Wizardry VII: Crusaders of the Dark Savant is a classic turn based rpg from Sir-Tech. It is the second part of the triology (Wizardry 6/7/8). A party can be imported from Wizardry 6 and exported to Wizardry 8. The story is a fantasy-science fiction-mix. Like in all Wizardry games a balanced party is essential to win the game. The key formula of the game is:
-> explore -> survive tactical fights -> gain experience / items -> build up party & skills -> explore deeper -> survive harder tactical fights -> ...
All parts of this formula are fun (at least for hardcore rpg players) and very well designed.
You can choose from classes
base classes
Fighters; Thieves; Mages, Priests; Psionics; Alchemists
hybrid classes
Samurai; Lords; Valkyries; Bards; Rangers; Monks; Ninjas
and races
Humans; Elves; Dwarves; Gnomes; Hobbits; Lizardmen; Faeries; Dracons (half-Human; half-Dragons); Rawulf (humanoid dogs); Felpurr (humanoid cats); Mook (tall and hairy Sasquatch-like)
The trick is to find a good party mix to cover all skills and build up enough offensive and defensive power.
Wizardry 7 offers a lot of dialog, a big open world to explore, quests, choices & consequences, a lot of enemies, items to find, skills to develop, NPC factions to ally with and different endings. The game offers a very good replay value, too.
-> highly recommended!