Wizardry Long Live Wizardry! (And The All-New Games By Ex-Wizardry Developers)

[victim]

It's not even the first time it's happening. Wizrogue: Labirynth of Wizardry was originally a JP-only free to play mobile garbage, and the game description on Steam suggests that it's an official Wizardry title.

I enjoyed WizRogue

 

[victim]

Any Wizardry-like games without features and looks of jrpg/anime/etc.?

https://store.steampowered.com/app/...ry__Underworld__Definitive_Edition/?l=finnish

I actually played this game before the definitive edition came out but it is still one of my favorites. I should get around to playing the later edition (addition?) sometime soon

 

[Omasterkurosawa]

I have finally found the OST of Wizardry VI & VII complete, the saturn remake that upgrades Wiz 6 with 7 engine and add mouvement animation to both parts.

https://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm38632677

The ending Credits that starts at 27:51 is particulary amazing.
I hope this version will have an english fan translation someday.

 

[Matador]

Has anyone here played this? Opinions?

https://pqube.co.uk/kowloon-high-school-chronicle/

https://rpgamer.com/review/kowloon-high-school-chronicle-review/

 

[d1r]

Has anyone here played this? Opinions?

https://pqube.co.uk/kowloon-high-school-chronicle/

https://rpgamer.com/review/kowloon-high-school-chronicle-review/

Someone in the dev team must really really love Cowboy Bebop.

 

[Twizman]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1308700/Wizardry_The_Five_Ordeals/

 

[Gangrelrumbler]

I was going to post it after I've seen it at gematsu. Apparently the game is finished but it's still in EA since the scenarios are yet to be translated, only interface is in English.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Damn you steam. Come to the Gog-side.

 

[Gangrelrumbler]

There's something fucky with the release. They've postponed the release and released an update that says that the game is not officially related to the Wizardry series and that it's possible that the title and visuals will be changed

Dear Users, Thank you very much for your continued support of this game.
Due to various reasons, we have decided to postpone the release of this game.

As you all know, this game is an independent of the series and that is must not related to any of the original "Classic Wizardry" games, such as #1: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord, #2: Knight of Diamonds, #3: Legacy of Llylgamyn, #4: The Return of Werdna, and #5: Heart of the Maelstrom. This game does not include dungeon layouts, unique names (spell, town and weapon, etc), and the UI and graphics of those things themselves. just fully unrelated.

We also declare that this is not a spiritual successor to the above works, but a this is new "Wizardry" that goes beyond Scenarios #6-8. This is a very "soul-like like" RPG that delivers a very simplified and challenging dungeon crawl.

There is also a possibility that the game title and the visual game features related drawing function and the UIs, etc will be changed or removed. However, game content for the originally planned Early Access launch has been completed. During this postponement period, we will continue to make the game more enjoyable for users.

Please look forward to further announcements regarding the new release date.

It should also be noted that this matter is unrelated to game developer and Drecom (The current owner of the "Wizardry" trademark and the copyrights to "Wizardry" #6-8).

 

[d1r]

lmao

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

 

[Paper]

oh its a souls-like like

 

[Shackleton]

There's something fucky with the release. They've postponed the release and released an update that says that the game is not officially related to the Wizardry series and that it's possible that the title and visuals will be changed

Dear Users, Thank you very much for your continued support of this game.
Due to various reasons, we have decided to postpone the release of this game.

As you all know, this game is an independent of the series and that is must not related to any of the original "Classic Wizardry" games, such as #1: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord, #2: Knight of Diamonds, #3: Legacy of Llylgamyn, #4: The Return of Werdna, and #5: Heart of the Maelstrom. This game does not include dungeon layouts, unique names (spell, town and weapon, etc), and the UI and graphics of those things themselves. just fully unrelated.

We also declare that this is not a spiritual successor to the above works, but a this is new "Wizardry" that goes beyond Scenarios #6-8. This is a very "soul-like like" RPG that delivers a very simplified and challenging dungeon crawl.

There is also a possibility that the game title and the visual game features related drawing function and the UIs, etc will be changed or removed. However, game content for the originally planned Early Access launch has been completed. During this postponement period, we will continue to make the game more enjoyable for users.

Please look forward to further announcements regarding the new release date.

It should also be noted that this matter is unrelated to game developer and Drecom (The current owner of the "Wizardry" trademark and the copyrights to "Wizardry" #6-8).

