Wizard 101
by Aethyna
Nov 13, 2014 |
3
Votes |
0
Played |
2
Reviews
9.3
rate
Platforms:
Genres:
RPG , MMOPublishers:
Gameforge , KingsIsle EntertainmentGraphics:
3DLabels:
Kid Safe , Mounts , Player vs Player (PvP) , Fantasy Setting , Horse , Magical Horses Wizard 101 is a child-friendly MMORPG that employ a turn-based combat system. In this game, you are Wizard City’s only hope of defeating the evil Malistaire and his equally devious associates and, in effect, defend the city as well as the world of Spiral from their dark influences. Play Now Similar Games Played
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Plotline
You are summoned by the Headmaster of Ravenwood School of Magical Arts, Merle Ambrose to help save Wizard City and the world of Spiral from sinister magicians who are up to no good, like Malistaire and Morganthe. However, being a promising novice in the magical arts, you need to first learn the Wizardly way. To do this, you are quickly put to work to help the various citizens of Wizard City vanquish the rising number of undead appearing on the streets. With sufficient magical training, you can certainly rise to achieve the status of Master Wizard and have the power as well as the magical strength to foil the evil plans of villainous wizards. You are their only hope, become that wizard that you know you could be!
Gameplay
After selecting a gender, you have to mash up a name from the extensive lists of names available. This part of the process can be pretty funny as you will soon realise that you can match up some amusing surnames like Frogmancer or Bluehead, or even cool surnames like Dragonhunter or Firemender. Next, you will be asked a series of questions in which a school of magic, namely fire, storm, balance, life, death, ice or myth, that is suitable for you could be determined. Different schools of magic will, of course, want different types of characters. For example, the school of fire only recruits people, who are ‘smart, passionate and competitive’. Each type of magic, as you will soon see, has their own advantages and disadvantages, so it’s best to read up on them first before deciding on a school.
Once you’re registered and have installed the game, it’s time to actually create your character! You can customise your character, from how you look to what you wear, with the thousands of combinations available. There will definitely be a combination that is ideal for your character. Furthermore, each player can create up to 6 characters per account. Thus, if you didn’t quite like how your character looks later on, you could just create another!
Wizard 101 starts off by introducing you to the elderly Headmaster of Ravenwood School of Magical Arts, Merle Ambrose, but your introduction was cut short by the appearance of ex-Death magic professor, Malistaire. It is then you are thrown into the heat of your first battle with your pack of starter cards! The turn-based magical combat system in Wizard 101 is creatively unique and engaging! Each battle has a maximum of four slots for enemies as well as allies.
At each turn, players will use up mana to cast spell cards and summon different amazingly-animated creatures within the limited amount of time given. These creatures will then do damage to your enemies depending on which school of magic they are based on. However, spells are not always 100% successful sometimes they will fizzle and cause no damage, wasting your turn. Most powerful spells have higher risk of getting fizzled while weaker spells have a lower risk instead.
Furthermore, turn order is randomised in each battle, so it depends on your luck whether you can hit your enemies first or whether you’ll get hit by your enemies first. There are also pips that will allow you to use higher ranked spell cards as a battle progresses. Moreover, other players can join your battle by just walking towards your battle circle or any of the sigils drawn on the ground. So, if you needed some help with a monster, just yell out for help and some, preferably higher level, passer-by can join your battle and help you kill the monster.
Combat is the very essence of the game as most quests in Wizard 101 require them. There are a couple of quest varieties such as collect quest items from monsters killed, talking or finding a quest-related non-player character (NPC), kill a certain amount of monsters or participate in a dungeon and kill a boss monster. Dungeon quests, although soloable, will mostly require more than 2 players in order to complete it faster. At higher level, you can raid the gauntlet instead of a dungeon. Gauntlets are much more challenging than normal dungeons and, once you’ve completed it, will shower you with some nice gear and other decent loot. If questing is just not your thing, at level 5, you will unlock the PvP arena. Here, you can test your skills by summoning fantastic creatures and duelling your fellow wizards-in-training.
You will soon realise that without going back to town, your battle-reduced health and mana will not regenerate by its own. There are generally three main ways you can restore your reduced health and used mana by catching health and mana wisps that tend to fly around the area, using the potion flask given to you by Headmaster Merle or by playing mini-games at the fairground. Wizard 101 offers a huge variety of mini-games for you, such as sorcery stones (a rather special match-3 game), doodle doug, hot shots, skull riders and others. By completing a mini-game, you have a chance of earning some extra money, experience points and loot too, in addition to replenishing your mana and potion flask!
Perhaps it is time to swap those starter cards with some better cards by now you wouldn’t want to stay stuck as a novice forever, right? Once you reached level 5, your character will earn training points. Since spells from your chosen school are free for you to learn, you can use these training points to learn spells from other schools instead! Each new spell learned will unlock a new spell card which you can then add to your deck.
