How Wizardry Influenced Your Favorite Game

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Wizardry is one of the most important video games ever made, but its decades-spanning legacy isn't as well-known as it once was. Let's change that.
#Wizardry #RPG #DungeonCrawler
00:00 Intro
01:49 Original Wizardry series overview & noteworthy innovations
14:47 Spin-offs & related games
17:35 Japanese Wizardry Spin-offs overview
20:40 Wizardry's influence on modern video games.
29:48 How to play Wizardry today (and other DRPG recommendations)
39:18 Shout outs & outro
Sources and further reading:
What is a DRPG (And Why I'm Making One): • What Is A "DRPG?" (And...
King's Field, Shadow Tower, and Eternal Ring analysis: • Are From Software’s Pr...
Why Golden Sun Fans Should Play Shining the Holy Ark: • Golden Sun Fans Should...
@casitive RU-vid channel: / casitive
@michaelsnow1 Wizardry 7, Wizardry 8, and Wizards & Warriors reviews (and more): • Wizardry 7 The Greates...
@ComradeJared Wizardry NES Review • Video
@vintrospektiv Focus On: The Wizardry Series • Focus on: The Wizardry...
@sgamer-xc1bd Wizardry 8 PC Review & The Importance of Wizardry • Wizardry 8 (PC) review...
@SuperDerek The History of RPGs: 1970-1980 • The History of RPGs fr...
@GMTK The Birth of Japanese RPGs • The Birth of the Japan...
@Aboveup Etrian Odyssey Reviews: • Etrian Odyssey Review ...
@GVG The Complete History of Shin Megami Tensei: • The COMPLETE History o...
@computergamingyesterday Old-School RPG, MMO, and PC Gaming videos: • Baldur’s Gate II: BioW...
@StopSkeletonsFromFighting id's Dungeon Crawler RPGs -- Doom RPG, Wolfenstein RPG, and Orcs & Elves: • Doom's Lost Official R...
Retronauts Wizardry interview: retronauts.com/article/915/th...
Hardcore Gaming 101 Wizardry overview: www.hardcoregaming101.net/wiza...
Old Game Hermit Wizardry reviews: www.oldgamehermit.com/tag/wiz...
Wizardry Archives: www.wizardryarchives.com/
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Play My Games:
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Read all my written articles and reviews at GameSpot, Popular Science, Lifehacker, EGM, IGN, Digital Trends, and more: muckrack.com/brendan-hesse
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Trailers, gameplay, and other footage courtesy of the respective publishers/creators.
"Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statutes that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational, or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use."

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2 июн 2024

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Комментарии : 390

@TheCrawl 2 года назад

Hey all! Thanks for watching. This was a months-long project and my biggest video to date. I'm excited with how it turned out. I hope you all enjoy and maybe learn something new about this important -- but largely forgotten -- RPG series. Please see the links below for the various sources I mention in the video and other further content for you to check out. -Brendan -Michael Snow: Wizardry 7, Wizardry 8, and Wizards & Warriors reviews (and more): ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-JJvSDLA6z1g.html -Comrade Jared: Wizardry NES Review ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Md-QFJ-JQZ4.html -Vintrospektiv: Focus On: The Wizardry Series ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-D1Z3wX0NsHk.html -90sgamer92: Wizardry 8 PC Review & The Importance of Wizardry ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ab08qIbo9e4.html -SuperDerek RPGs: The History of RPGs: 1970-1980 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-2K2vIQ1baG4.html -Game Maker's Toolkit: The Birth of Japanese RPGs ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-fJiwn8iXqOI.html -Aboveup: Etrian Odyssey Reviews: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-qwbLAy4-BRk.html -Good Vibes Gaming: The Complete History of Shin Megami Tensei: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-2sttTo5obkE.html -Computer Gaming Yesterday: Old-School RPG, MMO, and PC Gaming videos: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-yxVCh7EkoHM.html -Stop Skeletons From Fighting id's Dungeon Crawler RPGs -- Doom RPG, Wolfenstein RPG, and Orcs & Elves: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-fUuc405o82M.html -casitive: RU-vid channel: ru-vid.com -What is a DRPG (And Why I'm Making One): ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-0miFRnelD7o.html -King's Field, Shadow Tower, and Eternal Ring analysis: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-FFtV32LUY0A.html -Why Golden Sun Fans Should Play Shining the Holy Ark: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-jn1LWI7gSRY.html -Retronauts Wizardry interview: retronauts.com/article/915/the-mad-overlord-speaks-on-retronauts-episode-162 -Hardcore Gaming 101 Wizardry overview: www.hardcoregaming101.net/wizardry-series-introduction/ -Old Game Hermit Wizardry reviews: www.oldgamehermit.com/tag/wizardry/ -Wizardry Archives: www.wizardryarchives.com/

@ginxxxxx 11 месяцев назад

its interesting that you are a fan of the japanese ones but not the originals. but as the saying goes, everything good in computers comes from the 80's

@guessundheit6494 6 месяцев назад

You left out an important part: How the influence went in the other direction. Just as Wizardry influenced Japanese fans and creators, Japan influenced Robert Woodhead. After leaving SirTech, he founded AnimEigo, one the largest anime translation and voice dubbing studios of the 1990s.

@doublestarships646 Год назад

You did your homework. Not many people knew that Wizardry IV was one of the first games that had the recruit monster mechanic before Shin Megami Tensei.

@xionveil7054 Год назад

Ah.. even so Digital Devil Story did it masterfully, played the Famicom and it still fun to play, I'm trying to play the Wizardry because of it, I can't stand the SNES version though. Might as well play the trilogy first wish me luck hahaha!

