Fun game with nice art, gameplay mechanics and great potential, but the wonky UI, extremely poor controls and spartan tutorial text makes it incredibly hard to figure out how to do anything in the game. A quick Google search will bring up a lot of these frustrations. Devs apparently haven't bothered to address any of these issues for over two years. I'm hopeful that their new game will be much easier to figure out. Had some fun while I was trying to figure it all out, but it just doesn't feel worth it.

If you do decide to give it a shot, here's a heads up: You'll probably want to play this with a controller. As painful as the controller was, the keyboard setup was next to unbearable.

4.5/10

This game, I'm going to be honest, this game is bad, BUT worth every penny spent.

I simply love this game, the fun that I have while playing this is genuine, it may not be the most perfect game, and its story may be super generic but this game is a gem among friends.
Screw it, I can't really explain this any better, and I could list the downsides but the only ones that you should know about are the ones that would be considered for not buying the game, the other ones can be taken in a comedic light.
1. the game is buggy, there's no real way around that, and yes sometimes its game breaking but it would only last until restarting the game.
2. the game is rather short, 10 levels and that being on 3 different levels of difficulty (which by the way is actually difficult)
3. The game has little guidance involved, sometimes you are left with figuring out some parts of the game that really should have been explained by the tutorial.
4. The game is impossible to 100% without playing with competent non AI players. (steam group for remedying this situation)
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/Betterthanmybuttocks/

But honestly, the game is a fun time and if you can look for a coupon for this, there are plenty floating around. Get some friends involved, or make some new ones in the steam group mentioned before.

Story: 3/10 (Generic as hell)
Gameplay: 10/10 (Refreshing rare fighting style and general combat system.)
Presentation: 11/10
Soundtrack: 7/10 (Eh)
Replayability: 6/10 (Replaying is a chore)

I can't recommend this came to anyone anymore no one plays it. I played it none stop when it came out. It always had problems but the grind was enjoyable. Don't buy it no one hosts servers no one plays. Unless you have very specific people beforehand who will play 100% don't get this game it's boring alone.

A very deep game that takes time to learn which is cool, but unlike other games that do this like DotA or The Witcher 2, this is a huge disapointment. its not that fun, the co-op is badly put together, the combat is boring and not skill or stratergy based really. overall this game is worth the 99c i paid for it and no more.

Dont buy this game unless you truely want to waste time and money, if you have $7.99 witting around, wait for a good game to come on sale or just go play Legend of Zelda.

2/10 +1 for nice idea +1 for being cheap as ArseMonkeys

Me and my buddy have had this game for a long time and played a fair amount. I enjoy it and totally recomend you guys grabbing it! The games on sale FFS!!

If you liked games like Chrono Trigger and many other old school rpgs then this is a game for you. The npc party you get in the single player mode is amazing. The multi player mode can be a bit confusing. Overall an awesome game for people who don't care so much about graphics.

I can't seem to find any public parties and I mostly play solo in games. My solo experience is that the AI party members prevent you from getting a good score since they rob you of hits and damage. If actualy party gameplay is like this as well, then you are constantly competing with party members to attempt to get a semi decent score sadly. If that's the case, I don't think I'd play with other people even if I could. Also, the AI is simple so naturally they die all the time and are barely a distraction for monsters. AI party members in the crawl die way too fast even on the early levels. They would need to have better AI or be significantly stronger to be actually be a viable helping hand in single player mode.

I like the look and feel of the game but the solo experience is not really good. I would really love to play Wanderlust Adventures pre-beta/beta and see if the solo experience is still like that. I really hope it's been tweaked to be more rewarding and entertaining. Having AI party members hold back your score/dying easily in harder difficulties is terrible honestly. I hope a Dev reads this when making Wanderlust Adventures. I have high hopes for WA and will definitely be a backer if that's what it takes for the game to get better and my feedback to reach the Devs.

Do all of your friends hate pixel games? Do you hate playing online with strangers? Then this game is not for you. The game has a lot going for it in terms of content, but playing alone is just you mashing buttons in a maze. There's not some kind of great storyline to pull you in and neither is there a huge amount of customization you can do to the world like in their other games.

