Wizardry The Wizardry Series Thread

[Dorateen]

Nothing bad-ass about playing a pre-generated character.

Real Wizardry players make their own party.

Spoiler

It's all good, aweigh. Actually having a discussion comparing Werdna and the Dark Savant is one of the more monocled subjects that could be found on this forum.

 

[aweigh]

hey, Dorateen, since the last ps3 emulator build raised my fps from 15 to about 20-22 wanted to ask about any ps3 games worth playing. i completely missed out on the ps3 generation, though i did play ni no kuni, for whatever that's worth.

i have no idea if it has any good rpgs.

 

[Eggs is eggs]

I think the designer of this Japanese apartment was a Wizardry 4 fan.

And I thought it was Roe R. Adams III (also worked on Ultimas 3 and 4 and Bard's Tale) who was the primary designer of Wiz 4 and not Trebor/Werdna. One of them (I forget which) bowed out after the first one, and the other one basically stopped working on it after #2. III and IV were done by completely different people and then Bradley took over after that.

 

[aweigh]

guys.

I'm soooo fucking PISSED! Way back when I first became obsessed with Wizardry, I did a bunch of small-sized "avatar images", a bit bigger than our own avatar pictures, and the one I poured the most amount of love into is one of WERDNA, his image taken from the 2D SPRITE ARTWORK used for Werdna in the SNES remake of Wiz 1 combined with image manipulation by me, a nice little framing accouterments surrounding him and a lot of time (well.. about 2 hours) spent working on the desaturation, the saturation, the colored filters, and most importantly, his message in a golden embossing underneath that said:

"DESU DESU MOTHERFUCKER!"

It's prolly the single biggest accomplishment of my entire life and now the pic is gone because PHOTOBUCKET went under. I tried like CRAZY all the "workarounds" online to "catch" the hidden "database copy image", but no luck. I hope SOMEONE in this thread figures out a way to view the image, as it will make me happy to have it back plus also you will love it duh:

These are all the relevant image links I managed to scrounge up by using Page Source / Inspect Element, etc, nothing big:

- http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y292/aweigh01/download.jpg_zpse8whxt24.png

And this 2nd image (also gone) is a 2nd avatar/heraldric avatar of WERDNA I did but utilizing the PIXELATED 8-bit SPRITES from the Nintendo version of Wiz 1 with an overlayed pixelated werdna from the Apple II release. I actually kind of forgot what he was doing in the image but you can be sure, if by a miracle someone manages to view these magnificent treasures of art, that he was doin' THANGS:

- http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y292/aweigh01/APPLE-II-PIXEL-WERDNA-ICON.jpg_zps7aajeqbk.png


- http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y292/aweigh01/c27_zpsaym8eo4o.jpg?t=1456894425

sigh, it makes so mad all my photobucket pics have died. I had over 1000+ in that place concerning Wizardry/blobbers alone....

 

[Iznaliu]

sigh, it makes so mad all my photobucket pics have died. I had over 1000+ in that place concerning Wizardry/blobbers alone....

I always knew that Photobucket would go down the drain as they didn't look like they had a sustainable revenue model.

 

[Abh]

I am starting the wizardry 6-7 run. I will play this games in the next year (2/3 hours 5/6 days a week). Do you know any site/treads to give me some helpfull advice? Can you give me some generic tips regarding these games?

I'd recommend playing the first five games if you haven't. Otherwise this thread is the one you should be asking.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Wandroid is the only mobile game worth playing.

 

[Doktor Best]

hey, Dorateen, since the last ps3 emulator build raised my fps from 15 to about 20-22 wanted to ask about any ps3 games worth playing. i completely missed out on the ps3 generation, though i did play ni no kuni, for whatever that's worth.

i have no idea if it has any good rpgs.

Well there is Demon's Souls and Nier.

 

[Doktor Best]

I'll start the wizardry series with VII? But I have some questions, first:

1) Is it necessary to patch, mod or whateva the DOS version (GOG)?

2) What is the best way to map the game? PnP?

3) Is this the best RPG ever? It seems to be.

1) Dont go with the gold edition and youre fine.

2) Graph and paper is obviously the most monocled technique. There are good tools for mapping like Grid Cartographer and some people use Excel.
There is an ingame mapping skill but its not very convenient. Then as last (and most comfortable) possibility there is an automap mod.

3) Well that depends on your taste. There are wizardry games (and clones) that do dungeon crawling better, but Wizardry 7 is more than a dungeon crawler. Its easily one of the best though.

Id still recommend you playing one of the earlier titles first as they are way more "pure" to the original formula. Go with wizardry 1 or 5.

The PS1 remakes are great for mobile play if youre interested in that.

 

[Darth Roxor]

1) Is it necessary to patch, mod or whateva the DOS version (GOG)?

Not really, as long as you play the real DOS version and NOT the Gold version (it's got animu portraits and iirc bugs)

2) What is the best way to map the game? PnP?

