Having come across videos of that new Dragon Age game and its (by the look of it) cool looking combat I’ve gotten the urge for something similar. Action RPG of some kind, being able to rock on as a wizard and blast spells all day. Some tactical element to spell slinging and comboing would be nice.
noita is insane and has absolutely zero handholding. it’s truly hardcore and kinda souls-like in difficulty/lore, but truly excellent!
magicraft is the king in casual spell crafting, very good game to play a bit after work, can call it quits anytime and pick it back up again. just had it’s full launch as well and might still be -20% (about 12€)
fictorum is fairly unique, because it’s first-/third-person and 3D, and also very good with an intuitive spell system and a little bit of indie game jank
Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind lets you fly around, jump over whole cities, and kill most NPCs with one high powered spell. It’s a very unique game, but if it clicks with you there’s nothing quite like it. Vibrant modding scene too.
The base game is certainly playable, but if you want modern resolutions and some vanilla-friendly bug fixes OpenMW is an open source recreation of the engine, there’s instructions on their website.
I really struggled to get into modding with Morrowind. I’m so used to mod launchers that make it so easy and I was expecting the same with openmw but nah.
You can install mods directly into the OG game directory, why OpenMW doesnt tell you that I dont know. Only problem is that ya need to do trouble shooting the old fashioned way.
Morrowind was always my favorite Elder Scrolls game, but I’m probably biased since it was my first. The tech, while good for its time, was always the #1 thing holding it back for modern times. Hadn’t heard about OpenMW, but now I’ll have to check it out.
Morrowind is great and people should definitely play it, but god damn will it not meet the need of feeling badass. It makes you feel like a wooden chess piece and you just get used to it.
DS3 and Elden ring do magic best of the Fromsoft game IMO. An MP pool works much better in an action game than the Vancian “casts per rest” of the earlier games.
For a new player sword and shield is the easy mode. Magic tends to make you squishy, and if you aren’t great at not dying getting your souls to the spell merchants is rough (if even know how to do their quests)
As someone who came into the series at elden ring, I agree with you. I initially tried a mage and it felt quite a bit more difficult than sword and board.
The game felt like it was designed for physical weapons and shield, whereas with magic the difficulty was all over the place - easy time with one boss, nearly impossible on another. If you aim for a boss cheese build maybe magic is easier.
Hard disagree. Having nearly infinite ranged attacks and being able to run away while attacking made it way easier for me.
Maybe in 2 and 3 what you’re saying is true, but sword and board was way harder for me than playing a mage with a shield in Dark Souls 1 and Elden Ring.
Magic damage felt spikier than other classes to me in Elden Ring, to the point early and mid-game where there were segments where I would run out of magic before getting through crowds even with all blue flasks.
Fictorum is the game that most scratches the wizard itch for me. It’s an indie game, so don’t expect AAA polish, but what is there is absolutely what you might call a “hidden gem”.
It is mayor jank but Dragons Dogma was the closest to feeling like a mage I’ve ever experienced. There are no cool downs in the game but channeling spells takes some time and upholding a continuous spell drains your stamina. In this setting the art of a mage was reading the battle and estimating how much space you have to channel spells, several of which can easily break the encounter wide open.
Edited since neither my English nor my autocorrect were working as intended.
Yeah lots of recommendations here but let me give you some that I think answer your request more specifically.
Wizard Of Legend is a top down roguelite where you play a wizard that can equip different spells and upgrades. The combat and strategy is very focused on spells and how good you are at slinging them between dodging enemy attacks.
Margoq’s Lair is a top down roguelike where spells are cast by composing them from elements, for example fire + shield casts the spell fireshield. It makes for a much more satisfying experience than pressing a button to cast a spell.
The side stuff feels kind of bland mechanically and something about the open world doesn’t capture me like I want it to, but it’s pretty good pure magic combat.
I’m surprised this wasn’t mentioned more. Unlike a lot of the other games, the world feels a bit more centered around magic. Also if you’re a fan of Harry potter it does a good job of capturing that setting (in my opinion).
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noita is insane and has absolutely zero handholding. it’s truly hardcore and kinda souls-like in difficulty/lore, but truly excellent!
magicraft is the king in casual spell crafting, very good game to play a bit after work, can call it quits anytime and pick it back up again. just had it’s full launch as well and might still be -20% (about 12€)
fictorum is fairly unique, because it’s first-/third-person and 3D, and also very good with an intuitive spell system and a little bit of indie game jank
Terraria has some really fun mage gameplay.
ARPG: Path of Exile, Last Epoch, Grim Dawn.
Also consider the survivors/bullet hell kinds of games: Vampire Survivors, Soulstone Survivors, etc.
Last Epoch is so good ! It’s less chaotic than PoE
Skyrim has some mods that go really deep on magic and combat strats.
Honestly with the amount of mods built up over the years Skyrim has become the ultimate fantasy RPG.
