Having two Bishops guarantees two portals, and if the Valkyrie and Ranger could get their magic up to speed (not likely, considering that their primary duties are melee and ranged combat), 4 portals.
The game can be cruel sometimes: I had a couple of level 10 Vampire Bats engage my level 7 party, causing draining. NO. Reload. It never happened.
I did manage to have success against 4 level 8 Metallic Slimes (even my Bishops had to get involved in this, for ranged attacks).
Also, I won against 4 level 9 Pestilent Rats (thankfully, fighting from a narrow hallway, where they could only hit the front line).
To be fair, most of the enemy spawns were lower-level garbage, so I can't complain too much. Frequent saves, and resting (to restore mana), are the name of the game.

Level 8:
Valkyrie: Stamina
Ranger: Itching Skin
Divinity/Wizardry Bishop: Fireball
Alchemy/Psionics Bishop: Noxious Fumes

There is no cure for KO. The Mage has no healing or curing.

The Psionic has Heal Wounds, Cure Lesser Conditions, and Sane Mind.

The Alchemist has Heal Wounds, Stamina, Cure Lesser Conditions, Cure Paralysis, Cure Poison, Cure Disease, and Resurrection.

The Priest has it all: Heal Wounds, Heal All, Stamina, Rest All, Cure Lesser Conditions, Cure Paralysis, Cure Poison, Cure Disease, Sane Mind, Resurrection, and Restoration (finally, a level 7 spell to cure KO).

I fought a bunch of damage-resistant, level 8 Metallic Slimes (great for practicing ranged combat). They KOed my team members last time, and I used up the last of the set Smelling Salts (cure KO powders) that are provided. Thankfully, I got a few more Smelling Salts from battles prior, and I was not KOed in this particular battle.

Seriously, this is a game of RNG.

Still more fair than Wizardry 1 where, in the right situation, the game can randomly delete your character or make them unusable, and it's not a bug.

(Started playing the new Wizardry 1 remake, and currently farming that Murphy's Ghost. Maybe they should have placed a Murphy's Ghost in one of Wizardry 8's Retro Dungeons?)

This game can either be boringly easy, or frustratingly tough (sometimes impossible). It's all due to RNG: Which enemies spawn, what level they spawn at (some enemies can spawn at different levels), how many of them spawn, whether you get diseased or drained (seriously, what were they thinking, causing those debuffs so early on, when you likely can't cure either?)
This is why the majority of players (myself included), refuse to play on Ironman (what if you have a power outage, I believe the game only saves when you exit).

But I digress. Wizardry 1 sounds too brutal for me, and I grew up with older NES, SNES, and Genesis games.

The point I was trying to make is that most RPGs I have played, like Super Mario RPG, Chrono Trigger, Shining Force 2, Morrowind, seem to have more stability in the enemies that you fight, it's not so random. It's more like Final Fantasy 1, where your game can be very easy or very hard (though with FF1, I would grind my characters to level 50).

I'm glad that the RPG genre, as a whole, moved away form such harsh mechanics and balancing. Like, Wizardry 8 can sometimes be somewhat unfair, but it isn't *that* bad, even on Ironman (which is fortunately optional in 8, unlike 1).

I actually did also grow up on older NES and SNES games, but interestingly, one of those games was Wizardry 1. I also played Wizardry 2: Knight of Diamonds on the NES back in the day.

Thing is, I don't like the "stability" you mention, as it usually means there isn't enough enemy variety, and it sometimes degrades to the point where every encounter is handled the same way, and there's no notion of planning for contingencies, or having some encounters that might be better to run away from.

In particular, high enemy variety makes enemy encounters more interesting and fun. This is especially true if you have a high-attrition game design, where you need to decide whether it's worth blasting enemies with spells; if the enemies you're fighting aren't threats, you might want to save your magic for a more troublesome encounter.

Lack of enemy variety, if taken to an extreme, can lead to things becoming boring. Final Fantasy 6 has one particular dungeon that has a few small floors followed by a big floor. On that big floor, there are only 2 enemy types, both of which are undead. (I think all the random enemies in the dungeon are undead, but there's different enemies on earlier floors.) The result is that this floor becomes boring and repetitive after a while, well before you're done with it.

Final Fantasy 3 is an example of a game that suffers significantly from this issue; there's such little enemy variety that you don't have any specific enemies being memorable enough. (Well, except for those Kum Kums, but even those became uninteresting in the 3D remake when they reduced the chance of status ailment spells working to near 0.) Or you have situations like an early dungeon where every enemy is undead for a dungeon, and after that none are. Or the splitting enemies; in dungeons with them, nearly every enemy splits, but then the mechanic disappears completely.

By the way, the PSX port of FF1 had an easy mode added that raised the level cap and gave casters far more MP. I did once level up a monk to level 99 in that version; the result was 6000+ damage to normal enemies, 6000+ damage to endgame bosses (including the final boss, who has "only" 4000 HP), and 3980 (exact) to flans. With Haste + 26 Giant's Glove uses, that monk could do 50,976 damage (exact) to a Frost Wolf (0 defense, doesn't run away), which gave me some insights into the damage formula for that version of the game.


