Spellcaster University

While waiting for Two Point University and wishing I could play a Harry Potter school sim, I found a middle ground between the two. Sort of. I am picky about the narratives in my stories (they usually suck) and I'm of the opinion that usually less is more. This game is proof of that. What story is here seems to be purposefully tropey, and if there was a hard story that underlay the levels, beyond defeating the Lord of Evil (or, you know, usually not) it would be unbearable. A heavy story in a sim is an unfortunate blemish I've seen in other sims, and they make absolutely no sense. Thankfully this sim focuses more of the strengths of the genre: sinking you into a flow state and tricking your brain chemicals to feel a sense of accomplishment from incremental decisions and upgrades. I sank over ten hours into this thing, for good or not, since I bought it. I think that comes close to justifying the $17-$18 price I paid for it. It can be buggy. I got tossed out of the final level in the campaign because at first the game only ran at 2x speed (panic inducing when you're inches away from winning against the army of darkness or getting splattered) before it just froze. Within like 5-10 minutes of the end of the level. Usually I could jar the game out of a bug by closing out of the game and getting back into it, but this one was permanent. A damn shame, as I was willing to put in an hour or more on trying to see the end of the campaign. Now I'll probably uninstall it. Honestly given how little the choices (you can change some choices for your school in your office, I bet some will never figure that out) matter at least in the campaign, I don't see myself wanting to play this any further. Everything is just too damn fast and not in depth enough to really feel like the sim it purports to be. You also get shuttled into one choice, which is to have a flexible balance in your majors and try to get inhuman students. Do not buy it at full price.

One of the most refreshing bonkers games I've played in a while - it features flying guinea pigs with unicorn horns and they are the cutest things and I want one. I love the art style and theme and it reflects the warped concept: you gain points in one of six magic discplines to spend on random cards that enable you to increase your university. You also gain gold as part of the general deck. Decks have plenty of cards that include rooms, goodies, animals etc Every choice comes from being able to draw cards and use them at the right time. The settings of the land offer good variety as do the rewards and punishments offered at the end of a level (in campaign mode)... quick play is more for testing out this and that with the time limit turned off. I loving the sorting hat component of the game where you create houses for your students and you select where they belong - a truly simple but profound mechanic that vastly affects how the level plays out (for example, having a dedicated Animal Magic house might be good for one of the level goals but if you're limited on class space, or your Herbalist teacher is crap then dumping lots of students in that house isn't a good idea). The ability to unlock dungeons for your students to go and adventure is a great idea that is mostly well executed. However the problem I found is that the best combination of skills tends to be a mixture of Light and Dark magic with a splattering of magics from the other houses. What this sadly means is that you can only dungeoneer towards the end of a level when all the loot from the dungeon is mostly wasted, regardless whether your students live or die. Also the Arcomage quest is damn near impossible to achieve without some sustained luck and perks - if offered this quest AVOID it. I have some niggles regarding the UI (such as Escape button not doing what I would expect it to do and mouse whizzing off now and then) but these are forgivable because of the Flying Guinea Pigs with Unicorn Horns.

Finally a management game in the Harry Potter universe even if it 's not asummed because i guess they don't have right. But still really refreshing and new and i way more rich. You have to build your school and complete objectives before the lord of evil comes and destroy everything. You can create houses with two random characteristics you can choose among six. Student have their owns, allowing them to learn faster (or not), be less hungry, more violent, faster, more lazy, sleepy, etc... You will have to adapt and make them learn the best you can. You can improve all the rooms, you have access to many object, each of them if a different effect, you will have to maintain relation with the factions outside, and you can do dungeons with the pupils you choose. Actually there is a campain mode and a free mode where you can play without worries. Following the student all around the university watching what they are doing is really fun and satisfying. This is really a promisong game, i have a lot of fun doing it. I can't wait for the next update. There are some minor bugs, but they wont disturb you a lot. If you like or want to try managment game, go for it ! you wont regret it.

Don't judge a book by it's cover; this game's actually SOLID! In a world in it's disagreements, you have to try to make sense of a world with different factions. Notable ones that aren't the bigger evil include the Orcs, the Villagers, the King, the Inquisition, and the Adventurer's Guild. In this game, you are secretly trying to take down the GREATER of two evils; the "Lord of Evil". (Of whom appears to be an obvious homage to Lord Voldemort from the "Harry Potter" franchise, although having a distinct design of his own.) And to do that? You need to set up your school building, in EVERY level. Including your houses, different rooms with various features for education in magic, and things to go in it, to boost it's effects! It's a bit tricky, but DON'T BE FOOLED; if you're a die-hard "Harry Potter" fan, and you like school management games? This one's for you!

I love a well built game. I've sunk far too many hours into this, it feels like it shouldn't be as solid and fun as it is, and there's a ton of replay value. The randomness of card draws can sometimes be frustrating of course, but there's enough architecture around the card system that it's often still possible to pull yourself out of a hole even if your luck is janky early on. It can be annoying if you manage to tank an area on an otherwise 3 star run because you draw tricky objectives, but the campaign's short enough (and you can use shorter play modes) that you can generally feel ok about just restarting if you're a perfectionist like me. I think I'll fire it up again now, see if I can complete another challenge mode.