For The Glory Of... Austro-Hungary?

I picked up some Austro-Hungarian Aeronef cheap at the start of the year on eBay. My buddy Matt and I intend on playing some games with them. He has, in fact, procured the age old enemies of the Austro-Hungarians, the Japanese. We're likely going to bash a few rule sets together into something that's quick and fun.

I've got a few more things left to build (battleships, fixed wings and a carrier) but this is the lion's share of them. Just a simple base, wash and drybrush. I've got a few details left to do but I don't think I'm going to go full orange Eldar on these.

There's A Dinosaur Cloning Game For Everyone

Crowdfunding, pre-orders and limited print runs are rapidly becoming the standard for game publishing, and it is because of this that I had to decide whether I wanted DinoGenics before I was able to play Dinosaur Island. Based only on information from their respective crowdfunding campaigns the two games look very similar, and honestly, how many dinosaur cloning games does one person need?

If I'd been looking at both games at the same time I most likely would have only chosen one, and that one would have been DinoGenics, based on its more conventional illustrations and graphic design -- the obnoxious look of Dinosaur Island remains one of the few things I don't like about the game. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) I had to make a decision on DinoGenics after I had committed to buying Dinosaur Island, so I ended up with copies of both games. In the end I'm glad I did.

The two games are similar in that they are both worker placement games about building a zoo filled with cloned dinosaurs, but that's where the similarity ends. DinoGenics is a much more traditional worker placement game, with players competing for spaces on the board so they can get the resources they need to clone dinosaurs, build appropriate enclosures for them, and add enough support buildings to accommodate an increasing number of guests. And don't forget to feed those carnivores, or they'll break out of their enclosures and you'll likely spend a lot of your next turn making repairs...

The game design is solid if not overly innovative, but where DinoGenics really shines in in the quality of its components. The graphic design is excellent and does a much better job of evoking Jurassic Park than the much more stylized Dinosaur Island. The meeples are wood rather than plastic (in my opinion plastic meeples are a disturbing trend in game publishing and a scourge upon mankind), done in very nice greens, browns and greys that make it easy to tell the different types of dinosaurs apart. The cards and tiles are sturdy with high quality printing -- the only thing I don't like is that some of the text on the building tiles is very small and difficult to read.

If I had to choose between DinoGenics and Dinosaur Island, I would probably choose DinoGenics, although I do think the game play in Dinosaur Island is a bit more innovative. In the end the games are different enough that I'm happy to have both in my collection.

Rating: 5 (out of 5) This game features more traditional worker placement style game play than its competitor, but the much more lavish graphic design more than makes up for it.

• DinoGenics official website
• DinoGenics on BoardGameGeek

July Scrum Rd 3 - Madrak2 Vs. Zaadesh2

Round 3 of the July Scrum and I'm paired against Rich who is playing Skorne.  I was happy to play vs. Rich who has won a previous Scrum and I've not played much against Skorne since they've gotten all their buffs in MK3. I figured I'd learn a lot in this match, especially since I've never played against the buffed Derp Turtle (aka. Siege Animantarax) which the internet tells me is particularly strong and Rich had one in both of his lists.

This was a bit bitter-sweet for me, as I knew this was going to be my last round in the July Scrum. We already had a drop, forcing a bye each week and my work accelerated the schedule for the job I'm working on, which was causing me to have to stay later each evening at random nights every week.  This put a strain on my family life - it's one thing to get a game a week in, but to be home late and then still have to go get my game in because it's scheduled well in advance is a bit rough on my wife.  Such is life.

Lists and Analysis

Rich had the following pair:

Morghoul3
-Escorts
-Archidon
-Cyclops Raider
-Cyclops Shaman
-Aptimus Marketh (free)

Extoller Soulward
Feralgeist
Willbreaker (free)
Venator Dakar
Venator Dakar

Beast Handlers (min)
Venator Catapult (free)
Venator Reivers + CA
Venator Reivers + CA

Siege Animantarax
 
Zaadesh2
-Agonizer (free)
-Agonizer (free)
-Archidon
-Krea (free)
-Bronzeback
-Gladiator
-Sentry
-Sentry

Willbreaker
Beast Handlers (max)
Swamp Gobbers

Siege Animantarax

Looking at the matchup I wasn't fond of Grim2's chances into either list.  Morghoul3 could be a disaster with his Blind spell to just lock down a unit entirely and the Venator Reivers out range my units from a base level and their mini-feat is extends their range to go beyond what my units + Grim2's feat can accomplish.  Grim doesn't really like Zaadesh2 who brings a cloud wall that prevents most of my pieces from being able to shoot and has two ARM 21 shield guards in the list that can't be knocked down.

