I’m not new to the landscape of MOBAs: I’ve been dragged through the mud of League of Legends for longer than I’d care to admit, and I’ve recently found solace in Valve’s kinda released (but not really) game, Deadlock. But I’m always willing to try out anything new that crosses my path, but whether it sticks is another matter.
Quantic Dream’s new MOBA Spellcasters Chronicles did have the leg up in that I had to play it to write this. I’ve been excited to dive in since my first small glimpse of the action, and all it took was a game-and-a-half to fully implant itself into my brain.
Instead of going for a top-down approach, Spellcasters Chronicles opts for third-person. Taking control of a spellcaster, I started with a limited number of summonable grunts and abilities, both things I’d build into as time went on and I levelled up during the match. Every character can also sprint along the ground or fly in the sky for an unlimited amount of time, making it easy to get a good grasp of the battlefield.
Matches are 3v3, but each player has the option to summon an increasing number of grunts depending on what perks you pick every time you level up. Games also go on for around 30 minutes, but having played a few matches at this point, it always feels like time passes much faster.
Getting in on the ground floor of a MOBA always feels great. The game is still simple enough that it’s incredibly intuitive, meaning I didn’t have to exhaust all my brain cells in figuring out what’s going on. It’s one of those where I reckon I won’t get dumpstered by people who’ve already figured it out months, dare I say years, ahead of me. With only six heroes so far and a handful of different deck abilities, I could figure out what’s good and bad pretty quickly. Big, angry red titan that’s walking towards me; bad. Friendly blue lizard with a bow and arrow; good.
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But what’s better than actually knowing what’s going on? Knowing what’s going on and enjoying it. Getting to be in the heart of the battle and not just a top-down observer is by far my favourite part of Spellcasters Chronicles. Not only does it always make the mundane acts of healing grunts or finding treasure more engaging, but it also provides some truly spectacular moments.
The first time I summoned a titan in Spellcasters Chronicles was slightly accidental. You see, aside from all your attacks, abilities, and ultimate, there is a titan gauge on the side of your screen that slowly fills up throughout the match depending on how well you’re doing. It activates at different times depending on the player, but you’ll usually only be able to summon one per game.
I brought mine onto the battlefield when I was knee-deep in managing a failing side of grunts. Getting overwhelmed by two enemy spellcasters and all their summons, I began to panic, and with that came button mashing. A tactic I wouldn’t normally suggest, but it did mean I accidentally hit the titan button just at the right time, bringing a huge skyscraper-size titan into my defending spawn right on the heads of my enemies. Moments like this can be truly chaotic, but cutting through the mess and still managing to come out on top is what makes Spellcasters Chronicles great.
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Sure, defending my team’s spawn in the last minutes of a game could be incredibly stressful, as everyone in the game has the max number of grunts and has unlocked and buffed all their abilities by this point. So I was just left trying to decipher good vs bad grunts between a shower of comets, multiple titans, and some bog witch hunting me down.
But this shortcoming is far from debilitating and only really present in the final moments of a game, which is pretty common in MOBAs as one team’s power finally snowballs to eclipse the others, securing them the win.
The ability to fly into the sky for unlimited periods of time massively helped with finding my bearings and getting a good read on what’s going on in the battlefield. The chaos of the final battle will likely be something that I just need to get used to.
Practice makes perfect, and while Spellcasters Chronicles is a very intuitive game for anyone with a shred of experience in MOBAs, there’s still plenty to learn. Whether that be which abilities you should build into, what deck you need to choose, or even which spellcaster works best for you. But Spellcasters Chronicles is exciting enough that I want to put extra time and energy into figuring out its details, if only so I can experience what it’s like to drop a titan on someone’s head again.
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