In some genuinely awesome news for PS3 owners, it looks like Wizardry is finally making its way out of its modern homeland of Japan, with XSEED to publish Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls for the PS3 in the US.
We’re not sure whether it will be available in both retail and through digital distribution for the western release, but it’s definately available for download in Japan, which is where this review is coming from.
It’s been a long hiatus for Wizardry games out west – although the series has remained strong in Japan thanks to publisher, Aspire, the ultra-hard and ultra-slow style of dungeon hack that had people glued to their TVs in the earlier eras of gaming has fallen out of favour with a western audience more interested in action experiences now. With the exception of smaller, more experimental titles such as The Dark Spire
on the Nintendo DS, or more modern takes on the genre such as Etrian Odyssey
, it’s been difficult to find games of this style in English.
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| We’ll take what she’s offering |
So for those new to the party, or those who haven’t played a Wizardry game in years, what can you expect from Labyrinth of Lost Souls?
First up – and this will be a relief to most – the difficulty is still there. Wizardry remains a game of mathematics, of careful party construction, and of unforgiving deaths. The mazes remain long, winding, and sprout random encounters like weeds. If you through the likes of Dragon Age was challenging, or if the optional hunts of Final Fantasy XIII had you tearing your hair out, you’re probably not going to enjoy this game.
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| Rock hard, but easy on the eyes |
But in other ways, Wizardry has evolved into a gorgeous creature. The character portraits and enemy design, for instance, have no equal in the world of gaming. They are beautifully drawn, wonderfully detailed, and hugely effective in engaging the player and drawing him or her into the game world. There isn’t a huge deal of animation in the game – Wizardry’s static battle images and limited visual effects deliberately draw comparisons with table-top RPG gaming. Even after all these years Wizardry continues to try and capture the essence of a group of friends sitting around a table and rolling a whole heap of dices.
The dungeons are wonderfully atmospheric. Also drawn at an exceedingly high quality, they are hugely effective at creating an impression of vast emptiness – of making you feel like your footsteps are echoing off the dark, dank walls, and of making you dread the next encounter, knowing it’s not long away and your resources are limited.
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| Dungeon crawling doesn’t get better than this |
Although very light on plot, Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls is not the kind of game you can play in Japanese – there are simply too many items, effects and textual must-understands for those not fluent in Japanese to understand, much less enjoy. Which is why it’s so great that XSEED is taking a risk with this game – it might not resonate for everyone, but those who enjoyed the relatively light-hearted Etrian Odyssey, and the retro-themed The Dark Spire, will enjoy seeing the first person dungeon crawler pulled onto HD consoles with Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls.
I -absolutely- can not wait for this to come out. XD A dungeon crawler on the PS3 is almost too much awesomeness to believe.
I -absolutely- can not wait for this to come out. XD A dungeon crawler on the PS3 is almost too much awesomeness to believe.
I just played the demo, and was highly uninpressed.
For the record, I've played both Wizardry 6 & 7, so I am familiar with some of the core of the series. In the demo I tried out the fighter, mage, priest, thief, and samurai classes.
This is such a dumbed-down version of Wizardry, it's not even funny. You can't pick your spells, you can't customize your character development beyond switching classes every so often, you can't even pick your character portrait beyond whatever comes with your race and gender. Attack variety is non-existent, and non-skills are practically gone – you get a generic lump of thief skills (which amazingly enough do not include picking locks on doors) and exorcism for the priest. Classes have also been paired down to about six (I did not have the stats to try ninja or lord – so I can't say how they were) and spells are limited to mage and priest types, so no Alchemy or Psionics for you. At least you have a choice of about six races (one new to the series, and one who is the tallest dwarf I've ever seen) which is decent variety.
Everyone starts off with a staff or dagger, depending on class. Problem is, anyone you stick in the second row will be standing there twiddling their thumbs most of the time, especially if they run out of spells – staffs are now considered short range instead of medium range and the only long range weapon (a sling) costs more than most of the gear in the shop.