@doublestarships646 Год назад

@@xionveil7054 The PS1 or the PC version of the trilogy are the best versions if you're looking to start there. All Wizardry games get progressively harder so it really doesn't matter where you start.

@wes788411 Год назад

Considering it Wizardry IV was released a few months before the first SMT game and wasn’t even released in Japan, I doubt it had much influence on the game. The developers claimed that they added the monster recruiting in order to differentiate it from the Wizardry series.

@wes788411 Год назад

@@doublestarships646 I’m thinking about playing through some of the Wizardry games. Do you know if the NES version is any good? Is it a faithful port?

@wes788411 Год назад

@@xionveil7054 Have you played Megami Tensei - The Old Testament?

@Telmdal Год назад

This is a video I've been hoping someone would make for years. I love wizardry 6-8 (especially 8) and I've felt this series has never been recognized as the influence powerhouse it is. Great job!

@TheCrawl Год назад

I appreciate that! I'm glad you enjoyed it!

@thomasffrench3639 8 месяцев назад

So pretty much the most influential games of all time are Wizardry and Ultima. Like seriously the fact that they are the genesis of so many modern game genres. Like the only thing more influential is probably Super Mario Bros.

@TheCrawl 8 месяцев назад

I think we could obviously include stuff like Space Invaders and Pac-Man for how they attracted so many early console and arcade developers, but few 80s video games are still as relevant to modern game design as those three.

@thomasffrench3639 8 месяцев назад

@@TheCrawl yeah I feel that those games are more influential to the arcade genre as opposed to the modern console landscape. Of course that is a very important part of gaming and it still has a lot of stuff that is still in games today, but I would say that they inspired Donkey Kong which although not super influential (compared to the other ones mentioned) on its own, would develop into Super Mario Bros which did inspire a lot of series. So yeah this are important, but I feel like my knowledge on arcade games is pretty limited, because I’m not much of a social gamer with high scores and competitive games. So I might miss out on some important games from that genre as I do not have much experience with it.

@RobbieJennings-cd6cp 11 месяцев назад

I think you should do this kind of video for Ultima and Rogue as well. This was really well done. And the reality is pretty much no one talks about any of these franchises. And I think it would be good to give them a place in the sun.

@hemangchauhan2864 Год назад

For dungeon crawler beginners, play "LAND OF LORE" For a 1994 DOS game, it is surprisingly very beginner friendly even for modern day (some manual reading maybe needed). Gets you into the groove of enjoying these older games.

@AngraMainiiu Год назад

I'm kinda surprised you didn't mention Arena and Daggerfall were the ultimate fusion of of Wizardry, Ultima, and Rogue. They took the detailed character building with loot and stats from Wizardry, the combat and interactivity from Ultima and the randomized dungeon crawling from Rouge!

@SeaSerpentLevi 8 месяцев назад

Oh man youre right. I even saw in a video about dagerfall unity the guy saying that lots of people just basically treat dagerfall as a huge (HUGE) dungeon crawler since its really fitting to do so hahaha

@SeaSerpentLevi 8 месяцев назад

Definitely a great argument to anyone on the fence about playing daggerfall. If you are feeling overwhelmed, just get daggerfal unity and start playing it as a huge rogue like dungeon crawler without thinling too much; and as tome goes on, if you want you get deeper into it.

@origamianalytics6174 10 месяцев назад

Wizardry was the one RPG that didn't punish you for multiclassing. If you put in the work, your characters could learn literally anything/everything so you could get a party customized PRECISELY as you wanted it. Granted I started with Wizardry Gold (7) I understand just how far back Wizardry's influence goes. It was also the basis for my favorite RPG series, Might and Magic.

@TheCrawl 10 месяцев назад

It really does make building and customizing your party a lot of fun. Also, I need to delve more into M&M. I have a few on steam but only played M&MX.

@WardenCommander. 22 дня назад

There is also a Wizardry anime movie, for anyone interested. That's actually how I got introduced to the series. I randomly stumbled upon it, then learned that it was based on a game series, and now here I am learning about its influence in gaming through this amazing video!

@MysteryEzekude 11 дней назад

I just started playing the Wizardry remake which just released on Switch this morning! This retrospective on the franchise so far was very helpful for me as a new player. Thank you! I was so hyped for the remake as soon as I spotted it in Nintendo eShop that I pre-ordered it immediately. =)

@computergamingyesterday 2 года назад

I'm going to need to check out Wizardry 8. That game looks lit.

@TheCrawl 2 года назад

I think you would really dig Wiz8. It's awesome.

@SomeCanine Год назад

I'm glad that at least Japan got some updated Wizardry games. Y'know it's strange. Some of the things that bother me about the Wizardry games like the endless stats and randomness are also the things that seem to make the games interesting. Take out all of the things that I wouldn't choose as a design decision and it just wouldn't be Wizardry, or interesting.

@rocknrollstrikesback Год назад

At risk of being "That Guy," I would recommend Wizardry 1-2-3 specifically for the Super Famicom. The reason for this is because this port retroactively adds features from Wizardry V, like Thieves being able to hide and ambush, meaning they can attack from the back row. The PSX/Saturn versions don't have this, since they came out before this (the SFC port was released in 1999). Me being pedantic aside, great video! Finding people talking about Wizardry, let alone recognizing its place as this sort of primordial soup of games, is depressingly low in number.

@Zanji1234 7 месяцев назад

:D it's funny that there was a SNES game made in 1999 when everyone was like playing PSX for 4 years

@drachefly 5 месяцев назад

@@Zanji1234 and that it was a collection of three games from no later than 15 years earlier. But yeah, I grew up with a different edition and think the SNES version is mostly superior.

