Wizardry Online - Coming in 2012

We won't be covering this but I thought the it might be worth tossing up the press release. Japanese MMO publisher Gamepot sent us news they recently launched Wizardry Online in Japan and plan to being the game to NA and EU next year:

Gamepot Unleashes the Magic of Wizardry Online

Japanese MMO Publisher Seeks Partners for Worldwide Distribution

Los Angeles – Oct. 17, 2011 – Leading Japanese massively multiplayer online (MMO) game publisher Gamepot Inc. is continuing its march to bring Wizardry Online to gamers around the world. Launching the open beta in Japan last week to an overwhelmingly positive response, Gamepot quickly added multiple new servers to accommodate the more than 100,000 sign-ups acquired on the first day of testing alone. Commercial service is now live in Japan and Gamepot is working to deliver an English version to fans in the U.S. and Europe in early 2012.

“For Gamepot, it is truly amazing to see so many enthusiastic fans of the ‘Wizardry’ franchise participate in the open beta testing, and now live service, of Wizardry Online,” said Shuhei Ueda, president of Gamepot. “Bringing this innovative and legendary series to a new platform has been a rewarding process and we’re looking forward to continuing our world-wide rollout to fans around the globe.”

A revival of the legendary Wizardry titles, Wizardry Online is the next-generation incarnation of a series that has been called the godfather of the role-playing game (RPG) genre. Wizardry first came to computers in the early 1980s, and the popularity of its “Dungeons & Dragons”-style gameplay led to the creation of countless sequels, spin-offs and collections across multiple platforms.

There's a website here, although it doesn't reveal much about the actual gameplay.

More information.

It's funny cause it doesn't look like a Wizardry game at all. Not even remotely.

http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/06…zardry-online/

Has some information on this. Not what most of us here would've wished for, even though it could've been worse. Japanese Wizardry spinoffs have established a seperate tradition, and it seems like this is an online version in their vein.

Realtime and nno party. Pha! Permadeath & unrestricted PKing. Interesting. I really like the absence of a minimap though.

*YAWN*…

Wake me up when Wizardry 9 is announced, or at least something that looks like a real Wizardry game.

Considering that Gamepot has acquired all Wizardry Trademarks from the remains of Sir-Tech in 2006, you might just sleep forever.

Edit: Oh, and if a look-alike'd do it for you, there is always Grimoire

I loved perma-death in wizardry. Those were single player games though with an ending. Who wants to permanently die in an mmo. Correct me if i'm wrong as I don't play mmo's much but isn't your sole purpose in the game to level up. Who wants to grind for months to reach level 80 just to die and start over if you could even live that long. Or maybe you get to level 80 but a level 100 guy decides to kill you for shits and giggles. Oh yeah that would be fun. I remember getting totally wiped in wizardry 1 but you could get your guys back usually in an evening of gaming not months.

At least if you get injured you should be able to find a priest out of the other 99 party members crammed in to the dungeon with you.

This sounds like no fun at all. It was bad enough after wizardry 8 when the series died but then they resurrect it in to this turd.

Meh…..going to go play Frayed Knights now. It's ten times better than this.

Originally Posted by skavenhorde
Meh…..going to go play Frayed Knights now. It's ten times better than this.

Dont know yet, i wait till i win the conquest at rpgwatch. If not i will buy it anyways. and then iam gonna say the same as you

It reminds me a sort of Lineage 2 with a bit of Demon's/Dark Souls…
I have mixed feelings about this, I'll keep looking forward for it, even if I prefer too that Wizardry 9 comes to light.