Digital Eclipse has confirmed that its 3D remake of SirTech's Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord will be heading to the Nintendo Switch on 23rd May 2024.
Originally launched via Early Access on Steam in September 2023, the game is a full-on modernised remake of the 1981 classic for the Apple II. The original game was the first party-based dungeon crawler and would later inspire the likes of FInal Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Dark Souls.
Digital Eclipse has really gone all out on this one, and it should be obvious how much of an upgrade the game has received if you've ever seen footage or screenshots of the original. It's yet another example of how the team is working to preserve and renew older games from yore. We can't wait to try it out, but for now, let's check out the key features:
- Beautiful new graphics & animations for a game that, by necessity, only offered rudimentary visuals, now with the power of Unreal Engine.
- User-selectable options that allow players to tailor the gameplay to their liking, including popular options from the console editions of the game. Players can also choose no new options at all to experience the original, more challenging gameplay.
- An in-game Bestiary that records key information on enemies as they're
- A lush musical soundtrack from composer Winifred Philips, including some fan-favorite themes from Wizardry history.
- A controller-friendly interface, with a one-button shortcut for fast combat choices.
- Fully localized into English, Japanese, French, Spanish, Italian, and German.
Will you be picking up the remake of Wizardry on Switch? What do you make of the visuals on offer here? Let us know with a comment down below.
Comments 46
I remember the old one yes I'm that old.
Looks interesting! Also first!
Edit: @bones First sniped lol. 🤪
Yep, I'm also old enough to remember this series, along with Ultima, Bard's Tale and Might and Magic.
Hopefully it has text size options, because some of it looks too small, especially for handheld.
I'm not a big fan of random encounters so probably a pass for me...
This looks good, I never played the original but looks similar to Dungeon Master and Grimrock.
What a GEM! I buy it, Day One!!! Hope for an Remake Crusaders of Dark Savant! I love this One!!!!
If there is a switch for old graphics I'd probably be interested, old school grahpics on a dungeon crawler have a bit of charm about them. This just looks like a mobile phone game.
Oh man! This is what I'm excited for as a retro gamer! I grew up with a PC at home and my favourite games were dungeon crawlers like this, Eye of the Beholder and my all time favourite: Might & Magic IV+V: World of Xeen. I love seeing this genre getting a new lease on life with remasters/reimaginated versions like this!
Looks good, I'm kind of bored with AAA games now (unless it's nintendo games) so I'm in for this remake 😃
Also hyped for tomb raider collection 1 for evercade, I hope we don't get surprise censor patch shenanigans there lol.
I am mildly interested. Will depend on the price for one.
@wiiware Bored of AAA games you say? Well no more, my friend!
Let me introduce you to a game called "Skull & Bones" from Ubisoft. The world's first AAAA game!
What's the extra A for? We have no idea!
Still not sure how the Wizardry rights ended up at Drecom Co., Ltd
@wiiware «Looks good, I'm kind of bored with AAA games now (unless it's nintendo games) so I'm in for this remake 😃»
Well... Then, play AA, A, and indie games, instead. I haven't played AAA games for years, lol.
Holy moly, never thought I’d see another Wizardry game. Sure does bring back memories. I’d love it if they included the original as an easter egg or mode of play in some way.
Wanted to eventually give Wizardry a try so I'll definitely take this version as long as it's good now that it's coming to Switch!
@eltomo
I agree! I loved it when they put the retro mode option in Dragon Quest XI.
Wholly (superlative) Katzenberger!!!! I hope they do the whole series (1-5). Wizardry is my FAVORITE RPG/Dungeon Crawler.
Again, text too small to read for a lot of us, especially older gamers. One reason I play mostly retro games these days.
@GamerGrandpa @awaltzforvenus @eltomo All the graphics are a frontend running on top of the original game! In the corner of the screen you even see the Apple][ screen updating at the same time! Of course, they've added QoL improvements like auto-mapping, bestairy that updates as you learn more about the enemies you encounter, and other streamlining improvements. But they left the brutal difficulty alone, thank goodness. I don’t know where I saw the original trailer that explains all this, but I’m going to check out some streams of the game to get more info. I think you can also play with the original graphics zoomed up as an overlay, but an option to play with the original graphics exclusively would be nice, though.
Sheesh, I never thought I'd see "Wizardy" ever mentioned again in gaming circles.
@masterLEON Ah, you’re right, I missed that! Thanks for pointing it out. That’s really cool! Here’s hoping we can get a cart release sometime.
@masterLEON OG graphics overlay seems to check out if I'm interpreting 0:38 right.
Digital Eclipse is so cool.
This may be a dumb question, but is there a story in this game or is it just brainless dungeon crawling?
Cool! I only played the PS3 game but I enjoyed it so I would love to try the original with a new lick of paint.
It's time for a Wizards & Warriors remake!
Never expected this. Very optimistic and will probably purchase this game. I missed it on steam and will have a look there as well.
The Dark Savant trilogy would be excellent, but very glad they chose the first Wizardry, as i don’t have as much experience with it. I was into Might and Magic I and II and then the SSI gold box games by the time i got a computer, and didn’t really dig too deep into the Wizardry games until Bane of the Cosmic Forge.
Thanks for the happy tidings, Ollie!
@bones I remember playing this at recess in middle school back in the late-90's and early-2000's since I was in the computer club and we had some older gaming PC's in the corner of the room. I think it took me TWO years, but I finally beat it before graduating middle school.
@wiiware
I've been a bigger fan of "B" games since I was a kid in the 90s (I used to call them "silver medal games" or "8 out of 10s")
except, as you say, for nintendo stuff 😌
cheers.
Here’s a stream from 5 months ago from early access v 0.2.
https://youtu.be/iNL6jQ0kArA?si=aCLprTo6HrHxao1u
@nhSnork @eltomo @awaltzforvenus Confirmed that the OG graphics can be zoomed up but the new graphics and QoL/UI stuff are also part of the game and cannot be separated. Found out also that they ported the original Pascal code to C++ and that’s what’s running underneath Unreal Engine. Fascinating what the Digital Eclipse team is doing for this game.
I’m interested, never played the original but I did play crusaders of the dark savant when I was younger.
I wonder if the Steam release will have the localization options when this releases because right now it’s English only. 🤔
@Zeebor15 By the late '90s, the franchise was SO much more popular in Japan than the west that the IP got sold to a Japanese developer, and who knows from there.
(in the reverse, I've heard Capcom sold/gave its US subsidiary the rights to Street Fighter because of how much the franchise retained popularity in America compared to Japan)
The only Wizardry I ever played as a child was renting the SNES port of V a few times. I think I passed the first floor of the dungeon and that was it.
@KingMike fascinating
Wasn't a gamer of this series but I have definitely heard of it. Now if I could just hear Faxanadu again..
@Bratwurst35 I see the light now, say no to AAA, say yes to AAAA 😂
@-wc- I think snes, psone, and ps2 is the golden era of gaming, making games aren't as expensive as it is now so we got so many different games 😃
@Vyacheslav333 That's what I'm playing now, indies, evercade games, retro games in analogue pocket, nintendo ds games, and now I'm playing retro games on iphones too (delta app) 😃
Wizardry VII: Crusaders of the Dark Savant is the one I want.
@Bratwurst35
I'm all over this as long as:
I'll be getting this just to pay reverence, if it runs well.
@wiiware Ah. Understood.
@N64-ROX 😀
I hope there’s an option to turn off random encounters
Physical or it didn't happen.
Yay this looks fantastic! Also would love to play Wizardry Tale of the Forsaken Land again. Love it 😍
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...