Elminage ORIGINAL - Priestess of Darkness and The Ring of the Gods

总的来说是非常容易被低估的一作，几乎所有初接触的人都会将其视为巫术1-5的拙劣山寨品之流……敷衍的迷宫设计，堪比DQ的弱智难度，典到瞌睡的剧情都让人第一印象实在是不好。但实际上本作的系统和玩法在设计上相当之严丝合缝，除了少数比较破坏平衡的良性bug，总体上堪称旧时代巫术游戏的典范，就是大部分底层机制的情报藏得极深（低情商：毫无引导）咳咳……他姑且的确是把这些本应该写在弹出说明里的东西塞在某个npc或活动的情报里了。 +职业种族较多，职业除了经典巫术的几个，还加入了让jrpg玩家一看就会笑的搞子职业，什么女仆，巫女（甚至高阶能力是可以全果贴满符咒上阵！）……原本巫术的两个日式职业，其实只是徒有其表毫无特点的换皮战士，甚至武器就只得一两把用，这边就好好的给他们设计了大量的和风专用装备。非常值得一提的是，本作的14个职业，没有废职，全都有非常明显的长处与短处，远胜于巫术的上位换皮职业，并且其实现方式也不像世界树迷宫之类靠加料，并没有背离传统巫术或者说ad&d的简洁古朴，里边差别最小的会施展奥术的那几个职业，也仅用数值和经验上限就能做出相当显著的各有所长，高级种族在获得特殊能力的同时也带来了经验惩罚，到后期就会变成最大等级惩罚，如果你是博得之门1&2的老玩家应该马上就能明白这种设计的精妙之处。 P.S:这游戏roll点毫无意义，够门槛就可以了，顶多敏捷高点。1是因为转职就会把属性点还原到职业门槛最低，2是属性点上限只有种族基础值+10，换言之你升级全是加也最多+10，并且游戏里的属性+1护符非常好刷/偷，年龄也有相应的方法降低，基本不存在角色老死焦虑。 +系统比较丰富，炼金术士的炼金/锻造系统，召唤师的宝可梦系统，盗贼的盗窃/缴械系统，结婚系统，对可玩性的提升都是乘法，各养成模块间的联动比较紧密，宝物繁多，GP可以拿去神庙升级替补队员，普通掉落不出只能偷的大量独特装备，素材可以锻造词条也可以炼金搅大国，刷刷刷的正反馈是极佳的。 +开放式设计，本系列游戏并不像巫术单作一样有固定攻略顺序，过完教程地牢一下解锁一大堆任务和迷宫你爱去哪去哪，怪物图鉴也比较丰富，换色怪少，大部分放怪算是有设计的，要稍微考虑一下针对打法（但不至于到世界树迷宫那么深 +非常超前的自定义项目，也还算方便，头像路径在文档/mebius/elminage/FACELOAD 192x192 png，SOUNDLOAD音乐替换格式是ogg。 -没中文，且英译非常垃圾，有不少错译漏译，好在不涉及谜题 -音乐有bug，部分原版bgm被替换成错误的bgm，不知道是不是psp版就这样。 -迷宫很大但基本没什么设计感，乱七八糟的死胡同小空房特别多，容易沦为踩地雷模拟器，好在战斗还算好玩。

Elminage Original is great so far. It's got controller support, the visuals look nice (nostalgic old 3d mazes, pixelated illustrations for characters, monsters and items, it's got all the classic Wizardry classes plus a few more, it's got a bunch of races and a ton of portrait options and the ability to load images. It's got a variety of dungeon tilesets and a world map and a story that threads things together enough for it to matter. It's got some QoL features that most of these games have (but that some of these games lack) like remembering your previous turn's action selection, or letting you hit one button to all-out-attack, or letting you speed up animations/text. It's very comfortable to grind this game and the vibes are good.

Welp. Beat it. Eh. Better interface to a Wizardry clone. meh. no real walkthroughs or cheats to use. Everything you steal from an enemy ends up being cursed so wtf is the point? Thief can't steal til Level 25 anyway. It was a good time sink.

I was taking a break from Dungeon Crawl: Stone Soup and came across Elminage. It's great.

