Near-Mage

About

Near-Mage is a single player action game with a fantasy theme. It was developed by Stuck In Attic and was released on May 27, 2025. It received very positive reviews from players.

Near-Mage is a story-driven adventure game where curiosity, exploration, and atmosphere take center stage.You play as an aspiring mage arriving in Transylvania, attend a magic school, learn spells, and slowly uncover the hidden stories of the people who live there. Study spell crafting in the Transylvanian Institute for Magick as a Near-Mage Craft your own spell inventory, use it with differ…

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91%

Audience ScoreBased on 150 reviews

story49 positive mentions

grinding3 negative mentions

Stunning hand-drawn visuals and animations create a vibrant, immersive magical world inspired by Romanian folklore.
Engaging and character-driven narrative with meaningful choices that impact the story and multiple playthroughs.
High-quality voice acting and a rich, lively atmosphere with a diverse, well-animated cast of characters.

Gameplay is closer to a visual novel or walking simulator with minimal puzzles and no traditional point-and-click inventory system.
Magic/spellcasting mechanics are underutilized and limited to specific scripted scenarios, discouraging free use of spells.
Linear and hand-holding quest design with frequent backtracking and busywork, leading to pacing and exploration frustrations.

story
157 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
31%
65%
4%
The story of Near-Mage is widely praised for its engaging coming-of-age narrative, charming characters, rich worldbuilding rooted in Romanian folklore, and meaningful choices that affect outcomes. While generally well-crafted and immersive, many reviewers note its linearity, simple quest design, and occasional pacing issues as detracting factors. Overall, it offers a heartfelt, visually captivating experience, though it leans more toward a visual novel style with limited puzzle complexity and depth.
- “Near-mage is a love letter to magickal coming-of-age stories bubbling with charm, narrative depth, and gorgeous visual storytelling.”
- “The subtle choice & consequence system and the ways it pays off throughout the game was a standout for me, alongside the incredible atmosphere, captivating story and memorable characters.”
- “The story, world building, artwork, voice acting - a stunning art, rich world building, engaging story, distinct characters, humour, magic - a truly wonderful experience.”
- “The mechanic of having to search around randomly to progress the story is atrocious and the game should have been designed more like a visual novel than a point-and-click in this aspect. If you find it frustrating and slow, just look up a walkthrough since finding the next place to go isn't spoiler, but it is a painfully bad design decision.”
- “Though one can choose freely how they progress the game to the very end, there is only one ending. Like others have said, the story felt linear and even spoon-fed at some points, making this sequel stray from the traditional point-and-click adventure game like what the previous title was. Aside from the replay value, the rest are actually inferior, a downgraded experience for old fans.”
- “Just imagine playing Hogwarts Legacy in 2D without the action and puzzles, with a copy-cat story directly lifted from Hogwarts Legacy and linked back to the previous game. This game lacks originality due to how much it copies from Hogwarts Legacy, down to the very climax scene, just changing names and designs.”
graphics
35 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
60%
31%
9%
The game features breathtaking, hand-painted, and beautifully stylized artwork with vibrant visuals and high-quality animations that richly bring the world and characters to life. Coupled with superb voice acting, the graphics greatly enhance the atmosphere and storytelling, making each scene feel immersive and charming. While some note occasional inconsistency in graphical detail, overall the visuals are widely praised as a standout element that elevates the adventure experience.
- “The game’s art style is beautifully stylized, with vibrant visuals and high-quality animations that make every scene feel alive and whimsical.”
- “The hand-painted art style and traditional animations bring the world of Transylvania to life in a way that's both vibrant and immersive.”
- “Graphics: the backgrounds and animations are outstanding, each screen is painted with a lot of love.”
- “This game feels like it started off like a proper adventure, got all the love from the graphical designers, had an okay story with some tongue-in-cheek humor and heavier topics, narrated by fine talent, all put in a proper engine for the task -- but then someone wanted to 'revolutionize' the genre... and time ran out, forcing the game to be released unfinished.”
- “A good game, but with somewhat repetitive gameplay and mixed graphical quality.”
- “It is a shame the game itself isn't as good as the artwork!”
gameplay
34 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
21%
70%
9%
The gameplay blends a choice-driven narrative with adventure mechanics but is often hindered by repetitive, linear design and tedious exploration tasks, such as waiting for events or aimlessly searching for progress triggers. While the spellcasting system and some innovative elements add depth, they are inconsistently integrated or discouraged in dialogue, limiting player engagement with core mechanics. Overall, the gameplay offers a polished, accessible experience focused more on story and atmosphere than challenging or varied interactive elements.
- “Having played both of Stuck in Attic's games, I can honestly say that they have made some great additions to mechanics!”
- “Voice acting is great, there’s a ton of dialogue to enjoy, the mechanics, especially the spell system, are clever and well-integrated, and the music fits perfectly.”
- “A well-chosen music that takes you directly into the atmosphere of the game and with very interesting and varied game mechanics that make you discover even more new and new spells.”
- “The mechanic of having to search around randomly to progress the story is atrocious. The game should have been designed more like a visual novel than a point-and-click adventure in this aspect. If you find it frustrating and slow, just look up a walkthrough. It's not like finding the next place to go is spoilery, but the design decision is painfully bad.”
- “The use of spells is heavily discouraged in in-game dialogue, which is why other reviewers felt like they couldn't employ the main mechanic of the entire game.”
- “Once you get into the last half of the game, the mechanic of 'go to another screen, receive a message, go to the person that messaged you, rinse and repeat' got real stale, very quickly.”
music
