Let's Play Wizardry 7, Part #1 - Chest Pains

[0NoName9]

Is there a way to "reroll" the bonus points you get at the beginning or to go a step back instead of finishing the character and not saving it?

[dragames]

I've only played wizardry 8... wanted to get the other predecessors but now... I still want it but I wasn't expecting THIS difference in gameplay/graphics.

[Demiath]

@dragames Well, keep in mind that Wizardry 7 was released in 1992 and Wizardry 8 in 2001. Nine years is an eternity in gaming history, and it's amazing that you can import characters from W7 to W8.

I likewise didn't enjoy the dated graphics at first. After a few hours of playing, however, you don't even notice them anymore since the gameplay is so engrossing. If you liked Wizardry 8, chances are you'll love Wizardry 7 if you give it some time to grow on you.

[heirihunziker]

of all the games i've ever played and never finished, this is the one that i wish to complete most one day...it just nags me in a weird way that i didn't dominate this game in the early 90s. maybe i'll wait a couple decades till i'm retired and too old to leave the house and really get back into this.

[Wappen1000]

I've played W7 on Play Station many years ago. But the story is awful, combat is too tough and unbalanced.

I hate this game ... :( This is NOT "Wizardry".

I love W1-5(except for W4) , "Wizardry Gaiden" and "Etrian Odyssey" than W6,7.

[sholto8]

The music: so sweet and so annoying :D

[leopower7]

wow, looks like shit... but probably not shittier than todays "RPGs"

[Templayer]

@leopower7

Yeah, the only developers that do good/mediocre RPGs today are the people from Bioware ... but in some of their newest games (Dragon Age 2, Mass Effect) you cann't even choose a NAME DAMMIT. I know it's because of the dialogue problem, that they couldn't dubb it properly without hardcoded name, but for god's sake, they could invest like 2 000 USD for a sound system programing that would convert a letter into audio sound AND half sink it into the next letter+make some special cases.

[DarkXXecutioner]

Man I remember playing this game back in 1992 when it first came out, took me close to 4 months to defeating it due to all of the riddles and finding every single map in the game. Note, however, you can get one of the maps (forgot which one it was) early on in the rat sewers located on the eastern edge of town before Shritis T'Rang gets his hand on it.

I have a question though, is this game compatible with Windows Vista if I download DosBox? Or would I have to get Windows 7??

[skunkyjay]

I am excited to see this video. Really takes me back. I am thinking of programming my own online version of this game. Anyone willing to help with the artwork? :D

[LadyMaraSedai]

I have the CD version and cant seem to get it to work. I played this game ages ago and loved it! I played BoCF too. I've tried using DosBox and still cant get it to work :(

[WeAreDevo456]

I wonder if the Mac versions of Wizardry VI and VII will still play on a current model iMac (considering that both were released before OS X). I also wonder where I can get these two RPGs.

[MacTeen316]

@WeAreDevo456 VI is not, you'd have to be able to run the game in 16 color mode and first-model iMacs on up don't support it. And VII to my knowledge was never out for Mac.

[WeAreDevo456]

@MacTeen316 That's no good. I'd like to see a rerelease the series either on the iMac or on XBOX Live/Virtual Console/Playstation Network.

[Demiath]

@WeAreDevo456 Well, DOSBox is available for Macs as well; which means that the original PC version should be perfectly playable on modern Macs.

Still not easy to track down a legal copy of the games, though, so re-releases would be nice regardless. Console releases on XBLA etc. would not make much sense for such heavily keyboard+mouse-based RPGs, but Good Old Games and similar download services would be ideal.

[Moraja2]

I have the Gold version now but I still don't know how to give the weapons into the characters' hands. Well, I'll still trying :)

[OBSysteme]

@Moraja2  you go in the character menue where you see the picture of the character in a fram and you see all his inventory and the spell elements, with the song playing, where you see the age of the caracter etc...

you will see a body armor on the right, anything you want to equip one one of your giuy, you take the peice of equipment and drag it to that armor silouette.

that's how I remember it.

