Maglam Lord Review

As an eclectic mix of action-RPG, visual novel, and dating sim, Maglam Lord is an interesting new game from Japanese developers Felistella, in which you play as a demon lord straight from the fiery pits of hell seeking to regain their power and save their species from extinction. You’ll need to rely on the strength of others to achieve this goal however, so get ready to turn on the charm and claw your way back into power!

Maglam Lord starts off with our main protagonist Killzerk (yes, that really is the character's name) losing in a fight against the gods and passing out. After taking an extra long snooze, Killzerk awakens in a more peaceful future, where they find that everything they once knew has long gone. Gods and demons waging war is a thing of the past, and magic is not nearly as plentiful as it was in Killzerk’s age! Not only that, but Killzerk’s race is now considered endangered, so after some sage advice, you must also search for love in this unknown world! Many conversations offer dialogue choices, which can increase the affection levels of your companions, leading to unique scenes between them and the protagonist.

To go into too much detail of the story would be ruining this light-hearted tale. Don’t expect a grand saga full of twists and turns, although Maglam Lord’s story is by far its biggest strength. It doesn’t lean heavily into any clichés, the Japanese voice acting conveys the characters emotions effectively, and most of all, it’s genuinely quite funny!

Fairly early on in the game, Killzerk will learn all about finding “the one”. Love is a complex thing, but Maglam Lord’s dating sim sections are well thought-out, with plenty of options for potential mates to date. Considering that Killzerk is an endangered demon unsure of their way in the new world, these date scenes are very endearing and will easily have you growing attached to these characters as the relationships progress.

When not reading pages and pages of narrative and bonding with your party members, you’ll be set to completing quests as Maglam Lord shifts genre to an isometric 3D dungeon crawler. It’s unfortunate then that here is where the biggest negative points can be found. Gone is the rather stunning 2D character art and detailed backgrounds, to be replaced with what can only be described as a free-to-play mobile game hastily ported to home consoles. The environments are bland, with nothing to do other than engage in enemy encounters and open the odd treasure chest. Each area plays out in the exact same way: Wander around a claustrophobically small dungeon and initiate battles by running into monsters. Rinse and repeat until every enemy on the map has been vanquished.

But does the combat improve on this incredibly basic gameplay loop? No. Not one iota. Maglam Lord’s combat is comparable to what is found in the Tales of series of games if you were to strip away the combos, strategy, party system, impressively flashy moves, and basically everything else that makes those games so fun to play. Fighting on a 2D plane, you engage a rather poor selection of monsters (many of them being colour palette swaps) by attacking, defending, or using a number of magical skills equippable from the main menu. There is some slight enjoyment to be found here thankfully, as each hero can equip up to three weapons known as Maglams — swords, axes, and spears — with each weapon being strong against certain enemy types. Adding some slight variety to the combat, the real draw here is that they must all be crafted, once certain materials have been collected from defeated enemies, and each weapon varies in appearance, making the process of material farming somewhat bearable.

Outside of the prologue, you won’t actually be controlling Killzerk in fights; instead they transform into the Maglams, allowing the other heroes to wield them (this is fleshed out well within the game's story) as they battle across the land. Each playable character has different strengths and weaknesses during combat, and if you are able to increase their affection levels, will also offer passive bonuses when playing as them. Giving the player a reason to spend time with these characters — ignoring the fact that the scenes are often humorous and downright charming — by tying into the combat was a nice touch, and I wish more JRPGs would do this.

I went into Maglam Lord expecting a quirky role-playing game with some visual novel elements that wouldn’t make much of an impact on me. As someone who isn’t a big visual novel fan, I was shocked at how much I wanted to get back to these sections — surprising myself to find that the underwhelming combat and overall disappointingly poor gameplay wasn’t enough to keep me from progressing and getting to know these characters more. Ideally, the combat and dungeon exploration would have been non-existent, instead focusing more on the plot and delightful cast of characters, all with their own unique charm and personalities. If you’re looking for your next action-RPG fix, avoid this at all costs. However those looking for a fun story with engaging characters and choices that can affect the outcome, maybe give Maglam Lord a shot.