PixlBit

This out December 2001. It's an isometric view adventure game. You shoot things with the magic of four basic elements. It feels a bit like an action RPG like Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance except this is a single-player game and all you use are magic spells. I played as if there was permadeath, so let's see how I did. 

Not great. I almost got to the marketplace in Perth. I got kind of lost and found myself around more enemies than I could handle at my current level of spell advancement. I was confused by the map screen and what it was telling me. Some parts were glowing, but they were areas I had been to already. I wasn't sure where this marketplace was supposed to be. I just followed the roads until I found something, in this case, death. 

I found the camera view slightly annoying. It looks down at you from above and at an angle (isometric) and doesn't adjust as you move so I occasionally had to recenter it. Not a big deal though. Firing spells is fun but enemies run at you suicidally making you back up constantly. Also, enemies come in the four elemental colors and you have to hit them with the appropriate opposite spell type. When groups of enemies of all colors appear, you are switching spells a lot to get them all. I found myself getting water enemies with fire and running from the fire enemies until I could switch to a water spell. The inevitable running in circles ensued. 

I thought I was the Nightcaster but apparently, in the story, it's the villain you are after. Then who am I then? I'm just some kid who stumbled upon a talking orb that taught me magic in order to defeat the Nightcaster. I really wanted to be the Nightcaster. It's kind of a cool name. Can I switch sides?

I will say this, the fireball spell looks pretty cool on screen. - lots of smoke and fire. 

This game must've done pretty well because it got a sequel a year later. The sequel has a two-player feature which should've got me to play it back then if I had known. My friend and I would've played it for sure. 

My next game will be Genma Onimusha.