Info about Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord:

Official game description:
**_Featuring the GRAMMY_**® **_Award-winning score by Winifred Phillips!_**
**Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord is a full 3D remake of the first game in the legendary Wizardry series of RPGs.**
The first party-based RPG video game ever released, Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord was a direct inspiration to series like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. Digital Eclipse's revival preserves the appeal of the classic, with many upgrades for modern role-playing game fans.
**Dungeon Crawling, Deluxe**
Craft your own party of adventurers and head into the labyrinth at the behest of the mad overlord Trebor, in search of the amulet stolen by the evil wizard Werdna. Battle groups of challenging enemies, avoid hidden traps, and make your way deeper into the dungeon as you prepare for the ultimate battle: Facing Werdna himself.
**Commitment to Accuracy**
Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord is built directly on top of the original 1981 game's code. Although it looks all new, underneath the hood is the authentic game. You can even view the original Apple II interface as you play.
**Challenge Without Hassle**
While the well-known difficulty of the enemies has not been altered, quality-of-life improvements have been added in every area. Party management, navigation, spellcasting, and combat have all been significantly enhanced.
**A Legend Reborn**
If you're just discovering the legendary Wizardry franchise, Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord is the perfect jumping-in point for new players. Series veterans will love the gorgeous new graphics and sound, and the streamlined interface.

Release date: 23 May, 2024

Categories: RPG, Dungeon Crawler, Turn-based Combat, Party-based Combat, Resource Management, Character Progression, Exploration, Roguelike


- Hardware Profile: No data
Feature extractions:
- Community Price: No data
- Playtime Metrics: No data
- Time-to-fun: No data
- Player Archetypes: No data


Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category.
Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews.
What players like:
- Faithful, modernized classic experience (weight 0.95): The remake successfully modernizes the classic Wizardry experience while remaining faithful to the original. It offers updated graphics, improved UI, and optional quality-of-life features that enhance accessibility without sacrificing the original's charm and challenge. Players can customize their experience to closely resemble the original or enjoy a more streamlined, modern version.
- Challenging, unforgiving gameplay (weight 0.46): The game retains the challenging and unforgiving nature of old-school RPGs, where strategic planning, resource management, and acceptance of permadeath are crucial for success. The high difficulty and risk of character loss contribute to a rewarding sense of progression and attachment to surviving characters. This aspect may not appeal to all players, but it is a core element of the intended experience.
- Significantly improved graphics (weight 0.42): The game features significantly improved graphics, with updated visuals, detailed monster designs, and enhanced animations. The graphical enhancements contribute to a more immersive and visually appealing experience, while still respecting the original's aesthetic. This is a major upgrade from the original's simpler graphics.
- Modern quality-of-life features (weight 0.32): The game includes quality-of-life improvements such as automapping, multiple save slots, and customizable settings, making it more accessible and enjoyable for modern players. The game also runs well on Steam Deck, with intuitive controls and legible text. These features enhance the overall experience without compromising the original's core gameplay.
- Evokes nostalgia and entertainment (weight 0.16): The game evokes strong feelings of nostalgia and provides hours of entertainment. The game's system, despite being 40 years old, still feels relevant and engaging. The game is a classic and provides positive memories.
- Addictive gameplay loop (weight 0.08): The game features an addictive gameplay loop centered around party building, dungeon exploration, and resource management. The consequences of party wipes and the intricate maze design contribute to the game's addictiveness, motivating players to create new parties and try again. The 'abandon party' mechanic adds depth by allowing players to send help to struggling parties.
- Varied character details (weight 0.04): The game features varied character details, showing Dungeons & Dragons influence. The game includes character management, item management, and stat management, encompassing what this genre of RPG offers. The character creation allows for high stat point builds.
- Excellent sound design and music (weight 0.04): The game features excellent sound design and music that contribute to an immersive experience. The sound effects and soundtrack enhance the atmosphere and draw players further into the game's world. Some players appreciate the availability of mods to restore the original music.

