SpellCaster (Sega Master System) review "A Hexing"

In the dead of night and in the middle of a forest, a building suddenly ignites in flames. With this ominous opening, SpellCaster sets the protagonist on an adventure involving magic and several surprising twists. You control Kane Tensen, a practitioner of the mystical arts, who is initially tasked with visiting a temple after several dispatched warriors failed to return. Once arrived, what lies ahead are an abundance of armored swordsmen and demons eager to put an end to your mystic defender.

But wait! Before any of the action commences, you begin the game in your own temple, speaking to the master about these troubling events. A cutscene? Not exactly, as SpellCaster inserts graphic text adventure elements between the action. Staples you would expect are here, like an image of your current location and a list of commands, such as Move, Talk, and Use, to name a few. As usual of its genre, navigating these scenes is akin to solving a puzzle. For example, despite an important object being blatantly on display, you would usually have to look at or even use a specific item to illicit a response. Sometimes you might even have to leave the scene and speak with someone elsewhere to reveal a new tidbit.

Once progression has been made with the adventure scenes, you'll be dropped into a side-scrolling action sequence. Kane's main method of attack are projectile ki blasts, which can also be charged up for more damage. Living up to the game's English name, you also have a selection of spells to cast, ranging from beam attacks and lightning strikes, to health regeneration and temporary flight. With there being so many beneficial spells to use, there's of course a catch: spells consume your MP meter. Additionally, the only method for refilling your magic is by defeating enemies and hoping one of them drops a small orange orb, which only fills a minimal amount. Sometimes you might even get a HP blue orb in its place.

The act of spell casting sounds a tad redundant, right? No worries, because when you start playing the action portions, the action is just so... bland. More times than not, one enemy will materialize from the edge of the screen, and if the game is feeling brave, it'll sometimes throw an additional enemy into the mix. You'll get hurt a few times learning a new enemy's attack patterns, but since most foes can be taken out with one or two hits, by a projectile attack no less, using any spell feels extremely wasteful. At most, you'll likely use health regeneration during boss fights and flight when moving over a pit section. What's worse is that, between the adventure segments, you are fighting in areas that are reusing the exact same temple backdrop when you explore different temples.

But just when the dull action is pushing the limits of your patience, SpellCaster breaks you out of a slumber by changing its structure. At one point, there becomes a bigger emphasis on the adventure scenes when you arrive at a port by the ocean. Here, these scenes just go in different directions, such as actually using spells as solutions, traveling the ocean on a boat while using a mini-map, and, most surprising of all, there's even turn-based combat! It's a shocking change of pace, but a welcomed one since the adventure aspect, which is more entertaining by default, is given more screen time.



Unfortunately, this phase doesn't last long. Shortly after stumbling into a plot device that'll make you do a double take, the action segments take precedence once again, albeit in different settings and with varying enemy types. Whereas before, the early action pieces wore you down with dreary pacing and laughably easy encounters, the action portions post-plot device are just downright miserable. The first of these is the pyramid, where you collect hidden items prior to a boss battle. The thing about this is that... the pyramid is a maze, so you're constantly backtracking while battling demons and creatures. Doesn't sound too bad, but this is the moment SpellCaster completely fails from an action perspective.

By this point, the game is typically tossing three enemies on screen at a time. Just quickly destroy them with your ki blasts, yeah? It's no longer that easy, because the developers have made combat go from the most stale thing ever to the most frustrating thing ever. When you first enter the pyramid, you'll be attacked by small crawly scorpions and a tall warrior with a weapon, the former taking one hit and the latter requiring multiple hits with ki blasts. Here's the issue with scorpions being too small: your protagonist cannot crouch attack, so the only thing you can do is wait for them to lunge when they're close. Here's the issue with that: the scorpions and Minotaur are walking side-by-side in unison.

You will get injured.



You still have a list of spells that can kill many enemies with one cast, but remember that MP replenishment is random and slow. Now combine that with the fact that the moment you defeat one enemy, another will spawn from the corner to take their place. Even if you decide to use flight, there comes a point where you have to come down to enter a door and recast flight on the other end, or grab a vital item, or grind HP and MP in a "safe spot" where less-threatening demons materialize. You know what happens when you actually die? Your health is completely filled, but you're sent back to the beginning of the maze with your low MP still intact.

Because nothing quite screams great game design like punishing players for using the game's main gimmick, and then punishing them even more when it backfires.

Say you make it past the pyramid without quitting SpellCaster out of frustration; what lies beyond is a journey to the underworld. The same enemy spawning ferocity that greeted you in the prior area awaits here, however there's no longer a maze to contend with... is what you're likely thinking at first. Not content with making you suffer one maze, you're given the equivalent in the form of moving back and forth between multiple points several redundant times. At best, you'll do this approximately 15 to 20 times blind on your first time, because you have to figure out where to go next based on what little information is given to you during the adventure scenes.

Hilariously, this perfectly summarizes SpellCaster: you're in hell.

Community review by dementedhut (November 25, 2023) Now if only I had the foresight to submit this OutRun review a day earlier...