Hey guys, just wanted to let you know I posted a review of Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord at my site:

http://www.angelfire.com/comics/nes_star/CQuests/Reviews/Wizardry.html

Hope you like it... I, personally, was surprised at how easy Werdna was.

• RE: Wizardry review,Neovalis, 06:28 PM, Feb-13-04
  • RE: Wizardry review,James (Guest), 09:39 AM, Feb-14-04
    • RE: Wizardry review,Neovalis, 12:08 PM, Feb-14-04
      • RE: Wizardry review,James (Guest), 03:31 PM, Feb-15-04
        • RE: Wizardry review,Neovalis, 11:04 PM, Feb-16-04
          • RE: Wizardry review,Blarney (Guest), 10:40 PM, Jun-19-04
            • RE: Wizardry review,Snafaru (Guest), 07:13 PM, Jun-22-04
            • RE: Wizardry review,Neovalis, 03:14 PM, Nov-06-04

Some points in response to your review.

You can fight highwaymen on level one of the console versions, which... can complicate things. Also, lvl 1 ninjas are first found on level two. The luck stat and possibly your level reduce the chance of getting decapitated (the Apple II version calls them critical hits, which makes more sense... it's interesting to see your ninja decapitate a will o' wisp).

Werdna has 70% magic resistance and 60% resistance to Lakanito. So, you have a better chance of killing him outright than silencing him. It sounds like you lucked out - a level 10-11 party could die in a round against Werdna and (vampire) friends or a group of Poison Giants, Greater Demons, etc. With a level 10-11 party that has not done any class changing, getting ambushed by Poison Giants will almost always equal death.

Glad you enjoyed the game. I checked out your site, and I thought it's awesome that you have a section dedicated to Might and Magic for NES.

>Some points in response to your
>review.
>
>You can fight highwaymen on level
>one of the console versions,
>which... can complicate things.

Yea... I never knew that Highwaymen could
decapitate people.

> Also,
>lvl 1 ninjas are first
>found on level two. The
>luck stat and possibly your
>level reduce the chance of
>getting decapitated (the Apple II
>version calls them critical hits,
>which makes more sense... it's
>interesting to see your ninja
>decapitate a will o' wisp).

Not as interesting as it is to meet "A friendly
group of attack dogs."

Then there's the Vorpal Bunnies...

>Werdna has 70% magic resistance and
>60% resistance to Lakanito.

... You're kidding! I actually had to
fight him twice to win and both times,
Montino worked. And the second time,
I got tired of fighting him and used
Lakanito to end the battle early.

>Glad you enjoyed the game. I
>checked out your site, and
>I thought it's awesome that
>you have a section dedicated
>to Might and Magic for
>NES.

Thanks ^__^ Speaking of which, I need to
get around to playing that again so I can
complete the spell lists.

>Not as interesting as it is
>to meet "A friendly
>group of attack dogs."

Believe it or not, there is a slim chance of this happening in the Apple II version: "A friendly group of W E R D N A. They hail you in welcome!"

I almost died when I saw this.

I'm almost dying seeing it NOW ^__^.

BTW... I did a test, and my results were that Montino worked on Werdna four out of five times. I think it had a lot to do with having my pure priest (who has higher Piety and--I believe--Luck than my bishop) cast it every time. That one time Montino failed, he fortunately squandered it by casting Zilwan. ZILWAN!

Hmm... it would seem that Werdna is less resistant to spells on the PC version. I just did a similar experiment on the NES version, and he resisted it five out of six times. I used a Priest and a Bishop, both w/ 18 Piety and Luck.

I always felt that Werdna casted Zilwan as a taunt.

Aye be it friend or foe the Werdna is a dastardley bunch. The last time I encountered a bunch of the Werdna I was alone, aye, but a single ca-jigger in a world of misfit creatures and unholy beings. I don't think the werdna be tauntin ya boy, me thinks it is inside yerself that the werdna be.

The soul of man is the object of the war and man himself is the battlefield

I used a game editor for the Apple II version and Werdna has:

10d10+20 hit points (since his die is over 7, he's unafected by the Lakanito spell), remember this is the Apple version.
A.C. -7
Leveldrain 4
Regenerate 5
Mage level 7 spells
Cleric level 7 spells
Magic Resistance 70%
2 attacks for 8d5 damage
Fire, cold and poison resist
Cannot be a friend
He can Stone, Poison, Paralyze and Autokill
He cannot be slept
He cannot run
He will always have a Vampire Lord to help him out, and this Vampire Lord will bring 1d4 Vampires with himself and those Vampires have 15% chance of bringing more Vampires in the fight.
And none of the monsters listed above can call for extra help once the fight has begun.

So, it seems like the other versions have variations in the monster attributes... quite possibly because things were "messed-up/human error while typing/intentional" kind of deal when the scenario was re-writen for the IBM/SNES, etc., just like the attributes dropping while leveling fiasco (this one must be a blunder in the % chance of your stat increasing instead to decreasing at leveling, or something very similar to that).

Snafaru

LAST EDITED ON Nov-06-04 AT 03:14 PM (Pacific)

Blarney's post deserves an obligatory... huh?