Wizardry Wizardry 8 great game ruined by level scaling and respawning

[Black_Willow]

GUISE I INSTALLED THIS WIZARDRY 9 OR 8 LOL AND THERE SOME BEACH AND SOME KRABS KILLING ME WHAT SHUOLD I DO HALP PLZ

 

[Grunker]

In some ways, I guess Wizardry 8 is the ultimate counter-statement to Infinitron's hypothesis that "content is king." Wizardry 8 gets by mostly on mechanics and systems. Which are, indeed, sweet.

Eh, I dunno. For some reason, every time I replay Wiz 8 I feel great joy in redoing the Monastery and Arnika's "puzzles", but the longer the game goes on the less attractive Wiz 8 gets (I usually don't complete my Wiz 8 playthroughs)... I think the later you go, the less interesting the areas become, at least that's how it feels to me.

I almost wrote "inb4 someone takes my statement to mean that Wizardry 8 has no good content"

The point is that overall, much of Wizardry 8's content isn't hugely compelling, at least for me. What carried my experience wasn't copy-pasted trash encounter after copy-pasted trash encounter, nor was it the fairly basic oldschool puzzles which I found to be pretty boring. It was the systems (particularly the character system) and the basics of combat.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

Combat mechanics, Character system, interface, art direction, those amazing animated talking portraits, charm. This game has all that shit in spades. Change the title of this fucking thread.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

I agree, change title to "Wizardry 8 shitty game made even worse by level scaling and respawning but at least it has nice portraits and charm (and soul, and - dare I say - a certain je-ne-sais-quoi; if it sang the blues, you'd listen)"

 

[Bubbles]

Worst game in a massively overrated franchise.

 

[Ranselknulf]

*YAWN*

Newfags hate old games. News at 11

 

[Bubbles]

Joined: Nov 28, 2012

 

[Ranselknulf]

What kind of strawman is this shit.

 

[theSavant]

Eh, I dunno. For some reason, every time I replay Wiz 8 I feel great joy in redoing the Monastery and Arnika's "puzzles", but the longer the game goes on the less attractive Wiz 8 gets (I usually don't complete my Wiz 8 playthroughs)... I think the later you go, the less interesting the areas become, at least that's how it feels to me.

I feel you bro, although I find there's enough interesting content until the late game. One problem is certainly the slow combat. So while you're motivated to build different parties and your progress is fast in the beginning - once you reach Arnika the motivation is over. I have gone through this stage multiple times as well.

It's kinda sad, because there are awesome weapons you won't get until later and only then your party can unleash its full power. But even that isn't motivating enough to go through it again.


The real reason:
It's the time required to invest which kills the full replay. At least in my case I know it is. I am much more willing to fully replay something if it's < 8 hours. I can play RPGs with 100 hours for the first time and be fascinated, but after that it feels like wasting time. Because you know most things already. Because there's nothing to explore anymore. Because you want results more quickly. If the game had an average playtime of 50 hours a new walkthrough would only give you at max 5 hours of enjoyment, while the remaining 45 hours feel repetitive and wasted. Arnika is a point where you got the "hang" of your new party. That's probably the reason why people stop exactly here.

 

[Cenobyte]

Such a thing is necessary for open-world games. You have to find a way to offer challenging or at least interesting encounters for the player while the player's party can be virtually everywhere in the game world at a given time. So you either need to do a Gothic-like thing, where some areas of your open world are basically inaccessible for beginner players due to the stronger enemies, or implement some sort of level-scaling scheme. The problem with the Gothic variant is that the game becomes rather repetitive in replays, since the enemies don't change and you'll have to reach the same level or get the same abilities like in your first playthrough to be able to advance into their areas.

Wizardry 8 actually tries to strike some sort of balance between those two systems for encounters in an open-world environment, by having some areas (e.g. Ascension Peak) where you will one find higher-level enemies, even with a low-level party. Another thing that Wizardry 8 does well in my opinion is that most of the leveled encounters fit to the overall theme of the area, which adds to the integrity and atmosphere of the game.

 

[DraQ]

The point is that overall, much of Wizardry 8's content isn't hugely compelling, at least for me.

