SkeleTony said:
Wiz 7 was truly great for it's time and certainly massive/long but it has flaws. Some of these flaws are somewhat excusable given the age of the game(the 'pop-up' battles for example, even though there were other first person crpgs...SHAREWARE games even, who did not have this flaw and were released roughly the same time)
Design decision. How do you imagine a phased tactical (as far as it is possible in FPV) combat without popup battles? Ranged attacks, sequence of turns before engagement? Cases in point: M&M3-5. Button-mashing.
Bullshit. WTF are you even talking about here?! Have you not ever played games like Wizardry 8, M&M 6-9 and most first person CRPGs released since Wizardry 7?! Pop-up battles were mostly a necessary evil in the old days because of various technical reasons that made seeing enemies approach from a distance a wish-dream for most but, again there were shareware first person CRPGs by small teams of developers (such as Moraff) who did this without pop-up battles.
and some, such as the nonsensical usage of words like "Legerdemain" and "Kirijutsu"
Duh, while the choice of words is strange, it doesn't take much effort to memorize them, does it?
That depends but is all but irrelevant to my point. Bradley was perhaps trying to be different or maybe he was just overly enthusiastic about Jap-crap but it makes no sense to use such terms instead of more sensible terms like "Critical strike", "Disarm traps/lockpicking/etc.
and the convoluted auto-map feature, are just dumb.
What's wrong with mapping skill?
Nothing at all. What I was referring to was having to go do a whole dungeon to gain enough experience to be able to get the 'map kit' (and find the fucking thing) so that you will have some form of automap.
But in any case Wizardry 8, as should be expected of a game released almost ten years later, made several improvements over Wiz 7.
...like switching to limited area-based world and getting rid of any kind of consciousness on behalf of NPCs?
No (and WTF are you even talking about with this "consciousness of NPCs' nonsense?). I mean like tactical formations, seeing enemies coming (and being able to run and hide or prepare or whatever), far better character development, more engaging world-setting, etc.
Totally different game than Might & Magic 6 though. You might as well be comparing Wiz 8 to Super Mario Bros. for all the sense that THAT comparison made.
First person 3d engine - check.
Like Doom/Quake/Myst...
Crawling TB combat with dozens of opponents taking their turns moving around
Yeah they are the same genre and sub-genre but this hardly makes them both similar RPGs. Again, you might as well have accused W8 of being a copy of (name any turn-based first person CRPG here).
World cut apart on separate areas,...
You seem to have some weird issue with CRPGs where 'zoning' is a thing. I cannot understand what your issue is so I will leave that alone.
drastically different in enemy strength and often outright inaccessible until unlocked by the plot - check.
WTF am I reading here?!
Static NPCs as quest signposts - check.
?!?
Seriously what is your exact contention here. You seem to be desperately trying to find some sort of similarities regardless of how cosmetic or inconsequential.
What else?
Wizardry 8 had more number-crunching than MM6-7, and in place of ugly rendered sprites even uglier 3d models for monsters. That's all difference.
W8 had better looking monsters than W7 though (and I am a huge fan and advocate of 2D over 3D art). As for number crunching...I am not sure what your issue is here (again) or why this might be a bad thing.
...ah, it also featured level scaling and constant respawn.
One of the very few flaws of W8 but not one shared by M&M 6-8 so...?
For the record: aside of appaling linearity and outrageously cliched plot, what makes Wizards & Warriors worse or different from Wiz8, by the way?
1) It is like Furry-heaven. W8 had two leftover furries from Bradley's Wizardry run but W&W is just full of this anime-crap. I may hated elves and hobbits and shit but I would rather be forced to play elves than to be paid to play furries.
2) Bad user interface.
3) Bugs (many of them IIRC).