Rift Wizard 2

I would have written this review earlier, but I wanted to wait until I'd had an equal number of hours playing Rift Wizard 1 under my belt. But, I happened to have a conversation with a friend about game mechanisms this past week, and in doing so, found my review. So, here it goes... The biggest question I think needs answering is, is this game a sequel? I'd say no. I'd say this game is exactly what it proposes to be - Rift Wizard 2. Like Ultima 2 was to Ultima 1 it takes the mechanisms and controls of the first and iterates on it enough that you can't port your knowledge from the first game and easily transfer it over to the second - you will have to learn how to play this game independently from the first. That's not to say that you're not a wizard who uses spells to blast the enemy pixel monsters out of the aether. But, the addition of items and limitation of one upgrade per spell is enough to force you to learn how to play the game all over again. Bosses and enemy special modifiers are a great challenge that help keep the game fresh after hundreds of plays, too. But, I suppose a big question I'd want answered before I pulled the trigger on this game is, should I buy 2 over 1? Or, if you live in the future times, just buy Rift Wizard 3 and forget 2? Again, I'd say no. This game is its own animal. It has challenges and experiences you can't get in Rift Wizard 1. And, to be honest with you, I didn't stop playing Rift Wizard 1. I play them both simultaneously - that's how differently I think they play. Should you buy this game? I'd say yes! Give it a try! The game is very affordable, infinitely replayable and extremely fun.

This game has the potential to be big, but suffers from a few game breakers that will push players to refund before they give it a chance. Its worth the price if you struggle through. I refuse to look up guides especially when the whole game mechanic is working out a build. But this game absolutely needs it. The nightmare of trying out builds, it neeeeds a way to try spells out, rather than wasting my bloody time in a run, only to help end it. Let the player take the current build/ or from scratch, into an arena try the new spell out. Auto buy from a fixed build list you created, could be a sub list a few spells/skills or even a favorites. Disabling equipment / spawning would be nice. Tools to force specific allies to goto a tile, going through other allies as a priority. Have it record say your top runs and build order. I would like a detailed spell read out, with symbols so players where English is not the first language. Then you can understand the spells clearly to make it useful. What effects the player and or allies, Friendly fire vs enemies only. More searchable categories like tile effects (create / destroy). Maybe a stat sheet that shows what it buffs/symbiotic. Anyway it was fun until you buy the wrong spell. I am probably done for a bit,

It's addictive. Mic drop.

I can truly only recommend this game if you don't ever want to win without a guide. If that is the case for you, please check yourself into a mental asylum. I don't care enough to list out every reason why the gameplay doesn't function, but I will say that every single run will be roadblocked by some random combination of enemies that are either fully immune to the damage types you've specced into or that multiply at an impossible to combat rate. tl;dr game sux

"Impossible... you're a rift wizard, too."

Any game with a good magic system, an RPG, an MMO, will have a distinctly fun part of it with interesting 'builds' and synergies between spells that have the potential to break the game. This part is always limited by and balanced against other parts of the game. If the game is actively developed, the really fun stuff will tend to get removed for being [i]too[/i] fun. If you one-shot the final boss with some unexpected combination, this offends the dev who fixes the bug. In the end, most of your damage will come from autoattacks, or the magic though interesting will clearly be a 'hard mode' compared to the much easier path of the warrior. Rift Wizard takes that fun part and makes it the whole game, and the only part of the game. 0% of your damage comes from autoattacks because you don't have any. The game isn't balanced against you potentially choosing to play a thief or a monk because a wizard is your only option. In Rift Wizard, magic is finally free to be the completely overpowered ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ that it deserved to be in all these other games, and it's very satisfying.

Things rarely work as you expect, and it's extremely frustrating. I [b]hate[/b] looking up guides, but it almost feels mandatory for this game, if you don't want to sink 1k+ hours into it. "When your living allies heal, they deal damage to enemies in line of sight" doesn't do anything if the ally is at full health. Well, there goes that plan, run over because I was counting on that working. An item that says "Cast a level 1 spell whenever you do X" sounds like a free cast, and it is! Except when you get the upgrade that says "When you cast this, consume all remaining charges to do Y". And now, suddenly, it consumes all of your spell charges... but it still works when your spell charges are at 0 remaining -- so why, exactly, does it consume them? It didn't before. A supposedly good upgrade bricks your run and you have no clue it was going to do that. Run over because you spent 14 upgrade points on something you can no longer use because it only ever has 0 charges anymore. And it goes on and on. A good run dies because a spell or skill or item you pick up doesn't do what you expect. It's one thing if something is more or less effective than you hoped, but it's another thing entirely when it just doesn't work at all. In the late game, every enemy does like 5 different things, and there are maybe 6-8 enemy types on a level -- it becomes untenable to understand what is going to happen every turn. If you're using some super overpowered build guide thing, you can probably breeze through stuff, but after spending 3 hours trying to navigate floor 18 only to die because I failed to read 1 line of text on 1 enemy is really annoying. I'm only continuing to play this game because I feel guilty having spent money on it, at this point.

I think this game benefits from reading though the huge spell/skill list, figuring out which enemies can do what and playing very slowly and methodically... This is definitely not something I have the patience or attention span for, otherwise I might have beaten it in less than 100h of iterating & improving the same build to beat it for the first time, playing mostly on intuition and vibes. Great game, I'd spend another 100+h on the next build. Some downsides: - Despite the simple graphics and the solid PC I'm playing on, once the screen filled up with units it started lagging a lot - Given my play style, clicking through the levels completed before dying after each run is a bit tedious. I guess it's intended for people who are into analyzing and learning from their mistakes - The auto-move feature after a level is completed does not step over portals or chests etc.

Came for more balanced experience. But the developer thought that RW1 was not hardcore enough.

メタの張り合いがまさにウィザードという感じの神ゲーです。進むことの不可能な面に湧いた欲しいアイテム。欲しいアイテムが取れずねじ曲がっていくビルド。ねじ曲がった使い慣れないビルドでどの面に進むことができるのか予測を立てなければならない。特化型ビルドにしたせいで全ての面に進むことができなくなったときの絶望感。最高です。