"Magicraft" is a Roguelike game that uses a variety of spells to match unimaginable spell effects, and the construction of ultra-high degrees of freedom cannot even be exhausted by developers.
Magicraft is an action roguelike built around crafting wands instead of using fixed weapons, heavily inspired by Noita but with a conventional Hades-like run structure of biomes, rooms and bosses. He finds it chaotic, fun and very approachable compared to Noita, since it is far less punishing outside the wand system. He enjoys building broken wand combos, though runs get somewhat repetitive late, the vibe and music disappoint him, and the roguelike layer (relics, events, bosses) could be deeper. It was in his 2024 top 10, and he lands it in A tier.
Liked
Wand-building system is wildly creative and lets players make absurd, chaotic builds
Much more approachable and less punishing than Noita, a gentle intro to the wand-crafting idea
Mid-game is the sweet spot where you discover cool wand combinations
Expanded wand types, including wands that cast spells on their own
Broken builds are achievable fairly quickly, not after very long play
Roguelike elements outside wands (relics, potions, characters) are pretty good
Very satisfying and something he would return to
Disliked
Gets a little repetitive by mid-late game once builds are broken
Relics could be more numerous and interesting
Wants more run variety: more events and more unique bosses
Goofy tone and uncharismatic protagonist clash with the epic fantasy look; vibe not for him
Seems to lack its own composed music, which he calls a shame
Final biome's special twist would work better spread through the run than only at the end
Top 10 of 2024 (#9)
Magicraft is a top-down action roguelite in the Hades vein where spells and weapons are craftable wands, heavily inspired by Noita's wand system. It dials back Noita's difficulty and complexity in favour of chaotic, satisfying gameplay. He finds the spell fusing and synergy system, starting characters, meta progression and biome pacing strong. Drawbacks are repetitive gameplay once the screen fills with spells, limited elite and boss variety, and a goofy fantasy tone that didn't work for him. Overall he calls it a very fun, satisfying game and ranks it ninth of the year.
Liked
Wand crafting with a huge number of ridiculous spell combinations
Fusing and upgrading spells adds diversity without needing a huge spell pool
Spells synergize with each other well
Choice of starting characters and meta progression keep it exciting
Good pacing; each biome feels like a new world
Decent enemy variation and a reward at the end of every room keeps runs fulfilling
Disliked
Gameplay gets repetitive since it is easy to fill the whole screen with spells
Wants more elites and boss variety
Relics are not very interesting compared to spells and wands
Story and tone (goofy mixed with fantasy) did not connect with him
What players say
A top-down action roguelite from Wave Games (published by bilibili) where you build wands by slotting spells and modifiers into ordered sequences, blending Noita-style wand crafting with Binding of Isaac room-based dungeon crawling and a Hades-like hub.
Players receive Magicraft very warmly: Steam shows Very Positive at about 92.8% across roughly 16.9k reviews, with many reviewers describing it as Noita meets Binding of Isaac in a friendlier package. The spell-and-wand tinkering, build variety and screen-filling power fantasy are the main draws, and long-playtime reviewers (100 to 700 hours) are common. Criticism centres on RNG-dependence, balance (poison and multicast dominance), long runs with repetitive multi-wave rooms, visual clutter late game, and on some machines crashes, hangs and localization problems. Critic coverage is essentially absent: Metacritic has no critic reviews, and OpenCritic has no findable listing. It left Early Access (launched Nov 2023) with 1.0 on Nov 1 2024 and has kept receiving free updates, costume DLC and crossovers, but a few reviewers worry about an unfinished feel or later-patch stability.
