Comments on Tales of the Rampant Coyote: Wizardry 8: So a Samurai, a Valkyrie, and a Bishop...

The day I bought my Apple ][+ I also bought Wizard...

2008-08-26T17:14:00.000-07:00

The day I bought my Apple ][+ I also bought Wizardry. No number, since it was the first. With the exception of Wiz4, which came from the "make it impossibly hard, yeah, they'll like that" school of design, I have loved every game in the series. My kids play. I go back every couple of years. Sigh. Old.

I recently started Wizardry 7 again (research, ma...

2008-08-19T09:35:00.000-07:00

I recently started Wizardry 7 again (research, man, research), and was reminded of just how cool it really was. One day I'm gonna finish that sucker! And it runs great under DOSBox.

I don't know if I have enough data yet to really draw a fair comparison between the two. But I like 'em both.

Oh well, memories... i really liked the turn-based...

2008-08-19T08:36:00.000-07:00

Oh well, memories... i really liked the turn-based combat and the party interaction(you could choose a personality type for each char -> nice idea, added some soul to the stats. Those one-liners made me smile).

And having a "nuclear blast" spellcasting fairy is just cool in a geeky way... even when its surprisingly ineffective;)

Tried wiz7 later but didn't get hooked there.

Looks like I have another RPG to toss on the need...

2008-08-18T21:19:00.000-07:00

Looks like I have another RPG to toss on the need to play list...Hurumph.

I found Wizardry 8 to be very enjoyable, but as an...

2008-08-18T16:42:00.000-07:00

I found Wizardry 8 to be very enjoyable, but as another poster noted, I don't think it was as good as Wizardry 7 (but I'm biased since Wiz7 is my favorite game of all time). The battles do eventually get a bit tedious, mostly because of waiting for enemies to move once battle has started. It can really take a long time, especially when there are a lot of them (wait until you encounter hordes of Rattkin in the trees). There's a program you can download that will speed up creature movement in battles, which helps tremendously. (See the Wizardry 8 Combat Speed Enhancer at http://www.geocities.com/shau185/downloads.html.)

But it's a very good game overall and it gave satisfying closure to the story from Wizardry 7. You'll even see a character or two from Wizardry 6, if you're paying attention. Have fun!

As for who owns the rights now, it's a somewhat sa...

2008-08-18T15:50:00.000-07:00

As for who owns the rights now, it's a somewhat sad tale that I've been uncovering for the past year. I'll see if I can get a post or two about it up on my blog soon.

W8 is truly a piece of art. I like w8 for a lot of...

2008-08-18T15:49:00.000-07:00

W8 is truly a piece of art. I like w8 for a lot of the same reasons. I love it when an rpg adds tactics to the combat. I am also a big fan of stats. Stats are tactical in themselves.

I still like w7 better, but they are both beyond the standards of most.

Wizardry 8 couldn't find a publisher, and while Si...

2008-08-18T15:48:00.001-07:00

Wizardry 8 couldn't find a publisher, and while Sir-Tech looked for one, they made the game as highly polished as they could. By the it got published, though, the graphics looked dated compared to games that were being released around the same time.

As for hardcore, stats-filled RPGs, I remember reading about an indie project that wanted to fill that now-niche. I can't remember the name offhand, partly because it was Win32 only and I would like to play games on my Gnu/Linux machine if I can help it. Wizardry 8 runs pretty well in Wine.

I guess you'd be a pretty credible source. :) I to...

2008-08-18T15:48:00.000-07:00

I guess you'd be a pretty credible source. :)

I took that assumption from the Wikipedia entry on Wizardry 8 and a report of a pretty nasty end-game bug in the initial release.

And memory makes things hazy. What I do remember is that I had been hearing about the game's upcoming release, but I wasn't actually aware that it was out until it was old news. I wish I could say I'm not as big of an idiot now as I was then, but that might be pushing things.

But I'm reaching. I'm assuming that the rest of the game will be equal to the first three hours, and if that is the case, I'm grasping for rationale as to why it failed. Other than the stock excuse that "the market changed," which I think is marketingspeak for "it's not my fault! Blame someone else!"

What I can say is that NOW I wish whoever owns the rights to the game would allow it to be re-released as a digital download. Part of me hopes they'd license it out to someone else to continue the series, but I dread what might become of it in someone else's hands.

W8 was published at the tail end of the grand era ...

2008-08-18T15:02:00.000-07:00

W8 was published at the tail end of the grand era of solo RPGs. It wasn't rushed out the door, though. In fact, it was released a lot later than some would have liked it. It was truly a labor of love for all the developers involved. It got a number of RPG of the year awards, in fact.

As far as bugs, I do think you are confusing it with the other title which did have a good number of them if I recall it right.