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Wizardry Long Live Wizardry! (And The All-New Games By Ex-Wizardry Developers)
- Thread starter aweigh
- Start date
Viata
Arcane
Paper Sorcerer, then.
Jack Dandy
Arcane
IIRC, Ghostlight is supposed to be announcing 2 new dungeon crawlers soon. Keep an eye out for them.
So is there another Wizardry game coming into the pipeline?
Ventidius
Arbiter
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Ghostlight might put something out, but we don't know for sure yet.
http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/random-jrpg-news-thread.98542/page-91#post-5616210
Honestly, I hope Ibun does not end up being the last Wiz-like by Starfish, not now that the market for blobbers seems to finally be expanding and making its way to multiple platforms and regions.
Dorarnae
Arbiter
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- Jan 21, 2016
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no idea what experience inc. is doing lately. they released some kind of point and click horror/mystery(to be honest I don't exactly know what it is...) thing on vita/ps4 few months ago and porting it to switch in a month.
they were suposed to work oin a strategy rpg too on xbox one, but haven't heard anything about it lately, dunno how advanced the project is but on the 2017 soundbox there was a couple song for the game.
I dunno if the market for blobbers is really expanding. there are more people interested in them but I still feel that most of em will mostly just buy Etrian odyssey
Ventidius
Arbiter
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Well, I am mostly going by the amount of ports that have been conducted recently on PC and the 3DS, and also the localizations, but I suppose it is impossible to know for sure without concrete sales figures. As for Etrian Odyssey, I have always seen it as more of a gateway drug rather than a sales leech. Not to mention the fact that EO is a Nintendo exclusive which leaves a sizable opening for blobbers with greater platform-flexibility to move into its market. Who knows, if the SOSC franchise keeps going it might even end up challenging EO for the title of premier mainstream blobber.
newtmonkey
Arcane
Have been playing Story of Llylgamyn on PSX the last couple of days. Very good port indeed, but I've noticed some differences between it and the DOS (Wiz Archives) version.
1) I think everyone knows that the DOS version is somewhat infamously bugged when it comes to stats on level up. It's not even fair—you are basically guaranteed to weaken in multiple stats every time you level up. I found it wasn't (much) of a problem in terms of screwing up combat efficiency, but it made it pretty much impossible for characters to ever reach the min stats for the elite classes.
2) It is waaaay easier to get double digit bonus points when making characters in the PSX version. Bonus points tend to be higher than the DOS version on average, plus you can reroll on the spot as much as you like. This is huge because it takes no time at all to get enough bonus points where you can create any of the core classes with maxed primary stats and vitality, for a massive spike in HPs. Of course, at a certain point in the game HPs become less important as you are under a greater threat of one-hit kills from the 3rd level down... but this makes the game quite a lot easier until you reach this point.
3) It seems like there are more random encounters in the PSX version. When I was playing the DOS version, it seemed like the vast majority of encounters were on set squares (you were pretty much guaranteed an encounter behind most doors). The PSX version has random encounters in rooms and corridors (or at least MORE random encounters). This means you get to much higher levels quicker in the PSX version (and thanks to the generous bonus points, you will have some crazy HPs early on), but also means that you can't rely on avoiding doors to avoid most encounters.
Interesting port nonetheless. I have it set to wireframe graphics with original monster sprites. I mapped the DOS version by hand, so this time I gave myself a break and turned the auto map on.
1) I think everyone knows that the DOS version is somewhat infamously bugged when it comes to stats on level up. It's not even fair—you are basically guaranteed to weaken in multiple stats every time you level up. I found it wasn't (much) of a problem in terms of screwing up combat efficiency, but it made it pretty much impossible for characters to ever reach the min stats for the elite classes.
2) It is waaaay easier to get double digit bonus points when making characters in the PSX version. Bonus points tend to be higher than the DOS version on average, plus you can reroll on the spot as much as you like. This is huge because it takes no time at all to get enough bonus points where you can create any of the core classes with maxed primary stats and vitality, for a massive spike in HPs. Of course, at a certain point in the game HPs become less important as you are under a greater threat of one-hit kills from the 3rd level down... but this makes the game quite a lot easier until you reach this point.
