Wizardry The Wizardry Series Thread

[Emmanuel2]

Holy mother of grind

I worshiped her while doing this playthrough on expert. Early game was literally experiencing hell and then some but dialing the difficulty down means that my worship is all for naught.

3-turning the final battle (and ass blasting the encounters in Ascension peak because fuck those) was probably the most satisfying thing in any game that I've done.

 

[Strange Fellow]

^

W8 dungeons are just sad when you compare them with oldschool dungeons full of spinners, teleports and darkness zones.

Plenty of games still do that. Granted, they’re all Japanese, but still. There are almost no games like Wiz 8. It would have benefitted from bigger dungeons, I agree, but gridbased dungeons represent a very specific sort of puzzle that could never be properly replicated in a 3D free-movement game, and so holding it to those standards is unfair, I think. Again, if we're talking strictly about size, multiple paths, etc. then I agree, Wiz 8 is slim pickings.

I never liked those parts of games: you are wholly prepared and leveled up, everything is known, but what is only left is to just wrap up some obligatory main plot business and nothing truly to conquer and push for with your masterfully crafted and finished party.

What about Wiz 7, didn't that test your endgame party? I know 6 did, and I've heard horror stories (heh) about the Gorrors.

 

[Shadenuat]

Fuck yes it did.

And Hall of Gorrors is a place every combat rpg needs. The "well try and get through THIS then motherfucker" place, which you can try through the game as your party becomes stronger, and with nice rewards. Although it had basically just a few difficulty modes (easy, normal, deathmouse, and literally impossible without autism-mode). But the idea itself I like.

Wiz7 heavily relied on grinding though. Even your party composition, if you wanted a better one, was grinding-based.

 

[Strange Fellow]

Yup, it's probably no Hall of Gorrors, but I loved how the endgame of 6 really dialled the "fuck you player here's some absolute bullshit" up to 11, and the way it ended up like some anime-level extravaganza of hideously overpowered spells flying every which way and fucking over PCs and enemies alike

 

[Grampy_Bone]

That's a good insight that Wiz 8 is a more comprehensive RPG than a traditional Wizardry or modern blobber revivals like Grimrock. Right now open world is where it's at but developers remain as allergic to turn based combat as ever, unless it's "ZOMG so hardcorez Darkest Dungeon XCOM Souls err'body dies a lot."

If someone made a game with the content level of skyrim and the depth of Wiz 8 I think it would be a hit.

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

We will turn 60 and still play wiz8.

All too true I'm afraid. I'll tell you in 9 years.

 

[Spiky]

Jokes aside, maybe BT4 will revive that subgenre. That'd be nice.

BT, at least on first glance, looks to me exactly like a follower of Grimrock and Might and Magic X. It just lacks scope to compete with traditional blobbers and their worlds.

But maybe, with very little, tiny steps developers take... we'd get something seriously complex to play before I die from old age.

We still didn't see much of BT4, let's wait. As I said in other thread, this is probably as close as a modern game can get to W8.

Humanity simply does not deserve true follower of W8

 

[newtmonkey]

Finally started a game of Wizardry VI! (Taking a break from Wiz 1-5 and their clones)

It didn't take too long to roll up decent characters (with 15+ bonus points). I started out with a basic Wiz party of Fighter/Samurai/Priest/Bard/Mage/Mage, though I had high enough stats for a few characters to choose more advanced characters.

Only had a short time to play last night, so that was mostly character gen and then exploring the first map.

I'm happy the game can be played keyboard only, but wish there were keyboard shortcuts (rather than having to scroll through things with the arrow keys). Not bad once you get used to it, but not as efficient as the earlier games.

I know the game was shit upon back when it was released for the quality of the graphics, but I find them to be really atmospheric. I really enjoy good EGA graphics, and the animation of the enemies is pretty impressive (not particularly smooth, but I like how it's not just ears wiggling, etc. like in most games of this type). The sound effects are atmospheric as hell—really reminds me of Dungeon Master actually. Be sure to use the customized DOSBOX with the sound fix (courtesy of Hidden Asbestos ) if you play this game to get rid of the annoying popping sound that plays before/after every sound effect.

