A look back at: Wizardry: Tale of the Forsaken Land

Yeah, I still had one more Wizardry game to play, and it's the PS2 one by Atlus. When I played it, I just sort of eased in with my familiarity with the series at this point and it went quite well. Of course, what else could you expect? It's still turn-based, rows, character classes, enemy formation, first-person dungeon crawling. I get super annoyed with some enemies each time, especially those with the instant kill attacks. Real nasty when you consider the "failed resurrection = ash, then lost forever". Thankfully, since this game came out after Wizardry 8, the main hallmarks of no grid-based movement as well as preset encounters instead of random encounters made the experience more welcoming.

But hey! Combination attacks and even combination defenses! This is actually kinda cool for the Wizardry series and the combos aren't actually that detrimental compared to attacking by yourself. The defensive combos really do help in keeping out of trouble. MP is kinda like early Final Fantasy or other Wizardry games, plus spells each have interesting uses, but those Magic Stones are proving quite useful in some ways to get spells. There's also the Trust value, which is actually a lot more interesting to utilize given the personalities and certain alignments and actions. This actually can hamper the game if not used properly!

Arguably the best way to play this game is with a predominantly good-aligned party. No evil characters in general, mostly good characters like a good-aligned Kyo or Hina as well as some neutral characters. It's interesting that there's predefined characters with great stats to add to your character roster in addition to the usual "create your character" stuff, makes the games much more interesting in retrospect. Of course, evil characters do get some of the better equipment, but you generally still do better with a good/neutral party overall. The plot is fairly weird, since literally everyone died in a technical sense, and the main character experiences some odd flashbacks and such, but it fits a tragic, medieval mold quite well.

A look back at: Wizardry 8

 

Whoops, nearly forgot to post about this. Well, in any case, finally a finish a franchise apart from a few spinoff games that are somewhat different than this. But hey, no more of that lame grid-based movement, even though the game loves to give us the bonus dungeons with a fake grid. No random encounters either, things are pre-planned. There's a LOT of customization in Wizardry 8, moreso than any other game in the franchise. Lots of stats to tweak, races to choose, formations to tweak, equipment to utilize, spells to use, even those guest star party members can find some use. Oh yeah, guest star party members! Quite a good addition, especially Vi Domina. As well as numerous races we saw back in Wizardry VII making a return with lots of voice acting, and then there's the newer races like Rapax to consider.

Perhaps it's my experience with the previous Wizardry games being its own reward, but I gotta say, Wizardry 8 is the easiest of the Wizardry games. But of course, a game shouldn't be super hard to be enjoyable, as this game not only offers difficulty settings, but the game is of a decent length and will have its challenges to and fro. Having accidentally stumbled into an area I'm definitely not leveled for is par for the course, so I would save that and go for later.

And then there's the entire idea that all of a sudden, the plot of Wizardry 8 is literally all about becoming gods. As strange as it is, the temptation to do so with such powerful cosmic items, including the Cosmic Forge from the sixth game and the Astral Dominae from the seventh, still in the Dark Savant's hands, all the ideas for what could be done is basically the reason why these games in the Dark Savant trilogy have multiple endings and beginnings. The creativity of it all is a shining highlight. So you wanna turn evil? Join the Savant for good this time and make the races go to war! Or write the Savant out of the book, although you gotta fight the guy. Or go drastic and tear a page out of the book, make it seem like he's not gonna go anywhere with his master plans! I don't think this will make my top 15 RPGs, but I am extremely glad on how well of a high note the Wizardry series ended.

A look back at: Wizardry VII: Crusaders of the Dark Savant

Wizardry, in SPACE!

It's funny, much like the Dragon Quest games, the Wizardry series doesn't feel the need to outdo itself that much. But it certainly tries to spice things up so it doesn't feel "same but different but still same". Indeed, you can't say the gameplay isn't that, because it is. Create and customize a character's race, gender, classes (which can be interchanged), and upon level up, change stats and for this game, skills, some of which can be really useful. Quite complex! And it keeps this while making the game balls hard, not even allowing rookie players their time to shine without doing some grinding for skills, job classes, etc.

Honestly the biggest surprise is how well the plot goes. The endings of the previous Wizardry seem to change the beginning of this game, all things assumed that that game was played the way it should have been played. You believed the queens lies? You get a sort of bad beginning by being slaves for the bad guy. Don't believe him and you journey to the new planet yourself. The endings have something similar. Spare the life of the girl to get the endings that go to Wizardry 8, but don't spare her to get caught in endless darkness. It's so nonlinear in how you can boost or ruin your reputation with the multiple races of Guardia that it's a fairly leisurely game through all the grinding too. Sure, help the T'Rangs out, and then backstab them to work with the Umpanis. Help the Danes out with whatever monstrous things they got. There's even a Gorn race, okay maybe that's not all that amazing since it's not really the Star Trek race in truth. Everyone seems to also be searching for the same thing the Dark Savant is searching, the Astral Dominae. I kinda was hoping that that Cosmic Forge would be useful for something, and it turned out to be about a planet and all. Multiple beginnings, side stories, and endings, this one is the most intriguing Wizardry game yet.

