The World's Oldest RPG Wizardry Now Made into MMO

Wizardry is one of the oldest RPG in the world developed by Sir-Tech (learn more about the game).
The first Wizardry game was released in 1981 and served as the template
for the followers. This year marks the 30th anniversary of this
franchise and Japanese developer Gamepot just announced to bring the
game back in the form of MMORPG. Wizardry Online will boast the
up-to-date graphics while retain the symbolic feature of Wizardry series
- labyrinth.








Three keywords about Wizardry Online were mentioned at the press
conference: "labyrinth", "high difficulty", "life and death". Dungeons
feature the labyrinth style and allow 30 ～ 100 players to enter. There
are riddles and traps in the dungeons. High difficulty means that you
can't kill the monsters by simply casting spells. Therefore, some
techniques are needed. Life and death may be a little bit cruel to some
players. Under the Death → Ash → Lost mechanics, a trap, or a PvP may
cause you to lose your characters forever.


The game just confirmed for Japanese market at the moment and will
begin closed beta in mid-June. You can see more screenshots at next
page.
Source: 4gamer(JP)

(Source) Just a few weeks back, I posted about Gamepot Japan reviving the classic Wizardry franchise
into an online game. At this year's E3 2011, the game was shown at the
convention hall and confirmed for an English release sometime next year.
The game will be Free to Play (F2P) and seems to be very, very tough in
terms of gameplay and learning curve. Below is the exact article taken
from the source. Screenshots and pictures are taken from the Japanese
version.



























E3 2011 - Wizardry Online to hit English shores




Posted By cinderboy on Thursday, June 09, 2011 at 3:15 PM






(Source) Just a few weeks back, I posted about Gamepot Japan reviving the classic Wizardry franchise
into an online game. At this year's E3 2011, the game was shown at the
convention hall and confirmed for an English release sometime next year.
The game will be Free to Play (F2P) and seems to be very, very tough in
terms of gameplay and learning curve. Below is the exact article taken
from the source. Screenshots and pictures are taken from the Japanese
version.


E3 2011 continues in sunny Los Angeles, California, and new games are
being unveiled left and right. One of these new games is Wizardry
Online, to be published in Japan by Gamepot and developed by Japanese
free-to-play online game developer Headlock Games. Though details on the
game remain scarce, principals from both companies were in attendance
at an off-the-floor event to introduce this new project.


Headlock CEO Nobuyuki Okada suggested that Wizardry Online will be a
difficult game that "delights in killing the player." The game will
feature the dreaded "perma-death"--permanent death for your character if
you die too many times…in this case, twice. Like in the classic
Wizardry games first created by Sir-Tech Canada, in Wizardry Online,
your first death will turn your body to ash (and as it turns out,
classic locations like the Adventurer's Inn, Gilgamesh's Tavern, and
Boltac's Trading Post will return in the game). You'll then become a
ghost with one last shot of recovering your corpse and whatever
belongings are left on it. If you fail, your character become
extinct…dead forever.


Mr. Okada suggested that the game's permanent death and considerable
difficulty, inspired by online games ten years gone by such as EverQuest
and Ultima Online, will make for a strong point of differentiation from
the games of today, which the executive suggested are "well-designed,"
but in which "monsters serve only to provide you with enough experience
to gain your next level." In many cases, it may be wiser simply to try
to run for your life.


Even though the game will make references to the classic games of yore,
the executive insisted that it will very much be a modern free-to-play
game that will be "challenging but fair," and will reward "strategic and
skillful play," without requiring exceptional reflexes. As a
free-to-play game, Wizardry Online will earn revenue through
microtransactions, though exactly what will be sold in the cash-op store
hasn't been revealed.


The game will, however, run on PCs with DirectX 9 and all modern
versions of Windows, and Headlock has made arrangements with Japanese
rock band Dir En Grey, which provided music for the game's debut
trailer. Wizardry Online is scheduled to launch later this year in Japan
and next year in Europe and North America.

Japan-based Gameport has confirmed that they will launch Class Transfer System in the open beta of Wizardry Online. In order to show players how to change class, Gameport also released a new video in advance. Let's take a close look.











In Wizardry Online, players will be allowed to change their class through a specific system when
they reach a specific level. After players change their class, their
level goes back to one, but the skills they have learned will be preserved. So using this system, players can build a unique character combined with features of different classes, for example, powerful fighters who are also good at spells, excellent magicians who not only can heal damages, but also owns ancillary skills…

Wizardry Online to Kick Off Open Beta on Oct. 7


Three Steps to Change Class:

Choose New Class
First, you have to go to the harbor city "Elofaro", find the NPC of the class union and talk to him. Then you can choose a new class.


Rewards of Stat Points
After you change your class, you can decide to accept the stat points rewarded by the system or let the system generate random points. Then you can assign these points to your stats.


Preserve Skills
You can keep those skills which you leaned before the transfer, but how many and which level of those skills will be preserved depend on the soul level. The system will present the skill tree and then you can operate on it.

After you go through the above three steps, you finish the whole class transfer procedure. You character becomes stronger, enabling you to work out more strategies for the maze exploration.


The Class Transfer System will bring more fun into Wizardry Online adventure. If you are interested in this function, you should try it out in the open beta.