Game Review: Wizards and Wagons by Touch Dimensions

by Chrisanna Lazaridou on 7 December 2015 · 3326 views

Mobile RPGs usually are a "hit or miss" releases, due to their unique style and requirements which make it hard to adapt perfectly in the smartphone platforms. When done right though, they can offer great enjoyment to a lot of gamers. Such is the case of Wizards and Wagons, an RPG that strays from the usual fighting storylines and focuses on trading goods, with the difference that in this game you are not stationed in one place, but you’re the one traveling to find costumers and trade products. Some fighting elements are also present to enrich the gameplay but that’s not the main objective. The developer team Touch Dimensions, explored new fields for their game and it was worth it.

Update: Wizards and Wagons is now available for Android too, while the iOS version has been updated as well. Links at the bottom of the article.

Plot

Unlike most RPGs that tell the story of the hero from the moment he starts his quest to defeat the evil boss, in Wizards & Wagons the story begins after the hero has defeated the Demon Lord and restored peace to the land. At first he is rewarded with fame and glory, and everyone speaks of his heroic acts but soon he’ll realize that fame alone doesn’t fill an empty stomach and with no enemies to fight against, he must find a job. Thus, he starts traveling in a wagon in order to trade products and take upon missions to earn a living. This is our story and the new chapter on the young hero’s life.

Gameplay

As soon as you begin your journey, you’ll be asked to visit the Marketplace to equip your wagon with a few goods. You don’t choose randomly what you’ll carry- or, better yet, you can’t choose only by yourself- but the game tells you which goods you need to make sure you have on the wagon in order to earn the most money at the next town. All you need to do is tap and drag the desired good at a free spot on your wagon. Of course you don’t do that for free but you have to spend gold to purchase them. Your goal is to make more money than you spend, and to achieve that you must always make sure you know which city is more likely to buy certain goods in a higher price than you got them. For that, you must always check what goods each city lacks and use that in your advantage.

After finishing this task you will be asked to visit the next town, and this is basically the main routine of the game. Leaving a town is not the easiest thing to do though, as the roads hide many dangers- mainly bandits and monsters that will attack your wagon from all sides in order to destroy it. The good news is, the wagon rides automatically so you won’t have to worry about that. The bad news is, fighting the enemies is quite a difficult task at times because you have to tap on each one in order to fire arrows or spells against them. They’re also moving quite fast so it takes a lot of practice to defeat them with the least possible damage to your wagon. When you progress enough and have more weapons at your disposal, you can tap at the icon appearing at the right of your screen to toggle between weapons. The number next to the weapon indicates how many times it can be used. But remember, you need space for goods in your wagon so don’t overdo it with weapons or you’ll be up for a bad surprise.

Taking damage though, is not the end of the world, since you can repair your wagon at the next town’s blacksmith. You can also buy a new wagon there or equip your current one with various weapons. Green slots are for equipment that targets enemies automatically or grands passive abilities. On the other hand, weapons that can be placed into blue slots must be manually aimed or activated during combat.

Visiting the Guilt offers you various choices such as choosing Assignments, which means that you take upon a task that will reward you if you fulfill the objective. The Assignments are randomly generated and different in every town. If you fail to complete an assignment you could receive a penalty. You can also take a loan if you are in need of money but make sure you read the terms (interest, time limit) to see if you can pay it back in time.

Towns are full of people, most of whom have something to say and it’s really fun to read their lines and find out what interesting things they have to say. Some of them will also ask for your help (i.e. complete tasks with rewards that could exceed the ones given by the Guild), and some others are the people you needed to find from your previous quest, so make sure you “speak” to all of them so as not to miss anything. Each town has a different look and different goods that it offers and demands. There is a town panel in your screen that presents a summary of these goods and equipment.

It is hard at times to figure out what goods to trade or if it is worth travelling a long way risking your wagon in the process, only to arrive to a town and find out your goods are no longer in demand. But getting the gist of it is all you need to enjoy the game to the fullest.

In-App Purchases

There are no IAPs in Wizards & Wagons. You only pay once to purchase the game and you have full access to it without secondary, optional or not, cost.

Graphics & Sounds

The graphics are amazing and fluid with crystal-clear colors and adorable character designs. Honestly, the characters look like little anthropomorphic animals, similar to Final Fantasy, but when you visit the Marketplace or the Guild for example, you realize that they are actual people. The towns, environments, and virtually everything has attention to detail and hold a true RPG feeling. Same goes for the BG music which is very fitting to the concept.

Conclusion

I know trading RPGs are not everyone’s cup of tea, but if you’re a fan of RPGs and want to try something different than just fights against monsters, and test your economic abilities, then Wizards and Wagons is highly recommended- it encompasses many elements in great balance between them.