So, I've been playing Wizardry Summoner lately. I am on level 5 of the dungeon and my regular party members are level 6. (Actually, some characters are level 7 now, but wre 6 at the time.) Leveling up is, IMO, much slower than it should be.

Anyway, I have encountered enemies (including a boss) that can use a spell that hits the entire party and can do over 70 damage. (It is probably TILTOWAIT/Nuclear Blast.) The character in my party with the highest HP only has like 45 HP. Therefore, if the enemy casts that spell, it is likely that it will wipe out all three of my regular characters (as well as most of my summons), causing a game over.

Do you think that's fair? I certainly don't.

Really, the game should leave enemies capable of casting that spell for later in the game, when the party can realistically survive it, and ideally be able to use it themselves.

By the way, Magic Screen exists as a 3rd level spell, but is a combat-only spell. (It seems to be based off Wizardry 5's Cortu, which is interesting because the spell list is otherwise based on Wizardry 1's, though I have yet to learn Dumapic. Then again, the game does give you unlimited free use of the automap, so that spell would be redundant anyway.)

Just an update; I have decided to abandon this game. You level up far too slowly, and the enemies grow in power too quickly.

I have found that the only way to really explore without excessive power-leveling is to use the dirty trick I mentioned in the other thread along with save-states, and that is really not a fun way to play, nor is it how the developers intended the game to be played.

Maybe I might give the game another go, but only if I can hack the game to switch around experience and gold awards. (The game gives you way too much money from victories).

Maybe I will play around with cheats and learn more about how the game plays (and, in particular, get a better idea of the full spell list).

There's a PS2 version, but according to a Japanese site, they didn't fix XP/Gold awards from battle.

One other interesting fact; if you use a particular summon enough, it will eventually level up. I noticed the mandragon summon go from level 8 to level 9.

PS2 has its own Wizardry (Tale of the Forsaken Land). It doesn't follow some Wizardry rules, but still it is a very good game, so you might take a look at it instead (I only played a bit of it though, as I have huge backlog atm).

I saw a video of its (Japan-only) sequel, and noticed that combat animations are a little too long.

Also, I would prefer games that were originally released on cartridges for now.

I am currently thinking of playing Wizardry Gaiden 4 next; it looks like an interesting combination of classic Wizardry with elements from Wizardry 6, plus a Dracon with a breath attack that's as good as the one in Elminage Gothic. (For some reason, I love it when the game lets the player use things such as breath attacks.)

Saw a video of the PS2 version that Drpg 4ever just posted on YouTube. It seems they at least did increase the XP gains from battles. Battles in the starter dungeon would sometimes be worth over 100 XP and I saw a small battle in the first floor of the second dungeon (the first real dungeon) yield over 600 XP. This is at least an improvement over the original GBA version.

Curious observation: While it is recognizably the same game (though the starter dungeon appears to have been expanded), the music has been completely changed. Any idea why this might have happened?

One thing: Before you get group attacks, battles might take a little too long with a traditional party (that is, one that doesn't use summons). One thing that helps in the GBA version (does the PS2 version do this?) is to hold A during combat. At the fastest message speed (which I believe is 0), doing this will make the combat messages go by really fast.

Maybe I should give the PS2 version a try (using the same party setup I tried in the GBA version; PRI, MAG, SUM, and summoned monsters for the remaining slots) at some point?

Edit: Of course, that would require acquiring the game somehow.

I think it has same reason as change of graphics in some ports of Wizardry VII, change of maps in some ports of earlier Wizardries - just to mix some things up.

(I am gone from general forums for now as I wrote you in a message, I will stick to subforums for now)