Is this really Wizardry?

[demontrace]

I'm not optimistic about this. Wizardry definitely had an identity, along with specific rpg mechanics. If this game just has pretty anime ladies, but boring grinding with simple combat and level/skill gain, then it would be better as a different series altogether.
If it's truly Wizardry, but with a different look, I'd probably give it a look, as long as it takes itself seriously enough.

[Sgt. Giggle Mittens]

You obviously never played a wizardry, as the original wizardrys are literlaly boring grinding and simple combat mechanics. it is a dungeon crawler..just like every other wizardry

[Highwind]

Originally posted by Jonathan Taylor Thomas:

I'm not optimistic about this. Wizardry definitely had an identity, along with specific rpg mechanics. If this game just has pretty anime ladies, but boring grinding with simple combat and level/skill gain, then it would be better as a different series altogether.
If it's truly Wizardry, but with a different look, I'd probably give it a look, as long as it takes itself seriously enough.

I've heard that it is Wizardry V with anime aesthetic and with a really good Main Theme.

[Highwind]

Originally posted by Sgt. Giggle Mittens:

You obviously never played a wizardry, as the original wizardrys are literlaly boring grinding and simple combat mechanics. it is a dungeon crawler..just like every other wizardry

I am currently playing Wizardry V on SNES and altough you are true im really enjoying it, the only thing i can't really bear is that it is really extremely cryptic, i can't play it without a guide.

[KiTA]

I've played through the PS3 version. Yes, it's a Wizardry game. It's part of the "Wizardry Renaissance" -- the Japanese developers trying to rebuild the brand after the IP issues were resolved in Japan.

My only criticism is the dungeons in the original games were, well, dungeons. There would be a logical layout to them. A dungeon that was supposed to be a castle would have hallways and barracks and the like. Dungeons in Japanese DRPGs tend to have halways that go nowhere, fill the entire map for no reason, be giant spirals that look good on a minimap, et cetera.

[GOGamer]

I'm hopeful for this game even though I've never played it. Glad it's coming out to PC; I didn't want to buy a PS3 for just this game, but yeah, aesthetically the newer Wizardry games all have an anime-style. If you miss the aesthetics of Wizardry from the 90s and want Wizardry, you might want to check this one out:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/650670/Grimoire__Heralds_of_the_Winged_Exemplar_V2/

[demontrace]

That Grimoire game has mixed reviews. I'll read some to see what it does wrong, but currently it isn't looking promising. Then again, maybe it's actually true to Wizardry, but that play style just doesn't work for current gamers.

[demontrace]

Yeah, nevermind. After seeing the way the developer responds to the community, and with his desire to be ban happy, I can't support someone like that. I'd sooner pirate than encourage an overly emotional person, not that I'm going to. I'd rather play Wizardry on GoG.

[Ghrathryn]

Grimoire kinda looks like the devs were going for more of an Eye of the Beholder or older ADnD CRPG style from the screenshots rather than the end of life on SirTech's Wizardry. With this one, I'll be honest, even if it is a Wizardry in that the company developing it got the IP after SirTech went down, the look feels much more Dungeon Master 2 for me, mostly due to that being the game of this type that had this sort of style grid movement when I started CRPGs, plus I hope there's some reasoning for the devs to have dropped a lot of the potential characters and the sci-fi elements of SirTech's Wizardry Cosmic Circle trilogy, the last of which - 8 - being my entry into the series.

[crowbb]

Grimoire is very much a love letter to Wizardry 7. The dev is a cranky old crazyman so if you cannot handle that don't get it. His politics are a large reason for the bad reviews. If you can get past that it is a very solid game though, or was when I played it a year or 2 ago. He has made a lot of changes so no idea if it still plays similarly.

[Lichbane]

No. The anime vibe makes it just seem like a Wizardry rip off. How did they even get the IP?

[dairy farmer]

I played it on PS3 and it's a real Wizardry, but with an anime aesthetic. Wizardry pretty much died off in the West and the Japanese took it over with a bunch of spin-offs, including this one.

It has all the classic Wiz stuff like advanced classes, difficulty spikes, and BS insta-kills, although I think this one was a touch easier than the "classic" ones.

You can read this FAQ here to get a sense for it:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps3/981422-wizardry-labyrinth-of-lost-souls/faqs/64323

Assuming XSEED didn't spend too much time trying to obfuscate the game files, the game should be hopefully easily moddable so we can maybe import custom portraits.

The game's only ten bucks on PSN, so I wouldn't expect it to be much more than $20 here.

[ultimatecalibur]

Originally posted by Ghrathryn:

plus I hope there's some reasoning for the devs to have dropped a lot of the potential characters and the sci-fi elements of SirTech's Wizardry Cosmic Circle trilogy, the last of which - 8 - being my entry into the series.

The short of it is that those elements are not a part of the majority of the series. The Sci-Fi elements are a late addition and are almost exclusive to 6-8. The Japanese Wizardry games are pretty much exclusively based on Wizardry 1-5 (elements of 6's UI have been adopted though) which are unreleasable due to a royalty dispute during the early 90's.

Originally posted by Lichbane:

No. The anime vibe makes it just seem like a Wizardry rip off. How did they even get the IP?

ASCII Corporation got the Japanese rights to publish and create Wizardry games way back in the early 90's. They for the most part stuck with the design of 1-5 with updated graphics.

[Ghrathryn]

Originally posted by ultimatecalibur:

The short of it is that those elements are not a part of the majority of the series. The Sci-Fi elements are a late addition and are almost exclusive to 6-8. The Japanese Wizardry games are pretty much exclusively based on Wizardry 1-5 (elements of 6's UI have been adopted though) which are unreleasable due to a royalty dispute during the early 90's.

So sort of like the 3DO Might and Magics going sci-fi for 6-8 in some aspects while the previous ones didn't really have much beyond the Xeen duo having a literal flat world that you play on each side for one game while there's nothing of that in the Heroes series which some of them overlap the noted set?

Huh…

Still think I'll do a wait and see on this one, though I'd love to see if anyone will update the original Wizardry 1-5 to be playable on PC… and the side games Wizardry Nemesis and Wizards and Warriors for that matter.

Kinda wonder what'd happen if someone took the Cosmic Circle trilogy and updated it to more modern style, with the whole set on the same engine.

[ultimatecalibur]

Originally posted by Ghrathryn:

So sort of like the 3DO Might and Magics going sci-fi for 6-8 in some aspects while the previous ones didn't really have much beyond the Xeen duo having a literal flat world that you play on each side for one game while there's nothing of that in the Heroes series which some of them overlap the noted set?

Might and Magic has long been secretly Sci-Fi if getting Ray Guns as treasure didn't make it overt way back in M&M1. The big twist near the end of the first game was that VARN (the world the game was set in) was actually part of a spaceship.

[ByTheNumbers]

Originally posted by Lichbane:

No. The anime vibe makes it just seem like a Wizardry rip off. How did they even get the IP?

Unfortunately, the original creators of Wizardry, Sir-Tech, went out of business not long after the release of Wizardry 8. I was too young to have gotten into the wizardry series before 8, but I really enjoyed the last and final installment in the series. Personally, the series is dead to me. All I see is some different game with a familiar title/logo merely slapped onto the cover to get people to buy this game.