Common complaints:
- Poor save system, item loss (weight 0.21): The game's save system, featuring only auto-saves and no manual saving, makes save-scumming difficult and can lead to significant progress loss due to crashes or party wipes. Additionally, the game strips players of all items upon completing the game, which is seen as a poor design choice.
- Outdated, not fun, overpriced (weight 0.2): Many reviewers express disappointment with the game, citing outdated mechanics, a boring grind, and a lack of fun. Some consider it overpriced for the minimal overhaul and feel that the developers prioritized graphics over user experience. Some reviewers even requested a refund.
- Unskippable, lengthy animations (weight 0.18): Lengthy and unskippable combat animations, including enemy introductions and death sequences, significantly slow down the game's pace. This issue is compounded by the need to identify monsters to skip animations, making grinding tedious and detracting from the overall experience.
- Slow pace, tedious grinding (weight 0.18): The game suffers from a slow pace due to drawn-out combat animations, low item drop rates, and excessive grinding. This leads to frustration and boredom, especially given the lack of a deep story or engaging character development. The game's balance and experience point system also feel outdated.
- Unappealing, repetitive gameplay (weight 0.16): The game's design choices, such as distinct character designs and simple graphics, may not appeal to all players, particularly those accustomed to modern RPGs. Cumbersome controls, slow combat animations, and a lack of strategic depth contribute to a repetitive and unengaging experience.
- Unfair RNG, permadeath retained (weight 0.16): The remake retains the original's frustrating reliance on RNG and permadeath, leading to frequent setbacks and a lack of player control. The difficulty feels unfair, and the game fails to address unbalanced aspects, resulting in an unpleasant experience for some players.
- Clunky controls, bad interface (weight 0.12): The game suffers from clunky controls, lack of key remapping options, and an unintuitive interface, making it feel outdated and painful to use. The targeting system and character selection controls are particularly problematic, hindering tactical gameplay.
- Harsh death penalties, high costs (weight 0.08): The game features harsh penalties for party wipes, including costly resurrection fees and the potential for permanent character loss. This, combined with the difficulty in earning gold, creates a frustrating cycle of death and expensive trips to the Temple.
- Tedious Murphy's Ghost encounter (weight 0.08): The Murphy's Ghost encounter is particularly frustrating due to its lengthy animations and frequent freezes, making it a tedious and sometimes unplayable experience. This is exacerbated by the fact that grinding against this enemy is often necessary for experience points.
- High enemy escape rate (weight 0.07): Enemies frequently flee from combat, hindering farming efforts and making encounters feel less impactful. Additionally, being ambushed by numerous enemies can be frustrating, and the escape mechanic itself is unreliable.
- Ineffective status ailment spells (weight 0.07): Status ailment spells, such as Katino (sleep), are abnormally ineffective, even against early enemies. This makes them unreliable and reduces their usefulness in combat, impacting strategic options.
- Poor character re-classing system (weight 0.07): Re-classing characters adds ageing and resets stats, discouraging experimentation and hindering progression. The experience point limit and the need to grind for decent stat increases also contribute to a frustrating character development system.

