Wizardry 6: Bane of the Cosmic Forge

I wasn't sure at first about manually mapping the dungeon... but I have to say, this is EXACTLY the dungeon-exploration game I was looking for. I think manually mapping actually adds a lot to the experience, it's up to the player to decide what's important enough to mark down, and it also means you don't have to remember where everything is, as long as you have it marked on your map. The game is also not as much of a slog as I feared. It's tough, but after level 1 you're likely to win the majority of combat encounters. Wizardry 8 is MUCH grindier than this. A note to new players: give the manual a peek! It's included in the game files. You don't have to read the whole thing (I didn't), but it's a very good reference, especially for character creation.

EDIT: Annoyed by having a game in my library that's just sitting there unfinished, I have recently begun to take another stab at this game. I will update my review once I have finished the game. I never played this game before. But I'm no stranger to punishing old-school games. I thoroughly enjoy them. I discovered the Wizardry series by playing the old dungeon crawlers. I knew this game and 7 and 8 would be different, but I started this trilogy regardless, expecting a different but equally rewarding experience. I came away severely disappointed and couldn't bear playing any further. I don't recommend the game to anyone who has never played this game before. It's got some of the hallmarks of earlier Wizardry games. Interesting dungeon encounters, locked doors, fun treasure and obtuse gameplay mechanics. There's potentially a lot to like here. Except for the fact that all these punishing encounters are entirely meaningless because even the manual tells you to just hit the reload save button whenever something bad happens. Wizardry 6 is a game of endless save reloading, and that's what killed it for me. Contrary to older and other Wizardy games, character death in this game is permanent. You can resurrect fallen party members, which confers a penalty, but they can never be replaced. Which means that the party you start out with is the party with which you need to finish the game. Coupled with a save file, this means that whenever something bad happens, you reload and attempt the fight or challenge again. The death of a character you don't want to or cannot resurrect is essentially a game over. Something bad happens? Reload and try again. There is no gameplay loop of risk and reward, you simply cannot deal with character death like in other Wizardry games at all other than going back to a previous save. In the end it just led me to consulting a walkthrough and going through the motions. It bored me out of my mind, and I abandoned the game. When I try to place the game design in its time, I can understand it would maybe have gripped me as a child. That was a time when I would not worry about engaging gameplay and would just want to explore the game and the world. But these days, I just cannot stand a game that is so utterly devoid of player agency and meaningful consequences. If you're not playing with the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia, it's better to not play this game at all and just look to other, more engaging Wizardry games and Wizardry clones.

just get past level 1 and its all good

As a fan who completed Wizardry I, I really wanted to like this game, so I could play through whole series from I to VIII. But even taking into account it was released in 1990, this clearly a worse game than the original. First, the menu driven UI often lacks critical information and is slow, tedious, and frustrating to navigate. Most egregious is that I can't press letter keys corresponding to commands anymore, despite that being a trivial programming task. I have to press my arrow keys 6 times to use the lute in my bard's inventory, which is fine the first time but not something I want to do every round for every fight. By the 100th fight I've pressed the arrow keys around 3,600 times for my bard alone, and both my brain and the skin on my finger are worn out. Second, the first game had a clear route of progression: stairway down, get new and harder fights. There were only 4 keys in the whole game, and the keys were always on the same level you were currently on anyway, and there was always an indication there was something there, for the specific tile you were standing on. You didn't just search every tile, which you unfortunately DO have to do with this game. There are a lot of keys, and while rare there is still sometimes with no indication to the player there is something there. Because of the need to systematically search, death comes easily and unfairly until you outlevel that region. Then fights become a boring grind because as you still didn't find that key you needed. This is made worse by the jammed door concept, where locked doors may become jammed on a failed open roll. Why didn't the developer make sure campaign critical items were not behind locked doors? As it is you can unknowingly become unable to progress in the game, unless you are lucky enough to find a Knock Knock scroll, which only works for one door anyway. The last major issue I'll bring up is there is no longer a starting town or character roster. Leveling up different classes and trying different party compositions was a big part of the fun of the first game, and would have been even more so here with more options to choose from. Now, if I make a bad party, the only option is to start over. It's like the the developer didn't understand what made the original so successful and just started throwing S* at the wall to see what sticks. I understand now why the series eventually failed and am extremely disappointed.

I purchased this game for sentimental reasons. Games were simple then but Wiz 6 was a huge leap from Wiz 5 at that time. I picked up this game on the last sale and I can say it is worth the price just to go back to an enjoyable grinding rpg.

sehr gut

YES !

평생 한 번은 클리어 하겠다는 목표를 가지고 몇 차례 포기 끝에 간신히 완료했습니다. 느낀점은 아무리 과거 명작이었다 해도 추억은 그냥 추억으로 간직하세요... 지금 와서 굳이 시간 쏟을 컨텐츠는 아닙니다..

拠点（１でいうところの城下町）が存在しない、Wizardry公式シリーズとしては異色の作品。 ・やはりUIの古めかしさは否めず、キャラ画があるもののむしろ萎えるレベル。 ・英語版オンリー。テキストがメインのため、軽くでも読めないとかなりキツイ。 ・コントローラー非対応。マウスも使えるがキーボードがおすすめ。 セールだと6～8のバンドル版が200円くらいで買えるが、 それでもふつうにスーパーファミコンを買ったほうがいいのかもしれない。

The story of this game is one of the best written that I have ever encountered and I've played a LOT of games! The concepts explored are deep and profound, pulling from global spiritual traditions and mythologies. The game play is extremely fun! One of the best features of the game that keeps bringing me back after all of these years is the ability to import your party into two more games (Wizardry 7 and 8). You also can create up to six party members. This time around though, I am trying it with only two! :O