Leximan is a charming indie romp where you grab words out of the air to solve problems—like helping Dave, who has been on fire for 27 minutes

A wizard greets you in the dark and pouring rain in Leximan, a game about casting spells with words. — (Image credit: Knights of Borria)

It's often said that the pen is mightier than the sword—now, that's an assertion usually made by people who haven't been stabbed before, but in the world of Leximan, a charming little indie pseudo-RPG about smashing words together scribblenauts-style, it's a cosmic truth.

Penned by Knights of Borria, an indie developer three people strong, Leximan clearly borrows from the same grimoire as games like Undertale—in that its RPG stylings are mostly a vehicle for funny jokes and kitschy minigames.

In it, you play Leximan—an orphan wizard holding the Lexicon (you know, like words): A book that spouts word fragments you need to piece together to solve problems. Problems such as, but not limited to:

A muscle wizard who wants to get swole.
A man named Dave who has been on fire for 27 minutes.
A librarian who is upset that you knocked a bunch of books over.
Making a potion.
A man named Dave who is constantly morphing into non-Dave shapes. Dave goes through a lot in this game.

This mechanic is, in the hour I spent fiddling about with it, mostly a vehicle for charming little gags. To cool down a potion, I invoked the word "borean" and proceeded to teleport both a pine tree and a confused viking from the icy north into the pot—meanwhile, an irate viking had the wind knocked out of their sails when I cast "boing" and proceeded to bounce with wizardly gusto.

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Dave suffers tremendously at the hands of a perpetual frame in Leximan. — (Image credit: Knights of Borria)

Alas, unlike a game like Undertale, Leximan doesn't quite do enough with its battle system to keep it from being more than a game of loose word association—and while the absolute hooliganry you get up to is cute, it gets a little rote. Imagine Undertale's befriending systems without the bullet hell interludes, and you've got a good idea of Leximan already.

Luckily there's some other neat stuff going on—when you're exploring the Academy Elementia, you can type overworld spells at the drop of a wizard's hat to dig up secrets. The game also makes an effort to break up its somewhat samey battles by introducing minigames—for example, after entering "The Suspiciously Large Room", I found myself thrown into a Vampire Survivors send-up, fending off a bunch of flames with myself, my potion-making ally, an orbital Dave and a ghost dog.

I'm not sure Leximan's the next big indie hit—but it's a playful enough effort at a low enough price point of $15 (£12.80), with the typical Steam introductory offer knocking that cost down a smidge, that I'd give it a whirl if any of the silliness quoted above appeals to you.

Harvey's history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he's since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G'raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He'll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many.