Wizardry The Wizardry Series Thread

[Wayward Son]

My party consists of:

- Caesar: a fighter.
- Avnasse: another fighter.
- Zekiel: yet another fighter.
- Locke: my self-insert.
- Maggie: a mage.
- Annie: another mage.

You definitely need both priest and thief (or Ninja) for the balanced party. Don't forget that you can change class of one of your fighters later, don't just abandon him. Thief should be of evil alignment and he could be made into Ninja by Black Ribbon item. Otherwise, Ninja attribute requirements are very steep.

Could also have a neutral one and use the Thief's Dagger.

 

[Fowyr]

I hate Wizardry 5! My evil party constantly changes alignment to neutral or good. I don't know is it bug or feature. I'm fucking weary to type every time "hiew save5.dsk" and search for magic alignment byte. After my last expedition everyone from my party is not-evil. Fuck you, Wizardry, you won. I made my castle bishop-identifier good as well.

EDIT: DOS version, dunno from Wizardry Archives or not, I downloaded it somewhere 15 years ago. After long bout of remembrance, I think that I encountered this bug in DOS Wiz1 as well.

Both Good and Evil characters may change alignment by attacking or leaving peaceful monster groups, however

So it's like in M&M1, only really fucks party, because good and evil characters do not mix.

 

[octavius]

I hate Wizardry 5! My evil party constantly changes alignment to neutral or good. I don't know is it bug or feature.

You mean Neutrals change alignment?
In Wiz 3 you could change alignment from Good to Evil if attacking friendly monsters, and from Evil to Good if letting them live, but Neutrals stayed Neutral.
Maybe Wiz 5 expanded on that. I played nice all the way, so I didn't see any alignment shifts.

In MM1 I'm fairly certain you could mix alignments, like all M&M games.

 

[Fowyr]

You mean Neutrals change alignment?

Apparently, as I cited, only non-Neutrals change alignment in the early Wizardries. By attacking/not attacking like you said.

Maybe Wiz 5 expanded on that. I played nice all the way, so I didn't see any alignment shifts.

Have you used Good party?

In MM1 I'm fairly certain you could mix alignments, like all M&M games.

Yup. But I remember changing alignment in M&M1 as well. Plus it was not such a pain in the ass, because it could be rolled back in the temple.

 

[octavius]

You mean Neutrals change alignment?

Apparently, as I cited, only non-Neutrals change alignment in the early Wizardries.

Yes, I misread.

I played a Neutral/Good party in 1-2 and 5, and played the party as such, so no attacking friendlies.

In MM1 you could change alignment if attacking "good" characters like Centaurs and Pegasi, but I think the chanses were less than in the Wizardry games.

 

[Sigourn]

Two of my characters changed alignment to Evil. I found out after I booted up the game. Then again, it's the SNES version.

I made a small trip to the back of my house and tore off 10 pages or so of graph paper from old college journal I used for math. I finally mapped most of the first level of the dungeon (darkness excluded).

Now I'm level 8 all around except for my newest mage, Mags, who is level 4, and a new fighter I'll have to get after my priced Zekiel switched to the dark side. I think I may have made the game a bit easy for myself.

 

[octavius]

In Wiz 1 I think an Evil party may have an edge. There are some very good items that are restricted to Evil fighter types. Downside is that you can't have a Lord, and getting a Ninja is almost impossible. Talking about the DOS version; as usual there may be variations with other platforms.

 

[Wayward Son]

Does anyone here know about the GBC port of Wiz1-3? I don't have a computer until Christmas and the only consoles you can emulate on iPhone are GBA and GBC. They don't seem too bad from first glance, at least not any worse than the SNES versions.

 

[Sigourn]

Today I learned there's no SNES version of Wizardry IV.

It makes me sad.

 

[Fowyr]

Today I learned there's no SNES version of Wizardry IV.

It makes me sad.

And thank Yog-Sothoth for that. Wiz5 SNES was heavily censored. I shudder to imagine how they could mutilate Wiz4. Probably no Hell and so on.

 

[Slimu]

Today I learned there's no SNES version of Wizardry IV.

It makes me sad.

You can play New Age on Llylgamyn on a PSX emulator on the phone. It includes both Wizardry 4 & 5.

 

[Sigourn]

Today I learned there's no SNES version of Wizardry IV.

It makes me sad.

You can play New Age on Llylgamyn on a PSX emulator on the phone. It includes both Wizardry 4 & 5.

Isn't that like in Japanese, though? I read that you could toggle names and other stuff to English, but a lot of things still remained Japanese.

And thank Yog-Sothoth for that. Wiz5 SNES was heavily censored. I shudder to imagine how they could mutilate Wiz4. Probably no Hell and so on.

Thankfully there's always the Super Famicon version (but I don't know if that's Japanese only or if it received a translation patch).

 

[Slimu]

Today I learned there's no SNES version of Wizardry IV.

