The state of wizard games...

[@TheStellarJay]

Played Magicka 2 because everyone requested it. On the list is Elden ring, Divinity original sin, and Rift wizard. Probably gonna make a part 2 to this video eventually

[@bigboar0074]

Look up Blade and sorcery NOW

[@silydragon5510]

Definitely play with 3 friends. It's a wonderful experience.

[@styxrakash4639]

@@bigboar0074you missed the entire video if you think blade and sorcery isn't a cringe magic system

[@styxrakash4639]

I was about to reply angrily that you made no mention of Magika

[@theonetruedonut]

I can't wait to play Witchbrook by Chucklefish

[@electroflame6188]

6:29 there are two types of noita players: -new players -players that fear polymorphine

[@miroslavzderic3192]

They make an egg for that 🙂

[@expertoflizardcorrugation3967]

I can think of a third -players that have a bottle of toxic sludge

[@nmmeswey3584]

-players that fungal shift polymorphine to get rid of it and end up turning all the water into poly

[@Signonthisline]

Polymorphing and teleportation get shifted before I parallell

[@timlockwood654]

-players that fear acid

[@greyson3755]

noita is unhinged but it does have the most wizard vibe to me. games like dnd and pathfinder make me feel like wizards are scientists taking a magical programming language to create spells and that’s basically what noita is. a brutally difficult roguelike with hundreds of hours of content and a spell creation system where you create magical phrases using the spells given to you and pray you don’t blow yourself up

[@swampskald2462]

Yes exactly. It is the only game that feels like a wizard instead of just a guy who blasts fire or lightning.

[@Telimency]

Noita is awesome, and tbh i think that vids discussing noita being 1h are not a sign that game overcomplicated, but more like game is rich and fun to talk about. I personally loved that level of complexity and generally im not into games that are too complicated. Learning how to avoid being Noited was just so organic and natural in this game

[@swampskald2462]

@@Telimency That's very true. I started playing Noita without any guides or anything until I made it to the 5th level. Most things are fairly intuitive, at least for me.

[@greyson3755]

@@swampskald2462 yeah, i think the 'guy who blasts fire' is more like a DND sorcerer but I wanna be the crazed maniac who knows way too much about the universe and makes my own spells

[@swampskald2462]

@@greyson3755 Yeah. Even the sorcerer is more complex though. At least mine are, but I never take more than like, one damage spell per spell level.

[@justinshelvey7233]

In noita every time you think youve figured the game out it keeps getting deeper. Once you think youve explored everything you find a new area, you can attain imortality, create the sun deal quadrilioms of damage and even create a wand that utiluzes dear to transport you exactly 1 parrelel universe.

[@pharrispollard9120]

unless that mushroom doesn't spawn the book

[@slayereli13]

@@pharrispollard9120 you dont need the book if you already know what youre doing

[@pharrispollard9120]

@@slayereli13 the fun comes from not knowing what i’m doing

[@tedtubegaming]

statements concocted by the utterly deranged

[@karthiksudhirkaimalk7825]

@@tedtubegaming the average noita enjoyer is a crack addict .

[@Icagel0]

Susprised Magicka and Dark Messiah weren't looked at.. Magicka for the combinations and versatiñity of mixing elements to create spells and DM for the ability to interact with the environment in creative ways (IE: run down a hill, aim your tipical ice beam at the ground to freeze it, make your enemies slip off a cliff)

[@justinshelvey7233]

I will not tolerate any purple lightning slander. I hate piss lightning, whys it even yellow? Whens the last time youve seen yellow lightning? Yellow is reserved for healing, holy magic and other boring piss spells.

[@Orange_Swirl]

Both are good, you nuts.

[@PetitTasdeBoue]

Everyone knows it's blue lightning anyway

[@JoaoPedro-gp4lm]

No way, Green is the true healing magic

[@RealLofef]

@@JoaoPedro-gp4lm naaah bro healing magic should be orange and white flames

[@Marqan]

Restoration is a perfectly valid school of magic, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise!

[@noodle6178]

in noita's defense i think it got it completely right when the devs decided that high level wizardry would actually just be programming, complete with *recursion* and all-

[@Cythil]

Yep! Why I love Noita. It is the closest thing to the crazy sort of magic game I myself would make. Is it for everyone? Does it have to be? No! To both questions. But it is a perfect game for weirdos like me that like slightly esoteric, overcomplicated games that take years to learn. Like Dominions series or just deep diving in to most paradox Grand strategy games. If someone wants to try out a Noita light that has spell creation, but is far more lenient, I recommend Magicmaker. Again, it a far simpler game. But can be fun and you can make some insane spells in that game.

[@calmcraft5852]

Theres a minecraft mod called psi that is just this. you use a pistol that fires spell bullets. you use actual programing logic to build the spells. pretty neat

[@jambondepays1969]

@@Cythil Dominions enjoyer i see, excellent taste

[@giordihero]

there is a criminal absence of Magicka in this video. Literally the best magic game I've ever played, lets you combine elements to make different spells on the go, while also having set spells you can do at any time with the right combination of elements. And even the same spell reacts in a different way depending on whether you cast it forward, you cast it on yourself, or you cast it on your weapon.

[@hawkonroyale431]

Yea this. This game fills all the requirements of this video. Best part it's coop and if they haven't shielded themselves against your best spell. Than they are most likely going to die.

[@theknight1573]

Was looking for such a comment!!

[@zaughk]

MAGICKA!! quite literally one of my all time favorite games, not only is it goofy and silly but the perfect amount of complexity where casual players can spam buttons and make explosions and advanced players can build complex and fast paced combat using a very high level combat system that doesn't take too much brain power to understand and takes into account reaction times

[@MeandMonkeyLP]

I would agree if the controls didnt feel so teribble, i mean i get why it is like that but trying to quickly make any spell feels way too hectic for my taste

[@theknight1573]

@@MeandMonkeyLP did you play on pc or console/with a controller? Because on PC it controlled like a champ. Developping powerful spells was almost learning words (QFQFASA comes to mind). But with a controller it was not as pleasant I found out

[@Redy656]

A little while ago I started learning game development in order to make my own "fantasy wizard game" and I eventually stopped due to college and work and not having enough time to myself with everything else piled on top. And after removing one of those from my life I suddenly have more free time. This video reminded me of why I started learning game development in the first place: everything else is garbage so I'll just do it myself to the best of my ability. I'd just like to say thank you for reminding me to get back to what I originally wanted to do and just discovered your channel and love it so far. Sorry this was so long lol

[@neelakshsati]

How is it going

[@Redy656]

@@neelakshsati I'm getting there slowly, I'm still learning and it'll definitely take a while but I'm enjoying it

[@mihael64]

Very nice. Would like to see it if you ever decide to release it.

[@Sheet_music_eater]

I would love to see it! Good luck!

[@joyfulbeing596]

yes bro... i will definitely love to see it... Games with really good magic systems are non existent if not rare... All the best!

[@VadeInSpiritu]

As soon as he said “is it possible for a wizard game to be too complex?” I knew he’d talk about Noita lol. Such a great game

[@bigrecipe7910]

that entire noita rant was like a warlock trying to explain to a wizard why their also a good magic scholar while their demon god nibbles their fangs into their noggin.