A look back at: Wizardry VI: Bane of the Cosmic Forge

 

Character portraits! Animated enemies! Harder gameplay! I pretty much summed this all up more or less. Wizardry continues to go by its formula but makes things, at least in my opinion, much harder. Perhaps it's because of my low luck with certain enemies, especially larger formations as well as the powerful party-breaking spells they always seem to employ. I've been throwing my lot around quite a bit with this title for sure. You don't even get a nice hub area to rest with since in this game, you get trapped in a castle and basically go the scavenger route more or less. But then there's some areas that seem completely unwinnable until you grind an excessive amount. Lots of healing, lots of frustration, lots of grinding, and lots of luck.

Interestingly, despite being at that part of playing the Wizardry series where I'm tempted to give a lower score due to my fatigue with the series in general, I gave this one a higher score. This mostly comes not just from a few tweaks in the gameplay to make them more interesting (if harder), but also due to how well the plot is this time around. Yes, there's going to be multiple endings as well as branching paths. Do you believe a scornful woman's lies? You'll probably go for the bad ending. Otherwise, you see the remorseful king kill himself instead. There's also the choice of taking that freakin' magic pen for yourself or not too. This is the kinda stuff that definitely peaks my curiosity with this game, even if I get rather annoyed gameplay-wise.

A look back at: Wizardry V: Heart of the Maelstrom

 

I've been doing Wizardry on and off for some time and to be frank, it is getting boring right about now. With this said, I still do possess the drive to go through these games despite all the grinding and the annoyances of powerful enemy attacks and what not. This is of course, in between all of my rom hack reviewing and my new reviewing of platformer games. I alos decided to check this one out on its SNES port, probably because on a personal standpoint, SNES emulation is somehow a lot more fun.

So seeing a few reviews, it's obviously way different than that previous fourth game which had spiced things up considerably, but it retains the aspects that the first three games have. So a lot of that fun customization stuff is there, although it's going to be a bunch of brand new characters created this time around, so no importing. Not that that would be possible between consoles of course. But despite this, and the subtle improvements to graphics and all, I just don't really see a lot of fun to it. There could have been more to the gameplay in this game. That's generally what makes RPG sequel games a little more interesting each time, but Wizardry V just feels like more of the same thing those last three games did.

Yes, I do think sequel games should have substantial improvements to make them seem like better games. It is what can make an entire series shine. While the first two sequels get a pass, especially given a few different plot points, V doesn't really get that kind of pass in my opinion. This game's plot feels like a combination of the first three games' plots all at once. First you seek out some seer (like in III, except that was a dragon), then you appease Card Lords by finding respective suits (similar to II's plot), then you battle an evil magician at the end (similar to I). It's sort of cute but cuteness isn't really the thing to save an RPG sequel from being a bit bland.

A look back at: Wizardry: The Return of Werdna

 

Holy freakin' crap, where do I start? Should I start with the fact I found a PSX remake of the first few Wizardry games that basically made them in a nice console style? Or how about the new shift from hero to bad guy? Wizardry 4 does seem like one of the first, if not the first, RPG that has you in the shoes of an actually established bad guy. Werdna is indeed back, though he is a squishy wizard and must summon monsters to help him survive. Game overs were wrought, as unfortunately this is a game where you lose if you lose your main character, and lord knows this has to easily be the hardest CRPG made ever.

It seems it was especially made for such a purpose too. You've got segments where you have to walk in landmine-infested areas, which basically entails to mapping each step. Tedious, tedious, tedious. There's this dickish Trebor's ghost that keeps floating around and can kill instantly. Enemy guardians actually REVIVE if you save and load often, meaning repeat battles that can be more trouble than they're worth. Your squishy wizard status never leaves either, so armor tends to be moot when enemy fighters who break through your monster ranks can cut you to pieces in a single blow. The final boss requires a stupid afterthought, get the weakest enemy as a troop in the game as it seems to be the only one that can defeat (or even damage) it. Oh, and guess what? Your monster friends are AI controlled! They can do some stupid things in battle. Take my word for it and practice the hell out of the Wizardry series before even ATTEMPTING this one. It's a hell of a ride. Being a villain sure is hard.

A look back at: Wizardry: Legacy of Llylgamyn

 

ONE MORE BEFORE YEARS END!