Graphically, it's pretty in town and the character art is nice enough. The dungeon (I could only explore one) is in 3D and while moody, somehow visually bland. Navigation is step by step – no free roam as they did in Wizardry 8, but more like 7 and earlier. There are areas that are too dark to see and require a torch or a light spell, both of which run out after a time requiring you to either dump money into torches, or spend your precious priest spell points on light, when they could be used for healing.
Sad fact is, I was playing the abandonware version of Wizardry 7 last month. This new one may have better graphics, but in many ways, it feels like a step backwards.
-Mea
@Mea:
Actually, as you level up, you start getting more skills and spells- alongside the usual Thief skills, and way, way more spells.
Getting money in the game is fairly simple if you have a Bishop to Appraise your items, and sell those you don't need.
By the way, this is closer to being a light version of Wizardry 1~4, instead of 7 and 8, that, while implemented some improvements, kind of derivated from the typical formula. In easier terms, it's closer to ye goode olde Wizardry than those.
The torches are usual in the dungeons, albeit using a map is much easier, and less complicated. You can buy those for cheap in an item shop and have them dropped by enemies, by the way.
I'd agree with your overall point, however, it feels like a more "light"/casual version of Wizardry. I personally am enjoying it, though.
@Mea
If you'd played the earlier Wizardrys, you'd realize this harkens back to those, rather than the more involved 7 and 8. 7 and 8 aren't the "core of the series", they're the ass end of it. Labyrinth Of Souls is a picture perfect (and graphically improved) reproduction of the earlier games. If you'd spend more time with the game, you'd realize that so much more is unlocked as you go.
As for Thieves not being able to pick locked doors, that's just not true. If you're talking about the magically sealed gates, those are operated by levers further on in the levels they're on.
@ Josh & Anon
After reading your remarks, I went back and gave it a second try, and I will admit, my second impression was better than my first – I started a fresh character as magic user (who coverted to "Bishop" after getting a few core spells under my belt), and tried not to compare it to 6&7 (never played the others sadly – will have to do that sometime) The result: a decent dungeon crawl experience. I did finally find a door I could pick (not the magic ones) and this second time around, monsters actually occasionally dropped chests so I could finally check my thief skills with those as well. The demo is limited to 1 dungeon level and max of Level 5 per character (class switching to reset back to 1 is okay), so not much plot was dealt with, and only a few quests were available.
I admit I am still annoyed that non-combat/non-magic skills (like "Identify") are lost if you change classes, and stat loss on level up also makes class changes a painintheass. (my Dwarf fighter was about 1 PIE and 1 AGI I think away from Lord, and on his next two level ups, he lost INT [facepalm]). I hope that in later levels, things like "Hide" (a key skill in W6&7) and other tactical skills unlock, but they were not evident in the demo.
Overall, I probably won't get it for myself, but I will admit my initial impression was biased and maybe a little unfair.
-Mea
@ Josh & Anon
After reading your remarks, I went back and gave it a second try, and I will admit, my second impression was better than my first – I started a fresh character as magic user (who coverted to "Bishop" after getting a few core spells under my belt), and tried not to compare it to 6&7 (never played the others sadly – will have to do that sometime) The result: a decent dungeon crawl experience. I did finally find a door I could pick (not the magic ones) and this second time around, monsters actually occasionally dropped chests so I could finally check my thief skills with those as well. The demo is limited to 1 dungeon level and max of Level 5 per character (class switching to reset back to 1 is okay), so not much plot was dealt with, and only a few quests were available.
I admit I am still annoyed that non-combat/non-magic skills (like "Identify") are lost if you change classes, and stat loss on level up also makes class changes a painintheass. (my Dwarf fighter was about 1 PIE and 1 AGI I think away from Lord, and on his next two level ups, he lost INT [facepalm]). I hope that in later levels, things like "Hide" (a key skill in W6&7) and other tactical skills unlock, but they were not evident in the demo.
Overall, I probably won't get it for myself, but I will admit my initial impression was biased and maybe a little unfair.
-Mea