Yeah, the HP bloat and encounter frequency makes Wiz 7 a less enjoyable game then Wiz 6 IMO.
Of DW Bradley's three Wizardry games I think he found just the right balance in Wiz 6. Both Wiz 5 and 7 dragged on a bit too much, IMO.
It may be a good idea to play Wiz 6 first and import characters with good weapons before playing Wiz 7.

I loved 5 for the Super Nintendo, I never did get to try it out on PC. I also think it drug on and on, and some of the puzzles were just ridiculously obscure. I liked the NPC's though, The Duck of Sparks, Mad Stomper, La-La Moomoo.. Probably won't forget any of those.. or the Hurkle Beast. Also had Wizardry 1 for the NES, and beat it. We were young then, and didn't realize there was a bug with the Armor Class in that game. I remember finding a dagger of thieves for the first time after killing some frost giants one Saturday morning, then finding out it allowed a thief of any alignment to become a ninja right then and there. There's just something about wizardry games that stays with you for decades. Loved them.

A couple of the old wiz games are HARD. I mean not compared to modern games, they are hard even by the standards of hardcore old-school CRPGS. Wizardry 4 is one of, if not, the hardest game ever made. I would love to get these on gog and would buy them in a second (along with eye of the beholder) but I am not sure we will ever see these gems again.

I found Wizardry III pretty hard as well. I admit I used some maps for that one and for Wizardry IV as they were just a bit more difficult than I could handle at the time. But I don't regret it. Both games are a blast. =)

Flynn

Hopefully they'll get released but what bothers me more, is that the Japanese games aren't being localized here.

I mean, North America was nice enough to export the games over there, and Japan was very grateful. But when it comes to bringing their games here... they refuse. >_< that's fair...

Or maybe no-one simply bothered to ask to (or suggest to) import them in NA? I mean maybe Japan would be more than willing but the opportunity never came up, OR maybe this all goes back to the lawsuit and they just don't want to get caught in it?

I think playing the Dos version would be better than Gold, because Gold is too fast. The battle text just zooms within a second. I can alter the text delay but it seems to only make it go faster.

Just going to throw it out there - every time I come here to purchase games... I always still check and search for "Wizardry"... just to see if 1-5 have made it on here yet.

Ditto.

I am still clinging to the hope to get the rest of the Wizardry games...
InconspiciousbumpHelloGoG. ;)

I think I purchased a Wizardry Compilation with all the games except Wizardry 8. The CD came out before Wizardry 8 was on the market. If I were you I would look on eBay or a site like that . I bet there are some copies for sale around somewhere.

Edited after Googling:

I found out the name of the software...it is called "The Ultimate Wizardry Archives".

And like I said it contains Wizardry 1 through Wizardry 7. I have it somewhere but I have not seen it in years so only God knows where it is now...lol

I did find some on Amazon but they are quite pricey as one would suspect.

I just found "The Ultimate Wizardry Archives" for free actually. It is in ISO format (ISO = An exact digital copy of the CD itself) so you have to run it in a Virtual Machine but that is pretty easy to do. If you do not know how Google is your friend.

Just go to www.theisozone.com › Downloads › PC › Dos Games and it will direct you to a link on a file storage service named Firedrop..

There is one issue I am aware of with this particular collection; in the included versions of Wizardry 1-3, your stats will drop at level up more often than they are supposed to. I've read that the problem is so bad that some players have had young characters die of old age.

(Of course, that's not the only buggy version; the Apple 2 version has its quirks (like spells being castable in the surprise round; nice when you ambush the enemies, not so nice if a group of spellcasters ambush you; also has the famous Identify Item 9 glitch; in the NES version, AC doesn't work for party members; apparently, in the Commodore 64 version, fighting friendly monsters can turn evil characters good.)

What kills me is I had the Ultimate Wizardry Archives also... and for the life of me, I do not know where it is - which is REALLY odd, because with those games (and Sierra games) I was a freak about taking care of them...

I know right SirTawmis! After my last post I went a searching for my Ultimate Wizardry Archives CD. I found my party notes from my Elite party I rolled for Wiz7. I also found the hint guide book for Wiz7 which is more valuable than Gold to me! But I cannot find the CD. I think when I moved in 2009 I left it in my shed in a box with all my game boxes which I saved and did not throw away. So bummed but I think that is where it is but not 100% sure. If I found the other stuff from Wiz7 I am holding out hope that it is in my new shed in that box IF I BROUGHT IT (fingers crossed). Just gonna wait until spring to go out there and check. Too darn cold right now...lol.
I know about both of these but it has been so long I had forgotten about them. For the stats going down more than not on level up save scumming is your best friend. And yep I definitely used the Identify Item 9 exploit. Hey ...back then you did any and everything thing to get ahead. Those games were not easy to survive in...lol

I am hanging onto hope that it's on one of my CD spindles... or stuffed away in one of my other game boxes (like Wizardry or Realms of Arkania). I am making my way through my CD spindles right now - because I recently got a BluRay burner - so to get rid of the excess data CDs and DVDs I have - I have been burning things to BluRay and trashing the CD/DVD data discs I had... it could be in one of these MANY spindles I have... if that fails, time to go in the garage open the bins of games I have stored away (99% of them are Sierra games - but there's Realms of Arkania, the old floppy of Wizardry I-VI, and then VII and VIII are there too)...