@salazar84 Год назад

17:47 And that is not a lie. Prior to December an announcement was made that the author for Goblin Slayer Kumo Kagyu alongside with so-bin (The Illustrator for the Overlord Light Novels) teamed up to create a story called "Blade & Bastard: Warm Ash, Dusky Dungeon" which released in Japanese and English in December 9th. The story follows Iarumas, an adventurer who was resurrected from the death and lost all memories of his past lives. Nowadays he goes into the Dungeon to recover the bodies of death people and bring them back to the church for those who would like to pay to resurrect them. At some point he meets a slave girl named Garbage who cannot speak and can only make dog noises, together they both enter deeper into the dungeon because... that's what adventurers do, right? In the afterwords, Kumo states that this is his interpretation of what the Wizardry series looks to him. And while there seems to be some names from the wizardry franchise mentioned in the Light Novel, Kumo admits that he can't boastfully say "This is WIZ!" But as long people feel happy reading the story, he's glad, he was also happy that they gave him the opportunity of writing the novel. And to be honest, the story is quite immersive, I really liked it, then again my comment might sound biased as I have bought all the volumes released in English so far from Goblin Slayer a series that I also like. With that said, this is my first introduction to Wizardry which made me find some videos of the gameplay alongside this video, the afterwords does mention some of the games but this video explored more of what Kumo said.

@ComfyJohto Год назад

Wizardry Online is actually my absolute fav game. Its atmosphere is just the best. This game really deserves a spiritual successor. For now I'm looking forward to playing it again considering there's a private server in the making.

@Raidanzoup 4 месяца назад

Wait, Robert Woodhead did what? Well that's a fun discovery. These days he's crowdfunding English BD releases of classic 80s OVAs like Bubblegum Crisis, Riding Bean, and Otaku no Video.

@TheCrawl 4 месяца назад

Yep, the very same.

@user-db2lt3mk2c Год назад

W8 was insanely ahead of it's time. One of my favorite games

@Hedonite 8 месяцев назад

Most underrated youtube channel there is. Wish i could push you to the top of the algorithm myself 😢

@hemangchauhan2864 Год назад

1. Wizardry 4 on PS1 is a different game from actual PC Wizardry 4 (Apple II/IBM PC). Wizardry 4 was meant only for the most expert players of Wiz 1-3. Imagine making a sequel for only expert hardcore speedrunners of previous game, that's Wiz4. 2. Wiz7 GOG version can be played nicely on modern systems, you can also check GOG forums to get help with running DOS box. The later Wiz7 CD version is still the hardest to run version. 3. Wiz8 has speedup mods to cut on tedium.

@jasonblalock4429 Год назад

On a tangent, I'm eternally annoyed that only Japan got the PSX port of Ultima Underworld. It benefits so much from the improved tech - like actually running in full-screen - but there hasn't even been an English fan patch for it. 😞 Also from 29:00, another connection: before making Wolfenstein 3D, Carmack and Romero made a series of dungeon-focused RPGs called Catacomb, which culminated in Catacomb 3D - a direct predecessor of Wolf3D on an earlier version of the engine, which was a hybrid fantasy action-RPG d-crawl. It was reportedly inspired by seeing an early demo of Ultima Underworld circa 1990, and actually beat UU to market, although of course it was also vastly less complex than UU. Also also, don't forget about the Persona Q games on 3DS, which are basically Etrian Odyssey reskins with SMT mechanics grafted on. That'd be a great jumping-off point for Persona fans who'd like to try out dungeon crawlers with some familiar faces.

@rpgcinema7916 4 месяца назад

I had no idea Ultima Underworld ran in full screen

@jasonblalock4429 4 месяца назад

@@rpgcinema7916 Oh, good news. It turns out I've been made a liar in the last year. A fan translation patch for the PSX UU came out a few months ago. So it's now finally playable in English.

@rpgcinema7916 4 месяца назад

How can I play it?@@jasonblalock4429

@michaelsnow1 Год назад

Thanks for the shoutout! This is a great video, very informative. Subbed.

@TheCrawl Год назад

Oh, hey! Thank you for watching and subbing, I really appreciate it. Your videos were major inspirations for me to check out this series.

@cacheman 8 месяцев назад

A 3D remake of "Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord" from Digital Eclipse was just announced today, with an Early Access version available immediately.

@rajneeldin9581 Год назад

WOW! Amazing job on the research and putting everything together, really entertaining and educational on the history of RPGs. Keep up the great work brother 😁

@MrPSaun 8 месяцев назад

Opening the intro with music from "The Dark Spire" signaled to me that you had done your homework. This is probably my favorite game genre. I get that it is too much for most people, but I love micromanging my party and getting lost in a dungeon, even when my party gets wiped by bad luck. Great video!

@danielscott70x7 2 года назад

Another great video, Brendan. Really appreciated you showcasing the importance of this series on so many of the genres we love to play today. Fascinating, informative, and entertaining all the way through.

@TheCrawl 2 года назад

Thank you, that means a lot. I'm glad you enjoyed it!

@HarmLess002 2 года назад

I pick labyrinth a bit ago and was really charmed by it. Thank you for the overview on both games that take direct inspiration and game obvious but loose ties.

@judicialmist5560 Год назад

Thanks for the video! I usually hear long videogame essays and I was curious since this saga appears from time to time as inspiration but didn't realize I actually don't know much about it. I knew for some reason was vey popular in Japan but it didn't come to my head it was the inspiration for soooo many JRPG!

@MaitreMechant Месяц назад

I just love this video and coming back to it regularly, it's incredible how very few video (in english at least) there are on these games

@davidorama6690 Год назад

Wizardry 1 did the rounds of the geeks in my early eighties high school - being allowed to pirate a copy was a mark of acceptance. Sadly I could only watch others play.

