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Paper Sorcerer is a classic dungeon crawler primarily inspired by Wizardry 4. You play as a sorcerer (or sorceress) imprisoned in a book, and have to escape by making your way to the top of a multi-level dungeon. To aid you on that quest, you can summon a selection of minions who will level up alongside you.
The game's mechanics are reminiscent of classic Wizardry, with phase-based combat where you first select the actions of all your characters, and then watch the turn play out as all characters act in sequence based on their initiative. This has some of the best core combat mechanics I've seen in this genre, especially in recent times. Every minion has different sets of abilities, and there are many different status effects you can inflict on enemies (or that can be inflicted on you), as well as various damage spells and physical attacks, both against single targets and entire groups. Using abilities costs focus points, which recharge automatically by one point each turn, or can be recharged faster with abilities. In tough fights, you have to use your abilities strategically if you want to prevail. Since every minion has different abilities, and there are 15 available minions in total, there are many viable party builds all with their own strengths and weaknesses.
I finished the game with a party consisting of my sorceress, the minotaur for massive damage output, the cultist for healing, and the succubus for debuffing the enemy. It was a pretty balanced party that could handle any situation, but there are many other viable combinations of characters, some focused on magic, some on physical damage. The cool thing in Paper Sorcerer is that fighter characters require focus points to use their special abilities too, like power attacks, stunning attacks, slashing all enemies at once, etc. There isn't a single minion in this game that doesn't have useful abilities you want to use in almost every battle.
The exploration is pretty solid, too. Some levels have secrets to discover, and there are plenty of chests holding randomized loot for you to pick up. The randomization makes looting a bit of a gamble, though, as you can get a completely useless junk item or a really powerful piece of equipment from the same chest just based on luck. Also, since every minion can only use specific types of equipment (the minotaur can only wield axes, while the skeleton can only wield long swords, for example) and the stuff you find is randomized, you'll end up with a lot of useless stuff in your inventory. Luckily, there's a merchant you can sell it to, so at least you can turn it into gold.
Apart from the loot, nothing is randomized (with one exception). Enemy encounters appear as black clouds, so you know when an encounter is coming up, and each encounter was designed by hand. The only exception is a special catacomb you can access from the home base area, whose levels feature random encounters that can trigger at any point as you explore them. This allows you to grind a little if you want to, but I didn't find it necessary at all. I still went through the catacomb levels for the loot, but left as soon as I had opened every chest. You'll end up powerful enough by the end anyway, but for those who like the option to grind, it's there.
The secrets were pretty fun to uncover, some requiring the pushing of buttons or levers, others requiring you to hold onto keys and use them in the correct location. The only issue is that towards the end of the game, one of the final secrets can't be accessed because the key is buggy. But worry not! There is a fan patch that fixes the issue, as well as several other bugs. Some reviews mention the game's bugs, but this recent fan patch (released in late 2024) fixes all the issues, so the bugs are no longer a problem. Only a couple of late game achievements are still bugged and unobtainable, but other than that, installing the patch removed all the issues I encountered.
One thing to note, however, is that sometimes doors you opened appear closed again after reloading a save, and in case of doors unlocked with keys that vanish after use, it means you can't open it again! As far as I remember, only secret areas require single-use keys, but just make sure not to save in front of a door you just unlocked with a key and you'll be safe. Saving inside a locked room is fine as the doors will open even without the key from within. Just keep this in mind to keep yourself from accidentally locking yourself out of a hard-earned secret!
Finally, I have to mention the game's visual style. It's very unique and charming, fully black and white, with both your characters and the enemies appearing like paper cutouts. There's a large variety of enemies, and every minion has a cool attack animation. I also enjoyed the game's music, which is pretty upbeat and feels like a mix of classic chiptunes and techno beats. Probably not the most fitting for the game's atmosphere, but I found it enjoyable nonetheless.
Overall, this is an excellent dungeon crawler with a unique theme and vibe. It has a couple issues, but those can mostly be fixed by installing the most recent unofficial patch. Just google it, or look in the Steam or GOG forums, the creator made a thread in both. The combat system is really fun and there's a lot of different abilities to experiment with. If you like classic dungeon crawlers, I can fully recommend this one.
