They say there is a very fine line between bravery and stupidity. As I stand here, in the middle of this forest, gazing at all of the explosions far in the distance, I realize I may well have crossed that line, to a point of no return.
— Barry narrating the first chapter
Written by Chris Michael Wilson (better known as "black_whirlwind45", his username on Reddit) and first released in July 31, 2016, Magium is a text adventure game similar to Choose Your Own Adventure books.
Set in a medieval fantasy setting that includes futuristic magical devices, the story takes place in the continent of Varathia, in which is held a deadly mage tournament. The prize of the contest is the source of all magic itself: the Magium. The playable character is Barry, a self-proclaimed ordinary guy who joined the tournament, in the aim of using the prize to fulfill his lifelong dream of becoming a mage. As the game progresses, The Player and Barry meet other participants, who would become allies or enemies, and find out about the mysteries of the continent and its inhabitants.
Aside from the traditional choices influencing what happens in the story, Magium also has a stat system in the form of the magical device used by Barry: the stat booster, which will allow the player to upgrade one of the following stats: strength, speed, toughness, reflexes, hearing, observation, combat technique, ancient languages, premonition and eventually aura concealment, magical sense and aura hardening. Those stats will be subject of stats checks, which verify that the stats meet the requirements to perform certain actions that would influence the outcome of events in the game.
The game will likely be divided into 5 books in the main series and 2 prologues, with the first three books being currently available at Google Play
or Itunes, although the final chapter of book 3 is yet to be released.
Magium contains examples of:
- Action Girl: In an universe in which females cannot become mage under natural means, the women met in the game tend to kick a lot of asses, with Kate being the most prominent example.
- Melindra, the stillwater met in book two, is also an example of this, being on par with the rest of the group.
- All-Loving Hero: Rose.
- An Ice Person: Kate is an Ice elementalist, most of her magic being based around Ice used both to defend Barry & Company in the form of magically reinforced ice domes and to attack others with icicles, and some miscellaneous uses, like using ice platforms to transport people around. She does however have quite some combat prowess, using ice cones and daggers to quickly kill off enemies.
- Anti-Villain: In the end, The Golden Fox simply wants to keep the animals safe.
- Ax-Crazy: Eiden is more subtle about it than most example, but he tends to switch from casual conversation to bloodthirsty murderer. Arraka isn't as subtle, though.
- Badass Adorable: Flower is an adorable girl and a powerful mage.
- Badass Boast: Cutthroat Dave and Tyrath love this trope.
- Badass Bookworm: Barry spent years nerding out about magic, and more often than not, it shows. How badass he is, of course, still depends on your choices and stats.
- Big Bad: Eiden is the closest example to one that the game has.
- The Big Guy: Hadrik is by far the strongest in the group in physical combat. It helps that he's actually a giant who used a shapeshifting spell to turn into a dwarf.
- Blatant Lies: Some choices involve doing this. For example, when Kate calls out Daren and Barry when they were whispering to discuss about whether or not she was a Banshee, you can choose to reply that you were finishing an earlier discussion. She won't believe you.
- In book 3 chapter 6, Barry can pull this off to a ridiculous extent by maxing out the bluff stat and choosing to enter the secret shop, by bluffing the gatekeeper into thinking that he already gave him the password.
- Blind Seer: While Eiden can see normally, he spends most of his time with his eyes closed and only using his very powerful Magical Sense to see instead. Arraka is also this while trapped in the amulet, as she can only use her equally powerful Magical Sense to see while in this state.
- Blood Knight: Hadrik lives to fight.
- Boisterous Bruiser: Hadrik is as loud as he is strong.
- Card-Carrying Villain: Arraka enjoys being evil.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: A lot of fights qualify.
- In Book 1 Chapter 1, the fight between Cutthroat Dave and Daren is the first example, due to Daren being magically underprepared against weapon-users.
- With the right choices and stats, you can curbstomp your opponents in some events. For example, in chapter 3, you can max out the strength stat to gain the possibility to use improvised weapons (including a tree!). You will decimate an army with nothing, but overwhelming strength.