Madrak2 wasn't looking too hot into either list as far as I could tell, but was better off into either compared to Grim2.  I wasn't completely sure what Rich was going to drop since I was only vaguely aware of what Skorne's plan would be, but the match ended up with Madrak2 vs. Zaadesh2 playing Mirage.



Deployment & Rich's Turn 1

Rich won the roll to go first and I picked table sides.

Rich puts out his upkeeps and takes sufficiently threatening positions with the Archidon and the Turtle. He ends up with 2 rage tokens on the Turtle due to missing one attack.

My Turn 1

I use the Runebearer for Harmonious Exaltation to get  Blood Fury on the left Long Riders and dump the rest of Madrak's fury onto stone.

Since I hadn't played against the Turtle before I didn't really think of it as a melee threat, I had only considered it as a problem with its gun. As such I went on the hill to get a defense bonus, but didn't stagger the riders to mitigate melee problems. Boy was that a mistake. 

On the right I staggered my Long Riders to bait in the Sentry, the stone advanced and I really needed the fury generation to give me 2-3 fury, but I only rolled a 1 meaning some of the left Long Riders were going to be out of the aura.

Rich's Turn 2

Well there goes the neighborhood. So as it turns out the Turtle can murder you much better in melee than with its guns, but sometimes it can just do both. I was left with one Long Rider knocked down and on 2 boxes out of my left unit thanks to a Crit Pitch from the Archidon.

Rich puts up his feat and some clouds between Zaadesh and the Swamp Gobbers to try and block me off. Not knowing/respecting the Turtle's output in melee basically put me way behind on attrition.

My Turn 2

Well as you can see, very little died.  I stood up the knocked down Long Rider and tried to Bull Rush into the Archidon, but of course the retaliatory strike crit pitched  the Long Rider into the objective and killed it.  I tried to use Eilish to strip Inviolable Resolve off the Turtle, but that failed due to range and having to walk around Kriel Warriors that wanted to charge in with Blood Fury.  Due to the Agonizer behind the Turtle, I couldn't even get a Raged Bomber to kill the Archidon.

I used my right Long Riders to charge in and kill the Swamp Gobbers, then reposition just outside of melee of his beasts. I moved one Rider to jam up (and stop counter charges from) the Bronzeback and Sentry in the center, I position the Mauler to be able to kill whatever comes in to contest my flag or just go after their heavies if they go into the Long Riders.  I scored my flag to go up 1-0.

Rich's Turn 3

Rich continues to just pound me in the face repeatedly.  I lose most of my Kriel Warriors and the Bomber between the Turtle, Archidon (seen as a proxy base), and the Bronzeback.

The right Sentry kills two Long Riders and is able to get just within 4" of the flag to contest me, and the center Sentry kills the jamming one.  Zaadesh moves into the circle zone to score it, and the Mist Speaker moves to score his friendly flag.  Not pictured here is a cloud right in front of my Mauler to block LOS to the Sentry.   Rich is up 2-1 on scenario.

My Turn 3

Well I was getting absolutely slaughtered and the game is basically over.  In order to get everything going last turn Zaadesh had to heal the Archidon for 2 fury and since he made a cloud, he was on a 0 camp.  I was looking for whatever jank I could pull to get an assassination, and somehow I see one:

Madrak puts Blood Fury on the remaining Long Riders and then casts Warpath.  The Longriders get pathfinder from the Fell Caller and need to declare a Bull Rush onto the Gladiator. The goal is to slam the Gladiator over Zaadesh, then Follow up and make a weapon master attack on him. Ideally I can kill a model elsewhere to proc Warpath to allow the Mauler to move up to the Sentry who will then double handed throw the Sentry over at Zaadesh to finish him off.

I start executing: The Fell Caller runs to engage the Sentry to shut down counter charge and calls Pathfinder for the Riders. Eilish puts puppet master on the Riders.  Madrak casts his spells and the Stone runs into position and pops for Strength.