I agree, though a huge part of what carried my experience was not just systems and gameplay, but how the party felt, with banter and slightly goofy adventuring atmosphere.

why you liked the level scaling and the almost insta respawn of mobs?

No but if you if Wiz8 scaling is the worst you've ever seen, it's either the only you've ever seen or you're just stupid.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

God damned I loved the banter.
I wish there was more.

 

[Lemming42]

If you make one of your party have the voice of the guy who speaks in the third person and is trying to write a book about himself, then the game instantly becomes about 20 times better.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

It's so amazing.
He was happy to help.

 

[DraQ]

If you make one of your party have the voice of the guy who speaks in the third person and is trying to write a book about himself, then the game instantly becomes about 20 times better.

Bonus points if you actually get him to make the opening, post-crashlanding comment.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Is there youtube vids out of the best banter in Wizardry 8?

 

[Zetor]

I made Freedom Force voicepacks of most Wiz8 [and some JA2] PCs and RPCs, if that counts. I think they (including third-person guy) actually made it to the Freedom Force voicepack compilations, too.

 

[DraQ]

Is there youtube vids out of the best banter in Wizardry 8?

I don't know, but I've found a txt:
http://www.wizardry-8.de/Wiz-Zitate.txt
Read and learn, Bioware, read and learn.

Heh:

Chapter one. The hero found himself shipwrecked on a strange world. He was completely lost with only a few minor characters as companions. Fearlessly, the brave hero set out on his quest...

bonus

Bubble-head seem very angry. He should calm down.

 

[Invictus]

I jsut got back to Arnika from a trip back to the monastery after opening the vault there and I wondered, would anybody be interested in a LP narrated by the guy who is writing the book? I don't remember Wiz 8 Codex LP and I would like to do it starting in Arnika

 

[treborSux]

Worst game in a massively overrated franchise.

I'll agree it's the worst in the series, but saying Wizardry is overrated is like saying raw tofu is overrated.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

You are both trollin'

 

[Lady_Error]

Worst game in a massively overrated franchise.

I'll agree it's the worst in the series, but saying Wizardry is overrated is like saying raw tofu is overrated.

You can hardly compare the later Wizardry's to Wizardry 1-5. Wizardry 8 is weaker than 6 or 7 though.

The early Wizardry's were what made 1st person RPG's popular. That alone means they are not "overrated".

 

[DraQ]

I jsut got back to Arnika from a trip back to the monastery after opening the vault there and I wondered, would anybody be interested in a LP narrated by the guy who is writing the book? I don't remember Wiz 8 Codex LP and I would like to do it starting in Arnika

An LP is always good if it's, well, good, but most people would probably prefer LP from the start.

The best LPs (from the viewer's PoV) are blind LPs of unmodded games you've already played - you can relate, they don't spoil anything, and it's entertaining to observe first time reactions, as long as LPer isn't too retarded or at least entertainingly so.

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

I jsut got back to Arnika from a trip back to the monastery after opening the vault there and I wondered, would anybody be interested in a LP narrated by the guy who is writing the book? I don't remember Wiz 8 Codex LP and I would like to do it starting in Arnika

An LP is always good if it's, well, good, but most people would probably prefer LP from the start.

The best LPs (from the viewer's PoV) are blind LPs of unmodded games you've already played - you can relate, they don't spoil anything, and it's entertaining to observe first time reactions, as long as LPer isn't too retarded or at least entertainingly so.

I'll agree with that for non-strategy games. You don't want to watch someone who is just min-maxing and fucking everything up in sight.

 

[DraQ]

I jsut got back to Arnika from a trip back to the monastery after opening the vault there and I wondered, would anybody be interested in a LP narrated by the guy who is writing the book? I don't remember Wiz 8 Codex LP and I would like to do it starting in Arnika

An LP is always good if it's, well, good, but most people would probably prefer LP from the start.

The best LPs (from the viewer's PoV) are blind LPs of unmodded games you've already played - you can relate, they don't spoil anything, and it's entertaining to observe first time reactions, as long as LPer isn't too retarded or at least entertainingly so.

I'll agree with that for non-strategy games. You don't want to watch someone who is just min-maxing and fucking everything up in sight.

Not unless there is some serious mastery involved in that.