History VideoGame / Wizardry

* SchmuckBait: The path to the GoldenEnding has Werdna encounter a small black hole with something pulsating inside, and is given the option to put his hand inside. [[spoiler:The correct answer, of course, is to not do it.]]

* CharacterAlignment, InUniverse; on the good/evil axis. As explained in the first game's manual, a good PC helps an old lady across the street, a neutral PC crosses the street and helps an old lady across while doing so, an evil PC helps an old lady across the street for a fee, and [[EvenEvilHasStandards the evil they all oppose]] helps an old lady halfway across the street.

* NintendoHard: Though ''Wizardry'' predates Nintendo games by a few years. Made infinitely worse as SaveScumming was impossible -- the game automatically saved after every button press. Teleported into that wall? You just lost your entire party, no loading possible. Start over.

* ItsAllJunk: The GoldenEnding. [[spoiler:By walking the Tree of Life, Werdna overcomes his physical demands and attains enlightenment. In doing so, he sees the Amulet as the false promise it is and carelessly discards it, as he's beyond such petty things as the pursuit of power.]]

* 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 [[Franchise/StarWars Wookie]]

* ClassicVideoGameScrewYous: Teleporting into solid rock, either on your own accord or via a "Teleporter" trap in treasure chests, resulted in the [[{{Permadeath}} total loss]] of your party.

* EarlyGameHell: The games are NintendoHard in general, but ''savage'' on parties of low-level adventurers, who are just so ill-equipped for, y'know, ''adventuring'' that you wonder why they didn't take up a more appropriate career, like shoveling horseshit in a stable somewhere. ''Wizardry'' was one of the trope makers for [[ClassicVideoGameScrewYous the classic PC RPG "screw you"]] where you spend countless rounds flailing aimlessly at a single enemy without being able to hit because low level characters have such poor accuracy that they couldn't hit the side of a cardboard box if they were stuffed inside it, and would usually die in the attempt because their low-HP bodies were made out of soggy biscuits.

* LevelUpAtIntimacy5: Level down in this case. Overlapping with HornyDevils.

* BalanceBuff: The Fighter and Rogue (previously Thief) classes receive a significant one in ''8''. In previous games, they have no extra skills to distinguish them from the hybrid classes or ninja/bard, making them only useful as starter classes until they could class change into something stronger. In ''8'', they gain the exclusive ability to [[DeathOrGloryAttack Berserk]] and BackStab respectively, allowing them to deal higher melee damage than any other character.

* BalanceBuff: The Fighter and Rogue (previously Thief) classes receive a significant one in ''8''. In previous games, they have no extra skills to distinguish them from the hybrid classes or ninja/bard, making them only useful as starter classes until they could class change into something stronger. In ''8'', they gain the exclusive ability to Berserk and Backstab respectively, allowing them to deal higher melee damage than any other character.

* BalanceBuff: The Fighter and Rogue (previously Thief) classes receive a significant one in ''8''. In previous games, they have no extra skills to distinguish them from the hybrid classes or ninja/bard, making them only useful as starter classes until they could class change into something stronger. In ''8'', they gain the exclusive abilities to Berserk and Backstab respectively, allowing them to deal higher melee damage than any other class.

* BalanceBuff: The Fighter and Rogue (previously Thief) classes receive a significant one in 8. In previous games, they have no extra skills to distinguish them from the hybrid classes or ninja/bard, making them only useful as starter classes until they could class change into something stronger. In 8, they gain the exclusive abilities to Berserk and Backstab respectively, allowing them to deal higher melee damage than any other class.

* BalanceBuff: The Fighter and Rogue (previously Thief) classes receive a significant one in 8. In previous games, they have no extra skills to distinguish them from the hybrid classes or ninja/bard, making them only useful as starter classes until they could class change into something stronger. In 8, they gain the exclusive abilities to Berserk and Backstab respectively, allowing them to deal higher melee damage than any other class.

The series is [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff Big In Japan]], and over 20 licensed sequels and remakes were produced by Japanese developers, most of them suffering NoExportForYou, ''VideoGame/WizardryLabyrinthOfLostSouls'' and ''VideoGame/WizardryTaleOfTheForsakenLand'' are the exceptions. ''VideoGame/DragonQuest'' writer Yuji Horii states Wizardry was a big inspiration, and one of his earlier games ''VisualNovel/ThePortopiaSerialMurderCase'' had a direct shoutout in a maze section. There's even an {{Anime}} {{OAV}} based on the first game although it's somewhat dated.

The titles, up to Wiz V (excluding Wiz IV), were immensely influential, and countless tropes established there are still common today. The remaining three games did away with the old engine, spell system and story, added a mix of sci-fi and insane gods to it, but retained the sense of wry humour, resulting in something with a different feel, but really enjoyable nevertheless.

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''.

This love of ''Wizardry''-style dungeon crawlers has also directly spawned several Japanese-made {{Spiritual Successor}}s, the staffs of whom thought that the licensed sequels were maybe not quite capturing the atmosphere right or wanted to try to put their own spin on the concept; ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' (which mines heavily from ''Wiz IV'' in particular), ''VideoGame/EtrianOdyssey'' and ''VideoGame/SeventhDragon'' are the most notable examples that have since had influence on the genre and industry in their own right. Meanwhile, in the West, 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.

