Magirune 2

Magirune is a puzzle dungeon crawler reminiscent of early PC games like Chip's Challenge. It's grid-based, so there's some sokoban type challenges involved, but those take a backseat to what I consider the star of the show - which is the blended combat puzzle system. In a typical dungeon crawler or metroidvania, the major upgrades in or between the dungeons are what serve as the keys to unlock new portions of the world and prompt backtracking. Magirune still does this, but in addition every dungeon has its own meta-progression in the form of XP-based combat. In order to reach key rooms or switches, you need to farm enough XP to become strong enough to kill tougher and tougher monsters. Enemies require a [u]fixed[/u] number of hits to kill based on your character/weapon level, each hit causes a [u]fixed[/u] amount of retaliation damage, there is a [u]fixed[/u] number of potions in the game, and there is a [u]fixed[/u] amount of XP to be harvested - but enemies [u]respawn[/u] between rooms. Since you only get XP on the first kill but healing is finite, you have to strategize [b]how[/b] you are going to move thru the dungeon to most efficiently conserve life. This makes the combat simultaneously the only way forward but also something that has to be approached cautiously. You can't haphazardly kill everything in your path because you might have to trek back thru that area later, at which point you've already expended your potions. But becoming stronger will open up new paths and make the backtracking less costly because enemies can be killed in fewer hits. This is a formula that comes all down to execution. If the level design is too simple, then moving forward is a tedious, riskless, linear process. But Magirune is VERY competent in its design - you will frequently have to stop and think and reference your mental model of the dungeon. Not just to save time in aimless wandering, but to survive. And the difficulty curves well, where new mechanics are gradually introduced to ramp up the complexity as you yourself grow more competent. We're not talking Baba is You or Stephen Sausage Roll level sorcery, ofc, but it is surprisingly well designed. My recommendation is to play Magirune 1 (which is free) on the Normal difficulty. This gives 1XP for repeat kills, which adds a forgiveness mechanic for mistakes / careless planning but can be exploited to trivialize the puzzle element. If you like it enough to see that experience thru or close to the end, then pick up Magirune 2 and play on Hard, which is true finite XP and IMO the ideal way to experience this game. The combat puzzling is what makes this shine. Magirune 1 is a bit rougher around the edges - in hindsight it feels more like a POC for the finished product of Magirune 2, but really that's a completely viable development path and it being a free download jives with that. It's competent in its own right and is uniquely aggressive with key conservation esp in the early game, where you can straight up softlock yourself. It's intentional - the game warns you and has a built-in dungeon reset option, but 2 seemed to be much more forgiving with the keys in favor of a longer, more robust adventure. 2 also has an NPC that can give you a single potion whenever you are completely exhausted. You can probably softlock yourself in 2 if you muck up bad enough, but it's going to be harder. Lastly - for anyone who does pursue Deathless Hard mode, the teleports cure poison. The game does encourage you to use them liberally (they can be a key part of the meta navigation, esp in 1 where it feels expected) but the "cures poison" has to be intuited and can save big on potions in the early game, helping to avoid a dead run.

Chill puzzle adventure game. I loved all the secrets and getting all the optional hidden collectibles. FYI progress in the demo carries over into the main game, so give it a try!

Veramente bello. Avevo provato la demo su itch.io parecchie volte e finendola anche al livello difficile; il gioco completo è arduo, complesso e tocca giocare d'astuzia. Ottima l'idea di inserire il primo capitolo come livello bonus, l'unica pecca è che quando si ottiene la spada finale si può avanzare di livello praticamente all'infinito; forse occorre una piccola correzione. Per il resto davvero bello, spero ci sia un sequel.

For the price I wasn't expecting much but it provided more enjoyment than many games that are more expensive. Pros +Unique but also easy to learn combat +Enjoyable Cons -Couldn't figure out how to meet a character that shows up in the end credits in 1 location and at the end of the demo in another location. Musings If there's a sequel I'd definitely want to play it.

Fun game and I still miss the demo where you could cheese death abuse some obstacle lol. I played enough of the first one on kongregate already too, its quite creazy how good this game is.

This is a very well designed throwback to a Nintendo Zelda era.

A very enjoyable sequel to one of my favorite games. The monster designs were great, and the expanded world and story was very fun to explore. I would have maybe enjoyed some kind of 'ultra-hard mode', since I managed to beat the game on hard without dying with over 40 potions left over.