Paper Sorcerer

First, the good news: This game has a fairly interesting combat system. You basically do nothing but explore a rudimentary dungeon Wizardry-style and fight, so that's kind of the whole selling point, besides the art style. Combat is not simply mashing "attack", you have multiple skills, and, showing off modern sensibilities, they all have a cooldown period, and take up "energy", which regenerates 1 point every turn, or several points if you use an energy-restoring skill at the opportunity cost of casting another spell that turn. Cooldowns punish reliance upon a few effective skills, and keep attacks varied. Defense is a stat somewhat like how energy shields work in sci-fi games; When taking PHYSICAL damage, you lose defense points instead of hit points, requiring use of defense-restoring spells (which only some classes get) or else you take full damage from enemy attacks. When taking MAGICAL damage, you only take hit point damage, but defense still is effective (if reduced by half), meaning that spellcasters need physical attackers to land hits to drop defense for their spells to be effective. That said, there are problems: Party members are archetypes with basically no growth customization besides a few passive skills that give +5 magic or something, while the crucial active skills are set by creature type. Worse, you don't get a detailed look at how a class will perform when picking your party, you just have to take the game's word for what they do, and hope for the best. Since some classes really work better together than others, it means you have to restart until you get a feel for every class before you can make an informed decision. Ultimately, combat does get repetitive, especially if you go for the bonus dungeons. Cooldowns on skills are a critical game feature, so they refuse to give you very many, meaning you use the skills you started with from beginning to end of the game. It's fun for the first 40 hours, but has a real expiration date.

If you like old school, I am sure will like it, I am a old fart who use to love RPG and still do. Thought I would give it a try, and I am very pleased with how it work. Nothing hard with the controls and everything runs smoothly. Its a little hardcore, but awarding as you get passed the dungeons enemies. I love it nothing more to say :D

Basic Description: This game features a first-person POV in which you move around various dungeon levels in an effort to find the stairs to the next level. Along the way, there are battles to be fought, hidden doors to be opened, and bosses to beat down. As a sorcerer, you must summon several minions (monsters that are effectively the equivalent of traditional hero classes) to help you out. You cannot use all of them in any given play through, so choose well and play again to try others (they all mix together pretty well as long as you balance your group). Mechanics: The battles work well and the characters each have their own flavor. Whether you like using magic or brute force (combination seems to be best), you'll find the sorcerer and minions adaptable to your preference. Battles can get tough later on, but with optimal usage of your characters' skills, you can find a way through the rough spots. Item drops and skill training help round out and balance your level-ups while boosting characters in their best stats. Negatives: There are still a few bugs (as of 6/18/15) that prevent you from completing a couple of the secrets/side quests which can be frustrating, especially if you don't know about the bugs. Some boss fights are a little too easy (on Normal). Bottom Line: I have had a lot of fun with Paper Sorcerer. It's a solid Indie Game developed by mostly 1 person, so it's impressive how good it is. The mono-color screen with the old-style look and feel blends really well with some catchy background music. If you want an homage to the old dungeon-hacking days of the 80's, this is a good pick. There is sufficient variability to add replay value and it has some amusing quirks. Not perfect, but very well done overall.

Paper Sorcerer sure has strange music. The dungeon roaming is accompanied by a tune that wouldn't be out of place in Faster Than Light, and browsing shops sounds like I'm back in Final Fantasy 8’s Deling city. I don’t find it particularly unpleasant or distracting (aside from desperately trying to pin down what they sound like) which is more than I can say for the interface. Moving things around in the inventory isn't convenient and the turn-based combat is too slow and awkward. But despite those things it’s quite an interesting game. Firstly you’re an evil wizard trapped in a book by a king, hence the surroundings and title (I guess Parchment Sorcerer didn't have the same ring to it). You’ll have to find a way to escape and fight your way through corridors and rooms patrolled by the king’s guards. For your party you get to pick from a nice list of monsters which function in different roles. Vampire, goblin, skeleton, demon, etc. In combat these monsters leap out from the first-person perspective and bash enemies. It can get quite reminiscent of the Sega Saturn’s excellent Shining The Holy Ark. It’s always nice to see a good Kickstarter game come out. These days dungeon crawlers are a rare sight, though we've had a small comeback with Legend of Grimrock which was very traditional. Paper Sorcerer feels more like a continuation of the genre rather than a nostalgic callback, and I’d recommend both any time. Why not? They’re so cheap!

I love this game. It has an original style, turn-based combats, and some minor bugs which add some personality and "hand-made-ish". I have to admit I cuted off the sound very soon, but i still feel like i enter another world when i launch the game. Sometimes, i have compulsive needs to play a dungeon-crawler. This game has done the trick.