Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord ウィザードリィ 狂王の試練場
Developed by: Game Soft
Published by: Nexoft
Released dates: December 22nd 1987 (JP) | July 1990 (NA)
Hitting computers way back in 1981, Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord is the first in theWizardry series. It also boasts one of the sickest titles of any game in history. Wizardry and Ultima are the progenitors of the entire RPG genre; pick up any JRPG, and it’ll share some DNA with these heavy hitters.
So far I’ve only finished one title from these two series: that being Ultima: Exodus. I consider that my most scarring NES clear to date.
Can I trauma dump you for a second? Because I was thoroughly burned by Ultima: Exodus. Like, I came home from work one day only to find all my stuff thrown onto the front lawn levels of burned. Fourth degree type stuff. Therapy type stuff. I’ve played a scant few 8-bit RPGs since then because my experience with it was so tumultuous. You can read about it in my review from a few years back. To summarize: Exodus did not leave me the same way it found me. The breakup was messy, and I don’t want to get hurt.
Not again. Not like that.
Could I find it in my heart to love again with Wizardry?
Upon its 1990 NES release, Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord was deemed too repetitive and hard by the magazines of the time. Electronic Gaming Monthly rating it a paltry 17/40. Even the terminally delightful Nintendo Power (above) didn’t have anything nice to say about it. Considering they were a Nintendo propaganda machine made to positively review crummy games to boost their sales, that’s pretty impressive.
The RPG genre was still an obscurity stateside, and what little we had felt like it had come on leaps and bounds since Wiz‘s original 1981 release. Hell, Wizardry VI was the latest one by the time this rolled its way onto the Nintendo!
I can understand why reviewers couldn’t wrap their heads around it. Wiz is repetitive, has minimal graphics, pulls no punches with its difficulty, and is a daunting world to navigate. No auto-mapping, either. Your first party will likely die a horrible death on the first floor of the dungeon. There’s a chance for that death to be permanent, too. Even if you make it back to town in one piece, a resurrection can result in the character turning into a pile of ash. You get a second shot at resurrection with these ashes, but if it fails again, the character’s gone forever. Did I mention that Wiz auto-saves anytime your characters get killed in battle? Don’t get me started on the enemies that can instakill no matter how high your HP is. Or the undead baddies that can drain away your hard-earned levels.
So yeah, shit’s pretty brutal.
My roller coaster relationship with Ultima: Exodus taught me one thing: all they’ll do is break your heart. It also taught me that research is your greatest weapon when tackling old school RPGs. So I guess that’s two things. Anyways, getting thoroughly engrossed in old internet posts detailing particulars about items, spells, pitfalls and strategies alongside drawing up my own maps? That in itself is a game to me, and it’s one I love to play when I’m in the mood for it.
So thanks to all of my planning, I already knew about a lot of the pitfalls going into it, which made the excursion feel slightly more leisurely. Taking things veeeery slowly suited me fine, even opting to grind off of the low risk Murphy’s Ghost monster well into level 15 territory – something that stops giving “good” XP around level 10 or so.
By the way, now’s a good time to mention that my wife and I were both sick with an aggressive bug while I was playing Wizardry. In other words, I had nothing but time to give it for the better part of a week. Dipping in and out of a foggy consciousness, navigating the gloomy dungeons and grinding mindlessly in a dark room with a high fever and cold sweats…it was one hell of a way to experience it. Bet that’s how my characters felt, really.
Wizardry is not for the faint of heart. If reading about the permadeath and de-leveling made you recoil in fear, 1) congratulations on being a well adjusted person and 2) stay far away. I truly couldn’t recommend this game to anyone. An RPG this punishing being ported to a console with only five buttons? Only the freakiest freaks and geekiest geeks of gamerdom will enjoy this one.
But I thought Proving Grounds was rad. I spent more time in the world of Wizardry than in reality during that wild week of illness, no joke. Teleporting the goddamn final boss into the great abyss with a Haman spell (an “anything can happen” madcap move that drains a level from your Mage as payment for use) was deeply satisfying. I let out a triumphant laugh when that happened before breaking out into a coughing fit, lemme tell ya.
And so, in an intense whirlwind of a hazy week in August, I learned to love 8-bit RPGs again. The hurt is over. At least until I have to play another Ultima game, which will be on the chopping block the next time I manage to pick up a godawful cold. Summer lovin’, had me a blast…
Final rating:
NESJunk 
You’ve truly got some patience and perseverance to tackle these games! I also went back and read your Ultima review. Woof. Sorry you went through that. Those old JRPGs hit hard. I wonder what the goal was when the developers were making them. Perhaps they wanted players to take it slowly and added the grind to make us feel a sense of accomplishment from all the hard work? I don’t know.
LikeLike
Haha, thanks very much for reading as always! It definitely takes a lot of determination to finish some of these, I’ll admit. I think you’re right on the money, longevity was the name of the game back then. That was still when most kids only got a small handful of games a year, so long and drawn out = good game design, at that time. It IS very rewarding when you manage to scrape and claw your way to the end of one of them, even to this day…but I’m not sure the grind will be worth the reward for 99% of people. 😅
LikeLiked by 1 person