RUNES Magica Reviews

Very interesting concept, use several different runs together to create a unique type of magic. Its a lot of fun experimenting around with that. Gameplay, especially jumping feels somewhat clunky, but Ive seen worse.

Boring and bad gameplay, buggy game, was not worth it even 90% off..

a roguelike banger with intriguing gameplay with funny wackyness only if there is more level variation and more ways to obtain loot then it will be a great banger its nice

Bought 90% off, but unfortunately I don't think this is a finished product, so even then I had to refund. I personally believe it was pushed out of EA prematurely. Game is a mixture of Wizards of Legend and Skul: The Hero Slayer. Like Wizard of Legend, you can use different elements for basic attack, dash move and special move. Unlike WoL, you can also combine the elements to make new ones, as well as add runes to the spells, such as +1 projectile, repeat spell cast, etc. WoL overall is far better at this, but it is still not too bad in this game. Messing around with different spells and fine-tuning them is the strongest aspect of the game and it's clear that most work was put into it. It is a great shame that the rest doesn't hold up. Skul: The Hero Slayer I found lacking in certain aspects which was disappointing for it's unique premise, but this game makes Skul look miles more complete in comparison. Particularly in enemy variety, level design, telegraphed attacks etc. To list some negatives: - Shop prices are weirdly overtuned so you can't really afford more than 1-2 items tops. If you randomly meet a merchant inbetween the regular shops, it's the most expensive shop and you won't afford a single thing. Not that you would want to, since the regular shop is way cheaper, relatively speaking - Dialogue works in weird fashion with the bosses where it skips suddenly (or not) going directly into combat. Telegraphs are also very short, making it quite certain you'll get hit if you aren't spamming that dash invulnerability at the right time. Which, I believe, can be made spammable enough to have invulnerability most of the time - Bosses also arrive in weird order where a later boss may be weaker than boss before it - Special takes longest to charge up but deals so much damage and in such a wide area that when beefed up, it melts pretty much anything in it's way with low effort - Due to your spell range, most of the time you can outrange/stunlock with basic/special attack any regular enemy with little punish - No saving, you'll have to complete the run in one go - Next room didn't open due to a bug, meaning the run was over, due to no save function - No particular reason to use element combining due to lack of challenge - Translation seems off quite often Unless you want to get this real cheap 90% off just to mess about with what could have been, I can't really recommend it. It's a pity, since the bones are there for an enjoyable experience.

There is some promise to this small fighting game. The combat is based on having runes you put into slots and then having it tweaked with modifiers. I have not gone through it much, but it looks like it can stack to have some nice effects. The only trouble I have with the controls is how floaty the jumping is. As soon as you are off the ground, the control you have is not very good, and the height feels awkward. You start with a double jump which is fine, but any platform jump requires that second jump. But the second jump is a bit awkward for how high it goes, where even in just the first shop room when you try to get to the second level of items, it will instead transition you to the next screen up. Also as a small note for the awkward movement is how slow your movement left/right is to get to top speed; it isn't terrible, but a linear increase from zero to top speed feels sluggish where a more logarithmic curve would feel more responsive.

fun game with a good foundation. It's a little awkward and needs some polishing but if it's on sale and the metroidvania/roguelike style hybrid is appealing to you then this one has enough novelty that it's probably worth checking it out. I don't think it's worth the $16 pricetag in its current state, but I think it's a good game outside of that distinction.