I see a LOT of post about how this game is unfair, but this WAS old school RPG's from the day. No comments to sway developers to nerf things or complain about *cough* balance. These old school RPG's simulated random danger and events one might find in dungeoneering. Tragedy can and will happen. Us old school wizardry players are familiar with this so here are some tips.

1. If you create your own characters never settle for bonus points less than 12. That means a LOT of not accepting character and starting over. Thats just the way it is and the way it was.

2. ALWAYS have thief. Traps are not a joke in this game. You need him to identify and disarm chest that you get after defeating monsters. two options here: 4th position with a bow you will get later and your priest in position 3 with a mace or whatever, or thief in position 3 (but he IS squishy because he is restricted to padded leather (studded leather equivalent) and priest in position 4 with a flail.

3. last two spots for mage types. I go with a bishop and a mage because of the bishops ability to identify items and to cast the lower level mage/priest spells.

4. Adventuring: Take on a few monsters and get out. that way you can buy better gear and try to acquire at least 1 ANTIDOTE in case your thief botches the disarm of the poison needle immediately. Poison does damage every turn and will absolutely kill you. Note: as you progress acquire more of these ANTIDOTES because later monsters have poison. Try to get to about level 5 or 6 before moving further in the dungeon. (Yes its tedious, but death sucks and is very expensive to heal)

5. Memorize your way to a few rooms in the first dungeon and go in and out. They ALWAYS restock opponents. Then hit and run. And you cannot see the map until your wizard gets level two spells and the wizard eye spell. Of course you grognards need not worry because you will have your graph paper.

6. Before leaving the dungeon heal everyone up as best you can. And that leads to the last tip-
Resting at the adventurers In:
the stables- are free but only give back 1 HP per WEEK so.... but all magic can be restored here at no cost
the economy room heals 3 HP per WEEK and if your character is going to level up they 'appear' to get better bonus points by sleeping in a bed. (they will have a white triangle next to their name)
you can figure the rest on your own.

Well thats it. Happy adventuring.

If you're after a Wizardry fix, this is a good source for that. However, the biggest issue of this particular game is its selling point: The English Translation.
Their update logs are in perfect English but the in-game English looks like it was quickly converted using a 10 years out-of-date google translate. There's constant grammatical errors, things sometimes become cryptic due to making no sense, and the worst offender is no one who translated has noticed they use duplicate words for different things.

For example, you can "Inspect" which inspects equipment and your characters. Alternatively, in a different menu, you can "Inspect", which checks in front of you for secrets, and until you muscle-memory each one, you'll be guessing what they do each time you press one of multiple menu keys. There's a distinct lack of good explanations for what things do, so you have to fish for old info on the game from the late 2000s.

The UI on the left is a weird duplicate of whatever is in the center of the screen. It somewhat helps, but it mostly clutters a game in a genre where the UI is already cluttered by default.

Honourable mention that, unless I'm mistaken, this goes back to the very old style of automapping being a spell with no map items. Previous games have often dealt with this by making the maps tough to earn and liberal use of dark tiles. It's one of those authentic mechanics that can infuriate some people, so make of it what you will.

In short, there's props for being an authentic Wizardry experience, but the translation is downright lazy and poorly done. At least it's compatible with modern systems / modern resolutions. I'll likely see my way through this game now that I have it, but when you can buy a cheaper and much cleaner Wizardry experience like Labyrinth of Lost Souls on the same store with better English and almost equivalent depth, it's a tough sell to newcomers. It's a 7.5/10 game that could get a recommend from me if the translation was actually good.

From what little I played, this is a like opening a time capsule and experiencing the same unforgiving yet compelling gameplay as in the original Wizardry entries.

Everyithing apart the (rare) text messages is translated in the original scenarios, and for those who do not speak japanese, it is easily resolved by playing in windowed mode and using a program like Screen Translator or another OCR.

I've google translated the negative japanese reviews, and it is basically whining about the UI (which is quite usable, at least when using a keyboard) and about how the game is "too old"...

This isn't a game for everybody, but those able to appreciate what it offers will discover a worthy successor of Wizardry 1-5.