Whole thing sounds a bit:

 

[Ysaye]

I presume they are having the same problems the people that republished Wizardry: Labyrinth of Souls on Steam had and someone somewhere has come after them for money because of the Wizardry branding (even though i presume this game, like the Labyrinth of Souls game, was published when the licence was provided to the original Japanese developer?) but rather than working it out like that one (and we don't know how expensive "working it out" was the last time), they are trying to get around the issues by claiming it is something it isn't, even though it clearly isn't what the trouble-makers are claiming it is either. Do they get down to showing that the maps aren't the same as the ones in any of Wizardry 1-4 or 5-8?

The irony of all of this is that "Wizardry" looks awfully like something that was created by universities on university computers, so maybe the universities should come after the owners of the Wizardry brand for ripping something that they created? ah the beauty of a culture of US-style legal litigation.

 

[hackncrazy]

Is there any place on this thread (or on the internet) that shows what are the differences between same versions of Wizardry games?

Just yesterday I found that the Game Boy has a version of Wizardry 1,2 and 3, and they they are different games than the PC ones (with a smaller dungeon, but post game stuff). Problem is: It's really hard to find info about them online, save for some scattered things here and there.

Hell, at this point I don't even know if the PC, NES, SNES and PSX versions of Wizardry 1-3 are the same game (just with graphical/sound changes) or if they're completely different.

 

[Matador]

Is there any place on this thread (or on the internet) that shows what are the differences between same versions of Wizardry games?

Just yesterday I found that the Game Boy has a version of Wizardry 1,2 and 3, and they they are different games than the PC ones (with a smaller dungeon, but post game stuff). Problem is: It's really hard to find info about them online, save for some scattered things here and there.

Hell, at this point I don't even know if the PC, NES, SNES and PSX versions of Wizardry 1-3 are the same game (just with graphical/sound changes) or if they're completely different.

On the top of my mind Wizardry 1 SNES version has different floor layouts for the optional ones that are not necessary to beat the game. Everything else I think it's the same.

Wizardry 2 and 3 are swapped also on SNES. I can't recall anything else.

You will probably find more answers in this fantastic series of articles. There are detailed comparisons between versions of all games in the saga. Just go for the articles concerning the titles you are interested in. But everything is very much worth reading.

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/wizardry-series-introduction/

 

[hackncrazy]

Is there any place on this thread (or on the internet) that shows what are the differences between same versions of Wizardry games?

Just yesterday I found that the Game Boy has a version of Wizardry 1,2 and 3, and they they are different games than the PC ones (with a smaller dungeon, but post game stuff). Problem is: It's really hard to find info about them online, save for some scattered things here and there.

Hell, at this point I don't even know if the PC, NES, SNES and PSX versions of Wizardry 1-3 are the same game (just with graphical/sound changes) or if they're completely different.

On the top of my mind Wizardry 1 SNES version has different floor layouts for the optional ones that are not necessary to beat the game. Everything else I think it's the same.

Wizardry 2 and 3 are swapped also on SNES. I can't recall anything else.

You will probably find more answers in this fantastic series of articles. There are detailed comparisons between versions of all games in the saga. Just go for the articles concerning the titles you are interested in. But everything is very much worth reading.

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/wizardry-series-introduction/

Thanks a lot, Matador! I'll definitely read that!

 

[newtmonkey]

sounds awesome. hey, when in doubt as to how to balance something? copy old Wizardry :D
(seriously!)

wiz 5 in particular has excellent itemization, and great and natural progression of difficulty and of encounters andfeatures many ways (optional ways) to movebetwen the first 5 floors quickly if you can figure them out. the map design from 5 is very good; not a bad idea to study the wiz 5 maps for inspiration. for example...


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Draw a square. Erase two wholes in it. I put mine in the corners as shown in the picture. This will be your entrance and exit. Draw another square inside the first square. Erase more holes in that square. I made 3 holes in this shit:

- Draw another square inside the first square. Erase more holes in that square. I made 3 holes in mine. Draw more and more squares inside eachother. Yours should look pretty close to mine, other than the holes. Now you can draw different shapes inside that square. Erase holes in them too. Fill those in with squares. Erase holes in those too.

