Over the years we’ve all played as countless fantasy characters in our video games, and when I think of fantasy characters the first ones I think of are wizards. It makes sense that spellcasters would appeal to a wide variety of people, because the idea of being able to conjure fireballs with innate powers is frankly very cool. Whether you’re controlling a party member in a turn-based RPG or you’re freezing spiders in real time in Skyrim, it’s pretty much always fun to play the mage. When I saw a new magic based Roguelike was coming soon I was interested to give it a go, especially because Folly of the Wizards is a fantastic name for a video game.
After decades of peace, this particular fantasy world is under threat due to the return of an ancient evil. There’s one problem with this though, the wizards who originally dealt with this potential calamity are now old and past it. The only ones who can save the day now are the apprentices, but there’s one problem with this plan – they’re all useless. Unfortunately that’s who you’ll be playing as, but don’t let that stop you from doing your best.
You’ll probably feel at home pretty quickly playing as one of these dunce mages, as The Folly of the Wizards is a twin stick platforming affair. With your left shoulder buttons you’ll control your jump and dash (which of course also ensures you take no damage) and the right shoulder buttons let you deal some damage. At the start of a run your wizard will fire particularly pathetic magic projectiles and not do a whole lot else useful, but with a bit of luck that’ll change pretty quickly.
A lot of how the combat in Folly of the Wizards works is based on different elements, which you’ll get more proficient in by finding scrolls. If you read an Earth scroll for example your puny shots will turn to little boulders, whereas a Fire scroll will turn them into balls of flame. Once you collect a few of these your shots will alternate accordingly, which both looks cool and will help against different enemies with different weaknesses. There are also more complex elements you can harness by combining the basic ones, which you’ll be able to experiment with on repeated runs.
Alongside the scrolls you’ll find, there are also relics which grant you more exciting upgrades. Want to fire ice cream instead of magic missiles? Of course you do, so pick up that relic and get scooping. Not all relics are quite as daft as this, but they do all change the way you’ll play and provide some nice variety. Granting extra hits against certain elements is always useful, as is switching your shot to a laser for more constant punishment. More useful than all of these upgrades though are the tomes, which provide you with a powerful special attack that you can only use after killing enough pesky monsters.
The upgrades you find will most regularly be in special rooms of the dungeons you explore (that are grid based like The Binding of Isaac and even feature similar locked doors) which house four different characters. There’s a shopkeeper, a creepy witch who wants your blood, and a blob king who will all help you on your way. Some of these want money or health to give you new powers, but others just sort of give you them for nothing. These characters can also be befriended or upset in conversation, which is a mechanic I wasn’t expecting from a Roguelike.
One aspect of Folly of the Wizards that really impressed me was the variety in enemies, and especially bosses. So many Roguelikes have you fight the same big tough enemies over and over again, but there are so many that you’ll rotate through here. This does mean you die to bosses more regularly too though, because without knowing what attacks they’re going to throw your way they’re pretty bloody hard to deal with.
In theory everything I’ve talked about Folly of the Wizards featuring should mean it’s a great Roguelike, but it has some serious issues that really hold it back. Aiming attacks so often feels bad, because you fire such slow and small shots (especially in the earlier parts of a run) at equally small enemies and they just don’t line up. It’s hard to really get across quite how much this makes every room full of enemies feel like a chore to fight, and that’s pretty much what the entire game is made up of.
Alongside this so many enemies are just jerks. They’ll sit still and seem easy enough to deal with and once you get close (because you have to so you actually hit them) they’ll charge at you so fast you immediately take damage. A lot of the bosses are like this too, with attacks that come your way so quickly that it feels unfair you were expected to dodge them.
The last issue I had with Folly of the Wizards is admittedly a smaller frustration, but it was annoying nonetheless. When trying to befriend the various characters of the game you’ll have to chat to them, and choose between two options that’ll make them like you more or hate you more. This is simple enough, but the frustrating part is that on every single run you’ll have to have the same conversation with them. It’s just needlessly tedious, and meant I didn’t explore the affinity system fully because I just stopped having these chats altogether for my sanity’s sake.
Folly of the Wizards isn’t necessarily a bad Roguelike, but it could’ve been a much better one with a few tweaks. The element system and different relics are fun to play around with, but the combat itself holds the game back from being better. Perhaps with some future updates the game could tweak some of these issues, but currently there are plenty of other Roguelikes I’d rather spend my time with.
