i got my blue ribbon in Wizardry so now i can use the cool kids elevator. unfortunately i died during most of my mapping expeditions in the later floors so got nothing to show for em except… maps that get increasingly scrawly on my end as the levels get meaner. apparently the NES version of Wiz 1 (and subsequently SFC version that i’m playing) have noticeably nastier maps in the later floors, i got straight up trapped in floor 8 and no one in my party has the teleport spell
Im now taking runs at Werdna but im not sure how much hes a level check, a luck based mission, or both. it feels like he can just cast TILTOWAIT and erase half my party whenever he feels like it (assuming i can even make past his guardians). the “best” advice online amounts to “use that spell before he does”
Still it was interesting to see how differently Wizardry is balanced compared to games derived from it. you of course want to draw your map just for fun (the experience is not unlike drawing in an adult coloring book while playing a turn-based video game lol) but also because finished maps expose how much of the dungeon is monster closets… which in most games youd be inclined to avoid… BUT it’s foolish in this game because there really isnt fixed loot, you wanna empty out all those closets of monsters so you can get their random drops
I like that you only have one goal, kill Werdna and take his family jewels, and a (i presume optional, but recommended) sub-goal in clearing the “proving grounds”. I like that your reward for that sub-goal is a cursed ring worth ludicrous amounts of gold and free access to all floors. Sorta gives you a take the brakes off moment, like a much humbler version of getting the airship in an FF type game. The lack of direction does make it hard to want to reenter floors past 5 once youve mapped them though. its more efficient for levels/gold to dive for floor 10 and escape before challenging Werdna and like… now that im at that level of grind i’ll probably move on. I did want to import my winner characters to Wiz 2 and fuck around a little but ultimately if i want Wizardry 1 but Moreso i will just play Wiz 5 Heart of the Maelstrom or like, Busin
What i AM eager to try is the weirdo dark savant trilogy where you can make a whole party of furries. Gotta get an translated ROM of the SFC version of 6 that doesnt instantly break past the title screen
If you actually want to try the trilogy why start it on the SNES version? what if you like it?? you will probably want to import your characters into 7 and 8 which are mainly PC games. wizardry 8 is sooo good
the writing in that game is so frustrating!!! the characters are so god damn annoying and I despised them by the end of the game. which, I guess, is more than i feel about most characters. but still, drove me crazy. at least playing with a friend meant we could dunk on them constantly.
actually playing the game rocks, it’s so inventive and strange and goofy. jumping and running feels fantastic. there’s really nothing like it out there - reminds me of Goof Troop on the SNES in its singularity in the co-op world.
i also rec playing on the PC version if you think you might want to import afterward
if you do both a) decide to play 6 on SNES and b) want to play 7 (etc.) via DOS afterward, there are always the character editors so you can hack your party back up to where they should be
Hmm my understanding had been it was a minor carryover of your first 5 levels and maybe some special gear, and a slightly different intro/start point. but i clearly had incomplete info cuz on checking again it does also transfer a lot of your items and stats. I’ll see about futzing with that PC version but im also fine save editing lol
Tbf i think the only game series that does the transfer characters thing as perfectly as i want is Quest for Glory, an impossible bar to clear
the major thing it carries over to me is your choices because your ending usually affects the next game in some way. but i always thought that stuff was cool, like the way might and magic 4 and 5 combine to be one game was really novel to me
Besides the starting point, stats and “normal” item transfers Wiz678 also gave you different character and faction standings, some flags carried over, and there were some trick items that were acquired in an earlier game but much more powerful or useful in a later one
I’ve finished the Wizardry-like Labyrinth of Zangetsu and it’s been eye opening seeing how compelling equipment drops are in Wizardry compared to every game since. Enemies are the only source of equipment (past the early stages) there aren’t that many different pieces of gear and you might miss some, you can get great weapons early or stagnate for a long while… Equipment upgrades are a huge event. It doesn’t even feel like that much of a huge chore to have to go through 20 menus with your thief opening every chest because the anticipation is palpable
Really easy to get inside the head of a designer trying to improve this by raising the loot drop rate and adding a ton more weapons with randomization, tiers of rarity plus purchasable fixed weapons etc. Turning loot into a major chore instead
I’ve been having a great time replaying Blasphemous with a guide, this feels slightly wonky and player antagonistic in the right ways, weird flow for a Metroidvania, sometimes I can’t catch a ladder but I don’t really mind.
The Catholic Guilt Manifested setting and pixel art are… perfect. I just wish the protagonist was less badass and more desperate
They added a ton of stuff since release and unfortunately the (free) DLC has a slightly From Softwary trajectory post Demon’s Souls. Most of the base game’s difficulty lies in exploration, with the bosses being huge and terrifying but slightly easy. The DLC in contrast brings a ton of 1v1 final destination difficult not-gigantic bosses, and less new areas
Critters for Sale is presentationally ultimate. Ambiguous changes in facial expression under the pulsing dithering monochrome cascades makes it evident that there’s more to explore in moving graphics within horror VNs. Sfumato grafix. Other than looking cool it works well to make you feel uncertain about what exactly might happen in any given scene. There are some really disturbing animations thanks to digitised footage of hands, bodies, and faces which felt like something Hylics gestured at but never really managed to make payoff in such a strong way.
I’m not a huge fan of how progression from room to room works and feel like an arrow key option for general navigation wouldn’t hurt the game. Sadly, getting through all the endings becomes a huge slog and you end up just skipping to branch points which is made unnecessarily tricky by the scene lengths and the fact you need to both mash space and hold a button with the mouse to fast forward dialogue. It should also really explicitly say to do Dragon last since there’s a puzzle solution in it embedded in the other stories that you wouldn’t likely be able to brute force.
you couldnt really do better if you wanted to play a new wizardry game right after sir-tech closed. its alot like wiz 1-4. theres multiple floor subareas inside of the dungeon like eye of the beholder which is cool, and theres also an NPC who randomly appears to possess your party members and cause problems on purpose. its better than a lot of the other jp wizardry games that are on steam now
I never played much of it because it still has real time fighting like eye of the beholder but without any hot keys which is terrible. it always looked a lot like stonekeep to me
I liked Legend of Grimrock 2 a lot. Clever and funny, a lot of variety, and many challenges that feel so punishing I wasn’t sure if I accidentally entered a late game dungeon by mistake, until I figured out the trick.
(I briefly tried Legend of Grimrock 1 after playing 2 and that one seemed comparatively basic and forgettable.)
I enjoyed Legend of Grimrock 1 (more than Stonekeep). Altho i can’t think of anything especially special about it, and i guess i’d recommend Dungeon Master and Eye of the Beholder 1 before it.
if it was still 2011 and it was slightly annoying to play eye of the beholder 1 i would say it would be fair to play grimrock instead. cuz it has a built in automapper and just works and shit. but in practice when you can get eob 1 2 and 3 on steam for like 5 dollars and they come with all seeing eye by default nettle is right you might as well play that
