/vr/ - Retro Games

neh.

I usually love old hidden gems, but this is just WAAAYY too old for me, like just look at those huge pixels

I'm still trying to get into them. I can do console RPGs easy, and I had no problems getting into the Might and Magic series, but I still haven't set aside the time to get into Wizardry. Something about the game mechanics throw me off. I still need to get into Ultima as well, but I'm thinking about skipping ahead to Ultima 5 since 3 and 4's combat was a turn off for me.

>>5382543
Considering... Wizardry 5 on SNES has almost the same graphics as Wizardry on NES, graphics are not the focal point of this series.

Consider trying Wizardry 7 (PS2?) Or Wizardry 8 on PC.

>>5382517
Wizardry 7 will be the death of me. Who designed this insanity? Rhetorical question I know who it was. Earlier today I was walking down the cellar stairs when I suddenly recalled this book I read about 2 months ago where some witches stole their sisters face and holy shit its the solution to this damn puzzle up in mountains! I was so damn excited. But then I started getting pissed. Who develops a game where you find an object at level ~5 that isn't applicable until 75% through a 100+ hour game expecting the player to recall all this shit? These are the kind of clues left by serial killers not game designers. Bradley what-the-actual-fuck is wrong with you? Is Bradley the freaking Zodiac killer? This is NOT an isolated example. I've put together a damned spreadsheet of all the freaking items I've found in this game and where I've stashed all the shit. Rocks, Idols.,Ray guns, Credit cards, Key Cards, strange books, log entries, power modules, decoders etc. Half this stuff isn't relevant anywhere near where its found and sure and hell anytime near when its found. I think I'm losing my shit over this game. I love and hate it.

>>5382589
/rant

Obviously a fan.

I'm currently playing through the first game on the ps1 collection and I'm enjoying it enough. I'm sure hardcore fans of the series would call me a casual since the ps1 version has an automap

>>5382658
At least you're enjoying this amazing classic.

>>5382658
isnt it in japanese or something? Would love to find the ROM. i tried W7 several times and was put off by the huge size of the game world, i'd usually clean that orc fortress and get overwhelmed and lost.

>>5382697
In the options menu you can change the text to English. Things like spell descriptions will still be in Japanese, but the games are fully playable

>>5382746
I first played through the first three on the Super Famicom, I'd love for someone to translate Wizardry IV's "Arrange Mode" one day.

>>5382658
Honestly, the Saturn/PS Llylgamyn games are by far the best versions of the five games, by far, so no, I won't call you a casual because you won't map your own shit in 2019, there's better things to do with your time than mapping some absolute garbage like Wiz 1/2/3 floors, which are 99% empty rooms with one trap every once in a while and some teleporters/spin tiles.
Wiz4 though, that is actually worth mapping by yourself just to truly understand the sheer, gratuitous sadism of certain floors, like F4 or F6.

>>5382589
The problem is that they decided to make the game non-linear. In 6 having puzzles that require items from across the world worked out because you typically knew where you needed them next.
To make things worse 7 was made extremely big.
It's a game for people with a lot of spare time on their hand.

>>5382517
I've had Wizardry 1 on my NES for decades but have always ignored it in favor of Final Fantasy or Dragon Warrior. Can someone red pill me on the Wizardry games?

>>5382557
Ultima combat is shit anyway. Use cheats and move on.

>>5382589
Now that's a videogame.

>>5382589
Thanks for the pasta

>>5382557
might and magic is pretty casual. Now wizardry there's just too much grinding for me to be able to enjoy it, and ultima, well, i tried playing VII few times but got bored quickly, since there are a lot of things you must know beforehand from previous games. But the exploration was neat.

>>5382658
>>5382995
How does the SFC version compare to PS1?

>>5383728
looks better since sprites vs ps1 polygons, but I've heard that it has bugs that aren't present in the ps1 version, although no one has ever gone into detail on what they are and I've not played the sfc version so I can't speak on that.

>>5383728
>How does the SFC version compare to PS1?
A lot worse
>More bugs
>Worse music
>Worse graphics especially since the PS/Saturn version has better sprite art and the 3D environments are surprisingly competent in the Llylgamyn collections
>Doesn't have the option to play with the original Apple II graphics if you want to, which is available in the Llylgamyn collections
>No art gallery
>No Wiz 4 and the special arrange mode made for that specific version
Again, there's no reason to play the first five games in any other version than the Llylgamyn Saga edition, it's by far the best and most complete edition of the first five Wizardry games.

>>5383887
>original Apple II graphics
The PS1 has options for the remade computer graphics but not for the Apple ][ ones.
Why are you leaving the Windows LLylgamyn collections out?

Get the Japan exclusive New Age of Llylgamyn on PS1 and play the best version of this masterpiece.

>>5383313
99% of JRPG fans will hate Wizardry.

- There's no story.
- There are no NPCs to talk with.
- Your party has no personality at all. They are all blank slates.
- There are very few tunes.
- There are no locations to discover.
- The difficulty is out of this world by comparison.

But I have to say, beating enemies in Wizardry, for some reason, feels more satisfying than beating enemies in your average JRPG. Probably because the SNES/PS1 versions of Wizardry have really nice graphics and atmosphere.

