Kup Paper Sorcerer

Stylish
Worth every penny
Will be looking out for more games from the developer

If you like old school dungeon RPGs, I would highly recommend this game. Many different classes to try, secrets, lots of gears, and also very challenging. And finally, it is super cheap, what are you waiting for ? :P

This surprisingly turned out to be one of my favorite RPGs. Gameplay, story, art, and music are all equally dark, minimalist, stylish, and competent, so they all fit together perfectly. The only real complaint I have about it is that keys are apparently the most fragile things in the known universe, which hardly seems necessary. The game sometimes doesn't even tell you when keys disappear, which can result in much swearing and that frustration dance you probably haven't done since you were a little kid.

This is a good RPG for those who want an interesting game to play that doesn't really take a ton of brain power. The game play is easy to understand, but there is strategy involved with which Skills to use when. a mouse is not really required, so it is a great game to play on your laptop in bed (which is partly why i got it). Very fun, and the different summoning options make for interesting party builds, and I enjoy the different stereotypical RPG rolls given to the monsters (such as Barbarian to the Minotar).

Scratches both my dungeon crawler and classic turn-based RPG itch with an interesting visual aesthetic. I got it in a humble bundle and felt like going through it again on steam with a differnent party composition. That's one of the great things about it, your party can be completey catered to your play style. Like highly offensive teams? Get a troll and minotaur and tear up some asses. Worried you might not have enough weapons for your party? Choose a werewolf and rip the enemy to shreds with his unnarmed claw attacks. Or just be overpowered and choose a party of offensive/defensive healers and never die, the choice is yours. Though, keep in mind, once you choose a party member you can't go back on them, or can you? Either way, it makes multiple playthroughs fun.

Gorgeous art and the low price make this turn based dungeon crawler a real treat.

The "paper art style" is really unique and the gameplay is similar to FF-games/JRPGs, with the exception that it feels simplified. The fights are long and repetitive and there are a lot of "useless" items. Sometimes the game felt like an old single player P&P RPG book by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone, but it wasn't able to live up to its potential. The "secrets" and the interesting story still make it worthwhile.

One of my favorite games on Steam right now. It's simple, but has depth. It's unique, but also has a nostalgic feel to it.

The overworld is 3D and interesting to look at, while the combat is 2D and turnbased. The overworld is explored freely in levels called floors which feature mostly static combat encounters, set loot spawns but with random contents, and the usual secret or two to find. The combat is a throwback to turnbased RPGs of yesteryear and can very often be quite challenging or even impossible to beat without proper leveling and party/skill usage.

Overall, pleasing to look at, fun to play, and can be a challenging experience.

If you're a fan of turn-based RPGs at all, you owe it to yourself to give this game a try.

The most obivous difference between this game and most others is the quite unusual art style. The team making this game is obviously on a budget, and you can see some oddball errors (like inky shadows that are actually 2d planes you can see behind if you jump into the corner) but they decided to use their limited resources to make the most visually striking game they could, regardless.

The same can be said of combat, which is the real meat of the game. The game uses pre-generated character archetypes that you add to your party in a team of your choosing. The array of choices are unfortunately not overwhelming, and you don't get a very clear sense of who can do what until after you get them in your party, but if you save before the choice, and experiment a little, you can figure things out.

Combat revolves around energy (which is used only 1-6 points at a time, and where you recover 1 per turn) and cooldowns on skills, as well as an unusual defense system. Defense drops after physical attacks, and applies to both physical and magic attacks. Since very high defense nullifies direct magic damage, you need to pound a target's armor down to make them vulnerable to magic. Meanwhile, magic skills that debuff resistance to physical damage or can incapacitate a target are available, but only within the limits of energy and cooldowns. It's a game that has unusual depth to how much you have to think to get through even regular battles. (Especially on the brutal "1980s" difficulty.)

Unfortunately, the game also behaves oddly in many circumstances. Ability cooldowns don't take as long as they say they do in the menu, and sometimes last into the next combat you engage in. If you move the mouse while the 2d image of the town is loading, you actually make the perspective on the town move, as it's just a 2d cutout in front of the game's camera. There's an achievement that you can't unlock because it was accidentally made inaccesible.

There's also some balance issues, especially with overpowered skills like sleep, where enemies only wake up from normal attacks, while a skeleton that's using physical skills to kill the opponent never wakes the target. This tends to make status effect and damage-over-time characters extremely powerful, while the characters that rely upon direct magic damage are extremely weak because of the way defense works against them.

A fun little game that would appeal to the old-school RPG players who don't have the time to grind for hours. No frills with a solid core mechanic and a quirky art style.

Level puzzles are simple enough to solve, once you figure out the gimmick without feeling contrived or forced. The catacomb sections may seem like cheap padding at first, but is a well thought-out, integral part of the game.

