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

[janior]

Why would say they're completely separate?? They're more like sub-genres.

 

[Alchemist]

from what Alchemist writes it seems to have a bit more depth than the Quest though since he is comparing it to the Demise series of games (which are actually listed in the compilation of turn-based dungeon crawlers thread).

Heh.. yeah about that. Demise combat plays out in real-time but behind the scenes things are definitely taking turns. Which seems to be how that Oubliette port plays as well. And an interesting thing to note is that Oubliette (on PLATO) influenced the creation of Avatar (on PLATO) which in turn directly led to Mordor, which then led to Demise.

sure, i have nothing personal against trying the game out. I will do so, thanks. especially now that i know the original designers are credited.

Yeah dude, you should definitely at least take a look - because I think lumping it in with the Dungeon Master-style games is a bit off.

 

[aweigh]

yeah it's definitely not a DM-style game.

the dungeon crawler tag has more problems associated with it than the actual RPG tag. for one thing games like the demise "series" of games aren't puzzle-heavy, and neither is oubliette.

 

[Celerity]

Yeah, in the vast majority of "dungeon crawler" games the dungeon is just a backdrop, and not an actual part of the experience at all (or worse an annoying part).

 

[Dorarnae]

decided to replay the first wizardry(ps1).

good thing the pre created characters have some money on them hehe.

 

[Dorarnae]

weird, pretty sure I entered the coordinate for teleport correctly and my party ended up drowned, oh well at least I can still revive them.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

"Pretty sure I entered the coordinate for teleport correctly"

Famous last words.

 

[aweigh]

Dorarnae

don't worry you're not the only one. last night i was playing wizardry empire 1 and i lost to a trapped chest my original party (devil eye), but not only that i also then lost to another trapped chest my second party (teleported into rock)...

now i'm on my third party and i'm fucking scared shitless of opening chests!

 

[Dorarnae]

that exp from earth elemental <3

 

[Dorarnae]

was exploring the 8th floor, almost done but was on my way back to town to refill my mana but got ambushed by 4 chimera and bunch of other crap and that fire breath killed me lol. sigh time to lvl a rescue party, at least my characters are not too far from the elevator.

 

[Siveon]

Semi-relevant article. I'd suggest not looking at the comments, though.

Stranger of Sword City Makers On What Makes Dungeon RPGs Popular In Japan

Spoiler

Experience is known for making various dungeon RPGs such as Demon Gaze and Stranger of Sword City. Siliconera recently spoke with company president Hajime Chikami on what makes the genre popular in Japan, and their plans to expand and go beyond with more.



While Wizardry had a huge influence on dungeon RPGs, it seems like the DRPG genre is more popular in the West. Between Acquire’s Wizardry games, the Class of Heroes series, Eliminage, Etrian Odyssey, and Experience’s many DRPG titles the genre is quite strong in Japan. Why do you think Japanese gamers are so fond of DRPGs?

Chikami: There has been an increase in the number of story-driven games on the market and fewer games that have more focus on role-playing aspects, such as selecting and customizing your character. I believe these factors both contribute to the popularity of DRPGs among Japanese gamers currently.



How was Experience founded? What did you, Chikami-san, want to do different with the DRPG genre after his work on Wizardry Xth?

“We need a place where we can develop games for the rest of our lives.” That was the thinking that lead me to establishing a company. By around the year 2000, DRPGs were on the decline, so we aimed to revive the popularity by providing content that even beginners would be interested in.



The basic character classes for DRPGs are tanks, damage dealers, and healers. How do you invent and balance new character classes?

In case we have to add classes on top of existing classes, we search for classes that have abilities that would fill in the missing gaps or classes that may provide a new, unique quality. In regards to balance, it’d change depending on whether it’s the main character or sub character in that title, but basically, we try to adjust the balance in a way where it would be useful in several party compositions that might be used.



The DRPG genre isn’t exactly welcoming, but Experience has added ideas like the Magic Chalk and auto walking through completed areas in Demon Gaze to make the games friendlier to newcomers. How do you think you can expand the market for DRPGs? What features have you been working on?

Though it’s only done within Japan, we are trying to increase the opportunity for people to take interest in the games by offering multimedia development for each title and demo events throughout Japan.



Also, although this is obvious, we’d like to provide fun, new titles that have settings and systems with a hook to them that would appeal to users’ interests. Most recently, we have asked Mr. Benny Matsuyama, who is famous for writing wizardry novels, to write Stranger of Sword City.



Has Experience thought about expanding beyond DRPGs?

Of course. We are currently planning several different things, so please look forward to our announcements!



Check out our earlier interview with Chikami-san to read about how they have multiple Xbox One titles in development for the West.


