Folly Of The Wizards is another entry in the roguelike genre. Developed by UpFox Labs, this 2D roguelike action video game follows a young wizard who must go out and save the world. Unfortunately, this game does the one thing I think every roguelike game should avoid: it becomes boring.
Die And Go Again… Not In This Game Please
Like I said above, Folly Of The Wizards becomes a boring game the more hours I put into it. But let’s get some positives out of the way first. The plot is simple and quite humorous: you play as a simple young wizard apprentice who must save the world. You can choose one from multiple wizards but the game tells you they are all terrible so just pick one. Nice little humor here just to let you know how unprepared you are. Even when you die, a message tells you it was expected that the wizard would die. Once you pick your wizard, you jump into the game.
The graphics and art style is also a highlight for the game. Everything looks beautiful, enemies look threatening. Hell was my favourite and most memorable with its Hellish design. The multiple levels you go through and clear are well-designed. Boss fights also look cool, well some of them at least.
Now into the gameplay. The gameplay is simple. Clear enemies in rooms and make it to the final boss fight to pass the level and move to the next area. Like all roguelikes, you die you go again. When you die you start again to try and level up and gain better gear. This is a fun mechanic in these games but in Folly Of The Wizards, it becomes tedious. Tedious is not something you want when playing roguelikes.
Is That It?
One of the most frustrating parts of Folly Of The Wizards is it doesn’t explain things very well. Sometimes when I died and went back again to unlock new items to do better in my next run, I found myself getting confused about what some items do. There are relics that you can pick up and they are never really explained. Does it modify my current weapon? Is it a weapon? What does it do? Sometimes I don’t know. The odd time I kind of understood what it does and changes, but this seemed rare.
Furthermore, after a few hours of play I became bored with the game. The combat in the game isn’t that interesting. You just press attack button and that’s it. Many of the weapons are not that different from one another. Although the ice-cream is favourite. Felt like it was the most powerful. Especially in boss fights. I would spam the boss with the ice-cream cones and they would melt the enemies health away. Truly amazing. After dying many times though, I found it difficult telling some of the levels apart because they are meant to be different in every run. It just becomes repetitive.
Friend Or Foe?
Another mechanic in the game is the ‘affinity system’. You can encounter other characters in the game when passing through the levels. Sometimes they are locked behind locked doors which need keys to access or clearing a room full of enemies. Doesn’t matter what their names are, they are forgettable like every other character. But when talking to them, you have dialogue options. One increases affinity bond with them while the other brings it down. It changes the items, weapons and even boss fights that you encounter in the levels.
While this sounds interesting, it is never fully explained. Even after hours of playtime and doing both ways when talking to them, I still don’t fully get it. Do you get harder boss fights if you decrease affinity? Better weapons when it goes up? No idea. Another unexplained mechanic in Folly Of The Wizards.
Verdict
Folly Of The Wizards is just a boring, repetitive game. Mechanics, relics and weapons are never fully explained. The affinity system is interesting but never becomes something good. Another confusing addition that is just confusing. All this makes the game frustrating. Graphics and the level design is good and some of the boss fights are cool and challenging. Unfortunately, this is one roguelike where you do not want to try again after dying. There are better options out there in this genre. Folly Of The Wizards isn’t one of them.
