Fictorum is the game that most scratches the wizard itch for me. It's an indie game, so don't expect AAA polish, but what is there is absolutely what you might call a "hidden gem".
Hogwarts Legacy. Combat is fast and brutal.
The side stuff feels kind of bland mechanically and something about the open world doesn't capture me like I want it to, but it's pretty good pure magic combat.
Lots of good suggestions already, adding Magicmaker as a fun build-your-own-spells game: https://store.steampowered.com/app/319250/Magicmaker/
Story is generic and it's a little bit jank, but has one of the best magic systems in any game I've played.
I sometimes think back on this game, I loved playing the large two handed spears. Spinning around.
I wonder how well it plays on Stem Deck because talking about it makes me want to play again.
A lot of this games charm comes from the jank. But the magic system is absolute fun.
I agree. Worth a play through for sure.
Wayfinder. Recently discovered it and i've been having quite a bit of fun with it. It's a former live service converted to singleplayer/coop, so the story kind of blows. But it's a good ARPG - a Torchlight meets Warframe sort of thing.
wizard and blast spells all day.
Runescape flashbacks
For just a solid combat system, hogwarts. Was really surprised. They had some solid people design and build it. Really stood out against the rest of the game which wasn't bad by any stretch just repetitive. There are some serious combat challenges too. Just make sure you play on hard. It really needed one difficulty higher tbh.
A gaming community free from the hype and oversaturation of current releases, catering to gamers who wait at least 12 months after release to play a game. Whether it's price, waiting for bugs/issues to be patched, DLC to be released, don't meet the system requirements, or just haven't had the time to keep up with the latest releases.
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