i find wiz 3 and wiz 5 to be the best representations of true wizardry, with wiz 6-7-8 to be good games but not deserving of the wizardry name as they share nothing in common.
i'll copy/paste something i wrote in another thread that illustrates this:
"wiz 1-5:
- vancian spell system promoting careful management and usage which adds to overall tension during exploration
To be fair, it's not pure vancian. Vancian magic needs memorization.
- save only in town (unless you're playing one of the remakes, or on an emulator)
It just promotes quick raids to dungeons.
- limited inventory that promotes resource management
Wiz6 and Wiz7 have pretty limited inventory as well, and half of it usually filled with quest items.
- intellectually designed dungeons
Most of Wiz6 and Wiz7 dungeons were great.
- loot is tied to dungeon levels and not to enemies promoting exploration; fuels need to reach just one more floor for better loot
Best loot in WIz6 and Wiz7 is from chests that promotes exploration as well. Loot from monsters usually just a bunch of potions or useless baselard.
- very sparse backstory and plot development as the focus is entirely on exploration of the dungeons
Same with Wiz7 if you consider overworld as big dungeon.
Story is here and there, but there is always focus on exploration.
wiz 6-8:
- magic points-based spell system similar to your average JRPG
Should we consider M&M1 JRPG too?
At least different kinds of mana in Wiz6-8 were great.
It's plus in my book.
- death has no consequences whatsoever
Afair, it decreases vitality.
- can Rest anywhere and levelup anywhere eliminating sense of danger or tension while exploring
Rest is very, very ineffective in Wiz7 and prone to random encounters. Can't remember for Wiz6.
- inventory is not unlimited but every character has approximately 20-40 item slots available at any time
40? Afair, 24.
- no management or strategical thinking necessary in regards to resource consumption or spell usage
Big battles beg to differ.
- areas are extremely large and mostly poorly designed and listless with little in the way providing challenge of navigation or interesting exploration
- loot is no longer tied to dungeon floors and instead is tied to enemy-types and is also found in out-of-combat chests, just like in an JRPG
...Chests that bound to dungeon floor and most of the time guarded by monsters nearby.
- healting and other resources are plentiful reducing most of the tension while exploring
If you constantly buy it? Yup.
- loot itemization is typical "monty-haul" with the player finding mundane loot non-stop right from the beginning
At least it's not Geneforge's 31313 useless items that cost 1 gold.
- non-stop info-dumps of badly written prose and badly written NPC's as the focus is entirely on seemingly random fetch-quests in order to unlock areas"
Just press space to skip text.
Wizardry had some fetch-quests too (black ribbon, afair. Or was it another item to unlock elevator?). And Wizardry 4 is one big big big "fetch-quest to unclock area" puzzle.
to be fair to wiz 8 however it is a better game overall than 6 or 7 even if its systems were neutered to the point of simplicity just because it lacks Bradley's trade-mark cheeto-stained fingerprints.
Wiz8 had very unmemorable dungeons.
EDIT: Fuck, just saw edit.
edit: and of course wiz 4 is its own unique beast that shares almost nothing in common with any other game in the series.
- you don't receive XP
- the game is not about finding better loot
- the focus is on dungeon navigation and exploration and puzzle-solving
- no control over your party member's actions
- disguised forms of time-limits implemented such as trebor's ghost's pursuit of the player
wiz 4 is its own thing, and all the better for it.
I can add only "amen, frater."