I think the davelopers balanced the game with the idea that you'd leave the Monastery at level 5, since that's before the disease-causing enemies show up, but is also the point where Arnika won't spawn high level enemies (20+) for you to fight.

Actually, I believe that Wizardry 8 on Ironman will periodically auto-save, so in case of a power outage or a crash (as long as it doesn't happen mid-save) won't result in much lost progress.

Also, the game doesn't auto-save during battle, so if a battle is going badly, you can still quit at that point.

With that said, I don't really like the Ironman style of gameplay, so I don't expect to ever turn it on, except possibly for some test.

I forgot to mention Diablo 2 (and its expansion, Lord of Destruction). I would create a Sorceress, and just waste everything, until, of course, Hell difficulty, which is, of course, HELL. RNG would catch up sometimes, resulting in one-hit kills from enemies (that is so cheap of a game mechanic, to have random bosses, that aren't important, be able to do that, with 3 modifiers).
They tried to fix that in version 1.10, but I was not a fan of that "synergy" crap. It basically took the fun out of the game, and forced certain builds, in order to handle the tougher enemies that would spawn. No way. I liked version 1.09.

I was born in 1982, and lived through the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s, when we had the "golden age" of gaming. I believe that I had Nintendo Power, when that was the only way of knowing which NES games were good, before the internet. I never once heard of Wizardry games. It was only in the early 2000s, when I was seeing this girl at work that had a way older husband, that she told me of Wizardry 8 (she wanted me). I went to Comp USA, and purchased this game.

The rest is history. I started playing around 2001/2002, and got hooked.

Edit: There is no guarantee of safety. Even if you enter the Upper Monastery at level 6 (same level as the set Rabid Rats), there seems to be a 3 level swing of difficulty, so you could still wind up with level 9 Pestilent Rats, as I have, in the Lower Monastery.

Upon further examination, it appears that the +3/-3 level swing applies, as I am getting (as a level 8 party), level 5 enemies. Thankfully, the lower end heavily outweighs the upper end, and I'm not seeing anything but my own level (level 8 Metallic Slimes), and lower.
It appears that the dynamic has a +3/-3 to party level, with lower level enemies being heavily favored, and higher level enemies being rare. It is, as I said before, a RNG game. Save frequently, save after winning, reload if the battles are too tough (or get death, disease, or draining).
Edit: My Ranger now has 2 attacks per round (both Close Combat, with the bonus, and Bow skills are above 50). He has scored a few critical hits.

I've heard it's something like a 50% range.

Like, if you're level 3, enemies above level 4 won't spawn, but once you reach level 4, it's possible for level 6 enemies to spawn.

In particular, this makes Arnika Road much easier at level 3 than at level 4. Be aware, however, that entering Arnika at below level 5 can trigger a glitch where, being unable to spawn enemies in range, causes the game to potentially spawn level 20+ enemies, which is not something you could reasonably expect to defeat at that level.

Also, Tanto Wasps and Deathsting Auses are level 13, and will appear as soon as you reach level 9. The Tanto Wasps replace level 6 Mosquitos, making the Mine Tunnels much harder at that point than at level 8. Also, staying at level 8 makes Marten's Bluff easier to deal with without those instant-death enemies..

By the way, in the Wizardry 1 remake, I'm having fun with some things you don't get in Wizardry 8:
* Spells are really powerful. Killing a group with one or two attack spells isn't unusual, and there's a spell that just obliterates all lower level enemies.
* Class changing is fun, especially since this remake got rid of the stat loss for doing so for some reason. I changed a Priest into a Samurai, a build that is not viable in 8 but works well in 1 (but your Priest needs to be Good, not Evil).

Edit: But Bishops aren't that good in 1. They're the only ones who can identify (and in the original version there's a famous exploitable glitch with that), but otherwise they learn spells too slowly to be of use. If you want all the spells, it's much faster to class change between Priest and Mage. This is indirect contrast to 8, where if you want that, Bishop is the only feasible option.

I think I may have seen Wizardry 1, and I think 5 (and, interestingly enough, Gaiden 4 which was Japan only), in Nintendo Power. Don't remember if Wizardry 2 was mentioned, but I distinctly remember playing the NES version of that game.

Now, there's something else, a cartridge released in Japan, that is also called Nintendo Power; it's a cartridge that you could pay to download games onto. There's no relation to the US magazine. On the other hand, there is some Wizardry relevance here: A Super Famicom remake of the 3 Famicom Wizardries (1, 2, and 3, though with 2 and 3's numbers switched, and with Knight of Diamonds being based on the Famicom/NES arrangement) was released in 1999 exclusively through that service. Worth noting that Soliton released their remakes of the first trilogy for PSX and Satrun previously (I think the previous year); those remakes use the original numbering, and Knight of Diamonds is based on the original, complete with being expected to use imported characters.

