Review of Wizardry 5, Heart of the Maelstrom

[@gurgisjones1120]

This is exactly how it looked when I played it. Thanks. Brings back lots of memories. I don't know if you mentioned it, but graph paper was essential to mapping the levels. I got about 60% of the way through, then found a booklet by mail with helpful hints and maps, but never did complete it (unlike Wizard Wars and the arcade Dragon's Lair).

[@MrTuco40]

Best review of this game on youtube.

[@dfortaeGameReviews]

Thank you very much!

[@4kdemoscene]

Agreed...

[@adamwoodworth5758]

Thank you for the review, a great old classic game. Playing it on my Android phone 😊

[@ExperienceEric]

I've been playing this game for over 20 years, I still LOVE IT

[@jorgebautista3086]

Wow That's impressive!. Any tips for a beginner?

[@ExperienceEric]

@@jorgebautista3086 Patience, you will not beat this game quickly. But the grind of building up is the hook imo. Don't waste time on a Wizard until you have already maxed out the spell casting of a mage, then change him to a Wizard. Your gonna need good maps of each level. Always start off with 2 Samurai and a fighter or Lord and keep those 3 in front. Then have a Cleric, Thief and Mage. Eventually make the Cleric a Lord, the Mage a Wiz and the thief a Ninja. All the good items and weapons have to be found in the maze as you go. You can fight the Laughing kettle and level up faster but you will need to be around level 30 or better to kill him. Save the game right before the battle and rest if he kills your people. Just keep reviving him in town once you kill him. La-La Moo-moo is where you get the most premium weapons and armor but that is much later in the game. Level 777 is basically hell, the toughest guys are there.

[@ExperienceEric]

BTW the reset trick in battle only works on the S-NES version as far as I know, but its the better version anyway. Much better graphics and colors that the classic version. On a long campaign save the game a lot, it only takes a second.

[@THEFRISKIESTDINGO]

Invoke the soulstealer. Don’t equip it but invoke it for your fighters and until you pick the equip option on them again they’ll deal insane amounts of damage. 2300+ points of damage.

[@ExperienceEric]

@@THEFRISKIESTDINGO Just fighters or can you do that with Lords and Samuiri's too?

[@JimLeonard]

This is likely the best, most in-depth video review of this game I think the world will ever see. How many hours did it take to record all of the footage? For that matter, do you write a script for your reviews, or just narrate your edited video as it plays?

[@dfortaeGameReviews]

Thanks for the compliment! It took many hours to record all the video. Most of my reviews (especially of complicated games) go through the same process. After recording, I sift through all the video and pull out clips that I want to put into context. I then arrange the clips based on category/context, sometimes adding a simple text description to the file name so I know the general statements I want to make. Then, I play through to make sure it all makes sense. Then I narrate, making up the statements as the video clips play through. Finally, I export the master video, and publish to KZbin!

[@The_Real_DCT]

Yeah the dark zones in Wizardry 1-5 are purposely there to screw with player. It's to make mapping out sections of the the maze harder much like spinner and teleport traps. The light spell is pretty much only to help you find hidden doors in the non console versions of the first five Wizardrys, the console versions it actually lights up the dungeon wall tiles making things easier to see

[@rolo1369]

I’ve seen a few people mention the Super Nintendo version. Have you tried it? For me, it was one of the greatest games ever made. It was flawless. The ending levels where you felt like you where in hell.... what a crazy experience. There was no guide back then. My friend and I played it for hours upon hours. He would spend the night and we would just play. I remember us both getting very frustrated because we couldn’t find a key to progress. We searched everywhere for hours and days until we were just about to give up. And that’s when I got to a well and decided to see how far down I could dive. This was probably around 2am. My friend was sleeping... And then it happened. I got to one of the lower levels of the well and found that damn key!!! I was screaming so loud it woke my friend up. And then he started screaming hahaha. And then we eventually beat the game. It was all such a great experience. Well, I hope you’ve tried this version. Actually I hope you haven’t. Because you’re in for a real treat.

[@tileslasher]

I played this game in the mid 90s and I was really powerful and got killed and I was so angry because my guys were all so powerful ugh!!! But I actually still have this game I've kept it for all these years because it was the coolest game I've ever played still to this day, even better than oblivion. Man you really made my day with this video thanks man 😀😀😀 I had so much time into it to

[@dfortaeGameReviews]

Glad you enjoyed the video! Haha! Yeah, that's rough losing powerful characters like that!!! Maybe some day you will give it another try!

