I remember playing Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord on the NES for about a month straight back in 7th grade. Now, over a decade later, I'm playing Wizardry again (I ran away in horror from W7 Gold). Looks cool.

Amusing note: there's a new status of "missing" for characters eaten by monsters. You can get them back out by killing the diner, but they take digestion damage.

Wizardry on a Nintendo? I had to play on amonochrome monitor apple 2 clone computer! BAH you wimp! Just kidding! Anyway, yeah, Wizardry 8 is real nice. Its challenging combat wise and open ended in its tactics. It doesnt feel like a hack n slash game because each encounter needs you to plan! (on normal mode as well, cant imagine how tough expert is). And there are various ways to take down monsters... anywhere from AoE attacks... formations, stuns, paralyze, poison, insanity, saving endurance, etc etc etc... its very open on how you devise your party and tactics.

Wizardry 8 is basically Wizards and WArriors (which i really liked) done right. Actually its an old school crpg that doesnt "dumb down" and still has the feel of a highly polished new game. Combat is great in this game... so many aspects as well on character development AND the gameworld mixes sci fi and fantasy well... and still can be creepy.

I may sound fanboyish... but the game is real good. Its topped Arcanum for sure as my fave crpg this year. Possibly best game, so far, this year if it werent for OFP!

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