History VideoGame / Wizardry

* BeastMan: The Rapax and Trynnie in ''8'', and the Rawulf, Felpurr, and possibly T'rang and Umpani. The Mook might be a borderline case, as mooks look like a cross between a Yeti and a [[{{StarWars}} Wookie]]

A MassivelyMultiplayerOnlineRolePlayingGame, ''Wizardry Online'', was released in January 30th, 2013. Notable for being the first MMO with ''[[FinalDeath permadeath]]'' as a central concept, the game was developed by Gamepot, and have flat out stated they're mostly working on adding multiplayer to the existing games, with a stated goal of recapturing the early, lawless days of ''VideoGame/{{Everquest}}'' and ''VideoGame/UltimaOnline'' -- open PVP was also confirmed. However, the game shut down its servers on January 2014, resulting in a rather short-lived MMO.

* ClassicVideoGameScrewYous: Teleporting into solid rock, either on your own accord or via a "Teleporter" trap in treasure chests, resulted in the [[FinalDeath total loss]] of your party.
* ContinuingIsPainful: Resurrecting fallen party members is expensive, permanently lowers their stats, and doesn't always work, resulting in FinalDeath.

* FinalDeath: Iron man mode in ''8''.

''Wizardry IV'' is in an entirely separate class from the other games. You play as the villain, and the rules are turned upside down, as you now must rely on summoned monsters to escort you *up* through the dungeon, while being constantly assaulted by powerful parties of heroes. [[PerspectiveFlip The evil wizard Werdna is your only character]], and you only level up at 9 specific plot points throughout the game. Your only allies are the monsters you summon, who cannot be directly controlled, never level up, and are [[FinalDeath gone forever]] when killed in battle. As a mage, Werdna has little HP, so if you run out of monsters, one hit can kill him. (Fortunately, you can summon replacement monsters for free at any pentagram, so your mini-horde of monsters essentially doubles as your HP.)

* ClassChangeLevelReset: Partly true of the series, [[http://www.joystiq.com/2012/06/22/best-class-system-in-rpgs-belongs-to-wizardry-vii/ as explained here.]] When changing classes, your level and stats were reset to zero or the class/race minimum but you kept the skills and spells you had at your old class/level.

* TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything: Though ''8'' was never completed to the level the developers originally envisioned, many of the Rattkin, T'Rang, and Umpani [=NPCs=] will have a special line or two if you ask them about the planet Guardia and other topics from ''7''.

* LoadBearingBoss: {{Subverted}}: although Werdna's death causes the dungeon to shake around a lot, the heroes wait it out and then calmly walk outside.

* TheSmurfettePrinciple: is the only female in both her parties, the active and previously-killed one.

* TotalPartyKill: The fate of Sheer's previous party.

* AxCrazy: The characters with Chaotic personalities in 8.

** Also annoying in 8's underwater levels, fire magic doesn't work. Unless you were specifically planning for this, that's about 90% of your offensive magic.

* LukeYouAreMyFather: The result of the player character's tryst with Al-Sedexus in 8.

** The party in ''8'' is revealed to be the "Third Messengers", which are the ones who will recover the Destinae Dominus from Marten's Tomb. All knowledge is contained in the Destinae Dominus, but it requires the helm of serenity to safely wield, lest the party learn all there is to know too soon go insane. The first and second messengers are the Dark Savant and the Mook, which wield the Astral Dominae and the Chaos Moliri, respectively. All three macguffins are needed to win the game.
** The Trynnie believe they are chosen to inherit the planet when the Ascension happens and the Higardi believe they were destined to ascend and become "Cosmic Lords" (gods) themselves... which really just means they get to go the the Cosmic Circle and write in the book of destiny.

** The Cosmic Forge.
** The Astral Dominae ("7"), Destinae Dominus, and Chaos Moliri (''8'').
* CrueltyIsTheOnlyOption: In Wizardry 8, to acquire an essential PlotCoupon from the peaceful Mook, you either have steal it by switching it out with a fake lookalike, or else slaughter them all.

* DistressedDamsel: Vi Domina in ''8'' although she fights back against her captors and can join your party as a formidable fighter. Nevertheless, she still needs to be saved.
* DivineParentage: The child of a party character and Al-Sedexus in ''8''.

** All the Higardi raiders/bandits/cutthroats/etc in ''8''.

** A recurrent enemy in ''7'' is the [[Manga/UruseiYatsura Demented Munk(sic)]].

* {{Griefer}}: {{Defied}} in ''WizardryOnline''. Say, you're BribingYourWayToVictory and kills dozens of players. Those players then puts Bounty on your head. You laugh, thinking that even if someone actually does kill you, you can just re-buy all your dropped gears with mommy's credit cards. Well, not so fast bucko: when you die with more than 5 Bounties in your head, you're sent to the Jail and must pay ALL the accumulated Bounties, lest you can't play ANY of your characters, not just the one that's behind bars. If all those players you killed put Bounty on your head, the fine will be far beyond what you can pay even if you farm for months. Kiss your account bye-bye, hope you learned something from the lessons.

* {{Fanservice}}: The Amazulus of ''VI'' are, as the name would suggest, dark-skinned warrior women who fight completely topless, complete with visible nipples. They were at least given bikini tops on the art cards that came with the Japanese release. There are a number of other bare-breasted female creatures in the game, such as mermaids and a topless demoness.

* {{Fanservice}}: The Amazulus of ''VI'' are, as the name would suggest, dark-skinned warrior women who fight completely topless, complete with visible nipples. They were at least given bikini tops on the art cards that came with the Japanese release.