Its absolutelely gorgeous! The story, the music, everything! So much time went into making this game and I played it for 2 hours straight. Once you complete the story line, there is really nothing else to do. Except maybe pvp with your friends. Nevertheless, worth every spent. You will not be dissapointed if you buy this game!

Extremely wonky Tutorial.
Tried to play Elementalist on a controller, and it was a mess. Menu controls are A for select and LB to get out of the menu totaly?! They somehow managed to mess up twinstick shooter controls and made it harder to play this game on a controller than playing an RTS on a touchpad...

Great action RPG. Would reccomend to people who are looking for a RPG that is simular to Secret of Mana and Zelda. Large class range and content (even secret bosses). Best thing about it is that it is multiplayer (up to 4 players).

looks like chrono trigger + link to the past. combat is pretty fun. killing hoards of enemies feels good and not a chore. kind of wonky controls but you'll get used to them. getting multiplayer to work isnt a hassle unlike some other steam indie games. grab a friend and play for good times.

It crashed so I wasn't able to play very long. The controls are awful. The tutorial was confusing, I had to find a PDF online to figure out how to craft. The multiplayer is wretched, you have to get your whole team to stand on a symbol to move to the next "map" and the maps are very small so you're doing this constantly. If someone doesn't stand on it, you can't move forward. The multiplayer server list is really slow to load, only shows a handful of servers, and then you have to hit F6 or F7 to flip through these tiny pages of servers which it makes you wait to retrieve. You can't use your mouse in the menus, you use W A S D instead. The mouse is only used for aiming your weapon, for example fireball. The fighting itself is boring and repetitive and brings nothing to the table. Not a fun game and it is badly written. Avoid at all costs. The tutorial is confusing, the GUI is bare, the music is painful, the chat system archaic, controller support awkward, and most of the features go unexplained. If a player doesn't feel like playing past the awkward start, it's a poor excuse for a simulation, not a game. Before attempting to sell this game for 8 dollars, try creating a clear tutorial (Ex. Super Meat Boy), A familiar GUI (Ex. Dragon Warrior/Quest 4, NES), high fidelity music (Ex. Rogue Legacy), an up-to-date chat system (Ex. WoW), Mindfulness of controller context (Ex. GTA4), and maybe some in-game help system or documentation (Ex. Civilization 4). Widescreen support wouldn't hurt, and having options and other menu items available at the start screen is a requisite on consoles for a reason.

This game is hard to recommend. From the difficult and hectic gameplay, to not knowing what the hell is happening on screen. I found this game frustrating and completely lacking in meaningful characters. Other than the very clique storyline, there is very little in this game which would entise me to replay the levels. However the graphics are quite charming and for the price i picked it up (v.cheap), a bit of a bargain.

Unfortunately. I find this game generic. Controls are a mess, the game itself seems to run in a clunky manner, and it's attempt at recreating the 90's style RPG is a bit off. At no point during gameplay did I feel engaged. The storyline isn't original, and there is little depth in what you are trying to accomplish. The reward system for "Missions" in this game makes it feel as if they broke away from attempting an action RPG and decided halfway through to attempt an arcade game. Many claim this game reminds them of Secret of Mana. However in my own opinion, had this game came out at the same time Secret of Mana had, I would still have chosen Secret of Mana. The art style did hit fairly close to target in trying to emulate the 16 bit era, however once again, depth and immersion are still a huge issue. The towns, the map, the lands feel all bland. Many of the areas in this game use a rather dull color palette, which to me personally is very unappealing. One of the big strengths in Secret of Mana, and even Zelda, aside from their gameplay and mechanics, was the color palettes and music used to really hit on target with the feeling you get from certain areas in the game. I commend W:R for attempting to recreate this feeling. But I suggest the developers go back and really spend a lot of time analyzing exactly what made those games of the 16 bit era classic.

Very poor tutorial. Game doesn't even let you exit without a struggle. Had to use task manager!

