Wizardry The Wizardry Series Thread

Well, because I'm a huge loser, I decided to say screw it and just hop right into Wizardry 8. This is partly because I managed to dig up my discs, but also because I tried Wiz 6 briefly, and I just don't think I can stomach it. Not to mention I have a pretty hard time sticking to RPGs, and I'm probably fooling myself thinking I will actually play all the way through the 200+ hours of Wiz 6-8.

Oh well. Wizardry 8 ahoy!

edit: and my disc 3 is corrupted. FAIL. I guess I'll be starting once I torrent disc 3 again.

 

There are other games of this ilk you could try. You shouldn't have trouble finding them here and there. Just so you can have a peek, I will show you a couple of the better ones that are rarely mentioned.

http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/dragon-wars This one will take some brains as well as brawn. It is probably my favourite of all the Bards Tale/Wizardry type games. You will need the journal entries so download a manual from somewhere. Oh, it has automapping too.

http://www.mobygames.com/game/atari-st/ ... es-of-dawn You need an emulator for this one, but it really is one of the best. So much to do and see, and plenty of things to kill. Great game.

http://www.mobygames.com/game/legend-of-faerghail Another forgotten gem. Better than many of the crawlers that are often mentioned.

 

Is there any sound in the DOS version? The Amiga version has sounds but somehow the game too slow because of the WinUAE emulator. I will never understand why they need to properly emulate that damned slow floppy drive

 

Very true. I would have thought emulation could kick the crap out of those speeds by now. As for the sounds, only one way to find out! (I played the Amiga version too back in the day).

 

Wizardry: Tales of the Forsaken Land is a different, yet surprisingly good dungeon crawl for PS2.

For the ultimate dungeon crawls, however, go here: http://decklinsdemise.com/

 

I've read somewhere that Amiga emulators need to emulate the disk read speeds as well, or it can cause crashes in games. Still, you'd think they would have found a way around that by now.

 

I played it on PS2, but I also know of a sequel that never made it here. The game did an admirable job of blending a few JRPG elements into a western style game, while sacrificing very little. There is also an optional bottomless dungeon to explore after finishing the story.

 

Which Amiga version is that and did you make it work? I downloaded like 10 different versions from variety of sites, and all of them either crash right after launch or lock up once out of the city

 

http://www.thegamearchives.com/?val=0_2_1_0_0_4_17_0_12_1_0
The v2.0e [cr angels] version.
Strangely enough after the intro comes in the workbench. I have to start the game a double-click by the mouse.

 

Legend of Faerghail: after my very first battle.
Isn't it a great game?

 

Replaying Wiz 8 noh ein māl. It's really colossal time killer if you need one and incredibly fun even if combat is the main higlight in it.
I'd say, don't bother with the old ones.
And fuck you too, Jasede (is he still alive?).

 

Thanks, seems to work for me! Godawfully slow though Despite 800% floppy speed, every picture takes like 30 seconds to load. Did people really play it that way in 1990? Were they aware of hdds?

 

They have. It's called WHDLoad.

http://www.whdload.de/games/LegendOfFaerghail.html

 

I certainly don't remember things taking that long to load. I do find it amusing when people whine about todays loadtimes though, especially when I remember the C64.

made, thank you. Excellent find.

 

If you're wanting to try the first 5 Wizardry Games, the ports you're after are:

Wizardry: Llygamyn Saga (Remakes of Wiz. 1-3)
Wizardry: New Age of Llylgamyn (Remakes of Wiz. 4-5)

Both of the above exist for the PS and Win9x platforms (and the first one exists on the Saturn as well).

The following refer to the PC versions only (unless specified), as those are the versions that I own.

They have optional English menus, plus, patches are out, which translate everything else, although you still might need to use AppLoc to be able to run the game (or see some remaining untranslated things such as a few error messages).

The games look like the Macintosh version of the Wizardries (floating menus, one for a map, one for party, etc) rather than fixed onto the screen, so you can pretty much move them anywhere, and organize the screen the way you want.

They also allow you to run in updated graphics mode, or play the game with it's original wireframe graphics. (They're divided into two sections. Upgrade Dungeon Graphics, and Upgrade Monster Graphics. Original Monster Graphics on Textured Dungeons!!!)

