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Wizardry Opinions on Wizardry V

Joined
Apr 5, 2013
Messages
2,430
I know there is some general Wiz thread but it's a mess mainly focused on Savant trilogy.

I'm doing my third attempt to finish HotM, last time I broke geam by killing constantly Laughing Kettle & Greater Deamons, got bored and deleted save file for PSX port.

Now I'm determined to finally finish this fucker (playing SNES uncensored version released January this year) but question is, do you guys find Wiz5 worth finishing? How many of you did that?

Idea of keeping every key item throughout whole geam in order to pass certain points every time you go through them is MORONIC and I've heard there's LOTS of backtracking. Trvue?

Is it worth to do that 777 Levels? Is Lalamoo comparable difficulty-wise to Fiend of 9 Worlds of Beast of a 1000 Eyes from Wiz7?
 

Covenant

Savant
Joined
Aug 3, 2017
Messages
343
After I moved into my first house of my own, I didn't have a lot of stuff set up - internet, half my furniture, etc. But I did have a tiny television and my childhood SNES, so I ended up spending quite a few nights sitting up in my living room playing Wizardry V, which had always been a bit too daunting for me as a small child. I can honestly say it was one of the best experiences I've had with RPGs in my life, and I still think fondly of that time whenever the summer nights start to close in.

For one thing, the combat, while simple, never felt unfair. I did wipe a few times though. If the thought of a bit of grinding to get your back-up party to the point where they can rescue your main party intensely annoys you, that might be a sign you wouldn't enjoy playing it to completion.

Mostly though I just enjoyed the puzzles and general sense of atmosphere of the game. The puzzles generally had a touch of flavour about them, and hit a satisfying difficulty level (it's certainly easier than some of the other Wizardry games, but you'll be left scratching your head from time to time). The music and graphics are simple, but it adds a nice bit of variety that lets you differentiate the levels. I particularly remember that insanely long green corridor; there were some nasty fights down there if you went unprepared. NPCs were silly, but they had character.

The whole 'keeping every key item' thing isn't a big deal. Have you played Bane of the Cosmic Forge? That had a weight system, and an absolute assload of retarded quest items you had to lug around with you despite never needing them again. In Maelstrom it's more unobtrusive, at least until the items start racking up at the very end. And as for backtracking, I guess there is quite a bit of it, but it's part of the fun. I mean, if you're playing the game by following a walkthrough, going from point to point to progress as quickly as possible, it'll feel like there's more backtracking. But if you're playing it blind and exploring the dungeon, picking up various quest items and finding new 'problems' to solve, you're probably going to be not so much backtracking as wandering round aimlessly while you think to yourself what you're supposed to do with X item/piece of information. Then it'll hit you, and you'll start making progress again.

Two negatives I would point out: Firstly, this being the SNES version, you won't get to take full advantage of the keyword system. Rather, when you talk to NPCs, they'll tell you about anything you might have cause to ask them. A bit of a loss - the keyword system is a decent one in my opinion, and it's a shame modern games seem to have mostly abandoned it - but it doesn't ruin the game. Secondly, there's a section on one of the levels (the fifth, I think) that's a near-inescapable death trap. You aren't really fairly warned about it, and the consequences of blundering in can be frustrating when your party wipes with nothing you can do to stop it. See below for a spoiler about avoiding it.

Worth finishing? If you enjoy puzzles and exploration, certainly. If you're the sort who's inclined to look up how to reach level 20 within an hour of play, you probably won't enjoy it as much as you may have some of the other titles in the series (I think the Savant trilogy caters more to that kind of thing, with the possibilities class-changing affords).

As for your last two questions - I'm afraid I never fought Lalamoo. I was working without the internet and spoilers, so I didn't even know he existed until later.

Don't go in the Playhouse
 

octavius

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Aug 4, 2007
Messages
19,184
Location
Bjørgvin
Definitely worth finishing IMO. Would have finished it myself but the game buggered out right at the end. :argh:

I love the level design, with the levels having unpredictable shapes and sizes. Finding secret doors is a bit of a chore though.

The game had better atmosphere then Wiz 1-3, with memorable NPCs and interesting puzzles.

Main gripe is that the game is maybe too big and there's too much backtracking.
 
Joined
Apr 5, 2013
Messages
2,430
Blah, I forgot to ask another thing:

SNES vs PSX version anyone?

So far, SNES one is much smoother, doesn't crash like PSX and have everything translated, but the latter has ultra-convenient features like auto-map and level-up indicator.
 

octavius

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Aug 4, 2007
Messages
19,184
Location
Bjørgvin
Unlike the other SNES versions of Wizardry, Wiz 5 was made by the North American branch of Nintendo, and is thus heavily censored. Avoid.
EDIT: BTW, I see you mention an uncensored version in the OP. Is that a Japanese version?
 

Grauken

Gourd vibes only
Patron
Joined
Mar 22, 2013
Messages
12,787
There's a patch (https://www.romhacking.net/translations/2866/) that allows you to play the Jap-SNES version of Wizardry 5 that is uncensored (graphics-wise), but I think aweigh said that (probably due to space limitations) the text of Wiz 5 SNES is heavily compressed to the point of barely making sense, compared to the other version, which is not a problem in the PSX version

Also I can play the SNES version with mapping support thanks to GridCartographer :cool:
 

YES!

Hi, I'm Roqua
Dumbfuck
Joined
Feb 26, 2017
Messages
2,088
I usually don't finish games and play them until I get too bored to continue. If you are like me there is no reason not to play it. If you want to finish it I don't know as it is very same-y. Have you played the Wizardry made for the PS2? I forget the name but it is in a snow town with a half-mummy man that is kind of the tutorial helper. The formation attacks and quests give you more carrots to keep you playing longer too. Same with the materials you make into balls that raise your magic skills.
 
Joined
Apr 5, 2013
Messages
2,430
Blah, I've found something weird in SNES version - comparing to Playstation one it takes FOREVER to gather money for anything e.g. chest after fixed encounter Werebat + Bats is worth like 50 GPL comparing to ~150-200 GPL in PSX! Fuck this shit, I'm back to New Age of Llylgamyn.

BTW: maybe it's a bug but I've rolled 60 points in character creation screen on SNES :salute: It gave me max stats on the very beginning. Dunno if it's a bug.
 

pippin

Guest
For 1-5, I'd reccomend the PSX ports, which were indeed very comfy, you could switch between graphics and wireframe (iirc), and it had handy automaps too. Other than that they are the same games.

6's SNES port is actually one of the best looking old Wiz games.
 

Grampy_Bone

Arcane
Joined
Jan 25, 2016
Messages
3,640
Location
Wandering the world randomly in search of maps
The SNES version guts the dialogue system which is part of the intended experience

If I throw a jackhammer at your screen, is that part of the intended experience?

From this article: http://hg101.kontek.net/wizardry/wizardry7.htm

Different to the PC Engine version, riddle solutions have to be put in manually, but NPC dialogs just run automatically, with the player character automatically asking follow-up questions. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any way to ask some very important questions to some NPCs near the end of the game, so the final puzzle is almost unsolvable without outside help.

I would consider a game that removes key hints to be a bad port, but what do you think?
 
Joined
Apr 5, 2013
Messages
2,430
I'm giving it another go and this time I'm deteremined to finally finish it so I can finally play Wiz4... question:

Around which level party is ready to take down Sorn?
 

mushaden

Scholar
Joined
Aug 12, 2015
Messages
334
If the DW Bradley puzzles in VII were too much for me should I also steer clear of this one?
 

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