>>5383918
> There are no locations to discover.
That's not true.

Playing SNES versions of the collection on my Vita. There's something fun for me about learning how to make a map in the game, even though I keep dying a lot.

>>5383921
Depends on what games you are talking about and what do you mean by "locations". I'm talking about the first five games, and by "locations" I mean "you won't discover a new torn or a new cave or a new city or a new etc.". They are all set inside one big dungeon.

Any wizardry for the snes/nes that doesn't require to draw maps?

Wizardry 8 is the best Wizardry, if only because it has a robotic monk.

>>5383958
>want to play Wizardry
>don't want to draw maps
Anon...

>>5382543
You know that ingame picture is stretched out right?

>>5383918
Most people have the same complaints about the DQ series

>>5383948
I think the different floors become quite distinct and memorable. Like this one from Knight of Diamonds.

>>5383905
>Why are you leaving the Windows LLylgamyn collections out?
Isn't that basically a console port with a slightly different UI?

>>5384354
Makes a big difference if you ask me.

>>5384349
They do. Floor 3 in Wizardry 1 doesn't really have anything to find or anything, and if you''re cheating with a map and know where the stairs are you spend 1 minute there, but everyone that played the game properly know what that floor looks like.

>>5383958
Wiz VI SNES has an automapper.

>>5383905
You got a dl link for the Windows Collections? I've been having trouble finding them and I want to see how they sound on my SC-55.

might and magic is better

>>5383887
>there's no reason to play the first five games in any other version than the Llylgamyn Saga edition, it's by far the best and most complete edition of the first five Wizardry games.
I'm usually really anal and autistic about playing the original releases of games, but you managed to convince me with this post somehow, thanks

>>5384692
Llylgamyn Saga is babbified for "modern" gamers.

>>5384732
In what ways?

>>5384783
You don't have to manually type in spell and trap names.

>>5384783
Automap (which, other things aside, renders shit like spinners entirely meaningless), a premade party of powerful characters, and I think it makes pits visible too.

>>5384792
>automap

don't use it

>premade party

don't use it

>pits visible

don't remember

>>5384801
I think spinners trigger some lengthy animation that screams "hey you walked into a spinner", which kinda kills the entire point. Can't just avoid that.

>>5382517
>mixels

>>5384792
fuck that shitty ass map in the original tho

>>5384834
There's no map in the original, you dumbass. You draw your own and use Dumapic for coordinates.

>>5382543
>this is your average /vr/ poster in 2019

i don't think i'll ever understand the fun of this series. like... difficulty has its limits before it's just like "what the fuck"
how could anyone pick up wizardry 4 and go "ah hm yes i think i'll play this"

>>5384939
im talking about the one you get on a chest at the beginning. Completely useless

>>5384939
yea i mean that one you draw as you explore. Utterly useless. I guess it gets better when you increase your skill in mapping? Still shitty as FUCK

>>5382517
I really want to like these games but they take a special kind of turbo nerd to actually make progress in them. I feel like The Bard's Tale did it a little better in the NES days. I enjoy Arcana on the SNES, I guess it could be considered a Wizardry-lite kinda game...

I loved Phantasie.

Never played any of the sequels though and I eventually want to.

>>5384531
http://fullmotionvideo.free.fr/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=337&sid=cb4fdc2c39dd89e7f7eb6e82e015a046&start=30

>>5384692
Play the PC98 ports of 1-4 and the FM Towns port of 5 if you want something true to the original intent.

>>5385013
Wizardry 4 has gigantic fucking labels all over it saying it's for expert series veterans ONLY. So your answer is literally "because they had played the hell out of the three first games and wanted a solid challenge".

>>5385124
What? Bard's Tale is like Wizardry for masochists. Wizardry is the easy one of the two series, Bard's Tale hates you and actively wants you dead.

>>5382543
>hidden gem

IT'S ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS SERIES EVER!

>>5384462
thanks.

>>5385359
Bard's Tale is casual as fuck since you can just reload if your party gets wiped.
In Wiz 3 you have to replay everything starting from Wiz 1.

>>5385687
In BT you get brought back home when you die, in Wiz you are left where you fell.

Wiz3 doesn't demand that the characters you descend from completed 1 so you can just import new ones. 2 is harder since MALOR is mandatory to progress.

>>5385013
>how could anyone pick up wizardry 4 and go "ah hm yes i think i'll play this"
Wizardry IV is explicitly made to take the piss of hardcore gaymers of its time, you shouldn't take it seriously, it's deliberately bad at times and it doesn't take itself seriously either.
You don't pick up Wiz4 and play it like that, you just play it when you're ready to deal with it and want to see just how deep the rabbit hole goes, the game itself was marketed like that and there were multiple warnings even on the game box about that.

>>5383918
It's ironic, considering how crucial wiz was for the development of jrpgs. However, I think a better summary would be saying old Wizardries feel more like X-com than your average jrpg

>>5384806
"People are eating up our small partpacks. I know! If we cancel the line then all those customers will switch to buying our expensive sets to get those parts they want. Genius! Nothing can possibly go wrong."