I'm burying this hatchet for good.

Every person has their League of Legends, their Warframe or osu!, that game that you can't HATE, but you can't LOVE. Yet despite it all it's like a curse, an addiction you just cannot seem to get over in any way shape or form. Wizard101 was that game to me.

This game has a lot of good at it's best moments... and a lot of bad at it's worst. I started playing nearly 13 years ago and I stopped around two years ago. The consistent moments are simple, the combat is basic, but addicting and grows complex as you get further into the game, the membership is parasitical and the story was... fine.

What really got me to stop playing was the road the developers took in terms of monetary income, focusing on shilling out shitty items in a loot-box system that was fine in the beginning, but grew exceedingly essential for ranked play and way-too-expensive for it's own good, especially for a game made for kids. The story also took a nosedive near the end of Arch 3 and Arch 4 does not look like it will be fun at all if I'm being honest.

If you are trying to figure out whether to play this game or not, don't, not until they fix their awful micro-transactions and actually begin to cut back on garbage like the awful battle-pass and make early-game gameplay not mind-numbingly slow and boring. If you are REALLY curious, buy one month and dedicate time to beat the first Arch (5 worlds or so) and if you like it, you can decide if the money is worth it. For being over $1000 in due to my stupidity as a kid and young adult, I'm finally axing my sunk-cost fallacy.

*time is conservatively approximated

This game HAS potential to be an amazing game. I always though it was great due to the story it has for a kid's mmo game. Years later--when I cancelled my subscription and got back into the game again--I realized how disgusting the subscription is for this game. You can't even get out of the first world to the second, Krokotopia. Compared to Final Fantasy 14, a game made 6 years ago, they recently upgraded the free trial that makes you go up to the SECOND EXPANSION of heavenwards up to level 60 which is half of the game. You're probably thinking "But, Emerald, isn't it unfair to compare an mmo made from late 2000s for kids to a more mature mmo made for teens and adults? The thing is, Wizard101 had so many chances to update and give the players more freedom to explore the story up to Dragonsypre and beat the "final boss" to know if they want to buy the game or not. Good mmos balance between freedom and restriction--if they have a subscription system--Wizard101 does not do this right. It is asking for your money desperately and forcefully pushes you around for it. Do not play this. It's a shame too because if it were given more thought about freedom for F2Ps, it would be a nice game.

I would rate this game 5 stars but the fact that this game is sorta a pay-to-win throws me off. You have to hand Kingsisle a measly $10 a month to simply play the game.

But if we were to discard the fact of that, the community in this game is so friendly. Almost everyone i met were nothing but kind to me and others, and people constantly want to help you questing. I've made at least 4 friends in Wiz in the past month already.

You are never too old to play this game. Although this used to cater towards children, its an addicting game to play for all ages. Sure, there is a huge grinding system, but in the end, its all worth it.