Playing Elminage right now; wish it was Wiz8...

[ghostdog]

IMO the best SMT all around is SMT III : Nocturne. Give it a try, works fine with PCSX2.

Since you can get into snes blobbers try Wizardry 6 for the Snes. It has been translated.
Since you liked DQ8 you should try other games in the series. There is a great PS2 remake of DQV and DQVI for snes is very good too.

Also have a look at the recently released Lords Of Xulima, I had a lot of fun with that one.

 

[aweigh]

yah i played LoX quite a bit and dug it, but i got distracted by wasteland 2 IIRC. now i just can't get excited about playing it again (no longer have the save file).

btw, i'm a huge DQ fan, have played them all except 9 and 10. i have the ds emulator desmume and dq9 waiting for me for a rainy day.

also a huge SMT fan, although i hate how they massacred the persona series (love psx persona 1 and 2a/2b, hate persona 3 and persona 4), and i played SMT If... on zsnes years ago, but never played Nocturne. thanks for reminding me about that one!

as for wiz7, i'll give it a try later on but i can't promise anything: it's just soooo goddamn slow and old. and the fact that i can't use WASD to move is a huge, HUGE deal-breaker. (i have wrist problems, don't like too much micro mouse movement)

 

[Grauken]

you can use arrow keys

http://www.zimlab.com/wizardry/pdf/w7keyboard.pdf

 

[GrainWetski]

Can't you just change WASD to be recognized as the arrow keys? AutoHotkey should do it if it doesn't work in DOSBox. Try CTRL + F1.

 

[Lady_Error]

as for wiz7, i'll give it a try later on but i can't promise anything: it's just soooo goddamn slow and old.

Elminage Gothic is based on even older Wizardries and I don't think that the combat in Elminage is faster than in Wizardry 7.

And yeah, I forgot about Wizards and Warriors. It's definitely the closest blobber you will find to Wizardry 8.

 

[Great Deceiver]

I love Wizards and Warriors but unfortunately the bugs make it nearly unplayable on a modern system. I'm not talking about the .avi files (that's easily fixable), but hardware rendering has been borked for as long as I can remember on modern drivers (at least nvidia drivers, which is what I'm running), software rendering doesn't work at all and there's a problem with mouse polling in the game (probably a directinput quirk), it's hard to explain and not only a sensitivity problem, but smooth mouse movement is nigh impossible.

I've tried replaying W&W numerous times over the past few years (under Win 7, Win 8 and Win 10). I've tried every compatibility option, unofficial patch, and workaround in existence. It's a shame that the game is forgotten, because it's pretty much one of the best dungeon crawlers ever, and in my opinion, it's way better than Wiz 8.

 

[Dyskolos]

I didn't realize it was that difficult to run now. I remember it doing fine enough when I last played it on XP about five years ago so maybe I'll dig out an old laptop since this thread has made me want to have another go.

Also, I wonder who even owns the rights to this now. There's a wishlist thread for it at GOG - with a suprising 1100ish votes - but sadly I can't imagine anyone thinking it would be worth the effort and money to stabilize and re-release a game that wasn't even received that well the first time.

 

[Lady_Error]

Also, I wonder who even owns the rights to this now. There's a wishlist thread for it at GOG - with a suprising 1100ish votes - but sadly I can't imagine anyone thinking it would be worth the effort and money to stabilize and re-release a game that wasn't even received that well the first time.

I'm pretty sure D.W. Bradley's Heuristic Park still owns the rights, as it is still an existing company. Don't see why it would be so difficult to publish it again.

 

[Drudkh]

You should check out Wizards and Warriors. It's a lot like Wizardry 8, it's got flexible, phase-based combat, open, non-linear environments, a strong character development system, but it's a lot better in some regards too. Its maps are way better, its combat is so much faster, the way it introduces new classes is really smart, it's a very charming and fun world to explore. I personally like it more than Wizardry 8, but they're both good games.

Goddamn this looks good. I wasn't aware that this game existed, much thanks man

 

[Crooked Bee]

Wizards and Warriors is great and the closest you can get to Wiz8 if you like it. (Or even if you don't like it much, like me -- I think W&W is better.)

Labyrinth of Touhou is fantastic, but it's not what OP's looking for. Especially if he can't even get into Wiz7.

 

[Dyskolos]

I'm pretty sure D.W. Bradley's Heuristic Park still owns the rights, as it is still an existing company. Don't see why it would be so difficult to publish it again.

Hmm, I'd just assumed they'd gone under since last I remember hearing was Dungeon Lords around 2005 and the planned sequel later canceled for sucking. Still, that their web page doesn't even work is not inspiring confidence in their bothering to get this out anytime soon.

 

[Great Deceiver]

Heuristic Park is apparently stuck in a groundhog day loop where they must eternally re-release Dung Lords, latest version is Dung Lords MMXII. It's a damn shame, too - Wizards & Warriors could even be the perfect Kickstarter pitch.

 

[Lady_Error]

I actually wrote to them that D.W. Bradley should do a Kickstarter - even getting a Wizardry license from Japan may be possible. I wonder what he is doing these days.

 

[TigerKnee]

Man I wish I could get the W&W love - something about it bugged me.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

I actually wrote to them that D.W. Bradley should do a Kickstarter - even getting a Wizardry license from Japan may be possible. I wonder what he is doing these days.

Well, about 2-3 years ago...

Spoiler

Hurts, doesn't it?

 

[Zetor]

Man I wish I could get the W&W love - something about it bugged me.

Pretty much. I played W&W around the time it came out, and let's just say it didn't leave a good first impression. I'm not sure what caused me to stop playing, but I eventually dropped it in favor of Wiz8.

Been trying to revisit it recently, but - to echo Great Deceiver - holy shit is that game hard to run on modern systems. I should just suck it up and create a windows 98 virtual machine for it or something...

 

[Avellion]

Labyrinth of Touhou is great, As far as blobber combat is concerned, it probably has my favorite battle system. Just one incredibly well crafted cohessive package.

i just played about 40 mins of Wiz 7 Gold on dosbos and... well, it's not for me. it's too... old. it's nothing like wiz 8.

sorry, it's not for me. any other recommendations?

EDIT: you can't even use WASD to move... jesus.

Wait, you can handle Elminage but not Wiz 7

To be fair, he played Wizardry Gold.

 

[RuySan]

I'm going to be pretty obvious here, since no one has been so far. Play any Might and Magic between 3 and 7. The combat and character system isn't as deep as in Wizardry, but the exploration and charming atmosphere make up for it.

Or try the Etrian Odissey games with a DS emulator. They're pretty grindy, but so are most japanese blobbers.

 

[Lady_Error]

If you're playing on the DS, the Dark Spire is the best (Western) blobber on it.

 

[RuySan]

Anyways, i usually love this kind of games but i don't see what people see in this one. It's bland, and the interface is made of nightmares. Managing the inventory is awful. Every time i play this, i remind myself that i should be replaying any of the old classics, or even Mordor.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

Heh, a person acting surprised that a 1992 desn't use WASD movement. This nu-codex can be amusing at times.

Joined: Aug 23, 2005

Wait, what.

 

[Lightknight]

when your first blobber is Wiz 8 you're pretty much spoiled for life), try Might & Magic VII.

I played M&M6 back in 98 and it wasnt exactly impressive, mechanically speaking. 7 was slightly better, but still, the only good dungeon crawler in the series, with proper combat and solid mechanics is Legacy. NWC stuff is nowhere near.

 

[Perkel]

If you're playing on the DS, the Dark Spire is the best (Western) blobber on it.

huh tried it for hour but it didn't grab me. I think i need to seriously try it later.