- Figure out where you want the only way through the maze to be. I highlighted mine. Now start drawing lines to close off paths other than the way through. Finish drawing lines. You may have had to erase some more holes to make the maze more comfusing. Make sure there are no other ways through the maze. If there are, close it off with a line. Congratulations you have made an extremely simple Maze, at least in design. If done correctly these type of mazes will serve as the foundation that provides the heart to rest of your maze. Your end result is sometimes called a Right-Angle Vortex, like so...

​

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- These are your simplest tools when making a traditional square maze; always continue thinking of how best a concept for your maze can benefit from a JUNCTION:

​

- Junctions lead to new passages, and when creating junctions you should try to achieve a balance between creating passages that lead to dead ends, and creating passages that lead back into earlier passages of your maze. Although it may seem counter-intuitive, a maze where every passage leads to a dead end (except for the passage that leads to the solution) is actually not very hard to solve. The hardest mazes to solve have some passages that lead to dead ends, but others that lead back to earlier passages. Such mazes are called multiply-connected mazes and maze solvers can spend a lot of time going back over their tracks while trying to get through them.

- Now... do you remember the first exercise? Armed with junctions and a basic understanding of how to transform a square into a vortex we start to begin making the maze foundation. Let me explain with a quote by... someone who has a blog on the internet I guess, he didn't bother crediting it either:

There is a reason rotating spirals were used in all those old movies: they are naturally disorienting and confusing.

Take a long look at the Spiral marked "C".

​

- Spirals look good, but they don't really make for challenging mazes because the center of every spiral is a dead end.

- This is a Maze Maker's oldest friend and foe as well: the true vortex. While you see what look to be many vortexes that issimply the same one copy/pasted several times. There lies the true value of the simple vortex! Do you understand!?
​

​

- What simple repetition does is often more thought-provoking than going about the design in a convoluted approach.
​

- One of the more effective ways to use the vortex design in a maze is actually quite simple: draw several of them, and then link them together. Have a single passageway leading into the group of vortices, and a single passageway leading out. Then make every other passageway that comes out of any one vortex, lead back into one of the other vortices. Its a simple concept, its not very hard to draw, and it makes for a very difficult area of any maze to get through. I mean... it's fuckingobvious. And also it was the very first thing we did with the first exercise, and the historical beginning of _every maze made by man throughout history_; the transforming of the Square.

​

- Learn now how to "fill up the empty space" inyour maze. This is the mark of a good Maze Maker. As we know by now we have thesimple right angle square, and we have the vortex; and we also have the use of different types of junctions. Always vary the use of junctions and remember the psychology of your design:

Take a look at example (d) in Figure 1. See how the entire square area is filled with consistent passages? Practice this kind of thing on your own by first drawing an empty rectangle, and then completely filling it in with passages. Try this with rectangles.​

(Figure "D" - an extremely simple use of junctions.​

- Have a single passageway leading into the group of vortices, and a single passageway leading out. Then make every other passageway that comes out of any one vortex, lead back into one of the other vortices. Its a simple concept, its not very hard to draw, and it makes for a very difficult area of any maze to get through.

- Junctions lead to new passages, and when creating junctions you should try to achieve a balance between creating passages that lead to dead ends, and creating passages that lead back into earlier passages of your maze. Although it may seem counter-intuitive, a maze where every passage leads to a dead end (except for the passage that leads to the solution) is actually not very hard to solve. The hardest mazes to solve have some passages that lead to dead ends, but others that lead back to earlier passages. Such mazes are called multiply-connected mazes .

- Now we begin the hard work. We must create good old-fashioned bottlenecks. A few paragrphs ago I suggested using shapes like the RECTANGLE as an excelt and very simple way to "fill out" your tradionally-built square Maze. So far this imaginary Maze consists of the following:

• Squares within squares; i.e. the right-angle vortex.
• Multiple junctions that allow you to make a branching maze: the oldest and most primitive form of mazing.
• The carefuly analysis made that determines what junctions will connect which passages INTO and OUT OF our SQUARE VORTEX of right-angles: you can very easily junction and branch out of the vortex and into a Spiral-- inside the Spiral we must introduce further branching because we must always remember that the spiral will always solve itself and is not actually a maze but a tool TO maze.
• Branching outside of the core of the maze yields what is referred to commonly as "Cells", or sometimes "satellite". Here is a simple example of a cell:

