Magic Scroll Tactics is basically what you'd get if you gave Fire Emblem a 2D side Scroller camera and added more options for spells and attacks. I was very excited about this at first and, while the game was not perfect, I did still enjoy it to the end. The game is very clearly a low budget judging by the visuals and the somewhat sparse weapon and spell variety but everything works as it should. The character art during cutscene dialogue is really good too.
There is a elemental weakness system to play with and a good number of buffs so your support characters feel like they're helping out sufficiently, plus counter attacks and counter heals which mean that even on your opponents turn your characters can make positive actions. The main thing that sets MST apart is its use of elevation in the 2D space. Being higher than your target gives you a bonus to accuracy and ignores defense while attacking from below lowers your accuracy. I enjoyed this system quite a lot but the early levels do not give you nearly enough real estate to work with. More on this below.
The main issue that I have with MST is a problem that is inherent to the choice of camera angle. Because it is 2D, you only have 3 axis of movement, +X, -X and +Y. And even then, the vertical options are by where platforms appear, if they are there at all. Compare that to a top-down view where you always have 4 directions that you can travel. The end result of this is that on some levels, especially early on while your characters don't have very many movement points, your whole team is just jumbled up on top of each other. This issue is made worse by the fact that the casters do not have much movement in the first place so it is difficult to get them into the fight without starting them in a vulnerable front lines position.
Apart from that, the only other complaint is that the last boss was way too hard. I played every level and every optional encounter and had the best gear that you could purchase/find and it took me hours of trying before I decided to just go back and grind and even then was only able to win with some good RNG giving my evasive character the Dodges he needed and the counter-attacks to finish the job. The boss has multiple attacks that will kill every member of your party in 1-3 hits, depending on how much defense they have, and he gets to take two actions each turn, and his turns come more frequently as he gets lower in health. To me, it went over the line of challenging and became unfair.
All in all magic scroll tactics was a fun game by a very small developer. I would definitely check out another one of their games in the future and I would recommend that you try this one if it sounds interesting to you. Despite its flaws it is still a good experience.
There is a elemental weakness system to play with and a good number of buffs so your support characters feel like they're helping out sufficiently, plus counter attacks and counter heals which mean that even on your opponents turn your characters can make positive actions. The main thing that sets MST apart is its use of elevation in the 2D space. Being higher than your target gives you a bonus to accuracy and ignores defense while attacking from below lowers your accuracy. I enjoyed this system quite a lot but the early levels do not give you nearly enough real estate to work with. More on this below.
The main issue that I have with MST is a problem that is inherent to the choice of camera angle. Because it is 2D, you only have 3 axis of movement, +X, -X and +Y. And even then, the vertical options are by where platforms appear, if they are there at all. Compare that to a top-down view where you always have 4 directions that you can travel. The end result of this is that on some levels, especially early on while your characters don't have very many movement points, your whole team is just jumbled up on top of each other. This issue is made worse by the fact that the casters do not have much movement in the first place so it is difficult to get them into the fight without starting them in a vulnerable front lines position.
Apart from that, the only other complaint is that the last boss was way too hard. I played every level and every optional encounter and had the best gear that you could purchase/find and it took me hours of trying before I decided to just go back and grind and even then was only able to win with some good RNG giving my evasive character the Dodges he needed and the counter-attacks to finish the job. The boss has multiple attacks that will kill every member of your party in 1-3 hits, depending on how much defense they have, and he gets to take two actions each turn, and his turns come more frequently as he gets lower in health. To me, it went over the line of challenging and became unfair.
All in all magic scroll tactics was a fun game by a very small developer. I would definitely check out another one of their games in the future and I would recommend that you try this one if it sounds interesting to you. Despite its flaws it is still a good experience.