@thomasffrench3639 7 месяцев назад

I found a website for Japanese reception for video games (and with the automated translation to English) and apparently the final Wizardry trilogy made in the 90s are controversial in Japan. Which is ironic considering we consider the final 3 games to be the best of the series where we think the first few games haven’t aged well. The website doesn’t even have an entry for Wizardry 8. And yeah Japan loves the original trilogy, they were some of the biggest Famicom RPGs, which is saying something considering that the JRPG golden age started in 1987.

@matthewwolf5528 Год назад

Thank you for this video! I've started getting into classic JRPGs and have been playing them loosely in chronological order (starting with a couple 1991 games). It's been great to get a wider look at the genre, but I know it goes even further back than the original Final Fantasies and Dragon Quests. I don't think I would enjoy playing games like Wizardry and Ultima for myself, but I want to understand the innovations they made and what they brought to the table at the time of their release. I don't want to go saying anything crazy like Dragon Quest V invented monster recruiting haha

@st1ka Год назад

Absolute stellar video! you did an incredible job

@islandofmelanat 10 месяцев назад

Extremely interesting and informative video, thank you so much for making it! I never considered how influential this game was despite hearing about it a few times over the years

@dronkarian Год назад

Good "documentary" you did here =) Great stuff and takes me back in time. Wiz 7 is the best! Played it for about 2 years in a row together with a friend. Lots of memories. Big map to explore and difficulties to overcome =) Need to make it through Wiz 8 also, have only played it briefly.

@MistyKathrine Год назад

21:08 The original Final Fantasy literally used the same spell system as Wizardy. You had 8 different levels of spells and you could have up to 9 spell points per level. Mage was renamed to Black Mage, Priest was renamed to Black Mage, and Bishop was renamed to Red Mage. The original Final Fantasy is closer to Wizardry than even the original Dragon Quest is.

@akiradkcn Год назад

Pretty sure its because of D&D, not Wizardry, FF1 borrowed a lot of things from it including said magic system, which was invented by DnD

@MistyKathrine Год назад

@@akiradkcn All RPG video games can trace their roots all of the way back to D&D, however for most games it's indirect in that D&D influenced the games and those games then influenced other games. The magic system as implemented in Final Fantasy is nearly identical to how it was implemented in Wizardry whereas both of them differ quite a bit from 1st edition D&D. Wizardry was based on D&D and Wizardry became popular in Japan long before D&D was translated into Japanese and available. While D&D was the foundation of Wizardry, it was Wizardry, and not D&D, that first became popular in Japan and became the foundation of Japanese Role-playing games.

@ThatWanderingDude 11 месяцев назад

Don't compare the bishop to the overpowered mess that was the red mage, don't get me wrong I love the class but red mages in FF1 where just disgustingly op.

@MistyKathrine 11 месяцев назад

@@ThatWanderingDude That's what the red mage was based on.

@fnjesusfreak 7 месяцев назад

DQ seems to owe more to Ultima, I think, than Wizardry.

@jinhong91 Год назад

It's so hard to find a video talking about Wizardry games and the Dungeon crawler games that are inspired by it. But what I didn't know what that Wizardry inspired many other games that are not in the genre that I love. It made me appreciate Wizardry even more, seeing some of it's mechanics make its way to other games. What got me into this specific genre of games is the 1st Class of Heroes on the PSP. I could see that it has its roots based on older Wizardy games with the Magic spells based on charges. That game had a lot of content for a PSP game and I loved exploring dungeons. After that I came to know about Experience games and I can't remember which Experience game I got first, either SoSC or the New Tokyo Legacy games. I like how there are interesting changes with each of the Experience games like how you get better gear. Even though Stranger of Sword City can be quite difficult at times if you don't grind, like that monster fairy in the first area. I eventually got all of Experience Dungeon Crawler games on Steam except for Demon Gaze because the pricing is out of whack, it's more expensive than Undernauts of Yomi despite it being an older game. I've also bought both Elminage games and Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls on Steam as well I found that I prefer the Japanese take on Wizardry more since it's close to the JRPGs that I played when I was young. What surprised me was that NIS managed to take the Wizardry formula, add their spin to it and made an excellent game with many interesting ideas and I'm eagerly waiting for the sequel to come out next week. And the other surprising news to me is that the Etrain Odessey games are releasing on Steam, an unexpected move from Atlus, given stubborn they were on porting their games to other systems so that's another game franchise to look forward to. Now that I have typed all these things out, I realized that I didn't really play any of the orginal Wizardry games at all Since you said that Wizardry 8 is probably the best Wizardry game, I might try them in the future All of these game share something in common, other than their roots in Wizardry, and that is it scratches my for the main gameplay loop of exploring dungeons, unlock areas, bring the loot back to town, rinse and repeat. I don't know, I just find them compelling.

@KelzorGaming 2 года назад

This has been very interesting. Great video! You've got yourself a new subscriber. :)

@tentacletimeeternal-3812 Год назад

This is a really great video essay on things that inspired other games down the line. One thing I would like to add is how much I love Wizardry Tale of the Forsaken Land and its Allied Action system. It's something that I haven't seen all too often except in some variations like the disgaea series and so-on, where they are already tactical by nature. But Tales of the Forsaken Land starts you off with the cookie cutter rpg combat formula, and then introduces you the AA system which adds a whole new element of tactical potential and possibilities in combat. Plus, you are able to learn and perform more AAs the more trust your party has as a whole with everyone. There's nothing quite like telling two of your front row to attack simultaenously on a very evasive enemy, meanwhile having two of your back row on "overwatch" to attack any enemy that's either going to hit one of the marked protected front row, or is going to try and cast a spell, and cancel out their entire attack. It adds a whole new level of cohesion and feeling of your party actually bonding together and strengthening one another as you go through the game. Also, the music is beautiful.

