Mages and Treasures

Mages and Treasures is an Action RPG set in a vibrant fantasy world where players assume the role of a powerful mage whose unique treasure has been stolen by malevolent magical creatures. Embark on a magical adventure through beautifully crafted and perilous landscapes, searching for elemental amulets to defeat the evil horde. The game features colorful 8-bit style graphics, a variety of magical items and spells to collect, and alternative paths to explore as you journey to reclaim your beloved treasure.

Mages and Treasures: Review

Introduction

In the crowded landscape of indie games, where nostalgia often masquerades as innovation, Mages and Treasures emerges as a curious artifact. Developed by the Brazilian studio lightUP and published by Ratalaika Games, this 2020 top-down action RPG promises a whimsical fantasy adventure inspired by 8- and 16-bit classics. Yet, beneath its colorful facade lies a title divided: a game both endearingly charming and frustratingly flawed. This review deconstructs Mages and Treasures as a product of its time—a budget-driven love letter to dungeon-crawlers like The Legend of Zelda—while scrutinizing its mechanical shortcomings and enduring appeal. Its legacy is one of contradictions: a title that delights with its artistry and music but falters in execution, ultimately securing a niche as a fleeting, low-stakes diversion rather than a landmark experience.

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Development History & Context

The Studio and Vision

Mages and Treasures is the brainchild of lightUP, a small Brazilian developer led by Juliano Ferreira de Lima. The studio, known for titles like Milo’s Quest, specializes in accessible, retro-inspired games with a focus on accessibility. For Mages and Treasures, Lima served as the sole programmer, game designer, and artist, crafting a vision of “magical evilish creatures” and elemental amulets reminiscent of 1990s action RPGs. Musician Albert Fernandez provided the soundtrack, marking one of his earliest collaborations with the studio. The project was a labor of love, as evidenced by the credits’ heartfelt thanks to “our families and friends.”

Technological Constraints and Ambition

Built using GameMaker, Mages and Treasures leverages the engine’s strengths for pixel-art creation and straightforward level design but exposes its limitations in combat and AI. The 8-bit aesthetic, while charming, constrained visual complexity, and the game’s runtime—reportedly around two hours—suggests budgetary constraints dictated scope. The 2020 release date placed the game amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a surge in indie game output, and the rise of budget-friendly “filler” titles on digital storefronts like Steam. Its port to PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch in 2022 capitalized on Ratalaika Games’ reputation for easy achievement hunting, though this would later prove a double-edged sword.

The Gaming Landscape

2020 was a watershed for nostalgia-driven indie games, with titles like Hades and Fall Guys dominating headlines. Against this backdrop, Mages and Treasures positioned itself as an accessible entry point for action RPGs, priced at a mere $1.99 on Steam. Its multi-platform rollout in 2022 aligned with the industry’s push for cross-gen releases, yet it arrived alongside more polished contenders like Metroid Dread, underscoring its status as a niche, budget offering.

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Narrative & Thematic Deep Dive

Plot and Premise

The narrative is a fairy-tale simplicity: a mage’s “very special treasure” is stolen by magical creatures, prompting a quest across four themed realms to reclaim it and collect elemental amulets. This setup echoes classic Zelda tropes—a silent protagonist, a McGuffin-driven plot, and a battle between good and evil—but executes it with minimal depth. The script, largely absent of dialogue, relies on environmental storytelling and sparse text snippets to convey its “magical evilish horde.” The story’s brevity (two hours) and lack of character development relegate it to a functional backdrop for gameplay.

Characterization and Worldbuilding

The protagonist, a generic “Powerful Mage,” remains a cipher, defined only by his quest. Enemies are equally archetypal: bouncing blue balls, spiders that fire webs, and dragons. Bosses—wizards, giants—lack backstory, serving as mere gatekeepers for amulets. The narrative’s thematic weight rests on loss and perseverance, but it’s never explored beyond surface-level tropes. The “special treasure” itself remains undefined, reducing its theft to a plot device rather than a meaningful emotional anchor.

Themes and Execution

Mages and Treasures engages with themes of recovery and resilience, but its execution is perfunctory. The amulets, for instance, symbolize empowerment through acquisition, yet their impact is purely mechanical. The game’s adherence to fairy-tale conventions—evil creatures, enchanted items—feels derivative, failing to subvert or reinterpret these tropes. In essence, the narrative exists to justify dungeon exploration, not to enrich the player’s experience.

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Gameplay Mechanics & Systems

Core Loops and Structure

The gameplay is a linear dungeon-crawler, structured as interconnected rooms with puzzles, enemies, and bosses. Each realm culminates in a boss battle, rewarding the player with an amulet that enhances spells. Exploration is encouraged through collectibles: coins for health/MP upgrades, keys for chests, and potions for temporary boosts. Alternative paths offer slight replayability, though they are few and far between.

