Wizardry Latest Jap Wizardry any good?

[Reject_666_6]

Wizardry: Labyrinth of the Lost Souls has been out for a couple of months now, so have any of the resident consolefags given it a try and come to a conclusion about it? According to Wikipedia:

The title has received mixed reviews, with a score of 63 on Metacritic. IGN gave the title a 5.5 rating, criticizing the game for making players put in large amounts of work and not rewarding them enough. Gamespot gave the title a 7.5 rating, criticizing its old fashioned design and its lack of an auto map feature (although there actually is one), but praising its challenging and addictive combat. Gamepro gave the title a 3.5 out of 5 rating, stating that "Ultimately, 'Lost Souls' will reward masochists and scare off anyone intimidated by the slightest bit of a learning curve. There's a great challenge in store, but it doesn't pull any punches or make any apologies. Know that going in and don't say you weren't warned."

Apart from the obvious animu shit, it seems like it could go either way. So, thoughts?

 

[Renegen]

Is that the PS3 game? I remember when it came out that NeoGAF was all over it. I don't know if it's deeper than Wizardry: Forsaken Lands or Etrian Odyssey (or the japanese Wizardry DS game...) but it is a good game from what I read.

 

[Themadcow]

It depends what you're after. It's certainly more like the PS2 game than it is the PC Wizardry 6-8 games. What is has:

- Plenty of class/race options, and PLENTY of re-rolling to get the bonus stats (there are a few tricks). Less annoying than character generation in Wiz 6-8 but less rewarding too as the depth and ramifications of choice are limited.
- Linear dungeon progression, no outside world to speak of (except the town 'hub').
- Some mental difficulty spikes that necessitate grinding to overcome. Personally I like this, I hate games where there is no real fear of death. Standard enemies vary from timewasters to killing machines.
- Item drop rates that are simultaniously awesome (when the gods of random bless you) and brainmelting (1000 kills for 1 drop territory)
- Storyline is basic bordering on non-existant, so nothing like the rich tapestries of previous games. This also goes for the text description.
- Dull dungeon visuals - worse than the PS2 game, and not even on a par with Etrian Odyssey

Overall I'd recommend it for some oldschool dungeon grinding goodness but expect something more akin to a polished homebrew Wizardry rather than a genuine addition to the original PC series. The reviewers who hate it are the reviewers that would hate any turn based dungeon grind, while the reviewers that liked it are probably (like me) appreciating the nature of the game but disappointed that it's more of an simplified offshoot than a genine addition to a great series of games.

More than anything else, I'd buy it just to support companies like XSEED who take the gamble of localizing games for niche markets that we just wouldn't see otherwise.