WiZmans World Re;Try Review – Olde Timey JRPG Grind

WiZmans World Re;Try Review

WiZmans World was originally released for the Nintendo DS in 2010. It remained a Japanese exclusive until it was finally released in North America in 2026! The newly named WiZmans World Re;Try is a remake for PS4/5, Nintendo Switch, and PC. It’s a dungeon-crawling turn-based JRPG with monster-catching and fusing mechanics. Read on to find out if this JRPG throwback is the kind of game you’re looking for.

WiZmans World Re;Try is about Claus, a boy discovered by Giselle, a female mage. When Claus is a teenager, his adopted mother goes missing, and Claus decides to explore the dungeons surrounding his village to find out where she’s gone. It was strange that Claus was discovered as an abandoned child, because the village he lives in is isolated from the rest of the world. And nobody in the village has memories prior to 100 years beforehand. The narrative is a good vehicle for Claus’ dungeon crawling, but it’s also a driving mystery, and an interesting, strange world build.

Turn-Based JRPG

WiZmans World Re;Try is a turn-based JRPG. Claus’s combat options are attack, magic, guard, item, and escape. New magic is learned as Claus gains levels. Magic has an element system, where earth is strong against water, water strong against fire, fire strong against wind, and wind strong against earth. Turn order appears on screen. If player characters get multiple turns in a row, they gain a damage multiplier. Destroying enemies with coming turns and continuing a player turn chain can really affect the tide of combat.

Aen, Doe, and Toori are three homunculi created by Giselle. Claus and the three homunculi make up the player’s party. Defeated monsters potentially drop their souls as items. Each of the homunculi can be fused with monster souls to take on new forms. Each form has different stats, magic abilities, and elemental alignments. Every time Claus fuses one of the homunculi, he gains fusion experience points, and can raise his fusion rank. Increasing fusion rank leads to higher level caps for homunculi. It’s a system very similar to Shin Megami Tensei’s monster collecting and fusing. This system adds great customization depth, and soul collecting adds great incentive to level grinding.

Dungeon Crawling

Enemies are visable on screen when walking through dungeons. If there are multiple groups of enemies on screen, consecutive battles are triggered where the player isn’t healed between battles. Claus’ HP and MP automatically restore after combat. The homunculi use SP for all their abilities, not restored after combat. It has to be replenished by resting in town.

All of these aspects of WiZmans World Re;Try are fantastic. It’s a simple JRPG system that draws from genre classics. There’s nothing in the combat and systems that couldn’t have been found in a Super Nintendo game. The problem is that because there’s not much more to WiZmans World Re;Try’s systems, it gets repetitive very quickly. Dungeons are linear, and there’s no adventure to keep the narrative feeling fresh.

Way Too Grind-Heavy

The other major problem with WiZmans World Re;Try is that it’s extremely grind-heavy. Enemies do not give much experience. It can take a long time for monsters to drop the souls the player is looking for. When the player finally makes it to the end of a dungeon, they can be way more powerful than all the monsters they’ve fought. The player could be mindlessly hitting the attack button for hours by the end of a dungeon. That dungeon’s boss will still likely annihilate the player.

I love challenging boss battles. And on paper I love the way WiZmans World Re;Try’s bosses make the player use all their abilities and systems to their fullest. But the bosses are so much harder than what comes before them, and they take way too much grinding after coming up with a plan to form a party with the right strategy. The entire game needs rebalancing. Too much of WiZmans World Re;Try ends up feeling like a chore.

Gorgeous Aesthetics

WiZmans World Re;Try’s graphics are pixel-based sprites too intricate for the Super Nintendo. This aesthetic gives WiZmans World Re;Try a 2D PS1/ GBA appearance that modern remasters seem to be moving away from. This is a shame because gorgeous pixel graphics are still my favorite visual aesthetic. The soundtrack is also incredibly pleasing, with snazzy string and piano-heavy PS1 era JRPG sounds. I love the mix of synth-heavy classical music mixed with jazz. WiZmans World Re;Try is an aesthetic delight.

WiZmans World Re;Try does a lot of things right. It’s aesthetically gorgeous. It has simple, tried-and-true turn-based combat, with monster catching and fusing mechanics. It has a weird world and story. But it’s also a grind-heavy linear dungeon crawl that gets monotonous way too quickly. Going through dungeons feels like a chore. And bosses are unbalanced compared to the ease of combat and lack of experience points that precede them. WiZmans World Re;Try needs to be rebalanced, but it’s already a retry.

***PS5 code provided by the publisher***