Chou-Mahou Tairiku Wozz (1995)

The Magical Land of Wozz, for SNES

Rating: 8.3/10; Great

Highly recommended for any Jrpg fan

Wozz is a traditional Jrpg which seems to draw inspiration from some of the best SNES rpgs. Aside from the typical towns, overworld, dungeons, random battles and turn based menu combat, it has Final Fantasy style inventory, Breath of Fire style art for battles, Ogre Battle formations (based on which characters are assigned to the front or back rows), a crafting system kind of like Star Ocean, tanks like Metal Max, robots like Robotrek, and a quirky setting and atmosphere like Earthbound and Paladin's Quest.

The game stars 3 protagonists, one of which you choose to be the main character. This has a minor effect on some parts where the party briefly splits up and on a few scenes including the ending. There is Seifer from FF8, the selfish arrogant hot shot who serves as the group's warrior, despite using a bow. Ness from Earthbound, the bumbling psychic who serves as the group's mage with elemental nukes and healing. His magic system is fun to use to exploit enemy weaknesses for big damage, which is important because he can never equip a weapon. His unarmed attacks do significantly less damage than the rest of the party, so you are encouraged to nuke on most turns. Good thing mana restoring items are cheap and you can carry up to 999 of any item. There are a small number of spells to keep track of and the nukes increase in power as you fight more battles. His psychic abilities are even more interesting; they can be used while silenced and telekinesis gives a random element attack which could be more powerful than a magic spell. Or it could suck. There seems to be terrain effects on what elements are available and it reminds me of Mog's dance. He can also summon robots to replace him for an added layer of tactics to the combat. These robots are created by the 3rd protagonist; Lucca from Chrono Trigger, the sensible genius inventor who fights with guns. Her only unique combat ability is scan, which synergizes extremely well with the mage for pinpointing enemy weaknesses. Her main contribution lays outside of battle with the crafting system. She learns recipes with levels, from treasure and from story events. She can mix consumables, which is not very useful, make weapons and armor better than those available in stores and loot, and make robots and vehicles. The required ingredients are clearly listed but I hoarded everything just in case it was needed for a future recipe. And then there were the items that I did sell not realizing they could not be purchased and were needed for a late game recipe. She can also try to invent things without knowing the recipe. I was able to make some better weapons and armor by randomly combining things in the early game but gave up experimenting soon after. Each recipe requires 3 different items and the amount of each is not simply 1. So the odds of guessing recipes are very low, though you can use a guide to make seriously OP stuff.

Vehicles include tanks, ships and aircraft and are only used for getting around the world map. They have their own stats, hp, attacks and healing items, leading to a very simplified version of the vehicular combat from Metal Max. A single vehicle fights in place of the party and has plenty of uses of powerful attacks that can wipe the floor with enemies. Unfortunately, it is game over if the vehicle is destroyed and they can't keep pace with the survivability of the party, so it can be a liability to use tanks later on. Not so much for the ships and air since water and sky enemies don't change and you can't use the party there anyway. The 4th party position is for the several side characters that join during the adventure. Sometimes a specific character is mandatory but for most of the game you choose who to take. The end game even allows you to take everyone and swap between them with a single button (not in battle though). These side characters are arguably better than the 3 heroes, since every one does good weapon damage and has useful magic. Sometimes it may make you wonder why the world even needs the 3 heroes in the first place, but it is good for balance because otherwise certain heroes cough Lucca cough would be kicked out of the party. Not that it really matters because the game has a fair challenge level. Even if you power up with grinding and the best possible gear for that part of the game, the enemies will always be reasonably threatening. They can hit very hard with both regular attacks and magic, to the point where you are strongly encouraged to learn their elemental weaknesses to burn them down ASAP. Bosses can also be quite challenging, though it varies quite a bit; some of the mid game bosses were quite easy. There are also some repeat bosses, which were way too easy and the game missed an opportunity to create interesting challenge there. Imagine if you had to fight an entire party of early bosses rather than just one at a time. There was one particular trio that I thought for sure the game would escalate by making me fight all 3 at once. I was disappointed.

The story is interesting with pretty good characterization, especially for the 3 heroes. The other party members and even generic npcs are not bad either. There are a few sidequests but nothing particularly complex or time consuming. Everything combines to make a charming and fun experience that does not really have anything holding it back. The only real complaint I have is the lack of auto battle or some way to avoid random battles with easy enemies. I would also have liked more importance for the robots and vehicles since they seem more like optional flavor than needed tactical advantage.

Pro

• Good story, characters, and setting
• Some replayability from main character choice
• Good combat and fun abilities
• High enemy damage makes for engaging combat
• Many weapons have a random chance of bonus effect
• Relatively user friendly crafting system

Con

• Thief enemies that don’t return the item upon defeat
• Graphics glitch that sometimes obscures your damage numbers (though I can’t rule out it being from emulation or the English patch)
• Save points
• Tanks are underwhelming and can result in unfair game over
• Crafting system encourages hoarding and inventory clutter
• Some items needed for crafting cannot be purchased or crafted
• Side party members (and their gear) not available in the post game
• Can’t tell who can equip armor from the inventory; have to check each character’s equip screen
• Description for accessories does not show stats
• Repeat boss fights that are too easy

Beat as the archer. Early on I experimented with inventing and made some gear better than should be available at that point, but nothing brokenly overpowered. I soon gave up that experimenting because it was too complicated with inputting the number of each item. I made a wooden tank but did not bother to try out robots. Except for mandatory segments, I used Eliza as my party member because of her effective offense. Being hot was nice too. I started off with only the archer in the front row but soon changed to having everyone except Chun in the front because the girls had decent hp and defense, and it was useful to spread out incoming damage. Around the mid game I started being a cheapskate and not always buying or inventing the latest gear. I made the mammoth tank for a quest but still no robots. Leona had a weapon that inflicted sleep, and later a better one with paralyze. I had her attack different targets for crowd control, and it was quite effective. I did have better damage weapons for boss fights and by the late game I stopped bothering with paralyze.

I made the latest tank and robot in the late game but found them too weak to be useful; the fire mammoth tank, drill tank and Neptune robot. When I got Ramune I did the arena sidequest 8 times to get everyone 2 of the ultimate accessory; up until then I gave Shot attack boosts, Leona luck boosts (maybe it helped with paralyze?) and the others defense. The arena was challenging for the first couple times, but after it was trivial. I then proceeded to finish all sidequest and finish the game. I made the Solo robot to use in the final boss fight and the fight was not too difficult, though I had a few characters, and the robot, die. Then did the post final boss and crafted the ultimate gear. I was not able to make the best robot though because I was missing the angelic. Whatever that is I think Ramune might have been wearing it, but you can't access the other characters in the post game! Did not matter, the final final boss was not too difficult.

I really enjoyed this game. Great story and characters with solid combat that stays challenging. Even with optimal gear the enemies hit hard enough to be a threat. I was annoyed at how cluttered my inventory was because I did not want to sell anything in case it was needed for a future recipe. I ended with max money anyway and could have invested more in better mana restore items. I did keep of stock of 999 basic mana restore items and used them liberally.

End stats:

Shot: level 64 with mach bow, cyber armor, apollo helm, expert glove and 2 lionheart

Leona: level 61 with destroyer, venus dress, ruby tiara, pain bracers and 2 lionheart

Chun: level 62 with wonder armor, IQ helm, Mars glove and 2 lionheart