Wizard of Legend 2 is the co-op game of the year — even if it’s broken

Wizard of Legend 2 is about as good as roguelikes get. It’s a shame then that I’ve spent more time trying to play Wizard of Legend 2 than I’ve spent actually playing Wizard of Legend 2.

The original Wizard of Legend, developed by Contingent99, quickly amassed a cult following, due to charmingly minimalist vibes and a deep, creative combat system. For the sequel (that’s also a remake), Contingent99 stepped back from the series, passing the buck to Children of Morta developer Dead Mage. Wizard of Legend 2 has been in early access on Windows PC since October 2024, but just last week was released in full, alongside versions for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.

The bones of the game are nearly identical: This is still an isometric action roguelike in which you choose a series of attacks (in the form of magical spells) to fight your way through a series of dungeons, getting stronger as you go. Even many of the same spells have moved almost one-to-one from Wizard of Legend to Wizard of Legend 2.

But the sequel has received a cosmetic overhaul. Gone are the pixelized graphics, replaced with a visual style reminiscent of a graphic novel. There’s something resembling a narrative now, replete with voice acting and character designs and quippy dialogue. Trawl the series’ subreddit and you’ll see no shortage of fans weighing in, on both sides, about these changes. A common refrain? Many refer to it as “Hades lite” (derogatory). Another common refrain? Many refer to it as “Hades lite” (complimentary).

The comparisons are fair, if a little obvious. But Wizard of Legend 2 has one thing Hades lacks: co-op. In fact, co-op is arguably the entire point of Wizard of Legend — the distinguishing feature it flourishes to stand apart in a rapidly crowding genre.

So it’s too bad the co-op is busted.

As of this writing, Steam and Xbox reviews cite broken multiplayer functionality as the rationale behind lower scores. And while an early patch targeted some of these issues, like lag and improper animations, it has not addressed all of them. While playing or trying to play local co-op on Xbox, I’ve run into many of these issues myself. In some instances, one player can navigate menus, able to customize builds and choose new power-ups, while the other cannot. In other instances, if one player is moving their character, the other player cannot. Over the past week, I’ve been able to get the game to function properly a grand total of [checks notes] three times. (I’ve lost count of how many tries it took.)

But when Wizard of Legend 2 works, it works.

At the start of each run, you and your co-op partner select a handful of spells. Maybe one person opts for fireballs, while another chooses a set of giant stone boxing gloves that go thunk thunk thunk when you spam the melee attack. From there, you’ll step into a portal, which takes you to a dungeon. Your goal is to use the spells you’ve chosen to eliminate waves of enemies who are trying to stop you from reaching a portal on the other side of the dungeon. Every few levels, you’ll face a boss. And if you defeat the final boss, you and your teammate become wizards of some sort of iconic, renowned, dare I say, legendary status. Pretty simple stuff (that’s the name of the game!!!), but the speed at which runs go by compels “let’s just try one more time.”

With each run, you’ll earn a currency that allows you to permanently unlock more spells, opening up even more customization for builds. OK, so fireballs and that giant stone fist don’t mesh well together. But what if one person chooses an ice storm that can freeze enemies in place while another picks up the electric hammer that shocks enemies? There’s a delight to mixing and matching spells with your teammate, followed by a thrill in seeing how your plans play out — or don’t.

Your characters are fragile in Wizard of Legend 2; a few hits and you’re down for the count. Health is also vanishingly rare, appearing just once per level (and rarely at an amount that’ll fully heal you). When you run out of health, you become a ghost, but if your teammate can defeat enough enemies, you’ll come back to life. The message is clear, at least in multiplayer: You can’t get through this alone.

Most roguelikes cast you as a singular savior, a near-godlike entity tasked with saving the world/underworld/universe/you name it. These games give you superpowers or super weapons. But they forget the one thing that’s colloquially unbeatable in high fantasy: friendship. Wizard of Legend 2 does not. And it proposes that if those bonds of friendship are strong enough, you can eventually overcome any adversity — even a multiplayer mode that only works 0.0017% of the time.