3) It seems like there are more random encounters in the PSX version. When I was playing the DOS version, it seemed like the vast majority of encounters were on set squares (you were pretty much guaranteed an encounter behind most doors). The PSX version has random encounters in rooms and corridors (or at least MORE random encounters). This means you get to much higher levels quicker in the PSX version (and thanks to the generous bonus points, you will have some crazy HPs early on), but also means that you can't rely on avoiding doors to avoid most encounters.
Interesting port nonetheless. I have it set to wireframe graphics with original monster sprites. I mapped the DOS version by hand, so this time I gave myself a break and turned the auto map on.
Frankly, PSX ports (especially and specifically of 4 and 5) are my preferred versions. In the case of Wiz 4 there's not even anything else worth considering, IMO; the game is already masochistic enough. From personal experience I agree with you about Bonus Points being (or seemingly) more "generous" in PSX ports, and about less frequency of Attribute Degradation on Level Ups, though I never noticed any marked difference in frequency of encounters. I always encountered enemies in the same places they were every time in any version, thoguh it's not out of the realm of possibility the step-counter was tweaked.
All things considered they are kind of marvels of port-quality. Almost any option you could want (original graphics or remade ones), beautiful musical scores, unchanged design, etc. Wizardry 4 PSX port is also the highest quality one out of all of them. The soundtrack is bad ass as fuck, and (though this may just be me) I find the remade sprites/art to be superior to the remade spritework on the other remakes. It's pretty plain they gave Wiz 4 the most love.
(Two different teams worked on these ports, btw).
The team that made the Wiz4 and Wiz5 ports went on to work on THE DARK SPIRE for Nintendo DS, and employees from the team that worked on Wiz1-3 ports went on to Michael Soft (currently part of Exp Inc, behind Stranger of Sword City).
All things considered they are kind of marvels of port-quality. Almost any option you could want (original graphics or remade ones), beautiful musical scores, unchanged design, etc. Wizardry 4 PSX port is also the highest quality one out of all of them. The soundtrack is bad ass as fuck, and (though this may just be me) I find the remade sprites/art to be superior to the remade spritework on the other remakes. It's pretty plain they gave Wiz 4 the most love.
(Two different teams worked on these ports, btw).
The team that made the Wiz4 and Wiz5 ports went on to work on THE DARK SPIRE for Nintendo DS, and employees from the team that worked on Wiz1-3 ports went on to Michael Soft (currently part of Exp Inc, behind Stranger of Sword City).
newtmonkey
Arcane
It really is a great port. I like all the options to customize your experience... but when it comes down to it, anyone who spends any serious time playing these will ultimately set the dungeon graphics to wireframe (for speed) and the monster graphics to old style (since the new style graphics do not show all enemy groups at once).
The encounter frequency seemed to be higher on the first few floors, but about the same as the PC version from floor 4 down.
I just cleared the "boss" encounter on floor 4, so I guess now the real Wizardry begins. Overall, until this point it's been roughly the same difficulty as the DOS version regardless of the higher on average bonus points during character creation.
One thing that threw me for a loop was the Ring of Death, which is pretty pointless in this version. You lose HP just by carrying it, you can't sell it unidentified, and you can't sell it identified (as its cursed). So the only option is to drop it.
The encounter frequency seemed to be higher on the first few floors, but about the same as the PC version from floor 4 down.
I just cleared the "boss" encounter on floor 4, so I guess now the real Wizardry begins. Overall, until this point it's been roughly the same difficulty as the DOS version regardless of the higher on average bonus points during character creation.
One thing that threw me for a loop was the Ring of Death, which is pretty pointless in this version. You lose HP just by carrying it, you can't sell it unidentified, and you can't sell it identified (as its cursed). So the only option is to drop it.
newtmonkey
Arcane
Good news (for me)!
When I got a new PC loaded with Win 10 last year, I found that the text in Generation Xth CODE HAZARD was all messed up, basically rendering the game unplayable. I decided on a lark to reinstall the game today, and apparently some Windows update or something has resolved the problem, and now the game runs fine again. I had backed up my party and held onto the backup, so I don't even have to start over.
