Game News Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls is now available on PC

[Viata]

No one wants to translate or voice act.

The Dark Savant trilogy has a jp version, though:

 

[Bruma Hobo]

Ok so Cleve could get huge sales in Japan if he released Grimoire in Japanese

Doesn't Japan hate the Dark Savant trilogy?

I've heard that the Wizardry 1-3 formula is a lot more popular, yeah.

Does someone really knows the reason, though? I have seen many japanese let's play of the Dark Savant trilogy and they really liked it, so I really think the reason we don't got clone of those is because they are way harder to make it than the earlier ones.

I believe, if true, that the reason is obvious: It's a completely different series, with different objectives and strengths, stealing the Wizardry name, which in Japan is serious business. The leap to Wizardry 6 was too much of a betrayal for some people, just ask aweigh.

 

[*-*/\--/\~]

The title instilled a faint hope, but the horrid animu style burned my eyes.

 

[kaisergeddon]

Effectively what Unorus said. The Japanese never got on board with DW Bradley's vision because they were preoccupied with the original formula. Anyways, this game should really allow custom portraits, that's the least the genre has innovated with in the past decade.

 

[aweigh]

Effectively what Unorus said. The Japanese never got on board with DW Bradley's vision because they were preoccupied with the original formula. Anyways, this game should really allow custom portraits, that's the least the genre has innovated with in the past decade.

And thank god for that! Bradley almost ruined Wizardry but thanks to the japs we got the best Wizardry games ever made, like Wizardry Empire 2 and Wizardry Gaiden 4. Additionally the Wiz Empire devs made the best turn based dungeon crawler in decades with Elminage Gothic, the true continuation of Wizardry.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

There doesn't seem to be much reason to recommend this over something more innovative like Elminage or with better presentation like Tale of the Forsaken Land.

 

[RatTower]

Ok so Cleve could get huge sales in Japan if he released Grimoire in Japanese

Doesn't Japan hate the Dark Savant trilogy?

I've heard that the Wizardry 1-3 formula is a lot more popular, yeah.

Does someone really knows the reason, though? I have seen many japanese let's play of the Dark Savant trilogy and they really liked it, so I really think the reason we don't got clone of those is because they are way harder to make it than the earlier ones.

There is even a PSX version of Wizardry 7 that was exclusively released in japan.



Same for Wizardry 6, but I believe that version's comparatively well known in the west (albeit through rom hacks/fan translations).

I don't know anything about the sales numbers of those games over there, but the Bradley formula was probably less profitable than the original one.
Especially since it needs more hands-on attention from a level and quest designer. When those games hit the japanese market in 1995 that might have tipped the scales against them.

Another possibility is a licensing issue. There is actually a very high chance for that. As demonstrated by Labyrinth of Lost Souls, there are quite a few legal issues between japanese and western license holders. Wizardry as a legal asset is extremely shattered. More than any other game license I have ever seen. In fact, I'm not even sure, who would theoretically be allowed to produce and sell a new main series game. And I actually, unironically believe the license holders don't know that either. Why else would it take almost a year to clear up sales licenses for a spinoff? It probably requires a whole legal team to work yourself through that mess.

And regional licensing is only one part of that mess. Don't quote me on it, but I believe Wiz 6-8 are somehow legally separated from the rest of the series (which is part of the reason those are on GoG, unlike Wiz 1-5). I think it was through some personal ownership of Robert Sirotek, but the reason could also be, that Wiz8 was just released when Sir-Tech filed for bankruptcy in 2001, making the Dark Savant Trilogy a high value bankruptcy asset.
Either way, the license went to a bank I think and then to Gamepot Inc (a japanese MMORPG developer that would later develop Wizardry Online). The sales rights for the Dark Savant Trilogy were much later then shared (or perhaps dug up from the bankruptcy assets?) with Nightdive and Gamepot I think is defunct now, making things even more complicated (since they are still quoted as the publishers on wiz6-8's steam page). The two Wizardry spinoffs on Steam (Lost Souls and Labyrinth of Wizardry) were developed by Acquire and Taito, and were published by Forever Entertainment (apparently a western polish (???) company) and Marvelous, which is I think a japanese company with a US subsidiary (?????) that is somehow a merger of some companies with AQ Interactive (???????), which is also the parent company for XSEED (?????????) which I BELIEVE is used as the american publisher for a couple japanese games and therefor the japanese spinoffs of wizardry. And those spinoff production rights were also held by gamepot, but only until 2017 when they went downhill - and at some point ASCII also held the publishing rights, but only in japan.

