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

Jacob

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Isn't Wizardry 7 also available on SNES? Is it have been patched to english? Also, how fidderent is the SNES version from the original PC version? (I assume you can't import from 6 to 7... I don't think SNES could support save transfer feature...)
 

aweigh

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snes same as pc ver

wiz7 not on snes no

there are many differences obviously like for example the riddles in wiz3 obviously you cannot use a keyboard in the snes version to enter ABUDUL SENT ME YO NIGGA it is only those type of changes. those "sequences" are just done automatically in the snes version. the mazes, the classes, the enemies, the LOOT; everything is the same.

in fact, it is much better in many many ways.try 'em out for yourself you'll be hooked inless than 10 mins. (using save-states to re-roll level ups oh i know i'm going straight to hell baby)
 

Jacob

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snes same as pc ver

wiz7 not on snes no

there are many differences obviously like for example the riddles in wiz3 obviously you cannot use a keyboard in the snes version to enter ABUDUL SENT ME YO NIGGA it is only those type of changes. those "sequences" are just done automatically in the snes version. the mazes, the classes, the enemies, the LOOT; everything is the same.

in fact, it is much better in many many ways.try 'em out for yourself you'll be hooked inless than 10 mins. (using save-states to re-roll level ups oh i know i'm going straight to hell baby)

I see. Truth is, never played any of the Wizardry games, not even any of the games in this list except Elminage Gothic. I think I'll play Wiz 6 later when I got a long enough break from school.

Also, might want to add this to your list. Developed by Falcom that created Ys and Trails series. Never played it myself and I can't find any fan translation.

Dinosaur: Resurrection



(Unfortunately, it has no dinosaurs and you can't create your own characters)
 

aweigh

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i would actually recommend you start with any of the first 3 wizardries, remade ports on the snes "legacy of llylgamin" on emuparadise.me (i can message you the links), and/or wizardry 5 on the snes as well although that one is probably the second hardest Wiz-title, right after Wiz4. Yeah, wiz5 might not be best for an introduction.

why not wiz6 on snes? yes, it looks gorgeous and it plays beautifully (i am in the middle of a playthrough right now! am in the giant mountains currently) well wizardry for all its complexity is really incredible simple mechanics. that's really the main reason why it *works* so well as a whole thing. wiz6-7-8 are intentionally much more convoluted and much more mechanically complex. now don't get me wrong if you want complex go for it man, just looking at it from the perspective of being introduced to the series. my first wizardry was wiz8 and i gave up on it at least 10 times before i one day understood how to play it. i had never played an RPG like wiz8 before.

one minor wiz6 example of its obtuseness: in wiz6 each character has 6 different sets of body armor-reduction, and those are the helmet/torso/arms/legs/feet/shield-or-accessory, and then those 6 are tallied for the total -AC of the character. attacks in wiz6 can target all of those parts and you often see messages like BAT BITES YER FOOT DID NOT PENETRATE and so on. yes tis quite funny. and none of that is wrong at all! it's wonderful, it's much more involved in mechanics and character classes.

if you're gonna make wiz6 your first i recommend reading up at the very least a character creation FAQ, that's all

edit: note that i mentioned above that the core of wizardry is very simple mechanics and that is true. in many, many ways wiz6-7-8 irrevocably broke away from the traditional wizardry design philosophy. doesn't mean it's either better or worse, just different. personally i much prefer wiz-1-5's, and all the other million crawlers that copy wiz1-5 design. it's faster, and it's simpler, but it ends up with more hidden depths. the open endedness of its systems is revealed by their absolutes. there is very little minutiae.

btw that game you posted just now looks incredibly interesting.

edit2: i like that it has soul enough under the hood that the devs made sure stuff like even the random encounter rate operated under its own system.

wizardry does something like that too: in early wiz titles the encounter rate spikes up the less health you have. the more everyone is near or at top health the lower the encounter rate. they're evil bastards.

also fleeing from one battle spikes the encounter roll chance dramatically. it is almost always guaranteed that if you need to flee a battle, you better be ready to flee a whole chain of them until you get out. some people have written theories as well that it depends on how paces you have taken before opening or closing a door.

also in early wiz titles you don't have to actually move to get an encounter; merely spinning around in place will get you a fight eventually. it's funny...
 