I was initially unimpressed with this game, but after putting some hours into it I really began to enjoy it. It does a lot of things wrong (the dialog is horrible and there is soooo much text, the monster art is generally horrible, the crafting system is retarded [nothing worse than opening a treasure chest after a tough battle and getting like PIECE OF CLOTH X 1 and METAL BITS X 3, stupid made up names for classes etc. that are functionally no different from FIGHTER THIEF MAGE ETC), but also does a lot of things right (Vancian spell-casting, fun dungeon designs, the equipment paperdolls), so it's worth playing imo.
When I got a new PC loaded with Win 10 last year, I found that the text in Generation Xth CODE HAZARD was all messed up, basically rendering the game unplayable. I decided on a lark to reinstall the game today, and apparently some Windows update or something has resolved the problem, and now the game runs fine again. I had backed up my party and held onto the backup, so I don't even have to start over.
I was initially unimpressed with this game, but after putting some hours into it I really began to enjoy it. It does a lot of things wrong (the dialog is horrible and there is soooo much text, the monster art is generally horrible, the crafting system is retarded [nothing worse than opening a treasure chest after a tough battle and getting like PIECE OF CLOTH X 1 and METAL BITS X 3, stupid made up names for classes etc. that are functionally no different from FIGHTER THIEF MAGE ETC), but also does a lot of things right (Vancian spell-casting, fun dungeon designs, the equipment paperdolls), so it's worth playing imo.
Yeah Generation XTH is a great Wiz-clone. It is essentially a reskinned/updated take on Michael Soft's PS2-era games Wizardry XTH. Stranger of Sword City is definitely Exp Inc's best game, hands down, but Generation XTH: CH is a very close runner-up.
Huge part of the reason Stranger of Sword City is inherently superior is that they decided to forego crafting and instead use normal loot itemization.
Huge part of the reason Stranger of Sword City is inherently superior is that they decided to forego crafting and instead use normal loot itemization.
Dorarnae
Arbiter
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- Jan 21, 2016
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yeah stranger and labyrinth cross blood are my favorite from them.
newtmonkey
Arcane
Bad news (for me)!
Wizardry: Prisoners of the Battles apparently doesn't work with Win 10 at all. Tried installing it on a Japanese Win XP virtual box, but get an error when starting the game. Will have to investigate some more...
In other news, I ended up getting a used copy of the bugged version of Wizardry: Dimguil. I was sort of holding out for a miracle in which I stumble upon a fixed version in the wild for 2000 yen or something, but it's been more than a year and and I haven't even stumbled upon the BUGGED version in the wild.
I've done some research, and apparently the bugs are pretty easy to avoid (mostly occurs in the optional card game, or when mashing buttons during certain spell effects).
I looked through some site with rips of the monster art from the game. Wow. That is some amazing artwork.
Wizardry: Prisoners of the Battles apparently doesn't work with Win 10 at all. Tried installing it on a Japanese Win XP virtual box, but get an error when starting the game. Will have to investigate some more...
In other news, I ended up getting a used copy of the bugged version of Wizardry: Dimguil. I was sort of holding out for a miracle in which I stumble upon a fixed version in the wild for 2000 yen or something, but it's been more than a year and and I haven't even stumbled upon the BUGGED version in the wild.
I've done some research, and apparently the bugs are pretty easy to avoid (mostly occurs in the optional card game, or when mashing buttons during certain spell effects).
I looked through some site with rips of the monster art from the game. Wow. That is some amazing artwork.
Dorarnae
Arbiter
- Joined
- Jan 21, 2016
- Messages
- 721
Bad news (for me)!
Wizardry: Prisoners of the Battles apparently doesn't work with Win 10 at all. Tried installing it on a Japanese Win XP virtual box, but get an error when starting the game. Will have to investigate some more...
In other news, I ended up getting a used copy of the bugged version of Wizardry: Dimguil. I was sort of holding out for a miracle in which I stumble upon a fixed version in the wild for 2000 yen or something, but it's been more than a year and and I haven't even stumbled upon the BUGGED version in the wild.
I've done some research, and apparently the bugs are pretty easy to avoid (mostly occurs in the optional card game, or when mashing buttons during certain spell effects).