19 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
47%
37%
16%
The music in the game is widely praised for its enchanting, atmospheric quality that perfectly complements the vibrant visuals and unique setting. The soundtrack is varied, well-chosen, and greatly enhances the immersive experience, with many users highlighting its role in creating a magical and memorable ambiance.
- “Vibrant, hand-drawn environments and enchanting soundtracks will draw you straight into the heart of Transylvania, blending tradition with mystery.”
- “A well-chosen music that takes you directly into the atmosphere of the game and with very interesting and varied game mechanics that make you discover even more new spells.”
- “The soundtrack is perfect and goes well with this rich, wonderful, quirky, magical world.”
- “The music is more varied than in Gibbous, although sometimes it feels like it can detract slightly from the atmosphere the game wants to create.”
- “So, I've always wanted to visit Romania (my mother's family is from there, and yes Transylvania/Arad County specifically :) ) but the art and music in game is just... I don't know how to say this... I know the art in game is stylized; it's certainly left an impression.”
- “I think even without my few family photos, the art and music would be in a league of its own anyway to be honest.”
humor
15 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
93%
7%
The humor in the game is generally well-received, with well-written, believable dialogues that balance comedy and sincerity, offering genuinely funny moments and charming character interactions. However, some find the humor diluted or uneven, with certain exchanges feeling awkward or less impactful compared to previous installments. Overall, the game features memorable funny writing and voice acting, though humor effectiveness may vary among players.
- “The dialogue is well-written and believable, striking a great balance between humor and sincerity.”
- “This game is full of great characters, funny writing and an interesting world.”
- “Great voice acting, hand drawn everything, lovely animations, you can customize the character, funny dialogues.”
- “Not funny enough, it went from a breezy LucasArts-style adventure in Gibbous to a melodrama filled with obvious moral choices in this one.”
atmosphere
14 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
71%
29%
The game's atmosphere is widely praised for being immersive, heartfelt, and distinct, enhanced by well-chosen music, authentic world-building, and hand-crafted visuals. It effectively complements the story and characters, creating a mysterious and captivating mood that stands out in the adventure and visual novel genres.
- “Overall, Near-Mage is a heartfelt and creative experience that stands out for its atmosphere, writing, and world-building.”
- “The atmosphere is brilliant — immersive, mysterious, and full of personality.”
- “To be perfectly fair to the devs, it's a team of 3 people who've worked very hard to create a unique atmosphere, with completely hand-drawn and hand-animated characters and environments, hundreds of voice lines, and a ton of special interactions.”
emotional
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game delivers a heartfelt and emotionally authentic narrative, supported by strong world-building and generally excellent voice performances that bring relatable characters to life. While some find the plot predictable and gameplay simple, the emotional impact and genuine passion behind the story resonate well, especially for fans of relaxed, heartwarming adventures.
- “The voice actors did a splendid job; the dialogues feel natural and emotional!”
- “Overall, Near-Mage is a heartfelt and creative experience that stands out for its atmosphere, writing, and world-building.”
- “[TL;DR:] A streamlined take on narrative adventure games, carried through by an incredible sense of authenticity, strong world-building, a simple yet often emotionally effective script, mostly great vocal performances, and more than anything else, genuine passion and heart.”
replayability
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
38%
24%
38%
The game offers moderate replayability primarily through its unique magic system and variable quest solutions, allowing players to experiment with different spells and choices. While the story remains fairly linear with a single ending, the action-driven narrative and multiple approaches to challenges provide enough variation to encourage multiple playthroughs. However, the lack of vastly different outcomes and some repetitive quest triggers limit its replay value.
- “Really fun, and actually has a high replayability due to the spells you can acquire :)”
- “Honestly speaking, the new mechanism has given this game a higher replayability compared to old Gibbous.”
- “I really enjoy Near Mage, and I recommend it for anyone who enjoys a good story. Due to the nature of the action-driven story, it has good replayability to see what effects the other choices may cause.”
- “You unlock spells by visiting class but there is no replayability because you have to visit all of them anyway.”
- “Replay value: I can't tell yet if there are real differences in the outcome of the game if you choose different solutions/paths.”
- “It was neat and short yeah (I was interrupted while playing for about 4-5 hours so I left game idling in that time) and there is some replayability and optional questing, but overall fairly linear story with some points that could be smoother or stronger (a lot of quests are triggered by Mitzin message service which in one point happens like five times in a row).”
character development
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The character development is praised for its unique designs and smooth animation, complemented by fantastic art that enriches the overall world.
- “Fantastic art and character development.”
- “Wonderful world and character designs.”
- “The character designs are unique and they're animated so smoothly.”
grinding
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Grinding in the game is criticized for being tedious due to excessive back-and-forth travel and clunky movement controls. Interaction points are often unintuitive and not consistently visible, making the experience frustrating and repetitive.
- “Moving around is clunky, and the interaction points are not intuitive or consistently visible, making it very tedious to search for them constantly.”
- “The ultra-linear progression can sometimes be a bit tedious.”
- “There is too much back-and-forth traveling required for quests, which becomes very tedious.”
optimization
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The optimization aspect is not directly addressed in the user comments, which instead focus on voice acting and narrative qualities. There is no specific feedback regarding the game's performance or technical efficiency.