straightforwardly (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
straightforwardly) wrote2025-05-17 02:30 pm
straightforwardly) wrote2025-05-17 02:30 pm
Entry tags:
306 | mages of mystralia thoughts
Today, I beat Mages of Mystralia! What a delightful little game. This was one of the titles from my 10 games in 2025 list, and it was on that list because it was a game I’d started once before (in 2020) and thoroughly enjoyed… up until I got stuck on a puzzle, decided to take what was meant to be a brief break from the game, and then oops, it’s been five years and I no longer remembered what I was doing or how the gameplay functions. But I still had a lot of fond memories of both the gameplay and the story, and I was very curious about how a certain plot element* would unfold, hence why I decided on it as one of my priority titles for the year!
* specifically: I was convinced that the shifty talking spellbook would turn out to be the mad king, and lo and behold! <3
Also, relatedly:
Some notes on my gameplay experience: in my first playthrough in 2020, I got stuck on the puzzles in the Old Mines, and this time around… I also got stuck there, lol. I ended up looking up a let’s play on youtube to see what I was missing… I’ve already forgotten what it was, exactly, but I do remember it was such a minor thing that I could not believe myself for not getting it.
The Tomb of the Mage Kings was an area that left a deep impact on me the first time I played, and I still adored it this time around as well.
I also got 100% completion on my file and got all the achievements! I did rely on the help of a guide to find some of the items. And while I did most of the spell-crafting on my own, I did use a recommended spell from the guide for the Mage Trials, which ended up being so useful that I used it in the Dark Tower as well. It only took me two tries to get the “beat the Dark Tower in <10 minutes” achievement, and imo it was 100% because of that spell! Or, rather, three spells linked together. Noting the components here:
Spell 1: Creo1 — earth + rain + size + mastery
Spell 2: Creo2 — ice + rain + size + mastery + at once:[creo1]
Spell 3: Ego — aura + move + clone + mastery + at once:[creo2]
Otherwise, my go-to spell for damage was an Actus spell with movement + duplication + homing. I added a couple of other components later on to make it more effective, iirc, but I don’t remember which ones on the top of my head, and I don’t feel like loading the file right now;;;
Beyond that… I do have one singular complaint, and that was the surprise!timed!puzzles during the boss fight. Yes, the celestial puzzles were always an element in the game… but never timed, and never as a part of the battle system, so having it suddenly thrown in during the final battle felt jarring. (I do understand the narrative reasons why! No one uses celestial magic outside of our main characters—Zia and our shifty talking spellbook—and our main villain, Councillor Clovis—so it wouldn’t make sense for a random enemy to have it. But from a gameplay perspective, it doesn’t work, imo.)
tl;dr I had a great time, and I recommend the game!
* specifically: I was convinced that the shifty talking spellbook would turn out to be the mad king, and lo and behold! <3
Also, relatedly:
me the entire time playing the game: hahaha, I love this shifty talking spellbook <3But seriously, stealing someone’s body… not the mark of a good guy! Which we knew, because of the histories about him! And yet, I was still surprised! But I’m also down for it. He’s my favorite character, and I’m surprisingly invested in his and Zia’s relationship. I had so many feelings when one of the last things he says to Zia (before going and possessing the head mage-person’s body—don’t remember his name sorry) was praise for what a great apprentice she’s been! I get the sense that while he’s not a good person, he genuinely likes Zia, and the potential messiness of their post-canon dynamics is super intriguing to me. This is definitely a canon I’m going to be requesting in exchanges, I think—I’m even contemplating doing Yuletide for the first time in years simply because I want all the fic exploring the dynamic between these two.
me, when said shifty talking spellbook does something INCREDIBLY shifty at the end of the game:
Some notes on my gameplay experience: in my first playthrough in 2020, I got stuck on the puzzles in the Old Mines, and this time around… I also got stuck there, lol. I ended up looking up a let’s play on youtube to see what I was missing… I’ve already forgotten what it was, exactly, but I do remember it was such a minor thing that I could not believe myself for not getting it.
The Tomb of the Mage Kings was an area that left a deep impact on me the first time I played, and I still adored it this time around as well.
I also got 100% completion on my file and got all the achievements! I did rely on the help of a guide to find some of the items. And while I did most of the spell-crafting on my own, I did use a recommended spell from the guide for the Mage Trials, which ended up being so useful that I used it in the Dark Tower as well. It only took me two tries to get the “beat the Dark Tower in <10 minutes” achievement, and imo it was 100% because of that spell! Or, rather, three spells linked together. Noting the components here:
Spell 1: Creo1 — earth + rain + size + mastery
Spell 2: Creo2 — ice + rain + size + mastery + at once:[creo1]
Spell 3: Ego — aura + move + clone + mastery + at once:[creo2]
Otherwise, my go-to spell for damage was an Actus spell with movement + duplication + homing. I added a couple of other components later on to make it more effective, iirc, but I don’t remember which ones on the top of my head, and I don’t feel like loading the file right now;;;
Beyond that… I do have one singular complaint, and that was the surprise!timed!puzzles during the boss fight. Yes, the celestial puzzles were always an element in the game… but never timed, and never as a part of the battle system, so having it suddenly thrown in during the final battle felt jarring. (I do understand the narrative reasons why! No one uses celestial magic outside of our main characters—Zia and our shifty talking spellbook—and our main villain, Councillor Clovis—so it wouldn’t make sense for a random enemy to have it. But from a gameplay perspective, it doesn’t work, imo.)
tl;dr I had a great time, and I recommend the game!