[xycadium]

I've been playing the Etrian Odyssey series and The Dark Tower on the nintendo DS. The Dark Tower comes about as close to Wizardry (Original Wizardry series) as I've seen anything come to here in the US. If you can't find those games for the DS online anywhere, you may have to resort to roms and a rom cart.

I started with wiz 5 on the snes which I still play from time to time. I have Wizardry gold in front of me ready to install at any time and have been playing wiz 8 for the last month.

[Demiath]

@xycadium I don't know if this comment was directed at anyone in particular, but perhaps it deserves mentioning that the DS game you're referring to is The Dark SPIRE, not Dark Tower (other viewers may want to check out my Dark Spire videos for more info). The game's still available from Amazon, by the way, so there's no need to resort to piracy just yet...

[xycadium]

@Demiath Oooh. Piracy! Dirty word that! Glad I didn't use it! Fewww. And yes, I realized my half error in title after I already posted however youtube hasn't yet built in an edit function <sigh>. Thanks for your quick realization and correction of my error though. Appreciate that.

[Demiath]

@xycadium No problem. Funnily enough, according to Wikipedia the Japanese title of the game is "The TOWER of Mist and the Sword of Law"... ;)

[vman456]

Does anyone know any new CRPGs that have a similar style to Wizardry, or any turn based traditional RPG?

It's not the graphics or compatibility issues I mind so much, just the clunkiness and glitches from old games that I despise. Still gonna give this one a go when I get home from work though.

Cheers :]

[Demiath]

@vman456 First-person turn-based RPGs developed here in the West are very rare, but top-down RPGs with turn-based combat still get released - such as Temple of Elemental Evil, Avernum 1-6, Geneforge 1-5, Eschalon Book I-II and Knights of the Chalice.

In Japan, the true Wizardry-style RPG is still popular (on consoles). Notable entries (translated and released in US/EU) include Etrian Odyssey I-III and The Dark Spire (NDS), Class of Heroes and Persona 1 (PSP) and Tale of the Forsaken Land (PS2).

[paladin7ftw]

nc video man i like old games

[TheShinobiChef]

Great Video! I used to play this game back in 1992-1993

I though it was such a great game as it had a great world to explore ,kool magics etc

I lost my manual so getting into the game was a bit tricky from then on,as you needed to manual to find the passwords to get the game to play,though I knew one of them was "ninja" so I would get my younger brother to load the game and try"ninja" as the password and repeat until he got the game to work lol :)

[Demiath]

@TheShinobiChef Cool, but remind me never to become related to you... ;)

[yukatanDX]

this games was god, it made your imagination work... now people only look textures

[Ajboi89]

Almost scary to play those games compared to today's graphics.

[Demiath]

Ha, that was my initial reaction too (even by 1992 standards, Wizardry VII is not a good-looking game). But after having spent 50-60 hours with this innovative, intense and immensely rewarding RPG, I had long since stopped paying attention to superficial things like graphics and sound effects.

Great gameplay never gets old...

[boitahaki]

@Demiath graphics and sound effects are not "superficial things" if you are looking for fun/entertainment, its part from the art of making games :D

[Demiath]

@boitahaki I can agree that art design in particular is important but, like you say, it's only one aspect of the entire package - and must thus be weighted against other factors such as gameplay mechanics, interface etc.

Plus, I happen to like the style of the graphics and sound effects (such as they are) in Wizardry 7, so for me this question is a non-issue...

[eViLJ666]

1 of my favorite and most played games after daggerfall . Never made it to the end though ..

[Xerardo84V]

I played this for a very long period of time, but unfortunately never made it till the final end. This brings back memorys, indeed. I think, I need to play it again. But you got 3 fighters?? I'm sorry, to be honest, but this is not a balanced party.

[Demiath]

It's not a balanced party if you let the 3 offensive characters remain simple fighters for the entire game, but that's obviously not what I did. The key to success in Wizardry 7 is to change classes many times and acquire lots of useful skills and magic abilities before settling on a final class for each character.

[Xerardo84V]

You're right. I nearly forgot about that.

I remember, that I only changed classes of my last party once, for example to get a fairy ninja, to wield Cane of Corpus. But it went very well so far.

[BlaknWite29]

where did you get this? I've been looking for it but can't seem to find it to buy, did you just d/l somewhere?

