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Wizardry The Wizardry Series Thread

JarlFrank

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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Also, the original in DOS-Box runs a lot better than the crappy Win95 version. Definitely prefer the original.
 

mondblut

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Gold has annoying crappy music and godfuckingly faggot anime gay character portraits. It also had a critical bug when all character's skills in a given section reached 100 (with no way to spend bonus points you wouldn't be able to continue), I think it was fixed by some patch, but it could be a PITA to find nowadays. As far as graphics go, it used same artwork as original, just resampled up to 640x480, so it's hardly an advantage (with up to 3x scaling in dosbox, original might actually look better on modern resolutions).

In fact, Wizgold being a pre-DX7 win95 game (WinG-based even), you might have more problems making it run than you would have running 7 in dosbox.

The only real major advantage Gold has is that minimap is always open in separate window, you don't have to shuffle around inventory everytime you want to look at it. If this is important for you, go with gold, otherwise, original is better.

As for party, a faerie bard is mandatory, the rest is up for you, just keep rerolling for good (15+) bonus points and plan dualclassing several classes ahead.
 
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Gold was all right. I seem to remember having problems with the speed text was displayed (flew by too fast, in some cases, as I recall). I haven't really ever tried the original version. I believe another difference, which hasn't been mentioned, is how Diplomacy is handled. In one version, its basically worthless. Unfortunately, I can't remember which.

As for parties, I'd suggest starting with a (non-Faerie) Bard, as they are given a musical instrument that isn't available anywhere else in the game, and makes the beginning a bit easier. You may also want to start with a (non-Faerie) Ninja, as you won't have access to the Ninja's equipment until much later in the game. The reason for non-Faeries is all Faeries start with the same basic equipment, regardless of class. If you use them, you'll miss out on the special starting gear. Not really mandatory, but probably a good idea, especially for your first time.

Other than that, it doesn't matter a whole lot. While you don't necessarily have to change classes, with the way the system is set up, its *strongly* encouraged. In fact, switching several times is a good idea.
 

Jasede

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Insert Title Here RPG Wokedex Codex Year of the Donut I'm very into cock and ball torture
Not again...

I can just repeat to commit everything Mondblut says to memory and never ask any questions anymore.

And use the Search function for god's sake, why do we have to answer the same damn question every damn year? It's a lot of work. 1 minute or so every year.

If I did this for 60 years you'd have stolen an hour of my life. Hope you feel happy now.
 

covr

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Thank you all for your advice, I will definitely play the original 1992 version.

To all nazi furfags: I don't care, searching is still a bit messy here. I've got over 9000 results or just nothing.

Also - fuck off.
 

Serus

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I believe another difference, which hasn't been mentioned, is how Diplomacy is handled. In one version, its basically worthless. Unfortunately, I can't remember which.
The answer is very easy - gold version has broken diplomacy. This is a minor problem because diplomacy is never used unless you play for the first time and use no spoilers at all but even then the game should be completable without diplomacy.
Gold is much worse mainly because of problems with speed and changes made to the original game art. The "gold" intro is ugly, worse - its an abomination.
 

Wyrmlord

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Why do Japanese people like Wizardry 1-4 so much?

Western people - Start out with early Wizardries, diversify into various other possibilities with the genre, with The Bard's Tale, Wasteland, Might & Magics, later Wizardrys, Gold Box games, Dungeon Master-style real-time RPGs, first-person action RPGs like Ultima Underworld, strategy RPGs like Jagged Alliance, exploration RPGs like Elder Scrolls games, interactivist games like Ultima 7, pausable real-time RPGs, adventure-RPGs, and even some decent shooters with RPG elements.

Japanese people - Borrow early Wizardries, make console ports for them, make clones of them, take clones of them and put in predetermined story-based characters, make loads of clones of the latter, make a mainstream segment of this formula, keep making early Wizardry clones for niche groups, and do this forever!

Just what was so great about Wizardry 1-4 that the Japanese are so afraid of breaking out of convention? What is it with all those middle-aged nerds in Japan who want to keep playing the exact games they so loved back in 1984? :D In exceptional situations, like King's Field, it is yet still an imitation of a western sub-genre made by Ultima Underworld.

Incidentally, they made ports of Might and Magics and Ultima. Why didn't they draw out some other ideas from clones of those games? Why didn't they also see any inspiration from western games like Wasteland and Betrayal at Krondor to do something different? Why are those guys so...conventional?
 

