The 2008 MMORPG is thrilling and offers tactical combat most online games don’t. And yet, it has issues. You may know it’s free, but it has clear paywalls blocking content that was available before. Regardless of whether you’re paying, we’re looking for other games like Wizard101.
Selecting Games Like Wizard101
Wizard1010 lives in a fictional universe that may seem familiar to J.K. Rowling’s fans. Selecting games like Wizard101 goes beyond the witchcraft gameplay, though. We decided to display its particular elements to find the best alternatives.
Genre: Wizard 101 is an MMORPG card-collector / deck-building game with turn-based combat and a magical setting. Setting: Spiral is a magical universe with various worlds. The story starts by selecting a magic school, each featuring a unique spell set. Specialization: The magical schools are Myth, Storm, Fire, Ice, Life, Death, and Balance. Plot: You’re a student of the Ravenwood School of Magical Arts. Your mission is fighting the evil forces threatening balance. Paywalls: The game is free-to-play, but you need to pay currency or a subscription to unlock world areas. Combat: The main gameplay is duels. You fight as part of a 5-player team. Each team takes turns casting spells.Cards: Your spells are cards, and you collect them for your deck as you play. Using a spell takes a “PIP,” and you generate a PIP per turn. Spells: The spells are summons, attacks, traps, buffs, debuffs, and similar. You can only damage the enemy wizards if they have no creatures alive.Customization: Aside from selecting your magic school, you can learn spells from other schools by investing special points. Level up: Your stats increase automatically as you level. Additionally, you can get better equipment.Side activities: Additional activities include hobbies such as gardening, fishing, crafting, and training pets.PvP: Players can duel other players in PvP arenas and some houses. Accessing PvP often requires paying real-money, though.Story-based experience: The game features a full voice-over, vast words, and a lengthy main quest across 16 regions. Weekly events: There’s a system of rotating weekly events revolving around enemy hordes and time limits.
Overall, Wizard101 is a turn-based and card-collecting game. It’s also a magical title with real Hogwarts influence. We’re considering these two elements to find other games like Wizard101.
Games Like Wizard101
Magic: The Gathering Arena
MTG Arena is a free-to-play digital version of the classical card game. So, it’s a collectible card game with complex turn-based combat. If you have played the physical game, you should know it uses the same rules and cards. The action is very akin to Wizard101. Imagine you’re a “summoner” of creatures, spells, buffs, debuffs, and similar. You win by depleting the enemy’s HP, but you can only hurt the enemy if he has no creatures on the grid. The unique mechanic is how land cards generate different types of mana. Then, your play cards consume the mana to summon creatures, cast spells, or activate effects and abilñities. Also, before the battle, you customize your deck and draw a random card on each turn of the fight. You can fight against other players or the PC. Victory uses a “best-off” configuration. Winning matches rewards a chance to receive new cards, booster packs, and similar. Lastly, you can card with in-game achievements, limited events, and micro-transactions. That’s to be expected, as building a Magic deck in real-life has always been expensive.
Hearthstone
Hearthstone is a free-to-play digital collectible card game. As a plus, it uses Warcraft’s lore for its characters, plots, and settings. Blizzard first released it as “Heroes of Warcraft.” Also, there’s a timer for each turn as a unique twist. Its main mode offers turn-based combat where you’d use your 30-card deck, plus a hero with a unique power. Additionally, you use mana crystals to summon minions and attack the opponent’s creatures and health bar. By winning missions and completing quests, you earn in-game gold and cards. You can trade the gold for other cards to continue customizing the deck. Alternatively, you can buy cards with real money. You can have four different card types. These are minions, weapons, spells, and heroes. Each card ships with a rarity, and Blizzard continuously adds cards on every event, update, and quest. Over time, the title has evolved greatly. There’re several game modes aside from the main arena gameplay. There’re tavern brawls, “dungeon-crawl” playtime, the auto-battle “Battlegrounds” mode, duels, and more.
Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel
Master Duel is a free-to-play collectible card game with turn-based combat. As you’d expect, it has in-app purchases. In other words, you can use real money to buy better cards. Even so, it’s the most popular card game available on Steam. It’s also the Definitive Edition of the title, a version of the card-based manga. As a multiplayer game, you can play duels against players from all over the world or duel the PC. The Definitive Edition features HD graphics, a new dynamic soundtrack, and faster combat. The rules are familiar: you summon creatures and cast spells to deplete the enemy’s HP. Also, like Magic, some creatures have special abilities you can use. However, it’s the easiest game to try for genre newcomers. First, it has a friendly tutorial teaching the basics, and it rewards all players with a deck. Then, it makes it easier for players to get new cards by participating in events, tournaments, and challenges. Lastly, the game uses Yu-Gi-Oh’s rich lore to deliver a Solo Mode. It guides you through the manga’s storylines while you hone your skills and collect cards. Developers recommend the campaign for returning and new players.
