Completed Let's play Wizards and Warriors !

[Lonely Vazdru]

First I hope I posted this in the right section. W&W is a RPG right ?

The reason I wanted to do this thread was first because there was some talk of this game here recently and I felt like trying it again, and second because there are many "Let's play" threads that I enjoy so I felt like playing the copycat.

Ok, let's go !

Let's play Wizards and Warriors Shall we ?

Some old crones hiding behind a fire talk about a great evil that is waking...

A dreadful and evil Pharaoh with some evilly matching "impossible to remember the first time" name.

There is this magic sword both blessed and cursed, the Mavin sword, that might help me...

This angelic being sure believes so. She asks me to go for the sword.

So does this mysterious dude who also talks of the sword. Who in hell is he ? My father ? The local innkeeper ? Who knows, anyway the pharaoh is after me and I must get this Mavin sword.

Let's go to that inn and party. Or create one actually.

I'll spare you the creation process but it's pretty cool. Races all have specific bonuses/minuses on stats. You get four classes to choose from at start : Wizard, priest, warrior, rogue. You choose a race, a sex and a class and stats are rolled. You get some extra points to distribute (random amount). It's a a bit annoying to re-roll a character since you have to exit a couple of screens averytime but it's worth it. I did not overdo it and just kept "above average" characters. I chose to use the most exotic races (one exception though) since it's a "let's play thread", and you might want to see the specifics of this game. I also chose members of the codex as characters in a lame, yet valiant attempt, at getting some added interest from the people here, and added fun for me as a player...

So here's our team :

Me, Vazdru : Male Ratling rogue
Kingcomrade : Male Gourk warrior
Jasede : Male Whiskah Warrior
Vdweller : Male Human rogue
Ladonna : Female Omphaaz priest
Volourn : Male Lizzord wizard

As soon as we exit the inn, this old man corners us and starts raving about bad dreams, and undead, and we getting to the Mavin sword, and the tomb that is near and seems to need some visiting, and so on...

Let's pay this armory a lil' visit, we are SO naked right now.

This guy will sell us some weapons and armor for sure, he's even named for it.
Now that we are outfitted with the little money we had, our characters are decent enough for a close-up of their sheets.

Kingcomrade is a strong Gourk warrior with good stats, Gourks make good warriors, so not much to more to say. A strong tank. No one will dare mock his spam.

Jasede is a Whiskah warrior with very decent stats. Whiskahs are okay warriors, more agile than strong. In this game our furry is a fierce axe wielding warrior. He wil end up a samuraï I bet.

Vazdru is a little agile rattling rogue. Fast but not strong and not to resilient either. Mainly here to untrap and unlock.

Vdweller is an oddity. A human from the universe of "real RPGs". As in Fallout. So he's a Fallout character lost in W&W's generic fantasy world. He's our "jack of all trades and master of none". Human, rogue (that fits fallout the best I thought, even if I didn't needed a second rogue) using a bow (ranged weapons are so Fallout) that surprinsgly doesn't show on the character' paper doll on the left, but it's there in the inventory screen.

Ladonna as the only female of this party had to be an imposing one. She's an Omphaaz priest. Slow and bulky she may be, but she's also the one who does the healing... 'nuff said.

Volourn is a Lizzord wizard. Lizzords make awful wizards but they also were the only remaining exotic race. And he managed to get a very decent roll on roll #3. So he is a rather good wizard. And most importantly, it barely shows on the picture, but trust me... he wears a nice little feathered hat.


This bargaining left us thirsty, let's go to the tavern...

Harrumph to you too... How about some rumours ? Hey ?

Too expensive, we only have 30 gp left. Later then...

That is one charming fellow. I love to be served. Let's click on that little icon on the left, right beneath the one with the paper sheets, the one with the little horse rider, it's for job opportunities...

Wow ! Two jobs. Useless to say that we accept both. The bounty is about getting gold pieces for every five skeleton skulls we bring back. The city is having trouble with undead. Reminds me of a similar situation in another city, with rats...
The delivery is about going to Ishab Na, somewhere far away, to deliver a letter.

There are other buildings but they are irrelevant right now, since we are penniless and can't join a guild.

So without further ado, let's hit the road ! "The old road to the graveyard ruins of Bersault" to be totally accurate...

Outside it's dawn and it's still dark... But the way to "ye olde cemetary" is pretty clear. Let's go !

We are stopped by a pack of Worgurs, dog-like dogs. Damn ! Let's dispatch them.

Only one remaining...

After dispaching the pack we come upon this mysterious stanger who abslolutely wants to talk with us ! he will follow everywhere so let's talk...

See the dialogue options on the left ? Kingcomrade hesitates 0.1 seconds before telling the guy to buzzzz off... (that's a lot of Z's).

The guy is pissed but doesn't attack.

He walks away towards the town...

