Magicite: A Solid (If Flawed) Introduction to Rogue-likes

Ironic that in a game called 'MAGICite', the easiest way to play as a sword-swinging tank.

Working on my backlog is something I've held off on doing for various reasons, but in the case of Magicite it is mostly because I don't have any strong love of it despite continuing to return to it every few years. Magicite is a rogue-like action game that sees you side scrolling across various environments in an effort to reach the boss. There's parts of it that I really interested and intrigued me with their elegant simplicity, yet at the same time Magicite often feels like some sort of project or proof of concept without proper development, attention, or consideration given. So let's talk about Magicite, a game that I continually find fault in yet continually find myself returning to.

The story of Magicite is not immediately apparent, mostly because it appears to follow the Dark Souls school of story delivery, yet the two are hardly comparable. Instead of offering you a few breadcrumbs at the start of the game, Magicite's plot seems content to give you the vaguest of racial descriptions when you pick a race (more on that later) before cheerfully sending you off to save the world from an evil corrupting force. Vague, right? At some point all the races were driven underground by something, and now the survivors huddle in scattered villages but otherwise seem quite content to do nothing, and that's pretty much all that you are given to go on. Of course, you know nothing of this when you create your newest character, only that each zone gets more dangerous the longer you dawdle. It was disappointing that this was really all that we got in terms of Magicite's story, because there's quite a bit of potential here. There could be some exposition in between levels, or alternatively journal pages or some other collectable that would help us to learn the story of this strange underground world. There could be a bestiary or some other collections tab so we could get some insight on what exactly these things are and why giant lilac penguin pirates with cutlasses are launching themselves like rockets at me. Just spitballing here, and admittedly the rogue-like genre isn't one that lends itself well to story-based gameplay, but something more would certainly be a marked improvement from the tiny breadcrumbs we got.

Step One: Chop every tree in area one.

The gameplay of Magicite is its strongest aspect, yet continued here is the theme of intriguing elements that are unfortunately not expanded upon. Gameplay is essentially a side-scrolling platformer with class-building elements and crafting. Crafting with materials gained from catching bugs, chopping wood, mining rocks/ore, etc. is ridiculously simple, yet isn't well-explained (crafting is quite literally highlighting two objects, which combines them, it can't get any more simple than that). In order to collect materials, you attack the resource node with the requisite material. Better tiers have give more, have better durability, deal more damage, or are able to get the next tier of material, so progression is self-explanatory there. Classes are determined by what perks you take, your luck in leveling stats, and your gear. Yes, the stats you get each level are randomly determined, and this can make some very powerful and incredibly weak characters as expected. Every couple of levels you earn an ability that you can choose from a random selection of three, and these run the gamut from very useful to situational at best. There are three set "playstyles", and while you can switch things up, it's often more conducive to your success to dedicate yourself to either a warrior, ranger, or mage playstyle. However, they aren't made equal, and a warrior playthrough is far more powerful, reliable, and accessible than the other two. With ranger/wizard, in order to create armor and weapons, you need special additional materials (leather and cloth) in order to create weapons and armor. On the other hand, warriors just need the material, so they just have an easier time progressing. In order to balance things, either rangers/wizards would need a boost to power (rangers feel incredibly weak) or removal of their special material (but then what would the difference be between them?). Alternatively, if warriors required their own special material or simply more material needed to make equipment then this could be fixed, but this solution in turn would require a revamp of the crafting system. After you complete a run or die, you're taken to the score screen where the various things you did are tallied and scored, which was an interesting and dare I say unexpectedly compelling replay dynamic. By the way, this is how you unlock the unlockable content of the game, which comprises races (which offer different start conditions and modifiers to playstyle), hats (persistent bonuses or abilities), and companions (big bonuses). However, most of these are locked behind two factors: fulfilling the requirements (i.e. chop twenty trees) and succeeding in an RNG roll, usually between a twenty to forty percent chance. I found this to be quite frustrating, because with this system earning access to a gameplay modifier feels less like an achievement or milestone from playing the game, and more akin to a roll of a die. There's a decent amount of content, and sections of the game aren't hidden behind playtime (outside of unlockables, you can see the majority of the areas/enemies in Magicite in a single run), which suits a game of this length. It's a good start, and I think there is some potential, but there's a lot of work that needs to be done in order to elevate the systems to the next level.

The random leveling system in action, I can take few hits (despite playing a warrior), but I can cast an insane number of spells and eat a lot of food. Gee, thanks.

So that's Magicite, and to be perfectly honest, beyond what I outlined, it's a pretty solid rogue-like with easy to learn gameplay, great performance, and a small size. I'd say that despite its limitations (or perhaps because of them), Magicite is a decent introduction to the rogue-like genre of games. Unfortunately, I doubt that there's going to be any sort of fixes to the issues outlined in the future, given that the latest update was back in 2016. If you're an avid fan of the genre, I'd say that there's very little for you here, but if you're looking for an introduction, it's a good choice. Also, there's up to four-person multiplayer, which I've never tried, but might be a fun group activity given the accessibility of the systems.