Gift of Parthax

Gift of Parthax is a pretty decent top-down arena brawler.  While the keyboard and mouse controls can be a bit clunky and a lot of the game can just make you feel like you're going through the paces battle after battle, there is a good amount of strategy involved with what spells to take into a battle, what runes to place in them, and how to deal with the enemies you encounter.  While the fights early on may seem a bit slow in their pacing, Gift of Parthax is an enjoyable game if you give it a chance.

Gift of Parthax, the new 2-D action-arena game developed by Foldergeist Studies, revolves around a young wizard whose friend Veleus has been cursed by the mage Parthax. With a pixelated art style reminiscent of games of yore, this brawler drew me in through its simple and promising premise and brings a fun time even if it doesn’t always live up to its presentation.

Ultimately, Gift of Parthax is an enjoyable title, just not a spellbinding one. I found myself quite happily battling through fight after fight and rearranging my spelltome. However, once I had put it down, I didn’t feel a strong draw to pick it up again as I do with other titles. In some ways, it’s not entirely fair of me to make this criticism. In another era, Gift of Parthax might have been a nail-biting spin on arena combat, with distinctive characteristics setting it apart. In the here and now, however, when the competition is so stiff even among other independent games, we only seem to h...

Your friend has been sentenced to fight for his life in magical gladiatorial combat. After hearing he sustained critical injuries, you set off to rescue him. Only by surpassing the challenges of the arena and becoming champion may you save your friend's life.

Gift of Parthax offers a difficult question to answer when reflecting upon arena-brawler game design: how simple is too simple? The title, masterminded by Foldergeist Studios, relies upon its charming visuals and a tastefully antiquated soundtrack to carry its weight, with much of the core mechanics falling into genre tautology. When Gift of Parthax clicks, its toolkit invokes memories of roguelike greats such as The Binding of Isaac, yet at its worse, the title feels like mere repetition. By providing a streamlined, simple yet evolving playstyle, Gift of Parthax has plenty there for players t...