[@fpavic2885]

I am playing this game right now and enjoying it. I like your taste in video games. Big thumbs up!

[@2112dorf]

Good review. Would you ever consider doing a "DOS vs Console" comparison of such games as Bards Tale, Ultima 4, Exodus Ultima (all NES), Might and Magic (Genesis and SNES), and countless others? It would be interesting if you compared the differences, and decide a "winner" at the end of the review...

[@dfortaeGameReviews]

Thanks. That's an interesting idea... I will consider it!

[@josephpurdy8390]

43:00 I played on a MUD thats been around, since the late 1990s. Thankfully there are still players that have been there for 20 years. A few of the secrets that were put in. The inputs are very specific, and no relevant information is given how to discover them. What the programmers did a long time ago was tell "certain" players. How to access it. Therefore almost no one other than the developers can readily access these rooms. That is because you will not know where to do command imputs in a specific places. I believe it was done on purpose not to be necessary for advancement, nor getting something special. It was hidden for the purpose of staying hidden, while still being accessible.

[@Schleimie]

The good or evil thingy was not a bad idea, but it had changed the game a lot if being good, neutral or evil affects the spells, clerics or magic users can cast.

[@hiuhiu30]

Heya Dfortae, was wondering if you ever considered to review japanese wizardry? (like Llylgamyn Saga on snes, five ordeals and labyrinth of lost souls(steam) and that GB one) I've been checking around wizardry vids on youtube but it's very lacking especially the japanese one, I wanna to see what's your take on it nice video as always and thanks for making these btw!

[@dfortaeGameReviews]

I have considered reviewing them, but I have so many other games on my list. I will probably get to them some day, but it will probably be in the distant future! Wish I could work on gaming full time, but a full time job interferes a lot!

[@hiuhiu30]

@@dfortaeGameReviews I feel you, Thanks alot for the reply!

[@2112dorf]

I vaguely remember a game from SSI on my C64 called Roadwar 2000. Could you review it someday? And Questron, Rogue, Infocom adventures....

[@dfortaeGameReviews]

Roadwar 2000 looks interesting. I will definitely review it at some point.

[@shadowpresident4203]

Wizardry 5 was probably close to "peak CGA". In 1988 CGA was on the way out (or a couple years already out of date if you're not feeling so charitable.) EGA was in its prime by this time, and VGA was just around the corner. But the crew at Sir-Tech certainly knew what they were doing with the CGA format. I'd have liked to see use of the other CGA palette with yellow and green, but if we're going to be stuck in a world of four color pink, blue, and white graphics... this is the game to be stuck with! There is a ton of depth here. Don't forget to bring some graph paper. The lengthy development challenges of Wizardry IV: Return of Werdna probably factored into part V feeling like a game from another era. Few probably were there to see the quality design and thought that went into the map design here, as late 80's DOS RPG fans were playing the likes of Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny with their fancy pants EGA graphics and "high resolution" modes. Thanks for putting in the effort to do it right, on a game many would have immediately discarded as garbage due to outdated graphics. In terms of gameplay and design, as usual Sir-Tech knocked it out of the park. Quality and detailed review.

[@dfortaeGameReviews]

You're very welcome ShadowPresident 420, glad you enjoyed the review! Great game indeed.

[@jaredbrame5639]

Excellent review! Really liked you synched up the video and narrative. As for the game itself...way too hard for me. I played Wizardry I a *lot* and enjoyed that it was mostly just level grinding. Wiz 4 was damn near impossible, although a great twist on the earlier games, having you play as the evil Werdna. I tried Wizardry 5, because it sounded interesting (hey, new spells!), but I'm glad I quit when I did. As I said, waaaay too hard for me.

[@dfortaeGameReviews]

Thanks Jared, glad you enjoyed the review! Yes, 4 and 5 are both brutally hard!

[@paulh3126]

When I first started this game, I kept resting after every battle, then noticed my ages were 50+. Started over and took it a bit easy adter that.

