This game really feels like it was made in 2002. Stereotypical character with one trait? Check. Power of friendship? Check. Vaguely described mechanics? Check. But that's just the first few chapters of this game (except the mechanic part).

This game surprisingly has a solid character development and some plot twist that's pretty hard to see coming. The world of the game is also really intriguing as it has you playing to explore the world-building elements of it. There are some dialogue that really portrays emotion really well at the crucial part of the game. The ending chapter is also really hype but the actual ending is kind of abrupt. The problem with this game however, is the god damn mechanics I mentioned earlier. If you gonna play this game here are some tips I wish I knew before starting:

1. Overlevel. You NEED to overlevel to make it through the game (chapter 7 cough). It might take time but I guarantee you, you will have to replay the game if you don't overlevel your characters.

2. The magic system. The color-coded mana system is probably one of the most annoying in all the games I've played. Saia, the first mage that you get, use green mana and if you didn't focus on the green tile part of the map, well, good luck having her hit the enemies for 1 damage for the rest of the game. There's also the problem with the lack of a certain color tile and even green in later part of the game however you can fix that by using items.

3. The vague explanation of basically all gameplay mechanics. I don't know if it expect you to play the game this is based off of (the farland story serie) but there are no explanation to different stats, the magic color I was talking about, the win condition for each fight. It can really be frustrating considering a blind play through can easily be soft-locked by those not knowing how to do different things.

Overall, this game surprisingly has a good story and characters but was drawn back by the fact that it is not hard because it's "hard" but because everything is poorly explained to you and it expected you to give it trials and error. I suggest watching the playthrough from dluxx7 on youtube if you're struggling since there's no wiki page (at least not in english). There's probably no way you can get the physical disc now but you can download from myabandonedware (good website). Lastly, I just want to say, I love wing my way, kotoko my beloved <3

if whatsapp in muv luv
meiya: i NEED cock takeru
sumika: FUCKING KILL YOURSELF
yuuko: FUCKING KILL YOURSELF
chizuru: lacrosse practice on tuesday
ayamine: i NEED yakisoba takeru
mikoto: hop on valgern-on

Wizardry 7 Crusaders of the Universe

Introduction:

Wizardry 7 is the 7th title in the Wizardry series of computer role-playing games developed by Sir-Tech and is also the 2nd in the "Dark Savant trilogy" (The Trilogy>>>> Wizardry 6,7 and 8), originally developed for MS-DOS.

It is a classic first-person Dungeon Crawler CRPG with a 2D interface. Movement is based on tiles.

It was remade with the name by Wizardry Gold for PC Windows,but i am gonna focus only in the DOS version in this version since that is the version that i have played most of my time,and the original one.

Personal tips:

Forget the Wizardry Gold and play the original DOS version with the mod of Auto Map.
You can thank me later if you want.

And yes,seriously,play this game using a guide.

Don't be crazy to try to finish this game without a guide.This game is almost impossible to beat without a guide and only really,REALLY addictive players have done this achievement.

Have at least one mage in the group.

The beginning:

"Having only a moment to grab whatever scattered possessions are lying nearby,you suddenly find yourself shimmering into a strange new world..."

Wizardry 7 was an ambiguous title for me, which I ended up getting to know by playing some CRPGs and some general game titles made in 1992, such as Ultima 7, Space Quest 4, Dune 2, Might And Magic Clouds of Xeen, Star Control 2 (I have to come back to this game later), Wolfenstein 3D and one that caught my attention was Wizardry 7.

I was happy to meet this game and i buyed the Wizardry 6+7 on Steam,and after that...it was a odyssey.A odyssey that i will never forget in my gaming life.

A odyssey that i will never probably do justice to describe everything in this review and took me...4 years to beat this game? Yikes.
4 years giving uping and come back to play this game several times,but finally beat this game in 2023,and i have to say...it was amazing.

Why do I say that?

I'm going to try to explain a little bit in this review, even if I don't consider myself a good reviewer, and even if you don't believe that after all these years, I finally finished this review of this game with the game beaten.

Difficulty:

And I'll start by saying...this game is complicated,very complicated.

lives up to its reputation as one of the most difficult games in the original Wizardry franchise.

Gonna try to say why a little now.

One of the most evil, brutal, expansive, long and difficult dungeon crawler RPGs I've ever played and finished in my life, but it remains one of the most iconic vintage rpgs ever released, with all its pros and cons (I'm counting vintage rpgs as CRPGs released before the release of Diablo 1).

