(Played on Ps1 original version)
This is honestly one of the nuttiest and sadistic games i've played. The game has you playing as final boss of the original wizardry 1 escaping a dungeon after your defeat. Not only does it offer a refreshing narrative of being able to play as piece of shit mowing down hundreds do gooder heroes trying to stop you but the gameplay works so well with this. Its basically a complete reversal of the gameplay of wiz1-3 as you get the ability to summon nearly every single enemy found in those games to fight alongside you against regular teams of fighters, mages, priests etc even the ui was flipped to fit the theme of playing as the bad guys. summoning enemies is also satisfying as you recognise a lot of the op enemies that gave you trouble in wiz 1-3 and there just as broken on your side, like wise a lot of the op spells you used are now used against you. The overall story is just really fun getting to see werdnas inner thoughts and fighting all of the different self-righteous groups that are trying to kill you.
A lot of the issues people have with this game come from it being more of a puzzle game than an rpg, a lot of the gameplay is just exploring the dungeon, finding key items and secret areas. Battles dont give xp so they only exist to slow you down or sometimes give you items you need. Overall the puzzles aren't too bad until you get to the last 2 areas which are filled with difficult labyrinthian dungeons and incredibly obtuse puzzles that require very specific knowledge of earlier games and pop culture references that realistically you wont have the answer to and if you don't have one answer to a puzzle you just cant beat the game. Even with all these frustrating puzzles the final area is so awesome and the overall experience of the game is so unique that I came out of the game loving it.
I understand why it did but im still sad that this game sold poorly and is probably one of the reasons as to why the series is in such a rut today
This is honestly one of the nuttiest and sadistic games i've played. The game has you playing as final boss of the original wizardry 1 escaping a dungeon after your defeat. Not only does it offer a refreshing narrative of being able to play as piece of shit mowing down hundreds do gooder heroes trying to stop you but the gameplay works so well with this. Its basically a complete reversal of the gameplay of wiz1-3 as you get the ability to summon nearly every single enemy found in those games to fight alongside you against regular teams of fighters, mages, priests etc even the ui was flipped to fit the theme of playing as the bad guys. summoning enemies is also satisfying as you recognise a lot of the op enemies that gave you trouble in wiz 1-3 and there just as broken on your side, like wise a lot of the op spells you used are now used against you. The overall story is just really fun getting to see werdnas inner thoughts and fighting all of the different self-righteous groups that are trying to kill you.
A lot of the issues people have with this game come from it being more of a puzzle game than an rpg, a lot of the gameplay is just exploring the dungeon, finding key items and secret areas. Battles dont give xp so they only exist to slow you down or sometimes give you items you need. Overall the puzzles aren't too bad until you get to the last 2 areas which are filled with difficult labyrinthian dungeons and incredibly obtuse puzzles that require very specific knowledge of earlier games and pop culture references that realistically you wont have the answer to and if you don't have one answer to a puzzle you just cant beat the game. Even with all these frustrating puzzles the final area is so awesome and the overall experience of the game is so unique that I came out of the game loving it.
I understand why it did but im still sad that this game sold poorly and is probably one of the reasons as to why the series is in such a rut today