Line #8 YMMV/Wizardry


1	* AnticlimaxBoss:
2	** The Dark Savant is a rather underwhelming final battle for the Dark Savant trilogy. He isn't totally helpless, as he has powerful magic and summoned enemies, but having a party of at least six high-level adventures and a freaking dragon helping you out really stacks the final battle in your favor.
3	** From Wizardry 4 we have [[spoiler:Kadorto]], the final boss of the evil ending and the GoldenEnding, which amounts to a drawn-out cutscene/inventory check.
4	* CatharsisFactor: Whether or not the final battle itself is good, most fans agree that finally putting down the [[CompleteMonster Dark Savant]] after his countless horrible deeds is [[KarmaHoudiniWarranty highly satisfying.]]
5	* DemonicSpiders: Potentially any monster in enough numbers or if you're unlucky, but some enemies from 6, 7 or 8 really take the cake. Some especially notable examples include:
6	** Rat enemies are this early on due to being able to inflict the “Disease” status ailment, which is essentially poison but much harder to cure. Once you gain the ability to cure disease, they become GoddamnedBats instead.
7	** Fairies, mages who try to stay as far away from you as possible whilst spamming spells both to hurt you and heal each other.
8	** All plant and vine enemies, they are never very strong but always have the ability to easily inflict some sort of status element.
9	** Unicorns, who are similar to fairies but with the additional problem of being really tanky in contrast to the fairy’s GlassCannon.
10	* EvenBetterSequel: Wizardry 8 is widely considered a great improvement over the good but often frustratingly cheap (and narratively incoherent) Wizardry 7, and is often outright declared the best game in the whole franchise. Being arguably the most fair game in the series probably helps.
11	* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: Although fairly well-received at home, the series was absolutely HUGE in Japan, with graphically enhanced ports developed for the various Japanese consoles. In fact, due to a quirk of the Japanese licensing, the Japanese Wizardry games have survived the American parent company's death -- ''Wizardry Gaiden: Prisoners of the Battles'' came out 6 years after Creator/SirTech collapsed, and was the tip of the iceberg. To give an idea of the series' popularity, both ''Final Fantasy'' and ''Dragon Quest'' cite ''Wizardry'' as influences, ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'''s early games had a lot of obvious ''Wiz IV'' inspiration, and ''VideoGame/EtrianOdyssey'' and ''VideoGame/SeventhDragon'', among many other games, are full-blown {{Spiritual Successor}}s.
12	* GameBreaker:
13	** In VI and VII the ninja comes awfully close to being this. In the last game the class is still stupidly powerful, but is now balanced by the fact [[MagikarpPower it now takes almost half the game for it to reach its full potential]].
14	** The Gadgeteer class in 8. They are classed as non-magic users, who have the fastest leveling curve. Thing is, they ''do'' have access to some magic spells by their ability to merge items ([[GuideDangIt assuming you know where to find them]]) into gadgets. This includes Heal All, Ressurection and [[OneHitKO Asphyxiation]]. What's more, they only require stamina to use them, instead of MP, which are ''much'' harder to recover. Sure, you need a high level of Gadgeteer and points in Engineering to create better stuff, but that shouldn't be a problem given their leveling curve. And that's not taking into an account their Omnigun, which can shoot pretty much everything once your Gadgeteer is maxed out. To top it all off they also have roguish abilities, being able to pick locks and disarm traps. It is no wonder most guides for the game recommend having a gadgeteer in the party.
15	* GoddamnedBats: And rats, and strange viney things. While they increase in power and continue to allow you to gain experience, they drop no gold or useful items, because they're bats, rats and vines.
16	* ItsHardSoItSucks: The series in general has faced criticism for being unforgiving and cheap, but ''Wizardry IV'' is especially infamous for its steep difficulty, and was apparently the worst-selling product Sir-Tech ever published.