Sound has also been added to the game, although with Llygamyn Saga, the PS version uses RedBook audio, whereas the PC version uses midi. I don't know if this is true about New Age of Llylgamyn, as I only have the PC version, but honestly, it's not that big of a deal. Music over no music (and the fact that I can live with midi tbh).

Automap feature has been added. Honestly, this makes the first 5 Wizardries so much easier, especially part 4.

Wizardry 4 is is essentially 2 games. You get to choose between the original version, or play an updated story version.

Spells have been made easier. Click on the spell, rather than having to type it out, figure out that you mispelled DIALMA, and watch as Werdna wipes out your party before you have another chance.

Honestly, if you're looking for a simple dungeon romp, the above two games give a nice history lesson for the Wizardry series, while being a serious upgrade in terms of technology, so they don't look to antiquated. And they add features which make the games so much easier than the original versions. Part 4 has taken the biggest change/upgrade (and is not as painfully hard). Finding them on the other hand is the biggest challenge, especially for the PC version of New Age of Llylgamyn, but I can tell you for a fact that it exists (despite what MobyGames, or IGN, or GameSpot, etc. say, as I currently have the full game with the box, manual, etc).

 

Wow, holy crap. I had vaguely heard about these remakes before, but I didn't realize they were playable in English. I'm guessing these are next to impossible to actually buy these days, so I guess that leaves the other option...

I actually found the Wiz 1-5 remakes for PSX (to download) in about 5 minutes. I'd probably get bitched out if I put the links right here, but googling shouldn't take you long.

heh, well, this actually looks pretty good, although the screenshot is kinda distorted:

 

The official site for NAoL:
http://www.japan.ea.com/wizardry/

As for purchasing, I went the PC route (as I collect PC games), and it took me several months before a copy appeared on a Japanese auction site, and I had to pay a small fortune for it. Ashame that a game that came out on the PC in 2002 is actually harder to acquire than many of my "collectables".

Even by "other" means, the PC version is near impossible to find. I guess with the PC being the least popular platform in Japan to play games on, they don't have to worry about copyright infringment (as I can play both games without needing the CD in).

Jaesun, if you really want pictures, I can upload them after the holidays, when I'm back home.

 

So, I put the PSX Llygamyn Saga (Wiz 1-3) onto my PSP, and it's pure awesomeness. The best thing is that it has automapping right from turn 1(!) not to mention the vastly superior graphics and also music/sound. Oh, and one of the cool aspects BehindTimes didn't mention is that the game lets you transfer your party from Wiz 1 to 2 to 3.

Do you know if/where there's a translation guide online? The most annoying part is that they didn't translate the options menus, so you pretty much have to blindly select things and then see what happens. There was an image on the site I downloaded it from showing how to set the game into English mode, but it didn't explain what any of the options actually were.

 

I played through Llylgamyn saga (w1-3) last spring with english modden japanese windows version. I kind of like the simplicity in them and I also feel like a tourist going through these old games. Its like going back into the world of 80s crpg fan.

 

God, Wizardry 1 is a huge pain in the ass. You have basically no HP, and if you die at level 1 it costs like 500 gold to resurrect, which invariably fails turning the character into ashes, which then requires 1000+ gold to resurrect. I made a party of 6 and am now down to 3 because I just can't afford to raise them.

 

Stabwound, just do what the rest of us did. Make 30 characters, pool their gold to one character, delete the trash characters, repeat. But you have to remember, the Japanese remakes are significantly easier than the original Wizardries (even without the automaps, etc). Ah, I remember the lovely days of scrambling to pull out my save disk hoping that my characters wouldn't be erased.

Even the DOS port of Wizardry 4 was easier than the original Apple ][ version. Trebor, iirc, moved around in real time, whereas if you play any of the ports, or remakes, or even the emulated version in the Wizardry Archives, moves around in turn based fashion.

Now, if you want to talk about pita Wizardries, it's definately 4. Then 7 imo.

 

http://www.japan.ea.com/wizardry/

Appropriate, considering Wizardry's already basically a jRPG.

 

How do you turn on the english language in the pc version of new age of llylgamyn? I tried all the options but nothing seems to work.