Running a university is no small feat. Doing it with a budget made entirely of enchanted cheese and a dark lord on your heels? That’s a whole other level of academic absurdity.
Spellcaster University, developed by Sneaky Yak Studio, is a management sim where your job isn’t to save the world—but to prepare a bunch of half-interested, frequently cursed students to maybe sort of do it. It’s a game about compromise, magical chaos, and the kind of bureaucratic nonsense only wizards could dream up.
The game now lands on Nintendo Switch—portable, yes, but perhaps a little too cramped for this fantasy faculty simulator.
Spellcaster University is available on Nintendo Switch and PC for $24.99 USD.
Story – A Story That Takes a Back Seat to Magical Mayhem
There’s technically a story: the dark lord is coming, and you’ve got to train enough magical professionals to delay or defeat him. But this isn’t about plot—it’s about what happens between the invasion countdown and your next janitor-on-fire incident.
Each run features different maps, events, and student batches. This means that no two campaigns play out the same, but it also means narrative cohesion takes a backseat to the emergent drama born from your headmasterly decisions.
There are occasional micro-narratives—like when a faction reaches out to your school, or you’re dragged into a quest because of a previous choice—but overall, the plot is more decorative than essential.
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- A well-known, never-ending cycle..
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- …until someone screws it up.
Gameplay – Card Drafting Meets Campus Chaos
At its core, Spellcaster University is a card-drafting management simulator. You construct your school room by room, choosing between classrooms, dormitories, refectories, arcane chambers, and more—each pulled from a randomized deck tied to a particular school of magic.
The twist? You don’t control students directly. Instead, you create systems—curricula, house traits, magical artifacts—and then cross your fingers that somewhere in all that chaos, a competent mage emerges. Spoiler: they usually don’t.
Your students’ fate relies on your ability to create a good curriculum.
Campaigns are short and meant to be repeated. Once the dark lord inevitably arrives and razes your institution, you pack up your relics and move on to a new location, taking with you some modest bonuses. There’s a rhythm here: build, collapse, repeat.
Then there’s the Switch version. While the game technically works, the port introduces clunky controls—the D-pad doesn’t function in menus—alongside awkward button mapping and a UI that clearly wasn’t redesigned with smaller screens in mind. Trying to appreciate room or character designs in handheld mode feels like deciphering a spellbook by candlelight, upside down.
Build, collapse, repeat.
Navigating multiple menus is slow, card selection feels imprecise, and the interface is riddled with tiny text and clunky navigation. There’s still an entertaining game in here, but it’s buried under interface tedium and a poor tutorial.
Audio & Graphics – Charming Art, Forgettable Audio
Visually, Spellcaster University sticks to its illustrated storybook aesthetic. It’s whimsical and full of charm. Every card, creature, and character has personality—even if animations are minimal and visual feedback is often underwhelming during actual gameplay.
The events have very storybook-like illustrations.
The soundtrack is pleasant but ultimately forgettable. It does its job of setting the mood, but the audio design rarely goes beyond background ambiance. You’ll likely tune it out after the first couple of runs.
Performance-wise, the Switch holds up. There are minor hitches as your campus grows and spell effects pile up, but nothing game-breaking. Load times are manageable, though transitions between screens can drag just enough to notice.
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- A very comprehensive difficulty selection system.
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- You can buy a card if you have enough mana or gold.
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- You have to choose one card each time.
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- Remember to build strong relationships with the factions, each offers unique perks.
Spellcaster University was reviewed on Nintendo Switch with a key provided by Red Art Games.
