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Wizardry: Town of Forsaken Spirits - Localization Initiative
cj iwakura
The Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered User regular
The Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered User regular
So, anyone with a PS3 who's into dungeon crawlers probably knows about this game.
Labyrinth of Lost Souls hit the PSN almost a year ago.
It's a damn miracle it got localized, to be honest. None of the other games in the 'Wizardry Renaissance' have come out here, and it doesn't look like the DS game will either.
Sadly, there's been no sign of any more of those games coming over to the US.
But I think we have a chance to show XSeed and Acquire we aren't satisfied with one go round.
We want the sequel too.
Town of Forsaken Spirits looks to be better than its predecessor in every way. More expansive dungeons, a new setting, new job classes, and lots more to do.
It's also fully voice acted.
Now, we ain't Project Rainfall. I don't expect the same kind of turnout or even the same outpouring of support, especially not for a niche, hardcore dungeon crawler.
But this is a similar situation. The PS3 is damn lacking in (good) exclusive RPGs.
I think a game like this would serve us much better than the likes of the cookie cutter JRPGs we've been getting in the US lately.
There's been no word from XSeed as to whether or not we'll get the sequel.
So, here's the gameplan.
This isn't a kickstarter. I propose that, if you don't own Labyrinth of Lost Souls on the PSN, you go buy it.
If you do own it, go buy the DLC; The Red Shadow of the Sister.
($14.99 and $4.99 respectively.)
If you decide to buy both, even better. If the game picks up a massive spike of sales, someone at XSeed, Acquire, or maybe even SCEA will notice.
And that just might get us the sequel localized. It sure couldn't hurt.
Worse case scenario? You get to enjoy a solid dungeon crawling experience.
So I say there's nothing to lose.
If you decide to support the initiative in any way, please let us know, and spread the word by any means. Heck, buy that EXP Fruit(.99) if it comes to that.
Let's keep the Renaissance rolling.
cj iwakura on
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// Switch: SW-5306-0651-6424 //
And I already own Labyrinth and the DLC.
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Wizardry has always been a Japanese series.
No it hasn't.
Also, Labyrinth of Lost Souls was terrible. I love dungeon crawlers but it was just so awful.
Except when it wasn't. Since it was made by a murrican, and the first 8 games are all in english.
The game was COMPLETELY dependent on rare weapon drops from rare monsters to finish the final floor. There was literally nothing you could do to acquire those weapons other then grind small sections of the map over and over. In most games this isn't so bad, because at least you'll level and get stronger. However, in the PSN game, you don't get any noticeable increases from leveling after a certain point. The only way to get strong is getting to the highest level while savescumming hp gains, rebirthing, then savescumming HP gain yet again. Horrible system and completely unfun.
The only thing was was worse was the rare weapon grind. It was complete BS, you could be talking to a buddy who got some god killer sword on level 5, meanwhile you could have 40hours more playtime than him, be at the second to last floor, but still be behind him in terms of who is going to be first to beat the game.
I grinded 6 hours for a better weapon before I finally turned this game off and never came back. The game had really fun elements, but it has some of the most outdated, antiquated, and terrible game mechanics from the distant past. There are so many better game mechanics people have developed since then that it just makes it even worse. I really loved the art design in the game as well as some of their original systems. Its a shame the game was so fundamentally flawed though. It really could have been great.
Enjoy entering and exiting the char creation until you get a decent amount of points. Yeah yeah, "but you don't NEED to do it", no, but I don't NEED to enjoy the game either, I just choose to. And getting killed because a character got targeted two times in a row the same turn is not fun.
[edit] Based solely on the country of origin Wizardry 8 is a very different experience, aside from combat. Japanese Wizardry games are very late 80s dungeon crawlers.
I don't believe there's a legal download source for it; at least I've never been able to find one. You can find the physical copies still for $scary.
Played this game too
And 15 parties of F)emale F)uzzy F)ighters to create so you can steal their starting gear to sell it to gather gold to outfit your real party.
I DO NOT like having to reroll stats over and over, being forced to grind for ultra rare drops in order to proceed, being forced to read a guide beforehand or risk making a fatal early mistake that makes the game unplayable later, or level up gains that are entirely dependent on luck and force you to savescum or be at the mercy of the RNG making your game unplayable.
Why can't we be nostalgic about the good stuff from these and cut all the horrible? I'm nostalgic about the sense of exploration, danger, and discovery. Of finding cool loots, interesting dungeon areas, monsters, and puzzles. I like character development, advanced class and skill unlocks, and creating a synergistic party.
// Switch: SW-5306-0651-6424 //
Ah, Xeen. Basically nothing but the good stuff.
Admittedly you could spend hours rolling for stats but there were so many goddamn stat bonuses that the inital stat didn't really make much of a difference in the long run.
Or you know, an old wizardry game.
I watched a friend speedrun 2 in like.. 35 minutes using trapdoors and such. It was pretty cool.
this isn't really true, especially in the case of 4, which is just stupid fucking hard
2 (on the commodore 64) can be run relatively quick because you import a powered party from 1
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This is largely what Wizardry 8 did by all accounts (8 is my only experience with the series). Stat rolling was removed in favor of a standard allocation based on race and class with possible bonus points again based on race and class. There were still random drops, but they weren't as necessary and supplemented by fixed drops (or at least close to fixed) and crafted items. Unfortunately there were still some issues, some likely brought on by the move to 3D instead of grids and sprites. When each of your ninja's 6 or so attacks requires the struck monster to play a hit animation and sound before your samurai's 5 attacks and so on, things slow down a bit.
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Unfortunately, the 3d graphics and UI are somewhere between an eye sore and god awful. I've been playing the game off and on now for about 10 years. Its great, but its not for everybody. I swear, if someone just ported all the mechanics and dungeon into a new UI and new graphic engine it would be amazing.
Actually, many Japanese devs have taken up the Wizardry name.
Acquire did the PSN/DS Renaissance games. Someone else did the PS2 Busin/Tale of the Forsaken Land games, and they were amazing. (XSeed are just a publisher/localization team.)
Wizardry is HUGE in Japan, and inspired practically every big JRPG franchise.
I think I had this discussion here before, but why do people say this? Ultima 1 predated Wizardry 1, and you can see its influence on any JRPG that has an overland map and towns -- basically anything that isn't a linear dungeon crawler like Etrian Odyssey. And Ultima was apparently huge in Japan, as well. According to wikipedia, citing The Official Book of Ultima:
Plus if you're going to play the influence game on RPGs then J.R.R. eventually just flat out wins It's his fault that D&D happened, then the early RPGs, then Ultima and Wizardry all the way up.
If you can find yourself a copy then there are two mods I can totally recommend.
One, IIRC, added new items and recipes to the game and was all around kick ass. The other gave damn near every item in the game it's own graphic, which I can assure you was a freaking Godsend.
They say this because the dude who made dragon quest specifically said he got the idea while playing wizardry at applefest '83. That is, to make a rpg.