Wizardlings is a family friendly free-to-play touch-RPG for casual gamers that was recently released by Square Enix to the iOS platform (iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch) and will be coming to the Android OS. I played Wizardlings on the iPad.
Instead of relying on a plot with a beginning and end, the game opts to go in the direction of a more open-ended adventure. Once you select the gender of your character, your goal is to level up, reveal all available squares on the playing field and complete as many quests as you feel compelled to. The game has seven worlds to explore. Each of those worlds has eight lands, which in turn have numerous playing fields to explore. The Ogre Den has 13 areas to explore and some of the other levels you’ll run into have very large playing fields.
Experience (XP) may be earned by revealing new squares, completing quests and completing playing fields. Revealed squares may also provide you with food to restore some of your hit points, coins, quest items, spell ingredients and treasures. Treasures are organized into sets. Completed treasure sets may be redeemed for additional coins, potions and gems, depending on which set you’ve completed, of course. Coins and Gems may be used to purchase potions, stronger armor, weapons, spell ingredients and quest items.
If do not have enough gems and you are not held to a free-to-play budget, you may purchase more gems using actual money through the in-app store. Wizardlings can be completed without purchasing gems. But, it does speed up the game significantly if you do.
You start Wizardlings with a finite number of hit points. When you run out, you must take a break and allow your hit points to recharge. If you have potions in stock, you may use these to replenish some of your health. Most of your playing field strategy will include deciding whether you’re going to spend your time defeating bad guys or revealing squares to continue acquiring items. When you’re fighting a monster, you might find yourself weighing whether or not to club it with your wizarding staff, stick to spell casting, or use some combination of the two.
The graphics are cute, if not original. The main playable character animations aren’t very diverse. They spent more time on animating spell casting. The more powerful the spell you’re casting, the more involved the animation of it is. The look of some of the play fields, when fully revealed incorporate some interesting elements, including fairy tale themes.
Cons:
You absolutely must have an internet connection to play this game. It will not work without one.
Some of the boards are too dark. It occasionally makes it difficult to tell if an area is a playable square or nothing at all. When that happens, some of the revealed squares can block your view of some of the playing field and will therefore make it further difficult to tell if a space is a playable square, that’s taking into consideration that trees and other large objects become somewhat transparent when your character passes under them.
It would have been fun if they came up with some more elaborate animations for the existing spells to make them feel larger than life, which is something the game does lack. I really want a spell in place that consumes your entire screen and bad guys that look more threatening.
There’s a bug involving the purchasing, earning and use of potions currently that I’m hoping they’ll work out soon. Any potions that you use on your character won’t work, but will return to your inventory when you come back to your game later.
Pros:
Wizardlings is fun and addictive. It’s safe for kids, but is not limited to that audience. As someone who doesn’t have a lot of time, being able to put the game down and come back later is appealing.
If you decide to diverge from the free -to-play route, it’s possible to speed it up tremendously by purchasing just enough gems to get the right armor to speed up how much XP and how many coins you accumulate.
There are a lot of levels to explore. The game will keep you busy for some time to come. Upon completing the last playing field, there’s a promise of more levels to come in the future.
Free-to-play Touch RPG, Wizardlings is currently available for download on iTunes.
