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| image | date | title | played_on | game_genre | game_release_year | game_developer | game_platform | game_name | summary | tags | |||
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| /img/games/Wizardry8/wiz8.jpg | 2021-02-07 | Wizardry 8 Playthrough Blog | win98 | RPG | 2001 | SirTech Canada | pc | Wizardry 8 | Wizardry 8: the Adventure Blog! I've been keen on replaying the whole game for old times sake - on a 'real' retro Win98 PC. After _finally_ convincing my friend to install the game, we were ready to go through it together/alone, since it's a single-player adventure. In the same fashion as other adventure blogs on this site, I thought it would be nice to do a short write-up after making a bit of progress. |
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Introduction
I love Wizardry 8 - I really do. I've been bragging about the game for years now to anyone willing to listen, and lately, I've been keen on replaying the whole game for old times sake - on a "real" retro Win98 PC. After finally convincing my friend to install the game (he was looking for a big timesink. You've been warned), we were ready to go through it together/alone, since it's a single-player adventure. In the same fashion as the BG2 Solo Blade Report, I thought it would be nice to do a short write-up after making a bit of progress.
So, after spending the necessary hours being stuck in the character creation sheets - I really couldn't choose - this is the party I've decided to go for:
{{% dualscreens "/img/games/Wizardry8/playthrough/" "wiz8-party.jpg" "The starting party." "wiz8-inventory.jpg" "My Samurai doesn't let down." %}}
- Ninja: Muesli, Felpurr
- Lord: Mielie, Rawulf
- Bishop: Christina, Faerie
- Samurai: Sharptooth, Dracon
- Mage: Santa, Gnome
- Gadgeteer: Wooly, Mook
I originally wanted only four characters as experience points are precious and I like specialized classes in this game. But, since I'm playing for the first time with Christan Coder's Mod v2, I thought a full party would be a good idea. I've played the vanilla version and with Flamestryke's New Mod v1.1. For this playthrough, a more balanced mod (Flamestryke's new items are crazy!) sounded good. I couldn't party with my favorite samurai/dracon, ninja/felpurr combo so what the heck. On to the adventure! If this is your first playthrough, read the classes guide or my wiz8 general tips (old but still relevant).
The Monastery
Right, our ship crashed. Correction: it was shot out of the sky! We're stranded on a foreign beach, at the entrance of a building that we later identify as a monastery. Let's get to it! Conveniently, a chest lies there waiting for us, stocked with random weapons and armor. Lovely. After trashing twenty or so crabs and fetching the Cherry Bomb and Axe on top of the archipel, we carefully venture inside. Three green slimes greet us, but are no match to the blades of our Samurai and the shurikens of our Ninja. The starting weapons of some classes are quite powerful. A couple of dead rats and bats later, we encounter another version of the slime: a Noxious Slime. This time, the thing spits at us, and we can't reach it as fast as we'd like. The result? A dead Gadgeteer. Of course, I forgot to save my progress. A few curses later, I pressed Start New Game again. Sigh.
Next time, I'll keep my fingers positioned on top of Q (quicksave) and occasionally CTRL+Q (quickload) - and hopefully will not mix up both hotkeys. A second try did help with the slime, but my mage got overconfident, trying to cast a higher level Frost than he'd probably be able to handle. BOOM - backfire. Shit. This time though, I knew what to do: CTRL+Q!
{{% dualscreens "/img/games/Wizardry8/playthrough/" "monastery-slime-death.jpg" "Noxious Slime: 1. Party: 0." "monastery-backfire-death.jpg" "Great, spell backfire: another death." %}}
After a business meeting with Gregor in the main hall (the deal fell through), we were well on our way to grab the Safe Key by plucking at the skeleton head of the statue - that is, after getting rid of Gregor's little helpers, and they know how to bite (and gang up on us). I hope your party formation is in order! Okay, so we now have 6 portions of resurrection powder: three from the safe and three from the hidden waterfall place, after "sleeping with the fishes" near the iron bridge. I couldn't remember where to get the key for the "dangerous weapons", according to a cryptic Rapax note, but after a few minutes, I thought it must have been near Arnika itself.
So, nothing much left to do than to clear out the Upper Monastery Floor - and meet another enemy type: bandits. We spot a shiny piece of samurai armor equipment, but it's sealed shut behind glass. Hmm... Should we "microwave" it, like how we got the chip for Wooly our Gadgie? It turns out that there's a key that unlocks a door in the Silent Room, where we can ring the monastery bells. Crank it all the way up and all the glass in the entire building breaks! Oh-oh... Luckily, the Higardi Monks have long been gone, and all that is left for us to do is to read their boring administration, grab all the spellbooks we can get our hands on (including a soon-to-be important note), and get the hell out of here.
{{% dualscreens "/img/games/Wizardry8/playthrough/" "monastery-key.jpg" "The Monastery Safe." "monastery-messenger.jpg" "A mechanical messenger." %}}
Christina our Bishop is as crappy as can be expected from an untrained low-level Bishop. I already shiver when I think of the many hours of "exercise" (casting Knock Knock in the Arnika vaults) I used to put into such builds. I'm not sure if I'll be able to do that this time. Anyway, when entering a side chapel, suddenly, in a flash, a robot appears! Oh no, wait, it was waiting for us but it disappears in a flash. We were impressed. But what to make of it? It seems that there's a race going on, a quest to "ascend", and for that, we need to be as "smart as the cosmic lords". How do we do that? By getting three important artifacts! The flags on the walls hint towards these, but other than that, there's not much here. We grab a few more unnecessary potions, Wooly's first gadget, spot more hidden piles of stones for Wooly's Omnigun, and get going by opening the front door.
(The Road to) Arnika
To be continued!