Read more stories about Interviews & Experience on Siliconera.

 

[Hobo Elf]

While Wizardry had a huge influence on dungeon RPGs, it seems like the DRPG genre is more popular in the West.

In what dimension?

 

[Siveon]

I like to believe that was a typo, and our writer here meant to say "more popular in the east". Especially since he said "While Wizardry (a western game) had a huge influence on dungeon RPGs...".

And another related article, this time a review of Stranger of Sword City. If you want a bit of background, he likes Elminage and is ambivalent to Etian Odyssey.

 

[aweigh]

i just finished torrenting all 3 generation xth windows PC games. if at least one other person agrees to do the "list stuff" (monsters/items/etc) grunt work w/ me i am down for translating that sucker. sucker(s). whatever.

if gen xth 2 and 3 are like the 1st one then it should be a straight foward translation, just like wizardry empire 1, 2 and 3 i.e. no graphics hacking (elminage) or pointer hacking (fucking elminage) required.

 

[Dorarnae]

been playing Wizardry Dimguil a little, still waiting for my Stranger of sword city copy to arrive....

I don't know if there's a wiki for that game but I'll post a few thing so people can progress....

after the first dungeon, you get somewhere that link to other dungeon but they're locked and you need to enter some word at a terminal to unlock them.
second dungeon is: Staff
third:Laboratory
fourth:Warehouse

in third dungeon there's some kind of safe you have to unlock. it's ->135 <-45 ->90

I'll eventually post what each symbol letter are...

 

[aweigh]

I TRIed to psyche myself up to attempt translating Dimguil but i never could. as much as i love wizardry it just bored me the little i played.

the one i really really really wanted to translate was wizardry asterisk on NDS... but alas the damn game is encrypted to hell and back and requires editing/hacking the game graphics in order to translate into english the interface "commands", which are textures instead of plain text...

so i gave up Asterisk and am now quite very pleasantly surprised with how accomodating editing wizardry xth 2 is so far. i think i have the next one for when all 3 wiz-empire titles are in english.

i did want to attempt translating stranger in sword city but that was because i did not thinkg it was getting localized for Steam release. the fact it is is very good news.

 

[Dorarnae]

Dimguil start a bit slow. well the pyramid is a bit boring but after that it's nice. I am starting to see monster that take the whole screen, had 4 fire giant earlier and their breath one shot some of my guy and on top of that I couldn't cast.
I hope there isn't too much of these guy or I'll go level a bit heh.

 

[Dorarnae]

fifth dungeon is: Energy
there's a computer in there and it's: Dimguil

waaah so unfair, some caster in the back row that can cast tiltowait and I can't cast anything :S lol

 

[Dorateen]

I saw an announcement about Stranger of Sword City coming to Steam in June. For anyone familiar with this title, it is a party based game? I eventually saw a screenshot that suggest this, but how about full party creation? The lone survivor of a crash premise doesn't grab me. But otherwise, it looks interesting.

What's the front page on this dungeon crawler?

 

[Siveon]

For anyone familiar with this title, it is a party based game?

Yes.

I eventually saw a screenshot that suggest this, but how about full party creation?

Sort of. It's like Lords of Xulima (if you've played it), where there's one preset character with one class with 5 other team members you can change/create at your own will.

Hope that helps.

 

[Dorateen]

Thanks. I don't like preset characters in any role-playing game, especially as a forced Main Character. But I'll keep an eye on this one, and probably try it later this year.

 

[Siveon]

Thanks. I don't like preset characters in any role-playing game, especially as a forced Main Character.

You must not play many newer RPGs then, but no problem.

 

[Courtier]

Thanks. I don't like preset characters in any role-playing game, especially as a forced Main Character. But I'll keep an eye on this one, and probably try it later this year.

You can still pick a name/voice/portrait/gender, the only thing is that (as far as the story is concerned) your MC is always a human that ended up in fantasy land and gets divine plot powers. You even get to pick conversation options (that don't affect much). For the rest it's just a Wizardry-based blobber. And yes, you can make a party of all dwarves/old men.

But I agree, I'd rather have ''A big thing happened and adventurers flocked to it from across the land'' than ''Wake up sleepyhead you are the chosen one''

 

[aweigh]

Is it good? yeah yeha I know dorar's finished it 500 times on 20 consoles, but does Courtier give it the seal of approval? At the very least it has to be better (better maze design / more combat depth/ less annoying crafting or preferably none / better char classes / better handling of enemy immunites, etc) than Gen XTH: CH, right?

 

[Dorarnae]

lol hey I only played it 4 times. maybe 5 later this year with the new version they're releasing in japan this summer -_-