I think.

I don't know.

I ... I just don't know!

 

[aweigh]

EDIT: Referring to Labyrinth of Lost Souls.

This game is made by the Class of Heroes devs, and plays like it.

 

[mondblut]

I've heard that the Wizardry 1-3 formula is a lot more popular, yeah.

Does someone really knows the reason, though?

Japs cannot into anything more complex than grinding on random encounters popping out every time you make a step?

 

[kaisergeddon]

Effectively what Unorus said. The Japanese never got on board with DW Bradley's vision because they were preoccupied with the original formula. Anyways, this game should really allow custom portraits, that's the least the genre has innovated with in the past decade.

And thank god for that! Bradley almost ruined Wizardry but thanks to the japs we got the best Wizardry games ever made, like Wizardry Empire 2 and Wizardry Gaiden 4. Additionally the Wiz Empire devs made the best turn based dungeon crawler in decades with Elminage Gothic, the true continuation of Wizardry.

I like the Bradley games for what they are, but I won't argue with that. What the original formula became with Elminage is absolutely masterful. Not just for the mechanical aspects, but also for the eldritch-horror-esque fantasy it employs with its subtle lore and enemy designs which I feel goes understated when people praise the series. I particularly like how at the end of Original you find a podium in the post game with cryptic numbers that refers both to a physical lore book and a forbidden year in the games chronology. That's really spooky shit. I think the numbers were like 712579.4352 * 61043518 > 61043652 or something?

Anyways, off subject, but infinitely more interesting than this Wizardry title. This one ain't bad, but it's "a way to pass the time" rather than essential gaming imo.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Honestly going from Wizardry 5 to 6 gave me the same feeling like going from Phantasie 1-2 did to 3 (And I swear in phantasii the jumping up and down upon winning battles was continues in the Japanese Final Fantasy series for a while).

 

[DJOGamer PT]

IMO Wiz 1-5 (and similiar blobbers) are entirely different beasts to games like Wiz 6-8 and Grimoire, and as such they really can't be compared.
I don't know a better to way explain it than this:
>Wiz 1-5 are dungeon crawlers, this means that the dungeon is the sole focus and the true enemy of the game, every other aspect revolves around this design principle and their function is to enchance that enemy, and make the experience as tigth as possible;
>Wiz 6-8 are more classical RPG's (this becomes more apparent in 7), so the dungeon is no longer the star of the show and other aspects (some brand new, as they would amount to bloat in the dungeon crawler) share equal if not higher importance, aspects such as: the game's world design, the level of interactivity, exploration, c&c, quests, gameplay systems that allow for builds that aren't fully meant for combat or dealing with the dangers of the dungeon, etc...

 

[LeStryfe79]

I played it all the way through almost 10 years ago, at the height of alcohol abuse. It was by no means bad, but was kind of easy and forgettable. I'd pass it up unless you've played every other Wizardry-like you can find.

 

[Deuce Traveler]

I played it all the way through almost 10 years ago, at the height of alcohol abuse. It was by no means bad, but was kind of easy and forgettable. I'd pass it up unless you've played every other Wizardry-like you can find.

Yeah, I played this earlier this year and agree. Since I am not going through the stupid trouble of getting a PS5 this year, I stuck with my PS3 and started downloading games from PSN and this was one of them. I enjoyed it for what it was and I'm glad Wizardry is not completely dead, but the game was just 'alright for what it was'. Wizardry 1 and Wizardry 6 are still at the top of my list, followed by 7 and 8.