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Jacob

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i would actually recommend you start with any of the first 3 wizardries
Hey thanks! Can't brofist yet so that'll have to do.
I saw your "The best way" thread. There are Wizardry SNES ROMs there, no?
And how's the actual difficulty anyway? Okay Wizardry 6-8 is more complex, but are they really harder than 1-3?

By the way, I'd lol if a game released in 2001 is actually harder than an 80's game with vector graphics.
 
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aweigh

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different kinds of difficulty. hoenstly it would require me to write at the very least a monography on the subject.

tl;dr wizardry1-5 are in as few words as can possibly be used when describing what's the hardest aspect about them:

they are games constructed around the psychological conditioning of taking ownership of the unknown yet the player is without respite and forever running out: spells, hit points, potions, mapping directions; the true game lies in the isolated moments where the player has suspended his disbilief so completely that he is worried he might not make it back to town.
 

Jacob

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Okay, well, I'm firing up Wiz 1.

Almost panicked when I can't roll a priest... then I remember priests can't be neutral.
By the way, it's a little bit funny that you can't choose your character's gender. Not a problem, but's it's something that we always took for granted in every other game, be it RPG or something like The Sims.

Having save states is really helpful. THIS GAME FREAKING PARALYZES MY THIEF WHEN SHE'S TRYING TO EXAMINE A CHEST. At least Elminage gave some forgiveness by sticking to rockslides and poison needles in the early chests.

Also, having beautiful graphics makes it easier to play this game. I mean, I have no problem with what most gamers would qualify as ugly graphics but this one is literally (And I mean literally, as in looking at the screenshot kinda hurts my eyes) unplayable.
 

Courtier

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In a secluded anti warp+dark zone on B4F:
You hear a strange voice.
''They're going to eat you too''


P5gp8lq.jpg
 

aweigh

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elminage doesn't fuck around with chests either lol less than two weeks ago my 100+ level ninja examed a chest and everyone got paralyzed. game over.

one good bit of advice is that wihle the beginning everything is scarce, and you want loot; chests are to be taken seriously. feel free to leave them unopoened. the world won't end. there will be more.
 

aweigh

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use an emulator texture filter. i use snes9x-xBRZ branch version. in regular snes9x you can try using the HQ4x filter. that should clean up all those jaggies and make it look better,
 

Siveon

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Shadorwun: Hong Kong
I gotta be the dissenting opinion here and say that full-screen filtered stretched out look is preeeetty ugly. I just scale up the original resolution about once or twice. Maybe add some scan-lines.
 

Jacob

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Ah, I mean, when I'm talking about graphics, I'm talking about the original PC version. Those blue and pink colored monsters...

Playing the SNES version is much healthier.
 

Comte

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Fuck yeah Proving grounds of the mad Overlord!

Went with two Dwarf Fighters (aweigh, Jaesun) 1 Hobbit Fighter (Blobert) who I plan to change into a thief, 1 elf priest (Comte), and two elf mages (Bee, Infinitron).

Got fucked up a few times in the Maze but am slowly getting to grips with the crazy spell names casting sleep and light spells mostly. I read the manual that was linked above by Viata

WIZARDRY_crop.png
 

aweigh

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yeah it's weird memorizing what the spells do but it's even weirder how FAST you're gonna get used to what the Wizardry spell naming system means. Once you pop you can't stop!

Among the million things Bradley dropped from Wiz6 onwards I think the spell system (both the vancian casting mechanics AND the naming system) are one of the biggest offenders...

edit: also you can press SELECT when over any of the spells for a description pop-up. another remake addition.
 

aweigh

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holy SHITBALLS wiz5 is HARD. HAAAAARRRRRRRDDD.