[@johnyshadow]

As a warlock, i am extremely offended, and dying on the floor laughing. (And from having my brain nibbled on...)

[@sneezyfido]

I find this mental image striking. It gives me the urge to find something to nibble on. Maybe I should stop watching video's and go have breakfast.

[@webwebb]

I actually found Noita's magic system to be shockingly intuitive considering how scary it looks on the surface but I get why it could be considered a bit overwhelming fr

[@torinriley7569]

I think the real "problem" Noita has is that it's high lethality punishes experimentation and exploration. You do get rewarded for discovering cool new magic or interactions, but also the roguelike nature punishes failure with having to start again straight from the beginning without any of that cool stuff you had. That combined with that it restarts you with pretty boring stuff makes for a discouraging learning process. Of course this could be fine for some people, but it's not great if you're not into that, and even less so once you get into understanding loops, parallel worlds, fungal shifts, and everything else.

[@EnergyBurst2]

@@torinriley7569 The seed system does add a roundabout solution to that issue if you simply play the same seed over and over until you get a handle on the experimentation aspect of things, even if that sounds a bit cheap and less interesting.

[@torinriley7569]

@@EnergyBurst2 I do agree, though that requires you to go into the game with a specific mindset. If you're a casual player, it's not much of a solution. It's up to personal taste I'd say.

[@EnergyBurst2]

@@torinriley7569 True enough, as I said its roundabout which in my experience usually means one that doesn't cleanly solve the issue, but it is something I attempted to do after learning about how to do specific seeds, plus it doesn't help that the seeds change whenever there's an update which makes it even less of a clean solution unless your willing to mess with changing the version you're playing which is even less of a casual friendly prospect.

[@rily2885]

@@torinriley7569 that's why getting an infinite healing method/spell feels like unlocking the sandbox mode for real just to die due overconfidance anyways, I love the harsh nature of noita but I agree that it gets in conflict with how open the world is and how deep the mechanics are, while I would love to see a more forgiving approach to get creative I would admit that each run where I had the chance to experiment more I ended up broken af and the game felt a bit like a joke, can't think of a way to balance the lethality with the sandbox, is just too deep for its own good

[@millioncats5790]

What if I told you, were living in a simulation created by a spell in noita

[@electroflame6188]

I'd tell you that max wand capacity is far too low for that to be a possibility.

[@jasonfurumetarualkemisto5917]

Not enough Spontaneous combustion to support that

[@fuecoco9651]

That would make sense

[@Yetta_]

Your father got hit with another spell

[@The.Reilly]

"Blade and Sorcery" as well as "Rumble" are both incredible. Both VR games, so I guess it's kind of cheating, but having to move your hand to cast spells really adds to their power.

[@danieljramos2188]

Use a comma please

[@WetAdek]

Blade and Sorcery doesn't have that much wizardry yet, but the mods change that a lot. Lately on Nexus I saw a mod for wands from Harry Pothead that activate with voice and spells from the movie/books.

[@declanrodgers6995]

Another VR game wands is good. Not my thing personally but you can do stuff similar to the fight he showed at the beginning.

[@giulio8781]

@@danieljramos2188 he wrote the phrase corrently, are you okay? lmao

[@Fafr]

@@giulio8781 He did, but there is no distinction between the two games, essentially making the list of games "Blade, Sorcery, Rumble", "Blade and Sorcery, Rumble", "Blade, Sorcery and Rumble" or "Blade and Sorcery and Rumble"

[@Vrile]

I like how he showed the ichor being used on the destroyer, which happens to be one of the only enemies that are immune to all debuffs

[@TheStellarJay]

Listen I never claimed to be good at terraria, just that I like it

[@Vrile]

@@TheStellarJay I just found it funny, it’s a great game

[@jonathan45564]

@@Vrile Some might say it’s _objectively_ one of the best games ever made and emphasised that in an almost 60 minute long video where he played with a gay interior designer

[@mrlaydatpipe9610]

@TheStellarJay same, but what's that lightning bolt attack at 1:4, and what mod I was instantly interested

[@solwilkinson8551]

@@TheStellarJay cud you try Battletech

[@rookiedrifter4273]

"Do NOT let yourself fall into the purple lightning pipeline, yellow is CLEARLY superior." INCORRECT

[@zatzu]

You are clearly inferior @RookieDrifter

[@bazmioperzys626]

Red Lightning is clearly the best subcategory of Lightning (faith-based elden ring build)

[@Autism3.0]

what about green?

[@Azure9577]

​​@@Autism3.0 we don't talk about green lighting

[@cdgonepotatoes4219]

Lightning needs to be white, then randomly weigh towards bluish-purplish or yellow to fuck with people and make them wonder if it's just their eyes getting singed giving the impression of colours.

[@DeusExRequiem]

In Noita the tutorial is the descent down to the final boss. Beat the final boss, lose the game, and then it really opens up. You now need to descend, then once you're able ascend back up and explore beyond the artificial boundaries in your way. Climb the mountain that clearly doesn't want you climbing it, fly over the tree you're not supposed to dig through, etc.

[@edersonnico]

Dam, I've never ever managed to finish the tutorial.

[@rinner2801]

@@edersonnico Do you have less than 50 hours?

[@edersonnico]

@@rinner2801 Probably. Knowing myself even if I had more than 100 hrs I'd still be bad. But despite that I don't think the devs should change anything at all, it is very clear the kind of experience they are proposing and making it easier would ruin this game.

[@rinner2801]

@@edersonnico it took me about 30 hours to get my first 'win'. But that's basically just the tutorial! I've over 1000 hours now and still don't have all the achievements. If you really want to enjoy the game I suggest checking out the wiki online and the *amazing* Noita twitch/discord community. I don't think I'll ever get bored of Noita, and even when I put it down for a while it feels fresh every time I pick it up again. Absolutely amazing game even with all of it's many annoying technical issues and inconsistencies.

[@cortster12]

Yep. I even consider that early game, and when I say 'early game wand' I usually mean anything you make before your first parallel world, lol.

[@totolasti]

Have you tried Magicka 1 & 2 ? These were the best wizard games of the early indie era

[@ekulio]

Came to say this, can't believe he overlooked those.

[@PetitTasdeBoue]

You need friends for that tho

[@lucianoromero7336]

Start with 2, Magicka 1 barely runs, there are ways of making it more stable but you'll still get crashes

[@dargon-ld2ss]

​wtf? i didnt had any problem with magicka 1

[@styxrakash4639]

@@PetitTasdeBoueI played thru it solo and enjoyed it

[@WetAdek]

Noita doesn't need a tutorial. Every run is a tutorial and death is the lesson. Its definitely my favorite wizard game.

[@Voidlingstudiosofficial]

Yes

[@uheartbeast]

One of the things I think Noita captures very well is that magic should be dangerous and arcane. It's powerful yes, but if you don't understand it you may end up suffering dire consequences. I don't really like the way the spell system in Noita turned out (with so many numbers) but I think I get what the devs were going for.