Dofus
Dofus is a classical and popular MMORPG. It offers a vast open world, many side activities, turn-based combat, and a deep class system. Specifically, you can use a single character for battle, but you can swap and customize characters at any time. The title features a lot of content, plus a cute cartoon style. The main gameplay is exploring an overworld in between visiting village hubs. You follow main and side quests, taking you towards different combat scenarios. Combat happens on isometric grids. You take turns to move, attack, and use your skills. You customize skills, skill slots, gear, and more outside combat. YOu can also participate in raids, 1v1 or team-based PvP, treasure hunts, etc. Additional activities include trading, customizing a home, pursuing professions like fishing, and more. All of it it’s free-to-play, but some content, such as creating a guild, requires an additional guild. Lastly, the game has evolved over the years. It’s currently in its second version. The developers have made two major graphical and mechanical overhauls to update the 2004 game.
Pirate101
Pirate101 comes from the same Wizard101 developers. However, it’s not very similar, as graphics, story, setting, and combat are new. Still, it’s in the same universe as the witcraft game. This is a pirate-themed MMORPG where you play in turns with cards. You’re a heroic pirate on a search for the treasures of the “Spiral.” The experience relies on a lengthy main quest, sailing ships, and making companions. The journey takes you to various islands as you collect resources for the ship. You can also gather a team to safeguard the vessel and conquer lands by upgrading the ship and your skills. Combat happens in turns, but not through cards. Instead, you see your characters in 3D as the enemy fights. But when it’s your turn to fight, it happens through an interface akin to a board game. On the board, you move your character in 2D so they can attack the enemy, Overall, it’s the perfect game to move on from Wizard101. It’s an upgrade regarding graphics, sound, and scenarios. Moreover, the party-based tactical battle is deep, fun, and challenging.
Inscryption
Inscryption is a rogue-like card collector and deck-building game. You play as a vlogger who found a game known as “Inscryption,” which holds many secrets. The experience mixes the vlogger’s “found footage” with first-person turn-based combat with cards. The tone of the game is eerie, scary, and dreadful. The combat is challenging, fast, and features little guidance to the plñayer. Moreover, aside from playing cards, you’ll go through “escape room” type situations – puzzles. Then, you follow the campaign in three acts, and the deck-building nature evolves in each part. The rules remain consistent, though. The turn-based combat happens on 3X4 grids, and each card has attack and health values. If the enemy has no cards left, you can attack their main HP bar. An additional rule is the cost to play cards. You use different kinds of energy to create and play cards, and you use and refill these energies per turn. There’re additional methods to “pay” for a card, such as blood sacrifices and bone tokens. Lastly, the rogue-like element means starting with a simple deck you can expand by winning matches. However, if you die twice, you go back to the beginning of an area. In Act II, though, you explore an overworld with a birds-view akin to a Pokémon game.
Stacklands
Stacklands is a game where you build a village, stack cards, collect food, and fight creatures. It’s a solo experience, though, focusing on building a city and a crafting system: combining resources and villagers creates building cards. Building a city works through cards on a 2D screen, akin to the Solitaire game. Essentially, you drop cards on plots and villages to issue commands, gather resources, and create structures. You can also sell cards to the game’s market to get coins and use the coins to buy card packs. These offer randomized cards you can use to keep expanding your village. Even though these are random, they have a focus: cooking, building, or farming. You build during the day and feed your villagers during the night. Managing food is a key system, as your citizens can starve if they don’t eat enough. The more villagers you have, the harder it becomes to manage. Lastly, villagers can find evil creatures as they build and work. They fight against rats, bears, goblins, and other beasts automatically. To help them, you can improve their abilities by giving them weapons or making teams attack and defend.
Across the Obelisk
The developers describe Across the Obelisk as a co-op RPG rogue-lite deckbuilding game. Yet, you can play solo or with a group of friends. Either way, gameplay revolves around unlocking cards, crafting a deck, and facing enemies. First, there’re 12 characters you can unlock to create your party if you play solo. Then, there’re over 500 cards you can find, craft, and even upgrade. These cards are your party characters’ spells, skills, upgrades, and passives. That said, the game delivers procedurally generated stories. Exploration is “text-based,” like a visual novel. It means you read the events through a book and make decisions in key moments that affect how the story evolves in new ways every time. Then, battles are highly tactical. You use the cards on your deck on your turn: these cards heal, buff, debuff, or damage. You’ll see the battle unfold in 2D, with your team in front of the enemies, waiting for your decisions. There’s one last layer of customization, which is items. There’re over 200 items to choose from to craft different builds for your characters. You can focus on healing, poison, bleeding effects, defensive skills, raw melee damage, and many combinations.
