The RPG that inspired Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Demon’s Souls is now more playable than ever

polygon.com:

When game director Hidetaka Miyazaki tried to explain his then-new game Demon’s Souls to the masses, he chose another game as its reference point: the classic, Dungeons & Dragons-inspired role-playing game Wizardry.

FromSoftware wanted to “make the fun and charms of a classic RPG interesting all over again with the latest technology at hand,” Miyazaki told Famitsu in 2008. “Having long weapons bump into walls, lighting the area in real time with the torch in your hand [...] taking the things you did through menus in Wizardry and letting you carry them out in real life.”

Miyazaki wasn’t the only one thinking this. Wizardry — alongside another RPG powerhouse of the early ’80s, Ultima — has been cited by dozens of Japanese game developers as a major influence on their defining work. That includes Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii, and Secret of Mana game director Koichi Ishii. Wizardry and Ultima defined the formula of menu-driven, turn-based RPGs for decades to come, inspiring developers to adhere to its template and to break free from it.

Thanks to the newly released Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord, it’s now very easy to experience what dazzled dungeon-crawling fans of the early ’80s. Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord is a modernized overhaul of the original Apple II game, with gorgeous new 3D visuals and dozens of quality-of-life improvements that make Wizardry more easily playable — but by no means easy — in 2024.

The new Wizardry serves as a streamlined entry point into a game designed for a very different kind of player, someone who would bash their head against the RPG’s unexplained rules and rudimentary graphics to savor its authentic D&D-style, party-based gameplay. The new version is lavishly repainted with graphics that ooze the atmosphere of classic tabletop RPG book art and vintage Wizardry magazine covers. It also makes the stats and percentages more visible, explaining why you might have