The Magister

this game feels like it was vibecoded by a redditor, every texture is just a png slapped onto some ui with the most basic mechanics. also the writing is god awful

Big disappointment, but I'll give the game a positive recommendation for at least trying to do something different. The first impression you get is from the game's low production values. The writing is rather simple and stereotypical, the music couldn't be more generic, and while I like the game's backgrounds, the characters look like the most hyperbolic anime characters imaginable, with scars everywhere, huge muscles, and oversized gilded armor. It just doesn't really fit (anywhere). But this is fine. The biggest problem, however, is how formulaic the game is. The premise is you're a detective, investigation a murder. Which sounds really cool, and to me suggests a very good alternative for a deep RPG, mechanically, that doesn't rely on just bashing everything in your path. But... Everything is so abstracted as to lose all meaning. My fondness for CRPGs comes from the attempt at making more realistic and subtle writing, to an extent. There a are crafted worlds, with real characters and ideas behind something like Fallout and Planescape Torment. There's none of that here, because the game, ultimately, is a glorified "Who's who". There are maybe 10 suspects. 7 of them had a motivation for the murder. Half of them had a wounded arm (a clue for the fight during the murder). All of them will lie to you about where they were on the night of the murder, only to give you to opportunity to either confront them with a clue you've received from another character, or a card mini-game of "tactical diplomacy". The actual motive doesn't matter at all. All that matters is that you've found "a" motive. You don't need to get to know the *character* and to deduce that they may have been the murderer. The game is built around exhaustively going through all the "checkboxes" (do fetch quests for each character to befriend them, then confront them to gather a clue). At some point, you'll have enough info to determine the murderer through a series of abstract clues (murderer is man/woman, strong/weak, religious/non-religious, and so on). Ultimately, this abstraction is necessary to make the game a "procedurally generated RPG". Unfortunately, it is also enough to make it an uninteresting one. It prevents you from crafting a real story with all the nuance that great stories have. I will not write much else. The game has a turn-based, deck-building combat system. It's competent enough. It also has a "diplomacy" card mini-game which is also quite okay. The stats and skills are a bit disappointing (in the sense that they do not lead to many choices during the playthrough; especially not informed ones, I picked most of the skills early on without knowing where they would be useful, and they seemed to play only a minor role). The loop is quite compelling. You have a limited amount of places you can visit per day, restricting the characters you can talk to or the (fetch) quests you can attempt. Plus a satisfying amount of combat and resource management (mostly money). Aside from the cheap look and feel, the game is definitely enjoyable. It doesn't do anything amazing, but again, it is competent. I enjoyed my time with it. But the main draw of the game (for me), the "detective CRPG" is just not interesting in the least. And the writing, such an important aspect of a CRPG, also leaves a lot to be desired. I hoped the game would "add something to the conversation". Open some doors for CRPG developers to venture further into. But it seems to have been a dead end. Very little worth exploring in this specific direction. Still, it is trying something new, and the core gameplay is enjoyable, so I'll leave this as a "positive" review.

It was a marvelous discovery, even if this is procedural the plot is consistent, need some logic, and the fight are really well implemented. I suggest you to try this game.

I think it's a weird idea to combine a walkaround cluedo-like detective game with deckbuilder combat, but credit to the creators of The Magister, they managed to cook a reasonably consistent experience of it. Especially when initially jumping into the game, the lighthearted approach to the events and characters makes for a fun experience. Then the more I progressed, the more the game had harried me with gradually revealing that I need to do much more work than I initially imagined - or I was just unlucky with the RNG, that's hard to tell. In the end, it was somewhat frustrating as I don't like to play under ever-increasing time pressure, but in the end, I think the game has some interesting moves and is decent entertainment overall. Recommended - with the caveat that it tends to make you feel hunted.

Got this in a mystery bundle, it was like 20 games for $15. I like it. Took a little over 3 hours to finish a "run." I like the art style and the concept of the game.

I think this was a work of genius. It is not the sort of thing that can captivate me for consistent replays, but the one play through I had was great. Well done devs.

Comprei por 3 reais. Valeu a pena.É um jogo simples,mas divertido.

A fun game with some fun mechanics. If it interests you, give it a try