Wizardry The Wizardry Series Thread

[Syraxis]

I remember reading somewhere that Wizardry I one was popular in Japan because it was something "different", despite a shit translation job.

According to wikipedia, it influenced Dragon Quest:

In 1982, Enix sponsored a national video game programming contest, which brought much of the Dragon Quest team together, including Yūji Horii. The prize of the competition was a trip to the United States, and a visit to AppleFest '83 in San Francisco, where Horii discovered Wizardry.

Koichi Nakamura and Yukinobu Chida, two other winners of the contest, along with Horii, released The Portopia Serial Murder Case for the Famicom for Enix. Sugiyama, already famous for jingles and pop songs, impressed with the group's work, sent a postcard to Enix, commenting on the software.

In response, Enix asked him to write music for some of its games. The group then decided to make a console role-playing game, using a combination of Wizardry and Ultima. Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama, who knew Horii through the manga magazine Weekly Shonen Jump, was commissioned to illustrate the characters and monsters to separate the game from other RPGs of the time and the Dragon Quest "team" was born.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_Quest#History

 

[Emotional Vampire]

So no one clicked my link? Look, I didn't write it. And it's not a dead cat. Okay

 

[Serious_Business]

People are making clones of everything, why not make clones of something good?

This is the path to greatness. Good thinking there buddy

Your reasoning doesn't work, something good takes dedication, efforts, creativity, time, talent, intelligence, etc etc. You can't copy-paste those things, trying to do so will ultimately result in something mediocre.

Of course, a dungeon crawler IS something mediocre, so I see where you're going. Or do I?

 

[Kron]

http://insomnia.ac/commentary/on_role-playing_games/

:honourblade: - except for the part of hiding the stats of a CRPG, and mentioning The Elder Scrolls as an example of WRPGs (Oblivion is too much of a stain)

 

[FeelTheRads]

http://insomnia.ac/commentary/on_role-playing_games/

:honourblade: - except for the part of hiding the stats of a CRPG, and mentioning The Elder Scrolls as an example of WRPGs (Oblivion is too much of a stain)

And Deus Ex as the best example of CRPG. I stopped reading right there.

Shit poster, shit article. No surprise there.

 

[bhlaab]

Just what was so great about Wizardry 1-4 that the Japanese are so afraid of breaking out of convention? What is it with all those middle-aged nerds in Japan who want to keep playing the exact games they so loved back in 1984?

Well, I'm not sure this message board is a place to criticize people for being middle aged nerds who only want to play exact clones of games from decades ago...

But yeah, I think it's that they came out roughly around the same time as the Dragon Quest craze and nostalgia is a more powerful force in Japan I guess. It's not like jrpgs haven't changed at ALL since 1984 (mostly it's gone into directions nobody here would think are any good, but that's still going in firections) but just like nobody here wants to play a Fallout game that's a first person shooter, nobody in Japan would want to play a Wizardry that isn't stuck in 1984

 

[bhlaab]

Also it's the famicom version of wizardry that sold so much over there, isn't it? I doubt many japanese people even knew about those other pc classics

 

[Fat Dragon]

But yeah, I think it's that they came out roughly around the same time as the Dragon Quest craze

Actually Wizardry came before Dragon Quest. It was what inspired that Jap guy to make DQ in the first place.

 

[1eyedking]

Wizardry sucks major cock. Japanese like it because it's made of mindless grinding.

Shitty art (as with everything Sir-Tech), shitty character system, shitty combat (gets boring insanely fast), shitty interface, shitty story, shitty high fantasy & sci-fi combo.

The only good thing that ever came out of that series was W8's character voices' personalities.

 

[Fat Dragon]

Everything is just plain shitty on the Codex.

 

[Darth Roxor]

You're not skyway

 

[Jasede]

I suck major cock.

 

[Captain Rufus]

Some people like old school games. Who really cares? Shit, people spooged over Mega Man 9 basically looking like the first 5-6 games even though it came out about 20 years later.

UK retrogamers still obsess over Manic Miner/Jet Set Willy even though the games are unfair and abusive and ugly. (Just like Wizardry.)

Its a mix of nostalgia and a gameplay style thats damned fun anyhow.

And as others have mentioned Fallout's online fanbase sperging over F3 using a different gameplay style doesn't exactly leave western RPG fans any damned room to complain.