@TheCrawl Год назад

I wish it was playable beyond original hardware or emulation. Maybe a PSN digital release. It really deserves more attention!

@JelloFluoride 8 месяцев назад

Okay, DUDE. I am legitimately mad at RU-vid right now. As an avid dungeon crawler fan, you'd think that any number of the times I've typed that into RU-vid or Google, your channel would have been shown to me before today. 🙄 Anyhoo, thanks for the video and for the channel. Keep up the great work and I hope you enjoy making these.

@RwnEsper Год назад

Shout out to The Dark Spire, hell yeah! I really enjoyed that game. I never got much into Wizadry proper, but Dungeon Master 2 and Might and Might & Magic 6 were the two of the major PC games of the 90's for me. Wow, the last few minutes of this video were a goldmine! So many great games!

@notsyzagts7967 Год назад

DM 2 is fun but just too short (and kind of easy) for the type of game that is. Still a fun play though; nice atmospheric music and scenery.

@gregoryberrycone 8 месяцев назад

wizardry 8 holds up fantastically. i have michael snow's excellent overview on the game to thank for sparking my interest

@TheCrawl 8 месяцев назад

Michael Snow’s Wizardry reviews were a major reason I dig deeper into the series and eventually made this video!

@gregoryberrycone 8 месяцев назад

@@TheCrawl it reminds me of ultima 7 in the sense that i feel like among people who grew up with it and played it back in the days its well known as an all time masterpiece of the genre, but its basically a complete unknown to the average gamer, or even RPG fan. im really optimistic after seeing wizardry 1 remade that we might eventually see the rest of them get a similar treatment. although personally if they just did the dark savant trilogy in the style of wizardry 8 with improved visuals i think that could be absolutely incredible

@TheCrawl 7 месяцев назад

I think Wizardry 8 deserves a re-release. I feel like games like Elden Ring and Shin Megami Tensei have helped spread interest in hardcore RPGs and dungeon crawlers, and Baldur’s Gate 3 made turn-based fantasy RPGs mainstream again. A Wizardry 8 remaster/remake would probably do very well, imo.

@chrisdanks6447 11 месяцев назад

Great video. I am currently playing Wiz 8 Warriors and Wizards,and The Summoning. Amazing games.

@YourFriendJacob 2 года назад

GREAT video! I learned a lot and enjoyed every moment of it. Well done!

@TheCrawl 2 года назад

Thanks, buddy ♥️

@Snubbybill Год назад

Amazing video! I've always been aware how some of my favorite series like Dragon Quest, Megaten, and Dark Souls were influenced by Wizardry but this was such a well done and thorough look at a series that almost no one in the west talks about. But now my brain will forever question if Wizardry is a JRPG or WRPG. The world may never know.

@BoofsBoofington Год назад

Wizardry inspired JRPGs

@thomasffrench3639 8 месяцев назад

@@BoofsBoofingtonI mean it also inspired western RPGs.

@WR3ND 6 месяцев назад

I play Wizardry every once in a long while still. It's a great game. I think it along with playing chess at a relatively young age definitely helped me visualize things. We never used maps playing this game as kids and just got to where we remembered all the levels, including the blind level to the elevator, remembering the bumps into the walls going different directions. Very fond memories and I feel kind of bad that most kids probably don't get to experience it these days.

@Zeithri 2 года назад

Excellent video. Always had the thought that I should give Wizardry a try but always felt discouraged by it. Now I might just do that.. Still will need to see what changes they made between the original to Snes/PS1 versions. Well researched too, because I kept wondering if you'd bring up the anime and you did, but even more so too! And also mentioned the Falcom games and showed the cover of one of my favorites ( _aside from Ys_ ) namely Sorcerian which is a straight up side-scrolling dungeon crawling game.

@Kazuya1008 5 месяцев назад

I am Japanese and I have loved Wizardry ever since I played the NES version of the game as a child. The influence this game has had on the Japanese video game industry is immeasurable. Many Japanese who like adult RPGs know that Wizardry is a foreign product. Anyway, I would like to see more Wizardry-type games become popular abroad.

@philliphessel6788 2 месяца назад

When I was a kid in the 1970s-80s, there was no way my parents would buy a game console. My dad got a good deal on the bare-bones Timex-Sinclair PC, and experience with that convinced him to trade up to a Commodore 64. Later, he got a C128 and passed on the C64 to me - just in time for the port of the original Wizardry (of which I had played a little on a friend’s Apple). I got that in a set with II, III and V (no IV), and later got Might and Magic II. I think a key to Wizardry is that it’s not so much tactical (although there are more tactics with the spells than in early Ultima) as strategic. The planning of expeditions, the attrition of resources from battle to battle, and the tension of whether to press on at risk of character deaths add up to a challenge as game that - for some people - brings engagement making up for the lack of ‘story’ elements. For me, the minimal tactical element seems a better fit in Wizardry than are combats in Dungeon Master. Meanwhile, it’s not as time-consuming as the more detailed maneuvers in the official Advanced D&D games using the SSI “Gold Box” engine. Still, I think it would be nice to jazz up a little the actions of the warrior types. One model I’ve thought about is the deck-building game in Slay the Spire, but there are others to consider.

@soratheorangejuicemascot5809 2 года назад

Grimoire and Wizardry 7 looks good. I like its 2d and sort of more colorful art compare to other old dungeon crawler

@GameMakerRob Год назад

Wizardry 5 was my introduction to the series and is still my favourite, although I haven't played many others in the series.

