TStael: But for the sake of interest, which where these campaigns you chose not to pledge into?
Let's see, of the campaigns I can think of that had direct Wizardry lineage:
1) Grimoire - Wizardry 7 redux. No demo was available at the time of the campaign, if I remember correctly, plus the game has been "in development" (whatever that means) for 17 years by an individual known for his bizarre and deliberately trollish internet persona. Not something I'm prepared to fund in advance. The original campaign promised that the game would be released, no matter what, in May 2013. I didn't believe it.
2) Arakion - seemed very "modernized" in all the wrong ways, and just seemed like a weird project overall. Didn't need my help anyway as it raised twice its funding goal.
3) Deathfire - from Guido Henkel of the renowned Realms of Arkania hardcore RPGs, but I just had a bad feeling about this. The guy hasn't done much that I know of in the RPG space for a long time, other than another Kickstarter, and didn't seem to have a clear vision for Deathfire.
4) Shaker - from a company and designers of uncertain suitability at best. Virtually no information released in the initial pitch, and the Wizardry influence only came into focus after several updates. People in the comments were name-dropping everything from Wizardry to Baldur's Gate to Chrono Trigger, so apparently no one else knew what to expect either.
5) Space Shock - might have been promising, but again, the devs didn't seem confident in what they were making. For example, combat was real-time first-person as in Dungeon Master, and changed to turn-based isometric during the campaign because of a few comments from backers.
6) Star Crawlers - procedurally generated, mission-based content. Meh. Made plenty of money anyway, so didn't need my pledge.
Yes I'm picky, but when they're asking for money in advance, I think I should be.
TStael: I did meanwhile went and peaked into Wizardry 6-7 sold here, and it came certainly highly recommended - though based on print-screens I would think it is not really a game with modern graphic interface. I think therefore it must either have a great gameplay or story to please. What say you?
Both. They are not for everyone, because they can be frustrating and hard to get into, and they are dated in some ways (especially 6). However, I love the detailed and open-ended character building, challenging turn-based combat, LONG campaigns (I still haven't finished 8), and occasional puzzle-solving.
6-8 also form a trilogy (usually called the Dark Savant trilogy) and tell an incredibly epic story, spanning years and multiple planets during a three-way intergalactic war with ultimate cosmic power at stake. Sci-fi elements are integrated surprisingly well in 7 and especially 8, with spaceships and laser swords fitting in right alongside wizards and dragons - it's fantasy at its most blissfully garish, yet it all somehow works. 6 and 7 in particular have a very distinctive writing style, deliberately florid but charmingly so, and use it to great effect in building atmosphere throughout the games. The story is far more in the background than in more recent games like Baldur's Gate or Mass Effect, though, and especially Planescape: Torment. I prefer it that way and found it very compelling, but I know a lot of people like a heavier narrative.
Wizardry 8 is the one that most people favor, I think, but while it's a great game and a lot more approachable, I didn't like it as much as 6 or 7, for a few reasons.
The Wizardry license is currently owned by Japanese developers, who have put out many many sequels since Wizardry 8, mostly on consoles and mostly not released outside of Japan. There are also some other Wizardry descendants and clones from Japanese developers out there, such as Generation Xth. I've played a few of these, but from what I've seen and from what my brother (who understands Japanese and plays a lot of untranslated RPGs) has told me, many if not most of them are straight dungeon crawls based on the earliest Wizardry games. They're decent games, but the scope, ambition, and detail of the Dark Savant trilogy, or even other old-school crawls like Eye of the Beholder or Thunderscape, often just aren't present. The Forsaken Land game on PS2 was pretty good, but it's no Crusaders, not by a long shot.
The Etrian Odyssey series has gained some acclaim, but I've never played those games. They're only on Nintendo DS and 3DS.
