The Magician's Burden

This game also is a burden... kind of... a text game mainly lives of it´s story... there are a few other things like humor, how much your stats influence the game, which choices you have.. but in the end without a story that counts not for much. Now enter Magicians Burden.. you play a magician, who - for whatever reasons - doesn´t make money with magic but has to make do with three jobs a day to make a bit of money, and get´s his ass kicked from the village bully (also three times a day at minimum).. Also he has a pesky little demon in his mind.. and some love interests (2 male, 2 woman, your gender doesnt seem to matter). So you manage his daily life, some family interaction and pet the cat.. until finally something happens... and then the game ends ;) This can´t even be called a cliffhanger, because the story hasn´t even started really. At most you could call it a prologue. Otherwise there are quite some stats you can develop, although since there are so many, most are only used once or twice.. in this prologue game. Also it can easily happen, that you miss your needed stat by only one point, not the best design imo. Last but not least, some mild continuity errors occur. Conclusio: Magicians Burden is written in an ok style, the characters are nice, if not too complex. If there ever will be a second and maybe third game, with the actual story someday, one can buy it i guess. For the moment though, i would abstain. Rating 5/10

I think I know what the burden is - it is being woke. The story is... dumb? I get it that you choose a part-time job, but twice? First time I did it I thought the game was broken and I restarted. You're a mage - that works THREE extra part-time jobs for a living. Is this supposed to be some sort of social commentary on modern economic issues? But why would literal village idiots have their one mage (in a world where bloodthirsty, malicious demons lurk) work three part time jobs (like clerking, being a guard or a farmhand) waste their time like this, instead, I don't know, learning magic to defend against demons? The bully posse plot is borderline retarded. For a strong, independent black woman with a mohawk, the vice-captain of the guard is surprisingly incompetent if they allow three bullies to terrorize a single villager every day of their life. This is a village, right? Everybody sees this, and no-one reacts. Just have the mayor resign and just kneel before three bullies, while having actual guardsmen answering to him. And boy, is the game woke. Strong black female warrior with a mohawk, check. Shy black healer boy who you can gay romance, check. Mysterious and cool bald dark skinned female demon hunter who apparently knows more about magic than you, the mage (maybe because you are forced to work three jobs that have nothing to do with magic, right?), check. Portly women beating a woman who beat a man in arms wrestling. Strong and powerful female demons who you can strangely sympathize with despite them being maniacal murderous torturers, check. What a wonderful, small microcosm where all the races live in harmony yet they somehow allow a bully to torment a man for years in broad daylight. So absolutely believable. Bonus points for strangely modern use of strong language which adds to the perfectly reproduced medieval fantasy experience. [spoiler]Bonus points for the "fabulous" demon huntress who leaves fake sinister messages in demon language, drenched in blood to, I kid you not, literally troll people. This despite her never really SEEN A DEMON in all her years of career.[/spoiler] Oh, and don't even think it's any sort of a complete story. It's not. It ends on one of the worst cliffhangers I've ever seen, all the while resolving... nothing. I didn't see my character grow at all. Sure, I gained some stats here and there, but there is no difference in the position and achievement whatsoever. Think I was too harsh in my review? Well, one of the skills you can hone in this game is Sarcasm. Let's say this is a continuation of the player experience. Edit: The best written character is a CAT. No, it's not a magical animal. It's a normal, old cat you can pet and interact with. Since I am a cat person and I have one, I enjoyed the little cute fluffy critter immensely. Spoiler: [spoiler] It cruelly dies at the end and you can do absolutely nothing to prevent it. ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥.[/spoiler]. Edit 2: The more I think about this game, having played it through, the more I dislike it. There is no plot, characters are extremely shallow and one-dimensional, the entire situation is unbelievable, the game is not complete on its own, choices feel irrelevant, character growth feels irrelevant, the stats are all over the place which indicates buildup to something that doesn't really happen. Avoid.

The game is alright overall, but the lack of an ending is extremely disappointing.

You basicly play as a looser mage who keeps getting his ass kicked all the time and the story good god man it just ends randomly so yeah sucks.

Very meh. wasn't put together well at all (thought the reviews were harsh, turns out no, they're pretty spot on)

It was pretty amusing, but I have to say that Petre (Or was it Verim? The 'pervert' guy, either way) is the single most annoying part for me. Not in a good way, either. He's painfully repetitive, to the point where it gets distracting from the narrative. The rest of it is good to go, though. I especially like the monkey on your shoulder (to turn a phrase) bit, though I think certain parts of your co-pilot could be fine tuned (ie: maybe having him actually be something your character alone can see so you can 'emote' him without it seeming disjointed). I'd give it a 7/10. Oh, and the sassy cat? Brilliant. I don't even really like cats because they do indeed want to eat my soul, and I was greatly amused that some of the choices readily reflected this concern. Kudos!

The increase in quality from Sam's previous games to this one is amazing. They went from being very mediocre to very enjoyable, there wasn't a moment of The Magician's Burden I didn't love (Apart from some of the heavy stat requirments) I highly recommend this title. I thoroughly enjoyed the charaters, romance, plot and light-heartedness. I look forward to the sequel and will definalty purchase it.

The cat... the cat, man... this game traumatized me.

loved it, it is a lot of reading though ; ) and the ening is too open in my opinion. Would love for Samuel Harrison Young to continue the story (gracias).

I really enjoyed this game, would like to see more like this or maybe even a second installment.