Wizardry Long Live Wizardry! (And The All-New Games By Ex-Wizardry Developers)

[Viata]

Best thread in this forum.
Also, is this for wiz clones or blobber? Because that Doom rpg is far from a wiz clone.

 

[getter77]

Lots of these seem a bit of a reach, but only a bit, so in that case I'll throw out what I reckon to be a justified nod for Mazes of Fate for the GBA and/or DS.

As with many such titles, but especially Fighting Fantasy, their greatest mistake was being for the GBA and/or DS instead of the PC as the machines just couldn't fully handle what they were reaching for.

 

[aweigh]

wiz-clones means:

- mazes
- wizardry 1-8 classes/alignment/gender/spell mechanics
- turn-based combat. EXCLUSIVELY TURN-BASED COMBAT.
- preferably first-person view exploration but some exceptions apply such as 7th Dragon

for example Dragon Quest 1 for the NES would fill all the criteria necessary BUT it's focus is not on mazes nor does it feature alignments, genders, schools of magic or class systems. you could ALMOST make an argument then for Dragon Quest 3 then but it STILL wouldn't feature an emphasis on mazes.

the Dragon Quest games are perfect examples of Wiz-inspired rpg's as opposed to Wiz-CLONES like Elminage series or The Dark Spire on 3ds.

 

[Viata]

Some I believe to be wizardry-clone or at least takes inspiration from it:

Arcana - SNES

Shin Megami Tensei IF...* - SNES

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner Soul Hacker - 3DS

Unchained Blades EXXIV - PSP/3DS*


Dark Delve - XBOX 360


Wizardry Summoner - Game Boy Advance*


BUSIN 0 - Wizardry Alternative NEO - PS2*

(This guy has some great let's play of Wizardry(japan-only) if you can understand Japanese)

 

[Viata]

Wizardry Xth Academy of Frontier - PS2*


Wizardry Xth 2 UNLIMITED STUDENT - PS2*


ウィザードリィ 囚われし亡霊の街 - PSN*


Generation Xth Code Breaker - PC*


Generation Xth Code Realize - PC*
(Couldn't find a single image from the game, reinstalling the game right now to take some ss)

Words Worth - PC
http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/lets-play-words-worth-nsfw.69207/

Card of Destiny - Sega*


There's also Madou Monogatari, which has 10+ games.
There are also Galzoo Island, Dungeon Cruzaders, Rewrite Haverst festa, Oudou Yuusha, Gears of Dragon. They are all eroge, btw.
* means the game is japanese only as far as I know.
Sorry the double post, but it's seems to be a limit of 5 media.

 

[aweigh]

holy shit i'd completely forgotten about ARCANA for the SNES. ARCANA was my very first introduction into Wiz-gameplay.

I still consider ARCANA one of the best CRPG's i've ever played. I'll update shortly.

 

[aweigh]

and yeah i know i've left out a ton of wiz-clones and ACTUAL wizardries out of the original post but that's because i'm trying to keep the initial list comprised of english-playable titles for easy finding.

whomever's interested in wizardry and games that ape its mechanics will undoubtedly read the rest of the thread and see all of the japanese-language games that people have posted.

 

[Viata]

whomever's interested in wizardry and games that ape its mechanics will undoubtedly read the rest of the thread and see all of the japanese-language games that people have posted.

Include "for non-english wizardry and wizardry-clones, keep reading this thread" on first post so people will know you didn't include all games on first post.

 

[H-K]

whomever's interested in wizardry and games that ape its mechanics will undoubtedly read the rest of the thread and see all of the japanese-language games that people have posted.

Include "for non-english wizardry and wizardry-clones, keep reading this thread" on first post so people will know you didn't include all games on first post.

I could try to collect the Japanese ones in my post if there is enough interest since I have the second post in this thread.

 

[Viata]

whomever's interested in wizardry and games that ape its mechanics will undoubtedly read the rest of the thread and see all of the japanese-language games that people have posted.

Include "for non-english wizardry and wizardry-clones, keep reading this thread" on first post so people will know you didn't include all games on first post.

I could try to collect the Japanese ones in my post if there is enough interest since I have the second post in this thread.

That is a good idea. Since the limit is 5 media, you just include the youtube link from posts if that's not too much work.

 

[H-K]

whomever's interested in wizardry and games that ape its mechanics will undoubtedly read the rest of the thread and see all of the japanese-language games that people have posted.

Include "for non-english wizardry and wizardry-clones, keep reading this thread" on first post so people will know you didn't include all games on first post.

I could try to collect the Japanese ones in my post if there is enough interest since I have the second post in this thread.

That is a good idea. Since the limit is 5 media, you just include the youtube link from posts if that's not too much work.

Ok added the Japanese ones mentioned in this thread and will probably add some more (like the untranslated Elminage titles) later and sort them in spoiler tags if I get the time.

 

[Siveon]

Could we start making reviews/write-ups for each entry?

 

[aweigh]

the mechanics are the same oasis, including the hidden miss chance modifier and all that.

 

[aweigh]

i suppose one could just open up the rom in a hex editor.

i just google searched as many websites and forums as possible for details regarding possible differences between the snes port and the dos version.

there are many minor differences but nothing that impacts gameplay. in fact the carry-capacity bug is fixed in the snes port.