Jasede

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Insert Title Here RPG Wokedex Codex Year of the Donut I'm very into cock and ball torture
I don't care, but if it gives me games like Etrian Odyssey and Dark Spire, please Japan, continue.

More dungeon crawlers in these dark times for RPGs are always welcome, especially if they barely have any story and really just focus on crawling.
 

JarlFrank

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Jasede said:
I don't care, but if it gives me games like Etrian Odyssey and Dark Spire, please Japan, continue.

More dungeon crawlers in these dark times for RPGs are always welcome, especially if they barely have any story and really just focus on crawling.

Agree. Why does every game have to be something special, Wyrmy? We got dozens of shooters nowadays which are all alike, so why can't we have dozens of dungeon crawlers which are similar, too? The only thing dungeon crawlers and shooters need is good level design, good encounter design and good game mechanics. If you got that, you can make an incredibly solid and fun game that will maybe not become a classic like Arcanum or PST, but will for very sure be a lot of fun to play through.

This world actually needs more straightforward dungeon crawlers and companies using tried and true formulas instead of trying to "innovate" with their New Shit. Combat in most modern RPGs sucks and I'd be glad if they had the tactical depth of JA2 or the encounter design of Wizardry/Goldbox games.

tl;dr:
People are making clones of everything, why not make clones of something good?
 
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JarlFrank said:
Agree. Why does every game have to be something special, Wyrmy? We got dozens of shooters nowadays which are all alike, so why can't we have dozens of dungeon crawlers which are similar, too?

Because the "dozens" of shooters all suck. Precisely because they're all alike.

People are making clones of everything, why not make clones of something good?

Well if you think jRPGs are good, then I can't help you. Enjoy your glorious era of gaming.
 
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JarlFrank said:
Emotional Vampire said:
Well if you think jRPGs are good, then I can't help you. Enjoy your glorious era of gaming.

Wizardries aren't jRPGs you goddamn faggot.

Oh sure. There are tons of differences, like... eh, people talk less
 

Mortmal

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No idea why, but they seems to like the grinding sytem, i dont understand why they love so much the dragonquest games either, i even read those games were published the saturday to stop childrens skipping school. I just tried dragon quest 8 on ps2 and 5 on DS, all ive seen is grinding, one encounter every three step, its really that bad, not that much tactics involved and poor plots.
I just dont understand .
I see some enjoy etrian odyssey and dark spyre, i tried etrian odysssey, its the same grind again, grind slonwly to get more power ont he low levels to be able to take on higher level, generic encounters after generic encounters,press A all the time, theres not even any sprite animation, and the plot is equal to those generic rogue like you find everywhere.
Wizardry 8 was much more enjoyble than those games.
 

Wyrmlord

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Jasede said:
I don't care, but if it gives me games like Etrian Odyssey and Dark Spire, please Japan, continue.

More dungeon crawlers in these dark times for RPGs are always welcome, especially if they barely have any story and really just focus on crawling.
Ah, but would you rather have Wizardry 6-8 style games or Wizardry 1-4 style games?
 

Jasede

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Insert Title Here RPG Wokedex Codex Year of the Donut I'm very into cock and ball torture
6-8, but what can you do? They're Japanese therefor borderline insane. I think they like 1-4 more because they're more like JRPGs. I mean Final Fantasy 1 was basically a Wizardry that was far more forgiving, with nicer graphics.

Make no mistake, I love dungeon crawlers, but I'll take 6-8 over 1-4 every damn day. But I'll still take a Japanese crawler like Dark Spire over any "true" RPG like Bioware & co churn out.

Ideally, I wish they made some games like Wizardry 7, 8. Those two games really stood out. Man. Damn you for making me miss good games again. Meanie.
 
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Jasede, have you played Fate: Gates of Dawn? If so, what did you think of it?

If not, go and get an Amiga Emulator and play it. Same goes for Legend of Faerghail.

This is what Germany used to produce. Now they give us Drakansang. What happened to the Fatherland? At least the Mother country still produces RPG's worth crawling through with Knights of the Chalice.
 

Dionysus

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Wyrmlord said:
Incidentally, they made ports of Might and Magics and Ultima. Why didn't they draw out some other ideas from clones of those games?
They clearly drew from Ultima (3, specifically). In fact, I'd say that Ultima 3 was at least as influential as Wizardry.
 

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