I made a mistake however when it came to the Long Riders, One rider had the Bull Rush into the Gladiator, the other just ran up.  The problem came when an Agonizer counter charges my Bull Rushing Longrider to prevent his ability to move directly towards the slammed Gladiator.  If I had been careful here I could have done the bull rush move first, and when the Agonizer charged in, the second Long Rider could have declared it as the charge target, allowing me to kill the Agnoizer allowing the follow up move.

As such I was able to slam the Gladiator over Zaadesh doing 6 damage, leaving him on 10, but I couldn't follow up for the melee attack to get more damage in. I did kill the Agonizer with my follow up attack which allowed the Mauler to warpath up to the Sentry.  I cast rage on myself, boost to hit my double handed throw, win the STR check, and then use my last fury to boost to hit the knocked down Zaadesh - only to roll triple 1's.  The scatter goes away from Zaadesh, but my damage roll would have been less than the 10 to kill him anyway and the game effectively ends here since Rich just needs to walk and kill my objective with a Bronzeback and then score his flag again to win. 

Conclusions

I needed to research what these lists could really do more, but I've been struggling to give much thought to the match due to my work situation.  I can't believe I forgot that the Derp Turtle was more dangerous in melee than it was in shooting (especially when not with Rasheth).  I basically gave my Long Riders away and that swung the game very hard towards Rich right at the start.

Rich was a joy to play against and was describing how he thought it was a 50/50 matchup.  I disagreed and then he revealed the key as to why: Lead with the Kriel Warriors, not anchor.  Unlike my last game, if I just play conservatively with the Riders and jam up with the Kriels it's very possible I can kill enough of his pieces to snowball the attrition towards my side.

It's a brilliant idea on how to approach this matchup and I hadn't even thought of it, since well Longriders are fast and so you lead with them, Kriel Warriors anchor.  However, unlike the Circle game last round of the Scrum where Kriels can Blood Fury their way through nearly anything, Agonizers are going to really hurt their chances at damaging ARM 21 Sentries or anything with Inviolable Resolve. However if I just jam with them, I can setup the trades to allow me to get ahead.

Overall it was still a fun game even though Rich basically bashed my head into the ground repeatedly, I honestly look forward to the next time I can play him.

It is a bit sad to end the Scrum here, but I am looking at being able to attend my first actual WM tournament in ages this weekend, though I will be bringing Convergence instead of Trolls.

Comparing All Four Versions Of A Star Is Born

There are four movies called A Star is Born, all roughly following the same plot (here be spoilers):

An aging, alcoholic, male entertainer is just beginning to exceed the tolerance people allow him for his talent with the ridicule and distress he engenders with his destructive, obnoxious antics. Just at this time, he hears or sees a young woman with talent languishing in a small-time position and takes it upon himself to short-list her into fame and fortune. She initially resists, but falls for him and takes the opportunity. She becomes absorbed into the soulless hit-making factory of Hollywood and becomes wildly successful,, while the world turns away from him. They marry and move in together. He runs out of opportunities and people call him a has-been, in so many words; he even ends up taking phone calls or interview requests for her from people who don't even know him. She wins an award (Oscar or Grammy) and he shows up late to the ceremony and interrupts her speech with some kind of drunken scandalous antic. She asks her manager to give him some pity opportunities; he turns them down. She resolves (more or less) to quit the business in order to live a smaller life with him, since she realizes that he can't handle the situation as is (with her being successful and him not), but he discovers this and decides to kill himself in order to prevent this. She spends some time in self-pity. In the end, she publicly performs or says something to acknowledge his importance to her.

1937: Leads are Esther Victoria Blodgett aka Vivki Lester (Janet Gaynor) and Norman Maine (Fredric March). This is a fine film, although very much a period piece of the time it was made, so there are some rushed dialog, odd pauses, harsh sound, and bad lighting. The plot is well-paced and scripted. The actors are both likeable. The main actors recite some of their speeches woodenly but passionately at the camera (or just off to the left) and there are some hysterics. Everyone else talks like a 1930s gangster.

In this version, the main characters are actors. Esther starts on a farm and travels to Hollywood but meets rejection. Norman gets her into his pictures when he sees her waitressing. Someone directly and quite rudely tells Norman that he is washed up. Norman punches him, so Vicki has to bail Norman out of the police station. Norman overhears Vicki planning to give up her career, so Norman walks into the ocean  Vicki ends the movie by looking at the camera and calling herself Mrs. Norman Maine.

This is a fine and memorable movie, worthy of being redone.

