Wizardry The Wizardry Series Thread

[EldarEldrad]

Man I wish I could finally beat it. Any tips?

If under beat you mean kill Werdna, then you can skip all medium levels (I mean those which available by elevator). Just level up to 10+ levels and go straight to bottom level and kill that SoB (check manual for powerful high level spells). You can explore later (or even kill Werdna again).
During chargen try to create as powerful chars as you can, reroll up to maximum bonus points. It will help you with advanced classes.
Keep two parties alive, in case you lost one, use another to recover their bodies.
Savescumming can make game ridicilously easy so use it with caution.

 

[gman42]

I mean savescumming isn't an option if you want to play it with original game mechanics. In fact most of your advice doesn't apply if you're playing it that way, as you need to make short, incremental trips into the dungeon where you ramp up the difficulty slowly.

 

[Piotrovitz]

Yo, is there a way to get automap mod working for gog version of Wiz 7?

 

[newtmonkey]

Wizardry V
Kind of stuck in this one, I'm not powerful enough to tackle the one "boss" fight I've found without extremely heavy losses, and I got frustrated trying to deal with Evil Eyes. I found out from the Mad Stomper that I need to steal a locket from EE to free Yog from the glass cylinder, but no matter how many times I try, my thief ends up just stealing a few hundred gold one or two times, then EE goes away or I get into a fight with a bunch of demons—one time this resulted in me killing EE during the fight, I guess, because next time I went to the Temple to revive a character, EE was there. I resurrected EE, but still can't seem to steal that locket.

Other that a machine a don't know how to operate on level 6, I *think* I've explored pretty much everything, but have no way to access level 7 yet (I'm guessing there's a stairway or chute or something behind that).

My options now are to check back with NPCs to see if I missed anything, or just keep attempting to steal from EE. Neither sounds particularly fun, though the former would probably end up getting me a level for a couple characters or some nice equipment.

 

[Martyr]

Yo, is there a way to get automap mod working for gog version of Wiz 7?

Wizardry 7 has an automap. reading maps is a skill tho. and you need to obtain the adventurer kit which is found in the starter dungeon after defeating Ra-Sep-Ra-Tep, iirc.

I was just about to post this picture of Wiz7's extremely elegant map anyways. god, do I love that game.

 

[Piotrovitz]

Wizardry 7 has an automap. reading maps is a skill tho. and you need to obtain the adventurer kit which is found in the starter dungeon after defeating Ra-Sep-Ra-Tep, iirc.

I know mate, what I am looking for is an external automap mod that runs in separate window. See here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1O5BPHEh8Yw&t=53s

Has anyone tried to run this with gog version?

 

[Grauken]

Grid Cartographer, but this will cost you money

 

[newtmonkey]

D.W. Bradley's Wizardry V: KICKING ME IN THE BALLS THRU SPACE AND TIME
I decided I'm gonna just try stealing from Evil Eyes over and over until I finally get the locket. That lasted about 20 minutes as the boredom got to me. What a horrible encounter that is; you (obviously) only have a random chance of stealing it (even with a pure Thief with 18 AGI and 17 LUCK; if that even matters), it's a huge pain in the ass to even get there (Malor doesn't seem to work within the level for some reason), and on top of that you are constantly attacked by enemies that pretty much all have instakill powers or worse plus magic resistance. It's just tedious, and I'm so close to just looking up the answer to that machine on level 6 and hoping I won't need that locket for anything else than freeing Yog and getting some information from him.

In the meantime, I didn't want to accomplish absolutely nothing in 20 minutes, so I went and finally killed that Nymph/Copper Demon boss battle. With my priest and two mages each casting multigroup damage spells, the battle was over in two rounds with my party standing triumphant with hardly a scratch. Disarming the chest with my PURE THIEF 18/17 AGI/LUCK resulting in my thief and one mage being reduced to ASH, proving once and for all that 1) thieves are completely fucking useless and 2) the most dangerous thing in this game BY FAR is treasure chests.

I got the card and was able to resurrect both characters, but how on earth do you trap a chest containing a QUEST ITEM with an (potentially PERMANENT) autokill trap. There's literally no way to avoid this kind of thing.

 

[octavius]

I wish I could remember more of Wiz 5...
I don't recall it was that brutal, though, but I do remeber the rage when the game bugged out on me at the very end.

Who is Evil Eyes? One of the roving NPCs?

 

[Grauken]

Mostly (one room) stationary NPC in Level 6 from whom you have to steal a locket, Mad Stomper told his tale about him and what the locket is needed for

 

[Trans-Financial-Man]

Anyone got any info on why Japan loves Wizardry so much to the point of making Jap exclusive games?

 

[newtmonkey]

Finally stole that locket!!
I remembered in Wiz 2 there were floors on which you couldn't use Malor, but could use Malor to teleport to or through them, so I figured I'd try Maloring from level 1 to level 6, since the 0,0 point on level 6 is pretty close to Evil Eyes' room. That worked, and surprisingly enough, I stole the locket on my first attempt lolz.

My level 6 bishop simply could not ID it, so I had to spend the 25,000 gold :/

One other bonus: One of my mages had enough experience to level up to 14.

Now I can finally get on with this game!

 

[Grauken]

Anyone got any info on why Japan loves Wizardry so much to the point of making Jap exclusive games?

One answer I read in one of the interviews with Greenberg or Woodhead was that the Japanese loved that Wizardry had classes like the Samurai and Ninja and even class-fitting items like Katanas and stuff. Though I doubt that is everything. One should not forget that Wizardry once was, rightfully so, big in the West as well, at least in the beginning. These were just damn good games. Maybe the proper question is, why did the Western audience fell out of love with tb-based dungeons crawlers

My hot take, its all Dungeon Master's fault. DM and then later the EotB trilogy trained a whole generation of gamers to dislike slower-paced tb-dungeon crawlers. It was all downhill from there

 

[newtmonkey]

Maybe the proper question is, why did the Western audience fell out of love with tb-based dungeons crawlers

Was literally gonna post this, almost word for word.