It makes me sad.

You can play New Age on Llylgamyn on a PSX emulator on the phone. It includes both Wizardry 4 & 5.

Isn't that like in Japanese, though? I read that you could toggle names and other stuff to English, but a lot of things still remained Japanese.

And thank Yog-Sothoth for that. Wiz5 SNES was heavily censored. I shudder to imagine how they could mutilate Wiz4. Probably no Hell and so on.

Thankfully there's always the Super Famicon version (but I don't know if that's Japanese only or if it received a translation patch).

It is in japanese, but after activating all the english translation options, the games are playable.

Right now I'm playing Llylgamyn Saga on an Android phone and I think the only texts in japanese are the spell descriptions. You can easily remember what a spell does after playing a bit and reading an online spell description list.

Here is a link from another thread for setting the english language for the original Llygamyn Saga http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...sx-version-of-wizardry-llylgamyn-saga.107745/

 

[Fowyr]

Oh wait, am I supposed to close all the gates in one go without returning to castle? I hadn't thought that that'd be resetting things but of course that makes sense.

For the reference:

Currently I'm on sixth level and have two cards already.

 

[Sigourn]

I have one question about Wizardry IV, seeing as I will play it in the future.

I'm not American. Are the puzzles in any way or form related to you having to be born/having grown up in America to be able to figure them out? I think I remember reading somewhere that the games were basically impossible for Japanese people since they didn't share American culture.

 

[TigerKnee]

I think one of the puzzles required you to be proficient in Jewish mythology.

Which probably isn't something the average American would know either in the age of pre-Internet - the Japanese are just more fucked.

 

[Fowyr]

I think one of the puzzles required you to be proficient in Jewish mythology.

It's required for Grandmaster ending, you could perfectly finish game without it. Also that prophet tells you about Kabbalah. Just a Tree of the Sephiroth, basic stuff.

 

[octavius]

I have one question about Wizardry IV, seeing as I will play it in the future.

I'm not American. Are the puzzles in any way or form related to you having to be born/having grown up in America to be able to figure them out? I think I remember reading somewhere that the games were basically impossible for Japanese people since they didn't share American culture.

I've seen worse games than Wiz IV in that regard, like some of JVC's M&M games, and Bradley's Wizardry V where knowledge of Tarot cards were assumed.

 

[Watser]

The very last puzzle of M&M II is frustrating if you aren't an American.
EDIT: If memory hasn't decieved me yet, some of the riddles in Wiz 3 also required knowledge of tarot cards

 

[oddech_wymarlych_swiatow]

OK after Savant trilogy I'm going to beat earlier games. Could you guyz compare them to 6/7/8 difficulty?

I've already played Wiz4 and it's on Battletoads level of hard but what about rest?

What are the best ports?

 

[octavius]

1 is average difficulty, easier than 6 and 7. 2 is the easiest of the lot. 3 has some very hard parts (beginning and some troublesome Priests). 5 is on par with 6 and 7.

 

[aweigh]

snes port of Wiz 3 / ps1 port of wiz 3 / NEC-PC port of Wiz 3, b1f entrance area (purpose of comparing the 3 version's encounters):

 

[aweigh]

ps1 port of Wizardry 4, set to "classic mode" first; then changed to "remake mode" to show off graphics:


ps1 port of Wizardry 1, set to "classic mode":


snes port of wizardry 3, b1f, "moat section":

 

[aweigh]

 

[aweigh]

oddech_wymarlych_swiatow

for Wiz 1-5, best ports are indisputably the ps1 ports. options to change everything into English language, and also options to change all graphics and sprites to originals; or play with the "remake" ps1 polygonal graphics.

orchestral soundtrack(s) for the wiz 1-5 ports, on ps1, can't be changed however. In any case they are LOVELY to listen to. ps1 port's Wiz 4's full on trumpet/brass horn section-only OST is 100% BAD ASS.

for wiz 6, either play dos version (or NEC-PC) version, but if simply want ease-of-use play snes version via emulator. Snes versoin is content-identical, however it is slightly easier in that random encounter rate is reduced and also resting generates health and mana faster than in original version.

Keep in mind that even the DOS versions and the NEC-PC versions are "dumbed down"; only the Apple II original release versions feature original encounter rates and bullshit that was patched/fixed for the later DOS/etc releases. So even if playing DOS versions don't for a single second think you're playing the "hard-core" versoin.

only the apple ii versions may merit that distinction. However I recommend playing ps1 ports instead and actually having fun.

EDIT: if, for whatever reason, ps1 emu accessibility is not an option then by all means play the snes ports of wiz 1,2,3,5 and 6. Keep in mind, however, that UNLIKE THE ps1 PORTS, the snes ports feature tweaked encounter rates.

that said it's not like any version is actually easy. snes versions will kick your fucking ass, just like any Wizardry gam, if you don't know what you're doing.