Very frustrating Dungeon Crawler Game. Character portraits are better than Gothic. Map is better than Gothic Enjoyable Game

Really enjoyed this one. It was so close to the old Wiz games, I would almost consider it one of them. While the early game was a little difficult, the tutorial dungeon was really nice, and would be amazing for someone who is playing a blobber for the first time. The art design was very nice, solid dark fantasy art. The monsters would fit right into a Wiz game. Dungeon design was nice as well, some really cool puzzles and good variety of areas. The way you access one of them is absolutely crazy! Quests were very interesting. Some of them would be so hard to figure out on your own! I cheated by using a walkthrough for some (Finding the og walkthrough on wayback machine and translating it was a quest in itself!) . I bet figuring out some of these yourself would feel very rewarding. Overall they were super interesting and went beyond the scope of early WIZ quests, while still feeling similar to them. Character and class variety was very nice, so much to pick from, and so many strategies to use. I reclassed many times just to try more out. You could go more vanilla, or use some really unique strats, like servant or summoner. Summoning was really fun, trying to get an OP monster. Combat was complex and satisfying, lots of enemy variety and spells/buffs/debuffs to learn. Some monsters could really kick your ass! I definitely save scummed some, as I imagine most people do with this game. Late game you get pretty powerful, but enemies are pretty strong too at the end, and can still surprise you! Overall I found this to be an excellent dungeon crawl, true to the classics, but added just enough to let it stand apart.

It took a while to make up my mind, but the further I get into this game, the better it gets. At first look, it seemed like a typical Wizardry-like with a huge grind ahead. The UI is a bit clunky compared to modern games, but it works fine once you get used to it. Worse, the difficulty cliff was daunting since everything after the first dungeon is MUCH more deadly. Likewise, some of the quests are obtuse, and I've ended up smacking my head against the wall more than once before seeking clarification on the internet. However, as I proceed, I'm impressed with the balance between the different classes and abilities. You CAN'T have everything you want, so you have to make hard choices. This is great game design. It's frustrating, but the alternative is a line-up of indestructible all-powerful do-anything adventurers. Furthermore, as I finish quests, world time passes, and NPCs change (or even die), and there are unexpected rewards. For example, when you finish one certain quest, character alignment becomes less of an issue. Considering I was expecting a Wizardry-like this is astonishing. If you like the various Wizardry clones, this game is perfect. If you can't stand them, stay away.

Väldigt kul. Hög svårighet = extas av att lyckas med något. Stridsystemet är kul att pilla med, gillar att det är öppet. Exprimentering lönar sig i det här spelet. Minuspoäng för dålig översättning till engelska. Kul, men rekommenderar spelare att i första hand spela Etrian Odyssey före det här spelet. Ändrar min rescension till negativ efter att min sparade data mystiskt försvann.

Elminage: Original is a solid and satisfying take on the classic Wizardry formula. Like Elminage: Gothic, it’s a Japanese developed dungeon crawler that wears its Wizardry inspirations proudly, but I found Original to be the slightly better experience overall. The art style is distinct and appealing, and the gameplay delivers that nostalgic, methodical grind fans of the genre crave. The early difficulty can be a bit sharp, but it’s far less punishing than many titles under the Wizardry banner, and once you get your bearings, it becomes a fun and rewarding dive into grid-based exploration and party management.

UPDATE: After 70+ hours, this is the most addictive Wizardry-style DRPG I've played in a long time. If you're into this style of game loop then give it a try. It's become one of if not my favorite in the genre. Elminage in a nutshell: encounter begins, target the enemy casters, buff AC, and since 3 rows of 4, get mage prepared to nuke. Turn starts, mage gets hit with confusion before her turn, and nukes the whole party including herself. Or the time the samurai got confused before her turn and then beheaded herself. This game has been amazing so far and I'm (estimating) about 1/4-1/3 of the way through. It is a tough recommend, however, because this is a Wizardry. If you liked Labyrinth of Lost Souls, Class of Heroes, or maybe even Operation Abyss/Babel (minus all the narrative), then this might be perfect for you! Wizardry (and Elminage) are full of downright unfair RNG ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ that will teach you the importance of save scumming. Every few steps in the dungeon is progress, though, and mercifully this game allows you to save mid-dungeon freely. The port is terrible, but functional once you get everything set up. Compared to Gothic (played on GOG), I am enjoying Original more because of the open-ended design -- once you clear the trial dungeon you unlock the rest of them, unlike in Gothic where dungeons are unlocked as you complete quests. Otherwise I'd say they're very similar, except Original gives you a permanent dungeon map where in Gothic you have to use spells, items to view maps. If you're playing on Proton, and notice the Config Tool is broken, it's not because you're playing on Proton. It's because the Config Tool is broken. I tried it on a Windows 11 VM and it still did not work. What I ended up doing was enabling Steam Input, mapping the controller to the WASD Keyboard and Mouse preset, then customizing the buttons to the pre-set keys in Elminage.