Let's be honest, this is one of the greatest remaster/remakes of all time. In it's current state, the game has so many options to relive the old school experience or shave off all of the pointy (razor sharp, rusty, poisoned, level draining) edges. In the end, what made this game truly shine stand out. It was great, it's still great. Wizardry 1, already inspirational, can now show off it's great ideas and immense fun without players needing to know all of its rules and idiosyncrasies first. That said, you need to engage in the game's systems, understand each monster's peril, carefully manage your resources. What this game takes out: -Needing to create your own game guide while you play (it can still be very useful to draw your own map, but now you can cast a spell to confirm if you are correct and reveal your mistakes) -Needing to grind up a recovery team when things go wrong in the dungeon -Rerolling characters to get decent stats If you liked those things, guess what, the options are still there! What the game puts in: Basically everything from the previous definitive version (the SNES "Nintendo Power" version) including: -Better in game map -colorful enemy sprites and animations -thieves and ninja can hide from the backrow (basically allows them to attack from the back row every other turn) Things that weren't in that version: -lots more QOL features (all optional!) -sweet mini view of what the original game looked like in the bottom right corner (best feature) -mouse controls! (but the keyboard ones are very good) -Your highest party level is noted to help you recruit a recovery team (all of the financial pain of a party wipe, the thrill of the recovery, but none of the grinding). -better DUMAPIC usability and bestiary
The really good stuff All together, the tactical combat with spell slinging is very top notch. There are many layers to play around with. The first layer, the dynamic of the basic 7 units. Your shield units and pikemen are controlling the hexes of the battlefield and closing off your opponents maneuvers while enabling your own. Your archers and cavalry are dealing damage and exploiting weaknesses. Battle mages, support units and skirmishers are opening opportunities and exploiting certain conditions. But all these basic strategies can be tweaked with the other mechanics. There’s morale, which can boost your crits for massive damage, or demoralizing the enemy causing them to miss and do reduced damage. There are many buffs and debuffs that can disable or stun units, pour on damage, or give special protection. There are units that get tougher with every hit, units that bounce back with healing, units that ignore terrain or zip between shield units to get to the flank, etc. Spells are also the good stuff, allowing you to cast world altering spells and create and summon strange combat units or significantly alter combat encounters. In this game, spells are packaged into tomes of about 5 spells each. The spells fit closely into a theme and every 2 tomes opens up the next tier up to 5. You can freely mix and match these, and another tome unlocks after every 4 spells. You are free to dip in to any tome, each of which is in one of 6 schools of the empire tree. It is a very friendly system which means you can have just about anything. Age of Wonders 4 creates a magical empire building game where it really feels like the civilization is your own. There is a lot of flavor in the world. The story realms of AoW4 were pretty impressive. The consequences are meaningful and it is satisfying to see a strategy play out or snatch victory from the jaws of defeat with clever unit maneuvering and spell slinging.
I greatly enjoyed the first game, so I am excitedly watching this second one. However, it seems the demo does not give a good impression of the features of the game. The first game included a lot of interesting powers that modified each of your weapons and gave a brutal magic to the gameplay. This demo doesn't really sample the awesome possibilities of the first game. Obviously this is a demo, but I think putting some of that stuff more up front and center would do better to advertise the cool creative spirit of the designer.
I bought game after researching some of the Ys series and being pleasantly delighted that every single game in the series is available on GOG.com. This is an excellent action RPG. At first I was unsure since many of its major features raised some red flags for me. Tons of crafting? Fast, breezy, action oriented combat? AI Companions? It had me wary. But the fact is, the game is a pure delight, especially for those seeking out an adventure game that puts exploration, excitement, and discovery at the forefront. In some ways, this is the action-JRPG take on adventure stories like Robinson Crusoe, Indiana Jones or Treasure Island. You explore an island that feels like it was lost to time, isolated from the rest of the planet under mysterious circumstances. And the game really sells that feeling. The combat is quick paced, with experienced players likely requiring the game difficulty to be set at Hard or above. The AI companions basically never get in the way. You make use of a set of three basic moves and up to twelve special maneuvers. Each character is distinct, but not necessarily in a massive way. There are two types of dodges (a less risky one that moves your character out of the way and a riskier one which can enable you to pour on your special moves for free), which keeps the combat engaging without being overly complicated. The writing is generally very good and the characters are actually fun and interesting. There is some serious Male Gaze going on (in the early introduction of one character and the outfit of the titular protagonist). So, fair warning. And it is too bad, because otherwise the writing is on par with that of a good superhero comic or adventure story. I was surprised to learn the initial release had such technical issues, because they were completely unnoticeable to me with the game in the current state. All the paid DLC seems completely superfluous and is not recommended (but the High Definition Textures DLC is highly recommended).
