I bought the above on my recent trip: Wizardry V for the PC-98. It’s the second copy of the game I’ve bought in the last six months (and my fifth copy overall), and my first ever PC-98 game. I’ll never be able to play it of course, but I’m happy owning it.

I actually didn’t know a Switch collectors edition of The Five Ordeals existed and when I saw this in a used store I couldn’t hand over my yen fast enough! I bought it without even knowing what was inside. The box is beautiful: faux leather with metallic ink printing in the Wizardry-style.

In addition to the game, a soundtrack, and an acrylic diorama of foes, it comes with an entire set of the cards that are randomly packed into the game and a binder in which to store them. As far as collectors editions go, this is one of the best I own.

Speaking of cards, in Mandarake (Osaka) I saw these in a glass case:

That’s a selection of trading cards that were included in Japanese Wizardry games. The above photo is only about half of what they had, which stretched from one side of the case to the other. They ranged in price from ¥2000 to ¥13000 which I found interesting since I would have assumed they were equal rarity? They were all in immaculate condition.

I’d never seen even a single card for sale so this display astonished me. I can’t imagine how difficult it would have been for the person who sold these to have collected them in the first place.

I purchased one from each of the four games they had cards from: Wizardry (FC), Wizardry III (FC), Legacy of Llylgamyn (PS1?) and Bane Of The Cosmic Forge (SFC). In a perfect world I would have purchased them all, but that would have literally cost me thousands.

These cards are the true rabbit hole of Wizardry collecting. There’s precious little info about them online, and I don’t even know how many Japanese games included them. Completing a collection seems impossible since only one card was randomly included with each copy of the game and some of the series have over 40 cards!

Incidentally I have a few others, including (I think) for Game Boy versions. Maybe I should get them all out one day and blog them?

I bought a few more Wizardry items on the trip – related to the collaboration with Atami castle – including a shirt and a face washer. Unlike the January trip I didn’t see any other Wizardry merchandise in stores, but apparently some more will be available soon. I guess I’ll have to go back 🙂