If the +/- 50% rule is true, then my level 8 party could theoretically get level 12 Greater Seekers, or level 4 garbage. Talk about a dice roll deciding if your night is a walk in the park, or a nail-biter. Saving often, reloading if a bad spawn appears, resting to restore mana, rinse and repeat.
How do people get past Gregor and those Rabid Rats at level 3 or 4? I always assume that the game expects me to be a certain level before entering a certain area. For example, since Gregor is level 5, and those set level 6 Rabid Rats are the first thing you fight in the Upper Monastery, I always try for at least level 6 before leaving the Lower Monastery.
Everybody knows how hard Arnika Road is if you get to level 6 or higher. I'm level 8, and would have to fight a lot of level 10 Higardi Brigand (they are unusually fast for their level, and the toughest of the thieves). So now I'm forced to level higher to be able to handle them.
To be honest, without X-Ray, if you plan properly (fighting near safe resting places, and not being in the middle of the Lower Monastery without a safe place to rest), it can be a breeze to grind levels and skills. Fight a battle, save, nap, save, rinse and repeat. It's a lot safer than being in the middle of Arnika Road at my level, with all those battles at once.

With my MDP, a few bombs and those Styx you can buy from Burz (Energy Blast 5) can help. It did take me a few tries, one of which had a Cherry Bomb backfire and kill 3 characters.

Or, you could keep restarting until the Starter Chest gives you a Canned Elemental (the elemental is likely stronger than Gregor) or an Amulet of Static (Energy Blast 6).

Also, fighter types, particularly the Fighter class, can work well, particularly if you get lucky with unconsciousness.

Level 4, I hear, is significantly easier.

On the other hand, Gregor is consistently there, whereas on Arnika Road you're at the mercy of the RNG.

The Rabid Rats haven't been an issue for me, and mass damage spells still work well.

Well, I did just see a video where the player's level 20 party encounter a couple level 27 super-elementals on the peak.

Then again, it wasn't nearly as bad as that Djinni of the Clouds fight, which at that level, is probably the biggest "revolving door of death" fight in Sir-Tech Wizardry; at one point, an enemy's Quicksand killed 3 characters, leaving him down at only 2 survivors (Death Cloud had killed someone previously), and I believe the Valkyrie cheated death twice.

The only other "revolving door of death" fight I've seen in Wizardry is Wizardry DIMGUIL's superboss; I haven't played that far into the game (believe I reached the area called "Area B", which I think is less than half way), but I've watched some videos of the ultimate super boss, the Dragon Drake, and the most reasonable strategy (that didn't rely on huge luck or just teleport away the enemies) involved a lot of sacrificing levels to revive characters. (Worth noting that, at this point, you realistically should be in the upper double digits at least, and possibly even into the triple digits, so sacrificing levels is not unreasonable at this point.)

(Wizardry 7 is the only Sir-Tech Wizardry where you have a reason to level up that high, and only for a certain optional superboss. On the other hand, Elminage Gothic, which has Wizardry-like mechanics like 1-3 and 5, not 6-8), fully expects you to reach around level 400 or so by the end of the final bonus dungeon, and levels that high could be feasibly reached just with the huge XP the hugely dangerous enemies in that 20 floor dungeon give.)

Level 9:
Valkyrie: Web
Ranger: Cure Lesser Conditions
Divinity/Wizardry Bishop: Armorplate
Alchemy/Psionics Bishop: Psionic Fire

As said before, the Ranger has his Ranged Combat (with the 25% class bonus), and Bow skills above 50, allowing for a second attack per round. He has gotten a decent amount of ranged crits.

Not judging, but it just seems cheap, using the system at a low level to get past Gregor and the Rabid Rats. The game expects you to be at a certain level at certain points in the game. Oh well. Some people don't have the patience that I do, grinding away.

With my last MDP, I didn't have a problem on Ascension Peak, although it was annoying, having to fight every minute or so. Also, magic works great against lower level enemies, but when enemies are near your level, you have to fight in melee or ranged (I was at such a high level that the Djinni of the Clouds died in round 1).

For Gregor, I believe you're intended to be level 4. 3 is slightly underleveled, but not badly, so it's still feasible at that point.

As I said, the Rabid Rats are not a problem. There's some fixed encounters that one might need to seriously worry about, but the Rabid Rats fight isn't one of them, to the point where I don't see that encounter as being particularly notable.


Another thing: It can be more fun to manage to win at a low level than to spend hours leveling up to a higher level. With that said, unfortunately there's some things that hurt that:
* When you're underleveled, your spells are significantly less effective, while there's no such issue with physical attacks; it really should be the other way around (at least for those spells you have access to).
* While it's not how I play, Ironman mode also discourages this, as it means that the penalty for taking a risk and failing is far more severe than what I consider reasonable.