[@Voidlingstudiosofficial]

@@uheartbeast it’s still awesome

[@stanky-cheese-factorio]

Glad this one is high up on the list. Noita is truly a unique and unbeatable wizard experience. So much variety in what you can do alchemically and magically.

[@raioh4747]

Yeah Noita is very much doing its own thing and it has a specific public that enjoys exactly what it is. Changing that complexity would alienate it from the core experience it delivers Definitely not a game that tries to please everyone. I think some folk could understand they don't need to play every single game out there, some games just aren't made for them and thats ok.

[@thebiggestbambino6108]

Noita is the closest i’ve come to feeling like a glowing brain genius when I figure something out, like a proper mage making strides in my own personal understanding in the art of magic. Once you begin to learn wand building and begin to get your bearings with the games ROUGH early game? Well, I think Mage The Awakening said it best. “I’m a Mage, I can do anything.”

[@buboniccraig896]

Dude Noita is brilliant. Suddenly, magic is both a creative expression of gameplay and a science that you can finetune. It's what magic should feel like. Wow this comment was before I knew Noita would be in the video

[@noice2607]

You didn't?

[@Gr0ot]

Stop being dumb, magic is based off of mana. It’s as simple as that.

[@Tyranitar.]

If magic is well established then a magician just becomes a really cool looking scientist

[@joegaddy2030]

@@Tyranitar. Isn't that basically what a wizard is? Someone who studies magic like a science.

[@Tyranitar.]

@@joegaddy2030 yeah so a really cool looking scientist

[@OrdericNeustry]

I like how in Divinity Original Sin magic interacts with the environment, and combining the right magic can have incredible effect. You could make it rain, throw a fireball to create steam, then electrocute everyone inside that cloud of fog.

[@Nen_niN]

@@stankobarabata2406 Only two characters? I take it you use lone wolf?

[@WelcomeBub]

@@stankobarabata2406 unbreakable candelabras in epic encounters go brrrr

[@OrdericNeustry]

@@stankobarabata2406 1 also has nice arrows for elemental effects. I especially like the poison cloud arrow. But yeah, main characters are always wizards to cover all elements

[@DeepFriedFrenz112]

Or, and hear me out, death fog barrel fane

[@EldeNice]

@@DeepFriedFrenz112 don't let them know our secret. Undead = superior race fr

[@gorse1465]

as a noita player who has done basically everything there is to do in the game, i am so glad it was included here. hands down the best roguelike of all time.

[@thalezito-4990]

@@Boojum_Tree hollow knight is a metroidvania '-'

[@lancelaurel3828]

@@thalezito-4990 I’m dead 😂 this dude said hollow knight

[@Arexsis]

@@Boojum_Tree God damn you hollow knight fans are really something else 🙄

[@poggestfrog]

@@Boojum_Tree no no that's a dark souls game you poopy 😡😡😡😡

[@atraxisdarkstar]

I have no idea how people play that game. I played for hours and couldn't get anywhere.

[@robbierotten2024]

You forgot Magicka! A pretty old, very buggy, impossible to play online w/friends without crashing game. But an amazing game none the less. Unlike in the sequel, there wasn’t a limit to how fast you could cast spells so it was absolutely nuts. The speed at which your fingers and brain could string elements together to make spells, then combo those spells is how powerful you are. Creating an electric shield then starting a thunderstorm was definitely one of my favorite combos

[@comyuse9103]

dude wtf was up with magicka 2? how did they ruin such a perfect system?

[@Team_Orchid]

The problem with a Wizard video game is that the infinite power of magic is chained the hell down by the fact that need to be coded. You have to code not only the spell but also all the interactions with not only other spells but also every entity that would be affected by the spell. This is why magic users in games have always felt incredibly limited to me after I first got into Pathfinder.

[@zakarylittle6767]

Set reminder for 5 years when this persons mind is blown by what natural language processing is going to do to videogames.

[@EpicMiniMeatwad]

The limitless possibilities of interacting with another human are also limited, because there are different bounds. Art is all expressive because it describes all forms of expression, be it game, video, picture, writing, music, etc. Although they all have limitations, creativity is best found in limitations.

[@SioxerNikita]

@@zakarylittle6767 natural language processing will not suddenly make Magic in video games far better

[@TheBEstAltair]

Huh, maybe the new AI coding could help solve that. Procedural magic code generation... You let users(or modders) create a spell and the trained AI will code the functionality of the spell.

[@gsofficial]

There aren't any real-life systems they can derive new methods of representing magic from either, given that magic doesn't exist.

[@elama293]

At least Noita is purposefully complex lol It's meant to be a chaotic roguelike where research and exploration is key. Not that those need to be tedious like it is in the game, but the bizarre interactions and complexity add to the overwhelming sense of awe one feels when things go RIGHT.

[@Booklat1]

noita is the perfect complex wizard game alchemy is amazing, wandcrafting is insane and there's so many cool enemies to fight

[@ValeriaPaper]

@@Booklat1 and it has a crapton of cool secrets too

[@gamingmonkey4951]

Noita was one of those games that took me over 100 runs and 100 hours to beat, then I finally looked up a guide and saw that the game can be beaten in mere seconds and felt almost embarrassed.

[@pelucidar1]

in mere seconds, but only by people with many hundreds of hours of practice!

[@ololh4xx]

Noita cannot be finished in seconds. You're looking at one hour *AT LEAST* - if you're doing a speedrun, skip most of the bosses (when possible), use portals like a maniac and/or manage to get a 1/1000 map.

[@Ay-xq7mj]

Can beat it in seconds just requires luck/preseeded run.

[@emberdragon4248]

You could say that about any game. Speedrunners always find a way

[@pendingchange3776]

@@ololh4xx pretty sure the any% set seed speed run is like 3 minutes long

[@milkcappy]

holy SHIT im so glad you brought up Wizards of Legend. i played that game a ton with my brother a few years back and could never beat it. its such a stunning game and i have so much love for it, it just makes me so happy seeing other people enjoy it as much as i do!!

[@bringerod5141]

”Magicka wizard wars” was insane before they shut servers down. Like 6^3 spells and everything has a specific counter that you have to figure out in real time pvp. I went nuts playing it but it was really impressive people who played it well.

[@felcakes2153]

Magicka is aslo an amazing game with a similarly deep magic system

[@Lordloss36]

Every now and then I get sad when I remember that game. Duels in that game were so off the wall interesting that describing a single minute of a game can be more complex then describing entire matches in other games

[@DRsideburns]

RIP it was a great game

[@dreskar1921]

- "I do not wish to spend 8 years of my life learning how to cast magic." But then referring to the Dumbledore vs Voldemort fight and accessibility: - "They just did it." Yes, they just did it after spending their life learning how to cast magic. I think an hour beginners guide sounds good for a magic game.

[@aguyontheinternet8436]

yeah that wasn't a very well thought out point

[@IxodesPersulcatus]

Noita has all these ridiculously deep systems that barely work together and don't add any depth to the game at large. No matter how many rabbit holes it has, it remains as shallow as can be.