The series is also notable for the unusual amount of {{Spiritual Successor}}s made by former developers of the series. On the Western side, David W. Bradley who directed Wizardry V through VII, made ''Wizards & Warriors'' which furthers the developments he had made to the Dark Savant trilogy so far and is considered something of an alternative Wizardry 8 by some fans. While in Japan ASCII, who ported and localized most of the original games, made the short lived ''Netherdomain'' series of mobile games, based on their ''Wizardry Gaiden'' games. Starfish, responsible for ''Wizardry Empire'' and ''Wizardry Asterisk'', created the ''Elminage'' series which continued the LighterAndSofter, anime-inspired elements and gameplay additions used in most of the Empire games (with both Empire III and Elminage Gothic serving as similar DarkerAndEdgier {{Genre Throwback}}s). The ''Wizardry Xth'' spin-off series actually had two distinct successor branches. For one, Wizardry Xth 2 was handed over to have it's SerialNumbersFiledOff by [=ZeroDiv=], who kept the AcademyOfAdventure aspect, but removed the sci-fi setting, creating ''VideoGame/ClassOfHeroes'', which they kept developing as it's own series. Meanwhile the actual developers of the Xth series went on to form Experience Inc., which took the opposite approach with it's ''Generation Xth'' series, mostly dropping the school-elements and instead leaning heavily into the sci-fi. They then reworked the series again as ''Operation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy'', and moved on to make other Wizardry-likes, like ''VideoGame/DemonGaze'' and ''VideoGame/StrangerOfSwordCity''. Additionally, while not actually based on that installment, many of the people who worked on the Japanese localization of Wizardry 8 went on to make ''VideoGame/TheDarkSpire''.

* ClassChangeLevelReset: Partly true of the series, as explained [[http://www.joystiq.com/2012/06/22/best-class-system-in-rpgs-belongs-to-wizardry-vii/ here]]. When changing classes, your level and stats were reset to zero or the class/race minimum but you kept the skills and spells you had at your old class/level.

%%* PerspectiveFlip
%%* PlatformHell: Of sorts.

%%* VillainProtagonist

* ''Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord (1981)''
* ''Wizardry II: The Knight of Diamonds (1982)''
* ''Wizardry III: Legacy of Llylgamyn (1983)''
* ''Wizardry IV: The Return of Werdna (1986)''
* ''Wizardry V: Heart of the Maelstrom (1988)''
* ''Wizardry VI: Bane of the Cosmic Forge (1990)''
* ''Wizardry VII: Crusaders of the Dark Savant (1992)''
* ''Wizardry 8 (2001)''

* CharacterLevel

* EvilSorcerer: Werdna.

* HitPoints

* PerspectiveFlip
* PlatformHell: Of sorts.

* VillainProtagonist

* AWinnerIsYou:[[spoiler: The Good and Phoonzang endings lack a full animated conclusion like the Bad ending, being just text and narration as the camera rises over the Cosmic Forge. [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] given the final text is long and very detailed on what happens next, making both endings satisfying even if you don’t actually see what happens.]]

* WorldOfBuxom: Pretty much all of the females in Wizardry 8, including Vi Domina and just about all other human women (including the purple-robed cultists), Al-Sedexus, the female Rapax, the female Trynnie Sparkle (large for her small size, at least), and many statues of humanoid females. Even the giant breeder rats technically count as this.

* ActionGirl: Sheer.

* AnArmAndALeg: The hero gets his arm cut off.

* CastFromHitPoints: The old sage's method of casting. [[KilledOffForReal It gets him killed]].
* EvilWeapon: The Muramasa.
* FanDisservice: Randy's been turned into a zombie samurai, as shown when his chest is sliced open.

* MercyKill: Done to Randy.
* TheSmurfettePrinciple: Sheer is the only female in both her parties, the active and previously-killed one.

* WalkingShirtlessScene: Randy.

* TropeCodifier: This series was the codifier for [=RPGs=] back in [[Analysis/WesternRPG the Golden Age]] (before the WesternRPG and EasternRPG split). For a variety of reasons, the majority of [=RPGs=] made nowadays follow other codifiers.

* ShoutOut: A recurrent enemy in ''7'' is the [[Manga/UruseiYatsura Demented Munk(sic)]].

* MechaMooks: Savant minions, Battle Droids in the final dungeon of VII.

* BeastMan: The Rapax and Trynnie in ''8'', and the Rawulf, Felpurr, and possibly T'rang and Umpani. The Mook might be a borderline case, as mooks look like a cross between a Yeti and a [[{{StarWars}} Wookie]]

Creator/SirTech's ''Wizardry'' was one of the very first computer {{RPG}}s, and alongside ''VideoGame/Ultima'', was the TropeMaker for the entire genre of [[RolePlayingGame Role-Playing Video Games]]. It was a hit in the early 1980s and spawned a trilogy, an infamously hard (and decidedly different) fourth title, a fifth that returned to the style of the original trilogy, and a final trilogy of ScienceFantasy games. They are:

Creator/SirTech's ''Wizardry'' was one of the very first computer {{RPG}}s. It was a hit in the early 1980s and spawned a trilogy, an infamously hard (and decidedly different) fourth title, a fifth that returned to the style of the original trilogy, and a final trilogy of ScienceFantasy games. They are:

The Dark Savant Trilogy (composed of ''Wizardry'' 6, 7 and 8), can be purchased on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} and Website/GOGDotCom.

* {{Hobbits}}: Straight ''LordOfTheRings'' style, down to the name.