Wizardry Wizardry: Tale of the Forsaken Land

[Pyreen]

The battle animations are indeed slow compared to other Wizardry titles, but no worse than in a lot of other JRPGs. Just think of DQ 7 with sheep stampede/sandstorm spamfests, or innumerable 32 bit RPGs' tendencies to indulge in FMV splurges on summons/high level spells etc.

Personally I was fine with toggling fast forward on during battle animations and chest opening, and playing the rest of the game at normal speed. The one thing that really bothered me to no end were the interminable spell upgrading animations though, those suck even with fast forward on.
The spell system is indeed simplified, but it has to be so as to mesh with the allied action mechanics without the game becoming even easier than it already is.What I mean is that more player freedom through a more expansive spell system would trivialize the game and take some focus from the things Racjin was trying to do with the AAs specifically.

In general the game doesnt seem to be as well understood as other Wiz titles, you can read a bunch of dumb shit all over the internet about important details like fake attack being useless (which is actually an essential late game AA for effective play), people bumbling through lategame with the noob tactic of assisted Jakreta spam etc.

The overarching point Im trying to make is that ToFL is not a srict wizardrylike, and playing it like one will preclude the player from maximizing his fun with the game. The system Racjin came up with is robust enough to make in depth engagement with it highly enjoyable on its own terms.

Edit: The itemization is indeed lackluster and one of the true weak points of the game.

 

[aweigh]

unlike the animations, editing the item stats is "simple enough". if someone deeply knowledgable about the game, enough to re-stat the itemization design/curve, i'm bored enough to edit them.

at least then the game would have 1 point in the favor column in terms of me playing it someday. if so inclined email me at aweigh gee-male dot com what the new item stats should be.

the spells are also accessible, though their hex values are harder to understand than the values the items used (i.e. i can take the values from a longsword and compare side-by-side with the values from a spear and see what's the same and what's different, and through trial and error work out what each stat belongs to what hex value); this isn't really viable with the spells.

i tried finding the enemies in the iso files but wasn't motivated enough to "really find them" and didn't find the code nest with the enemy stats, only found the enemy names. in any case, the enemy/encounter design is probably the game's 2nd strongest point so it's a moot point (dungeon design w/ atmosphere being its 1st strongest point).