Yesterday the PSN store came back up after 5+ weeks of being unavailable, and amongst the new offerings on the PS store was a Wizardry: Labyrinth Of Lost Souls ($15), a brand new Wizardry game!
It’s been quite a few years since I have played a new Wizardry game, and even then the one I played wasn’t in English. The last time a new Wizardry game was released in English was way back in 2001, when Wizardry: Tales Of The Forsaken Land was released for PS2 (it was a great game, by the way, and notable for featuring art by the now very famous illustrator Shunya Yamashita). So I’ve been eagerly awaiting this new, download-only version.
So how is it? I played for several hours yesterday, forming a six-person party (2 Fighters, Thief, Bishop, Priest & Mage) and fully mapping the top floors and half of the second floors of the two available dungeons. It’s as grindy and ominous as all previous games in the series (which is a good thing) and is also very low-budget in that it lacks monster animations and a lot of flashy effects. That said, the graphics are probably the best I’ve seen in a Wizardry game and the gameplay is every bit as good (and Wizardry-ish) as I hoped for!
Although the game is translated (unlike the screenshots in this post), the voices are not. Furthermore it lacks even the barest minimum of a manual, so unless you are experienced with the series prepare to be confused a lot, at least initially. This is not a beginner-level Wizardry game by any means!
Overall I’m loving it so far, and can’t wait to delve deeper into the dungeons to see what grim fate befalls my stalwart group of adventurers!
In Japan this game was called Wizardry: Torawareshi Tamashii no Meikyuu and it was also a downloaded game via PSN. However a sequel was released (‘Wizardry Twin Pack‘) on disc, which contained this entire game. I have heard there is some hope this sequel may be released in the US as well, possibly on disc. Let’s hope that happens.
If you’re a bit confused by the lineage of the series (“What are all these Japanese Wizardry games?”), you may be surprised to know the Wizardry series has been a hit in Japan for many, many years. Even during it’s heyday in the west (around the time of Bane Of The Cosmic Forge and Crusaders Of The Dark Savant) the games were being released in Japan and doing well. Even when the Wizardry brand ended in the west (Wizardry 8 was the last – great – game) it continued in Japan, mostly on portables and game consoles.
Incidentally, some of the recent Japanese Wizardry games can be a real beast to acquire, especially for westerners. Not only are they produced in low print runs (mostly because of piracy, sadly), but some of them have also been retailer exclusives (such as a recent DS Wizardry) themselves in short supply.
These days I don’t know exactly how many Wizardry games now exist (hrm, I smell an upcoming blog post), especially beyond Wizardry 8. I do know however that the Japanese ones I have played are all superb, absolutely keeping the tradition of Wizardry alive. Unfortunately it is very rare they get translated for us to enjoy in English, so we must savour the chance when we can.