[@IPromiseTomorrow]

Im sorry im not strong enough to be like you Irl wizards

[@MrVoprosic]

Yep, they did, but we are playing a Game, to have Fun, and that means - we need to have magic system that will be understandable right through the first hours of an actual enjoyable gameplay, without need to work your ass off like you are learning astrophysics. If I'll want to spend several hours of my real time understanding some very complex systems - I'll go to the university, a place where it gives me more than just some niche understanding of basics of a game that I'll leave in the couple of weeks.

[@Garykem8]

@@MrVoprosic Swtg if I’m spending that much time learning magic I should be able to do it in real life😭

[@6Ghostgarden]

I'm glad someone talked about Wizard of Legend. The drip, the spell animations, the variety is just MMMH.

[@dave1402]

man play dungeon hunter 5

[@gogolemon888]

Would you recommend getting the game then? And if so on pc or console do you think would be better

[@dave1402]

@@gogolemon888 pc yes very good game

[@joshuaperry7323]

i love the game. sadly i find the levels to get a bit boring and repetitive. hard carried by just how great the magic is.

[@addaneye8389]

WoL is undoubtedly one of the best wizard games out there I would highly recommend it especially if I like roguelite games

[@aristotlekaiser6974]

I quite enjoy souls games magic, I think what goes hard about elden ring magical combat is the fact that you also have the option to pair magic with a physical weapon that compliments your play style

[@jacoblang9426]

instead of the (normal) mana or cooldown mechanic for magic, theres this game with an really cool mana mechanic in which you have 0 mana until you hold g to charge it which sounds relatively simple but the key point that makes it fun is that spells have different cast percentages you need to aim for mid-mana charge. so, something like a ice spear slamming down from the sky creating a small iceberg on contact with the ground needs you to have your mana between specifically 85-90%. this results in having actual fast paced timing based wizardry instead of "wait for your mana to recharge or cooldown to reset so you can click again"

[@aryabratsahoo7474]

Name of the game?

[@seancallihan4555]

Thanks for giving us that tiny morsel of information that intrigues us, but fail to tell us THE NAME OF THE GAME!!!

[@aryabratsahoo7474]

@@seancallihan4555 Then we have to search for it. I haven't heard of any game with a mechanic like this, but speaking of no mana aspect, Lichdom Battlemage is similar to that aspect of no mana. You can equip up to 3 elements, and have access to 3 attack types at once. But the catch is that you can craft new spells with modified properties such as whether your primary ranged attack would be casting a missile, homing missile, a continuous stream, or like a grenade lob but it splits into smaller projectiles.

[@shiz_AE]

@@aryabratsahoo7474 rogue lineage most likely

[@facelessmanruin]

BRO IS REPPING ROGUE LINEAGE

[@IvanXua92]

I can't believe you haven't mentioned Magicka. Magicka is literally the best wizard game ever.

[@Yamy-py8su]

I think you should refer to the "I have no friends part of introduction"

[@Unadvised8849]

Can't forget Lichdom

[@vo_ronin5006]

I was looking for this comment

[@Exploder11]

No mana, no cooldowns, only power, unlimited power!

[@erikderfreak]

Yeah! I was gonna comment that. How the hell isnt magicka in here?

[@vfanon]

“I think it’s hard to argue that Noita wouldn’t benefit from simplification” Me: Prepares to argue

[@derflerp538]

It's hard to understand at first, but actually beginning to understand it after hours of fucking around is so incredibly satisfying. Going from just looking for high-stat wands to turning mediocre wands into god-tools with the right spell combinations. It's brutal, unforgiving, and such a rewarding dopamine generator.

[@seancallihan4555]

My ideal magic system would be somewhere between the runemage class from 'Outward' and the spellcrafting of 'Mages of Mystralia.' Where you can have great, intuitive spells that make you feel powerful, but challenges you by splitting your attention between combat, and correctly casting your desired spell.

[@paddyq3235]

No fucking way! This is the first time I've ever seen someone else who actually knows Mages of Mystralia exists!

[@zerozone5848]

"Why do wizard games fall flat?" Noita Enjoyers: *Gentlemen, the time has come.*

[@elfrangofrito]

What I've learned with this video: Add Wizard of Legend to your Steam wishlist

[@explosionspin3422]

Also noita

[@GeorgeThoughts]

Magicka is the best wizard/magic combat game ever made. Because you cast different spells by combining 10 elements in different sequences, cast with the QWERASDF keys, your prowess as a wizard is directly proportional to your skill at the game (hitting the correct keys as fast as possible) and your creativity (combining elements and magic types in different ways). It's amazing. If you combine the wrong elements during a panic, you're liable to blow yourself or your allies up instead of the enemy. PvE makes you feel like an absolute unit as you combine steam and fire elements to hose down legions of goblins flamethrower style, or freeze a troll solid with ice then smash them with a boulder. But the short amount of PvP I played is where the magic system truly shone. It becomes a literal battle of skill and creativity and always reminded me of the fight in Order of the Phoenix. You don't even have time to move your character. You just face each other and tank different kinds of magic at each other, looking for an opening. People complained there was one combo of lightning and arcane elements which was OP in Magicka and yes it was powerful but in PvP the first thing you would put on is a lightning shield which makes you immune to that spell. So then your opponant has to use other elements to damage you. And in PvE there'd be enemies which were immune to lightning damage too, so you couldn't always use the same spells. They did make a sequel, Magicka 2, and a MOBA style version called Magicka: Wizard Wars. But I felt that by making the spells super balanced in those sequels they made the game less fun and chaotic. Magic SHOULD feel powerful in my opinion, that's why it's magic. They also dialled back how impactful the spells felt too. So, definitely give Magicka 1 a try though. It's clunky, a little buggy, but it's a really funny game too and yeah the magic is so well done.

[@symmetry8049]

I disagree with your take on Noita, the game is wonderful imo. And you really need to try out magicka and its sequel, as others have pointed out. That's another actually good wizard game that lets you cast "your own spells"

[@seb24789]

The fun starts once you discover the electric steam death ray.

[@livedandletdie]

QRQRESA Shift Left Click. Make Versus Mode fun again! Say hello to my little friend QFQFASA Hold Left Click... When my friends and I played Magicka together, we got to the point that it didn't take a second to input the spells. Not Even QRQRQRQRE or QFQFQFQGS... We even got it down to me casting QFQFQFQFS and then they'd cross beam with AAAAS and we'd make the whole world go poof.

[@BobisOnlyBob]

@@livedandletdie FQFQASA, pronounced "Fucking Fuckass", is the reason I was banned from playing Magicka with my friends!

[@AlFredo-sx2yy]

@@seb24789 fqsasa is great in m1 but in m2 efqaaa is god

[@obviouslykaleb7998]

This comment section has devolved into lunacy

[@saarthel8532]

I'm surprised you haven't talk of Magika, the wizard game about combining elements to create spells on the go

[@jcoludar]

My thoughts exactly. Guess they are too young for Magicka.

[@Wearebackhereagain]

I’m surprised he talked about skyrims magic system and didn’t mention morrowinds magic system

[@thewalleh]

I came here to also mention Magicka! Very fun, accessible, and c o m b o z

[@owen551]

@@Wearebackhereagain Morrowind released in 2002, bro. That was twenty years ago. Thestellarjay was almost certainly born after that.

