I'm aware that I only recently griped about full-loot and perma death and all, but I feel I need to reiterate it with the game that really made me start to hate the idea behind the concept in MMO scapes. I bring to you all Wizardry...Online!
I'll start by saying Sony Online Entertainment. Everyone just had a moment of clarity. So, if you're all like "aww, well jeez, you can't judge a game based off of JUST that" I will agree with you. I will let those who destroyed one of the most beloved sandbox MMOs in gaming history to have another shot, even if it took me this long to do it. So let's keep in mind I'm judging purely off of looks, which as we all know is the only real way to judge anything. So let's dive in to what we can find.
Wizardry is a long standing game line and blah blah blah no one gives a shit. Let's cut out the back story and get right to the fucking gameplay and what they claim. So right off the bat at http://www.wizardrythegame.com/ there is a bold quote:
Wizardry Online is the most hardcore fantasy MMO ever created. The difficulty level is insane. The dungeons are brutal. There is no auto-healing. Your crimes taint your soul. Your allies could betray you at any moment. And when you die, you die forever.Ok, cool, sounds alright. I'm all about stupid hard difficult shit. Plus it's free-to-play. Then again, what isn't these days? But fucking I'm just going to say that they made a good choice in not making this pay-to-play because it looks like garbage and the second you die you're going to punch a wall.
Again, I cannot reiterate this fact, that I LOVE difficult games. I LOVE steep learning curves. I LOVE the sink or swim moments in games that show whether you truly learned how to play and succeed at the game, or you were just lazily coasting along. It's the only point to actually engaging in a game for me. Any game. Baseball, pinball, Mario Kart, and even that stupid fucking ball in a cup on a string game you get from shitty gift bags at children's birthday parties are all games that have a level of difficulty that I oogle over. I remember when Dynasty Warriors 2 came out and I was rolling deep on Zhao Yun at Hu Lao Gate and rocked through that shit. It was tough because I just jumped right into the Musou mode (story mode basically) but it still was just hard enough to be interesting, but not making me desperate for health. Then I came across arguably one of the most iconic "Oh Fuck" moments in hack-n-slash history. Lu Bu. Need I say more? He fucking rocked my balls. So I restarted and came to that point in the Hu Lao stage once more. You see, you could just walk around him and go straight to end the stage, but I said nay nay. I got this. I didn't. So I tried again, and again, and again, each time refining my strategy. I didn't do enough damage to make him flinch on hits. A full rotation from him would kill. His power attack alone would red bar my life. Arrows hurt him, but again he didn't flinch. But I did it. I finally killed that son of a bitch and it felt so good. And it continued to feel good in every Dynasty Warriors since.
This all related to one thing: challenge. Difficulty that is out of this world. Not acceptable by the majority of people who buy games for casual play. But there is a difference in enjoying a challenge and absolutely abhorring a challenge. Wizardry falls in the second of those, by the looks.
Seriously, watch this video. Do it, right now before you read any more.
Are you any more enthused to play this? Oh, we're going to be hardcore and have perma death! But you have to stand there and get your fucking ass handed to you by trash mobs. Nice. So in a game that is all about not dying, you have no way to avoid dying...unless you use pots...or back track to a fucking town to stay at an inn. Oh, and then you still only gain half of your health back. Not even like "Ok, I have to rest for 2 nights" No seriously, 50% is it. You want 100%? You pay. Money. Really real money. The shit that some dude pays you for working your ass off for 40-60 hours a week and you pay the developers of a piece of shit game so that your character gets enough health back to continue having fun. FUCKING BRILLIANT.
Look, we get it, it's a HERDCURRR GEAAM. You know what else is? DEMON'S SOULS! You know what game doesn't suck? DEMON'S SOULS! Seriously, just watch this. Ignore the guy playing it and talking over it, but watch the game play. Indulge yourself in the game play and notice how the player needs to engage with the enemies. You have chances and you die because YOU fucked up. You have options to engage and avoid enemies and their attacks, especially at around 5:30 or so in the video against the red eye knight.
The game itself though shows that you don't need some crazy perma death style game play to make a game hard core or difficult. The challenge comes from getting balls deep in a level with 20k souls (which acts as currency in the game) and praying that you don't die at the end of the chapter of that level. There's no garbage or bullshit. You have to proceed cautiously and intelligently and understand how your character plays and engage from there. Wizardry makes you run up to fucking guys that are 3 times your size and wail at them with your derp da derp sword. and then punishes you because the game play is god awful.
If a game wants to have hardcore combat with harsh consequences, go right ahead. But make a fucking game that doesn't suck first. Sort of hard to build off of shit. Sony, I love the PlayStation and all that, but your online entertainment branch needs to just fucking quit, sorry.
Oh, and before I forget, even ignoring the garbage ass Japanimation characters, I still hate the way this game looks. So yes, we can judge a game by its looks because it looks like shit, both visually and based off of game play. This is not that rare gem you're looking for. This is an instance of road kill where you get out of your car and go "Aww, eww...I'll just push it out of the way and leave."
And before anyone asks, the first time I made it to the boss fight below, I put my controller down and walked away. Didn't even try. The boss is really simple though, but I was so overwhelmed I was just like "naw" and decided to come back later on in the day after I picked up my brain matter from the ground.
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