 

[Grauken]

Yeah, W6 is lovely, the EGA graphics really fit the whole decrepit, gothic castle mood

 

[newtmonkey]

Really enjoying Wizardry VI!

I started exploring one floor above and below the starting area, got some nice equipment, and got everyone leveled up to LVL 3.

I'm still missing a TON in combat (in fact, when I first started the game I thought the weird copy protection thing had kicked in), but things are slowly improving. Mages are hilarious. They go from being able to cast a single spell at level 1 (that almost always fails or even backfires) to major damage dealers (early on, I mean) by level 3.

Going with that bard has really helped out at this stage in the game. I don't think things would be going nearly as smoothly if I didn't get free sleep spells every single round of every single combat.

I love the writing in this game. Feels like I am a kid again playing D&D.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

quality of the graphics

Yeah it's fine in the castle, just wait until you reach the "forest" or the "pyramid" lol.

 

[Grauken]

Yeah, they should have had more wall styles, something most contempory games had, W7 suffers from the same. Still, given the limitations of the engine, the level architecture compensated a lot, the mines felt like tunnels dug deeper and deeper into a mountain, the pyramid was easy to recognize from how each level stacked upon the other. Not a perfect solution, but good enough

 

[newtmonkey]

I was able to put a few hours into Wizardry 6 this weekend.

I sort of got stuck at one point and was worried that I would need to start over because I went around and jammed all the locked doors with my clumsy attempts at lockpicking/forcing. I really had no clue what to do, so went and started searching each square of room that had a description, and luckily found some keys that allowed me to make some more progress.

I beat the Fat Rat encounter, and it was a complete pain in the ass because I wanted to get through the battle with no deaths. It took 3-4 attempts, but I finally got lucky enough for everyone on my front line to survive the multiple damaging attacks of the Fat Rat while I put the other rows of rats to sleep with my Bard.

I THINK I'm pretty close to having explored the entire castle, unless there are some stairs in that room with the eight gated doors that cannot be opened with the Jailer's Key.

My characters are all now lvl 5, and combat is a lot smoother now.

I am really enjoying this game, and I've gotten used to the keyboard controls. It's a really atmospheric game, and I like how you slowly start to uncover the story through room descriptions and random bits of dialog from NPCs.

Even though the system is very different from the previous Wiz games, it's still got that great balance where getting a single level or even finding a nice piece of equipment really can make a big difference in how effective a character is.

Once thing I really dislike is that spells can fail or even backfire. I know that this happens less often the more you improve your skills, but I don't like it. I also don't care for how you can set the power level of a spell when you cast it. I feel like you have too many variables to consider to make really tactical use of spells. I might just have to get used to it though.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

Way to go, Fat Rat does not fuck around.

 

[octavius]

Fat Rat really wanted that cheese.

 

[newtmonkey]

Thanks bros, felt a little badass altering my tactics and taking that mouse down

[edit] Just put like another 2-3 hours straight into this game. Jesus, what a game. Finished exploring the castle (as far as I can tell), got into the Captain's Den, got some very nice equipment. I think I am around level 7-8 at this point. I love the level design in this game. Like with the classic Wiz games, you can't necessarily explore an entire level at once, so you are constantly going back and forth as you find new keys etc. It's also nice that the game has inventory "puzzles" as it gives you something more to think about than mapping and fighting (though honestly I really don't care much about inventory stuff).

FURTHERMORE, I love how weird and unique this game is. I know Robert Sirotek has had nothing but good things to say about D.W. Bradley in interviews etc., but wow, what a stroke of luck for Sir-Tech to find ANOTHER CERTIFIED SUPER GENIUS after their falling out with the original certified super geniuses that made the previous Wiz games.