Combat: A Flawed Twin-Stick Experience

Combat is the game’s Achilles’ heel. The mage starts with a minuscule health bar and a weak wind spell that drains mana rapidly. Early enemies—like spiders that fire omnidirectional webs—expose fatal imbalances: the player must face enemies directly to attack, while enemies have 360-degree mobility. This asymmetry leads to frequent deaths, exacerbated by the penalty of losing coins on failure. The solution? Twin-stick controls (RT to fire, right stick to strafe), which the game never explicitly promotes. Once mastered, combat gains a rhythm of kiting and dodging, but the learning curve is steep and unforgiving.

Character Progression and Systems

Progression hinges on three systems:
– Amulets: Defeating bosses unlocks elemental amulets, offering marginal upgrades (e.g., increased range, new colors). The dodge amulet, however, breaks difficulty with near-infinite invincibility.
– Upgrades: Coins purchase permanent health/MP increases, but early deaths can trap players in a “no coins, no survival” spiral.
– Collectibles: Keys (silver for bosses, golden for chests) and potions add agency, but their placement is often predictable.

Puzzles are exclusively Sokoban-style block-pushing, serving as filler rather than challenges. UI is minimalist but functional, with a clean map echoing Zelda’s design.

Innovations and Shortcomings

The game’s greatest innovation is its atmospheric potential: weather effects and branching paths hint at depth. Yet, systemic flaws dominate—unbalanced difficulty, repetitive enemy types, and a puzzle design that grows stale. The achievement system compounds this: the Platinum unlocks after the second boss, disincentivizing completion.

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World-Building, Art & Sound

Setting and Atmosphere

Four themed realms—forests, ice caves, etc.—provide distinct backdrops, but their lore is unexplored. The world feels like a collection of disconnected dungeons, lacking the cohesion of Zelda’s overworld. Atmosphere is hit-or-miss: weather effects (rain, snow) add charm, but static elements like long grass break immersion. The absence of towns or NPCs reinforces the game’s “dungeon-only” focus, making the world feel skeletal.

Visual Direction and Art

Juliano Lima’s 8-bit pixel art is the game’s standout feature. Character designs are cute and consistent, with vibrant colors that evoke NES-era RPGs. Boss sprites, though simple, are animated with personality. Yet, the artistry is undercut by technical limitations: waterfalls animate, but foliage is static, and enemy sprites repeat frequently. The visual style is nostalgic but unoriginal, drawing more from Zelda: A Link to the Past than innovating.

Sound Design and Music

Albert Fernandez’s soundtrack is a revelation—uplifting, melodic, and reminiscent of Pokémon’s whimsy. Each realm and boss has unique tracks, enhancing the sense of progression. Sound effects, however, are generic, with spell-casting and enemy attacks lacking punch. The music’s quality elevates the experience, offering a rare moment of polish in an otherwise rough title.

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Reception & Legacy

Critical and Commercial Response

At launch, Mages and Treasures polarized critics. Gaming Age awarded a D+, lambasting its “unbalanced” combat and “boring” puzzles as proof that “even developers who know what they’re doing have a misfire.” TheXboxHub, however, praised its “colorful world” and “satisfying pace,” scoring it 3.5/5 and recommending it as a “budget Zelda” for casual players. Player reviews on Steam are mixed, with some enjoying the charm and others dismissing it as “frustrating.” Commercially, its low price and multi-platform release ensured steady sales, but it failed to chart or achieve cult status.

Evolution of Reputation

Over time, Mages and Treasures has been reevaluated as a “so-bad-it’s-charming” title. Its brevity and ease of completion (1000G in under an hour) make it a footnote in achievement-hunting circles. Critics now acknowledge its flaws while celebrating its accessibility—ideal for a two-hour, low-stakes romp. However, it remains overshadowed by lightUP’s other work, like Milo’s Quest, which is widely regarded as superior.

Industry Influence

The game’s legacy is modest. It exemplifies the “Ratalaika model” of budget ports and easy trophies but lacks the innovation to inspire clones. Its influence is limited to demonstrating how nostalgia can compensate for limited scope, yet it also serves as a cautionary tale about balance and pacing. In the annals of action RPGs, it stands as a minor curiosity, not a benchmark.

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Conclusion

Mages and Treasures is a study in contrasts. It delights with its vibrant 8-bit art, enchanting soundtrack, and nostalgic Zelda-inspired structure, yet falters due to systemic imbalances, simplistic design, and a narrative vacuum. For $1.99, it offers a fleeting, charming diversion—ideal for a lazy afternoon achievement hunt—but it fails to transcend its budget constraints. As a historical artifact, it reflects the 2020 indie boom’s pitfalls: derivative ideas, rushed execution, and a reliance on retro aesthetics over substance. Yet, in its modesty, it captures a certain magic: the joy of a simple quest, the thrill of pixel-perfect art, and the comfort of a familiar tune.

Final Verdict: Mages and Treasures is not a great game, but it is an interesting one. It belongs on the shelf of genre enthusiasts who appreciate DIY passion projects, but newcomers seeking a polished action RPG should look elsewhere. In the pantheon of indie history, it occupies a small, colorful niche—a flawed gem that sparkles briefly before fading into obscurity.