Gameplay feedback:
- Slow battles, corpse runs (weight 0.12): Battles are turn-based, but lack a battle acceleration option, causing fights with many enemies to take a long time. If the entire party dies, a 'corpse run' with another party is required to retrieve them.
- Challenging maze navigation (weight 0.1): The game features a mini-map that resets upon entry, warps, or escapes, encouraging mapping. The maze contains one-way doors, floor spinners, and teleporters, presenting navigational challenges.
- Save-scumming for HP gains (weight 0.08): Some reviewers used save-scumming to manipulate hit point gains on level up, as the game often granted only 1 hit point per level. This indicates a potential issue with the game's balancing.
- Turn-based combat, party management (weight 0.08): The game features turn-based combat with party management and resource conservation. Combat involves selecting actions, and the game determines the specific target of attacks.
- High skill ceiling, strategic gameplay (weight 0.08): The game is difficult to master, requiring players to learn quirks and mechanics through trial and error. It demands a careful, strategic approach, similar to a roguelike or XCOM, with an emphasis on resource management.
- Character stats and leveling (weight 0.06): Characters have stats like strength, intelligence, and luck, which influence their abilities. Level up stat increases are allocated by the player, ensuring consistent growth.
- Monster compendium encourages exploration (weight 0.03): The game includes a monster compendium that requires players to scan enemies to reveal stats, treasure, and commentary. This encourages exploration and provides more information about the game world.
- Strict spell learning (weight 0.02): Spell learning on level up feels stricter, requiring multiple mages/priests and high wisdom/faith. Some reviewers resorted to save-scumming to ensure desired spells were granted.
- Positioning matters in combat (weight 0.02): Character positioning matters in combat, affecting which attacks can be used. It's hard to escape from enemies, so it's better not to try.
- Original Apple II interface option (weight 0.02): The game allows you to view the original Apple II interface while playing. The remake is based on the Apple II version but includes features from console versions.
- Race and class stat bonuses (weight 0.02): Certain races provide better starting stats for certain classes. Stats are not reset upon class change.

Performance notes:
- Frequent freezes and lockups (weight 0.08): Players report frequent freezes, hangs, and lockups, sometimes requiring a restart. These issues are exacerbated by the Fast Battle feature and occur in specific battles. This significantly impacts the gameplay experience.
- Inconsistent stability reports (weight 0.04): Some players are reporting a smooth and bug-free experience, while others are encountering issues. This suggests that the game's stability may vary depending on the hardware or software configuration.
- Monster animations slow gameplay (weight 0.03): While monster animations are present, they contribute to longer wait times, especially when facing multiple enemies with preemptive strikes. This can slow down the pace of the game and become tedious for players.
- Early bugs mostly resolved (weight 0.02): Some bugs were present during early access and at launch, but have since been resolved in version 1.1. This indicates that the developers are actively working to improve the game's stability and address player feedback.
- Broken menu navigation (weight 0.01): Players are experiencing issues with menu and sub-menu navigation. The navigation often breaks, requiring players to repeatedly exit and re-enter the menus, which is frustrating and time-consuming.
- Excessive GPU power consumption (weight 0.01): The game consumes an excessive amount of GPU power, which could lead to performance issues on some systems. This is a specific technical issue that impacts the user experience.
- Poorly optimized port (weight 0.01): The game is considered a poor port of the Apple version. This suggests that the game may not be optimized for other platforms and may not take full advantage of their capabilities.
- Unusual save slot behavior (weight 0.01): The first save slot may exhibit unusual behavior. This is a specific bug that could potentially lead to data loss or other issues.
- Extensive controller support (weight 0.01): The game supports various controllers (Dualshock, Xbox, Switch, Steamdeck) with button prompt support. This is a positive feature that enhances the player experience.
- Selling un鑑定 cursed items (weight 0.01): The game allows players to sell un鑑定 items at Boltac store, including cursed items. This is a specific gameplay mechanic that may not be intended.