[Demiath]

It's not easy to find legal copies of W7. Just about the last time it was easy to get this game was when the entire Wizardry series was released as "The Ultimate Wizardry Archives", but even that was many years ago now (1998), and although there are copies available on eBay they're not exactly cheap.

Of course, as with most classic games it's not difficult to find pirated copies of the game on various Internet sites (a simple Google search will definitely give you plenty of such options).

[BlaknWite29]

@Demiath I was afraid of that, I've been eying the archive collection for a while now but have hesitated since it will set me back a pretty penny, anyway thanks for the tip, and keep up the classic gaming!

[originosity]

Holy shit this game sucks

[Demiath]

It's actually one of the finest and most complex RPGs on the PC. Nowadays it doesn't give a very good impression to newcomers due to poor graphics and minimal sound effects, but give it a few hours and it will surely suck you in. Unless, of course, you're not a hardcore RPG fan to begin with, in which case the Wizardry series will never appeal to you...

[colorconnection]

try setting your sound effects to "pc speaker" in the wizardry 7 options... it sounds much better than sound blaster on dosbox, at least it did for me. i don't mean the music, that's fine, but the monster and attack sound effects were way better with pc speaker.

[Demiath]

Yeah, I figured that out eventually thanks to help from an earlier commentator. The Sound Blaster effects are working from video #9 onwards.

[CidSilverWing]

So THIS is why Wizardry 8 still looks like it was written for a DOS environment. >_>

[canadaiswatching]

Wiz. 7 and 8 are two of the best rpg's ever made.

[Zer0Funk]

Wow, Wizardry, that's a game I haven't seen in a good 10 years. Thank you so much for the nostalgic trip. If you'd do an old gamer a huge favor, it would be MUCH appreciated. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE take and upload a few videos featuring the music from this game, namely the "sleeping" theme, the "character menu" theme, and the "level up" theme. Those three songs have stuck with me throughout this 10 years without even being able to play the game. At least 3 minutes of each, please!

[Feiwill]

Wizardry? The more the better!

[boilerplate]

I could never beat W7 due to the time constraints. Everyone laughs when I say that, but I always ended up missing the quest pieces. I'd take too long and then an NPC would take them first.

Awesome game though. 5/6/8 are my favorites. 7 and me have a strained relationship. One of fondness, but also regret.

[Demiath]

If even a hardcore RPG veteran such as yourself can't beat it then I'm probably going to be truly crushed this time around. ;) But I have to give it a shot now that I've completed both of the other two parts of the Dark Savant trilogy (which is certainly more than I expected to be able to do)...

[boilerplate]

One really amazing thing about Wizardry 7 is that as you are playing, so are the other factions. If you waste too much time, they'll take the items you need.

One day I'm going to use a walkthrough and do everything by the book. Or watch you do it. One of the two.

[Demiath]

Yes, I've read about the "dynamic" aspect of the game (particularly how many gamers have had problems locating that LEGEND map). It's one of those things that may sound good on paper but is probably just frustrating in practice.

And by the way, stay away from my Wizardry 7 videos. ;) You should definitely choose to finish this game for yourself someday. You know you want to.

[boilerplate]

Oh, I'll be watching your vids closely. FeiWill did the boss fights, but no one is doing the actual adventuring aspect other then you. This is a game I'd love to see someone complete from start to finish.

[canadaiswatching]

There is only one map piece you actually need to finish the story and you can get it right at the beginning of the game if you want to.

[Demiath]

SACRAMENT!

[canadaiswatching]

Hey, when you've played the game a hundred times already then.....

But you can do whatever you want :)

[Demiath]

Yes, although I did collect all the maps on my first playthrough (including one which had exchanged hands quite a few times) I did snatch the required Legend map early on from the chest underneath the church. Just in case it would prove difficult to find later on...

[Bakutakamine]

cool, you done with Wiz 7?

[Demiath]

I've finished Wiz6 (although I've yet to upload the last full videos to GameVee) but there are actually three more endings I haven't seen in that game. Funnily enough, one of the best endings required a much higher Lockpicking skill than I had...