Steve Jackson’s Sorcery!

Genre: Role-Playing Game / Visual Novel

Players: 1

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Review:

Steve Jackson’s Sorcery! is a game that was originally released in four episodic installments on mobile devices in 2010 through 2019, then compiled together and released in 2022 on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, with the Nintendo Switch version offering some pretty good touchscreen support. As for the game itself, Sorcery! combines elements of Role-Playing Games and Choose-Your-Own Adventure-style Visual Novels.

The presentation here is really wonderful, making use of detailed hand-drawn 2D visuals accompanied by a gorgeous orchestrated soundtrack. However, what may possibly shine even better here is the excellent writing, which gives the game’s world a lot of lived-in depth and personality.

This is particularly important, because you’ll be doing a lot of reading in this game. The majority of the game plays out like a “Choose Your Own Adventure”-style game, with numerous choices at any given part of the game. Players start out with a spellbook filled with a massive number of spells, and can purchase or otherwise obtain any number of nonessential items on the way through the game’s story, and all of these can potentially provide new opportunities and ways to send the story in new directions. And while this game’s story does insist on pushing you forward (you’re only given an option to backtrack when the story calls for it), it’s clear that there’s a multitude of branching paths here.

However, that’s not the only element at play here. Players do have various stats that their decisions affect, gold they can spend or save, and while players can often make choices in the story to avoid combat, the combat itself has players engaging with a combat system that essentially has players wagering against the enemy how much power to put into their attacks – too low, and the enemy’s attack may overpower yours, but use too much power and you may exhaust yourself for future turns. It’s a clever system that eschews the usual RPG combat mechanics of other games in the genre, though I wish there were more options here to bring it at least a little closer to traditional RPG-style combat..

When it comes to my other complaints, I can’t say I’m a fan of the way this game handles magic, assigning every spell a three-letter word and then making you either memorize it or guess at it through a cloud of letters that pops up on your screen whenever you try to use magic. It’s needlessly cumbersome, and since you can always eventually work your way toward all of the possibilities open to you at any given juncture, I wish the game just listed those options up front. Also, the gamepad controls are a bit odd and take some getting used to.

However, overall Steve Jackson’s Sorcery! is an excellent and unique approach to the RPG and Visual Novel genre that combines both in a way that’s fun and gives players a lot of options throughout the game’s branching story. If you’re looking for your next RPG on Nintendo Switch and want to put the story above all other considerations, this is an excellent choice.

tl;dr – Steve Jackson’s Sorcery! Is a game that combines RPG and Visual Novel elements in a unique and rewarding way that gives the player plenty of choice through the game’s well-written branching “choose your own adventure”-style narrative. The combat could do with more options and the magic system is unnecessarily complicated, but overall this is a superb narrative experience.

Grade: B

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