The history of RPGs is long, rich, and exuberant. Searching for the first RPG in history would be an ungrateful task, mainly because it is impossible to point out a title as the inventor of the genre. It’s not just that there always seems to be one earlier that we were not aware of, but there always seems to be another one that resembles more what we understand today as an RPG. Therefore, it is very difficult to find the origin of the genre. Although it is easy to point out some games as its predecessors.
In general, if we talk about games that have defined what RPGs are, we would have to mention two names. The first one is Ultima, a game by Richard Garriott published in 1981. The second one is Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord, a game by Andrew C. Greenberg and Robert Woodhead also published in 1981. And they take two very different approaches to how an RPG should be.
Now Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord is getting a remake on May 23rd for PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, and Switch. That’s why it’s an excellent opportunity to delve into this franchise and its importance to the gaming industry. And why you shouldn’t miss its release.
What is Wizardry? Basically, it is a game of exploring a dungeon with a group of adventurers, obtaining treasures, killing monsters, and trying to reach the deepest part of it. In the first installment, the excuse is to descend to the end to defeat the evil archmage Werdna. To do this, we will have to manage our group, creating it from scratch and trying to make them survive the adventure without dying. Something that probably won’t happen.
This is because Wizardry was one of the first games to develop a video game in the style of Dungeons & Dragons. We needed to choose the race of our character, their class, alignment, and roll dice to decide their characteristics. This was not only the first game to offer the possibility of playing with a whole group, but also the first to come out in full color. Something that made it a technical prodigy, which also did unthinkable things until then.
Having to draw our map by hand, progressing slowly, and accepting that if one of our characters dies we will have to resurrect them or recruit a new one, is an early example of the more hardcore perspective of RPGs. Something that has survived to this day in franchises like Etrian Odyssey.
Because Wizardry is a difficult game. It helps that our characters don’t always have to have the most optimal characteristics for their class, the brutality of some of its encounters, and the existence of traps in the dungeon itself. Something that the game does to encourage us to explore slowly and carefully, returning to the initial town whenever we feel overwhelmed. Something that would make a big difference with its great competitor, Ultima, a game much more based on exploring the world and telling us a great story of salvation.
With eight main installments developed by Sir-Tech and over thirty, including the Japanese spin-offs, it is a well-known and beloved franchise among classic video game enthusiasts. Especially when it comes to the Japanese audience.
Wizardry was released in Japan in the mid-80s, becoming an even bigger phenomenon than it already was in the West. With numerous spin-offs of its own, which would give it a more personal aesthetic and a slightly greater emphasis on narrative and a darker tone, the franchise would have a great influence on the development of JRPGs. Both the creators of Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy have repeatedly pointed out the inspiration they had from both Wizardry and Ultima. In addition to being a great source of inspiration even today, as evidenced by being one of the influences of the popular anime Tragones y mazmorras.
Its influence in the West was not minor, but it is more difficult to specifically identify due to how obvious its references are. Many of the things that we could associate as indebted to Dungeons & Dragons come from what it had already borrowed from the role-playing game Wizardry, where it is much easier to see how it created certain gender notions. But that does not exclude the tremendous influence it had on the industry, showing how the logic of the board game could be translated into a video game.
Playing Wizardry nowadays is both extremely easy and difficult at the same time. Counting all its versions, the original game appeared on at least fourteen different platforms, and most of them have their own peculiarities. Except for the original version for Apple II and its adaptation for PC, the best version of Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord is probably found between the Super Nintendo version and the PlayStation version. Both with improved graphics, original soundtrack, mechanical adjustments, and even an automatic map function in Sony’s console version, if drawing the map by hand is not your thing.
That’s why this remake is appreciated. With modern graphics and mechanical improvements to make it more accessible, it seeks to capture the spirit of the original without ignoring the fact that many people who can play it today weren’t even born when it came out. Something that can even be noticed in small details, like being able to run the Apple II version in a corner of the screen while playing the remake.
In addition, there are good reasons to have faith in this project. Its developers, Digital Eclipse, have a long history of bringing old games to the present in their best possible version. With their Gold Master series, they aim to bring important games from the history of video games with comments from their developers and all kinds of never-before-seen content. And compilations like Atari 50 or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection are the best way to play some of the most important classic games from the 70s, 80s, and 90s.
If you like RPGs, you must at least try Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord. An authentic classic that has defined the genre and that now, thanks to Digital Eclipse, we will be able to enjoy in a more suitable experience for the present.
