In the olden days, Wizardry games had a certain formula where a traveler would enter an adventurer's inn and then recruit a party before stalking out on multi-level dungeons. Battles were fought with primitive subroutines where a die was cast behind the scenes to determine hit or miss on a hulking monster. Dungeon walls consisted of white lines on a black background and creatures looked like the creations of 3rd grade school children. That was how the multi-billion dollar video gaming industry started.

Although the calendar currently reads 2006, not much has changed in Wizardry XTH. The graphics are much improved and the sound effects are surreal but the basic skeletal framework is the same as the age old Wizardry games of yore.

Jan Code: 4571197190035

View the back cover and screenshots on the main NCSX website.

» Chris Kingdom, Aria Sea Sbyss Sea. A host of beings are marshaled together while war is called and banners are raised while thronged by weapons. A flick screen intro plays where the animation is limited to blossoms falling from cherry trees.

» At the outset of the game, a Felpurr or cat girl with grey hair and grey tail greets you at the adventurer's inn. Upon entering, the murmur of an invisible crowd may be heard since the quarters are empty inside. Here, you may assemble a party of six warriors to accompany you into battle and adventure. The classes that are available are:

Human
Elf
Dwarf
Gnome
Hobbit
Faerie
Felpurr
Bahamoon
Diaboros
Celestia

» Humans and elves are well rounded with balanced attributes in the STR, INT, PIE, VIT, AGI, and LUC. Gnomes are weak but are very intelligent and pious (good for priests and magic users). Hobbits are basically weak and stupid based on their STR and INT values of 6 but they're very agile (12) and lucky (14). Based on attributes, characters may be fighters, mages, priests, thieves, summoners, alchemists, rangers, samurai, and others.

» Character creation variables allow for male/female, age, orientation (good, neutral, evil), occupation (fighter, wizard, priest, etc), and character portraits from 11 available ones for the various classes of characters. Once a character portrait is chosen, you may further customize the color of skin, type and color of hair, shape and color of eyes, ear style, facial hair, eyewear, and even facial aberrations such as moles and marks.

» Upon starting the adventure, the heroes are in a chamber of some sort where they may explore. If you walk the gang into a wall, they exclaim in pain with groans and shrieks. Movement is performed by pressing on the D-pad and the crew will walk in single step action. An early enemy to be encountered is a gang of black bats. Attacks for each character are chosen and then acted out where the bats shudder as they take damage. If a member of your party takes damage, they'll groan in pain and their portrait on the bottom of the screen shudders a bit. If the tide of battle turns against you, you may elect to run and you'll hear the echo of multiple feet as your party attempts to vamoose. If you're successful, you'll be back in the dungeon but if not, you'll miss your turn to attack as the enemy piles on the hurt. Enemies may also escape from battle if they wish and you'll hear the echo of their feet as they run. Battles are rudimentary and nothing like what modern gamers will expect since they hearken back from the days of the original Wizardry. Button presses are all that ignites attacks and background die casting is what determines hits or misses based on your attributes which are matched against those of the enemy in play.

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