Finished Wizardry 8. It has become my most played crpg over the years, but this is one of the very few playthroughs that I saw through till the end. And it was the most completionist run I ever did, I think. Cleared all the maps, did alliance quests, shitty retro dungeons, all the optional, set fights, some of which I've never seen before (pee wee, savant behemoth, giant bat in trynton etc.). I've even tried all the niche crap like seeing how the bank heist plays out if you try it (nothing interesting tbh). Also, lucked out on seeing some rare items I didn't even know were in the game.
Party was:
Draconian bard. Was supposed to be a meme build as I went str+vit and kept her with Tempest set items until the very end to role play with utilizing the iron skin bonus from the armor etc. It turned out absolutely amazing tho, having maxed out stamina to just keep spamming whichever instrument you like is heaven. And her melee ability was very respectable even with the mercucio's blade. I did plan to give her ivory blade for the end game, but then it turned out bards can't use it, which I didn't know. One point I didn't even consider when planning the party is how amazing having a caster in the first party slot is. When you utilize issuing and then cancelling move order to get enemies to come to you (in other words - all the time), you're basically guaranteed that whichever buff/debuff you've got queued will fire before anyone else gets their action.
Human valkyrie. Also rp meme as I went for str and pie. Still great as having quickly developing divinity spell book is very useful, particularly when you have lots of characters that burn through stamina quickly, like I did. I found and gave her Maenad's lance, so it was also a pleasantly different build than just going for the Dread spear from Bela as per usual.
Felpurr monk. Pure unarmed throughout the game. Lost of attacks with decent damage and occasional crit. Gets lots of kills, but honestly a pretty boring character and super limited equipment options only add to that. Stealth is op. And psionics is such a cool in theory, completely meh in practice spellbook, dammit. I completely gave up on even trying to develop it around mid game. And having a bard makes it all but pointless, anyway.
Mook ranger. Not a big fan, but wanted to try out the multi shot crossbows from gadgeteer. And it's a pretty potent weapon, particularly early in the game. But it burns through stamina super quick, so you get that on top of the usual logistical ammo problems. Switched to bows once I started getting the decent ones. Alchemy is a waste as a spellbook, but potion mixing is top value and it's very easy to train.
Hobbit gadgeteer. Honestly, my opinion about the class went down after this playthrough. You complete most gadgets very late in the game, they weigh a shitton and eat stamina like crazy. It gets a bit of a power spike when you complete the noxious fumes potty in Marten's bluff, but that's p much as good as it gets. Other then that, the one oustanding moment was completing the microwave blaster in Bayjin, as it is useful to cook those rock crabs which spawn in big groups and are annoying af. Omnigun turns out decent after a time, but I absolutely hate blind (and fear) effects in this game, they annoy me to no end.
Fearie mage. Last but not least. I stand by my opinion that mage is easily the best choice for pure caster. Divinity is in its own class, but wizardry spellbook just completely dunks over psionics and alchemy. And having the best possible initial skill point allocation makes up for lacking any useful specials or additional value.
The party was meant as rp + as much variety as possible (no repeated skills, weapon categories, races etc.) and I absolutely loved it. And it never ceases to amaze me how great writing and voice acting is. The agrresive bard and russian accent valkyrie kept cracking me up. "Women and children first. And there are no children here, so give me that book!".
This gaem is great and remains the only "big and serious" title from the turn of the century that attempted to merge actually classic crpgs with then modern trends. The moment it got the reception that it did you knew crpgs as a genre were completely done.
it once it's out, can easily recommend trying the demo.