[@antoniodeb94]

@@owen551 I feel so old reading this

[@Hydrantchan]

I feel like Magicka at least deserves a special mention for innovation, YOU control how fucked up the spell you are casting will be AND you get to accidentally blow up your friends while doing so. What other wizard game lets you do cool wizard shit at your friends?

[@kingsiracha4565]

If you do feel like giving Noita another try, the Spell Lab mod provides the tutorial on wand building that the game was lacking

[@keeparguing611]

i find the mystic class from wildermyth to be the most interesting mage i've seen in a game. you mentioned in the d vs v fight how environment was used to fight? well mystic literally only fights by using the environment, whether it be using trees to constrict enemies, turning nearby fires into balls of fire and hurling to the enemy, or just causing anything near the enemy to break into splinters to deal damage

[@justinshelvey7233]

Wildermyths mage is so good even though its so simple and no one talks about it

[@The_True_Mx_Pink]

*Smashes 7 different enemies with one boulder* Wildermyth is a super cool game and I do recommend it. Also Warrior Werewolf literally best don't @ me.

[@slimeplort]

Fundamentally magic should be interesting, which is where I think a lot of games miss. You should be able to get a spell and go 'this is how it works', and as you continue to use it you realise 'it can also work like this', and then you get another spell and realise 'it can also work like this if I use this' and so on. Each time building a layer of complexity and choice, but at its core it's still a simple spell.

[@Dtyn8]

Wildermyth has a pretty cool magic system; involving interacting with the environment to cast spells. Torches in the dungeon allow you to blast fire, wooden doors allow you to fire off splinters, chains and trees and bushes let you restrain enemies. Game definitely has other flaws, but that's the closest I've ever felt to interacting directly with the environment as a wizard.

[@wolfpytlak2786]

oh yeah, forgot about Wildermyth's magic system, that really made it fun to explore and understand the enviroment you were in and what it allowed you to do with your mages

[@darryllmaybe3881]

This doesn't only apply to wizard games, these are good rules of thumb for any combat system and why I like roguelikes so much, because they typically do them pretty well overall.

[@maggiefix249]

Wizard of Legend was a really fun game. It also runs really well on old hardware. It's not expensive, and it even has local coop, a feature I miss in many games nowadays.

[@fariskebire4038]

Over 300 hours in Noita. Took me 60 to fully flesh out the spell system. Goddamn I love that game

[@wasifchowdhury2004]

Literally the same here but with Anno 1800. About 60 hours for me to get the basics down and over 300 of gameplay in and still haven't mastered it.

[@qbz32]

Ahh, 300 hours in Noita. Basically a newbie

[@no3ironman11100]

People who play combat/multiplayer/strategy games standing menacingly behind you with thousands of hours in those:

[@knorke3549]

based on your comments on noita i would strongly suggest giving 'magicka' a try - just kinda vanished after release but basically you get 8 base elements, 5 slots to use them in and get to just craft your own stuff from there. also it has a proper (/linear) storyline and some really nice humor :)

[@somedude8728]

Also playing it with friends is so good

[@MinecraftTestSquad]

My biggest issue with Magicka is friends. Okay that's only half a joke but the other issue is when I played it with a mate before we stumbled into a pretty strong spell early on that made 90% of the levels a grind just spam casting it and the other 10% actually required a bit of thought but it wasn't worth the grind, and using anything else just felt stupid. It was some combo that summoned an ice rock and dealt ludicrous damage on contact.

[@mrosskne]

@@MinecraftTestSquad QRASER.

[@Shonicheck]

6:40 Yeah, no. Noita is fun exactly because there are things to figure out. You are treding the line of LEARNING sorcery, each run gives you a better idea of what each spell does, and little by little you start to feel like a REAL wizard, that LEARNED some arcane knowledge by constant trial and error, deduction and ocasional hints. The base game is simple enough, you can beat it in like 6? hours, 2 if you will just stick to first powerfull wand combination you discover and slowly just tread forward. Noita is interesting and captivating because there is so much to learn about it, to get all the knowledge on the game you will probably spend good chunk of 100 hours, even with wiki. It is fascinating to keep discovering things even when you think that you are immortal being worthy to contend with gods themselves(yes you can become VERY powerfull, like a few millions of hp, taking zero damage from anything, anihilating bosses with single cast, teleporting through parallel universes with a single cast, etc.)

[@Thenoahcastiel]

YES. Wizard of legend has been hands down my favorite rouge like for so long. I’m so a Glad it got the attention it deserves

[@novachromatic]

Soo underrated.

[@thecosmicjester4024]

Wizard of legend deserves more attention honestly. It's the game that really got me into the rougelike genre and is always a blast whenever I revisit it from time to time. Highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't tried it out yet

[@mija1110]

technically its a roguelite. barely any games are actually roguelikes, just devs who dont understand what the genres actually mean and accidentally use the wrong one. roguelike is basically a copy of the game rogue. its unlikely youve ever played a roguelike. roguelite is games that take inspiration from rogue and apply it to a different genre, which basically means adding the ideas of permadeath and repeated runs with different outcomes during the run due to some sort of random element. some devs seem to think that means its a roguelike, and roguelite means its a roguelike with meta progression, or something that isnt really anything like this but the devs want to use the genre for marketing purposes. thats a big no. roguelike are gridbased dungeon crawlers with permadeath and random elements. roguelites are games with permadeath and random elements but arent gridbased like rogue was. so basically any game you play that you think is "roguelike" = roguelite. if its actually a roguelike its unlikely it has actual graphics, its most likely an ASCII based game.

[@leowulf5280]

@@mija1110 Language is a fun thing. If most people think "The definitin of Rougelike is X" to the point that it becomes the common understanding of the term, then that's what it means.

[@giordihero]

​@@mija1110 the fact that people still spew this stuff around baffles me. Nobody cares. If most people use Roguelike to define both types of games, then that's what Roguelike means. The "-like" suffix doesn't mean "it's a copy of", it means "bears resemblance to". So the definition is correct the way it's used by those devs you criticize, and that's the end of it.

[@godlyvex5543]

I tried playing it, and there just isn't enough variety... in the things that aren't spells. I'm fighting the same enemies over and over, with the same bosses over and over, in rooms that are all shaped the same.

[@Craft2299]

You want to be a sorcerer, not a wizard. A wizard incorporates science into their magic. The theorycrafting is part of what it feels like to be a wizard. Slinging spells around is one thing, but slinging spells around in such a way that you can then create something new is wizardry. Its why Magicka, Noita, and maybe some modern games like Elden Ring do it right. Experimentation is everything!

[@enriquewicks7797]

How does Elden Ring fit into what you said?

[@Craft2299]

​@@enriquewicks7797 There is a myriad of buffs builds and strategies for PvE or PvP that you can do in Elden Ring. Because of the RPG mechanics of the game, it allows for oddly specific stuff using magic / Weapon arts.

[@enriquewicks7797]

@@Craft2299 Oddly specific damage beams :P I don't think I've seen anything that creative comming out from ER's spells, it fits your definition of sorcerer way more. The best stuff that I know is animation canceling to quick cast powerful spells and things like the prop hunt crown. These don't come close to Magicka and Noite in the wizardry department. What combos were you thinking of?

