Your opponent is preparing a devastating magical attack, you’ve got a powerful spell ready to fire back, there’s just one small problem. You actually have to say the incantation out loud, into your microphone, where everyone in your house can hear you pretending to be a wizard.
Well, nobody said mastering the magical arts would be dignified.
Chant Wizard is available through Steam today, offering an unusual approach to competitive spellcasting from indie developer Spiritx2 Studio. This real-time PvP card battler swaps traditional button-based spellcasting for your actual voice. Build a deck of magical abilities, challenge other wizards to a duel, and start chanting your way to victory. Just make sure your microphone is working, because keeping quiet isn’t going to get you very far.
You’re a Wizard, So Start Sounding Like One
The big attraction here is the voice-controlled magic system, which turns every spell into a little performance. Rather than selecting a card and watching your character do all the work, you’ll need to speak the appropriate incantation to unleash its power. That means actually using your voice to attack, defend, and respond to whatever magical nonsense your opponent is throwing in your direction.
Chant Wizard also plays out in real time, so you don’t need to wait for your turn. Both players are casting spells simultaneously, managing their resources and trying to outthink one another while the battle unfolds.
You’ll need to consider when to unleash your strongest abilities, how to respond to incoming attacks, and whether you can interrupt your opponent before they finish casting a powerful spell. It’s a super fun idea for a competitive game.
Five Schools, Plenty of Magical Mischief
Of course, shouting the loudest isn’t necessarily going to make you the better wizard. There’s an actual strategy game underneath all that chanting, with five schools of magic to build your deck around including Fire, Water, Dark, Light, and Spirit. Each offers different tactical possibilities, giving you room to experiment with combinations and develop a spellcasting style that suits you.
Every match draws a selection of cards from your prepared deck, so you’ll need to work with the spells available rather than relying on the same combination every time. The Light and Dark schools are unique. Light magic focuses on defense and counterattacks, allowing you to stack shields, survive incoming damage, and eventually turn that protection into a devastating response. Dark magic spellss emphasize enormous damage at the cost of your own health, letting you sacrifice survivability for the chance to obliterate your opponent before they can do the same to you.
Friendship Is Magic, Until Someone Starts Chanting
If you’ve ever wanted to challenge your friends to an actual wizard duel, Chant Wizard has you covered. The game supports both 1v1 and 2v2 online battles, allowing you to compete against other players through matchmaking or invite friends directly.
You can also team up for some cooperative magical mayhem, which should make coordinating spells an entertaining challenge in its own right. The developers have also included a few playful interactions outside the actual fighting. You can high-five other players, challenge them to rock-paper-scissors, and, with their permission, even hear them chanting their spells during a duel. That last feature might be the best one of the lot.
Magic That Looks as Dramatic as It Sounds
Spiritx2 Studio has also put plenty of effort into making its magical battles look spectacular. The game features cinematic visuals and elaborate spell effects, with different schools of magic bringing their own visual identities to the battlefield. Fire spells, protective barriers, and destructive Dark magic are designed to make each confrontation feel like a proper magical showdown rather than two people quietly exchanging cards.
It’s an ambitious presentation for an indie card battler, and one that should make pulling off a powerful combination feel even more satisfying. Of course, whether you’ll appreciate all those lovely effects while desperately trying to remember your next incantation is another matter entirely.
You can grab Chant Wizard over on Steam now, combining deckbuilding strategy, real-time PvP combat, and voice-controlled spellcasting into one very unusual magical competition.