Wizardry Online has finally opened beta testing registration for users as of today. The game originally went live in Japan last year and has received praise, but also cries of frustration from fans and I will tell you why. Wizardry Online is one of the few MMO titles which have a ‘permadeath’ feature in it. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, allow me to explain.
‘Permadeath’ means that you can lose your character forever when you die. This provides as a grueling challenge for many, but as a reason to stop playing (or not play at all) for others. In the Wizardry franchise, throughout every game, there is always a chance to permanently lose your character. When you die in Wizardry Online, you become a spirit and must run to a statue to try and put your soul back with your body.
The rate of success depends on your level. It decreases more and more the higher you are. However, you can also offer the statue items to increase your success rate as well. Also, this game uses a cash shop system, so there will also be items there you can purchase which can prevent permadeath and increase chances of resurrection as well.
If you fail to resurrect yourself, you will then turn to ashes. This is your last chance to revive yourself. If you fail again after turning to ashes, your character will be declared dead and a tombstone will take the character’s place on the character select screen. Without a doubt, Wizardry Online is not for the faint of heart.
As if the thought of permanently dying wasn’t enough, you should also know that upon dying, you will lose your items and they will become available for looting by other players. There is also a cash shop item to prevent looting also. Don’t think that getting your items will be so easy though! During this time, the grim reaper can also appear and chase you around the dungeon, and take off your head.
Wizardry Online also has a PvP system so other players can try killing you as well while you are dungeon crawling. Don’t worry though. There is a level system in place, so the much higher level players can’t camp the new dungeons killing new players. If I remember correctly, they have to be within 5 levels of you to initiate PvP (it could be 10 though).
Players who are constantly killing other players will be punished though. Their name will turn to red and they will be denied access to shops in town, have a bounty placed on their head, and have guards chasing them everywhere they go. The only positive thing to being a criminal is that you will have access to a new area known as the ‘Slums’, populated with other criminals such as yourself. Here is where you can also find a black market which sells rare goods from time to time which can only be found in the Slums and not above ground with the law abiding citizens.
Do note though that during this time, anybody is free to kill you without suffering a penalty because of your status, so do make your decisions carefully as you will suffer consequences on way or another! As if you didn’t have enough going against you though, there is also a ‘betrayal’ system where a friend can turn against you. Now, granted, with this game allowing up to 100 players in a party, if someone turns against you… Someone else may just jump in to save you. However, keep your friends at arms length and your enemies closer. It isn’t so far fetched that you may meet a demise like that of Julius Caesar if you aren’t careful, heh.
Here are the list of races you have access to as well as classes:
Races
——-
– Human
– Elf
– Gnome
– Pokuru
– Dwarf
Classes
———
– Fighter
– Priest
– Mage
– Thief
Some races may not be available in the beginning for the English version. I know the Pokuru race was added for the Japanese version back in June, so I’m not sure if we will have it by default or we will get it in an update like the Japanese version did. For those of you familiar with Wizardry, you will know which races are good at what and what each class specializes in. Sorry, I won’t be going into detail about all of that. That kind of information could take up an entire article on it’s own. I’m just writing this to help people be informed about this game if they would like to register for the beta and try it out.
On that note, please visit the official website below for beta registration! I have also included the trailer for Wizardry Online which was shown at E3 earlier this year. It doesn’t show much gameplay, but it still gets you hyped. If you would like to view gameplay from the Japanese version, just do a quick search on Youtube.
https://www.wizardrythegame.com/
[youtube 7sO07W3mA4I]