​

- I'd suggest that you begin by taking a piece of paper and dividing it into three areas. Make all the areas next to each other, with no empty spaces between them. Then make the entrance to the maze lead into one of these three areas, and the exit lead out of another. Then block off all three areas so that in order to solve the maze, you have to get through each in succession. This means creating abottleneck that every solution must pass through to get from one area to the next. Fill in each of the three areas with passageways, junctions and vortices. Make sure each area has a balance of passages, so that some passages lead to dead ends, but others lead to other vortices and some lead back to earlier passages. Be aware of how what you are currently drawing contributes to the overall puzzle. This will result in a more difficult maze. Its really just a matter of planning ahead. For example, if you have a clear idea of where your solution path is, you could choose to create a new area that is a trap for the maze-solver. Perhaps a passage that looks like it leads to the exit, but really loops back to a far-away dead end. Look at this simple square branch (this is not even an actual maze, mind you):

​

- That is... a simple square upon which multiple JUNCTIONS were used toproduce passages insde of the square. There is not even a Spiral in use in that figure nor does it feature bottlenecks. It is quite simply beautiful.

This type of maze is called a branching maze, as it has a single path to its destination (the trunk) and all other paths are eventually dead-ends (branches). It is possible to solve even if you don't know the design. Imagine that you are entering the maze, and put your right hand on the wall on the right. Walk forwards, but whenever there is a path to your right, turn right. This will keep your hand moving along the side of the wall. If you meet a dead-end, then turn round keeping your hand on the wall, and your right hand will now be on the other wall. Eventually, you will come to the destination, although you may go down several dead-ends. In fact, if you turn round at the destination, and re-enter the maze, still keeping your right hand on the wall, you will travel through the rest of the maze, and get back to the entrance, having travelled through every passage way twice (but not necessarily in the same order), and touched every piece of wall. You can use your left hand instead of your right.

- To finish up here i'll just copy/paste the next tools that you have to develop in order to augment your Maze Making: the unicursural design. Look at the following shapes and stop and simply think for a few minutes all the many ways in which they can be junctioned and branched into and out of our existing designs: the spiral, the vortex and the rectangle bottleneck; all of course junctioned together. Look at these amazing shapes...

...I guarantee you just now immediately recognized at least half a dozen Wizardry-ish dungeonfloors. For analysis allowme to now copy/paste the following dungeon floor from Wiz 5:

- A very elegant, and very BORING square branching-maze: you can see on all corners the very simple-shaped sattelite-cells, which of course are either squares or rectangles; and each cell junctions into a passage that connects into the next cell until the maze explorer reaches the core of the maze which while itmay look impressive as you now very well should know fromreading this post: it is a simple square with almost entirely binary navigation: the only options apparently they thought of including inside the core were to make a simple path of A to B and pepper it with 1 dead-end and 1 true passage every few tiles. How exciting right? I know... and after we just saw the unicursal shapes!!!! MY GOD!!!


BUT OF COURSE THIS IS ONLY SO BECAUSE THEY MEANTIT TO BE A SIMPLE SQUARE BRANCH: AFTER ALL THAT IS ONLY B3F. NOW LOOK AT WIZ 5'S B7F:

Now THAT is a well done branching square. It's fucking beautiful. In the most sence floor b7f in Wiz 5 is...

+

+

And of course our friendly RECTANGLE CELLS ever present to fill space. Anyway i can't type any more, for real, so I leave you with the Ziggurat from Wiz 4.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW.

WOW.

A perfect example of how to use Repetition in order to continually increment the branching inside the ssquare maze; and please also notice the PERFECT use of of this specific junction...

(Hint: it's the one in the middle)​

Probably the most insightful post I ever read on the Codex. I never really thought about why the dungeons in the best of the mainline Wiz game stuck with me, but this explains why I can still remember many of the dungeons from Wiz 1 & 5 even though they are presented in just wire frame graphics.

 

[Dorarnae]

uh oh, good thing I didn't buy the global edition back then but I might get this.

 

[mogwaimon]

uh oh, good thing I didn't buy the global edition back then but I might get this.

between this and the EDF games getting ported off the Vita that poor system is rapidly losing reasons to exist. Shiren's no longer exclusive either. soon the only reason left to do anything on the Vita will be...what? hopefully Demon's Gaze will be out in English. Oh I guess there's Dungeon Travelers 2 and 2-2 but at this point it's only a matter of time...

