I have weird feelings about the Wizardry series. The first Wizardry game I ever played was Wizardry V on the SNES. On a Friday evening back in 1995, I rented it from a video store because I thought the front box art looked really cool. This video store only used a copy of the front of the box art in a plastic case, so I couldn't see the back of the box art to get an idea of what the game looked like. I had absolutely no idea what the Wizardry series was, how it played, or that there were previous entries in the series, my young self didn't connect the fact that I rented Wizardry "V" and it was the 5th installment of the series lol. When I started up the game and found myself in the castle, I was like wtf is this garbage, it didn't help that the game I rented came with no instruction manual, they always got lost at this video store. I was pissed off because I wanted some shooter action with spells and stuff, I was imagining Contra III but with wizards lol. I promptly turned it off and went back to some Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat, and Killer Instinct.
Not sure what it was the next day that made me try Wizardry V again before I returned it to the video store later that night. Probably mad that I wasted a few bucks on a game that I didn't even power on longer than 5 minutes. So I said screw it, let's see where it goes. I loaded up the game, still no idea what to do, and eventually found myself in the training grounds and trying to create a new character. I think this character creation is what "hooked" me in the sense that I found it rewarding trying to build a custom character. This was new to me, I had never played any RPG game like this one before. I was always used to action/fighter games where you load up, hit start, and start kicking ass or blowing stuff up. Then something happened while trying to create a 3rd character...I think I wanted to make a thief, but when I selected my race and found myself at the stat allocation screen...my available stat points were 48...I was blown away and thought something went wrong with the game. Becuase my previous two character both only rolled with 9 available stat points to add. When I started allocating points I saw several new classes I had not seen before and I was once again "hooked" and wanted this to happen with all my characters.
I ended up spending the entire weekend rerolling over and over and over trying to get a high roll on my stats. 2 days later, I finally entered the maze with 2 samurai, 1 lord, a thief (never rolled high enough to discover a ninja), a cleric, and a wizard. Exploring this dungeon was both exciting and scary, I remember freaking out when one of my samurai died lol. I got so hooked on the game after exploring the dungeon further and learning new things, I started calling the Nintendo Power Hotline for tips lol. Oof, my mom got so pissed at me! The game counselors kept giving me tips and secrets that just made me even more addicted. My older brother saw how much I loved the game, and actually went out and found a copy at the store and bought it for me so I could stop paying the rental fees for it. And thus started my love for Wizardry V. So this brings me to my "weird feelings" about the series. In later years, I would try a few other games in the series, but each time I found it boring as hell. I could not find that same love that I had for V. I've tried I, IV, VI, and VIII. All of them, I could not play for more than an hour or two before getting bored and turning it off. Yet, to this day, I still load up V every now and then, and do a full playthrough. I wish I could enjoy the other games in the series as I do V, but I can't. It's very possible whichever game in the series I would have tried first would have been the one and only worth playing, and it just happens to be V for me.
I also really dislike the huge difference in gameplay from V to VI+, it changed the game too much for me and really turned me off.
The mamba games are no different from the first Wizardries, sans the "return to town" part for the absence of one. Which, dare I say, purifies the concept even further, leaving you alone against the dungeon with no safe space to retreat to.
