Wizardry

As Colossal Cave is to text adventures Wizardry I is to role playing. — The PC Games Bible, 1992

Nowadays this statement would not be seen as entirely correct. The Wizardry games would be seen, along with Rogue, as the origin of a specific type of RPG, the dungeon crawler; the more common epic type of RPG is far more based on the Ultima series. But back when the PC Games Bible was written, Ultima was still considered an RPG/adventure hybrid, for all those gameplay elements that are nowadays seen as the hallmark of a true RPG like exploration, dialogs, and fleshed-out NPCs were then still seen as features of the adventure genre.

Like Ultima Wizardry was originally created for the Apple ][, but soon ported to the PC. These early PC Wizardrys were all disk booters, and II-IV were practically add-ons to Wizardry I, sold as scenarios. They used CGA graphics up to number V, which was released in 1988. They look practically all alike, if you see color screenshots from V, they are from the SNES version released in 1994.

Somewhat unsurprisingly, they were heavily based on Dungeons & Dragons in gameplay, with a rigid class system and good/bad/neutral (though not chaotic/lawful) alignment of characters. After all, D&D was at the height of its popularity in the early eighties.

With Wizardry VI, Bane of the Cosmic Force, (1990), Sir-Tech switched to the PC as primary platform, just as Origin did at the same time with Ultima VI. Though Wizardry VI featured already slightly outdated EGA graphics, it was a big jump ahead optically. The next game, Crusaders of the Dark Savant (1992, it is often known only under that title rather than Wizardry VII), had VGA. It was a strange mixture of SF and fantasy elements, but obviously successful enough to be re-released on CD with digital speech, new graphics and animations, and an in-game online hint system as Wizardry Gold in 1996, this time for the Macintosh and Windows at the same time. It was the first Wizardry game for the Macintosh since the first two twelve years earlier.

Interplay released a collection of the first eight Wizardry games (I-VII and VII Gold) in 1998, the Ultimate Wizardry Archives. This collection was very well done. You could play the first five (booter) games directly off the CD if you wanted (though to save, you had to create an adventure disk first, of course), and none of the games was hidden behing some obnoxious Windows installer. It even included a printed manual, and the box design was similar to the original box.

Game
Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord	81	84		CGA	87		84
Wizardry II: Knight of Diamonds	83	85			88
Wizardry III: Legacy of Llylgamin	85	87			89
Wizardry IV: Return of Werdna	88
Wizardry V: Heart of the Maelstrom
Wizardry: Bane of the Cosmic Forge		90		EGA		91	90
Wizardry: Crusaders of the Dark Savant		92		VGA
Nemesis: A Wizardry Adventure		96		SVGA
Wizardry Gold			96				96
Wizardry 8			01

The first two Wizardry Games on the Macintosh were quite different from the Apple][ originals and really used the graphic interface of the Mac.

Wizardry in Japan

The Wizardry series is very popular in Japan and has been very influential. Even a fleeting glance at the original Final Fantasy shows how much it is inspired by the early Wizardry games. In Wizardry, you pick six heroes out of four classes. Later on, when they meet the stats, they can change to elite classes. In Final Fantasy, you pick four heroes out of six classes, three of which are nearly identical to Wizardry classes. Later on, they will change to elite classes, though it is not dependent on stats here.

Following is a list of all the Japanese releases I have come across. These were in part ports to and remakes on Japanese platforms, in part independent productions never published outside Japan. Additionally, the Apple][ and PC versions of the originals were published with Japanese boxes and manuals.

• Wizardry I, II, III on the Famicom
• Wizardry IV and V on the Super Famicom
• All the Wizardry games up to Bane on NEC and Fujitsu computers. Crusaders was on NEC only. These games had an English interface and were very close to the originals.
• Wizardry I–IV on PC Engine. Unsurprisingly, the graphics were the best among the 16-bit machines. In a way they even surpassed the later Playstation, Saturn, and Windows graphics, since monsters based on character classes had different graphics depending on level.
• Wizardry Gaiden: Suffering of the Queen, Game Boy (1991)
• Wizardry Gaiden 2: Curse of the Ancient Emperor, Game Boy (1992)
• Wizardry Gaiden 3: Scripture of the Dark, Game Boy (1993)
• Wizardry Gaiden 4: Throb of the Demon's Heart, Super Famicom (1996)
• Story of LLylgamyn, a remake of I, II, and III on the Super Famicom (1992)
• Wizardry LLylgamyn Saga, a remake of I, II, and III for Windows, Sega Saturn and Playstation (1997)
• Wizardry Chronicle, Windows
• Wizardry Dimguil, Playstation (1998)
• Wizardry Empire: Princess of the Ancient, Gameboy Color, Playstation, Windows (1999)
• Wizardry I, II, and III for the Gameboy Color (2001)
• New Age of Llylgamyn, a remake of IV and V for Playstation (2001)
• Busin: Wizardry Alternative, Playstation 2 (2001). This was released in the US as Wizardry: Tales of the Forsaken Land.
• Busin 0: Wizardry Alternative Neo, a prequel to Busin, Playstation 2 (2001)
• Wizardry Empire II: Legacy of the princess, Gameboy Color, Playstation, Windows (2002)
• Wizardry Asterisk, a remake of Wizardry I for Nintendo DS (2005)
• Wizardry Summoner, Playstation 2 (2005)
• Wizardry Gaiden: Prisoners of the Battles, Playstation 2 (2005)
• Wizardry XTH: Academy of Frontica, Playstation 2 (2005)
• Wizardry Empire III, Playstation 2 (2007)

Apart from the computer and console games, there have been collectible card games and even an anime OVA.

Links

General

• Wizardry: Prepare Yourself for the Ultimate in Fantasy Games is designed to be a complete resource on the Wizardry series. Here you will find maps, walkthroughs, and more for each Wizardry scenario.
• Foraker's Page has all the maps up to VII.
• Kenn's Map Page has the maps for Crusaders of the Dark Savant.
• Snafaru's Wizardry Fan Page has screenshots of all the games, including 8, and a Wizardry VII Viewer.
• mad god's Tiny Hut has editors for VI, VII and 8.

The Booters (I–V)

• King Tut's Place has a rather annoying design with Java-powered floating heads that gets screwed up if your browser is set to a font different to the one of the designer, but on the other hand lots of information and screenshots of the first five games.
• Sir-Tech Booters
• Wizardry1: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord. You can download the Apple ][ and NES versions of the early Wizardry games here.
• Wizardry I on links.net

Wizardry in Japan

• A Wizardry remake in RPG Maker 2000.
• Extensive Info
• Review of Wizardry: Tale of the Forsaken Land