Wizardry Wizardry: Tale of the Forsaken Land

[AlaCarcuss]

i tried this on the newest pcsx2 emu and it just gave me a black screen. this game is awesome though.

Well holy snapin' duckshit. I've been trying to get hold of this game since originally reading this thread a few weeks ago and finally found a torrent and got around to copying it to my (heavily modded) PS2's hard drive. I simply couldn't belive there could be a Wizardry game on a PS2 that I'd never heard of - much less that it would be any good.

Just got through the first couple of hours and it is indeed awesome! I can't believe I'm sitting here in 2009 and playing a Wizadry game I've never played before - sitting back in my lounge - controller in hand - on my 40" LCD TV!! A Wizardry game that just might be the equal of Wiz8 no less (if this level of awesomeness keeps up). It's like some kind of wierd RPG mushroom trip - maybe Elvis is alive after all?

 

[SerratedBiz]

Wizardry - Size 295MB - Uploaded 10.6 GB - Ratio 36.9

Keep the love flowing.

 

[Andhaira]

How do you copy stuff to you rps2's hardrive? I mean, do you have a sepcial cable or do you physically take the ahrdrive out?

Oh and you are welcome!

 

[obediah]

Just here to add my love.

 

[AlaCarcuss]

How do you copy stuff to you rps2's hardrive? I mean, do you have a sepcial cable or do you physically take the ahrdrive out?

Oh and you are welcome!

Over the network - here's how:

I have a PS2 slim with a HDCombo - link:
http://www.hdcombo.com/cgi-bin/hdcombo/site.pl

with a 400gb hdd installed.

I also installed a Crystal Chip Pro mod chip. So to copy games to the hard drive over the network, I just launch a homebrew server application on the PS2 (hdl_server.elf) and run a compatible client on windows (HDLDumb.exe) which automatically installs the ISO to the PS2's HDD HDLoader partition - takes about 15-20mins depending on the size of the game. The client app can install from an ISO image or directly from a PS2 game disk inserted in your PC's DVD drive. No more burning - cut out the middle man!

I can then launch the game via HDLoader on the PS2. I currently have about 50 games installed this way which I can launch instantly from the HDD. The only time I ever stick an optical disk in my PS2 these days is to play PS1 games which can't be installed to the HDD (well they can - but they won't run) :D

Alternatively, if you've got a lot of ISO's to install - you can just take the drive outta the PS2 and stick it in your PC (IDE) and use a program called Winhip to bulk install as many ISO's as you want. This is much faster but more work, but this is what I did to initially install the bulk of my games. Now I just install them individually via the network as I need to.

Now, if someone would just come up with a way I can do the same with my PS3 and 360.... :wink:

Edit: Oh yeah, thanks - still loving the game....

 

[Wyrmlord]

It is not a wizardry style hack&slash. It is a real Wizardry (1) with turn-based combat.
Warning: it is not playable on PS2 emulator (yet).

You mean it is Wizardry without furries?

 

[DeveloperDude]

*Casting necromancer spell!*

Any success running this awesome game using an emulator on PC?

 

[Crooked Bee]

Yes, it can be easily run with PCSX2. And it's an awesome game.

 

[DeveloperDude]

Yes, it can be easily run with PCSX2. And it's an awesome game.

Thank you very much, it is working with PCSX2 0.9.8-r4600! Great news indeed!

 

[nublard]

I've tried getting it to work with 98-r4600 and it hangs after loading.
What kind of settings are you using? Is your game PAL or NTSC?

 

[TheDeveloperDude]

I've tried getting it to work with 98-r4600 and it hangs after loading.
What kind of settings are you using? Is your game PAL or NTSC?

My game is NTSC.
You should use different BIOS/plug-ins. Here's some help:
http://wiki.pcsx2.net/index.php?title=Wizardry:_Tale_of_the_Forsaken_Land

 

[nublard]

Does anyone know how far the game is playable?

Using a different config, I think it works now.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Does anyone know how far the game is playable

It's fully playable. At least I made it through without any problems, and there's a completed LP of the game at LPArchive where the guy also used an emulator to play through the game.

So you should be fine, I think.

 

[Sewinn]

I have been trying to get this game working in PCSX2 without success as well.

I am using the exact same configuration as the one in the link above but still have the same problem.
On startup, the playstation logo turns into a solid white rectangle, then the game hangs.

Can anybody offer better specifics regarding the configuration? I am using all of the defaults within this link:
http://wiki.pcsx2.net/index.php?title=Wizardry:_Tale_of_the_Forsaken_Land

nublard, what specifically did you change in the config to get it working?

Thanks for any input!

 

[hoverdog]

I did it, and it was simple really. The only thing I had to do was to activate blend tff, and of course configure controller. I didn't have to change a single thing more.

however, the game, or at least its beginning, seems awfully boring. It looks like a generic blobber with hardly any character customization (abhorring in a blob) and a really SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW pace. Oh, and standard jRPG "dialogues", of course. Is the game going to pick up anytime soon? So far, I'd rather play W7 or M&M for the millionth time.