1954: 17 years later. Esther Blodgett aka Vicki Lester (Judy Garland) and Norman Maine (James Mason). In this version, the main characters are actors / vaudeville performers singes and dancers. Norman finds Esther singing in a nightclub. The movie is punctuated with several musical performances that, I suppose, were entertaining to audiences of the 1950s. Anyway, they look a lot like bad musicals from that era, like the Road movies and so forth.

I have a hard time conveying the contempt I have for this film. It's mostly in two parts.

Firstly, the acting is always fairly terrible, but sometimes it rises to the level of horrifically terrible. The actors stare at the screen in horror with long pauses, bite their knuckles, fling themselves onto furniture, and weep or shout like idiots.

But mostly, James Mason's Norman grabs, yanks, hurls, pushes, interrupts, orders, and otherwise abuses Judy Garland's Esther throughout the whole movie, yet the movie conveys this as rough but charming. It's sickening. By the time she falls in love with Norman, he has done nothing but pull her through doors, push her into cars and rooms, and otherwise abuse her, but all she can think of is how he takes her breath away (duh, by never letting her think or talk). Most of the abuse comes from Norman, but some of it comes from other people, too. She is a rag doll. It's jaw-droppingly painful to watch. The very little agency she has in the film is to sing and dance, or to wail and cry over how sad it is that she can't do anything for Norman ("She can't! She can't! She can't! Ohhhhh aaahhhh aaahhhh!")

Norman overhears the fateful conversation and is (overacting) horrified and drowns himself. After getting yelled out and yanked by a few more people, Vicki ends the movie by looking at the camera and calling herself Mrs. Norman Maine. And then ...

1976: 22 years later. Esther Hoffman (Barbra Streisand) and John Norman Howard (Kris Kristofferson). This movie is thankfully a step up from the previous one. It's diverges a bit from the others as to how it fills in the plot scenes. The main characters are now singers. The movie starts with a big crowd and drunken stage performance.

They took the main outline of the plot and decided that everyone already knows it, so the movie is about 50% plot and 50% Barbra and Kris being playful and making love. It's very 1970s, not only the hair styles and crowd scenes, motorcycle and car driving, but with the casual flashes of nudity and almost relaxed attitude toward infidelity (it's an insult, but apparently an easily forgivable one). And now we have cocaine, not just alcohol.

The result is somewhat loosely plotted and kind of boring. We skip all the scenes of how she turns into a star (she just does, in a 2 minute montage), we skip her changing her name (she pooh-poohs that idea after being asked by a reporter), we skip the courtroom bailout scene, and we skip most of the conversation that is supposed to lead to his death. She yells at him once for sleeping around, saying that she doesn't want him to drag her down, and he races off into the desert and dies (whether by accident or deliberately is left a bit vague). She ends the movie by singling another song, no name assertion.

It's not only that neither of the main characters are likeable. It's that they don't have much in the way of character to like or to not like. John is kind of sympathetic. Esther is kind of ... well, she's just Barbra Streisand.

But Barbra can sing, and she sings fine. So fine that you kind of wonder how it is that she was languishing in obscurity to begin with.

This is not worth watching, but the soundtrack is lovely. And then ...

2018: 38 years later. Ally (Lady Gaga) and Jackson Maine (Bradley Cooper). The main characters are singers. The movie starts pretty similarly to the 1973 one (with better camera-work and sound), but the alcoholism is more subtle.

This one is, by far, the best one, with incredible performances, scripting, directing, and shooting. The music is amazing, and Lady Gaga is a great singer (okay, Barbra was better, but that's a given for just about anyone). Possibly the only issue I have is the rushed scenes leading up to his decision to kill himself. Ally only half-heartedly tries to throw Jackson some pity-bones (she says one quick sentence about not go on tour without him). The scene that struck me as most wrong was that someone flat out says to Jackson that he is a drag on her career and should disappear, rather than him overhearing it (like he does in the first two movies). It's not that this couldn't or wouldn't happen, it's just a less sympathetic way to depict it happening.

Jackson hangs himself instead of drowning. And Ally ends by introducing herself as Ally Maine, and then she sings a final song while she looks directly into the camera.

Bradley and Lady, as well as everyone else, do a great job of pacing and acting. They are likeable and tragic. The songs are pretty great, too. And the story is, apparently, timeless.