I looked through some site with rips of the monster art from the game. Wow. That is some amazing artwork.
yeah the monster in the post game are really nice. and they kick ass too hehe. it's a bit grindy at the end but I enjoyed the game.
newtmonkey
Arcane
Man I dunno what to play next!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I really want to finish Wiz 1 on PSX and move on to something else, not cuz I dislike Wiz 1 (I love it in fact), but I've got all these interesting games lined up. I've got games in progress going on in Elminage Original (3DS), Shin Megami Tensei: Deep Strange Journey (3DS), Shin Megami Tensei (PSX), Generation Xth CODE HAZARD (PC), and Stranger of Sword City (PC). I've put several hours into all of these and am enjoying them, but work got busy mid-last year and hasn't slowed down, so had to put everything on hold, basically.
I go back and forth on the SMT games. I generally despise monster collecting games, and the legendary difficulty of the SMT games really makes it only worse for me—I have zero patience to go around recruiting monsters, and it's only worse that the core loop of these games seems to be "get to new area/boss, get wiped out, then go around recruiting/fusing monsters to exploit what you learned by getting wiped out" and that really does not interest me at all.
HOWEVER the human characters in the first SMT are so overwhelmingly powerful that you really don't have to worry too much about recruiting/fusing monsters. Meanwhile, SMT: SJ/DSJ is so user-friendly and provides you with so much information in-game, that recruiting/fusing is really no trouble at all.
HAVING SAID THAT, the atmosphere in Wizardry: Dimguil has really fascinated me, just from the screenshots I've seen and the video Dorarnae linked just above, so I might just go straight to that after finishing Wiz 1.
I really want to finish Wiz 1 on PSX and move on to something else, not cuz I dislike Wiz 1 (I love it in fact), but I've got all these interesting games lined up. I've got games in progress going on in Elminage Original (3DS), Shin Megami Tensei: Deep Strange Journey (3DS), Shin Megami Tensei (PSX), Generation Xth CODE HAZARD (PC), and Stranger of Sword City (PC). I've put several hours into all of these and am enjoying them, but work got busy mid-last year and hasn't slowed down, so had to put everything on hold, basically.
I go back and forth on the SMT games. I generally despise monster collecting games, and the legendary difficulty of the SMT games really makes it only worse for me—I have zero patience to go around recruiting monsters, and it's only worse that the core loop of these games seems to be "get to new area/boss, get wiped out, then go around recruiting/fusing monsters to exploit what you learned by getting wiped out" and that really does not interest me at all.
HOWEVER the human characters in the first SMT are so overwhelmingly powerful that you really don't have to worry too much about recruiting/fusing monsters. Meanwhile, SMT: SJ/DSJ is so user-friendly and provides you with so much information in-game, that recruiting/fusing is really no trouble at all.
HAVING SAID THAT, the atmosphere in Wizardry: Dimguil has really fascinated me, just from the screenshots I've seen and the video Dorarnae linked just above, so I might just go straight to that after finishing Wiz 1.
Dorarnae
Arbiter
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- Jan 21, 2016
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those are post game monster though. the monster in main game aren't that big, they're not bad but ...I liked the npc art tho(random party you encounter...).
the first SMT isn't too long, if you're careful with the auto battle it shouldn't be too hard. I think I died only once last time I played and it was some stupid mistake.
newtmonkey
Arcane
Installed VMware Workstation and got both Wiz: PoB and Wiz: Chronicle working fine. XD
Just a reminder that those two games work just fine on Win7. (Obligatory post meant to shit on Windows 10).
Wiz: PoB is absolutely fucking Elite-tier dungeon porn. The music and sound FX are really great as well. Kind of weird compliment but Wiz: PoB footstep sound FX is the best I've ever heard, with runner-up being the footstep sound FX from Wiz: Empire 3 (PSP/PS2).
You know you like blobbers when footstep sound FX is its own category, tee-hee.
Wiz: PoB is absolutely fucking Elite-tier dungeon porn. The music and sound FX are really great as well. Kind of weird compliment but Wiz: PoB footstep sound FX is the best I've ever heard, with runner-up being the footstep sound FX from Wiz: Empire 3 (PSP/PS2).
You know you like blobbers when footstep sound FX is its own category, tee-hee.
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