 

[CryptRat]

Life is too short.thread

 

[aweigh]

man i want to keep adding games that feature at the very least the core concepts of a wizardry title:

- first-person exploration of mazes
- mechanical systems derived from wizardry's classes/alignment/gender variables
- itemization rooted in wizardry's cursed/unindentified resource management
- exclusively turn-based combat
- non-linear character development

sure i've found quite a few titles that fill all of these requirements (or almost all of them) but only a small portion are playable in english. the vast majority of wizardry-clones are from japan. the etrian oddysey series has apparently created a brand-new derivative of the wizardry formula that mixes jrpg grind (EO's skill point level up system, for example) with wizardry-clone elements. oh well at least it's still palatable.

unfortunately searching for english-language dungeon crawlers mostly turns up simplistic Might & Magic derivatives, horrible roguelike mash-ups that would be unrecognizable to actual roguelike fans or the worst of the worst: real-time abominations that take after Grimrock. ugh.

it's fucking painful having to include in this list garbage like skull of smahk-daon

 

[Viata]

The thing is, if you want to play wizardry-clones, you gotta learn Japanese or wait for translation. Sadly, but it's the true.

 

[Dorateen]

I think Demise: Ascension deserves mention. Its guild-based class changing mechanics have a depth that is Wizardry-esque. Including special guild content.

The only aspect not meeting the criteria is the combat system. However, the dungeon design, exploration, and sheer quantity of beasts and items, makes up for it.

 

[Siveon]

I don't get the appeal of real-time party-based dungeon crawls, tbh. Single character real time I can get behind (ala Ultima Underworld), but real time just feels awkward.

The thing is, if you want to play wizardry-clones, you gotta learn Japanese or wait for translation. Sadly, but it's the true.

Indeed. The worst part is that most fan translators (besides our very own, of course), are casuals who only translate derivative JRPGs or VNs. Y'know, stuff they actually play. We lucked out with some of these translations, I swear. I think LoT only got translated because it was part of the Touhou fan-game.

Thank god for companies like Atlus/NISA. We'd be wiz-likeless for the most part.

 

[Courtier]

Demise is great. The labyrinth is very well made, and the way it plays makes it so you quickly get so familiar with the levels that you can navigate them blindly. It's completely different to modern Wizardry-based crawlers though, besides the combat, because there is no saving/reloading and everything is somewhat persistent. When you kill monsters, they're gone until new ones move in days later. If your party gets wiped, you will have to roll new characters to pick up the corpses, have somebody in reserve pay NPCs to rescue them, or wait many months for somebody to stumble upon them. Some especially nasty traps and pitfalls can put your characters and their gear beyond reach for a long time (if not forever), which makes exploring more thrilling and heartattack-inducing than the average blobber.

To me it feels closer to a roguelike, because the player suffers harsh, (semi)permanent penalties for mistakes and will have to deal with it. The first time I casually walked into a room full of cockatrices and everybody got instantly petrified I shat a house of bricks. Another time I accidentally fell into an underground lake, and had to frantically and desperately fight my way through the unexplored waters to find a way out before drowning.

Places you already explored become a cakewalk, so you waltz through them and leave behind a literal mountain of corpses (pic related) for easy treasure and exp - which is very gratifying, since it clears the way deeper into the dungeon for some time. It's a unique and very fun game you can sink hundreds of hours into, but takes some getting used to. There's a lot to it. Many spell schools and ways to navigate the dungeon, monster recruiting, hunting for special items (e.g. permanent stat increase tomes) and rare monsters, random quests, and secrets everywhere. The dungeon is also fucking huge.

Spoiler

 

[Viata]

This looks like a great game. Putting on my backlog above many others game that can wait now.

 

[Siveon]

How exactly is the combat? I like the screenshots and I love a good dungeon, but I'm curious how it handles 8 characters on one screen.

 

[Courtier]

It's semi-realtime and automated. This means that every tick, a turn passes and all characters automatically perform the action you've assigned to them. What this boils down to is you walk into a room, and suddenly there are goblins flying all over the place as their low-poly models tip over like dominoes. Before you can say blueberry pie the battle is over, and you can go on your way. You can pause mid fight to select spells and such, but most of the time you'll just be skipping along, hundreds of sad goblin squeaks resounding through the dungeon. It's like Dungeon Master except all the repetitive clicking is done for you. You can actually have up to 20 characters (4 PC, 4 recruited monsters each) but when your party is that big people will start hitting each other in the muddle of combat.

 

[aweigh]

yeah i know/knew about demise for a while but i haven't played it because the combat isn't turn-based. i did read through the forums and it's basically the most convoluted crawler mechanics i've ever read. game also seems incredibly nasty in a good way to beginner players featuring shit like teleports that scatter your party into different floors and/or into unwinnable situations.

features many rogue-like elements as well. the game seems incredibly interesting to be honest but right now i just really want to play some turn-based shit. included it anyway.

 

[Lord Azlan]

Devil Whiskey (PC)

Thanks to OP - great post.

Funny - all my hatred for consoles and how they turn people into vegetables. It seems now if I ever bought one I would have enjoyed many blobber type games. Something to ponder on.

Regards Devils Whiskey - I followed the link to Gamersgate and a chance to buy.

What do the experts on Codex think of it?