This game is essentially endless Wizardry. Extremely niche. Those of you who know and love Wizardry 1-3+5, you know who you are, and you know what a treat this is. Big fans of Wizardry 5 may dislike the lack of NPC interaction. There are NPCs but you can't mess with them as you could in 5 has been my experience so far.

The store page currently indicates "English language not supported". I'm enjoying this game and I know zero Japanese. There are a horde of user-made scenarios, and many have been mostly translated to English. Some scenarios have not translated items and equipment to English, but a handful have. During exploration, messages received are still in Japanese. Call forth the mighty powers of Google Translate on your phone, and there you have it.
***Update*** The five official scenarios have all been translated to English. More user-made scenarios have also been translated to English. A few of these are outstanding. The developers seem very committed to doing whatever they can to support their English-only players, and I expect to see more scenarios translated and added. Hopefully we'll have an English editor soon as well!

Wizardry (True Wizardry) will not hold your hand. There is no manual save function. The game saves automatically, so if you go too far and party wipe, you don't get a Game Over. You get to create an entirely new party, then find and drag your old party out of the dungeon using your new party, probably one member at a time, and THEN you can take them to the temple for resurrection. It's wonderful and it creates a ton of suspense when I'm on a dungeon run gone wrong.

True fans of Wizardry will get their money's worth at least a hundred fold from this.

**Edited my review to better reflect the difficulty of Traveler's Property vs. The Price of Deception**

I had never played any Wizardry game before. It popped up from time to time throughout my life, but I thought it to be some vestige of the past, an archaic game missing quality of life features that I've come to rely upon. The first installment is four years older than I am. I never paid it much mind.

Somehow this game showed up in my recommendations. I saw it was relatively recent. I bought it because other players wrote reviews that contained words that I like. Words like 'unforgiving' and 'extremely unfair' and 'game design from ages past'. Turns out I do take a liking to archaic game systems and lack of quality of life. I started the game, liked what I saw and man, did the Wizardry rabbit hole open for me. Turns out there's 40 years worth of dungeon crawling to explore, spread out over franchise titles and clones that are Wizardry in all but name only. I'm hooked.

I didn't want to wait to write this review until I have played over a hundred hours. I wanted to write it now, while I'm still new to these games. I've only played the tutorial scenario, The Price of Deception and a few floors of Traveler's Property. But as a beginner in the world of Wizardry I feel I'm now at the point where I'm not thoroughly spoiled on the game's shenanigans and not yet a veteran who's seen it all in these games. This is a fresh perspective on a franchise that has flown under my radar all my life.

If you, like me, never played Wizardry, play The Price of Deception first. It does a good job of introducing mechanics slowly and one at a time. It also does it in context of the dungeon. It's really good. After a couple of floors the training wheels come off but I feel reasonably well prepared to take on other scenarios or other Wizardry games now.

Wizardry rewards slow, meticulous and painstaking gameplay. Do not rush. Run from battles that seem hard. Prepare backup characters that you keep within arm's length of your main party level-wise. Retreat often to the town to buy upgrades. Yes, a scenario will take dozens of hours that way, but I feel that is the way they intended this game to be played. To facilitate this slow process, I've taken to mapping the dungeon floors using Gridmonger (wholly recommended dungeon crawling mapping tool, and free!). There's a map in most scenarios, but I feel that mapping out every step helps me in not rushing and it provides better information about where I am than constantly having to switch to the in-game map, which also costs spell uses. If you're serious about delving deep into the game, use a mapping tool like Gridmonger. You either go big and nerdy, or you go home.

This game will treat you unfairly, but using the above steps I've minimized character deaths so far. Which is good, because even The Price of Deception can overwhelm you with Wizardry 'unfairness' a couple of floors in. Traveler's Property is so much harder and extremely unforgiving if you've never played any Wizardry so I'd very much advise against starting with that scenario if you are a beginner. But it's all in the game. Like traditional roguelikes and games like Dwarf Fortress, dying and losing progress is part of the experience. Go into this game expecting just that and it won't be a tough pill to swallow.