Wiz 6 is really different from Wiz 5 in terms of mechanics, but if the system had to change, I'm glad it was up to a guy like Bradley to do it. Amazing fucking game.

 

[BlackGoat]

Ok, so now I too am playing thru Wiz6 for the first time, looking to do a Wiz6-8 run. I've previously played quite a bit of the old Wiz, beat Wiz1/2/5, and various alikes. This is my first taste of the full DW-style, tho I did mess around a little bit with Wizards and Warriors way back in the day, but I was mostly watching my brother play it.

Anyway, this is good. Real good. Using grid cartographer and gamelink (tho I typically map on graph paper but what the hell). Rolling Samurai, Valkyrie, Priest, Bard, and dual mages. Just made it to the mines. Really loving all the D&D-ish flavor text.

 

[newtmonkey]

BlackGoat
We are running somewhat similar parties, I'd like to hear your thoughts on this type of party when you finish, as most people seem to recommend three primarily fighting classes in the front, and then a thief type character/mage/cleric in the rear. So far (up to the mines) having two pure mages really helps, but I am starting to wish I had three strong melee characters up front as well.

 

[BlackGoat]

I certainly like my two mages. But I am wishing I'd rolled a ninja now instead of that bard. The early infinite sleep spell lute playing was cool but hasn't really been useful for me beyond those first couple xp levels.

 

[Strange Fellow]

I certainly like my two mages. But I am wishing I'd rolled a ninja now instead of that bard. The early infinite sleep spell lute playing was cool but hasn't really been useful for me beyond those first couple xp levels.

That's what class-changing is for! The bard does indeed lose its luster once you're through the beginning castle area.
newtmonkey once you feel that you've exhausted the sleep lute's usefulness you could make your bard into a frontliner. Alternatively, if your priest qualifies for a lord/valkyrie, those are probably my favourite frontliners of the game.

 

[newtmonkey]

Strange Fellow
Great idea!!! Thanks. I think I will see what I can switch my bard to (hopefully a ninja?????), and move my priest to the back row. I am at the point now where the bard's lute hardly works anymore.

[Edit] Just checked and my bard is stuck as a bard for now ;_; Stats are way too low to become anything (even a fighter haha)

 

[Strange Fellow]

Strange Fellow
Great idea!!! Thanks. I think I will see what I can switch my bard to (hopefully a ninja?????), and move my priest to the back row. I am at the point now where the bard's lute hardly works anymore.

[Edit] Just checked and my bard is stuck as a bard for now ;_; Stats are way too low to become anything (even a fighter haha)

That's too bad. What you could do is change the bard to literally any available class ASAP, and use that one as an intermediate class to accrue stat gains so you can eventually switch to a proper one. Of course you could savescum a level-up if you're only a point or two short of a class minimum. What race/gender is xir your bard?

 

[newtmonkey]

My bard is a female hobbit, and sadly the only things she can change into now are basic mage classes. Now that the lute is pretty much useless, I'll focus on developing her bow skills I guess, until (if) she reaches a point where she can become something more useful.

 

[Strange Fellow]

My bard is a female hobbit, and sadly the only things she can change into now are basic mage classes.

Since Bards learn mage spells, making her a mage is a great idea. My bard-turned-mage was my best character in the endgame. If any of your pure casters qualify for a frontliner class you could do two changes at once. You’ll make the levels back in no time.

Now that the lute is pretty much useless, I'll focus on developing her bow skills I guess, until (if) she reaches a point where she can become something more useful.

Well, the lute is only one instrument. Plenty of fun out there even for a bard that can't sleep things. Where are you at, anyway?

Edit: disrespected your Bard's pronouns, I'm sorry.

 

[newtmonkey]

Hmmm, that's some great advice! Actually, one of my mages had a very nice bonus roll during character creation, and qualifies for some melee classes. I'll look in that when I get to play again this weekend. Thanks!