Back when the original Wizard of Legend was released, I was keen on trying it, but life got in the way and I never did. Even when it was given out as an Amazon Prime game, there was always something else to play for review or for some other reason, so it remained as one of my gaming misses for years, but now that its sequel finally made it out of Steam Early Access, I made it my mission to finally give this series a try, and boy, am I glad I did.
Wizard of Legend 2 is a roguelite map-based action game where you control a wizard, but not one of legend, no, that’s to come later down the line. You’re basically an initiate going through the trials in order to attain the game’s title, which it constantly points out and makes fun of through dialogue. It’s all quite tongue-in-cheek, but with a touch of self-seriousness, something that’s always welcome when trying to do humor in games, and in that, this one succeeds.
The main thing that sets this apart from its predecessor is its presentation: it’s now entirely polygonal, with the exception of the character portraits, which are beautifully hand-drawn. Using a cel-shaded approach to its graphics, Wizard of Legend 2 is a very handsome game to look at, one that makes use of more simpler models to great effect, making it something that can run on less powerful systems with ease. It moves fast, smoothly, and in a similar way to Hades and Hades II, you won’t want to put it down anytime soon.
Much like those games, Wizard of Legend 2 slowly unwinds its content the more you play and fail at it. You’ll get currency to buy both cosmetics and permanent upgrades with, helping make future runs more manageable, but not exactly easier. In that regard, it’s relatively less involved than Supergiant Games’ efforts, since you basically pick from an elemental speciality at the beginning and expand your powers from there, as opposed to Hades’ weapons and multitude of possibilities along the way.
That makes playing this one a matter of either sticking with your starting set and making it the more and more powerful, or balance it all out with others as you play, turning your mage into a jack-of-all-trades type, or something in between those two. Overall, I found this pool of possibilities more manageable than those other games since I tend to like having a more solid idea of where I’m starting at and eventually will be going than thinking on my feet and trying to make do with what I get, which happens in Hades often.
Now, that doesn’t mean that I like this any more than that or that Wizard of Legend 2 lacks depth, but it’s a fundamental difference that helps set them apart wherein just looking at it from the outside only makes it seem like it’s more of the same. Yeah, there are plenty of similarities and it’s obvious that Dead Mage, the studio that picked up the franchise after the original team left, were influenced by Zagreus’ repeat and delight formula, but there’s enough there to consider Wizard of Legend 2 its own thing among others in the very crowded run-based roguelite genre.
The comings and goings in this game are enjoyable enough to make it a game you could keep in your log for weeks and even months as you slowly chip away at it. Plus, it can all be played along with three others if you wish, making it a definitively good pickup for those with like-minded pals to tackle it together. It doesn’t get as crazy as Magicka used to back in the day, but it’s a fun way to get through Wizard of Legend 2 for sure. During testing, playing with randos proved to be surprisingly okay, but nothing beats going at it with someone you can comfortably cuss at without repercussion, eh?
Wizard of Legend 2 is by all means a safe game but that doesn’t mean it’s not good. There’s no objection on my part when something follows a plan through and comes out the other end with a game as playable and fun as this. In that regard, Dead Mage has managed to bring up a game that will hopefully satisfy the established fanbase brought up by the original and even grow it even more. And maybe, just maybe, become legend.
