@Egge said:
@fisk0: I agree completely about the competent but weirdly reactionary Japanese Wizardry games. Wizardry VII and 8 in particular are ground-breaking RPGs, and seeing as the "Dark Savant trilogy" has far more in common with modern open world singleplayer RPGs than the earlier 1980s classics it's a bit surprising that the Eastern fanbase has stuck so closely to the original formula. I realize that Dragon Quest-like dungeon hacks are still popular in Japan, but it's not like the Japanese gamers dislike sprawling epics with (even) more complex character development systems. Presumably economical factors play a large part here, as dungeon crawlers must be relatively cheap to produce.
And in regards to Wizardry Online, I was definitely annoyed by yesterday's connection issues since I really wanted to give the game a chance now that it was conveniently available through Steam and all...
It's also worth noting that at the same time Wizardry IV came out in 1987, Wizardry-inspired games like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy had both become established as new, but very popular franchises in the JRPG market. Over here in North America, both series remained rather niche, with Final Fantasy not getting a particularly wide western audience until Final Fantasy VII. By that point, Final Fantasy had evolved into its own thing, and the Wizardry inspirations became less and less evident. Even in Dragon Quest, which has remained very steadfast in its ways, has evolved not necessarily its gameplay, but the nature of its storytelling. Even in terms of basic structure, the narratives of each entry is very different, whether it be Dragon Quest III's focus on a player-created party, Dragon Quest IV's multiple chapters and multiple protagonists, or Dragon Quest V's romance and multigenerational story.
At the same time, other games that came along and started in that same dungeon-crawler vein like the original Megami Tensei gave way to more open, more complex and varied worlds, narratives and systems as seen in games like Shin Megami Tensei, the Persona series, or the Devil Summoner series. Yet, there's still an audience for those old-school, early Wizardry dungeon crawlers, which is why Atlus continues to produce the Etrian Odyssey games; games that fully embrace their old-school roots while modernizing key aspects.
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