@ScarletDeath Год назад

wizardry was one of the first video games I ever played in the late 80s. I didn't make it very far at all, but it lit the spark that made me appreciate a good challenge. i ended up getting Wizardry on PS3 and had a lot of fun with that. 1st person dungeon crawling is a lost art. im glad they are putting the newer releases on Steam now though.

@WPharolin 7 месяцев назад

My neighbor gave me a bunch of SNES games once. They had belonged to her son who had moved out and went to college and gave her permission to give them to me. He had two games that exposed me to RPGs for the first time. Shadowrun and Wizardry 5. I played those games so damn much. I remember spending hours creating notes on what the spells did, mapping out the dungeons, and trying to figure out the mechanics and puzzles. Not only that, but I probably never would have gotten into D&D or other RPGs if not for Wizardry.

@TheCrawl 7 месяцев назад

That’s awesome :) I actually was gifted a copy of Wizardry 5 SNES this weekend at Portland Retro Gaming Expo, coincidentally!

@WPharolin 7 месяцев назад

@@TheCrawl It may not be the best game in the series, but it has a lot of charm, and I still go back to it every once in a while.

@z.s.7992 7 месяцев назад

Something else about wizardry that it shares with rogue is that finding a rare drop weapon can turn it all around for you

@KeyboardManiaGuy 6 месяцев назад

Yes, it is. There is no doubt that everything in this world originated from Wizardry! The fact that yesterday's dinner was sushi must have been an event brought about by the cause and effect that originated from wizardry!

@_Khalmyr_ 2 года назад

AAAAAAH i freaking love your videos man. this one is amazing

@TheCrawl 2 года назад

I appreciate that!

@trifortay 9 месяцев назад

A few corrections I wanna make. As a wizardry veteran 1. the spell names didn't have syntax because of memory limitations, they were like as an idea because idk it sounded cool or something. 2. Wizardry 4 they didn't have other players send in their diskettes as the game was getting made for ideas for adventurer names, they took the name into account before wizardry 4 was even being worked on, when customers sent their disk in to get characters back in the game after being lost. In short, they basically just stole the names during fixing peoples saves. And they people got really happy when they saw their team during an encounter. 3. David Bradley did indeed have his game done but it was a completely different game and Sir Tech basically said "This game is cool, why don't you make it in our engine" So he rewrote the entire game in the database. And it was done quicker than they thought. Fun fact, the entire game was written in a database so it would be easy to port, to other computers, like all the port of the game excluding the console ports were run on the same engine which also made it really easy to localize to different languages. The Wizardry 1-5 engine was used the entire time. It changed when 6 stated getting worked on.

@TheCrawl 9 месяцев назад

Thanks for the note! The only thing I will push back on is the first point: the spell names were, in fact, used to save memory. They are stored and called algorithmically, which reduced the space they take up in the disc. Robert Woodhead confirms as much in his retronauts interview. *Edit: source for reference www.vg247.com/how-wizardry-cast-story-aside-in-favor-of-casting-spells

@trifortay 9 месяцев назад

@@TheCrawl interesting..

@trifortay 9 месяцев назад

@TheCrawl it's strange because there's plenty of space left... I wonder why.... and by space I mean there was space enough for the names. But again i guess it was an apple ii

@Cassandra112 Год назад

wow. one of the best restrospectives on the linages and history of rpgs i've seen. Great insights in how certain designs lead to others. Elder scrolls being inspired by ultimas design philosophies, etc.

@MajorPhilGraves 2 года назад

Outstanding video! Keep up the excellent work.

@TheCrawl 2 года назад

Thank you!

@rocketshipevan Год назад

Great watch. Here's another one for you, the original Tomb Raider, the developers were originally trying to make a game like Ultima Underworld, but at some point it morphed into Tomb Raider. YOu can see the influence though, almost the entire game is underground.

@TheCrawl Год назад

Woah, that's awesome! Kinda disappointed I didn't stumble on that to include in the video. Maybe I should do a part 2 one day, there's so many other example out there like this.

@bryndaldwyre3099 6 месяцев назад

I played the original Wizardry on my Apple //e clone. Loved the game and put at least 200 hours into it when I was a teenager.

@philliphessel6788 2 месяца назад

*Dunjonquest: Temple of Apshai* (released in 1979 for Commodore PET and Radio Shack TRS-80) is an earlier and more forgotten pioneer on home computers. The Dunjonquest series remained - except for a late entry that was more in the action-adventure genre - limited by the limitations of the original platforms, as well as by an insistence on making installments basically modification modules instead of stand-alone games. Had it followed the course of breaking new ground as the Ultima series did, it might have had similarly enduring prominence. In the event, its importance was coterminous with the TRS-80’s brief lead in sales. What was most notable was the provision of a printed book of room descriptions, enabling richer text than the early machines’ memory permitted. Even with the Apple II and other systems with relatively advanced graphics capabilities, the “picture worth a thousand words” was hardly a feature of early dungeon games!

@billcox8870 6 месяцев назад

Currently playing tale of the Forsaken land on the ps2. A gorgeous and delightful Wizardry game.

@arcturionblade1077 Год назад

Awesome and well researched review. I was first introduced to the (western) Wizardry franchise with Wizardry 7: Crusaders of the Dark Savant. A friend of mine let me borrow his copy of the game and I fell in love with it. I was so proud to have finished it and then played modded versions of it for hours on end. Wizardry 8 was a great send off for the franchise and I played it to death too. I can definitely see the influence of these games with the first Shining in the Darkness game for Sega Genesis (another fan favorite of mine) and other franchises. It definitely left an indelible impression on me when I ran my own Dungeons & Dragons online games as a DM back in the day.

