| #7 | Wizardry: Tale of the Forsaken Land |
|---|---|
| guessed by | no one |
| platform | PS2 |
| release year | 2001 |
| developer/publisher | Racjin/Atlus |
| genre | RPG |
| links | Wikipedia |
| past years | 2021: #8, 2020: #14, 2019: #14, 2018: #11, 2017: #15 |
A game which I don't often see featured as a classic great game, although it really is. This Wizardry spinoff is one the greatest RPGs of all time. It's battle system is classic but works well. The scenario and story are interesting and dark, the design of enemies is inventive and it has nicely implemented characters. The game has stellar level-design, something I see often for Atlus games. This whole package is pretty great.
Tale of the Forsaken Land is a dungeon crawler. You create your character quite freely and then go hire more people to form a party to start exploring the labyrinth. The story background is the kingdom of Duhan, which is pretty destroyed as an event called the Flash struck the land. Now a dangerous labyrinth exists within the ruins with lots of monsters. The labyrinth has parts of the former kingdom of Duhan, that are now through the events rearranged and becoming part of the dangerous landscape. You set off with your party to explore the labyrinth and discover the reasons for the recent events.
Although there can be humorous moments, the overall tone of the game is pretty dark. This is expressed by colors, music, the quests you get from the people in the Inn and how the story unfolds.
The fighting system is quite classic, but has some twists with the allied actions. In the labyrinth you have additional things to do, like open new paths or unlock trapped treasure chests.
This game is a pretty gem, clearly underrated.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvWkzFNTBo0