I’m so thankful for every modder out there
Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind lets you fly around, jump over whole cities, and kill most NPCs with one high powered spell. It’s a very unique game, but if it clicks with you there’s nothing quite like it. Vibrant modding scene too.
The base game is certainly playable, but if you want modern resolutions and some vanilla-friendly bug fixes OpenMW is an open source recreation of the engine, there’s instructions on their website.
I really struggled to get into modding with Morrowind. I’m so used to mod launchers that make it so easy and I was expecting the same with openmw but nah.
You can install mods directly into the OG game directory, why OpenMW doesnt tell you that I dont know. Only problem is that ya need to do trouble shooting the old fashioned way.
Morrowind was always my favorite Elder Scrolls game, but I’m probably biased since it was my first. The tech, while good for its time, was always the #1 thing holding it back for modern times. Hadn’t heard about OpenMW, but now I’ll have to check it out.
Check out Tamriel Rebuilt too! It’s a mod to add the mainland that, while incomplete, already has 100s of quests. Good quality control too.
Morrowind is great and people should definitely play it, but god damn will it not meet the need of feeling badass. It makes you feel like a wooden chess piece and you just get used to it.
Those spells area very cool, though.
Theoretically, Immortals of Aveum could be good for this. It’s basically a shooter, but with spellcasting for the shots.
Play Skyrim with ordinator mod that adds more spells.
Dark Souls. If you play a mage, you’ll be on easy mode, which very much does feel badass in a game so full of terror.
DS3 and Elden ring do magic best of the Fromsoft game IMO. An MP pool works much better in an action game than the Vancian “casts per rest” of the earlier games.
For a new player sword and shield is the easy mode. Magic tends to make you squishy, and if you aren’t great at not dying getting your souls to the spell merchants is rough (if even know how to do their quests)
As someone who came into the series at elden ring, I agree with you. I initially tried a mage and it felt quite a bit more difficult than sword and board.
The game felt like it was designed for physical weapons and shield, whereas with magic the difficulty was all over the place - easy time with one boss, nearly impossible on another. If you aim for a boss cheese build maybe magic is easier.
Hard disagree. Having nearly infinite ranged attacks and being able to run away while attacking made it way easier for me.
Maybe in 2 and 3 what you’re saying is true, but sword and board was way harder for me than playing a mage with a shield in Dark Souls 1 and Elden Ring.
Magic damage felt spikier than other classes to me in Elden Ring, to the point early and mid-game where there were segments where I would run out of magic before getting through crowds even with all blue flasks.
Heretic and Lichdom: Battlemage
Fictorum is the game that most scratches the wizard itch for me. It’s an indie game, so don’t expect AAA polish, but what is there is absolutely what you might call a “hidden gem”.
It is mayor jank but Dragons Dogma was the closest to feeling like a mage I’ve ever experienced. There are no cool downs in the game but channeling spells takes some time and upholding a continuous spell drains your stamina. In this setting the art of a mage was reading the battle and estimating how much space you have to channel spells, several of which can easily break the encounter wide open.
Edited since neither my English nor my autocorrect were working as intended.
Am I just not awake yet or is this incomprehensible
I mean you only have to change a few words to figure out what they intended to write so I’d say not awake fully?
“In this setting the art of the mage was reading the battle and estimating how much space you need to channel each spell”
At least that is how I read it
Thank you, but now that I’m more awake I’d have to disagree with you there. You did some magic reading that.
I just estimated how much space I needed and channelled the right spell :p
Yeah that’s a horrible sentence my bad. You’re not the only one who’s not fully awake.
The Excellent YouTube channel TheStellarJay has a small series (3-4 Videos, ~10min each) about the state of wizard games.
This is part 1: https://youtu.be/quPKQIVEX5A
I’m sure you’ll find something that piques your interest
Lots of good suggestions already, adding Magicmaker as a fun build-your-own-spells game: https://store.steampowered.com/app/319250/Magicmaker/
Yeah lots of recommendations here but let me give you some that I think answer your request more specifically.
Wizard Of Legend is a top down roguelite where you play a wizard that can equip different spells and upgrades. The combat and strategy is very focused on spells and how good you are at slinging them between dodging enemy attacks.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/445980/?snr=1_5_9__412
Margoq’s Lair is a top down roguelike where spells are cast by composing them from elements, for example fire + shield casts the spell fireshield. It makes for a much more satisfying experience than pressing a button to cast a spell.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2516550/Margoqs_Lair/
Hogwarts Legacy. Combat is fast and brutal.
The side stuff feels kind of bland mechanically and something about the open world doesn’t capture me like I want it to, but it’s pretty good pure magic combat.
I’m surprised this wasn’t mentioned more. Unlike a lot of the other games, the world feels a bit more centered around magic. Also if you’re a fan of Harry potter it does a good job of capturing that setting (in my opinion).