Developer Xaviant here gives us a flimsy tale of revenge against some ruffians known as the Cult of Malthus, but the hows and whys of the simple fiction are never so meaningful as the playful relationship between the two playable characters. My early troubles were appropriate for a first-person roleplaying game that follows the exploits of a mage that only learns his or her craft after a grizzled wizard slaps some magic cuffs their wrists seconds after the opening cutscene. Lichdom: Battlemage thrives on these moments, and they soothe the burns inflicted by the poorer aspects of its design.

I adjusted my strategies and, at last, I was victorious. But then I took a step back, studied the tooltips, and made new spells accordingly. All of the strategies and spell combinations I'd spent the last couple of hours perfecting on weaker enemies now proved no more powerful than feathers against a freight train, and I'd steeled myself for the possibility that I'd never see the second stage. Had I been playing Lichdom: Battlemage with a gamepad, I'm sure I would have flung it across the room during the first boss fight.

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