@Schpoo Год назад

The Steam versions of the Renaissance entries are great. Five Ordeals just got its first-ever English translation after 10 years or so. Don't forget Persona Q and Q2 on 3DS, also.

@PaladinProse 6 месяцев назад

Dungeon Meshi (with an anime coming early '24) is a manga about a party of dungeon crawlers going back into the dungeon to save their fallen party member. I felt it was clearly inspired by Wizardry, but hearing that the OG games has this mechanic baked in when you wipe is so fascinating to me! As a massive RPG affiaciandao living in Tokyo I absolutely love your channel, man. You really inspire me.

@TheCrawl 6 месяцев назад

Thank you! I appreciate the kind words and support! Also, I mentioned Dungeon Meshi in the video, though used its English title Delicious in Dungeon :) It's one of my favorite manga and I'm super excited for the anime next year!

@PaladinProse 6 месяцев назад

@@TheCrawl Oh hey, that"s awesome! I got so excited I commented before I got to that part of the video and the immeditely though "great minds" haha! Keep it up man, would love to be able to collab at some point.

@guessundheit6494 6 месяцев назад

@plainlazy2097 Год назад

really nice video. Hope this channel pops off! :)

@jasconius_maximus 4 месяца назад

Fun fact: for those wondering what happened to Robert Woodhead, aka, that guy who co-created the original four Wizard games. He went on to become an early pioneer in North American anime translation and adaptation by founding Animeigo, and made yellow subtitled anime the only form of anime that subtitle purists would watch for a while. He was responsible for, amongst other releases, the original North American release of Urusei Yatsura and Ah, Megami-sama (Oh, My Goddess!). Tl;dr: Woodhead was not just massively influential on video and computer game role playing games. He also helped set some of the standards for modern North American anime distribution and presentation. He’s a fascinating guy.

@evbvini 10 месяцев назад

loved this video!!

@MrMalimer Год назад

Perfect framing at the start. Wizardry + Ultima (rogue is a bit harder to see IMHO) might as well be themselves JRPGs at this point, their influence is so strong.

@thomasffrench3639 7 месяцев назад

Ever heard of the 100s of Mystery Dungeon games released in Japan?

@Choops6969 Год назад

great video. thank you!

@TheWatcher-zf2nd 9 месяцев назад

Thank you so much for this awesome channel

@Paldasan Год назад

I hope you get the chance to play Crusaders (if it helps, look for the original dos version not the later windows version). One of the most stunning thing to my young teenaged mind when I first played it was all the off screen machinations the various NPC factions got up to. They all have their own plans, their own goals. Sometimes you are a factor in it, sometimes you aren't. Just don't sit around though waiting for things to play out.

@schillelagh Год назад

Crusaders of the Dark Savant is absolutely excellent. Strongly recommended. Try using DOSBox emulator if you are having issues running Wizardy 7 directly.

@cubine 2 года назад

This rules. Deserves 100x the views

@TheCrawl 2 года назад

Thank you! Spread the word! Haha. I appreciate the support 🙂

@stormlord1984 8 месяцев назад

Just found you. A fantastic review!

@hazardrider8317 11 месяцев назад

As someone who’s never gotten into DC’s but really wants to this vid was great! I really wanna try 4 now, I love a game where you get to play as the villain, kinda like the No Heroes Allowed! Series (Which funnily enough are developed by Acquire, the studio that made Class of Heroes 1)

@HPRshredder 2 года назад

Rare to see a Shirin the Wanderer 2 shoutout for N64! Also cool to see someone mention Sweet Home. Very nice and comprehensive look at both the series and how it influenced so many GOAT contenders. Bravo 👏 Did it influence Doshin the Giant though? A.K.A. the Yellow Savant?

@TheCrawl 2 года назад

@@itsasecrettoeverybody I agree, Sweet Home needs the HPRShred treatment

@TheCrawl 2 года назад

Hah! Well, based on the title "Yellow Savant" alone, I'm gonna say yes.

@mrthewubbie 6 месяцев назад

I remember sitting at my friend's house at all hours playing Temple of Apshi" and Ultima. Good times.

@classicalthrasher 2 года назад

Good Old Games has a working Wizardry VII PC version, if I remember correctly. I may have it myself (though I also did have it eons ago, during the late 90s when game stores still sold CD-installable games. A great era of PC games... I am no longer interested in PC games because they tend to be graphic card tests, and I miss the depth of the older systems-but I grant you, I haven't explored them in years.) Haven't finished, but I get lost in its world, and party/character creation is always fun. I remember it being hard, though there are strategies to "cheese it" (as usual) so it may not be as difficult as 1-4. Never finished Wizardry 8 due to a severe gameplaying syndrome I have, namely "Restart-itis", where I wonder how it will feel with different characters, and try (restart) again. This particular issue is exacerbated by the game's many classes and racial options. Thanks for your video commenting on the Wizardry series. Most of my fondest games are actually DRPGs. My first Wizardry was the NES, western release, and its sequel, Knight of Diamonds. Also got V for the SNES years later, which was a love, as the japanese team developing it did a marvelous job with both graphics AND magical, immersive soundtrack (indeed even the NES versions are much better than the originals.) Love Etrian Odyssey (ALL of them, old DS, Untolds, Nexus, just each of them), Strange Journey, Labyrinth of Refrain, etc. DRPGs are just awesome now, and back then.

