Review Wizardry VII: Crusaders of the Dark Savant Retrospective

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Tags: SirTech; Wizardry VII: Crusaders Of The Dark Savant

<p>BnBGaming has put up a <a href="http://bnbgaming.com/2010/11/10/tough-as-nails-5-wizardry-vii-crusaders-of-the-dark-savant/" target="_blank">brief retrospective</a> on our beloved classic <strong>Wizardry VII: Crusaders of the Dark Savant</strong>.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The objective of the game was to track down various maps scattered around the game world, which you could eventually use to obtain the Cosmic Forge&hellip; or something. But as if you didn&rsquo;t have enough working against you, there was the added element of a bunch of computer controlled adventuring parties running around trying to get the same items. Did you want to spend an hour grinding to raise everyone&rsquo;s level and have a fighting chance against the next boss battle? Well, to bad, &rsquo;cause now the part of rat people has the first map you needed to pick up. Try to hunt them down and get the map from them? Well, now the gun toting rhino looking people got the second map in the mean time. What do you have to show for hours of gameplay? A half broken party and piles and piles of hand drawn maps on graph paper. Oh, the good old days of PC gaming.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>They're called Umpani ffs.</p>
<p>Will we ever have a game like that again? You'll have to wait for it. In the meantime, look at these <a href="http://grimoiresystems.com.au/goldenera/?page_id=10" target="_blank">screenshots</a>.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Spotted at: <a href="http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/100401-wizardry-vii-crusaders-of-the-dark-savant-retrospective.html">GB</a></p>

 

[Cenobyte]

Retarded. Simply retarded. As if the game is over if the other factions get their hands on the maps

And btw, Cleve's game does look rather good, I must admit. I hope that he'll release it one day, though.

 

[RampantCoyote]

Forgive me father, for I have sinned. It's been ... three months since my last session playing Wizardry 7...

And no, never finished it. Never even all that close, to my shame. But dang do I have some fond memories of mapping out the world in the wee hours of the morning in my college years...

Yes, Grimoire's screenshots do cause me to salivate uncontrollably. But I have trouble holding onto the hope that it will ever see the light of day.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

If Cleve wasn't such a lazy 'sperger the game would be released already. As it is he's probably working on the cold fusion problem durr hurr

Here's the latest news regarding Grimoire though:

After 15 years of rewriting, refactoring, redesigning and revising, the turn-based combat is running perfectly. Primary and alternate attacks, multiple attacks, sequencing and phased attacks, breath weapons, grab attacks, shield and parry, equipping and spellcasting, clouds and summoning, swarms and retreats, regeneration, berserking and backstabbing.

About a week ago I went back and rewrote it one last time, to clean up some code that looked like it was written by committee. The resulting logic was so deranged it was impossible to debug or organize properly and if I hadn’t just imposed a general refactoring it might’ve taken me a long time to straighten out.

It’s working like a million bucks now. None of the glitches in the last beta test are there any more. Runs the way I always hoped it would.

Some of the monsters are very, very hard to fight without using cheat codes. Very hard. The combat is extremely challenging on normal level or higher.

I worked my way from monster #1 to #255 and nary a crash was encountered. The crash that I did find was in the orders review screen. Otherwise, smooth sailing.

 

[Sceptic]

I refuse to believe that Grimoire will come out in my lifetime.

 

[Kosmonaut]

This is the game that hooked me unto RPGs.

 

[Alex]

Well, since this more or less officially turned into a Grimoire thread, is it just me having trouble accessing the Golden Era forums? There used to be four sub-forums, but now I can only see two of them. I tried messaging Cleve, but he never answered...

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

you're probably not worthy

 

[commie]

And btw, Cleve's game does look rather good, I must admit. I hope that he'll release it one day, though.

Roofles! It looks like shit! Where's the bloom??

 

[Cenobyte]

And btw, Cleve's game does look rather good, I must admit. I hope that he'll release it one day, though.

Roofles! It looks like shit! Where's the bloom??

lol, sure thing

 

[mondblut]

Well, since this more or less officially turned into a Grimoire thread, is it just me having trouble accessing the Golden Era forums? There used to be four sub-forums, but now I can only see two of them. I tried messaging Cleve, but he never answered...

