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Wizardry Titles to Be Shown at Spaceworld 2000

Nintendo. RPGs. Not necessarily two words that seem to fit each other very well as of late. However, that may be finally changing with Nintendo's upcoming Spaceworld 2000 event in Japan. Not only have Enix's Star Ocean: Blue Sphere and Nintendo's own Legend of Zelda: Mystical Seed series been announced as being part of the Spaceworld line-up, it appears that Ascii has decided to preview its upcoming Wizardry trilogy of games for the Game Boy Color.

The games seem to be remakes of the first three Wizardry games for the PC. Info is rather scarce at this point, but the titles seem to point in that direction. Loosely translated, the titles are as follows: Wizardry, Wizardry II: Legacy of Lylgamyn, and Wizardry III: Knight of Diamonds. Interestingly enough, parts two and three are seemingly in reversed order from their PC forebearers. Part two on the PC was entitled Wizardry II: Knight of Diamonds and part three was Wizardy III: Legacy of Lylgamyn. Whether or not this is a typo on Nintendo's official Spaceworld line-up list is unknown. Perhaps Ascii consciously reversed the titles. Regardless of the nit-picky details, Game Boy Color owners will be getting a lot of experience making endless amounts of maps.

For those unfamiliar with Wizardry, the series dates back to at least 1981. The first Wizardry game was released for the Apple II and the PC and was a classic dungeon-crawl in the truest sense. The plot centered on a group of adventurers who hacked their way through the monstrous hordes inhabiting a dangerous labyrinth beneath the city of Lylgamyn. Map-making skills are imperative if players wish to complete the game, as the dungeon is constructed in a first-person point of view. Due to the limitations of the primitive graphics engine of the time, repeating tiles were used and it is quite easy to get lost unless one made meticulously detailed maps. Old-school console RPGamers will recall that Phantasy Star for the Sega Master System and Ultima: Exodus for the NES utilized the same graphics style for their respective dungeons. Ah, the '80s... when auto-map wasn't an option and would have been considered sissy even if it was.

Wizardry has a grand history, totalling seven games, with an eighth on the way. Published by Sir-Tech, it has influenced countless developers and is a truly classic series. The series has appeared on multiple platforms, even on the classic Nintendo Entertainment System, and has spawned soundtrack albums, playing cards, and animated movies in Japan.

It is unknown at this point if this GBC trilogy will make it to North American shores. However, if it is released in North America, Agetec, Ascii's North American affiliate, will most likely be the ones to publish it seeing how they are bringing over Ascii's RPG Maker. It would be nice to see Wizardry for the GBC published in North America, if only to introduce a new generation of gamers to this classic series.

Spaceworld 2000 will take place during August 25-27. Stay tuned to RPGamer for more updates as news is revealed.


by Christopher Koeppel    
Source: [Nintendo]
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