Talking about comparisons to Hibiki, Hibiki had a really strong head producer in Takatera Shigenori, who was considered a celebrity brought in to salvage Kamen Rider after Blade's all time low sales record back then. Takatera had a really strong and clear vision of what he wanted the Hibiki to be. It was his show, and the writers are just writing the scripts and dialogue of the show. Kida had said in an interview before Wizard started on how much his scripts are influenced and dictated by producer Takatera, and one of the things Utsunomiya promised him with Wizard is more freedom to write the story that he wants with his own vision.
...yeah...that didn't go very well, didn't it? That was probably one of things the show needed to bring out the best of its cool concepts and themes; a strong head producer with a clear vision of the show and the story, not just simply making it pretty and stylish, but giving the story a clear direction and focus. As it is, Wizard is simply quite a bland show, which is ridiculous given its numerous interesting themes and ideas.
Koyomi's story and mystery is written quite well, but lacked any emotional weight and attachment that it should have due to Koyomi doing nothing for 30-plus episodes. The fact that the only flashback footage that they can use for the emotional scene in ep 50 is like, from episode 5 kinda sums up the problem.
The story and theme of Nitou is so promising, and it makes me mad how badly they executed it. The story could've gain so much tension and weight if only they showed his suffering and inner conflict over having to survive on "evil" or die. It would be a stark contrast to his outward happy-go-lucky attitude and make a point of it as him hiding his pain instead of simply "nice guy Rider because people like nice guy Riders". Also, I think the actor is a really good performer, but he's just given **** to work with. In the few moments he got, he did great with them.
Shunpei...is pointless and a waste of space. A character like him is maybe good for 2-3 episodes, not as a constant presence in the show.
This is not even going into the lack of mythology, lore and world-building a show with magic themes needed to be endearing and memorable. Any attempts at world-building in the show is honestly half-hearted at best with Wajima as "ring-maker", Beast as an ancient magus, the history of the Sabbath etc. World-building and mythology is one of the best strengths of Magiranger, another magic based show and also Hibiki.
The best thing about the show for me is its lead and the actor playing him. Shiraishi Shunya used every opportunity he got to show how good he can act and make Haruto a good and lovable protagonist to a hero show. Ultimately, both his talents and Haruto's character potential were wasted by the writing but I think what we got is still a good Rider protagonist.
I still like the show, but it's sad thinking about how good it could've been. Instead it's just...okay. At least it's better than Kiva, which is just bad or Kabuto, which was a train wreck(I still enjoy the good parts of them, though, like with Wizard). Edit: Oops, forgot to mention Decade >_< . Yeah, that one was definitely worse.