system is fantastic, and the puzzle feel very unique and LoZ reminiscent.
Steam User 2
Lovely game, the spellcrafting system and the world complement each other very well