Sorcery's great use of the PS Move controller makes it a welcome addition to the game library of any to-be Motion wizard
Finn is, and so he finds himself soon together with Erline on their way to confront the latter in her stronghold.
But sure his formation as sorcerer's apprentice has to continue during the journey, as would have been their late master Dash's wish.
As suggested by the title, magic is the central element of Sorcery and the PS Move controller the magical wand permitting to cast the different spells necessary to continue the daylong journey into the Enchanted Kingdom, leading through dark catacombs and stony ruins full of sleepless revenants, over high cliffs and colorful glades filled with spiders and spiteful elves, to finally the Great Tower and the Throne Room where the evil Queen is residing with her obedient ninja-like minions.
And the trip would be triply difficult weren't there the powerful spells consecutively unlocked on the way: arcane, earth, ice, fire, wind, electricity magic combining both the Move button and the right move to resolve puzzles, open doors and chests, remove pillars and rubble, freeze water and flare shrubs, and of course fight off the many foes getting in-between.
So with some practice curved throws might easily be linked up to first freeze then crack in half an armored enemy, or to cause an ignited wind column to torch objects out of reach or gobble down the ever-emerging goblins, and also the Heroic strike --T button whenever the heroicness meter is full-- generally comes in handy here.
However, the boss fights against Orc-ish giants and other mischievous creatures --the Banshee, the Ice Troll, the Forest Guardian, the Elf Assassin-- can become quite tedious until figuring out the respective big beast's weak spot or the specific spell combination to properly defeat it, requiring also the use of fire against blue cryo foes and of ice against red pyro ones.
While the boyish Finn himself is relatively weak (though he may use his protective shield) and doesn't recover automatically but by swallowing a well-shaken health potion, crafting some of the 56 elixir-upgrades proves very useful: ingredients such as Bloodberry, Grave Dust, Faerie Honey, Troll Sweat, plus empty potion bottles, or gold coins to buy them from the Slavic-accented Alchemist salesdwarf, can be collected through smashing objects and opening chests alongside the road, so they are an economic means to permanently increase magic strike effects --individual damage, range, or duration-- and the Mana needed to apply them, as well as Finn's own health and physical resistance. But attention, some of the experimental brews --like Frosty Mug, Sticky Goo, or Shadow Hog--, while only temporary, are of rather unwanted nature, changing him into a block of ice or else valuable pig. The animal trick can also be employed to transform sheep into pigs and rats --and back-- while upon using the polymorphous tonic Finn himself may adopt the form of a rat or bird to get through small passages or over wide canyons what, sadly, cannot be used off one's own bat.
The nice and colorful graphics in Fable style illustrate well the fairy landscape through which the adventure leads the young wizard and his wise cat, whereas the narrow-angle camera might at times incommode further orientation in a surround.
Besides the usual friendly banter between Finn and Erline (Charlie Schlatter, Ashley Bell), the story is structured through designed cutscenes in fairytale book style which contribute as suitably to the original somewhat Irish touch as does the instrumental music accompanying it (Mark Mancina). And although the outcome as such might be somewhat predictable, the becoming magician's instructive journey does also have an end in itself.
Midway between Harry Potter and Bayonetta, Sorcery is a refreshing, largely underappreciated game whose great though not physical effortless use of the obligatory Move controller makes it a welcome addition to the game library of any to-be Motion wizard.
And while the game as such does not take more than ten hours and there is no multiplayer option being offered, thinking of it with indulgent fondness one might but recalibrate one's dust-covered Motion wand after a while to play it through for a second time...