Choosing your own party is interesting and can bare a few playthroughs to find your groove - then again in 1980s mode!

TL;DR It's cheap and fun. Buy it!

Party composition and a large range of abilities adds such a great amount of depth. I also thought the art style and music were great. One of the best rpgs I've played in a long time, and for a super low price. I highly recommend it.

A few minor nitpicks:
* Would love to be able to order abilities to keep the ones you use often at the top.
* The mouse interface in the store is a little wonky. Selecting something at the bottom of the list will highlight, but scroll back to the top where I can't see it anymore
* A few times where the inventory screen glitched out, and the back button wouldn't do anything. Had to restart the game.
* The Soul Shield doesn't seem to work at all.

Final Verdict: 8/10, Very Good

Full Review:

Paper Sorcerer is a great game if you are looking for a good, old-school RPG to sink your teeth into for about 20 hours. With a great art style, solid gameplay, and interesting story it is definitely worth checking out if you are a fan of the genre.

The art in this game is based on the fact that you are trapped in a book. The world looks as though it has been drawn around you . Essentially, Paper Sorcerer’s art style does what any good art style should do; it helps the game stand out, is pleasing to the eye, and further conveys the tone and story of the game. The sound also helps create a retro feel, with some 8-bit beeps and boops to take you back.

The gameplay can be rather repetitive, although, I never found myself bored by it. Battles are essentially clicking moves and watching the turns play out, which could likely be boring for many people but if you are a fan of old-school, turn-based combat, can be rather fun. Outside of combat there is a good amount to do with secrets and non-story areas to be found, explored, and conquered.

The story is rather interesting but could have been better told. I found it interesting, I just wish more attention was given to it. Essentially, you are an evil sorcerer who is trapped in a magic book by four heroes and now need to fight your way out.

If you are looking for an old-school, turn-based RPG with a unique art style, interesting story, and solid gameplay then this is certainly worth the $4.99. Even if you are only possibly interested, I would recommend this as you will likely get more than your money’s worth with this game.

Do you like old school Wizardy? Do you like old school RPGs? Do you like cheap RPGs? DO YOU LIKE RPGs?

If you answered "Yes lawd PRAISE THA PAPER!!" then I'd say you're mocking me.. but if you responded "OH HELL YES" to any of the above, then you will enjoy Paper Sorcerer. It's simplitic yet satisfying. As controller throwing difficult as you wish for the ultimate challenge. Playing the role of an anti-hero is a pure delight, and I would suggest this game to any of my friends.

Paper Sorceror is a turn based corridor RPG that has it's own unique style of art and music. You permanently summon/choose from some monsters to travel with you and then go kill those wannabe protaganists! The story is light which is all that is necessary to make the world tangible. Any fan of the Wizardry series or Etrian Odyssey that just wants a new take on this old classic style of game needs to look no further.

Good retro-style dungeon crawler. If you like old school turn-based RPGs this is your game.

Classic turn based dungeon crawler. That's just the game's description.

What it truly is, is a game stripped down to the very essence of gameplay that defines that description. Everything else from zone traversing to merchant is streamlined into a menu selection.

The gem in this title has definitely got to be the 1980's difficulty mode. It's the time machine that sits older gamers back in time playing RPGs that are unlike the slew of mindless successors that their characters can overpower through.

Buy this, ignore everything but 1980's mode. In it, you'll be pressed to form your party with companions that complement each other and fight strategically rather than having the strongest. You'll clock 10x more play time saving before every fight, but you'll relish every minute of it.

While the game's a little buggy and there's a few balancing issues (I'M LOOKING AT YOU CELLBLOCK 3 BOSS) this RPG's really enjoyable. Not too grindy, and you get enough "summons" (party members) to vary your party and not make the game stale. Definitely worth the full price of $5.

After 25 hours of play, I have to say that this game had me hooked. I think at some point I'll feel like playing an old school dungeon crawler again and come back to it for another play through. There is definatley replay value here with the variety of team comps that you could have. If you like the old school might and magic/wizardry dungeon crawlers or you enjoyed Legend of Grimrock you'll probably like this too. It does have a little JRPG feel mixed in there as well so even though it borrows almost all of it's ideas from some classic games to play on nostalgia it's still an interesting enough mixture to be it's own distinct product. The story, while very simple, still manages to be pretty interesting and throws a couple twists in there that you may or may not see coming depending on how close you're paying attention to the books/journals you find and the character dialogue. At $5.00 it's worth it, on sale it's even better. This game delivered for me. I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys the old school turn based dungeon crawlers.

Fabulous art style, old school dungeon crawling mechanics, blippy soundtrack and ends just as game fatigue kicks in. For five bucks, it's an excellent purchase.

Great game, love the artwork!