Wizardry V

"I Left my heart in Boltac's Trading Post!"

When I was younger I was very into a certain NES game called Wizardry Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord. Quite a mouthful, sure, but what an awesome game it was for me back then. When I heard that they had a new one coming out for the SNES, I couldn't wait to try it out. Boy, and I thought the first game was good..

*STORY: 5/10

Okay, now to be completely honest I don't recall every little detail of the story, as it's been awhile since I've played but from what I remember there's some sort of dimensional "rift" that opens up far below the city deep in the dungeon. It is your job to try and close the rift, but it won't be easy at all because it's very hard to get down that far. You play as a collection of brave adventurers who gather at the local tavern and set out to save the world! In truth, there aren't too many circumstances where you'll meet someone who will advance the story much, but that's not why you'll play Wizardry anyway.

*GRAPHICS: 10/10

Oh, you bet this is getting a perfect score here! The enemy graphics in particular are fantastic, as are the dungeon walls. Some of the levels even sport their own unique look, like the ice level which I believe is floor 6. Sometimes, you'll even stumble upon strange objects like a vending machine. (I am not kidding here). Now, you don't actually "see" your own people, as the game is shown masterfully in the 1st person perspective. Pressing a button will allow you to show or hide a pop-up screen showing your party's stats on the fly. the graphics for the generic "treasure pile" and treasure chest are also impressive, if static, pictures.

*SOUND: 4/10

I don't believe that the Wizardry series is reknown for it's astounding sound effects, as in general there are only a few "bleeps" and "bloops". In fact, there doesn't seem to be any significant improvement from the old NES games in this department. The music is better, though. There aren't that many different pieces of it though, basically you get one song for the city screen, one song for the training grounds, one for the dungeon.. Not bad, but not varied enough for me.

*CONTROLS: 10/10

It's really hard to mess up the control for a game like this, and this one doesn't mess it up either. Press 'up' to move your party one space forward, 'down' to move one space backwards, and either left or right to change your facing direction. Select calls up or hides the party status screen. One button accepts commands, the other cancels them. Nothing new here, if it's not broke, don't fix it they say.

*GAMEPLAY: 8/10

The game truly is a prime example of an old-school game. If you're looking for gigantic, flashy spell effects from a limit break while your party with 5000 HP apiece watch in awe, look elsewhere. No, you see Wizardry: HoM is what we oldies like to call a genuine dungeon crawler folks. In fact, I throughly suggest you pick some graph paper up at the store on your way home to play it because you'll need to make your own maps if you want to get the most out of the game. In truth, the game does support an 'auto-map' of sorts, although it comes in the form of a level 1 mage spell.

Okay, so you turn the game on and want to start, what should you do first? Well, although it's a little odd you have to actually 'go' to the Training Grounds from the main city screen that comes up originally. It is from here that you have complete control over who you will take with you on your quest. You can make your own characters, or take the ones that they've already made for you. (But honestly, WHO does that anyway?)

Character creation is easy enough, although you may end up trying to create your perfect adventurer for a while if you're a stat nitpicker like me. You select your Gender, Alignment, and Race (a hodgepodge collection of generic fantasy type races- boooring!), and then you are taken to the stat distribution screen. You have 6 stats that define your character and they are: Strength, I.Q, Piety, Vitality, Agility, and Luck. Depending on what race you've selected your base stats will vary widely. For instance the Hobbit (OMG, Hobbit! C'mon now) has fantastic Agility and Luck, so he'd probably be better off being of the Thief class.

Okay, in addition to your base stats you are also awarded a random number of bonus points in which you can feel free to distribute however you wish. These points usually total about 10 or so, but rarely you will get a GIGANTIC amount of bonus points to spend (Upwards towards 25). Now, each class has its own stat requirements and these are discovered by adding to the base stats on this screen. For example, anyone can become a Fighter as long as their Strength is 11 or more. There are some classes, however, that also have alignment restrictions. Clerics cannot be neutral, Thieves cannot be good, you get the idea here. It's important to note though, that good and evil characters will not join the same party, but neutral characters will join anyone. Keep that in mind when you are creating your party! Later on in the game, if your stats are high enough, you might even be able to change into an elite class like a Lord, Samurai, Wizard, or Ninja!

Now that you're made your guys, you need to add them to your party, and that can be done at the Tavern. Once your party of up to 6 people is assembled, head to Boltac's Trading Post and buy weapons and armor for them. The good thing about the store is that it has limited stock, and also will resell any items you sold to them during the course of the game. This is handy when you accidentally sell something you didn't want to.

So you're ready to rock! Head out of the town and down into the dungeon, where you'll face all manner of vicious beastie and deadly trap. Your main goal throughout most of the game is to try and locate the stairs that head down to the next level. All battles are random and turn based. Sometimes, you may surprise your foes and have the option to attack them. Be careful, because if you have good characters and attack, some of them might turn evil! The same thing goes for evil characters; if you leave the monsters alone you might turn good, you pansy! When you defeat them, you might get treasure, which is almost 100% of the time trapped, so make sure you have a thief with you to try and disarm it, or you'll get hit with a cornucopia of disastrous traps. Egads!

Aside from melee weapons, you characters might also be able to cast magic spells. The system is very similar to the NES' Final Fantasy's magic system. There are 8 spell levels that can have anywhere from 1 to 9 charges. As your mages or clerics level up, they will gain maximum charges to use, as well as learn their magic spells at random. Magic can always be restored by resting at the Adventurer's Inn. The one thing about Wizardry, is that as generic as the character's race names are, the magic spells are completely opposite! Have fun trying to guess what "Katino", "Malor", "Dumapic", or "Tiltowait" do without a manual nearby. Hey, at least they were original I guess.

Some of the puzzles that are littered throughout the dungeon maze may be a bit tough to complete, as if you didn't happen to find a certain item from dungeon level A, you won't be able to complete the puzzle located on dungeon level B. It's pretty grueling sometimes, but hey you DID get that graph paper, right?

*CHALLENGE: 10/10

No doubt about it, this game can be very hard. Sure, some of the monsters on the lower levels can be pretty tough, but I feel it's the puzzles and layout of the dungeon that makes this game difficult. In addition, there are many areas where you'll be in complete darkness no matter what you do, and it might be easy to get lost. As mentioned a bit beforehand, some of the treasure chest traps can have nasty effects, like teleporting your party into solid rock. Where they all die instantly. Aw, gotta' love that!

PROS:
+Great, colorful graphics. Especially the enemies you fight.
+A wide array of different weapons and armor to choose from.
+A lot of different character classes to play with.
+Characters may have the option to change classes later on.
+It's a challenging game that takes some skill and planning to win.

CONS:
-Like a lot of RPG games, it suffers from generic-itis! (HOBBITS, DWARVES?)
-If you don't draw your own maps, you may be in big trouble later on.
-Some of the traps can be instantly fatal to one or ALL of your party members.
-The spell names are horrible and you'll have no idea what they do without
the manual. I've played this a lot back in the day and STILL had trouble
remembering what the spells did, to be honest!

*OVERALL: 7/10

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/08/05