(Oh, and I would prefer a mixture of both eras of Wizardry thanks. Some things the later games did do better, but many things the originals did better. YMMV.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Shitty art (as with everything Sir-Tech)

Fuck you. Sir-Tech did NOT have shitty art.

 

[Azrael the cat]

Shitty art (as with everything Sir-Tech)

Fuck you. Sir-Tech did NOT have shitty art.

Yeah, you have to take into account just how fucking early the first few Wiz games were. I was playing Wiz 1 in 1983-4 on an Apple IIe. Computers didn't have colour monitors then, they were a shitty green monochrome. This was before Karateka revolutionised character graphics FFS - you were doing well to get something that didn't look like ASCII. In fact rogue - a game totally made of ASCII was released as a COMMERCIAL release AFTER Wizardry 1. Yep, Wiz's graphical competitors were ASCII.

The line-box-3D and blobs were pretty impressive all things considered.

 

[Boddler]

Of course Japanese people love Wizardry because you can be a ninja or a samurai. This is obvious.

 

[Black]

Of course Japanese people love Wizardry because you can be a ninja or a samurai. This is obvious.

And a furry at that.
And pixie sex.

 

[pipka]

Of course Japanese people love Wizardry because you can be a ninja or a samurai. This is obvious.

And a furry at that.
And pixie sex.

No, you can't be furry in first 4 Wiz. Only vanilla Tolkien races.

 

[mondblut]

And as others have mentioned Fallout's online fanbase sperging over F3 using a different gameplay style doesn't exactly leave western RPG fans any damned room to complain.

That's a strawman. Fallout and Fallout 3 are two absolutely different games sharing nothing but franchise and its setting. They have about as much in common as Blood Bowl and WH40k: Final Liberation.

Wizardry 6+ do not have a "different gameplay style" than their predecessors. Maybe 8 is slightly different due to smooth 3d movement and seeing encounters ahead, but that's it. The core gameplay is still the same, but infinitely advanced, expanded and given purpose starting with 6. In a way, 5- are rendered obsolete like basic early prototypes they are.

I wouldn't want japs to clone 7-8 though. If they can turn a barebone generic fantasy dungeon crawler into an anime tentacle gay porn, I shudder to think what kind of a bad acid trip a gook adaptation of Dark Savant would be.

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

And as others have mentioned Fallout's online fanbase sperging over F3 using a different gameplay style doesn't exactly leave western RPG fans any damned room to complain.

That's a strawman. Fallout and Fallout 3 are two absolutely different games sharing nothing but franchise and its setting. They have about as much in common as Blood Bowl and WH40k: Final Liberation.

Wizardry 6+ do not have a "different gameplay style" than their predecessors. Maybe 8 is slightly different due to smooth 3d movement and seeing encounters ahead, but that's it. The core gameplay is still the same, but infinitely advanced, expanded and given purpose starting with 6. In a way, 5- are rendered obsolete like basic early prototypes they are.

I wouldn't want japs to clone 7-8 though. If they can turn a barebone generic fantasy dungeon crawler into an anime tentacle gay porn, I shudder to think what kind of a bad acid trip a gook adaptation of Dark Savant would be.

+1

 

[Elzair]

They're Japanese! They don't need a reason to like crazy shit!

 

[Paula Tormeson IV]

Western people - Start out with early Wizardries, diversify into various other possibilities with the genre, with The Bard's Tale, Wasteland, Might & Magics, later Wizardrys, Gold Box games, Dungeon Master-style real-time RPGs, first-person action RPGs like Ultima Underworld, strategy RPGs like Jagged Alliance, exploration RPGs like Elder Scrolls games, interactivist games like Ultima 7, pausable real-time RPGs, adventure-RPGs, and even some decent shooters with RPG elements.

Japanese people - Borrow early Wizardries, make console ports for them, make clones of them, take clones of them and put in predetermined story-based characters, make loads of clones of the latter, make a mainstream segment of this formula, keep making early Wizardry clones for niche groups, and do this forever!

This is the story of history.

 

[hal900x]

Wizardry 7: Original Flavor or New and Improved?

Should I bother with the Gold "Talkie" version? I like talkies, but heard the portraits are more cartoony. Echh.

 

[JarlFrank]

Didn't we have that discussion less than a month ago already?
Everyone says normal Wiz7 is better than Gold, including me. And mondblut, who is an expert on dungeon crawlers. Get the original.

 

[Andhaira]

Whats the main difference? Gold has speech, is that it?