Wizardry Series - Have you tried it out?

[Bump'n'Ys]

As the thread name suggests, I'm curious what experience people here have with the franchise and how they feel about it. I've been playing through the PS1 ports of 1-3 (Llylgamyn Saga) and 5 (New Age of Llylgamyn) and it's been an absolute blast. The tight balance combined with the PS1 versions visuals, in particular the sprite work on monsters, has totally sucked me in. The music's been pretty good too, I love the battle theme used in Wizardry 5 in particular here. Specific inquiries I'm curious about:
1) Which games have you played and enjoyed? What's your favorite in the series? (Both the original series and the loads of unique Japanese releases in the series - I'm almost treating it as a potential set of recommendations after I finish Wiz 5)
2) If you didn't enjoy them, what left you feeling sour on them? Either individual games or the series.
3) Favorite ports of the original Sir-Tech Wizardry games? There's tons of them so it'd be cool to get different perspectives on them.
Any other input is welcome of course.

 

[C.Endfield]

I have been trying to set my foot into these games, especially when Daphne released on iOS/Android. I have also previously seen the Llylgamyn games appear on CDR and never got around to give these a shot, too. Quite fascinating that this franchise got so much love from Japan with their own renditions (Busin, Empire), as well. Gonna give Saga for PS1 another shot.

Also, good shipwrecked protagonist and username you picked there.

 

[J0_]

I played Wizardry 8 when I was a kid, never made it very far at all. In recent times I played Wizardry Gaiden on the gameboy and thought it was a decent little gameboy dungeon crawler.

I'm in an RPG mood at the moment, currently playing through Dragon Quest I & II for the first time. I've been debating if I want to play something else before jumping into DQ3 and Wizardry 1 is one of the top prospects. I love games like Etrian Odyssey, Shin Megami Tensei, and even some weirder titles like Dungeon Hack. I'm kinda overdue to play some Wizardry lol

 

[Bump'n'Ys]

I have been trying to set my foot into these games, especially when Daphne released on iOS/Android. I have also previously seen the Llylgamyn games appear on CDR and never got around to give these a shot, too. Quite fascinating that this franchise got so much love from Japan with their own renditions (Busin, Empire), as well. Gonna give Saga for PS1 another shot.

Also, good shipwrecked protagonist and username you picked there.

I'd highly recommend them! The English scripts iirc are pulled from the original releases for English so you should be good to go to play, except for spell descriptions still being in Japanese oddly enough. You can look those up online or just experiment with them too. I actually had my eye on the PS2 Wizardry's, I'd love to try all of them at some point but isn't only Tale of the Forsaken Land currently translated? I thought I read something about one of them having English options like Llylgamyn Saga but I could be mistaken. Did you play Daphne? I've been interested in it after seeing some webms posted around of its gameplay.
And thank you about the username and pfp, I love early Ys and am always wanting more bump combat.

I played Wizardry 8 when I was a kid, never made it very far at all. In recent times I played Wizardry Gaiden on the gameboy and thought it was a decent little gameboy dungeon crawler.

I'm in an RPG mood at the moment, currently playing through Dragon Quest I & II for the first time. I've been debating if I want to play something else before jumping into DQ3 and Wizardry 1 is one of the top prospects. I love games like Etrian Odyssey, Shin Megami Tensei, and even some weirder titles like Dungeon Hack. I'm kinda overdue to play some Wizardry lol

Wizardry 8 looks really good from the screenshots I've seen. I ended up purchasing it, 6 and 7 right after finishing 1 out of good will that they'll be good games too. I always try to do that if I can when I emulate older entries in a franchise and usually it pays off.
Honestly if you had to pick between DQ3 and W1, I'd probably pick DQ3, but I am a little biased there because it's one of my all time favorite games. W1 is a lot shorter to be sure, I think for someone with dungeon crawling experience you'd probably beat W1-3 in the same time it takes for DQ3, as 2 and 3 are more like expansion packs than full sequels. Good expansion packs, but still expansion packs at the end of the day. If you love SMT and EO though, you can't go wrong with Wizardry, especially if you like EO since both series seem pretty good about making things like status spells, buffs, and debuffs useful throughout.

 

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

I've had a passive interest in the Wizardry series since it was one of the inspirations for the JRPG genre. Dragon Quest creators directly reference Wizardry as an inspiration: The series was an amalgamation of the top down exploration of Ultima with the combat from Wizardry. I couldn't really get into the series until I tried the Japanese offshoots of Wizardry for the PS2. I highly recommend them for anyone interested in Wizardry.

 

[SLEDGE_DOG]

I played Wizardry 8 when I was a kid, never made it very far at all.