Minion Masters
Minion Masters is a fast-paced game blending tower defense and card-builder experiences. It’s also a multiplayer game that revolves on 1v1 or 2v2 battles and enjoys constant developer support. You play as a Master for the realm and become part of a never-ending conflict. Aggressive swarm-like Minions are under your control. However, you can choose a Master (a class) that matches your playstyle and build the deck you’d like. Combat requires strategy, as well as collecting the proper cards. The system is simple to understand but hard to master. That’s because the action is short, fast, and intense. It rewards you for making good decisions and punishes you for the slightest mistake. You can steer away from duels and go on a solo adventure. It would take you against the PC across various ages, conflicts, and continents. The mode could teach you the game’s basics and help you get used to its speed. Lastly, your Masters level up to unlock new powers for the Minions (the cards). Moreover, cards have specific mechanics and belong to one of the nine factions. Each of these factions offers unique advantages to your deck.
Slay the Spire
Slay The Spire blends rogue-like titles and single-player deck-building / turn-based combat. You customize a deck, fight against dreaded creatures, and discover powerful relics. The Spire is a multi-layered arena, the place you’re to conquer. It has various paths, so the game forces you to balance high-risk/high-reward vs. safe options. Dying means losing significant progress. The title features a dynamic deck-building system. You choose a series of cards at the beginning of the journey and add hundreds of cards to the deck to “climb the Spire.” Cards offer particular synergies with each other As for the relics, these are items you find through the Spire. They enhance your deck with powerful synergies and bonuses. However, they may yield negative traits in return as well. Lastly, you can choose between four characters featuring unique card sets. There’re over 300 cards to find, though, plus hundreds of encounters, bosses, events, and items.
Shadowverse CCG
Shadowverse is a collectible card and card-battler game with an anime art style. It’s most similar to Hearthstone in gameplay, mechanics, and game modes. Similarly, it’s an MMO. You play against other players, and each takes turns using the cards on their deck. You start with a hand of three cards and 20 points of “Defense.” There’re also “Evolution Points,” which can buff your cards on each turn, and “Play Points,” a resource you use to play your cards. The title features a single-player campaign plus free card packs for every new player. Moreover, it’s a free-to-play game with little to no paywalls. For example, earning new cards works simply via daily log-ins, completing challenges, winning matches, etc. Then, the game has various game modes. These rely on classes and deep customization options. Yet, each game mode varies victory conditions and introduces mechanics, spells, and random events to spice up the match. Lastly, the title is easy to understand and very welcoming to beginners. We recommend it for first-time card collector players. Expect to see micro-transactions asking you to buy new cards across your interface.
Epic Duel
Epic Duel is a free-to-play MMO. You don’t need to download it, though, as it runs through the browser. That said, the game relies entirely on PvP content. If you want to find it, it’s available on its official page. You start the game by customizing a character using various RPG customization layers. Then, you participate in turn-based duels against other people online. You can’t play against the PC, though. For combat, you use robots. The machines grow in power as they level up, collect items, and improve weaponry. You fight in 2D as you manage mana, HP, turns, and a rage bar that slowly fills up. You can also improve and customize the weaponry. You have plenty of freedom to create sci-fi weapons you can use in battle. Aside from weapons, you have healing abilities, special skills, and pássive stats boosting your character. Lastly, there’re various classes to pick from at the start of the game. The game’s balance is fair, although some types feel weaker at the beginning of the journey. The game is highly tactical, so fighting without strategy won’t be enough.
Villagers and Heroes
Villages and Heroes is a 3D fantasy MMORPG. You’re a hero fighting the forces of “Mallock the Terrible.” The journey takes you across a vast world full of enemies and biomes. The game starts by choosing one of five classes. These are Wizard, Warrior, Shaman, Hunter, and Priest. You gain talent points to spell into passive and active skills when you level up. You can further customize each class with sub-classes and specifications. There’re also side professions. These are fishing, bug lore, mining, smithing, cooking, tailoring, wood crafting, ranching, gardening, and plant lore. You can also own a house and grow a garden on your land. The gameplay takes you across neutral villages and hostile lands. You can travel alone or travel as part of a party. Alternatively, you can join friends to create a town and work together to make it prosper. Lastly, it’s free to play. However, there’s plenty of content behind paywalls. Similarly, you’ll expend a great deal of your time in grinding quests like, for instance, crafting an item 50 times.
