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Dungeon-crawling games often have to hit that sweet spot between challenge, charm, and replayability. Folly of the Wizards takes a crack at this in the form of action roguelite gameplay, leaving a solid first impression even on someone like me, who wouldn’t really consider themselves proficient in such a genre, compared to others.
In Folly of the Wizards, players take control of, well, a wizard – who would’ve guessed? However, you’re in no way some all-powerful, chaos-bending magic man….No way! Instead, players will find themselves playing as a clumsy wizard apprentice, with opportunity to unlock several more options through gameplay. A simple, but fun concept, to say the least. Who even wants to play as OP characters, these days, anyway?!
Let’s start with the most important factors – the whimsical art style, atmospheric backgrounds, and amusing character writing immediately give Folly of the Wizards a strong personality. To begin with, it’s entertaining to meet the various creatures hidden around each area and fight your way through quirky monsters and creative boss encounters. However, I must admit that after I’d taken a few runs at the game, that initial spark dimmed rather quickly, and continued to fizzle out as the true cracks in the armor of gameplay and progression became evident.
Visuals and Atmosphere That Sparks Magic
There’s no arguing the visual direction and generation aesthetic Folly of the Wizards utilizes – distinct, cute, and charming, all in one. There’s a strong level of polish in the art style that stands out from the interesting character designs to the beautifully crafted background scenery and platform tiles, all coming together to paint a stunning picture throughout each dungeon stage. Right off the bat, it was these artistic choices alone that had me excited to set out and explore what was to come.
Each monster spawn feels unique in design, yet absolutely fitting for the environment each one belongs to. In the Desert, for example, be prepared to stumble across giant demonic-like worms that erupt from the ground, whilst the forest houses monstrous plants and noxious cloud entities set to harm your clumsy little wizard.
A Fun Sense of Humor & Personality Through NPCs / Dialogue
Beyond the visual aspect of Folly of the Wizards, the game carries a quirky, fun little personality through its unorthodox approach of a mere average wizard on a wild, unpredictable adventure. The writing leans into a humorous tone that keeps things quite lighthearted, which is quite fitting for the protagonist.
Characters are quirky, even weird (in a good way), and are interesting enough to be a short but charming little encounter any time I set out on a new run. My only small frustration is with the affinity system tied to some of these NPCs. I noticed that on repeated runs, the questions in which you answer to gain affinity seemed to always present with the same dialogue and options. This means that players can simply memorize answers to guarantee affinity points, which sort of takes away from the sense of fun and replayability that roguelike games bring through the likes of randomized events and outcomes.
Folly of the Wizards isn’t exactly a deep narrative experience on any level, and the overall plot is rather simplistic. However, the tone is fun and consistent, so if you enjoy not taking yourself too seriously, you’ll probably find appreciation for some of the tongue-in-cheek lines among all of the magic-blasting, platform-hopping action.
Gameplay, Controls, & Progression – A Mixed Bag
The gameplay loop for Folly of the Wizards is simple and familiar at its core. You load into a dungeon, weave your way through enemies and hazards to progress through different doors, collect power-ups along the way from NPC encounters and interactable objects, and then defeat one of the various bosses to progress on to the next dungeon. Permadeath is at play, too, meaning every single jump, dash, and magical attack matters.
However, it does also feel like something is missing. Folly of the Wizards is engaging in shorter bursts, but it just doesn’t seem to grab my attention through an addictive gameplay loop like other titles have done so in the past. The bosses somewhat break up the repetition of each room, but the game as a whole continues to suffer from repetition, which meant that after a couple of longer runs, the game no longer held my attention after the next death.
I expected power-ups and progression to give more depth to the gameplay mechanics and story, but this isn’t exactly the case. During a run, you can acquire different items and magic scrolls as drops from beating enemies, interacting with NPCs, and other similar objectives. There’s also a monster log that updates each time you discover a new enemy, letting you learn more about them between runs.
Unfortunately, items and power-ups ended up being more of a headache. While the large variety that the game has to offer is undoubtedly a positive factor, the clarity regarding these items is not. Furthermore, completing quests from the home menu supposedly unlocks new items and such, but only as new potential drops for your run. I’m not sure how many other gamers would feel as if they’re in the same boat, but for me, that doesn’t exactly offer a lot of incentive when the gameplay loop is missing that captivating spark to draw me back into endless new runs.
One may assume that the in-game items catalog (much like the monster log) may hold valuable information regarding exactly what each power-up does, including specifics about attacks, buffs, or bonus effects. Instead, what is offered up is short descriptions about the item itself, almost in a visual aspect. If any hint is given towards the abilities linked to any one item, it’s extremely vague, and still leaves you guessing.
This makes it hard to learn about what items are valuable, what to look out for, and what may synergize well together. Between runs, going over such information could have been vital, but instead, I felt like I was left hanging, a bit, if I’m honest. Though, I will admit, once again the visuals carry the game when it comes to these power-ups / items, as the different effects and colors for each one are very well done.
If there’s a massive hurdle that takes Folley of the Wizards out by its ankles, though, it’s none other than the control settings. While on PC, the controls are as many would expect them to be, this is simply not the case for console players, or those who wish to use a controller.
To be fair, attacking/shooting was always going to feel more difficult on the controller, but the button layout does absolutely nothing to help the player overcome this. Most significantly, the jump button is bound to L1/LB, which, quite frankly, seems and feels (can confirm) absolutely bizarre in a game of any genre, but especially in a title such as Folley of the Wizards. After all, jump and dash are absolutely vital to gameplay, so it seems strange to consider any button other than X/B.
Final Thoughts
Folly of the Wizards is a simple gameplay loop with charming characters and a whimsical art direction. However, the game is ultimately let down by repetitive instances and clunky controls, hindering the overall experience for the player. Had a few ups, such as adding three different dialogue events for each time you first meet an NPC in a run, and then shuffling between them each time would have added another level of freshness. More clarity regarding items would have been nice, too, and likely would have kept me invested in the game for much longer bursts by reading up on them and what they do.
If anything else, Folly of the Wizards was a short-burst experience with a lot of visual charm. There’s fun to be had with the clumsy little Wizard apprentices, but unfortunately, the game was lacking the magic to hook me on the premise of “just one last try” to keep going.
Folly of the Wizards
Bottom Line
The whimsical art style, atmospheric backgrounds, and amusing character writing immediately give Folly of the Wizards a strong personality. To begin with, it's entertaining to meet the various creatures hidden around each area and fight your way through quirky monsters and creative boss encounters. However, I must admit that after a few runs at the game, that initial spark dimmed rather quickly, and continued to fizzle out as the true cracks in the armor of gameplay and progression became evident.