- With very few exceptions, any fight involving the stillwater Eiden will end this way. In his introduction, Book 1 Chapter 4, Daren gets easily beaten twice in a row.
- Deadpan Snarker: Sarcasm is a pretty common source of humour in this game.
- Daren in particular stands out for equally fitting the "deadpan" and the "snarker" part, to the point that in chapter 4, Barry outright says it's impossible to tell if he is being serious or sarcastic.
- Barry himself is quite sarcastic. Sometimes, there are even options to snark at people, allies and enemies alike.
- Illuna is also this, due to being very disillusioned with the state of things as they are.
- Even the game itself has a moment. If Barry dies in Book 1, Chapter 1, the player earns the achievement "Off To A Good Start", and getting all five different ways to die in Book 3 Chapter 9 nets you an achievement called "Consolation Prize"
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Kate, as she warms up to the group.
- Determinator: Barry definitely qualifies. He traveled throughout the world, amassed knowledge about magic for years, and joined the mage tournament despite being a normal human, for the sole purpose of becoming a mage, a dream that he had since he was a child.
- Fantastic Racism:
- In Book 1 Chapter 2, Kate comes off as this, distrusting Barry for being a stillwater (or so she thought). If you ask her why she trusts Daren instead of him, she will outright accuse him of coming from a "race filled with mass murderers" (referring to the stillwater who destroyed the city of Olmnar).
- Kate once again comes off as this in the middle chapters of book 1, being very distrusting of Barry due to him being a (half-)Lessathi, because of her experiences in the Lessathi-run Beacon Of Hope.
- The Golden Fox doesn't trust human beings at all, to the point of imprisoning the group for coming in the Sacred Woods and forbidding animals from speaking Common.
- Tyrath also exhibits this, viewing all humans, monsters, and animals as being below him.
- Faux Affably Evil: Eiden's polite exterior does little to undermine the smug, cynical and bloodthirsty person that he is.
- Genki Girl: Flower, in virtue of being physically and mentally ten.
- Glass Cannon: If you boost Barry's Strength without boosting his Toughness.
- Heroic Sacrifice: In Book 1 Chapter 4, the player can do this by accepting Eiden's deal to save Daren's life. This will earn the player a Game Over and an achievement, "A noble sacrifice".
- Humans Are Bastards: The Golden Fox certainly thinks so.
- Jerkass: A lot of characters in this game are quite unpleasant.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Kate and Illuna.
- Large Ham: Hadrik, big time, as the loudest and most flashy of the group.
- Lightning Bruiser:
- If you put a lot of stat points in strength, speed and toughness, Barry will be this.
- Hadrik also fits this trope, due to being a giant.
- After fixing his faulty link with a spirit on the magical plane, Daren becomes this, ditching his armor in favor of a shield spell, becoming much more nimble and regaining access to various moves one of his martial arts masters taught him as a result.
- Love at First Sight: Averted. While Barry is physically attracted by Rose at first sight, choosing to have him declare love for her in chapter 6 will result in her not taking you seriously, since you've only just met. Even if you just decide to tell her that Barry was stunned by her beauty, he makes it clear that he doesn't plan on starting a relationship before taking the time to know her. Rose herself will only start to have some feelings for Barry after witnessing him take on Tyrath.
- Making a Splash: Petal/Illuna is a water elementalist, being able to sharpen her water into whips and use it for various other purposes, one of them, humorously, being to wake people up.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Unsurprisingly, a person calling himself Cutthroat Dave is not known for being friendly.
- Nice Guy: The main cast in general are decent people, with Rose and Flower in particular standing out.
- No-Sell: Barry can occasionally pull this off if you spent enough points in Toughness. You can even earn achievements that way, namely "Tough as nails", "Come at me, bro!" and "One tough cookie".
- Oh, Crap!: Happens quite often. An early example would be Cutthroat Dave when he believed that Barry was a stillwater, a rare and powerful breed of mage whose magical aura is similar to that of a human.