[@BenjaminGessel]

You know, I have Wizardry 6, 7 and 8 on my I5 mac, from Steam... They were rather cheap. :-) Maybe I should give 6 and 7 a shot... With Wiz. 8, I've gone pretty darn far already in the past, but it's kinda hard to decide what to do next. I haven't played it for a while, to be honest... Wiz. 5 looks a lot more like a standard party based dungeon fantasy adventure game, etc., with certain elements that remind me a bit of something from the early-mid 90's that was like a very early dos based internet or more accurately network based multiplayer game (a MUD, or MUDD?) There is another game that comes to mind like Wizardry 5... Dungeon, was it? Anyway, yeah, this game, like many others like it, seems big on right angle halls, D&D type qualities/combat somewhat, etc.-vast, etc., takes lots and lots of patience at times... Can be rather unforgiving of course, etc. I suppose the downside of this kind of game is the lack of visual variety, repetition of combat/interactions, etc. Still, it's incredibly satisfying to get more powerful, further in the game, etc., of course. The challenge, taxing nature of the game, etc. is, in a way, much of the upside of the game...

[@simonbelmont3023]

Dungeon Master

[@Vebinz]

Thank you for the in-depth review. The graphics do look very well-drawn for CGA. Still, the game looks too hard, I think. All these Wizardry games look more for expert players.

[@dfortaeGameReviews]

You're very welcome! Yes, it is extremely difficult, but fun!

[@Schleimie]

If you want to change your alignment to evil, just kill good Monsters, that doesn`t attack you.

[@mikesol2728]

How do you pass through doors in the PC version of this game? My characters just say Ouch! as if it is a solid wall. I tried the (p)ick command for picking the lock but the only message I get is 'What?'. I can't pass through any door making the game completely unplayable.

[@dfortaeGameReviews]

+Michael Solomon Use the K)ick command by pressing K.

[@mikesol2728]

Dfortae, Thank you so very much.

[@dfortaeGameReviews]

+Michael Solomon You bet!

[@2112dorf]

I like your reviews, in that I've played most of them when I was in High School in the 1980s. Bards Tale and the Gold Box SSI games were great. Could you do a video on how to get these to run as emulators on modern machines? I run a C64 emulator on a PC running on XP, but some of the PC versions look great (Bards Tale, for example). Thanks

[@dfortaeGameReviews]

Check out a video I made on how to use DOS Box. That's the best emulator for old DOS games.

[@death2all79zx]

Can you import parties/characters from previous games?

[@dfortaeGameReviews]

Unfortunately no, not for Wizardry 5. You can import to 7 from 6, and 8 to 7, but nothing to 5. 6, 7, and 8 started a new "category/world" for the Wizardry series. Wizardry 5 was so different from 4 that there was no import function.

[@shadowpresident4203]

Wizardry 5 is a good game in a lot of ways, and from what I've heard they dialed back the absurd difficulty level from Wizardry 4. I've got to believe that in 1988 it felt very outdated however. Between the CGA graphics and lack of mouse support, it feels like something out of the early 80's rather than the late 80's. 1988 was the same year Might and Magic II: Gates to Another World was released, which is probably the most direct competitor to this game. Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny was also released in 1988. On the console scene, Dragon Quest was already out and Final Fantasy was nearing completion. It seems like you'd have to be a hard core RPG fan to pick this game over any of those far more accessible games, especially at a time when many people were not familiar with the concept and playing their first RPG, whether Japanese or Western-style. Wizardry 5 - A good game but a little hard to pick up and play in 1988, let alone nowadays.

[@rolo1369]

ShadowPresident 420 unless you play the snes version, which is absolutely amazing! Have you tried it?

[@shadowpresident4203]

@@rolo1369 Nope, I've never played it on the SNES. I'd definitely like to check it out. Do you know if the SNES port has been re-released on any modern platforms or virtual console type services? Or is the best way of playing it going to be an SNES emulator and ROM file? It's interesting they decided to port Wizardry V to the SNES, when VI was already out by that time I believe. Maybe the developers thought Bane of the Cosmic Forge would have been too large and complex of a game for the SNES, or maybe they just wanted to tackle a less ambitious project first.

[@shanenoah2695]

Do you know if the DOS version of this game is supposed to have sound? Thanks

[@dfortaeGameReviews]

I don't think it has sound. This is technically a "boot loader" (uses a specially formed DOS command shell).

[@Schleimie]

4 Colors are not that much. Isn`t there a Commodore 64 or Commodore Amiga version?

[@The_Real_DCT]

Yes and a Apple 2 version

[@The_Real_DCT]

Oh and a SNES and PS one port as well

[@Schleimie]

@@The_Real_DCT Thank you.

[@ExperienceEric]

SNES port is really good

[@byteblog7877]

watch ur friends explore

[@trifortay]

I will complete your quest, I will beat the game without hex editing