The game is ugly,brutal,complicated dungeons,sometimes the game is unfair with the player,enemies will not forgive you,the map of this game is horrible (i am serious,the map of this game,called journey map kit,does more harm than good for the player using an item to access it),really damn long and hard game,stressful,slow enough to make you want to give up even at the beginning of the game (the first dungeon itself is the test if you really want to continue the game or not),and will not tell you or help you in almost anything for the player to advance in the game.

Died in the game? There is no turning back.
Load your save.

Died without remembering to save? start all over again.

Made a mistake in your gameplay? forgot a specific item? start all over again to fix this mistake.

You have no character in your party to heal or without a heal item? you will suffer in the game.

But despite of that,much more of some of that details that i have said contribute to make this game memorable until the end of the game.

Party:

The party's characters (you can create 6 characters in your party) are not autonomous and have no personality; they are completely under the player's control.

The gender, portrait, race and profession of each character is, however, customizable, allowing for many different types of parties to explore the world of Lost Guardia.

The party of player characters can be imported from a previous saved game of Wizardry VI, or characters may be created anew.

I recommend importing the characters from Wizardry 6 into Wizardry 7 because that is how it was developed to play the trilogy, and also because it will be more useful to import the characters than to start a whole group from scratch.

Character Stats:

Make a note of this because you need to know these basics, otherwise you will get screwed in this game.

Strength (STR):

Physical strength can determine the damage in melee combat, ease of knocking down a door, stamina, and carrying capacity. This stat is more important at the start since it adds more skills and stamina each time the character level increases. It is not worth increasing Strength above 18.

Intelligence (INT):
Each character's intelligence affects the capability to cast and learn new spells, detect traps and secrets, and learn new skills. Increasing above 16 has little effect.

Piety (PIE):
The devotion to a specific field or subject affects the ability to develop skills and spells plus boosts spell growth and regeneration. High Piety also increases magic spell protection. Piety above 17 has little effect.

Vitality (VIT):
The character's life force affects hit points, stamina, and resistance. Vitality also limits resurrections as 1 point is lost each time. I recommend high Vitality for all characters.

Dexterity (DEX):
The ability to dodge missiles, disarm traps, or avoid a weapon swing. Dexterity also controls attack frequency per round and Physical Skills growth. Any attacking character should have high Dexterity.

Speed (SPD):
A higher speed moves the character faster, resulting in a higher ability to dodge and attack more frequently in a fight. High Speed is helpful for all character classes!

Personality (PER):
The friendliness of the character affects how NPCs interact with them. Like-minded NPCs appreciate those with similar personalities. Points in this skill have little benefit outside of Diplomacy.

Karma (KAR):
Karma is the ethical meter of the character. Low karma makes the individual more strict, while high-karma means they are care-free.
About the choice of classes I will leave it up to whoever is reading to decide.

But I repeat,it is good to have at least one mage in your party.

Good things:

This game is a improvement that never in the series has reached before.

The scope of the game is large,ambitious and interesting enough to explore its own content, competing with the best dungeon crawlers available at the time of release.

illustrative example of one of the maps in the game that you cannot see in the game.Good Luck.

https://i.imgur.com/HQFMklh.jpg

The world building mix of fantasy and sci-fi is great.

The world is fascinating,exploration is fun and engaging,the difficulty makes the player more committed to overcome adversity,had significant graphical and technological improvement, new skills,bugs have been fixed, interesting new portraits of your party characters,good Wizardry 6 narrative sequence,great replay value,claustrophobic great atmosphere,great quotes,more Classes and Skills and other details which only adds positively to the aspects of the game.

Small Criticisms:

Unfortunately there some small stuff that i have to critize a little that probably could make this better,like the music that is a very weak part of the game and the almost null lack of information to try to help,even if it is a little to balance the game more orientating the player.And the management of items in inventory could be better too.

The lack of personality of the group and the interaction between them also left something to be desired.
It wouldn't hurt if they had personality, although I understand that it would take more work to program and develop that aspect in the game.

Gameplay:

About the gameplay... it's ok. I don't have much to say about the combat itself.
A classic slow turn based rpg that takes a lot of patience to play,understand the hub,do a lot of grind and have patience for the high encounter rate.

The game is functional I can say.

Soundtrack:

Weak with few songs.
And personally,i hardly remember much about them even though I played the game a lot.bruh.