Players love
Wand crafting: slotting spells, modifiers and staff perks into ordered sequences lets players build absurd, emergent synergies, and many reviewers say it is easy to lose hours in theorycrafting
Friendlier take on the Noita/Isaac formula: forgiving enough that dying feels less punishing, while still escalating to chaos late game
Breaking the game is encouraged: overpowered builds are a feature and the game then escalates challenge to meet them
Large content pool: about 100 staffs and 80 relics, multiple character sets, puzzle side rooms, and a practice area for testing already-found spells
Humor and charm in the art, town and writing, plus good animation and enemy/level design noted by several reviewers
Accessible hardware demands: reviewers note it runs on an older non-gaming laptop, and there are options to tone down spell-effect visibility
Generous free updates, free DLC packs (e.g. Dave the Diver content) and crossover content; reviewers describe the game as feeling complete
Strong value: priced around $12 with many hundreds of hours reported by the most engaged players
Common complaints
Heavy RNG dependence: good runs hinge on getting the right spells and relics, and several reviewers feel skill and judgment count for too little
Balance: a reviewer with a DPS breakdown claims poison stacking is the dominant meta for beating the final boss; others say a lucky early spell can carry the entire run while some spells are nearly useless
Endgame visual mess: multicast and nova-style builds cover the screen so you cannot see enemies or your own character
Runs get long: multiple high-HP waves per room, shops, upgrade rooms and puzzle rooms add up and some reviewers find it grindy
Technical problems reported by some players: hangs and freezes (one reviewer blames a 2024 patch), crashes after recent updates, and bad input under Linux Proton
Localization issues: some English wording is unclear and German UI text overflows and swaps languages, with complaints that the developer is unresponsive on this
Controller support is weak for wand/inventory management and certain spell mechanics; keyboard and mouse are recommended by experienced players
Some reviewers call it an inferior, dumbed-down blend of Noita, Isaac and Hades that gets boring fast
Can feel tedious
Late-game clutter: so many projectiles and effects that tactical play gives way to mashing the cast button
Long multi-wave rooms with high-HP enemies, plus slow shops and puzzle rooms
Meta-progression depends on unlocks and money; one 280-hour player says there is little to spend currency on after buying every upgrade, while another calls low-unlock runs a gacha-like feel
Losing a large share of runs on harder difficulties to bullet-hell bosses, with difficulty spikes from some stages (the third area is called out as annoying by some)
Inventory and wand juggling is tedious on controller
Crashes, hangs or freezes on certain setups
What's unique
Noita-like wand logic (cast delay, recharge, ordering, modifiers) inside a room-by-room Isaac-style structure with keys, chests and a max-HP-for-perks room
Staff types that impart their own perks, and wand modifiers with odd effects such as reversed casting direction or random colors that apply rider effects
Hades-style town hub with humor and meta-upgrades plus unlockable character sets and difficulty tiers
Combat requires dodging bullet-hell patterns while spell builds escalate into screen-filling spectacle
A side path granting Epic relics for no-physical-damage play, paid for with max HP (a tip shared by a reviewer, not official documentation)
Crossovers and collaboration content such as Dave the Diver and Lost Castle 2
Players want
Streamline run length: fewer repeated waves per room and quicker shops and upgrade rooms, without just raising enemy HP
Fix balance outliers, including poison and multicast dominance, weak spells, and spells that do not interact as their descriptions suggest
Reduce randomness or give players more control over getting needed spells and relics, and remove anti-build design choices (e.g. more rooms between bosses, key and chest luck)
More variety in common enemies, bosses, wands, relics and spells, since some reviewers feel the pool runs thin after many hours
Better spell targeting or aim assistance for range-limited spells, and improved controller handling
Polish localization and translation, and improve stability after patches; also update in-game and wiki info for relics and spells, which reviewers say is outdated
Summarised from Steam reviews and community discussion.
Roguedex
Tier list Part 3 (2025)
Magicraft is an action roguelike built around crafting wands instead of using fixed weapons, heavily inspired by Noita but with a conventional Hades-like run structure of biomes, rooms and bosses. He finds it chaotic, fun and very approachable compared to Noita, since it is far less punishing outside the wand system. He enjoys building broken wand combos, though runs get somewhat repetitive late, the vibe and music disappoint him, and the roguelike layer (relics, events, bosses) could be deeper. It was in his 2024 top 10, and he lands it in A tier.
Liked
Disliked