An unexpectedly warm and ethereal journey so far.

I'd played 1 other wizardry game, something or another on the gameboy, and it was what you'd expect from something so old. I mean, wizardry started the genre, so there's a whole lot of ancient entries I can hardly differentiate from each other (This is purely the Japanese series; the English originals I haven't touched quite yet but look completely different in presentation and tone. Look at the wikipedia article. The JP games far exceed the english ones at this point. Japan just loooves Wizardry! Oh, anyways--). One of the only JP titles to make it to English shores was this little gem, and the tone it presents is quite the interesting one.

It's gentle and snowy and mysterious. The setting is a half-destroyed town and the first person you meet is a bedraggled phantom. The dreamlike tone carries over to the story as well-- The characters have mostly intangible goals, wishing to know trust and comradery, to fall in love and overcome fears. It gives the game in emotional edge in an otherwise sparse story. There's some light-hearted humor sprinkled in for good measure. The orcs really grow on you.

Also, the battles. I did die twice at the start, but after a few levels it became smooth sailing. There hasn't been much challenge so far. The group tactics you can employ are a real treat, though. The dopamine I get from thwarting enemy rushes are ~mama mia chefs kiss!~ There hasn't been any need for grinding, so getting to those mysterious story events have been no problem. My one issue is that the menus are clunky as all hell-- Feels like some NES stuff right here. Otherwise, I'm totally hooked.