Same. I even tried playing it in the last few years and didn't get very far again either. I love the graphics and party interaction, but the nonstop stream of enemies is just exhausting. You don't even get a break in cities.

 

[mrmagicm]

Wizardry forsaken is maybe my favorite rpgt ps2 game I have ever played ^^

Post automatically merged: Yesterday at 11:07 AM

Wizardry forsaken is maybe my favorite rpgt ps2 game I have ever played ^^

 

[sun0wl]

I've had a passive interest in the Wizardry series since it was one of the inspirations for the JRPG genre. Dragon Quest creators directly reference Wizardry as an inspiration: The series was an amalgamation of the top down exploration of Ultima with the combat from Wizardry. I couldn't really get into the series until I tried the Japanese offshoots of Wizardry for the PS2. I highly recommend them for anyone interested in Wizardry.

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"Passive interest" also describes my relationship with Wizardry as well, and I mean that in the most positive way possible. I've just never made it through an entire game because I lose interest in any game without an engaging story or quest, even if the gameplay is appealing. But I have to say that I've always really loved the aesthetic of the Japanese Wizardry art through the years, particularly those PS2 games and Labyrinth of Lost Souls. Kind of a dark, mature anime style ala Lodoss. So I guess my favorites are the Japan-grown ones.

Here's a neat video essay I watched recently on the full history of the SirTech series from the first game, with some asides about the Japanese branch if you're into this kind of thing:

And here's the Wizardry anime I found out about recently. It's a cute older animation.

 

[bigstinkie]

i have played the original wizardry game countless number of times spread across the life and comes here may
the original apple ii release of proving grounds is superb with really a shocking number of well thought out checks and balances (such as characters aging when resting at the inn to prevent straight safe brute force grinding {of course there are work arounds in game for this}) and so on and i forgot the point i was trying to make
the famicom version has some nifty altered maps, the VERY cool story of llylgamyn collection of wizardry 1-3 on the super famicom with enhanced graphics is enough to make my ass fart, and there's even a fancier version of that collection on playstation and saturn with incredibly sexy cd quality music

then there is the shapely body tales of the forsaken land on the playstation 2 - some of the artwork in that game is the peak of the entire franchise for me, and your actions can change the realtime thoughts and feelings other characters can have of you
just recently a computer remake of proving grounds came out, and to my surprise it was very good, options to use the apple ii or famicom maps, all kinds of toggles to make the experience more faithful to the original release, or less faithful, custom portraits, and so on
my sweet andrew greenberg

 

[Michael Frank]

I'm currently on Wizardry 1 for the GBC, honestly it's comfy fun, any suggestion on how to beat ghosts?, is there any spell that makes it easier or i just keep beating the damned fools with my fighters maces until they disappear?

 

[Bump'n'Ys]

I'm currently on Wizardry 1 for the GBC, honestly it's comfy fun, any suggestion on how to beat ghosts?, is there any spell that makes it easier or i just keep beating the damned fools with my fighters maces until they disappear?

You'll want to lower (well, improve, it's hard to figure out how to word it sometimes) your armor class if the issue is missing them a lot. Bamatu is a great spell for it as it gives your whole party -4 AC, and you can stack it with either itself or other AC altering spells. If you lack that spell, Kalki will work in the meantime, one or two casts. Generally my go-to tactics for enemies in bigger groups and/or harder to hit enemies is to raise AC, mute spell casters and either sleep or throw damage at bigger groups. I haven't played the GBC port but the sprite work from what I saw looks really nice, I love the use of colors in it.

"Passive interest" also describes my relationship with Wizardry as well, and I mean that in the most positive way possible. I've just never made it through an entire game because I lose interest in any game without an engaging story or quest, even if the gameplay is appealing. But I have to say that I've always really loved the aesthetic of the Japanese Wizardry art through the years, particularly those PS2 games and Labyrinth of Lost Souls. Kind of a dark, mature anime style ala Lodoss. So I guess my favorites are the Japan-grown ones.

Here's a neat video essay I watched recently on the full history of the SirTech series from the first game, with some asides about the Japanese branch if you're into this kind of thing:

And here's the Wizardry anime I found out about recently. It's a cute older animation.

That Wizardry OVA is really cool, I've seen it a few times. I wish someone would make a clone of Wizardry where you actually did see more named adventurers throughout that you talk to in a style like the NPCs like Wizardry V. The idea that there are people who are solely there to scoop up treasure and leave with no ambition to delve deeper into the dungeon is something that's realistic but doesn't seem touched on in most games.

Same. I even tried playing it in the last few years and didn't get very far again either. I love the graphics and party interaction, but the nonstop stream of enemies is just exhausting. You don't even get a break in cities.

The cities have combat too when just walking around? As an SMT fan this is only a plus, I'll feel right at home.