So this is a hack n' slash RPG with crappy graphics. That is kool. What they don't tell you is that you only get 50% of the exp for beating a level unless you manage to beat the level doing as little damage as possible to all the enemies so that you get very high combo numbers. (Yes it's true, I asked the developer) You don't get extra experience for beating a level again. Nor do you get experience for their challenge levels. You can only try to get more experience by getting the higher combo numbers and thus a better rating. There are all kinds of really powerful skills. You can max out maybe 2 of them and if you use them you don't get crap for experience. So, in short this game is based on repetition and ineffectiveness, while discouraging the use of the games advancement system. This is extremely irritating and a horrible idea. Also, it's just what the developers had in mind. The last boss is also a very annoying fight where you whittle away at him only to have him heal back while he can literally kill you in one shot. Avoid this piece of garbage.

Great game! I play it when I have trouble falling asleep and usually within 10 minutes I'm ready to drop off.

Wanderlust: Rebirth should come with a disclaimer stating your experience with this game will largely be influenced by the number of people you play with. Although the game is entirely playable in an offline single player environment, I found playing in such a way severely hindered my enjoyment of the game.

Whether or not we care for them, the Action RPG genre has evolved a few staple conventions. When a game largely ignores these, it's noticeable.

Story and Scope: The story is extremely short (around an hour or two to complete the normal difficulty mode), it's unimaginative, and failed to captivate me in any meaningful way. Scenarios felt unimportant as resolution to any situation often devolves into fighting this, that, or the other thing. The world of Wanderlust is barebones, at times lonely, and devoid of life.

Character Development: Characters are one dimensional and expendable, protaganists are mechanical vessels who only strive for the next piece of bait dangled in front of them. Although they're with you from the very beginning, you never grow any attachment to your unnamed NPC comrades and NPC's in towns will rarely, if ever, acknowledge your presence, save for the odd, "Hello". You walk "through" towns not "into" them.

Interesting Gameplay Mechanics: Enter an area, fight, move on, rinse and repeat. Your out-of-battle experience is monotonous and boring. Collecting items and equipment becomes cumbersome as your in-game pouch for holding these things is much too small to quest for extended periods of time without micromanaging your belongings to make room for the next thing.

Exploration/Adventure: There is no sense of discovery because there's nothing to discover (except the odd coin in a breakable barrel or randomly appearing treasure chest). My first instinct when playing a game like this is to scour the areas for chests and barrels, secrets and treasures. There's no point in trying any of that here though, you'll quickly find you're just wasting your time. To top it all off, invisible walls are everywhere, preventing you from walking past even carpets in open hallways (with treasure chests placed on the other side to further remind you of what you can't do in Wanderlust).

Diverse Locales: Ransack location after location, each location serves only as a battleground. In fact, you begin to feel inconvenienced by the discovery of a new area because it just stands between you and the only enjoyable part of the game - the fights.

Intense Battles: You enter an area and fight anything that moves, rinse and repeat. melee enemies employ the same swarm-bumrush strategy upon encountering them (limiting your ability to move), ranged attacks are unobstructed by obstacles leading some battles to feel cheap.

Multiplayer: The best thing about the game. Multiplayer "Crawls" are enjoyable. Story mode levels progress in the same way as in single player, but at least you can develop actual strategies with your teammates. The connection between players is crucial to the formula that makes this mode a success. Without cooperation between actual players, the experience is too rigid.

Replayability: There's enough to keep you coming back for more if you want to improve your character's skills and/or equipment or want to go for achievements.

It's hard to recommend this game. The only redeeming quality besides it's graphical style, is it's multiplayer, but you can get that in many better developed packages. I'll continue playing it to collect equipment and achievements, but I'd encourage people to skip this one unless you've got a group of friends who don't already own something better (like Dungeon Defenders).

Update: A month later...

Thankfully the in-game population has grown a bit more since I wrote this, so finding people to play with isn't such a challenge anymore. I've been playing every day for basically three weeks and have come to the realization this game isn't so bad if you ignore it as a single player experience and only play in multiplayer modes. It's also a lot less like Zelda than the screenshots lead me to believe (part of my initial disappointment). In my experience it's actually a lot closer to Smash TV and Total Carnage (games of that ilk) - especially in Crawls.

I still wish things were a lot more polished, but even as it is, there is fun to be had with this game, it just isn't immediately apparent.

Don't be fooled by the Zelda-esque graphics, behind the veil awaits a cumbersome and poorly designed game with interface design that is so horrible that it all together saps all energy needed to even start the game.