WOW. hardest wiz i've played yet. harder than fucking ibag tower in elminage gothic.

i'm only up to level 5 (of 8 + hidden "hell" level) in wiz5 and in bf5 any, and i mean ANY random enocunter can be:

- 3 groups of (2) master ninjas who decapitate/poison/paralyze with melee attacks and have -5 AC plus 1 group of (3) master hatamotos who cast a non-stop barrage of group nukes like lahalito and also can decapitate with melee attacks

- 1 group of (2) jokers of doom (way too long a list of instant death bullshit; they're horrible nightmares of horribleness) plus THREE or FOUR extra groups of (6-8) skeletes/ghouls/ghasts/rotting vapors that can poison/paralyze with their melee

- 1 group of (2-3) royal ladies who group-nuke nonstop plus 1-2 groups of (2) royal guards who LOVE spamming instant-death cleric spells right off the bat.

having worked my way through wizzes 1-3 (one day wiz4... one day), and having a playthrough about 60% done of wiz6 i have to say conclusively and DEFINTIVELY that...

WIZ 5 IS THE BEST WIZARDRY OF THEM ALL.

Elminage series isn't a "wiz-clone", it is a WIZ FIVE CLONE. Now i fully understand exactly what that means. Wiz 5 is the pinnacle of wizardry mechanics and spell system and the introduction of close/short/medium/long-range weaponry and introduction of spell resistances and spell resistance nullification spells make it quite simply the best and most mechanically rewarding and challenging of all the wizardries i've played. It's basically one or two desu desu's away from being an elminage game, or rather vice-versa. you guys know what i mean.

hell if you hack in ex-skills you would swear it's part of the elminage series. (i know, i know elminage is the copycat... just trying to draw context around these comparisons is all)

edit: bear in mind that in wiz5 there is not ample supply of "health potions" of any sort, and dying is serious fucking business. sure, ibag's tower's every single random encounter can be a party wipe BUT you can if you wish lug around an inventory full of full-health potions, revival potions and magic spell replenshing herbs. imagine the same bullshit but without any of that.

getting the "first strike" is absolutely the most important thing to do in any encounter; i've taken to guiding my level up re-rolls/reloads in order for everyone to always raise AGILITY every level up whereas before reaching bf5 i would always aim for highest HP gain.
 
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Courtier

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Certain rom patching tools don't work on x64 systems, so I nabbed prepatched roms of Wiz 123+5 (SNES). They're part of a little RPG collection with emulator.
http://www.theisozone.com/downloads/other-consoles/snes/79-rpg-snes9x-for-pcall-english-or-patched/
z8KhlbW.png
I wish there were portraits. I'm all for using your imagination, and ASCII roguelikes (NetHack/Angband) beat the graphics whore out of me (for the most part) years ago. But it'd be nice.

I also reached the last floor (10F) of the main dungeon in Labyrinth of Lost Souls. Treasure after combat in LoLS can be really sparse, and drops are per monster type. That means you can play for a long time and find only trash (if much of anything at all).

For example when I got to 8F I was still fighting with ordinary longswords and claymores, but then a Basilisk dropped an Odin Sword and suddenly my Lord's damage quintupled.

The encounters are getting crazy. Demon Lords can cleave the entire party (special melee attack hits all), dealing hundreds of damage and draining up to three levels. Half the enemies instant kill on hit, some crushing lightly armored characters for nearly a thousand damage a pop, and others cast a range of nukes. Tithing gold to the temple for levels and hits is pretty vital. Base level cap is 50 (can be unlocked to 99). I took a stroll on 1F of the DLC dungeon and instantly died. Including the DLC dungeon, the game has three labyrinths.
 

Celerity

Takes 1337 hours to realise it's shit.
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holy SHITBALLS wiz5 is HARD. HAAAAARRRRRRRDDD.

WOW. hardest wiz i've played yet. harder than fucking ibag tower in elminage gothic.

