Paper Sorcerer

This game has a lot of aesthetic charm to it with the visuals and story. I found myself very engaged while playing through. It also has a nice range of choice for ability and party customization with a wide array of characters to choose from and even a class specialization halfway through for your main character. The game is very simple over all. Between that each floor being very short while you have a reusable teleport to a sanctuary stone on hand, this game felt more like it was meant to be played on a tablet than a PC. My only wish is that the floors had been bigger and the battles less tedious. After a ways through battles, though somewhat limited in number, end up being 3-5 minutes long. Overall well worth getting and I hope they make a sequel eventually.

Paper Sorcerer isn't bad - you can definitely see they wanted to give the classic dungeon crawler formula an upgrade and make it more accessible to modern players. Managing the party is engaging, there is a lot of special attacks for every character, and if you got just a bit more choice when levelling up, it would be up there with Gameboy-era Pokemon's battle system - and we all know how many hours you can sink in these games. It also feels good to give newfound toys to your warriors, and with the very limited number of equipment slots you have to make hard choices and specialize. Unfortunately, there is a number of rough edges - mostly UI. Character portraits or names are all over the place - popping up from the left, from the right, in modal dialogs, in small rectangles. In most places you can use Q/E to cycle left/right, which helps, but still...I keep thinking there must be a better way to switch between characters and menus. Also the collected items appear in...3 different submenus? Given the way that characters filter weapons, it always took me waaay too many clicks to make sure I have a given item on me. Managing battle also had too many pop-up dialogs. It could do without the "Guard A", "Guard B" menu and just move the highlight. I'd probably get used to the less-than-amazing UI, and still have a lot of fun, but unfortunately the game also has some bugs. On my first visit to the Sanctuary I bought some equipment, and after that I noticed that my party members' HP was showing 0/0 and displaying the bar to the...left?! I didn't save before using the shop, because I didn't think it would be that dangerous. Unfortunately, when I then entered next level, hoping for the 0/0 situation to reset, it became clear that the game does not know how to proceed from this point. During the next battle the first enemy became stuck in a loop, casting the same buff over and over. Alt+F4 was my only option. And I really didn't feel like retracing my steps from last save.

As other reviews have mentioned, this game is in the vein of the M&M and Legend of Grimrock games, and for making a decent game in this style, the developer has already earned his four star review. The hand drawn art is wonderful, setting the mood and providing depth. I actually enjoyed the music, as I'm a bit bored with the traditional horns and strings we get in a traditional RPG soundtrack. The meat of the game is in building one's party, and this is where the game really delivers, allowing for near countless variations that complement each other. I appreciated both the quantity and unusual choices found in the party choices, and it was fun to play around with different summons to find the best mix for me. The story is there if you want to follow it, but it can be safely ignored, as this is a dungeon-crawl, pure and simple. I will say that I enjoyed the humor that was injected into the game. All in all, I would say that this game is well worth the money, especially considering it was all made by one person.

If you like RPGs with turn-based combat, then look no further: this game is for YOU! Paper Sorcerer combines delightful dungeon crawling in first-person view with an excellent battle system that keeps the player captivated from start to finish. This title boasts an unique, unforgettable art-style that brought back fond memories of the game books of old. The musical score is also memorable and I felt it contributed greatly to the whimsical ambience: the sound effects are standard. The game’s menus can be cumbersome at times, but by and large, the interface functions well. Paper Sorcerer’s charming story is, like its distinctive graphics, unique and unforgettable, and it ends very nicely as well. The game also has significant replay value since there are a number of different creatures one can recruit to assist the sorcerer in his quest to escape the magical book he’s been trapped in. I got through it in about fifteen hours, but finding every secret will probably take longer. I thoroughly enjoyed this wonderful game and I strongly recommend it to anyone looking for an RPG.

Pros: The wide variety of minions you can summon. This adds a lot of strategy and replayability to the game, as each has different attacks, strengths and weaknesses, some of which can be effectively played off each other depending on your party makeup. It's nice to have 3 extra slots so you can swap out minions for certain circumstances, too. Beautiful graphics and soundtrack. The stark, inky lines of your environment over the faded parchment-like background give this game a very unique look. Everything is extremely detailed and very pleasing to the eye- take a look at the sorcerer's hand when she casts a spell, with its arcane tattoos and rune-etched fingernails. The soundtrack is amazing- rather than epic fantasy fare, it's quite strange and wonderful, and you'll find yourself going into a pleasant trance as you explore the dungeon to its beat. There's something old school about the dungeon itself with its maze-like corridors, heroic guardians and secret passages, making it feel a lot like a 1980s D&D module brought to life. Cons: Lots of misspellings and weirdly worded dialogue. While it gets the plot across well enough, "your" and "you're" are mixed up constantly, along with many other unprofessional, easy-to-correct mistakes. Bugs. While nothing game-breaking, there are instances of temporarily getting stuck in menus that don't bring up what they're supposed to. Worst of all is a very long, involved quest involving lots of keys that just ends abruptly because the final key doesn't appear as an option in any of the last three doors, making them impossible to open (all other keys just break when you try to use them, and believe me, I found ALL of them). There's also a gem needed for another quest that's impossible to get because the chest it's supposed to be in is already opened when you find it. Though you can swap out 3 additional minions, it's not really cost-effective to train them, meaning you really need to stick with the same 3 for most of the game.