There are also legal issues involved. Sir-Tech basically granted a Japanese company an extremely generous license to port Wizardry games to home consoles in Japan, but the line between home console and home PC was very blurry then, and then on top of that Sir-Tech attempted to break their contract with Greenberg (i.e. avoid paying royalties) by shutting their own company down and opening a new one in Canada.

A Japanese company called Gamepot now owns rights for Wiz 6-8, along with the worldwide trademark to the name "Wizardry." I couldn't find any information on how exactly Gamepot etc. obtained ownership of Wizardry, but I'm guessing Sir-Tech Canada just sold the rights outright as they were spiraling out of control, maybe even to spite Greenberg, who hounded them (rightly) in court for years and years like the ghost of Trebor chasing Werdna.

Here's an interesting blog post (in Japanese) where some guy goes through legal documents and interview to try to figure out the whole mess:
http://sand-storm.net/wordpress/?p=16292

 

[newtmonkey]

Wiz 5

Malor'd down to level 6, spoke with Zog, learned how to operate the machine to the south, fought the ice king and won the card with only my weakest mage falling during the fight. I Malor'd right back up to level 1, and that was enough for tonight.

I assume I'll have to fight that ice king battle again next time, but at least I won't have to worry about disarming a chest after the battle.

 

[Grauken]

Why'd you want to fight him again?

 

[newtmonkey]

Won't the encounter pop again when I go down there? After I beat him I just Malor'd straight back home (I didn't even step outside his room, so can't Malor to avoid it without risking teleporting into stone).

 

[Grauken]

Won't the encounter pop again when I go down there? After I beat him I just Malor'd straight back home (I didn't even step outside his room, so can't Malor to avoid it without risking teleporting into stone).

Ah, so you don't know the map layout. There's a secret door close to the start of the slide that will help you

 

[newtmonkey]

Ohhhh, I didn't know about any secret door. That's helpful I'll poke around and see what I can find.

 

[Lukifell]

Regarding strategy for Wiz5 lower levels...

I just ironmanned the SNES Wiz5 (zero reloading including chests/traps, party wipe = game over) and with the first few parties that wiped, I found that you really need two Mages to be able to delete two entire groups before they can act. Because that’s the only way to handle the 4-5 groups of nasty stuff.

They should be Gnomes for 20 AGI which guarantees they’ll be acting first. (Make sure to give them at least 16 VIT starting out. With 18 VIT their hp will be almost double normal Mage HP.)

Also for what it’s worth, Gnome is also the best Ninja race, because with 20 AGI a Ninja will never trigger traps on a failed disarm. (I was using double Calfo on any chest past the first floor.)

Most solid/versatile party I came up with (and the party I managed to ironman up until LaLa was on farm status):

Human Lord
Dwarf Ninja (weird, but a Ninja with 20 STR is pretty insane. Carried Hades runs at Lv13 using Faust Halberd, the only one who could hit the bigger demons consistently)
Gnome Ninja
Gnome Cleric
Gnome Mage 2x (useful for double Mahaman to take on Arch Fiends at Lv. 13)

Also you can stack Cortu, by six casts you’ll be pretty much immune to magic/breath. (I guess this is why higher level demons cast Palios)

 

[aweigh]

Thank god for japan, not only did they make two of the best Wizardry games ever made (Wizardry Gaiden 4 and Wizardry Empire 2), but they also gave us the continuation of the series in the form of Elminage.

Best thing that could've ever happened for fans of turn-based dungeon crawlers!

<3 Wizardry

 

[Lukifell]

Thank god for japan, not only did they make two of the best Wizardry games ever made (Wizardry Gaiden 4 and Wizardry Empire 2), but they also gave us the continuation of the series in the form of Elminage.

Best thing that could've ever happened for fans of turn-based dungeon crawlers!

<3 Wizardry

Which Eliminage is best? I'll probably end up playing them all since you guys seem to think they're great.

Just tried out 6 for the first time but quit after the mines, all the puzzles and key hunting are bleh. 7 is great tho

 

[aweigh]

Elminage: Gothic is the best one. It's the one with the best dungeons and the best itemization, as well as having tons of gameplay features and several new mechanics (like the addition of the class-based Ex-Skills), among many other things.

It's an amazing game. One of the best dungeon crawlers ever made. Bigly recommended if you like Wizardry.

 

[newtmonkey]

Listen to aweigh
However, Elminage: Gothic is hardcore, if you haven't played Wiz 1-5 (excepting 4) OR EVEN IF YOU HAVE, jumping straight into Gothic might be nuts. Elminage Original is also a great game, less linear than Gothic as you have access to multiple dungeons at any given time. There's no reason not to start at the beginning, unless I guess you don't want to spend the time going through them all; in that case, fortify your balls and play Gothic.

 

[Lukifell]

Got an emergency situation. Trying to ironman Wiz8 on expert and it’s been going well so far. Except Crock took my Bishop who is the only one with any buff spells. (Divinity/Wizardry). This wouldn’t be so bad except it’s the only character who can cast Magic Screen. Tried making it to the frog and nearly wiped on a random pack of Rynjins, only survived because Rogue had Canned Elemental + Pandemonium Powder for this kind of situation. Now I’m basically stuck in Martens Bluff, afraid to go anywhere — even in the Bluff I nearly wiped on a group of Lv. 13 ghost caster things.


Where can scrolls of Magic Screen be purchased? Sadok/Arnika doesn’t seem to have them. Please don’t say Crock, lol, as he won’t sell me anything until I kill the frog.