Well I'll actually review Wizardry III on New Years Day itself, but wow do I find myself comfortable with this series at the moment. Sure, there's the grinding and the pain in the ass encounters, but I think I got the hang of it all. Anyways, Wizardry III is yet another stupid little sequel with not much in plot and all about standard RPG gameplay. No real changes overall, still gets the whole schpeel with character creation, equipment, enemies, first-person dungeon crawling, weird names. Gotta admit, even though I played the Deep Dungeon mini-franchise before this, it's Wizardry that is significantly more comfortable. Maybe it's all about the setups?

So first game was about creating a party and getting an amulet from a powerful wizard. Second game is about finding a bunch of knight equipment and being worthy of royalty. Third game's plot is about...finding a dragon to prevent natural calamity from striking the kingdom. Kind of the weakest in terms of plot overall, but the gameplay still remains intact. Of course all things considered, if I was playing on a non-NES port I'd actually have to import characters, but it seems after reading a bit more it seems like even if you do import characters they still are at level 1. So much for that! Anyways, I think the biggest issues I had with this gameplay wise were some particularly notable enemies like the Delf Minions and Priests of Fung, both of which can oneshot characters nastily. Not a good grinding place for Murphy's Ghost this time around either. But you know what? Challenge accepted. I was finding myself okay with this one.

Apart from all this, I will say that this is still a very classic RPG, but not in the ways that would wow me, so I am just gonna say it now, but there's no way this series is going to rank high on my eventual RPG rankings posts when I get to them. Maybe that could change, who knows?

A look back at: Wizardry: The Knight of Diamonds

 

Amazing how the year STILL isn't over yet and I still rummage through another RPG before year's end. And yes, I'm going through the Wizardry series all the way through before doing anything else. This probably means that my 145th review won't actually be a Final Fantasy game. I am running out of those by the way, and I don't plan to play past X when I get to that.

But in any case, Wizardry II: The Knight of Diamonds has you once again in a dungeon-crawling RPG aspect, able to create and customize a party of six and do all the things you could do in the original Wizardry. Only this time the premise is different, there's these armor pieces you need to collect in order to gain access to a certain staff needed to win the game, and there's actually no really big boss to tangle with. That's assuming you don't actually count those magic armor pieces. And wow, they are TOUGH. I mean Wizardry already has unforgiving difficulty, but again I gotta grind Murphy's Ghosts like mad in order to get to battling just the Magic Armor. Well, the armor is the first, so it's the weakest, but it has more HP than the others despite its weak attack, so it takes a while. At least the armor piece battles give off more experience than other enemies, so it's worthwhile to grind on at least the armor. The sword though? That things almost guaranteed to insta-kill characters every attack it gets, making it the nastiest encounter overall. The gauntlets with their magic abilities (and yes there's two) can easily wipe out the squishy members. So even without a big bad guy this Wizardry still proves tough, if not tougher than the first game.

A look back at: Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord

 

The history of just about every JRPG franchise I've played to date can date back to an RPG series that is in fact not made in Japan, the Wizardry series. Think about how Final Fantasy 1 starts out with having you pick your characters and classes. Think about how the first few SaGa (Final Fantasy Legend) games have you selecting a race. Think about how Dragon Quest 3 was the first of its franchise to have you selecting personality and stat increases. All of those have its origins in Wizardry's character creation system. Select a race (human, elf, dwarf, etc), select a role (fighter, mage, thief, etc), and even select an alignment (good, neutral, evil), something that rarely if ever shows up in future RPGs and then select stat bonuses and boom, character done. Neat stuff!

Think about how Phantasy Star 1's dungeons were. Think about every single game in the Deep Dungeon franchise, as well as Shining in the Darkness. The first-person dungeon-crawling perspective for these RPGs most likely originated here. Think about how many, many old RPGs have unforgiving difficulty, then amplify it up to eleven and you have Wizardry I's difficulty. It's quite insane. You want to run from enemies, hoping and praying they don't ambush you. You have to worry about teleporting into a different part of a dungeon (or worse, into a wall getting a game over). You have to deal with chests that can be booby-trapped. You have to return to an inn to not only recover, but to gain levels, something that can easily be forgotten. You have to worry about certain character classes being only in certain alignments, meaning good and evil can never work together. You have to remember the spell names, and extra care with revival spells because it has a chance of turning a dead character into ashes, and failing again can mean the character is permanently gone. You have to make sure to map everything since it's so easy to get lost. You have to watch out for dark areas or magic-sealed areas.

There's just a lot to remember when playing Wizardry, and it's certainly going to take a grinding toll. Much of my time was just finding a place to power level, against a monster known as Murphy's Ghost, an enemy that wields a lot of experience yet only has a weak attack and nothing else, going back and forth between where it is and the castle to get characters up in levels and spells and such. Simple sure doesn't mean easy in any way, and many hours were spent until I was strong enough, and lucky enough, to battle and defeat WERDNA.