Magicians & Looters

Although it will feel very familiar to fans of the genre, Magicians & Looters is a very different kind of Metroidvania that stands out first and foremost for its irreverence. At a glance, you could mistake it for generic fantasy fare, but it's actually out to lampoon the setting, and unlike so many games that make an attempt at humor, it manages to be amusing. You get the feeling that these guys would say or do anything for a laugh with the jokes ranging from knowingly bad voice-acting to the quip-filled dialogue, but they hit the mark often enough that it remains enjoyable throughout. If the game did nothing else well, it might be worth playing just for the laughs.

You wouldn't be wrong to show some degree of skepticism towards a satirical video game. Games that parody other games have become dime-a-dozen, and frequently, their devotion to sending up their target leads to the would-be satirists committing the same crimes that they're supposedly critiquing. Magicians & Looters, however, backs up its parody with solid design of its own that usually manages to cleverly side-step the issues that it mocks. It draws liberal influence from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night in particular, with several direct references that will make any fan smile, but despite wearing their fandom on their sleeves, Morgopolis have just enough ideas of their own to keep their game interesting.

The gameplay mostly sticks to the tried and true formula for Metroidvanias with the player exploring a series of caverns, forests, and castle interiors while gaining new abilities and fighting enemies with melee attacks and spells, but it's very adept at this style. Little things bring Magicians & Looters into its own, such as the inclusion of three distinct characters with unique play-styles, balanced leveling that makes it impossible to grind, and a Lightning mode that increases the player's speed and power, making them almost invincible. The power-ups, with one or two notable exceptions, are the reliable staples of the genre such as the slide, wall jump, and high jump, and the selection of items is not nearly as vast as what we've seen in the various Castlevanias, but the items that are featured all have their own advantages and disadvantages that cater to different play styles in a manner of which Castlevania really only played lip-service. The level design is also very good with backtracking being kept to mostly a minimum but also with enough to explore that you never feel led by the hand. The only major tweak I would have made to this aspect is to give the player the ability to change characters at any time as you can only do this in save rooms and certain routes require a specific character's abilities. This may have been done to increase the difficulty or to simplify the action, but considering that the game fails to make it clear when to use which character, the necessity of returning to the nearest camp to switch between characters significantly slows the pace of the game.

As strong as some aspects of M&L are, the game falters considerably in its production values, made all the more stinging by how much the Castlevania and Metroid games have excelled in this category. Now, I would be the last person to write off a game for not having state of the art visuals, but the art design is, to be frank, ugly. The drawings look very amateur, and the color palette is ghastly, full of shades of brown, yellow, gray, and orange. Furthermore, the characters, most especially the common enemies, lack distinctive visual characteristics, looking rather crude and generic. This game may have been low budget and farcical, but that's no excuse for such a bland style. Some people have suggested that ungraceful visuals were deliberate, and the even more rudimentary concept art that can be seen in the game's credits lends support to that theory, but if this was done for humor's sake, they should have realized that bad artwork is not necessarily funny artwork. Whatever the reason there may be for the poor style, this area of the game feels rather sloppy and does not live up to the pedigree set by others in this genre. The animation is slightly better than the art but still not great, and the music, while more adequate than the visuals, won't be remembered for long once the game is finished.

With games like Guacamelee, Valdis Story: Abyssal City, and Cave Story, there has been no shortage of decent Metroidvanias for PC in recent years, but even if it is lacking polish in certain areas, Magicians & Looters more than earns its place among them with its unique sense of humor and enjoyable gameplay. If you've never played an adventure-platformer in this vein before, it may not be the greatest place to start, but seasoned fans shouldn't hesitate to dig in. This love-letter to Castlevania is a real treat to behold.