Might and Magic 2 also was designed with a number of hirelings and character slots, and the ability to swap in different hirelings/characters at will. In practice, it was useless (I've played through with only my main PCs, and never touched a hireling or extra PC save for a "bank" character or six). But, that may be why JVC left the infinite respawns in; so you could grind up extra party member if you wanted.
Might and Magic 1 is the hardest to get into, but is impressive for the simple fact that it was wholly done by JVC alone, working out of his house. Not very many people can claim they made an award winning series, spanning 3 decades now and still going, and started out all by their self. Granted, the latest (and worst) is owned by Ubisoft, but still.
IMO, WoX - III - VII - VI - II - I - VIII - IX - X, from best to worst. However, I freely admit that my fondness of WoX may stem from all the years gaming with my grandfather, who introduced me to computers, gaming, and other such things. I used to spend many weekends over at the grandparents', and Bard's Tale, Xeen and Terra, Ultima 6, Wizardry 7, etc... made up a lot of that time together.
7 and 6 I can almost put interchangably, as there are things about each I think was done better, but in the end, the only real reason they get punted below Terra is due to the 4 character limitation. In 6 it wasn't quite as bad, but 7 was horrible. It literally begged for a 6 character party.
2 isn't that bad to play, once you get going, though starting out it's a pain. 1 gets a nod up over 8 due to the fact it was designed, written, programmed, art and sound done, and marketed by just one guy, even if it doesn't hold up at all to even it's immediate sequel.