WiZmans World Re;Try review

Thankfully, games that were once locked behind a Japanese language barrier are finally making their way to international audiences. Titles like Trails from Zero, which spent over a decade confined to Japan after its 2010 PSP release, eventually found its Western fanbase to enormous praise. Similarly, Front Mission 2 spent over twenty-five years as a Japan-exclusive before getting its remake released internationally. Even Radical Dreamers, the rare Satellaview tie-in to the Chrono universe, only reached English-speaking audiences in 2022 as part of the Chrono Cross remaster.

WiZmans World Re;Try represents yet another chapter in this welcome trend. The 2009 Nintendo DS RPG developed by Jaleco and Lancarse spent seventeen years as a quiet cult legend in Japan, now arrived stateside in the form of an HD remaster. Yes, I would have loved a full remake with voice acting, but there’s that saying about beggars and choosers.

Claus and Effect

WiZmans World Re;Try centers on Claus, a young man who was taken in by the mage Giselle in Wizarest, a city that’s cut off from the outside world. Claus was found as a child outside of town in a dungeon by his mentor, and years later he is ready to become a proper mage adventurer. Together, they go dungeoneering as they try to find a way to leave Wizarest. What’s compelling isn’t just that the city is isolated, but it’s also been robbed of its own history. Here, citizens exist in a perpetual fog of amnesia, aware only of the dangerous dungeons that surround them and the magic needed to survive.

NPC dialogue does a decent job at stressing the peculiar perils this location faces, while some story choices seem to have actual stakes. Dialogue decisions affect your relationship with your three companions and can gently alter the trajectory of the story. Just don’t expect a narrative sandbox to play in, as WiZman was a 16-year-old DS title. That said, I appreciated the melancholic atmosphere, where the populace longs for something they can’t even name.

Planning is a Habit of the Living

The gameplay loop of WiZmans World Re;Try revolves around in town preparation before venturing into the dungeons that surround Wizarest. Combat is turn-based. You can see enemies as you traverse these dungeons. If you touch them from behind, you’ll gain a preemptive attack, letting all your party members get an attack in before the turn order actually starts. Likewise, if they touch you from behind, then the enemies all get a turn to attack before the turn order begins. The turn order is based on the speed stat of the characters participating, and you can see it at the top of the screen in battle. This visualization of turn order injects some tactical consideration into battles, allowing you to prioritize high-threat targets before they act and giving fights a gratifying rhythm once you wrap your head around how the system works.

The Anima Fusion mechanic is the reason people still talk about this game. Your three homunculi companions can absorb the souls of defeated monsters. Through fusion, they inherit new traits, abilities, and elemental affinities, meaning your party is not defined by static classes. Pleasingly, the system has some real depth to it. Every enemy you defeat has the potential to contribute something to the growth and identity of your homunculi, making even routine dungeon dives feel worthwhile. The decision of which souls to absorb and which abilities to prioritize gives WiZmans World a slight puzzle-like quality.

Custom Companions Steal the Spotlight

The fusion mechanic directly impacts the three homunculi beyond just Claus. In contrast, he is more of a standardized RPG character who also doubles as a jack-of-all-trades. As Claus levels up, he learns numerous magical skills across multiple elements, making him consistently viable no matter what situations you face. The homunculi, on the other hand, are far more pliable and interesting to develop. The difference between Claus’ more rigid progression and the flexibility of his companions creates a tension that keeps party management interesting. You’ll be constantly reconsidering every member’s role as new souls enter the mix.

The game’s turn-based combat system and intriguing story are clear highlights, but the lack of voice acting and auto saves drag the remaster down a bit. Let me be clear: some aspects of WiZmans World Re;Try did not age well. There is no voice acting, and a lot of text you will have to read. The sprites can also look pretty crunchy when blown up on a big screen and it can be off putting when the sprites don’t look as good as the background or the character art. The dungeon design, too, can begin to feel repetitive during longer play sessions, with a tendency toward overly linear layouts and enemy density that can make exploration feel like a grind rather than an adventure.

A Remaster, Not a Remake

On the upside, the sprite art looks a bit better in handheld mode. Character animations during combat tend to be expressive, and NPCs occasionally have personality to them as well. The music is good, and all of it was remade and rearranged by soLi. Undoubtedly, the boss themes are the real highlights. Best of all, there are minor improvements. Additions like an updated UI and a New Game+ after completion show admiration for the source material without changing WiZman’s distinctive design decisions.

WiZmans World Re;Try is a game that asks for patience and habitually rewards that request. Sure, its dungeon designs may show its age, and the lack of voice acting will feel stark to players accustomed to modern JRPGs. But the game’s Anima Fusion system remains one of the more inventive customization systems found in a handheld RPG. Likewise, the mystery shrouding Wizarest is compelling enough to pull you forward through the game’s rougher patches. At $24.99, it represents an opportunity to experience a game that many Western JRPG fans never got the chance to encounter the first time around. Some games age out of relevance. But WiZmans World Re;Try has been waiting sixteen years to prove it isn’t one of them.

WiZmans World Re;Try was played on Switch with review code provided by the publisher.