Recommendations:
- Good for nostalgia, divisive otherwise (weight 0.54): Many reviewers recommend the game to fans of the original, praising its faithfulness and the nostalgia it evokes. However, many others do not recommend the game due to its outdated mechanics, high difficulty, and lack of modern conveniences. Some suggest it's only worth playing for nostalgia or as a piece of gaming history.
- Significant bugs and polish issues (weight 0.52): A significant number of reviewers mention bugs and a lack of polish as major issues, with some even describing game-breaking problems. This leads to many recommending waiting for patches or avoiding the game altogether until these issues are resolved. Some reviewers suggest that negative reviews may be overblown or system-specific.
- Overpriced for the content (weight 0.34): Several reviewers feel the game is overpriced for what it offers, especially considering its age and the lack of substantial improvements. They suggest waiting for a sale or considering it only worth a much lower price point. Some reviewers felt that the game was not worth the money even on sale.
- Interesting for gaming history (weight 0.21): Some reviewers suggest that the game is best suited for those interested in gaming history or as a way to experience the roots of the JRPG genre. They highlight its unique, immersive experience through its simplicity and focus on exploration. However, some reviewers found the game unenjoyable for treasure hunting.
- Desire for more remakes/content (weight 0.05): Several reviewers express a desire for the developers to continue remaking other games in the series, particularly Knight of Diamonds and Legacy of Llylgamyn. Some reviewers also request additional content, such as a DLC with a sound package. These points indicate a positive reception to the remake and a desire for more content.
- Lacks modern conveniences/tutorials (weight 0.03): Some reviewers point out that the game lacks modern conveniences like tutorials and clear guidance, requiring players to save often and figure things out on their own. While some appreciate this old-school approach, others may find it frustrating if they are used to more polished and hand-held experiences.
- Worth the full price (weight 0.02): Some reviewers felt that the game was worth the full price of admission, especially for those who want to relive their childhood gaming experiences. This point is specific but only mentioned a few times.
- Original Famicom version preferred (weight 0.01): One reviewer recommends buying a used FC or SFC and purchasing the original game cartridge instead, even with the AC bug fixed, stating that the Famicom (FC) version is much better. This point is very specific but only mentioned once.
- Great deal, classic game (weight 0.01): One reviewer mentions that the game is a great deal, especially considering its original price in 1982, and that it was one of the best games of its time. This point is specific but only mentioned once.

Other player notes:
- Influential RPG design (weight 0.06): Wizardry's design and mechanics have significantly influenced the JRPG genre, including series like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. Its historical significance is evident in later RPGs, and its settings are inherited by famous works such as YU-NO and Persona.
- Save backups recommended (weight 0.03): The game includes save game directory information for those who want to back up their progress, and it is recommended to do so before each expedition. There is a risk of file corruption when force-quitting the game, and money can be lost.
- Shared enemy animations (weight 0.02): Many enemies share animations, which makes enemy identification more important. Some enemies lack sounds in the Early Access version, but patches are consistent.
- High experience gain (weight 0.02): Characters with titles can repeatedly fight the final boss to gain experience, but this can be disabled in settings. The amount of experience gained after a battle is very high.
- Inconsistent item naming (weight 0.02): Item and monster names are based on older versions, but the word separation has changed (e.g., "LONG SWORD" instead of "Longsword"). The game is in Early Access, with some monster descriptions missing.
- Fixed character creation points (weight 0.01): Character creation bonus points are now fixed, preventing the creation of overpowered characters but saving time. This change streamlines the character creation process.
- Separate key item inventory (weight 0.01): Key items are managed in a separate inventory slot, preventing item clutter. This improves inventory management and reduces frustration.
- Vitality replaces age (weight 0.01): Age is replaced with "vitality," calculated as 100 - (age - 18), allowing for better character immersion. This change enhances the role-playing aspect of the game.
- Cohesive art style (weight 0.01): The game's art style and overall aesthetic create a cohesive atmosphere. This contributes to the overall immersion and enjoyment of the game.
- Custom character portraits (weight 0.01): The game's character face graphics are not geared towards a Japanese audience; custom images can be added. This allows players to personalize their characters' appearances.
- Periodic updates released (weight 0.01): Updates are released periodically, with a fast combat feature added in August 2024 (only for fully unlocked creatures in the bestiary). This shows ongoing development and improvements to the game.
- Varied item drop rates (weight 0.01): The drop rates of items varied, with Silver Gauntlets and Rings of Healing being particularly rare for the reviewer. This could indicate an imbalance in item drop rates.
- Treasure after enemy flee? (weight 0.01): The reviewer encountered a situation where treasure was obtained even when all enemies fled, unsure if it's a bug or intended feature. This could be a potential bug or an unusual game mechanic.

Emotions:
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