- Older Than They Look: Flower is almost in her thirties despite looking no older than ten. Justified, since she has become unable to age after her fusion with Illuna.
- One-Hit Kill: A lot of fights tend to end in a single clean blow, demonstrating the fact that a single mistake in a tournament involving the most powerful mages can lead to one's death.
- One-Man Army:
- You can unlock an achievement named just that by single-handedly defeating the Duke of Bagelberry's army of one hundred men when they ambush Barry and Kate.
- In the aforementioned ambush event, if you choose to go and call Daren, Kate will take them out all by herself, after being shot by a sleeping dart, no less! (Though she will be severely weakened the following 3 chapters.)
- Only Sane Man: Between the childish Flower and the psychotic Arraka, Illuna often falls in this role.
- Pet the Dog: Subverted with Eiden. Most of the time, he only helps the group on a whim instead of any altruistic or selfless motive.
- Player Character: Barry, naturally.
- Playing with Fire: Flower is a fire elementalist, her magic seeming to be mainly offence focused, with the occasional use of fire jets to fly through the air, or use of fire to dry clothes and provide lighting.
- Proud Warrior Race Guy: In his own words, fighting is in Hadrik's blood.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Golmyck the Gnome king, being very popular with his people, and apparently working in improving the conditions in his kingdom.
- Ambiguously, the King of The Underground could also be this, as while he does listen to what his underlings might have to say, it's implied he might only do so when it benefits his personal goals, whatever they are.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Flower is the Red to Illuna's Blue. The contrast between their personalities is further evidenced by their respective element (fire magic for Flower, water magic for Illuna).
- This is even reflected in their forms in the Ethereal plane, with Illuna being blue and Flower being red.
- Shout-Out: Arraka says "I want you to surpass your damn limits".
- The Sociopath: Arraka. She apparently delights in creatures and people suffering and generally show little, if any empathy to the rest of the group.
- Squishy Wizard: The game mostly averts this trope, as most of the named characters were shown to be capable of holding their own in a physical confrontation even without magic.
- Hadrik in particular averts this to a somewhat ridiculous extent, being one of the physically toughest characters so far, his skin being ridiculously hard to pierce and his overwhelming strength being often mentioned and demonstrated, and also specializing in shapeshifting magic.
- Super-Strength: If you choose to boost Barry's strength to superhuman degree, to the point where he can wield trees as clubs or beating a metal golem with his bare hands.
- Hadrik is also extremely strong, possibly the strongest character in the main group as a result of being a shapeshifted giant, being able to wield a tree as a club with ease, much like Barry with a maxed-out strength stat.
- Gontrok also has super strength equal to or perhaps surpassing Hadrik's, also as a result of being a shapeshifted giant.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Kate is the tomboy compared to Rose's girly girl.
- Too Dumb to Live: Barry is often accused to be this by other characters due to joining a mage tournament with no powers. He doesn't disagree.
- Troll: One of Arraka's favorite ways to get on the rest of the group's nerves, though she seems to mellow out a bit in later books.
- Tsundere: Kate is initially a Type A, being very icy towards the group at first, acting distant and mysterious and generally not revealing her emotional state to others.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: Downplayed to an extent. While Barry looks out for his friends no matter what, you can still pick some morally questionable actions. An example include extorting the duke of Bagelberry of his money, giving him hope that you'll let him live, only to kill him anyways.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Hadrik specializes in shapeshifting magic, in fact his dwarf form is actually the result of a shapeshifting spell to allow him to participate in the tournament, since giants like him were not invited because of their overwhelming strength.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: The Golden Fox aims to protect the animals. Too bad that she does that with harsh rules, which includes being forbidden to speak Common (a language practiced by humans), with the failure to obey this rule being punished by an execution.
- What the Hell, Hero?: In Book 1 Chapter 5, if Barry doesn't help Rose when she is attacked, Daren will call him out on this. Taking credit for the rescue afterwards will earn the player the "Shameless" achievement.
