First, I would like to thank the team who made the translation for this game, and thank them again for making a description for spells, items.

Now let's begin:

Wizardry Gaiden: Suffering of the Queen is the first installment to the Japanese gaiden series, the whole gameplay mechanics and concept is based on the famous Wizardry in USA around the 80s (and now....ironically....only famous in Japan....if not only known).

When I first saw it, I said: "Pffft, it will be the same as Wizardry: The Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord except they'll change mess a little with the mazes and change the main villain", in short....a direct port with little to no effort in modifying. When the translation team released I had an urge to test it and see if it's worth playing, so I downloaded the patch and played the game and.......turns out I was wrong......so wrong that I had to completely take back what I said about it.

The first thing I noticed was the graphics, sure the town may look like a mini board game and the dungeon's graphics is ok to me, but the monsters' sprites are great, even superior to Wizardry NES ports. And the cutsences (or rather still images) are gorgeous, it's so detailed for a gameboy game, and it look like a scene from an anime. As for the sound effects, I'll be honest....it gets really irritating after some time, but the music seems to do the opposite of that.

The plot in this game is the same as the same as the original with a few tweaks here and there but it's still stands.

The gameplay in wizardry is different than any RPG game you have ever played (or at least different from the modern RPGs), first you create some characters (as many as you like...as long there is enough slot) and choose their race, alignment, and class. Class is the most important one in my opinion as it determine your characters' advantages and disadvantages. After that you form a party from 1 to 6 then venture into the dungeons (if you're looking for death wish....then enter the dungeon with 1 character). What you should know about the combat in the game is that AC (which is the character's defence) determines your character's ability to dodge attacks, and.....the funniest thing is.....the lower it is, the better your character's ability to dodge, it even goes minus! As for magic, each magic Lv have their own MP varying from 0 to 9 (I assume that you know how the magic system works in Final Fantasy 1, right?). Also, the spells in this game are a acts different than in the original Wizardry, which confused me at first, but I believe they did a better job, as they balanced things out (but surprisingly, that goes to the enemies' favor D: ).

The items in this game have wider abilities than in the original Wizardry 1-3, and I found that some item don't act like what the description says in the text file, so be careful. Oh and I forgot to mention that shop don't update items, instead YOU find them by yourself from the enemy's drop, this is actually good for me as it forces the players to delve deeper into the maze AND defeat the enemies in that floor to get the item, don't worry....the drop rate is actually high.....it's just the item you want is hard to come by. But there is a reward to those who actually completes the whole items and sell them in the shop.

And in case one of your characters dies, the only way to revive them is either paying a HIGH price that is based on your dead character's Lv
or cast revive spell on them, but be warn as it has the chance to fail, then you'll either pay a HIGHER price or cast a higher-level revive spell. But alternatively, there is a spell that revives them without fail....but comes with a price....that is your EXP.

After you're done having fun in the dungeon, you can go to the inn and rent a room (nobody actually does that. Instead, they let their priest rest in the stables which is free, and have their mana refilled then cast heal and when he/she runs out of mana, they rest in stables, and so on and on), and level up in case you have enough exp.

Later on in the game enemies will be so brutal and hard to kill that they can actually wipe out your entire party in 3 turns or so if you're not careful, but don't worry as your spell-casters (with enough levels *cough* *cough*) will also be able to do that, and so as your melee-characters when they find a new equipment.

What I like most in this game is that sometimes you have to take risks to achieve things, like casting a high level spell on an enemy although he has 35% chance to fully negate the damage, or going into lower floor and fight enemies that are stronger than you, etc. Also, there are new enemies added to this game other than the ones in the original, and of course....they make the strongest enemies in original game look like pathetic in comparison to them.

There is only one thing I hate in this game, and that is it is HEAVILY based on Lvs in most calculations, while it's true that grinding is a solution to this, it is not fun to battle an enemy with 5 Lvs higher than you and cast a spell that provides a huge effect due to their Lvs, while you cast the same spell only get little effect from it, and oh boy there will be many enemies that are higher Lvs than you.

Overall, this game was worth it, even more than the original in my opinion, and I'm waiting for the translator team to continue translating the rest of the series.

Really nice review. Wording and phrasing are nice, everything is spaced out and easy to locate, and it has more of an opinion style review, which I really enjoy.

One little thing, could very well just be me, is that you put everything in a category, one could say, so it makes everything easier to see, but with your style of review, I'm not sure how to make it work.

I myself have never played the game, but you have given me a good sense towards it, and I might even try to play it one day.