Besides that, you may want to switch out your clothes and equipment for a better set of gear as well. At level 3, you would have unlocked the crafting feature. In crafting, you can make your own gear and equipments by buying the recipe that you want from the crafting vendor. Then, you could just gather or buy the necessary crafting materials and make the item at your crafting table. Although crafted gear may not be a match for boss-dropped gear, these are the very basic gear that can keep you alive prior to raiding dungeons or gauntlets.
As you progress, the game will unlock many other features for you and one of the more interesting features is housing. Being just a novice, you are given a dorm room to call your own at the beginning of the game. You can then furnish your room with decorative items that you can buy from the furniture vendor. Your room also contains a chest labelled as ‘bank’ that you can use to store your excess items. If you want to send your items to your lower level characters on the same account, you can use the shared bank feature to send your items over. You can also invite your friends in Wizard 101 to come visit you at your room. As you level up, you will gradually unlock other housing-related features like gardening as well. If you’re rich enough, you can even buy yourself a castle and hire henchmen to guard it for you!
Another fun feature in the game is the adorable pets. Pets are usually dropped as treasure from monsters or can be bought using Crowns, which in turn can be purchased using real money. These pets will raise your character’s attributes and may even participate in your duels when it feels like it. If you frequently take your pet to the pet pavilion, your pet will be able to level up and provide even more perks for your character! You can even, for a small price, rename and dye your pet in this game.
Like any MMORPG, Wizard 101 has a huge world for you to explore, but most of the adventuring zones available are only accessible to paying players. For non-paying players, you are restricted to only one world. Don’t worry though! There are still plenty of places for you to explore! Travelling in the world of Spiral is made easy with the existence of mounts as well! These mounts are not just ordinary mounts they can also be multiplayer mounts whereby the character with the mount is the driver, while the passengers on the mount are members of his/her party. How cool is that?
Wizard 101 offers achievements to its players in the form of badges and titles. Players at each level bracket are given titles as well. For example, players at level 6-10 are called Apprentice while players at level 30-40 are called Magus. Different schools (your character’s main school of magic) will also affect the title of the player. For instance, players from the school of fire are called Pyromancers while players from the school of storm are called Diviners. So, with a quick glance at the title of a player, you can easily guess which type and rank of wizard he or she is!
Community
For the past 6 years, Wizard 101 has gathered quite a huge following. It currently has 36 realms in total with an estimate of 30 million players. Despite not having any form of guilds in-game, the game offers an active and well-moderated message board for their players to discuss the game in instead. There’s even a suggestion thread whereby players’ ideas are taken into consideration for the next patch or expansion of the game. In fact, the game can be considered as a community-driven MMORPG.
Graphics/Sound
Wizard 101 is filled with adorable cartoony graphics that may remind older players of other games that are released at around the year 2000-2005. The graphics isn’t as high definition as current games have and that is perhaps why the game, despite being a rather huge MMORPG, only requires 5 GB of hard disk space. Its interfaces are also filled with cute childish stick-figure drawings of magicians doing a whole load of stuff, from casting spells to doing chores. It is these sorts of little things that made the game so appealing to children and teenagers.
The background music provided in the game is almost Hollywood worthy. The music is placed in a loop, but it doesn’t feel too repetitive to the point of being annoying. It is the epitome of ‘just right’. In addition, the music does give the game a mystical feel and a somewhat Harry-Potter wonder as you explore the world of Spiral. The voice acting, particularly Headmaster Merle’s, is extremely convincing. The pleasing graphics and the excellent sound, when coupled together, give the game a nice magical feeling that people would definitely enjoy.
Conclusion
In short, Wizard 101 is truly one of a kind! Creating a MMORPG that caters to the younger audiences is pretty tough, just look at the restrictions that are placed on chat alone, but Wizard 101 manages to do it with excellence! This game is in fact the closest you can get to have a magical MMORPG that is suitable for all ages. It has an engaging save-the-world storyline and a magical schooling environment that may remind its players of Hogwarts in the Harry Potter series. Its unique turn and card based combat is fun and challenging to master. There are also plenty of things to do and a huge world to explore. The best part is you can do all these with your new friends in Wizard 101 free of charge!
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User Reviews
Kiddie graphics, but anyone can play
People who have loved the Harry Potter universe will certainly love this game, although Wizard 101 takes a much more old-school approach to wizardry and magic.In any case, this game seems to be ge...Full Review
Truly Magical Game
I love Wizard 101 ever since I saw its beautiful wizard creation page, with the fantastic crystal ball, followed by the Wizard asking me: "My vision seem to failing me, are you a boy or a girl&qu...Full Review All reviewsFeatured Games
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