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The games most like wizardry 8 that I can think of are the Might and Magic series that was made in competition with Wizardry. MM 6-8 are the ones most similar to Wiz8. I would recommend starting with MM6 as that one is commonly thought of (by me and others) as the best game in the series. Best artstyle, music, polish and world. Also best graphics compared to the later games. (How? Why?) And a fun fact: Wizardy 8 and Might and Magic 6 uses the same library for sound effects. So they even sounds similar on occasion.
The earlier Might and Magic games are more similar to the earlier Wizardry games and was made in the same age. But the old MM games have aged much better due to two specific reason. HOTKEYS! In the old MM games there is a hot key for almost anything your character might want to do. That speeds up combat tremendously! The second reason is that combat happens at the individual character level. You dont give everyone orders and start the turn. That in combination with that there are no programmed delay means that combat is as fast as your ability to hit the attack hotkey. Enemies have attack and defend animations, but they are canceled if you hit a button. The earlier games also have a lot more puzzles than the later ones. Good ones too.
If you are interested in the older games I would start with MM4-5. MM5 is just a big expansion pack to MM4. You can play it separately, but it is very hard and you miss out on things.
MM3 is also very playable, but I found it less polished than the sequels and more buggy. It feels like a smaller game all around. I have not played MM 1 or 2. MM 9 technically exist, but we all pretend it dont...
I never got that ad on my disc version only on the Steam one. I did buy my game in Japan though...
This is no time for a slow PC?
[https://imgur.com/mMD0ymT]
I have recently met an intelligent and competent lead designer creating a game that was intended to be "classical" but the efforts (when playtesting) included dexterity elements. I would go so far to say that his game and effort was "polluted" with real time dexterity elements (IMHO).
Yes, many recent, so-called, "Classic" games contain those elements. Wizardry 8 has a tiny bit as well as the terrible Might and Magic 9 that was full of such elements (plus nerfing the magic system and eliminating the flying that helped make Might and Magic 6-8 great).
The key to classic dungeon crawler and world exploration games was that it was not about the dexterity of the player, even though dexterity of the characters within the player's party was always very important, as well as other attributes.
Both turn-based and freeze type battles put the onus on decisions made by the player. There can be real time elements to a game without making those the challenge. In all of the above-mentioned games, for example, they have real time movement. That movement is real time but it does not (except in rare elements like the Umpani obstacle course) become the challenge of the game, which is about making correct short and long term decisions. The greatness of Wizardry 8 resides in the fact there are lots of right answers and not only one particular "solution" or way to play.
I would submit that the new rpg game is not improved by the dexterity elements, like the obstacle course in Wizardry 8, and would further submit that the game is simply not classic if dexterity of the player is the way or even one of the ways needed to win the game.
This is all just my experienced opinion, of course, but the key is what it takes to win the game. For role playing and strategy games that should be, in my opinion, excellent decisions... period.
Games with dexterity elements, like the Elder Scrolls game can meet that criteria even with real time battles because the real time battles are easy if the player has the right tools and makes the right decisions and not if not. I would prefer if it were even more about decisions and less about dexterity. I would prefer if even physically challenged players could win the game if they make excellent decisions, like Stephen Hawking, for example. There are many games that are almost entirely about decisions, but 100% is, unfortunately, very rare, limited to a few strategy games.
There should be at least some very-in-depth games that could pass a Stephen Hawking test, i.e. someone brilliant like that, without player unimpaired physical motor skills, could play and win it at the highest difficulty.
Many players love games that ask them to move the mouse and click fast in order to win. I want them to have games they like. I have nothing against such games or those who enjoy playing them, It would be nice, however, to have a few in-depth games that are based upon player decisions at every stage (and entirely that, not one meaningful decision every two hours or so and the rest obvious, repetitive and tedious).
In spite of the unfortunate dexterity elements, Wizardry 8 seems to be very much in depth and very much about the decisions made by the player, starting from character creation. That is what makes it great, It is both the depth and nature of the game. Once one realizes the game mostly takes place in battles, it is mostly fast paced, requiring many key and challenging decisions within every hour of play, at least for a long time into the game.
Making a grid based game with lots of dexterity elements to win it is, IMO, not even close to making it a classic game. Maybe grid based would be necessary for a game to pass a Stephen Hawking test, I do not know, but being grid-based does not make a game classic.
Missing are almost any (or any???) new rpg games that are played and won entirely based upon excellent decisions and are not (like some strategy games) filled with hundreds of tedious, obvious moves mixed in with a few meaningful decisions here and there, but instead games that challenge that decision making with depth, balance and the real possibility of failure (of the party, not necessarily player if they persist) based upon those decisions alone.
It was not a game for my tastes either.
The random elements can move a game away from a game of decisions and luck. I guess the key to Wizardry 8's excellent design is the lack of random factors when designing characters and parties. The game lets the player be the game designer, because they design their characters and parties rather than their attributes being random. Other games have this to some degree but do not go as far as W8.
Other rpgs removed the design of party aspect of the game entirely, taking away that whole family of dimensions and making party selection "foolproof". There needs to be more games where playing the game is about designing the characters and parties which can and should drastically impact the experiences when moving through the game with what you created, like in W8. That whole dimension is either barely there or entirely absent from the vast majority of rpgs.
I guess I final point I would like to make is that it is not about me. Sure I would be happy to play any great games that come out before I die but, at the risk of sounding corny, deep, engaging games can change the world. There is a vast, almost entirely untapped resource that can bring meaning to billions of lives in a world where physical isolation to survive pandemics is just an example of what we are facing. Excellent games cross boundaries and exercise abilities that games can challenge and satisfy. Sorry, some of you might think that is ridiculous but excellent games can both engage and raise imaginations that would otherwise destroy.
Especially the 2nd game.