This roguelike made me feel like a genius (I didn’t know what was happening but I was pleased with myself)

We often get sent so many games from publishers and developers that we simply don’t have the time or capacity to play. But ’tis the start of the year and I felt like I had a duty to give some of them a proper whirl and see what’s what. Thus I was lured once again into the roguelike genre, for which I am an eternal sucker.

Developed by Wave Game, Magicraft sees you play as a kid who’s isekai’d into another dimension (or at least, I think he is, because I chose the option to “skip the story” when I selected new game and only later deduced the situation) and tasked to mince all the demons within it. It’s typical fantasy fare with an interesting twist: you can combine any number of spells within your inventory, which made me feel very clever, even if I had no idea what I was doing.

I won’t bother explaining the setup in its entirety, as you probably already get the picture: over multiple runs you try and get further and further through increasingly difficult rooms filled with baddies. You use WASD to move and click to shoot spells from your wand.

What’s neat about Magicraft, though, is its spells. Instead of immediately equipping spells like you might in Binding Of Isaac or Vampire Survivors, you can opt to store them in your backpack or pop them on your wand. Your backpack? It will become a trove, enabling you to store duplicates for later upgrade forges, or interesting combinations you might want to experiment with. Your wand? Home to a series of slots you’ll fill with spells, dependent on their mana usage.

Now, your wand might start with an orb in its slot. So when you click, you’ll fire an orb. But then you might find, say, a spell that lets you duplicate whatever is in the slot to its right, a “duplicator”, if you will. So, pop the duplicator in the leftmost slot, stick the orb to the right of it, and whenever you click you’ll fire off two orbs.

With better wands come more slots and some other benefits. Some wands have rightmost slots that charge and auto-use themselves whenever you’ve secured a certain amount of damage, like a Cthulhu arm that sprouts from the ground and thwacks enemies. The real treat of Magicraft lies in those extra slots, though, as you can create some absolutely absurd combinations.

I managed to beat the game on ‘easy mode’ (a first successful run) without really knowing what was happening on my screen, and yet feeling like some sort of genius. By this I mean I secured a legendary spell early on. It was this floating star that would automatically shoot whatever spell was in the slot to the right of it. And so I stuck a ‘Floating Wisp’ to its right, which made the star rattle off these powerful purple wisps that would explode on impact.

Then it just became ridiculous. I found one called “Simultaneous Casting”, that would let me cast multiple spells to its right simultaneously. I’d later find a thunder storm, a Cthulhu arm, orbs, and homing butterflies, all of them pouring out of the stars I’d send onto the field. Oh but it doesn’t stop there. I’d chuck in a “Chain Lightning”, that would connect spells cast simultaneously, creating a line of dangerous static. This meant all my arms and butterflies and orbs and wisps would intertwine in some unholy mess on my screen. Even later, I’d throw in “Strong Traction”, where crits would create magnetic pulls that would suck enemies into my star’s vortex of rainbow vomit. I even got rainbows at the end, that would, of course, deal damage.

Everything else in Magicraft seems fine: the monsters are well designed, as are the bosses, and the levels are alright if a bit tedious at times. But its economy and upgrade suite are strong, and all of it is carried by a spell slot system that’s genuinely bonkers. I love how it’s designed to break the game and I’m all here for it.

You can find the game over on Steam.