[@giordihero]

@@enriquewicks7797 that might have been true in previous Souls, but Elden Ring has insane variety in its magic. You got projectiles, beams, summons, buffs, AoE, Melee, quick, slow, situational and generic spells. Aspect of the Crucible spells morph your character to briefly gain the feature of an animal, like a Tail to swipe, a Horn to charge or Lungs to breath fire. A variety of spells can summon weapons of various types, each with different effects, like Black Blade summoning a huge sword which applies Death, or Gavel of Haima to summon a hammer to smash in front of you, or Loretta's Mastery, that summons a giant bow which shoots multiple explosive arrows that follow the target (and can be aimed in a way that makes them curve around obstacles or come from the sky). Rykard's Rancor summons a homing spirit which leaves an explosive trail in the air. Rolling Magma shoot a ball of magma with a delayed explosion depending on its charge time. Fire's Deadly Sin engulfs the caster in fire which damage enemies around him. Black Flame Ritual summons a ring of protective flames around you. Dragon spells summon a dragon to breath whatever you want, or bite, claw and howl what's in front of you. Ambush Shard shoots a projectile from behind the target. Carian Retaliation absorbs an incoming spell and transforms it in flying swords. Founding Rain of Stars summons a cloud which rains down bolts from the sky. Freezing Mist creates a smokescreen of frost. Briars of Punishment makes thorns erupt from under you. Scarlet Aeonia transforms you into a giant flower which spreads Rot. Frenzy spells make the enemy go insane. And all of this is without taking weapon arts into consideration.

[@enriquewicks7797]

@@giordihero All this is variety in straight forward damage dealing, it lacks the interaction with your surroundings and itself, it lacks the cleverness allowed in Magick or Noita. It is fun as hell, but like the OP said, it is a sorcerer gameplay, not a wizard.

[@MeatSnax]

The problem is that youre looking at modern action games. CRPGs from the '90s and '00s have way deeper and more interesting magic systems, Morrowind's spells turn the game into an immersive sim and break the balance by level 13.

[@boxingvanilla5960]

Bro speaks like eminem raps

[@kinggalactix]

Incredible.

[@vexillian]

Even though it's technically not a "wizard" game, Transistor does a great job checking off each of those boxes as well. Made by the same people who made Hades. Great game.

[@jakeinator21]

Yeah, when he was talking about mixing spells with Noita I immediately thought of Transistor. I loved how there were no distinctions in that game between what was a primary attack function or an augment, you could mix and match them any way you wanted to try new stuff. So many possibilities.

[@gavinjenkins899]

Binding of Isaac too as a not-wizard-but-still-what-you-asked-for game

[@MagSun]

What do you think about Divinity Original Sin 2? This was my first magic game in a long time, where environment can be used (water puddles can be frozen to become slippery or turned into steam to block vision, oil is sticky and can burn, fire can be put out with water to become steam again, poison is poison but can explode, any fight taking longer than 2 turns leaving a burning hell, but hey!) For me, this was so much fun to cooperate with different magic focused characters ❤️

[@slimeplort]

Divinity loosely follows the dnd rulesets so they modelled their interactions on that. There's a lot of creative ways you can use their spells. If you loved the game, you should check out their latest release Baldur's Gate 3. It's in EA and should be releasing early next year.

[@iRsemple]

Dragon Age Origins also had a badass magic system. You could come up with some crazy combinations and partner it with the abilities of your other characters' classes

[@Waitwhat469]

@@iRsemple DAO really did have a fun magic combat system. Like if I wasn't on my game I remeber losing fights, but otherwise if you're blastin right it was a spectal of elements killin people

[@FriedSheep69]

Yep, amazing, although as a best magic use game I love Arx Fatalis, too bad it was not remade or used somehow because the magic casting in that game was amazing.

[@jobhunter5090]

I feel like original sin 1 did it better in the magic. In divinity 2 it always felt like if you weren't exploiting the magic system the enemy was exploiting you

[@artxiom]

I'm surprised no mention of Outward...it has one of the most unique (and fun) approaches to magic.

[@mrtoast244]

I loved Magicka and Magicka 2 when I was younger and it first came out, I must have beaten them both around 5 times each. I wish there was a 3rd one

[@ARN4591]

I wish the 1st even worked online in the first place. Some update broke it and you have to work around it to even play online without crashing

[@fartloudYT]

You should give Dark Messiah a go. It is basically source engine with magic. It does not have endless variety, but it promotes creativity thanks to the physics engine.

[@CheatEngineMods]

Dark Messiah is a fucking great game, nice to see other people enjoying it

[@LucieSwogg]

Divinity Original Sin 2 has a really fun magic system with good bits of variety and complexity (spells have tons of unique interactions with each other and the environment), but it never feels too overwhelming!

[@Zm4rf]

I spent probably half my time casting spells in town just for the hell of it lmao it was so satisfying

[@indecisive_v]

ok but what if both purple lightning and yellow lightning exist as cosmetic color options. and there's also teal

[@Dionysus24779]

To me the biggest problems most games have when it comes to magic is often that they focus mostly or even exclusively on combat. Hitting an enemy really hard with a sword or a fireball often becomes a matter of visual flavor with the same result in the end. What many games miss out on is to have spells that can be used outside of combat to make your life easier or even progress through quests or the stories in ways a non-magic user cannot replicate by themselves. If you look at Tabletop games most combat spells are actually kinda boring, the real fun is in all the utility spells (or summons that provide utility) that can then be used in clever and creative ways to overcome obstacles or just do cool stuff. There's just so much more to magic than flinging fireballs and lightning bolts and not enough games really tap into that other side.

[@TY-df7fg]

I remember there’s this one Minecraft mod called Psi, and the developer made sure to never make a direct damage modifier to the spells. Lightning sure, throwing it 1000 feet into the air sure. Giving it a potion effect that caused dot damage sure. But never direct damage. Granted, the mod was in Minecraft, so by necessity most of the stuff in there isn’t combat oriented. So mining, building a small structure, moving mobs, etc are the main uses. And you literally have to code it using some high school vector math.

[@Dionysus24779]

@@TY-df7fg There also used to be a mod called "Witchery" in Minecraft which had some of the most fun magical stuff I've seen in a mod. Had a cool potion crafting system and you would do ritual-magic by placing items on an altar and drawing magic circles with chalk and such. Sadly that mod has been dead for years. My problem with Minecraft specifically when it came to magic mods though was that many of them were just magic-flavored tech-mods.

[@explosionspin3422]

This is another cool thing about noita - you can craft your own movement, digging or healing "upgrades" using spells

[@monsterkitty6921]

ONLY FIREBALL THERE IS ONLY FIREBALL

[@somersault1123]

Yes. And in the Harry Potter realm we have Herbology, Ancient Runes, Potions, Care of Magical Creatures. but sadly even from the main series the only thing that's ever utilized in combat is very basic spellcasting. Even Fantastic Beasts only had one combat use of a familiar creature.