That's actually mildly disappointing. I agree the mechanics of Wizardry 5 are very solid, but the overall difficulty level is not exceptionally high. For example, all that shit on the 5th floor? Hard countered by a fountain that full heals and revives with no failure chance. I thought Elminage would be harder than the game I beat when I was even worse at video games. If you're saying it's not I should lower my standards.
 

Courtier

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Just keep playing and judge for yourself, I doubt Wiz 5 is more punishing than the 20 floor tower. Maybe he'll change his mind when he actually reaches its later floors. Teleport spells are completely blocked there, making every trip more arduous. In both games you can revive and heal with relative ease, though it won't help with a total party kill.

You read the Elminage Gothic thread, right? The monsters get absolutely ridiculous, to the point where you will get wiped more often than not and hundreds of levels under your belt only marginally even the odds. Even my level ~300 party that completed the postgame would still get destroyed by a group of Stargazers+Phoenixes. But you can save anywhere, and your spellcasters can sacrifice levels to cast Wish, so it's really just a matter of trying until you succeed and surviving the attrition.

Maybe you could say the monsters taking many actions per turn is an analogue to earlier Wiz monsters coming in larger groups. But I don't think any monster in the original Wizardries reached -92 AC, healed thousands of HP per turn, or preemptively (50+ AGI) hit your backrow four times in a row for 600 damage each...with several more buddies doing the same. All of the unfair decapitation, paralyzation, level drain, etc. mentioned earlier is in there and more, but you also have more flexibility to deal with it (e.g. more classes, special skills). You need insight in how the game works and do some trial and error to get through the postgame. I think the main difference is how long the games are, and how Elminage simply expands on the formula.
 

Celerity

Takes 1337 hours to realise it's shit.
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I'd be disappointed if it were, because once I figured Wizardry 5 out I just stacked magic resist, casted Cortu if needed and made use of silence and nukes vs mage groups before that. No other Wizardry game had things with that high stats (Gorrors come closest though). The games deal with smaller numbers in general. I think the whole multi action thing started with BUSIN 0.

But the numbers don't matter, only relative numbers do. I don't know any Wizardry games where you attack for > 1,000 damage several times a round either.

Forsaken Land was supposedly pretty hard as well. I beat the second hardest encounter with an average party level of 21 and the hardest with a solo character (who had far more trouble reaching Abyss level 10 than actually defeating the boss there).
 

aweigh

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my main comp recently died along with my ongoing wiz playthroughs :(

currently waiting for new parts to arrive via mail. anyways i'm pretty sure i'll be able to continue as i have no reason to think the HDD itself died; i just need to plug it into the new parts. hopefully it'll be as smooth as that.

as for wiz 5 i was getting pretty far before i had to stop playing; i reached level 7. i have to rescind my opinion that wiz 5 is harder than elminage: gothic. it's not. the difficulty spike is harsher, that's for sure, but it doesn't reach the absolutely insane levels of elminage gothic with enemies.

once your characters reach 100+ hit points in wiz 5 the difficulty stops spiking and flattens completely as you're p. much guaranteed to survive the opening wave of tiltowaits every time. elminage: gothic is 100x more harsh even pre-post game what with enemies' unique ex-skills like darkness rises forth (forbids party healing spells) and the dragon roars (doubles enemy damage) that enemies can just spam willy nilly before you can even act.

ah, we also can't forget elminage's enemies being able to cast miracle/mahalo spell and simply randomly wishing the player party to be teleported into stoned (happened to me twice).

ATM i'm playing through wiz 5 remake from the ps1 age of llylgamyn version and seeing if it's markedly different from the snes remake i played through a few weeks ago. it's really quite amazing how helpful metagame knowledge is in these older wizardry titles. what took me days of mapping and playing originally in wiz 5 i just blazed through this time in like 10 minutes.

edit: wiz 5 does still feature the largest amounts of enemy groups i've seen yet. one unlucky encounter roll and you could be faced with literally 30 enemies capable of casting tiltowait. in that sense it is pretty unrelenting.
 
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