Ha ha ! Kingcomrade smells some trolls...

Indeed ! Two of them...

The first one is slain, the second tries to run away. Not so fast ! Volourn prepares a shock spell...

Dead ! As you can see every party member gets a tremendous 8 xp each for the kill.

The loot is made of some arrows for Vdweller, two bows and a yet unidentified potion. After all this, each party member has 76 xp. Ain't that cool ? Only 924 more to go to level 2.

Me I'm off to bed, these threads are a lot of work. And I hate work, but I'll update soon since I love playing.

 

[Jasede]

I... I have 6 Intellect?

Yes, this is a good idea. Not many have played this game, so it's nice to show it off - especially because this game is better to watch than to play, trust me.

Just don't give up halfway! Until the bitter end! Besides, I need to learn where to get all the 4 books for the Zen Master class.

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

Yeah I know stats are just above average. Having at least 10 in each Stat is way too long to obtain.

I finished this game once and almost twice. I'll try to go to the end and show it here, the problem is not in finishing it (because I will) but in thinking to take screenshots, cool ones if possible, and updating the story. So we'll see how it turns out. I'm starting motivated, let's wait and see...

And now I go to sleep.

 

[DraQ]

this game is better to watch than to play, trust me.

But... But... But it has furries!

 

[Sovy Kurosei]

Out of the eight or so attempts at an LP thread will this one actually be the second one to be finished on the Codex?

 

[Andyman Messiah]

Out of the eight or so attempts at an LP thread will this one actually be the second one to be finished on the Codex?

I'd say every update I make is proof that mine is the only one who will be finished, at all. The Quest for Glory one is at a halt. I refuse to consider it finished until all games in the series are done. Mine however, is a meaty goodness of sweet fan fiction pizza action with no definite end! :D :D :D

About this one: Great! Like Jasede said, not many have played this game so you're basically doing a real service by showing it off.

 

[dragonfk]

From what I recall also Edward R. Murrow finished his ironman-style Icewind Dale game. Also Jasede hit the end with W:Dark Omen. So we've got at least 3 finished LP.

Im highly anticipating next updates from U:IX and from this one. Really, for 2 years Ive tried to get my hands on W&W...with no success. So now I can at least follow the game of a fellow codexian. Keep it coming Lonely Vazdru .

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

While roaming around the country we meet this little guy. He's a Stout (the W&W equivalent of a dwarf) and tells us a lot about the Stout mines to the north. He also tells us a lot about the cemetery, as his brother works there. He gives us a rat-pie to give to his brother and tells us the "secret" to get inside the cemetery. It has to do with a statue, we'll see...

Sure enough, following the Stout's instructions we find the cemetery. But at the last moment, the team decides to turn back and explore the rest of the map before going in.

We stumble upon a treasure chest.

I took this screenshot to show how lockpick works. Choose the lockpicking character and click on the chest. The difficulty of the chest appears on the left. On the bottom right is the lockpick screen. The protecting spell is shown (here it's "pain wave") and underneath are three icons. One for lockpick, one for forcing the chest open and one to quit. If you choose to lockpick, the green bar slides down (it's a timer) and the series of weird mecanisms on the right are manipulated by the thief. If you are lucky, all is done before the timer reaches 0, if not, the trap springs. All this is based on your character's lockpick skill so bthere's not much you can do, except decide to stop (click on the quit icon) if you "feel" you won't make it in time. And start again...

After springing the trap a first time Vazdru succesfully opens the chest on his second
attempt.

While exploring we stumble upon many encounters (bats, worgurs and trolls). Kingcomrade sick of fighting, tries to talk to those trolls... to no avail. We kill them.

Ho ho ! This looks like some special place.

Indeed, it's a thieve's den (the hidden circle). We talk to Gorthius, their leader. Note that Ladonna, having the highest Presence is now our official speaker. The leader asks us this ultimate question about honour. We of course answer "Yes". He then talks a lot about a local snake cult and their temple. Seems like one his men got captured and is held over there. We agree to go and bring him back. He talks about many other things, local lore mostly, so after a long chat we decide to leave.

As soon as we leave there is a commotion at the thieve's den and Gorthius is killed.

The thieves may have murdered their own leader, anyway the bastards now turn against us...

After killing them all, we find that strange note on the ground. Elyssia right ? I'm sure we'll meet in the future, and on not to pleasant terms...

After all this, we open a second chest hidden near the thieve's den and we are overloaded with loot (from multiple encounters and the thieves). so we decide to head back to town, to do some trading, as the sun sets down. Nice.

We sold many things, bought some others, Kingcomrade is now a member of the fighter's guild but he is the only one of the party. Membership is 500 gp and couldn't be afforded for everyone. Actually even this one membership was a mistake on my part, talk about not confirming your clicks, stupid interface. The only relevant item was a +1 armor class bracelet we found on the dead thief's leader. It went to Ladonna since being an Omphaaz and a priest, she can't wear much armor.

