The (16 colors only) graphics don't lie; This isn't a modern game with modern sensibilities masquerading in retro clothing. This is a genuine NES-generation RPG built to essentially replicate D&D on PCs not even powerful enough to run Windows 3.x...

I'll be up-front with it: In this game, you start by building a party by rerolling virtual dice, sometimes for hours, until you get stats you can accept in your pre-planned growth strategy that will last the whole game before you even set foot in the dungeon. If mashing a reroll button (which is made even less convenient by not letting you cancel out - you have to finish making a character before you can try again) to get the stats you want doesn't appeal to you, turn around, now.

Even if you get attributes you like, you can still be screwed by randomly having only 3 hit points on a melee character in a game where a mere rat hits for 5 hp, you have full death on 0 hp, revive items and spells are extremely rare outside the late game, and even if you did, you PERMANENTLY lose 1 Vitality (on characters with an average of 10), which drops future HP growth. Basically, if you take one unlucky hit, you have to reload. (And there's no soft reset, you have to finish the combat or alt-tab and force-close the program...)

To stop this, you can try to use a sleep spell, and insta-kill the rats, right? HAHA! NOPE! Enjoy missing against an unconscious enemy about 60% of the time, and then having about a 50% chance that your sword won't penetrate the "armor" of the rat.

Then, you have the locked doors. Highly random, and failure frequently JAMS the door, making it impossible to open except by magic or single-use keys that are rare drops. At least reloading is faster, here.

Unlike other D&D clones, however, skills are train-through-use, not unlike Elder Scrolls. This makes many skills, like weapon skills, easily trained by merely hitting the target (not that such an event is at all common) while only a few require actually spending skill points on them. In some ways, this is great, as it means you can power-grind characters all you want. On the other hand, this means that the game basically just flat-out expects you to power-grind every skill to max fairly early on, and 100 points in a skill isn't necessarily going to mean you succeed.

That said, unlike Wizardry 8, there's extremely large room for multiclassing abuse. This is a game that is more free-form about its character creation specs, and if you gained a single level as a bard, you can continue to train bard music then turn into a mage, take up some spellcasting, then go samurai to continue training as a singing, spell-casting, warrior.

This is also a game old enough that having all the women topless wasn't a major concern, the manual is written as if it assumes you're 8 years old, and rolling a female character means you take a -2 to strength, but, "That's OK, because women have a +1 to personality and karma!" (Note: they're both basically useless. That said, the gender-restricted valkyrie class is generally worth it, anyway, and the caster classes don't need strength... unless you multi-class to a hybrid class.)

If the idea of ridiculous power-grinding appeals to you, and you don't mind savescumming 'till your fingers bleed, then maybe, just maybe, you'll be the sort of person that loves this sort of game. I can't even explain why, it's just a COMPULSION. You'll beat that lock next time! You are so close to making that spectacular ninja-valkyrie or psionist-monk!

The (16 colors only) graphics don't lie; This isn't a modern game with modern sensibilities masquerading in retro clothing. This is a genuine NES-generation RPG built to essentially replicate D&D on PCs not even powerful enough to run Windows 3.x... I'll be up-front with it: In this game, you start by building a party by rerolling virtual dice, sometimes for hours, until you get stats you can accept in your pre-planned growth strategy that will last the whole game before you even set foot in the dungeon. If mashing a reroll button (which is made even less convenient by not letting you cancel out - you have to finish making a character before you can try again) to get the stats you want doesn't appeal to you, turn around, now. Even if you get attributes you like, you can still be screwed by randomly having only 3 hit points on a melee character in a game where a mere rat hits for 5 hp, you have full death on 0 hp, revive items and spells are extremely rare outside the late game, and even if you did, you PERMANENTLY lose 1 Vitality (on characters with an average of 10), which drops future HP growth. Basically, if you take one unlucky hit, you have to reload. (And there's no soft reset, you have to finish the combat or alt-tab and force-close the program...) To stop this, you can try to use a sleep spell, and insta-kill the rats, right? HAHA! NOPE! Enjoy missing against an unconscious enemy about 60% of the time, and then having about a 50% chance that your sword won't penetrate the "armor" of the rat. Then, you have the locked doors. Highly random, and failure frequently JAMS the door, making it impossible to open except by magic or single-use keys that are rare drops. At least reloading is faster, here. Unlike other D&D clones, however, skills are train-through-use, not unlike Elder Scrolls. This makes many skills, like weapon skills, easily trained by merely hitting the target (not that such an event is at all common) while only a few require actually spending skill points on them. In some ways, this is great, as it means you can power-grind characters all you want. On the other hand, this means that the game basically just flat-out expects you to power-grind every skill to max fairly early on, and 100 points in a skill isn't necessarily going to mean you succeed. That said, unlike Wizardry 8, there's extremely large room for multiclassing abuse. This is a game that is more free-form about its character creation specs, and if you gained a single level as a bard, you can continue to train bard music then turn into a mage, take up some spellcasting, then go samurai to continue training as a singing, spell-casting, warrior. This is also a game old enough that having all the women topless wasn't a major concern, the manual is written as if it assumes you're 8 years old, and rolling a female character means you take a -2 to strength, but, "That's OK, because women have a +1 to personality and karma!" (Note: they're both basically useless. That said, the gender-restricted valkyrie class is generally worth it, anyway, and the caster classes don't need strength... unless you multi-class to a hybrid class.) If the idea of ridiculous power-grinding appeals to you, and you don't mind savescumming 'till your fingers bleed, then maybe, just maybe, you'll be the sort of person that loves this sort of game. I can't even explain why, it's just a COMPULSION. You'll beat that lock next time! You are so close to making that spectacular ninja-valkyrie or psionist-monk!