Setari: I am looking for games similar to Wizardry 6, in terms of the turn based combat and the dungeon crawling. I dislike real time combat very much in these kinds of games but that seems to be the route a lot of games went - Eye of the Beholder, Anvil of Dawn, Legend of Grimrock, which I do not like.
Any suggestions are great!
Well the magic system is pretty exclusive to Wizardry VI and VII and 8.
If you have not played Wizardry 8 it is a little different, but has the same sort of magic system.
The eliminage series are a lot like wizardry 1-3 and 5. You can pick up Eliminage Gothic here on GoG. There is another game that came out recently that is like a continuation of Wizardry 7, called Grimoire. The game has a mixed crowd that offers both negative feedback and positive feedback. It can slap you in the face with it's vague descriptions and un-orthodox item identification systems as there are multiple kinds of identifying to do. The game is good tho, if you are into classic dungeon crawling stuff. The multi-classing is different than VI in that if you are a class 1 time and transfer out of it, you can never go back into that class, and classes only "transfer" to certain other classes. There is a wiki with an article on this subject tho. That and pump speed first if you decide to start pumping stats. Speed is a great stat in Grimoire. Grimoire has a few conveniences that older dungeon crawlers don't always have, like a decent auto map, controls on encounter rates, auto-pathing so if you need a minute to use the restroom, just set your course engage and roll out (it goes pretty quick so you may find yourself using this to traverse previously travelled areas alot). That being said, Grimoire has a few issues that don't seem to have any rhyme or reason, gear restrictions that kind of throw a wrench in character planning if you don't have foreknowledge etc. I enjoy Grimoire, and wouldn't recommend it if I didn't.
Bard's Tale Trilogy (remake) is pretty amazing. It's fast paced at least in the first game, excellent graphical upgrades, good tutorials within the game, and really makes the series quite accessible to new comers while still being really fun for people that have played First person dungeon crawlers for years. (been playing genre since around ~90 ? and loved this remake). Leveling up is just a smidge different, but not complicated in the slightest that I can tell. Just be sure to save your game before going for a review, and try to get "relevant" stat gains on your level ups and it's just that simple.
Star Crawlers is a great game, quite a bit different than say Wizardry VI, but I have had a ton of fun with it. Can be a little bizarro weird figuring out how gear works in the game, but just love how it plays. There are guides on steam that I've read that detail skill tree paths pretty well, and recommend solid "builds". I like Star Crawlers for kind of trying to innovate in the First person dungeon crawler genre. It doesn't really let you change classes, but the skill tree system makes it fresh, at least it did for me.
A game that didn't do it for me was Stranger of Sword City, really had high hopes for it but just found it to be to pretty boring and not fun. I didn't like the "camping" system for gear upgrades, I didn't like character creation either, and I've played some very obtuse games with "abhorrent" character generation systems. I could say I give it props for trying to be different, but just because you're different doesn't excuse badness. And to me the game was just bad. Still worth a look if you're into anime and self-loathing style character management.
The early wizardry titles 1-3 and 5 might be good for you. Of them, I'd say proving grounds of the mad overlord (1) or Heart of the Maelstrom (5) were my favorites, and I probably lean a little more heavily toward 5. They are fairly straight forward in terms of mechanics and very enjoyable even if you don't ever beat them. You'll have a lot of fun building a roster of characters and figuring out what kinds of groups "work", maybe dying in the maze and getting a heart attack while you hastily assemble a rescue crew to get your dead "good team" back and falling in love with the new crew too. Really love these kinds of features in dungeon crawling games. It's never really 'game over', just gets interesting. Don't let "permadeath" scare you away from such classic masterpieces.
Oh, almost forgot Wizardry Labyrinth of Lost Souls is a bit more like Wizardry 1, 2 ,3 and 5 but is pretty fun in its own right. It is definitely heavily anime inspired in terms of character art and voicing, but if that doesn't bother you can have some fun exploration times.
Ok I'm sure there's a ton of other titles people may suggest, but these are just some of the ones I'm into, minus stranger of sword city. I legitimately just hated it, I even reviewed it on steam with a thumbs down.