Objective:

Your objective is to find various map pieces spread all over the planet that in theory should help you solve various puzzles and reach your final goal. Though in praxis some of these puzzles are almost impossible to solve without the help of a guide. This is not helped by a keyword-based dialogue system that makes it easy to miss crucial hints. And there’s no journal, so expect to make a copious amount of notes.

Game Length:

Took me 100 Hours to finish,but it may take you a longer or shorter time depending on your pace.

I am not kidding,this game is a hell long journey.Be careful.And if you can, don't forget to make important notes throughout the game.

Ports:

The game has ports to Playstation 1 and Saturn (not to mention the pc version that is the wizardry gold),but only oficially released in Japanese.
I dont recomend to play the ports because you need the all information (even the very little ones) to go forward in the original version of the game game and,if you will play the game without know japanese,its better experience the original version for all its qualities and faults.

Main Plot:

The main plot involves the party's quest to find the resting place of the Astral Dominae, the greatest artifact ever created by the god Phoonzang.
There are four distinct endings; each of these endings can then be imported as savegame files to Wizardry 8, the final chapter of the Dark Savant trilogy, which in turn has its own set of five beginnings.

The rest i am going leave to you to discover since that this is one of the "magics" of this game.Follow your own journey through the game.
But i can say,the plot is good and you will want to know more about it.

Reputation:

The game had a good reputation when it was released,and most of them was positive.

"Crusaders of the Dark Savant is certainly an improvement over the last couple of games","should not be missed, especially not by Wizardry fans","When it comes to an interesting, complex plot, Crusaders handily beats the rest [of the series]."

"Wizardry fans and experienced gamers (who are willing to put up with some of the frustrations)",the first Wizardry that has a real-world feel to it ... there are towns, ruins, wilderness, mountains and even a small sea".

"Despite its flaws, Wizardry remains far and away my favorite computer FRPG series. If you're looking for a state-of-the-art gaming experience big enough to keep you busy through the whole summer vacation,".

And other comment that...was not very positive;

"hours in a fruitless search".

Yes, there is no way to please everyone.

Legacy:

Wizardry 7 is one of the best MS-DOS RPGs ever made, and even after all these years, it is still an amazing game to delve into this universe and explore it to the limit.

The game was a success in its time and for all wizardry fans, or all who have played the game, it is considered a memorable game and a classic of respect,a epic the last before the final game of this legendary franchise,Wizardry 8.

His legacy will never be forgotten.

Where to buy?

The game is avaible to buy on Steam and GOG together with Wizardry 6.
I recommend buying the game and play at least the Wizardry 6 before the 7,and play the wizardry 7 on the GOG/Steam version with the auto map mod.Seriously this mod will help you a lot.

The game runs on any modern PC.

If you have a humble PC you will be able to play the game.

Conclusion:

Ok now you maybe are asking for me in your head that question or something similar to this:
"rax,this whole text and most of it says more examples to avoid the game than to make me want to play... so why do you still think this game is a masterpiece?"

"You are crazy rax!?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFt-mGoOudc

Ok now back to "serious review mode".
.
Gonna be insane enough to answer this question, as strange as the answer may be:
Because of the everything that this game offers.The Experience.

The game isn't perfect,but the experience the game provides throughout, all the way to the end of the journey and beyond... is indescribably amazing.
The amazing experience of this universe.

Albert Camus once said that: "you cannot create experience.you must to undergo it."

And i agree with this quote.

I would probably never understand how epic and exciting this game is if I had not played Wizardry 7 for a long time.

I didn't create anything,I just went out to live this journey.

I will never forget the saves that i have lost,the people that i had meet because of this game,the first time that i read the manual,the joy I had to start playing this game,the friends of the party that i lost in my first adventures,the rage that I went through the deaths trying to overcome the game's dungeons,the various deaths that I have had,the sense of adventure and mystery I had exploring this unknown world,the moments of reflection reading the beautiful sentences of this game throughout the journey,the victory of completing a complicated dungeon,the moment that i have cried finally finishing the game,all the times I gave up and came back again to continue this journey,the memories I had with this journey,the reflections that i had with this journey,my perseverance to go to the end of the game and continue go beyond.

These are the things that live with me, these are the experiences I pass on in this review.
These are the things that I will pass on to the future.

And in the end of the journey...i had more questions,or at least,reflections in my mind.

Do i know this universe? Do I know at least a fraction of what the universe is? Will i ever understand life in its fullness? And after that, what will become of me?Will I ever understand this universe?Will I get there one day?

One day maybe I will get there...or die trying to get there.

To the end of my life,To the end of the universe.

https://iili.io/JNa1GB1.png