There's a couple of user scenarios too, with more on the way it seems. I've not looked into those yet, but it's great to know that they are there. If they are anywhere near the quality or better than the scenarios that come with the game out of the box, you're in for a treat. This game will provide hundreds of hours of gameplay to those willing to commit themselves to this difficult game.

Wizardry and dungeon crawlers in general have gained a new fan.

The game is classic, dungeon crawling that usually focuses on the experience of exploring dungeons, mapping (on graph paper, if you're going full old-school!), and gathering loot and getting stronger. Though the included Five Ordeals are not at all well suited for novice adventurers, there is a lot of additional content, some official and some fan-created, that can be accessed and enjoyed even if you aren't highly familiar with the series.

It, to a fault, sticks very closely to the gameplay and options of the first few Wizardry games. The mechanics for creating, adding, and manipulating party members both in the city and in the dungeon is not particularly intuitive or elegant -- similar to how they worked in the old games decades ago. While there is a basic scenario added post-release that tries to act as a tutorial and introductory dungeon, it can't cover up the fact that the interface itself is notably awkward and archaic.

But these issues aside, the reason to get this game is to crawl through dungeons. Make your party, gather them at the Inn and send them through the town gate to head into dungeons to slay monsters and get loot, heading back to town to rest, recover and level up. Repeat. Get lost within twisty halls, learn which monsters are most dangerous and plan how to deal with them, learn spells that increase your firepower and defenses, kill a big baddie, recover a lost treasure, maybe unlock a new path to tougher dungeons, this game tends to be story-light -- focusing on the mazes, monsters, treasure and encounters and how you deal with them.

One notable detail is the game auto-saves. If you use an item accidentally on the wrong person, it's gone. Failed to revive a fallen ally, too bad. Teleported into solid rock or into a room with no exit door? Time to make a new party. Though, there is a 'secret' key combination that can be used in a bad situation, so if you really don't like what is going on, you can 'reset' the game to reload from the last auto-save.

Now while cheating the system like that might seem like heresy to some, for some of the scenarios... well. They don't pull any punches. Certain enemy encounters are incredibly deadly and recovering a party that was wiped out involves going back in with other adventurers, and is very risky, dangerous and inconvenient. Worse than simple dying are monsters that drain your experience levels, undoing hours of work, or permanently losing a cherished character. But it lends a sense of urgency and tenseness that you don't get with a simple respawn checkpoint or a Reload from Last Save menu.

So it can be hard, ok. What makes this different from other retro dungeon crawlers?

I'd say, it's the user content. There are a large amount of scenarios designed by various Japanese Wizardry fans, many translated into English, and each one has their own set of mazes, monsters, loot tables and items. Some are basic and fairly easy, some are incredibly large and intricate, and some are incredibly hard and punishing -- making the stock "Ordeals" look tame by comparison. You could easily spend weeks exploring some of the largest custom scenarios, You could go through a scenario with a heavily changed magic system, or find one that gives you incredibly powerful loot, or one that caps your experience gain -- leaving you relying on equipment and gear over grinding up numbers to get stronger. Note that due to these sometimes heavy differences it is not possible to import characters between any scenarios -- each one will be a clean start from level 1.

I have not dabbled in scenario creation myself, but do note that the scenario editor is not fully English ready and is web-based, and requires a Steam login. Be wary that due to copyright issues, using names or content from other Wizardry games is strictly prohibited.

Overall the Five Ordeals is a game package that by itself is kind of a tough sell for the price -- the fantastic Prisoners of the Battles DLC is excellent but tacks on even more of a price tag. It is the well-made custom content -- user created scenarios in particular -- that really help extend and elevate its appeal. If you're looking for some classic dungeon crawling in the vein of the first few Wizardry games, give this a look.