 

[flushfire]

works with default PCSX2 settings here. played until the first couple fights and levelup. not sure if I missed some option somewhere but the first levelup was automatic? will this change? writing is painful as well

 

[eric__s]

I don't remember much about the characters or writing in this game (I don't think they were particularly offensive), but the plot and concepts in it are excellent. All of these things happen as you go around in the dungeon, building up this idea that you're the center of the narrative and that everything that's happening is coalescing into something huge. The things that happen in the game establish the context for the world and story rather than build up to something that actually takes place, which is weird and interesting for a Wizardry game. It kind of reminds me of something Chris Avellone would do. There's this surreal revelation at the very end that's kind of an afterthought because it only happens like 10 minutes before the end of the game and it's really the only time in the game where you're confronted with actual story, but it's super cool.

Anyway, the dungeons are designed well. I think there's an automap or a map spell but you never even need it because the dungeon has so many points of interest and memorable places that, except when the game wants you to, you never get lost. Little events happen constantly that keep exploration interesting and fresh and there are generally reasons to go back to places you've already been to.

I also like the way the spell system works. In the earlier Wizardry games, you stop using the first few levels of spells after a while because they're made obsolete by higher level spells. In Tales of the Forbidden Land you can upgrade spells and keep them relevant. In fact, you'll generally use lower level spells more than higher level ones because the components required to make the upgrades are easier to find.

Overall it's a pretty cool game. Definitely in my top 5 favorite Wizardries.

 

[Great Deceiver]

Been playing this lately and it's really great. Combat is a little slow for a fan of classic Wizardries, though.

 

[LeStryfe79]

Reading this thread reminded me how I used to be sane.

Too bad!

 

[Matador]

Been playing this lately and it's really great. Combat is a little slow for a fan of classic Wizardries, though.

I assigned one button for turbo in PCSX2, to speed up the animations and the game improves a lot.

The game is very good. Shame they didn't translate the second part.

The game shines in level design compared to elminage, but not so good on party management.

Good music and art, decent story and graphics, and interesting combat with party skills. The game is a very good experience overall.

 

[aweigh]

man this thread made me want to re-download these games (also gave the jp-sequel a try while i was at it), but i simply can't play Wizardry like this. the game(s) are simply too slow!

you move too slow
everything has a super long, super slow animation
too many slow cutscenes (nothing wrong with cutscenes, just slow ones)
menu navigation is slow (has nothing to do with being on console, before anyone says anything; it is simply, literally, slow)

i simply can't play a game this slow. the dungeon design and atmosphere (have only played the first 3 floors of forsaken land, and half of the first floor of its jp-sequel) is above and beyond almost any other game out there.

too bad you move so slow the game is literally unplayable.

i would rather play a less-good game that responds faster/has a faster pace than a good game that makes me watch a stupid enemy animation 100 times in a row during 1 single battle.

EDIT: as a Wiz-clone though it's not as good as others; lack of true party creation/management and the itemization is, at BEST, mediocre.

the spell system(s) were truncated and "streamlined" thus removing majority of the traditional Wizardry depth and layers in battle and outside of battle, along with the weird casting system the game utilizes.

someday when i'm older and wiser (and slower) i'll give it another try, as the music and the atmosphere inside the dungeons is simply outstanding.

EDIT x2: and no i don't like playing the entire game in fast-foward because it also affects the music which ruins the atmosphere.

 

[CryptRat]

One of my favourite PS2 JRPGs, and the PS2 doesn't lack of JRPGs.

 

[Great Deceiver]

I mean, I wouldn't say it's a JRPG except for the dialogues and maybe the party affinity/maneuvers elements. I don't dislike those elements (they add to the atmosphere) but I think they slow the game down because the dialogue goes too slow. This is a true Wizardry game, with proper (great) dungeon floor layouts and similar gameplay to other Wizardries.

I think this game would be almost perfect if there was a "step mode" and a speedup option for battle animations (or better yet, an option to disable battle animations altogether. I dig the 3d models for enemies, honestly think they're some of the best representations of Wizardry monsters, but the animations slow everything the fuck down too much).

Still very much worth playing, though.

 

[CryptRat]

Yes, I would lie if I said the slow animations were an issue to me, but it should be normal in particular in such a game to have an option to disable the animations, it's not like they're hiding a loading time or something.

 

[aweigh]

It's doable (completely) to extract the animation files from the PS2 ISO.

Aside from that, however, I don't know how to go about editing them, and more importantly after editing them making it so the game "plays them" in their edited form instead of instantly crashing (or the like).

I would be willing to go this far and work with someone who has knowledge about editing animatics. In fact extracting all of the game's files is something I've done previously already... I just never paid attention to the animation/texture files. But they were there.