Did you by any chance admitted or was discovered to be a Codex poster?

I did. Same story.

 

[Alex]

Oh well, it is better than the scenario where he simply gave up. I guess those forums won't really be useful until he is ready to start testing the game with other people.

 

[JagreenLern]

I've been trying to get into the Wizardry series for a while, starting with 6, but I haven't gotten very far. Anyone have any advice on how to get started, party building and such? Also, not to sound like a total newfag, but I find the idea of mapping out zones on graph paper to be a little intimidating. I'll do it if I like the game enough, but the though brings back unpleasant Modron Maze memories. So are there any decent maps for the Wizardry games online?

On another note, it's nice to see a retrospective on a truly old games instead of some of the mid 00's stuff posted on this site. At this point I probably would have been less surprised to see a Fallout: New Vegas retrospective than one on Wizardry 7.

 

[Alex]

You can probably download the maps from a site like gamefaqs or something, but I strongly recommend you map it yourself. Actually creating the maps correctly is part of the challenge of the game.

About party building, I understand pretty much any party is able to finish the game. If you are really early in the game, you probably just need to ear two or three levels taking on weak enemies and reloading once you die. Two or three levels make a huge difference in this game (at least early on). Whereas on level two I would be destroyed by a group of vampire bats, on level 4 or 5 I could kill them without even being touched sometimes. The bard is a great help early on, as it starts with an instrument that can cast sleep for free (and you can find others).

 

[mondblut]

Have a female faery thief/bard and dual her back and forth to hell and back (nb: if started as bard, she does not begin with the lute the other bards do! so bring another startup bard for the instrument).

Other than that, just keep rerolling for high initial bonuses and top classes like ninjas, lords etc. In addition to giving more initial power by itself, it opens an easy route into first-time dualclassing.

 

[Alex]

dual her back and forth? Why? Skill points? Is the same technique also useful for spellcasters that need spellpoints?

By the way, she will only be able to use instruments when she is a bard, right?

 

[Fowyr]

dual her back and forth? Why? Skill points? Is the same technique also useful for spellcasters that need spellpoints?

Skillpoints and mana.

By the way, she will only be able to use instruments when she is a bard, right?

Only in Wiz6. In Wiz7 you only need music skill.

 

[Bladderfish]

You know what? Cleve's game looks pretty fantastic. The graphics, while old school, display far more *game* than any full-3d engine could in a million years. I'd snap it up without hesitation if its half of what Wizardry 7 was.

Although the Grimoire site runs like shit.

 

[MicoSelva]

there was the added element of a bunch of computer controlled adventuring parties running around trying to get the same items

Wow, I never played Wizardry VII, but this sounds like a really awesome concept.

 

[drunkpriest]

Beloved classic?

 

[mondblut]

dual her back and forth? Why? Skill points? Is the same technique also useful for spellcasters that need spellpoints?

Yep. Constant dualclassing is the way to uber power. If your character is above level 5 and you're not already breezing towards the endgame on full steam, you're doing something wrong.

By the way, she will only be able to use instruments when she is a bard, right?

Music instrument items are tagged as bard-only. But since they are usables rather than equipables, it might not prevent anyone from applying them. Or it might, I can't remember.

 

[Fowyr]

In Wiz6 only bard may use instruments. I remember this very clearly, because it was opposite to Wiz7 and I played it first.

 

[mondblut]

Indeed, I digged up my old saves, and in Wiz6 a music 100 lord "abuses an instrument" when trying to use Horn of Prometheus, whereas in Wiz7 music 100 characters of arbitrary classes use Tomb of Demons and Cornu of Demonspawn fine. OK, one of the two fizzled, but could be a coincidence.

 

[Nukester]

Wiz VII had an automap, didnt it? At the beginning of the game, if you went off the beaten path and into the woods there was a map kit or some shit. One of your party had to have some kind of mapping skill to use it. It wasnt easy to find though, and you could certainly go through the game and not even know it was there. Im pretty sure this was one of the first games I ever played that came with an automap feature (been playing since the Wiz I / Ultima III days).

 

[Jaesun]

Don't play the Gold version of Wizardry VII, as it has a bug where all the dialogue in the game flashes by instantly before you, so you cannot read it at all. Find the DOS version. Just FYI.