Looking forward to this one. I've been jonezin' to play "Shining: The Holy Ark" lately...
Wizardry journeys West
By
Brendan Sinclair, Senior Editor
Xseed Games picks up North American and European publishing rights to dungeon-crawling franchise's first downloadable PS3 iteration.
While the Wizardry series has enjoyed a steady flow of releases in Japan, the dungeon-crawling role-playing game franchise hasn't been seen in the West since 2001's critically acclaimed duo of Wizardry 8 for the PC and Wizardry: Tale of the Forsaken Land for the PlayStation 2. That's set to change soon, as Xseed Games today announced that it has acquired the rights to publish the first PlayStation 3 installment in the series in North America and Europe this spring.
Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls will be downloadable via the PlayStation Network later this spring. The game was originally released on the Japanese PSN storefront in December of 2009. It also received a Japanese retail release as part of the Wizardry Twin Pack earlier this year. That bundle included Labyrinth of Lost Souls as well as its sequel, Torawareshi Bourei no Machi. Both games were developed by Acquire, the Japanese studio best known in the West for its work on the Tenchu and Way of the Samurai series.
Like previous installments in the series, Labyrinth of Lost Souls will be a first-person, grid-based dungeon-crawling RPG. Players will form parties of up to six characters pulled from five races and eight classes in order to fend off more than 120 distinct monsters. Xseed is also touting the game's "hand-drawn" characters and sprites, created by Yuki Hayabusa.
Although Japanese companies like Acquire, Taito, and Atlus have kept the series alive for the last decade with Japan-exclusive installments, Wizardry is a seminal Western RPG franchise. Originally developed for the Apple II by Sir-Tech, Wizardry was one of the first games to have players exploring gridlike dungeons from a first-person perspective and doing battle with detailed (but static) images of monsters.
By
Brendan Sinclair, Senior Editor
Brendan Sinclair has been a games journalist since 1999. His tastes are eclectic, though he has a definite affinity for games with arcade roots. He's Canadian, but has also been at home in Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, and San Francisco.
33 comments
I still remember playing wizardy on the nintendo waay back in the day great times I'm totally looking forward to trying out this game when its release day arrives!
@Real_MacDeath: Wow! I totally remember sitting there with graph paper trying to map out those dungeons! If I remember right, Wizardy 1's dungeons were always on a 20x20 grid.
I would take a Wizardry 6 & 7 HD re-release for sure, Wizardry 8 had too many red-herrings..but..maybe they could finish it and give us a fully completed game.
I'll have to try this, never played it before but I like dungeon crawlers and wouldn't mind a good japanese one. I'm mega shocked it's coming to europe though.
Hell yeah! I played Wizardry 5, 8, and Forsaken Land, loved all of 'em. Great dungeon crawling series, and another 1-up for the PS3!
Wizardry is popular in Japan, there has been many more releases which haven't appeared worldwide. This is good news for all Wizardry fans! and I agree, +1 for Good Old Games appearance.
I've never played the Wizardry series, but I always wanted to give it a try. Maybe I'll check it out.
Even if you dont have a router all you need to do is unplug the Cat-5 from the PC ONCE and download the game, then plug it back into your PC. Tiny, tiny bit of effort required for some old school maze crawl goodness. @Solamon I actually still have the NES hintbook for either Proving gounds or the one the came after, prolly still have the graph paper maps for the SNES one!
Interesting. I was completely unaware that Japan has been keeping the Wizardry tradition alive and well. I have fond memories of playing Wizardry 1: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord on my NES. I also really enjoyed 4, 5, 6, 7, & 8 for the PC.
@DeadlyRamon They try hard, but can't get to every good ol' game out there. I'm sure there are oceans of legal papers they have to go through for games. If they can't manage Wizardry (though this may spark enough interest for them to push for it), don't blame them! GOG does so much for lovers of old games.
Oh man, I miss those games. Too bad its not on the PC, but it will be nice to get some use out of my PS3.
@Zloth2 Same here. I've long encouraged Good Old Games to get the rights to those classics (everything from Wizardry 1 through 8, including the Windows 95 remake of Wizardry 7 called Wizardry Gold).
I hope they give Good Old Games the rights to get the old Wizardry series working on Windows 7.
@Lazay727 How come you don't have a router? They are cheap. Also, can't you just hook up your broadband to your PS3 so you can download it? Then just hook it back up to your computer. Only a handful of games require an internet connection, Wizardry is probably not one of them.
this is excellent news! definitely looking forward to playing this game! hopefully there will be more than one; either way i am stoked to at least be getting something new from the Wizardry series.
I hope we get the same retail release as Japan did. But, if not, I'm still looking forward to playing more Wizardry.
Interesting. I was just thinking I wanted to replay the old one on a DosBox (or fire up the Nintendo) - too bad I can't play this one though as it is only PS3...
Man, I had totally forgotten about Wizardry. This, uh. Well, I wonder what it will be like. So long as they don't price it competitive to boxed games (I can't stand SOE's attempt to sell us DCUO at the same price as the physical copy), I'll consider a purchase.
This is really awesome news. I've been wanting this game to come state side since it was originally released in Japan.
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Related Game
Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls
- Publisher(s): Xseed Games
- Developer(s): Acquire
- Genre: Role-Playing
- Release:
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