An Amazing Wizard is a Dead Cells-like where you mix spells out in Early Access

Out now in Early Access with Linux support, An Amazing Wizard brings an interesting spell mixing system to a Dead Cells-like action platformer. Disclosure: key provided by the developer.

The initial release seems really promising after playing through a fair bit of it, and I really do enjoy mixing together all sorts of spells to make something completely ridiculous. The game is frantic and fast but very clearly takes a lot of the world design from Dead Cells.

You run through each generated area of platforms stitched together as you try to get through all the different doors, while smashing through all the enemies in your way to find new spells and combine them. Then face off against huge boss monsters and just keep upgrading as much as you possibly can. If you die, you return to a special area to do other meta upgrades and challenges, to run do a fresh run of combining spells and fighting monsters again.

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I do like what I'm seeing, but there's just a little something about the combat that makes it feel nowhere near as satisfying as the likes of Dead Cells, but I can't put my finger on exactly what. The combat isn't bad, just not terribly exciting either. It's less about the combat, and more about just blasting your way through to become as stupidly powerful as possible, so in that way it's more akin to the survivor-like games that have appeared wearing the skin of Dead Cells.

Features:

• PROCEDURALLY GENERATED WORLD - Explore a unique world every time you play.
• ACTION ROGUEVANIA - This means permanent deaths where you lose everything you have found, but there are lots of permanent upgrades available.
• 200+ PERMANENT UPGRADES - Upgrade your starting items or statistics, add more elements to the world, increase your chances of finding better items and many more!
• 7 PLAYABLE ELEMENT WIZARD – Wheel the power of seven unique elements, each offering distinct abilities and combinations to match your playstyle.
• ENCHANT YOUR SPELLS - Search for Astral Forges to add enchantments to all your Spells and Magic Weapons to add some special effects to them!
• 200+ UNIQUE ARTIFACTS - Every artifact has it's own special use. A lot of them change your Basic Spell behavior or add special abilities. Literally countless combinations.
• 120+ POWERFUL SPELLS - Cast Fire Balls or Tornados, Summon Creatures, Slow Time, Create Gravity Zones and many, many more...
• DOZENS OF MAGIC WEAPONS - Use one of many Magic Weapons to help you survive!
• 50+ CHALLENGES - Test your skills by completing the trials of the Goddess of Death!
• 5 NONLINEAR LEVELS - Only 5 levels? Yes, but each time you die you will respawn in one of the four nature-inspired worlds and face other enemies based on the current biome. Levels order is never the same!
• FEW DIFFICULTY LEVELS - Every time you kill the end boss, you will gain the possibility to change the difficulty level and face stronger foes.
• MANY BOSSES - After every level you will have to face a merciless boss.
• LEVEL UP YOUR CHARACTER - Gain Experience Points for killing enemies. Select one of dozens of perks after leveling up to make you even stronger!
• A LOT OF SECRETS AND MYSTERIES TO DISCOVER - No spoilers!
• HOURS OF FUN - This one depends on your skill. Something about 50 - 80 hours or even more!
• MULTIPLE SAVE SLOTS

I should note that the developer has been using generative AI. The Steam page notes "A portion of the Steam community assets and marketing materials are generated using AI". Speaking to the developer, they told me previously they also used an AI voice in the game but they have since removed it and so "Nothing in the game is AI" now.