Many of the developers and localizers of the original Wizardry ports in Japan continued to make Wizardry games with the original publisher's blessing, as such the series is notable for having survived the original publisher's collapse in Japan by teams just continuing to put out new, semi-official, games in the series. These semi-official {{Spiritual Successor}}s are known as "Wizardry Descendants" in Japan, and usually retain the same gameplay elements, races (although names are often changed), and classes.

Starfish released ''Wizardry Empire'' and ''Wizardry Asterisk'' and, shortly afterwards, moved this work into the ''Elminage'' series. ''Elminage'' continued the same gothic art style of the original Wizardry games while absorbing the "beast" races from ''Asterisk'' and ''Empire''[[note]]Were-Beast, Dragonnewt, Fairy, and Devilkin[[/note]], as well as three additional classes from ''Empire'', ''Asterisk'', and ''Wizardry: Summoner'': Brawler, a hand to hand melee specialist, Alchemist, a combination crafting and spellcaster class, and Summoner, a spellcaster that focuses on taming and summoning monsters. These ''expanded'' mechanics would be re-used in other Wizardy descendants such as ''Class of Heroes'' and ''Wizardry Xth.''

Another team of developers from Michaelsoft went on to found "Team Muramasa," which would eventually become the company Experience, Inc. Experience would go on to do an enhanced remake of Wizardry Xth called ''Generation Xth'', which removed the school aspects for more science fiction; these would get yet another enhanced remake as ''VideoGame/OperationAbyss'' and ''Operation Babel.'' Experience would then go on to use the same formula and engine to make ''Students of the Round'', ''VideoGame/StrangerOfSwordCity'', and ''VideoGame/DemonGaze.''

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

* RealityWritingBook: The Cosmic Forge. Anything written in it will become true, albeit often not as the writer expects. If written pages are torn out, history itself will be RetConned.

* {{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. In ''8'' Sprites are [[FairySexy tiny, winged and stark naked women]].

* NonStandardGameOver: In addition to regular death from combat, failing puzzles, or getting caught by Trebor's ghost, [[spoiler:if you attempt to pay the Oracle using the Mordorcharge Card (that you get from looting a dead adventurer), a LawyerFriendlyCameo of Creator/KarlMalden steps out of a cable car and sends you back to your grave. MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext.]]

* NonStandardGameOver: In addition to regular death from combat, failing puzzles, or getting caught by Trebor's ghost, [[spoiler:if you attempt to pay the Oracle using the Mordorcharge Card (that you get from looting a dead adventurer), an {{Expy}} of Karl Malden steps out of a cable car and sends you back to your grave. MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext.]]

The first three games are very hard. The BigBad can deal 100 damage to your party with one [[TotalPartyKill spell]], and your SquishyWizard characters rarely get more than 60hp, so he can kill half your party in the first round of combat and the other half in the next. Random high level encounters can be similarly deadly. For instance, ninjas can kill party members instantly with a critical hit. Resurrection spells don't always work, and come with a stat penalty when they do. Your mages have a limited supply of spells, especially early on, which can only be restored by returning to town at the top of the dungeon. StandardStatusEffects are crippling and often deadly if you don't have the magic to cure them. The dungeons are confusing non-euclidean mazes with dark zones, antimagic zones, spinners, teleporters, and generally defy efforts to map out. And your characters can die of old age.

* StandardStatusEffects:

** Equally unusual is that the Wizard's StandardStatusEffects inducing spells are far more useful than most of their damage inflicting spells; in particular, the sleep-inflicting Katino is by far the most useful first-level wizard spell, capable of incapacitating an entire enemy group in one action even late into the game.

The series is [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff Big In Japan]], and over 20 licensed sequels and remakes were produced by Japanese developers, most of them suffering NoExportForYou. ''VideoGame/WizardryLabyrinthOfLostSouls'' and ''VideoGame/WizardryTaleOfTheForsakenLand'' are the exceptions. ''VideoGame/DragonQuest'' writer Yuji Horii states Wizardry was a big inspiration, and one of his earlier games ''VisualNovel/ThePortopiaSerialMurderCase'' had a direct shoutout in a maze section. There's even an {{Anime}} {{OAV}} based on the first game although it's somewhat dated.

This love of ''Wizardry''-style dungeon crawlers has also directly spawned several Japanese-made {{Spiritual Successor}}s, the staffs of whom thought that the licensed sequels were maybe not quite capturing the atmosphere right or wanted to try to put their own spin on the concept; ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' (which mines heavily from ''Wiz IV'' in particular), ''VideoGame/EtrianOdyssey'' and ''VideoGame/SeventhDragon'' are the most notable examples that have since had influence on the genre and industry in their own right.

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 its SerialNumbersFiledOff by [=ZeroDiv=], who kept the AcademyOfAdventure aspect, but removed the sci-fi setting, creating ''VideoGame/ClassOfHeroes'', which they kept developing as its own series. Meanwhile the actual developers of the Xth series went on to form Experience Inc., which took the opposite approach with its ''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''.

''Wizardry Online'' was part of an intentional attempt by several Japanese companies to perform a {{Reconstruction}} of ''Wizardry'' as a whole, called the ''Wizardry Renaissance,'' it was an attempt to define specific tropes and quality assurance levels for games with the Wizardry title. More than 11 games were released during this effort, including ''VideoGame/WizardryLabyrinthOfLostSouls'', and ''[=WizRogue=]''. The latest game release being the PC re-release of ''[=WizRogue=]'' in 2017.