[@jsrisonline2226]

Mages of Mystralia is one of my favorite magic games, over the course of the game you unlock runes that augment how your spells are cast so you always have what you need for every situation, it's a lot of fun.

[@RupertAndCheese]

Yes! It's a damn shame that you couldn't make things more powerful, only more numerous, but it was still a fantastic spellcraft system. My go-to murder spell at the end was a machinegun swarm of dumbfire, drunk-flying, homing fireballs that exploded; it looked so rad.

[@inquisitorkobold6037]

I love Noita. Nearly 200 hours in the game and I'm still discovering new combos of perks and spells.

[@Mr.Foxhat]

I loved Fable 1's magic. It felt like I could do so many types of builds. Breath of The Wild also had some cool ideas for magic in that the environment could be altered.

[@Matthias129]

Fictorum is a wizard game I'd suggest checking out. Its magic system is pretty neat, choosing your spells and applying modifying runes to them, and when you cast the spell you can actually choose how much those runes modify your spell.

[@deriwilliams4264]

Fictorum is pretty cool. Can't say all starting builds are even close to being equally strong, but there is a lot of customisation and cool stuff to do. Teleport ninja, super-jump and lightning everyone, or just sit in the corner meteor striking everyone.

[@JanbluTheDerg]

I've got a game called Fictorum, and it's a pretty neat wizard game. It's been a minute since I played it, but the main thing I remember is combining a few spell effects into this one spell to create an overpowered area of towers that used this bouncing attack and absolutely decimated my enemies and frame rate. Also destructible environments.

[@JanbluTheDerg]

Update: Replayed it. So you have several spell slots (and two ring slots that can have simple spells on them), and with each spell you can attach certain modifiers. When you cast a spell, you can cast it as is, or you can cast it modified, influencing how much the spell will take from the 3 modifiers you can have (ie: Speed, explosion, multishot, towers, area, size etc). So while there isn't much spell on spell effects going on, you do get a lot of influence on how individual spells work.

[@RuneKatashima]

You can craft spells in morrowind/oblivion. You mentioned Skyrim, which was a downgrade to this. Magicka exists. There's also this other game whose name escapes me, I didn't play it, but I saw it on another video similar to this. You can combine spell types to do crazy shit. Some guy made a metal tornado and because it exists in the world, could jump platform it. This one is 3d. Also yeah I guess Noita is kind of cool.

[@sanguinetales]

Two Worlds 2 I just saw that video lol, Too bad there wasn't a new one made with today's tech

[@henrykramer365]

Yeah I'm surprised he didn't mention Morrowind, there's a lot of batshit stuff you can do with spells in that game

[@andrewknauss6106]

Noita is so deep that there is a puzzle which contains a hidden message still not decoded to this day.

[@Khe11endross]

Your point on scale is a big one for me. Most wizard games have you fighting extremely close, but I feel like it would be amazing and would make a lot of sense to send your fireballs flying over a mile away and burn whole forests with it. Obviously that's gonna be more difficult to do in a game, but it would be a lot cooler.

[@toast6375]

It’d be able to be easily balanced to maybe you need a phénix feather to keep the fire going for Those distance

[@multigrandmarquis]

You don't really get the full wizard experience with a fighting game, but Yomi Hustle's wizard class has so much variety in spells and combat, especially in ditto fights

[@dranyth]

I'm kind of surprised Lichdom: Battlemage wasn't looked at. It's kind of just an FPS as a mage, but it's all about comboing your spells to boost their effectiveness. Although you are limited to using 3 elements at one particular time, there can be a pretty good combination between the... either 8 or 9 total elements that can be effectively combined.

[@janefkrbtt]

if noita gets a simplification update I'm finding your nest and eating your eggs

[@pivotman64]

I always thought it would be a neat idea for a magic-based game if the spells a player could use depended solely on the environment. For example, you can only cast a fireball if there was a source of fire (torch, campfire, etc) nearby to draw from. Or, you can only cast a lightning bolt if you were outside during a thunderstorm. This would immediately break up the trend of only using the most OP spells, as you would be reliant on whatever your environment was giving you.

[@joshuaprancl]

Wildermyth's take on a Mage-class has exactly that

[@HatedSovietLion]

You genuinely should look at the "Outward" game for its magic system. There are spells that either require you to cast a fire sigil down or if you have a torch you use it like a flamethrower. Or spells that require you to have a book in one hand as if you're reading the spells off. Similar to what you say but not fully what you're meaning.

[@manchmalpfosten8133]

Noita is easy to learn but hard to master. Which is how all things in general should be, if you ask me. Plus sitting in the holy mountain and figuring out how to make your spell kill your enemies before they are on screen is the best part.

[@cinnamoncat8950]

Ayo you need to play yomi hustle, the wizard character in it is so good. Every character feels op in the right ways and playing wizard vs wizard can look insane

[@A_Name_Music]

I remember desperately trying to shoot down a wizard that was like 1000 feet in the air with a barrage of magic darts. God that was fun

[@icebearsans]

I was just saying that

[@RaeIsGaee]

Noita's complexity is the entire point of the game. It's focus on forcing the player to explore and learn the systems themself via experimentation leads to a really fun and enjoyable experience once you come to grips with some of the base mechanics. It's not for everyone, but that doesn't mean it should be dumbed down and have what makes it great ruined just because it takes a bit to get into it. It's like if someone complained about Tunic being "too vague", the entire point of the game is exploring, and that wouldn't be nearly as rewarding if the game threw an alchemy flow chart at you in the first minute.

[@Simoxs7]

I feel like this is a thing with Finnish games, the other one I really enjoyed, „My Summer Car“, also doesn’t hold your hand in any way. While it isn’t remotely as deep as Noita it expects you to assemble a car on your own without any checklist or explanation, if you’ve done it in reallife you know how to do it. That game is basically a real life simulator and because it doesn’t hold your hand and expect you to know how it works and expects you to do every little tedious thing yourself, thats what makes your achievements in game much more important, because the game doesn’t want you to succeed but you’ve overcome that without any help by the game…

[@pixstatic200]

Noita has gotta be *the* definitive magic game when you get used to it. Sure it's unintuitive, but no other game lets the level catch fire and collapse in your wake while playing music that sounds like throwing a psych rock band into a magic swamp.

[@SergeantTeabag]

The way you describe Noita is why I love Ultrakill so much. If you play around with some of the mechanics, you can actually find some really cool interactions, some of which were actually bugs in the game but kept in anyway! The game can be played rather normally, but there's a lot of tech that makes the game more fun to play. Fast forward a few months, and I've learned that I can parry my own shotgun shells, store a ground slam to hit max velocity, reflect an enemy's hitscan attack back at it with coins, and even detonate shotgun cores with an alt form of the railgun to make an even bigger explosion!

[@synka5922]

while that is true, noita is incredibly niche due to it. Most People want a easily accessible game to boot up after a long day at work, where they can just have fun with big explosions... including myself

[@jonaslunwil]

Yeah, writing Noita off after 10 hours is just silly. You won't have scratched the surface of what wands can do, or what the world has to offer, in that time.