Now we are back to the cemetery and this time we won't back off. Okay Jasede ? Okay.

Undead rise from their graves to fight us. We easily dispatch them and keep their skulls, to get the reward in the town hall.

Now right before the crypt, we face the Bone Lord himself. This dude can summon skeletons so we better dispatch him fast.

We are surrounded ! That's a tough fight. We win but kingcomrade is killed. We head back to town to resurect him, and come back to the crypt.

Now we stand at the entrance of the shut down crypt. Let's try the Stout's trick then !

We click on that statue...

And sure enough, the crypt opens. We'll soon be going down. See how Vazdru and Vdweller have a little red sign next to their portraits ? That's because they are ready to level-up. They are ahead of others because rogues level-up faster. I'll wait untill everyone is ready to make a general level-up party.

I'm experiencing a weird bug, since almost everytime I try to use a potion the game crashes. That's annoying and I don't remember encountering this bug before. I'll try to check the net and see what I can find. The game can be finished without using potions, but hell, it will be more difficult, mainly because of heal potions. I'll see...

And now I go back to some real life activities. I'll keep it coming soon. Bye !

 

[RK47]

wow the gfx is not bad.
How old is this game?

 

[Atomic]

It was release in 2000 if im not mistaking.
I too have never played this game and never been able to find it so its great to finally see what this game looks like.

 

[Binary]

This game is actually good. It has a somewhat weak story but the dungeons/riddles/puzzles make up for it.

Also the combat is turn based (or phase-based, whatever).

 

[Andhaira]

Why am I not a character? Damn you op...damn you!

And yeah, the game is great. If you have already played wiz 8 and enjoyed it, play this by all means.

 

[Müg]

Haha Jasede is scared by a lame ass skeleton.

He'd lose so hard in CoC.

 

[caliban]

I bought this game when it came out and never really played it, as I thought it sucked. Do you consider it worthwhile? It seemed tedious and boring to me - does it get better later on?

 

[Shagnak]

Well, I think it does. I think the game was great (despite its flaws and bugginess).
But then I have suspect taste.

Andhaira and Binary, report to SGLF headquarters, stat!

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

As a reply to Caliban I'd say that it is mostly a dungeon crawler, even more so than the Wizardrys. It's on the M&M level of ropleplay, maybe a bit more. So basically you explore, fight, loot, level and talk to a couple of guys here and there. But then again, that's what 90% of old school RPG had to offer. I don't mind if it's done well, and here it's more than okay.

And to Müg : it ain't no lame ass skeleton but a bone lord, damn your eyes... A bone lord I tell ye.

Now back to the show.

This is a "dungeon lever". Every dungeon in this game works the same : outer doors and inner doors, and in between : a lever. Pulling the lever closes the outer doors (through which you entered) and opens the inner doors, so you can crawl all you like in the dungeon. When you exit, the procedure is the same, you pull and it closes inner doors and opens outer doors.

Now to come back to the screenshot, since I'm entering a tomb, I pretty much know what kind of horrors await. But let's enter...

Surprise ! Undead. Jasede, as always, is okay with that.

We also meet some rogues, that dared interrupt during a lockpick attempt on a pretty difficult lock. They died honourably.

Now this is level-up party time. It's very dark but this room is filled with two chests (on either side) and a fountain (in the middle). A good place to rest.. let's try the fountain.

A mana fountain, cool. Who knows, I may have to come back here during the course of my exploration of this dungeon

I note the fountain's location on the automap. Not that I really need it, but it's a cool feature just the same, and I wanted to show it.

Vazdru and Vdweller take turns to unock the two chest of the room. They get one each. The loot is pretty shitty though. Except maybe an unidentified amulet.

The whole party leveled-up in that room. Leveling up in this game means many things, additional hit points, additional stat points, skill increase, and new spells for the spellcasters. The first thing you get is a roll for both Hit points and Stat points. If you reload you get different and VERY variable results. Since I wanted this game to keep going and not loose to much time I decided on a "best of four rolls" policy. Mainly to get two Stat points and not one. So everyone got either two or three additional Stat points and random, class related, race related, aditional hit points. Then you increase skills and pick new spells among those you can learn for your spellcasters.

Since I leveled-up the whole party I'll use this opportunity to show another part of the character sheet : the skills table. Here you can see a character skills, his level in each skills and the character traits which are race or class related. Vdweller is pretty happy to see skills and traits on his character sheet when leveling up, but no new feat each third level... it sucks !

Anyway, here are our characters skills.

Not very impressive yet, but that will change. with time.

We push into the dungeon and meet some nice statues.

We get to a water basin with ugly looking fishes. The water texture is pretty ugly too. It looked much better the last time I played.