 

[Dorarnae]

true, other than dungeon travelers and labyrinth cross blood(which will eventually be port I am sure), there's not much left on the vita...

 

[newtmonkey]

I've been playing Yomi wo Saku Hana recently and really like what I've seen so far. It has a much more interesting setting/story than Strangers of Sword City.

It takes place in 1970s Japan. A mysterious labyrinth appears out of nowhere, and a bunch of companies pop up to make money exploiting it. As an employee of one of these small companies, you set up a team of college students through interviews conducted in the backrooms of sweets shops to keep things on the down-low, since all the larger more established companies have hired all the actually competent people.

But that all goes horribly wrong, and everyone but you is brutally killed on your first job. You crawl back to HQ and the game begins for real with full party creation, etc.

The art is really good, though some of the monsters seem completely out of place. The soundtrack, though, is fantastic. The music that plays while exploring the dungeon is just perfect—a foreboding death march with what sounds like a synthesized saxophone playing over it.

It's got a great dungeon to explore with some fun gimmicks (you can use consumables to "modify" the dungeon at set locations, such as adding doors or fixed enemy encounters). A good grinding strategy early on would be to set up a monster nest to the west of the camp in an area with a higher dungeon level. Having said that, the game has been pretty easy so far and I haven't had to grind at all. It does have forced autosaving (after battles, etc.), but it's pretty cheap to revive characters and there is no punishment for death other than, well, death.

The game is very user-friendly. You can reset and respend skill points at any time, and can change classes without any hassle. The classes seem to be balanced pretty well, and I suspect any party with at least a single healer, single mage, and single tank would be fine.

Overall, a lot of fun but perhaps a bit too easy.

 

[Jermu]

I've been playing Yomi wo Saku Hana recently and really like what I've seen so far. It has a much more interesting setting/story than Strangers of Sword City.

It takes place in 1970s Japan. A mysterious labyrinth appears out of nowhere, and a bunch of companies pop up to make money exploiting it. As an employee of one of these small companies, you set up a team of college students through interviews conducted in the backrooms of sweets shops to keep things on the down-low, since all the larger more established companies have hired all the actually competent people.

But that all goes horribly wrong, and everyone but you is brutally killed on your first job. You crawl back to HQ and the game begins for real with full party creation, etc.

The art is really good, though some of the monsters seem completely out of place. The soundtrack, though, is fantastic. The music that plays while exploring the dungeon is just perfect—a foreboding death march with what sounds like a synthesized saxophone playing over it.

It's got a great dungeon to explore with some fun gimmicks (you can use consumables to "modify" the dungeon at set locations, such as adding doors or fixed enemy encounters). A good grinding strategy early on would be to set up a monster nest to the west of the camp in an area with a higher dungeon level. Having said that, the game has been pretty easy so far and I haven't had to grind at all. It does have forced autosaving (after battles, etc.), but it's pretty cheap to revive characters and there is no punishment for death other than, well, death.

The game is very user-friendly. You can reset and respend skill points at any time, and can change classes without any hassle. The classes seem to be balanced pretty well, and I suspect any party with at least a single healer, single mage, and single tank would be fine.

Overall, a lot of fun but perhaps a bit too easy.

Is there class changing mechanics similar to Sword City? and are character creation stats randomly rolled or fixed?

 

[Dorarnae]

no idea, I did the whole game without changing class. you eventually get an item and then you have to choose between two path for your class. I kinda felt it wasn't necessary in this game. I haven't played this game as much as stranger of sword city but personally I prefered stranger of sword city.
Yomi wo Saku Hana start off great, the first dungeon is really nice but then in my opinion the tool you use in the dungeon etc becomes boring pretty fast because of how it is used (they could of put different area not accessible til you get certain things...). the diea wasn't bad but how they did it...really didn't like the map where you use a tons of ladder,door...and get a tons of stats increase items. that's one thing I didn't like about stranger of sword city revisited, stat increase items should be removed.

 

[jungl]

How is the game length wise stranger in sword city was too short. The best thing about elminage gothic it gives you your moneys worth. If you want to map out a entire dungeon then prepare for all those pits, one way doors, confusing layouts and enemies that punish you if don't spend at least a little time getting new equipment.