[@likvik2386]

I would actually really recommend “One step from eden”, as it is a really fast paced deckbuilding roguelike were you build your deck of spells, and then battle it out on a 4x4 grid, in real time

[@rsilverline1515]

How about outward? The magic system is essentially if your just using one spell it mostly suck but if you combine it with other spell or with time it’s becomes amazing, though how you start being a wizard is complicated

[@justforyou8790]

noita is that typ of game where the biggest boost in strengh comes from you, the player, gaining experience of the game mechanics. u become a true wizard as you have to study for your power.

[@Reshii_Mu]

There's an old, slightly clunky but very interesting indie game called "Fictorum" focused around "spell-shaping". Kinda like playing a sorcerer in DnD with the metamagic stuff. You should check that one out too. It's been a while since I played but it was cool, if a bit finnicky, last i tried. It lets you do some *really* crazy stuff though.

[@WanTheLucid]

I was looking for someone who mentioned this game! Fictorum is sweet

[@Firegodot]

This is the equivalent of that Gajin Goomba video where he reviewed a bunch of ninjas in videogames and then found out about mark of the ninja but for wizards

[@GhostTypeLemon]

Have you seen One Step From Eden, its a little bit more of a Mega Man Battle Network game than a wizard game, but the amount of spells and all the potential interactivity and combos between them sounds like something you're interested in and the game makes you feel very powerful when you find combos that start melting enemies

[@flip.flap.]

I love One Step From Eden, but unfortunately it seems like the most viable strategy for later in the game, especially with harder characters and higher difficulty levels, is usually just to fill your deck with tons of spells that you can thoughtlessly spam without worrying about intricate combos. Most combos just aren't worth thinking about because the time spent shuffling your deck to get to them lowers your DPS, the attention you have to pay to the order of your deck makes you worse at dodging, and having a deck with more spells in it increases your Mana regen speed, which incentivizes packing it with more generic, independently effective spells.

[@SilverPrinceZen]

The magic in Mabinogi is pretty simple, but very satisfying. Certain spells definitely make you feel like a destructive master wizard

[@Rabeshin]

The most amazing magic fight I always think about was in Fairy Tail during the Magic tournament arc when that lady with gravity powers from Mermaid heel fights that celestial wizard from Saber who uses Pisces, Virgo and frickin Ophiucus! Something about that fight was so entrancing because it was made up of two opponents with similar power levels

[@roa1d-2]

In my life I have played exactly 1 phenomenal wizard game and it was a minecraft server called PotterworldMC. The spellcasting was complex, as well as diverse and interesting. There's probably still some tournament videos floating around on the internet. I believe a channel called Rhizio has some of them uploaded still.

[@Oathiel]

I liked "Two Worlds II" spell system. U basically created your own spells by adjusting all variables like element, type of spell, nr of projectiles, element, bouncing or tracking rtc. Had a blast with it, experimenting with all kinds of things, back in the day.

[@Marqan]

I think Two Worlds had a decent magic system. In Hades and Transistor you also have abilities and combos.. they aren't technically magic, but functionally are. There's also Dishonored, where spell combos can do amazing things. Arx Fatalis had some cool features as well.

[@jamestomato1744]

Now that's a game I hadn't thought would EVER get mentioned. Like ever.

[@ManPac1]

You should give Fictorum a shot! It's a smaller title with rougher visuals but it delivers with dynamic spell creation and casting and a grand sense of empowerment.

[@Gronglegrowth]

Seconding that one! I haven't played much of it as until recently my hardware was way underspec for it, but what I did play was quite neat and I felt like I was indeed the powerful wizard the game claimed I was. I should finish it....

[@l.balmadina7491]

thirding this one

[@ZenoDovahkiin]

"The tutorial video an hour!" Thank heaven you're into wizards and not dwarves.

[@Caliboyjosh10]

Talks about wizard games without talking about Magicka 😠 Still a great video btw.

[@Laszer271]

I actually think that Path of Exile has a pretty good magic/skill system. It's simple at first but thanks to all the synergies it can get really complex in the late game. You still mostly spam one ability for most builds but the variaty comes with how can you change your main abilities.

[@TehJuiceBoks]

I LOVE noita. It's fair to think it should be simplified, but in truth the wands atleast are pretty simple once you've gotten a handle on most of the spells individually. But yeah... it is super difficult. Took me like 170 hours to get a win. Edit. I haven't even tried to understand the alchemy. Water is life. That's what really matters

[@AyuKasioy_]

Stellar jay doing the explosion line is the single best thing that has happened in my life

[@Toonfish_]

If you want the magic system to be quite involved with many options but you don't want Noita then you don't want complexity, you just want depth. Which I mean, fair, it's common game design wisdom that you want to reduce complexity while increasing depth. However, as a big fan of complexity in games, I just bought Noita because of your excellent sales pitch :D

[@diablo.the.cheater]

0% complexity and 100% depth is the ideal game, 100% complexity, 0% depth is the ideal sandbox, 100% complexity, 100% depth is impossible in videogames, that is a tabletop rpg, and 0% depth, 0% complexity is click counter that does only that, count clicks.

[@MakDemonik]

The whole fun of Noita is is ABOUT how mysterious it is. It is one of those games, with deep system interactions. (ie. Dwarf Fortress, Rimworld etc) They thrive on Trial and Error. And fogurins stuff out is the best part of it. Making it simpler would at least for me, take away from the core fun factor of the game. It's not a Wizard Battle game, its a Wizard Eldritch Horror game where uncovering the mysteries of the world is a reward in itself, and I'm all here for it. And for someone who says he likes wizard games so much, how have out not played or mentioned Magic Maker (Which is virtually "Noita for babies" and thats not a bad thing, its great!) Also Magicka 1 and 2. And while old and visually unappealing by todays standards, Daggerfalls and Morrowinds Magic system (oblivions too by a lesser degree) are also super customizable.

[@stephalloplayz]

As a long time noita fan, he undersold the complexity immensely. That game is so fun highly recommend, very difficult though so be prepared for disappointment.

[@Sclater_Kraden]

Great video! Really enjoyed the requirements of a good magic system. I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the upcoming Harry Potter game's magic mechanics. As an avid player of Noita, while yes, it is a very deep and complex game, it is a Roguelike. A big part of the game is to learn it and its different mechanics (in this case spell interactions). You get better and better, understand more of the spell interactions, and will get further and further into the game until you finally complete it. Dying by your own stupidity, by testing, by playing should not be considered a setback, but progress. "Oh this spell creates a sea of acid, maybe I should combine it with a trigger spell to ensure it does not spawn on top of me". That is not to say that the developers of Noita are some real sadists. The "basic" game and the spell system is very much possible to figure out. There are however a fair amount of secrets that go to the extreme, where only the most passionate (or psychotic) people would be able to figure them out. There are still, at least one, secret still to this day that haven't been figured out (The Cauldron). I'd recommede checking out Albion's video "The problem with Noitas secrets" for a more in-depth explanation: kzbin.info/www/bejne/m6etpKSrrsRkgbc. There are an insane amount of gameplay in Noita that will take you, months, if not years, if even possible, to figure out on your own. However, only the base game of Noita (killing the last boss) is well worth its price.