Worked for me. Also, don't go into full sperg mode with counting every tile because there's not much point to do that in Wiz7. Also2, after you've mapped like 3-4 full maps you'll probably stop mapping altogether because tbh it's not even that necessary once you get a sense of direction in the world (that's how it ended up for me).

3) Is this the best RPG ever? It seems to be.

Nope, that would be Wiz8.

 

[Tito Anic]

Random "jrpg" style encounters ruin all fun in "wizardry" series for me. The programmer who invented it must be lynched.

 

[theSavant]

Invisible enemies... enemies popping out from nowhere. No thanks. Won't touch from a mile.

"Wizardry - Tale of the forsaken land" had at least "ghost-like" enemy placeholders wandering around. That's fine, because you can see them, avoid them, or engage them - all at your own will (mostly). But random, invisible encounters are just bleh...

 

[Darth Roxor]

So, is the wizardry gold manual good to play the DOS version?

Yeah.

Well, I didnt liked the fact that [wizardry 8 is] purely dungeons crawler. Not in the mood to play this kind of games, lately.

wut

 

[Darth Roxor]

Well tbh if you're not in the mood for cheese Wiz 6 or 8, I don't see how you could be in the mood for Wiz 7.

 

[TigerKnee]

Lots of choices and consequences, NPCs, good writing

This might not be the right game

 

[Iznaliu]

Is it not? Did I say some bs?

Wiz8 is about as much as a dungeon crawler as Wiz7, apparently (I've only played the former game); take that as you will.

 

[aweigh]

Playlist


1996 - Wizardry Gaiden 4: Throb of the Demon's Heart [English]
1998 - Wizardry Gaiden 5: Dimguil
2000 - Wizardry 8 [English]
2000 - Wizardry Chronicle: Recapturing the Holy Land [English]
2000 - Wizardry Empire 1: The Ancient Princess
2001 - Wizardry Empire 2: Legacy of the Princess [English]
2001 - Wizardry: Tale of The Forsaken Land [English]
2004 - Wizardry Empire 3: The Future Emperor
2005 - Wizardry Asterisk
2006 - Wizardry Gaiden 6: Prisoners of the Battle
2006 - Elminage: Original [English]
2008 - Elminage 2
2010 - Elminage 3
2013 - Elminage: Gothic [English]
2015 - Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls [English]

 

[Jaesun]

THROB OF THE DEAMON'S HEART.

 

[Gimble]

Well tbh if you're not in the mood for cheese Wiz 6 or 8, I don't see how you could be in the mood for Wiz 7.

Lots of choices and consequences, NPCs, good writing, huge world, mapping, difficult puzzles, tactical combat (i love tactical combats, but I don't want to play a game that only offers this), good character creation/progression, non linearity, etc.

Agree with character development, non linearity, world/atmosphere, etc. But the story is pretty cheesy, even compared to Wizardry 6 with its twists and all. Wizardry 8 does tactical combat better. Choice and consequence? It is not implemented well. In fact, in my very first playthrough I was busy exploiting the character system by constantly switching classes and using the random encounters to catchup levels - resulted in NPCs picking up most of the map pieces, which in fact made it much more convenient to acquire them by trading/fighting with them (the game basically rewarded grinding not only with overpowered characters but also not needing to work to acquire many of the map pieces, making for a backwards C&C).

Also, generally speaking, the game needed to tune down the random encounter rate. Did not like the character level based spell resistance system in these games either as it made grinding levels more important for spell effectiveness, or countering monster spell resistance than just tactical planning based on character build.

 

[Dorateen]

Crusaders of the Dark Savant has wonderful story, a tale of unraveling cosmic mysteries and altering the course of the future, one which arcs across two adventures. The choices made about what factions to help and how you end the game would have ramifications ten years later in Wizardry 8. Not many RPGs that focus on narrative choice and consequences can boast as much.

 

[Gimble]

Crusaders of the Dark Savant has wonderful story, a tale of unraveling cosmic mysteries and altering the course of the future, one which arcs across two adventures.

While the game is good and fun and all, the story is basically a marvel comics plotline from the 70s. Not exactly a bad thing - it is enjoyable and cheesy.

The choices made about what factions to help and how you end the game would have ramifications ten years later in Wizardry 8. Not many RPGs that focus on narrative choice and consequences can boast as much.

Consequences in the next game is a C&C implementation in Wizardry 8. For crusaders, it is the consequences implemented from Wizardry 6. In both cases, it affects starting locations, items and initial faction disposition. It is correct to say that there is a series level static C&C decision tree due to the faithfully implemented save import features resulting in different initial starting conditions in the sequels. Within each game, C&C implementation is either pretty basic or not well done.

 

[Grauken]

Well, better few but impactful C&C than countless garbage C&C

 

[Gimble]

Well, better few but impactful C&C than countless garbage C&C

Perhaps. In practical terms: "To see the consequences of your choices, buy the next game". A game that does that today wont be praised for C&C.

 

[aweigh]

most of the stuff considered "c&c" is not specific or unique to the RPG genre.

 

[Abh]

I prefer the choices and consequences I found delving deeper than I should or risking opening a chest than what I find with Bioware dialogue wheels, but that's just me.