First things first: it's worth the price if you like Wizardry or if you're interested in getting 6 full scenarios in a single package. This is easily the best version of Wizardry you're going to find anywhere, and it may be the single best Wizardry collection I've ever seen. It has all the interest of the original game, all the quality of the best Japanese Wizardry titles, fantastic artwork, an excellent set of options that will appeal to rookies and veteran players alike, a small handful of the best innovations from the Bradley-era games, and some absolutely stellar music that contributes to an overall fantastic atmosphere. If you like these kinds of games at all, it is absolutely worth the price. Yes, there are a lot of old school mechanics: you will get lost, total party kills are possible and even likely, characters you have spent hours nurturing will suddenly vanish, items will curse you in truly challenging ways, and there will be fights that seem impossible.... the first time. If you don't care for that kind of gameplay, then this isn't a game for you, which is fine. But if you love exploration, map-making, and the challenge of dealing with tall odds, then there's few games out there better than Five Ordeals.

The game also now includes a beginner scenario that is a great place for new players to start, so don't let the big challenge stop you from giving it a try. "The Price of Deception" provides tips, offers a very reasonable difficulty curve, and introduces newcomers to common Wizardry traps and puzzles in a sensible and measured way. That alone is worth the price of entry, but then you get the five scenarios originally included in the game, plus access to a bunch of user-made scenarios that are now available in English (the list keeps growing, too). Beyond that, the game is just a pleasure to play. The graphics, sound, and music are all great and the improved interface (compared to virtually every other Wizardry game I've ever played) is top notch. This is a serious hidden gem on Steam, and probably one of the better games I've played in the last 5 or 10 years.

I love this version of Wizardry. Out of all of the current options available - I like this one the best.

Here are some things I like:

- The game is *fully playable* with only the keyboard and it feels very response, almost like playing Rogue or NetHack. Alternatively, the game pad works well and the game plays very well on my ROG Ally so I'm assuming the Steam Deck would have a similar good play experience.

- You can toggle between animated or snap turn. I found myself eventually landing on the animated turns.

- If you look into the level editor you can see that there are a ton of parameters that can be adjusted. Mini map options, experience tables, items and monster tables, a lot in there.

- One of the DLC packages here called Prisoners of Battles is the PlayStation 2 version of the game. If you check out old videos of the game, it's apparent where this one gets its influence.

- The tutorial mission here, outside of the five ordeals, is called the Price of Deception. It teaches the ins and outs of the game - stuff that can be applied to other old school Wizardry games as well. It even shows the player how to save scum on the keyboard or the controller. I thought this was a cool touch and a good balance between other alternatives (save menu) and auto save. Five Ordeals lands on a good balance, a player can play with perma death and instant wipes if they choose.

Update after hitting the 50 hour mark with the game: I completed Price of Deception and now am on to Prisoners of Battle. Really enjoying this so far. The free opensource software Gridmonger is really easy to alt+tab back and forth and great for notes. I find myself very addicted to this game and often thinking about it when I'm not playing.

Impartially old-school, aggravating to some, delightfully difficult to others.



If the prospect of having to assemble a party and send it down a dungeon merely to heal it up by casting limited spells, then sending back the healer in town to restore those spells, and repeat the process multiple times, simply to cheap out on staying a night at the inn sounds charming to you, join us!

It is possible you may be the kind of person that appreciates this kind of game, and I did myself give it a fair amount of chance, but this game is what it is : A nightmare of terrible UI, bad game design and artificial difficulty resurrected from the early days of dungeon RPGs. Where other franchises have made the concept evolve in different, interesting directions (Legend of Grimrock, Etrian Odyssey, etc), here we are stuck firmly in the past.

Monsters may insta-kill your character through critical hits, petrification, they can drain their levels and XP permanently, and so on. If a character is poisoned and you don't have a leveled cleric / an antidote, it's over. It will happen frequently and you will have no choice but to limp back to the temple and farm cash over and over to resurrect the massive amount of dead characters you will collect over this adventure.

You will have to reroll a second team and level it all up until it can fetch the corpses of the A team. You will then have to reroll a third team to rescue the second one, who fell down a series of holes in the dungeon and couldn't find their way out. You will lose some of them permanently because they got stat-drained too low or got teleported into a wall.

It was amusing in the early days of Dungeons & Dragons and gygaxian character grinder adventures, but in 2022 I'm too old to put up with this ♥♥♥♥. The whole experience is so unpolished and frustrating that there is no way I can recommend this game to anyone else but the few maniacs who know what they're heading into. I salute you!