17	* MemeticMutation: ''Wizardry IV'''s [[NintendoHard keyboard-breakingly obscene difficulty]] has effectively become a hallmark of the franchise. If there's someone familiar with the stories, you can rest assured that they'll rattle off the tales of horror that inevitably interests someone else and begins the process anew.
18	* ScrappyMechanic:
19	** In VII, resting. In order to heal your party by resting, you had to spend ''several real-time minutes'' waiting for in-game time to pass after hitting the "rest" button. And you might also be ambushed while sleeping.
20	*** Somewhat subverted as clicking rest again stops it anytime. A handy way around this is that your magic meter fills up almost immediately. So rest for 10 seconds, cast heal wounds on the rest of your party, rest for 10 more seconds and repeat. This way works much more efficiently than waiting several minutes.
21	** Character creation. If you want your character to be of a certain class, you need to have enough bonus points, with the required amount depending on your race and gender. Bonus points are given in random amount after you choose your character's name, gender and race, and if you don't have enough to choose your desired class, there is no back button so you still have to allocate all your bonus points and skill points (which can be a lot), and possibly select your starting spells. Some of the fancier classes require truly massive amounts of bonus points, so it can take you around one hour to get enough points to select them. Merely ''starting'' the game can take hours of preparation. All that said, this is often [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] for people who love messing with character creation.
22	** 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.
23	** In Wizardry 7, that NPC parties can get map pieces before you can. This is loathed for two reasons. One, the dungeons where the maps are found are left undisturbed, meaning you still have to go through all the fights and puzzles, only to [[AllForNothing end up with an empty chest at the end]]. Two, most of the maps have vital clues for solving the ''other'' puzzles in the game, and one particular map is a key item that you ''must'' have to complete the game. So a first-time player who takes too long (allowing [=NPCs=] to grab most of the maps) can easily be reduced to GuideDangIt if they don't want to hunt down wandering [=NPCs=] all over the game world.
24	** In Wizardry 8, some of the recruitable character have locations they absolutely refuse to travel with you to, forcing you to release them from your service to proceed. The only way to get around this is to either make them fall asleep or unconscious, or have already set a portal inside such locations and teleport to them. However, circumventing this will make the characters whine constantly about leaving and suffer MASSIVE penalties to their stats. [[GameplayAndStorySegregation It gets rather silly if, for example, you manage to bring a high-level Madras (a Trynnie Gadgeteer) who's perfectly capable of kicking ass with the rest of your party to the Rapax territory. Vi Domina, a Human Valkyrie, also refuses to go with you to locations that are related to the Dark Savant, despite having a vested interest in his defeat.]]
25	* ThatOneBoss: Nessie from Wizardry 8, a huge and terrifying water dragon with both devastating physical attacks and powerful spells. Making matters worse you have no access to fire magic, which contains some of the most powerful offensive spells in the game, since you are underwater. The one saving grace is that Nessie is a big easy-to-hit target.
26	* UnintentionallyUnwinnable: An infamous instance in Wizardry 7 involves the Legend map, which is necessary to complete the game. Like all the maps, Legend can end up in the hands of an NPC party, including the Rattkin parties. However, finishing the final Rattkin quest causes them (and their [=NPCs=]) to leave the planet. If they happen to have the Legend map when you do this, then this key item is gone for good, and you can't win the game.
27	* WoobieSpecies: The Trynnie in Wizardry 8 are a race of squirrel people who are constantly in danger of being wiped out by the AlwaysChaoticEvil Rapax. They can be shifty merchants at times, but are mostly friendly and helpful making you really feel for them. Even more tragic is that the Trynnie lost their ancestral home ages ago, which lead to their weakening and subsequent move to an new home where they are further abused by a race of greedy rat people who are trying to steal everything from them. [[spoiler: You can help the Trynnie eliminate the rat mafia and make their home a more peaceful place. Also, in the GoldenEnding your party becomes gods who can basically "rewrite" the universe. Some of the things you do are make the Rapax nicer and give the Trynnie their ancestral home back.]]

Context YMMV / Wizardry