Robot Claw

I read this morning about a game called Yggdrasil Labyrinth which…well…how about we start at the very beginning…

Twenty five years ago (1981) the first Wizardry game was released for the Apple II computer. It was a hit, but the series would not become truly massive until the sequel, which was the first one released for the PC. Over the years, Wizardry spawned 7 true sequels:

Wizardry: Proving Grounds Of The Mad Overlord (1981)
Wizardry II: Knight Of Diamonds (1982)
Wizardry III: Legacy Of Llylgamyn (1983)
Wizardry IV: The Return Of Werdna (1986)
Wizardry V: Heart Of The Maelstrom (1988)
Wizardry VI: Bane Of The Cosmic Forge (1990)
Wizardry VII: Crusaders Of The Dark Savant (1992)
Wizardry 8 (2001)

< Wizardry: Proving Grounds Of The Mad Overlord

I have played all of the above save Wizardry IV. My fondest memories are of games V and VII in the series, particular the Super Nintendo version of Heart of The Maelstrom, which was a truly superb RPG for the system. Wizardry 8 was also a very good game, but apparently sold poorly, making a 9th Wizardry game seem unlikely at this point.

Unfortunately I don’t currently own many of these games. I’m a collector of console games and not PC games, so the various versions on PCs (or apples) I have owned over the years are now sadly gone. So my ability to replay older games in the series is sadly lost.

Anyway, as big as it is/was in America, the Wizardry series became a veritable phenomenon in Japan. A grand total of 32 different wizardry games have been released for more than 10 different gaming systems since the first game was ported to the MZ-2500 personal computer in the mid 1980s.

Very few of these Japanese games have made their way to American shores in translation. In fact only four have: Wizardry 1 and 2 for NES, Wizardry 5 for Super Nintendo (the version I mentioned above) and a game called Busin: Wizardry Gaiden for the PS2 in 2001 (title translated to ‘Tales Of The Forsaken Land’ in America). This later game is also excellent, with difficult challenging gameplay and remarkable character designs by an artist otherwise known for his hentai manga.

Over the years, including on this past trip, I have been slowly accumulating other Japanese Wizardry games, and now own four of them:

Wizardry Gaiden: Suffering Of The Queen (Gameboy, 1991)
Wizardry Gaiden: Curse Of The Ancient Emperor (Gameboy, 1992)
Wizardry Summoner (GBA, 2001)
Wizardry Asterisk: Hiiro no Fuiin (Nintendo DS, 2006)

This last game, incidentally, is a remake of Proving Grounds Of The Mad Overlord, the first Wizardry game. The DS implementation is wonderful, including a beautiful automap on the second screen. I’m still struggling with the text though…

< Wizardry Asterisk

My dream would be for more Wizardry games to make their way stateside from Japan, which brings me back, in a way, to Yggdrasil Labyrinth.

This is an upcoming 3D RPG for Nintendo DS from game-maker Atlus, who holds the license to Wizardry in Japan and has released most of the games over there. Apparently Yggdrasil Labyrinth will be a sort of ‘wizardryish’ game set in a different world. And best of all: It is already confirmed for a USA release!

It’s news like this that keeps an otaku like myself happy 🙂

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 6th, 2006 at 7:27 am and is filed under Games, Otaku. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.