We fight those ugly fishes, them being the only enemies in sight.

In one of the rooms surrounding the water, there is a health fountain (on the right next to the torch) and some lousy barrels. A note on barrels and crates : all are breakable and some contain minor treats (potions, gold, magical powder). I break them all as a rule.

In another room, Vazdru uses his freshly upgraded lockpick skills to open a chest that gives 100xp to every party member. And a unique item, a "bauble stick" that might come in handy.

In the last room we find Bilbump's brother : Rethpian. The Stout is totally crazy for rats.

I love those first three sentences. The voice acting is a bit overdone but it fits here, and I always laugh when he goes "I didn't at first you know".

After being given the rat pie he tells us a secret. It's a pretty tricky one too. I missed it on my first playthrough. But not this time, you'll see later... He also talks a lot about losing his keys in the water, and the bauble stick, and a cristal that's supposed to be on it. We say goodbye to the little man and dive straight in the water to check on his missing keys.

Under water (note the oxygen level on the characters portraits when underwater) we see the crystal through the bars. And then... FUCK ! I'm supposed to use the bauble stick on the crystal but everytime I do it, the game crashes. This is not good, weird water textures, crashes on using, not only potions but seemingly any item. It does not bode well. I tried to run in windows 95 and 98 compatibility but it still crashes. I know it's not supposed to run well with XP, but I never had any trouble before. The only difference between now and the last time I played it is that I went from Service Pack 1 to Service Pack 2. I wonder of it is related but I don't see how. Anyway, I'll try to find a solution since I want to at least get a decent try at finishing this thread. In the meantime our team is stuck in Rethpian's rather gloomy room.

No fun. My babe. No fun. I'll try to come up with a solution in the coming days.

 

[Binary]

Andhaira and Binary, report to SGLF headquarters, stat!

yessir! on the double sir!...

,,,

...erm...

...where ARE the headquarters? :D

 

[avatarrr]

Try turning d3d acceleration off

The only difference between now and the last time I played it is that I went from Service Pack 1 to Service Pack 2. I wonder of it is related but I don't see how. Anyway, I'll try to find a solution since I want to at least get a decent try at finishing this thread. In the meantime our team is stuck in Rethpian's rather gloomy room.

I've heard W&W has problems with ATI card sometimes. Perhaps turning off d3d acceleration in options (or sound as well) might help?

 

[Section8]

I didn't mind Wizards and Warriors. In fact, I have fonder memories of it than any Bioware game. The thing that brought it down for me were a couple of suspect encounters, like some plants that dropped massive damage-over-time spells on my whole party and would routinely kill me before I could even get close enough to see them. I eventually discovered some exploity type play that got me past them though.

I'm wondering, what exactly was it that caused W&W to be universally recognised as a shit game?

 

[Xi]

I wish I still had my saved game. I enjoyed this game quite a bit, but I don't know if I would be willing to do it all over again. I was right at the end too. Figures...

Nice Let's play so far.

I'm wondering, what exactly was it that caused W&W to be universally recognised as a shit game?

I consider this game a gem that a lot of cRPGers missed. It's a great game for a first time play through. I'm not sure either. /Shrug It has a little bit of everything. Cut-scenes, vast dungeons, difficulty, traps, puzzles, hidden loot, a nice character system, etc. What's not to like?

 

[Jasede]

like some plants that dropped massive damage-over-time spells on my whole party and would routinely kill me before I could even get close enough to see them. I eventually discovered some exploity type of way to get past them

Pretty sure that's the way you are supposed to it, if you mean in the ogre caves?

 

[Section8]

Pretty sure that's the way you are supposed to it, if you mean in the ogre caves?

Nope, the big fucking Audrey II looking things wandering the landscape.

 

[Shagnak]

...where ARE the headquarters? :D

Just follow the trail of broken Baldurs Gate cds and discarded furry suits and you'll find it. I'm giving you two days, and then I'm sending out a squad of super ninja furries to extract you forcibly.

Nope, the big fucking Audrey II looking things wandering the landscape.

You mean the Amazon Mantraps? They were nasty.
The main problem with them is you meet some fairly early on (a surprise attack outside Shuregeon Castle?) and they are way overpowered for your level at that point. It's not impossible to kill them or escape them though, just very difficult.

Pretty sure that's the way you are supposed to it, if you mean in the ogre caves?

I think you mean the Jungle Lillies in the Boogre Lair/Prison. They're were almost as bad-ass as the Amazon Mantraps

 

[Jasede]

Yeah. The game expects you to cheese ranged area of effect attacks at that point, the same you can use to kill the

Spoiler

dragon and tree

with for MASSIVE XP to level from level 17 to 40 [!] or something equally ridiculous.

 

[Lemunde]

All this time I thought Wizards & Warriors was one of those random NES games. I had no idea it came out on PC. Good music, though.

http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR00836/