Nutmeg
Arcane
I think player performance in Wizardry 1 is too dependent on RNG.
Wizardry 1 consists of a city --- Llylgamyn, it's outskirts, and a maze. Llylgamyn itself consists of an inn where characters can level up and rest, a shop where characters can purchase and sell goods, a tavern where characters can be equipped, inspected, and added or removed from the party, and a temple where characters may be revived or cured from paralysis. In the city outskirts the player may send his current party into the maze, create, update or delete characters, or elect to take control of party already in the maze.
The objective of the game is to retrieve a "fabled amulet" from the clutches of the wizard Werdna, who lives in a "ten level fortress maze" beneath the castle of Llylgamyn. This is done in a simple sequence. First, the player must find the elevator on the 1st floor and take it down to the 4th floor --- the bottom most floor accessible by this elevator. Then, on the 4th floor, the player must emerge victorious in a set encounter against a party consisting of mages, priests, fighters and a high level ninja. This grants access to a key item (the "blue ribbon") which in turn grants access to another "express service" elevator to the south of the first elevator. The player must then take this elevator to the 9th floor --- bottom most for this second elevator --- and locate a chute nearby which takes them to the 10th floor. On this final floor the player must survive at least 6 random encounters, before fighting the end game boss Werdna. After defeating Werdna, the player can use Werdna's amulet or their own spell points to teleport back to the castle and claim victory.
Characters are defined by 6 "statistics" --- strength, iq, piety, vitality, agility and luck --- as well as a race, a class (with level), an alignment, (mage and priest) spell books, and age.
Strength affects:
Race affects:
Class (level) affects:
Allignment affects:
When creating a character, the player first selects the alignent, then the race, which determines the base statistics (as mentioned), then distributes bonus points to those statistics, and lastly chooses a class. The number of bonus points is:
Statistics may not exceed 18. If a character has 18 in any one statistic, the game assigns a higher probability to that statistic dropping on level.
For all kinds of characters, agility, vitality and luck are important. It is worth rerolling bonus points to maximize these.
In combat, the first three characters are in the front row and can attack and be attacked, while the last three, in the back row, cannot.
Front row characters should either be able to soak up damage, like priests, or dish out damage by attacking like ninjas, or both like lords, fighters and samurai.
Mages, bishops and thieves should occupy the back row as these characters are vulnerable to attacks, and cannot deal much damage by attacking.
So, while some variation is possible in party composition, only a handful of compositions make sense. Most parties would look something like: samurai, lord, fighter (later reclassed to ninja), priest, mage (later reclassed to bishop), thief (later reclassed to bishop)
The effects of levelling up a character in a given a class is determined almost entirely randomly, but within the bounds set by the character's statistics, age and class.
Now, wizardry limits players to one save, but players may save anywhere, and players may restart from their last save if things go awry.
Players wishing to complete the game at a lower party level or with little real time spent are encouraged to save before levelling up and rerolling when not statisfied.
Similarly, encounter difficulty varies greatly. Even the strongest, most high level party will be wiped out completely if caught by surprise by gas giants, encouraging a restart at the last save. For the same reason, playing the game with an iron man restriction is not enjoyable, as ultimately the encounter slot machine far outweighs any planning and preparation on behalf of the player.
I give the game 4/10.
Wizardry 1 consists of a city --- Llylgamyn, it's outskirts, and a maze. Llylgamyn itself consists of an inn where characters can level up and rest, a shop where characters can purchase and sell goods, a tavern where characters can be equipped, inspected, and added or removed from the party, and a temple where characters may be revived or cured from paralysis. In the city outskirts the player may send his current party into the maze, create, update or delete characters, or elect to take control of party already in the maze.
The objective of the game is to retrieve a "fabled amulet" from the clutches of the wizard Werdna, who lives in a "ten level fortress maze" beneath the castle of Llylgamyn. This is done in a simple sequence. First, the player must find the elevator on the 1st floor and take it down to the 4th floor --- the bottom most floor accessible by this elevator. Then, on the 4th floor, the player must emerge victorious in a set encounter against a party consisting of mages, priests, fighters and a high level ninja. This grants access to a key item (the "blue ribbon") which in turn grants access to another "express service" elevator to the south of the first elevator. The player must then take this elevator to the 9th floor --- bottom most for this second elevator --- and locate a chute nearby which takes them to the 10th floor. On this final floor the player must survive at least 6 random encounters, before fighting the end game boss Werdna. After defeating Werdna, the player can use Werdna's amulet or their own spell points to teleport back to the castle and claim victory.
Characters are defined by 6 "statistics" --- strength, iq, piety, vitality, agility and luck --- as well as a race, a class (with level), an alignment, (mage and priest) spell books, and age.
Strength affects:
- Hit probability
- Damage
- Probability to learn a mage or priest spell on level up (mage and priest only)
- Probability of identifying monsters
- Starting hit points
- Resurrection probability
- Minimum hit points gained on level
- Turn order
- Probability to identify traps
- Probability to disarm traps
- Probability to
- Resistances
Race affects:
- Base statistics
- Resistances
Class (level) affects:
- Which spells may be learned (for priest spells: priest > bishop = lord, for mage spells: mage > bishop > samurai)
- Bonus spell points
- Starting hit points (samurai > fighter = lord > priest > thief = ninja = bishop > mage)
- Range of hit points gained per level (fighter = lord > priest = samurai > thief = ninja = bishop > mage)
- Amount of attacks (ninja > fighter = samurai = lord > thief = mage = priest = bishop)
- Hit probability (fighter = priest = samurai = lord = ninja > thief = mage = bishop)
- Resistances
- Trap effects
- Probability to identify and disarm traps (thief > ninja > fighter = priest = mage = bishop = lord = samurai)
- What may be equipped
- Actions (only bishops may identify items)
Allignment affects:
- Which class a character may be
- What may be equipped
- Wether the character may be added to the party in the tavern (good characters cannot be added to parties with evil characters and vice versa)
When creating a character, the player first selects the alignent, then the race, which determines the base statistics (as mentioned), then distributes bonus points to those statistics, and lastly chooses a class. The number of bonus points is:
which may be rerolled.
Statistics may not exceed 18. If a character has 18 in any one statistic, the game assigns a higher probability to that statistic dropping on level.
For all kinds of characters, agility, vitality and luck are important. It is worth rerolling bonus points to maximize these.
In combat, the first three characters are in the front row and can attack and be attacked, while the last three, in the back row, cannot.
Front row characters should either be able to soak up damage, like priests, or dish out damage by attacking like ninjas, or both like lords, fighters and samurai.
Mages, bishops and thieves should occupy the back row as these characters are vulnerable to attacks, and cannot deal much damage by attacking.
So, while some variation is possible in party composition, only a handful of compositions make sense. Most parties would look something like: samurai, lord, fighter (later reclassed to ninja), priest, mage (later reclassed to bishop), thief (later reclassed to bishop)
The effects of levelling up a character in a given a class is determined almost entirely randomly, but within the bounds set by the character's statistics, age and class.
Now, wizardry limits players to one save, but players may save anywhere, and players may restart from their last save if things go awry.
Players wishing to complete the game at a lower party level or with little real time spent are encouraged to save before levelling up and rerolling when not statisfied.
Similarly, encounter difficulty varies greatly. Even the strongest, most high level party will be wiped out completely if caught by surprise by gas giants, encouraging a restart at the last save. For the same reason, playing the game with an iron man restriction is not enjoyable, as ultimately the encounter slot machine far outweighs any planning and preparation on behalf of the player.
I give the game 4/10.