@TheCrawl 2 года назад

"DRPGs are just awesome now, and back then" 100% agreed :)

@klaus_niemand 2 года назад

Good Job! Wiz6+7 work well in Dos Box, Wiz8 runs fine on modern win if it is not installed in an uac protected folder, but video cutscenes must be deactivated(delete/rename video files) bc M$ dropped support for the bink video codec

@TheCrawl 2 года назад

I might need to try a non-steam version of Wiz7. for some reason it won't run through DOSbox, which is odd since I don't have that issue with TES Arena, Daggerfall, or Ultima.

@Yusha7135 4 месяца назад

Subbed. I love this video. I think DRPGs and Wizardry clones are my new obsession. And much love for mentioning Falcom, my favorite developer ❤

@Ostnizdasht206 5 месяцев назад

I was wondering where the whole RPG genre in gaming began. Very informative.

@casitive 2 года назад

Superb video! Just excellent!

@TheCrawl 2 года назад

Hey, thank you! I appreciate it -- and again, thank you for the help with the initial idea 🙏

@rvoissem 6 месяцев назад

Reinstalled wiz 8 the other day, Nov. 2023 and the steam version runs fine on a current PC, was expecting to have to tinker with it to get it running. game runs good with a stock no mods / no patch install, just a stock steam install. Great game, one of my all time favorites.

@wedge_one 7 месяцев назад

amazing video!

@xibalbalon8668 6 месяцев назад

Wizardry had alignments, which obviously came from D&D but its Law-Neutral-Chaos alignments are used directly in most of SMT. Wizardry IV also had multiple endings with a very kabbalah theme which is very in line with megaten I'm general

@Frank_42 6 месяцев назад

I never heard of Rogue and I was around then. I only heard the term "Rogue Like" maybe five years ago and had to look up what it meant. Wizardry was big for me being an Apple user, though none of my Atari console friends knew about it. I definitely knew about Ultima but never got to play it until I copied Ultima 4 from a friend, and literally hand drew a copy of the map.

@FantasyJared 11 месяцев назад

My man just did the RPG genre so much justice in just 40 minutes. You're amazing, man! ^^ Thx for the recommendations, this was a super insightful video.

@gordonfenn7373 Год назад

Great video!

@Dr.Quarex 3 месяца назад

And of course Wizardry was basically an Oubliette clone and Oubliette was arguably heavily inspired by a few other games, some of which are completely lost to time. But Wizardry does deserve credit for bringing the concept to a mass market at least.

@grittynerd Год назад

I like what it was introduced in Wizardry 6,7,8 but honestly i never finished them. Had more luck with Wizards & Warriors but still all those are quite huge and feel slower compared to the original formula. With Might & Magic i am the opposite, i like more 6 and later titles compared to the previous ones because of the faster pace. Still, difficult to say what it is: size? MM6 is quite huge, i completed even most Etrian Odyssey games and they aren't so small too. Maybe progression? Dungeon design? Enemy encounters? A balance between challenges and pure grind? Possible. It's interesting how the different ports of the classic tune the gameplay: how easy is possible to run, drops and starting gear at the shop, experience and money pacing, graphics. Similar but not exactly the same. There's even a japanese wiki with all the tables of the different games. Even more curious i found out in Japan they published several guides with illustrations, maps, etc. that were also not official ones. Fascinating thing, the different visual takes on enemies, items or even character classes. Sad that you cannot have the original games available to purchase, or even a modern port. How bad legal issues can take a series down i don't know. Wouldn't it better to just sell something instead of freezing everything in a limbo?

@notsyzagts7967 Год назад

I finished Wiz 7&8 multiple times; I was a fan of the larger style of games. Great memories. I like to play M&M starting at part 4 because the goofy style of those games is simply appealing to me. The later ones are cool too; I hate part 9 with a passion; 10 is ok though.

@USALeonHeart Год назад

A buddy and I also started using the term "Side Scrolling Dungeon Crawler" a while ago to describe Metroidvanias. Good video. The heavy narrative focus of the Ultima series was profoundly impactful on Final Fantasy in particular, but there probably hasn't been any louder an influence on the overall RPG genre, east or west, than Wizardry.

@jeffburd9024 8 месяцев назад

Loved this video. I just discovered Inferno: Beyond the 7th Circle. This game is AWESOME and is a single-character Wizardry experience with some survival elements as well as push-button lock-picking (think Hillsfar-ish) .. it is just fantastic. On Steam, I got it for $5; I recommend strongly.

@TheCrawl 8 месяцев назад

I discovered that one after making this video. Funnily enough, I’ve been playing again recently since it’s related to a project I’m working on

@alwaysask Год назад

Wizardry 5: Heart of the Maelstrom is still my favorite. I hope it'll get a remake... :- (

@jodinsan Месяц назад

Alternate title: "Wizardry: The Grandfather Of Video Games." It wasn't until I started watching this video that I recognized the obvious through-line between Wizardry and like 80% of the most popular video games on the market today. Outside of games that developed entirely on their own, like the Mario IP, so much of gaming today gets it's DNA from Wizardry.

@galaxydungeon1322 Год назад

Very informative, decent video. We all want to know about the history of the RPG genre.

@chrisdude2675 4 месяца назад

great video thanks

@versuch8239 10 месяцев назад

Awesome video with lots of info. But I reaaaally would recommend Might and Magic 6 and 7 over X

@TheCrawl 10 месяцев назад

Eventually, I hope to give M&M some proper love on this channel and 6 & 7 are at the top of my list.

@N5O1 6 месяцев назад

6:31 it's not a problem if you know what is dungeon crawler, and RPG (especialy TTRPG). Because if you know, you will draw your own map. Also the differance between oldschool games and Souls series, that old games had manuals provided with game

@TheCrawl 6 месяцев назад

I never said it was a problem?