Game 377: Wizardry: Suffering Of The Queen (1991)

Titles online often include Gaiden after Wizardry or include "Episode 1." Neither is present on the title screen. I believe even the original Japanese title screen was in English.

         

Wizardry: Suffering of the Queen

Japan
ASCII (developer and publisher)

Released 1991 for Game Boy

Date Started: 18 August 2020

Date Ended: 21 August 2020

Total Hours: 9

Difficulty: Moderate-Hard (3.5/5)

Final Rating: (to come later)

Ranking at time of posting: (to come later)
     
The eight games in the Wizardry series are well known to western CRPG players. It is arguably the most influential series of all time (although it was itself heavily influenced by the early PLATO titles), spawning The Bard's Tale, Might and Magic, and Dungeon Master lines, and even influencing Exodus: Ultima III. I still find the original Wizardry (1981) remarkable for its combat tactics and the exquisite tension that it builds as you explore each level and cope with the specter of permadeath.
            

Combat in this game is identical to the western Wizardry titles.

         
What most western players probably don't realize is that the series has a life in Japan that, at least quantitatively, exceeds its legacy in the United States. In addition to the influential translations of the original games, Japan saw more than ten original titles and remakes for the Game Boy, PlayStation, NES, SNES, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation 3 between 1991 and 2013, plus a 2013 MMORPG called Wizardry Online (2013). These games weren't just unauthorized knockoffs seeking to capitalize on the Wizardry name. As we'll soon see, you're more likely to untangle Jarndyce v. Jarndyce than figure out who actually owns the rights to the series, but the earliest Japanese titles, at least, were developed under license from Sir-Tech, and they take thematic elements from the western games.
          

The party explores the dungeon. The interface elements go away until you call for them.

         
Commenter Alex has written a guest entry on the Japanese Wizardry series, which I'll publish soon, but to put it in context, I wanted to take a look at the first of the series, Suffering of the Queen, after having first familiarized myself with the Game Boy by playing its first RPG offering. Suffering is the first of a pair of Game Boy titles published by ASCII; the second, Curse of the Ancient Emperor, would follow in 1992. Suffering is something of a sequel to Wizardry II and III in that it takes place in Llylgamyn and references the Staff of Gnlida. I'm playing a fan translation from about 2013.
         

Credits for the translation.

          
I was surprised to see that aside from some minor graphical and mechanical differences, Suffering plays almost exactly like an early-1980s Wizardry scenario. You create a party of six characters from the same races and classes; you have a menu town on top of a multi-leveled dungeon. The shop names are the same; combat works the same; spells are not only the same but have the same nonsense names (mercifully "translated" in the English patch). The navigational obstacles that you face, traps, item identification, and character leveling systems all work the same. So much is the same that a veteran Wizardry player would only have to be told about a few minor differences. The authors were clearly trying to bring the Wizardry I-III console experience directly to a handled device.
  
As Suffering opens, the player is dropped without comment into the menu town of Llylgamyn, presented graphically instead of textually. Icons correspond to the major service locations: Boltac's (shop), Gilgamesh's Tavern, the temple, the inn, the guild, and the dungeon entrance.
           

Llylgamyn is a graphical menu town.

          
One difference from the earlier series is that the castle is a visitable location, and it's here that you get rare updates to the game's plot. When you visit the first time, you learn: "The traitor Taros is pursuing forbidden research in the dungeon. Disaster struck insistently in the past year. The power protecting Llylgamyn weakens. Now the people are murmuring about Princess Sorx. She vanished mysteriously at midnight." External sites clarify that Sorx is the queen's sister, but they give her name as Sokusu and the villain's name as, amusingly, Thailand Rossum. I don't know if the shorter versions are just a way to abbreviate them for the screen or if they're choices made by the English translators.
        

The titular queen doesn't show up until the endgame.

        
Characters are created from humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes, and hobbits and good, neutral, and evil alignments. Then a pool of "bonus" points is distributed among strength, intelligence, piety, vitality, speed, and luck, with the base values having been determined by race. The attribute allocation determines what classes are available: fighter, mage, thief, priest, samurai, lord, bishop, and ninja. As in the original game, the bonus pool is usually 7-10 points but then occasionally rockets up to 18-20.  You need such luck to start as any of the prestige classes; even then, some of the classes are out of the reach of a starting character. You cannot mix good and evil characters in the same party.
           

Creating a new character.

           
After character creation, I was thrown when I found that Boltac's shop was "SOLD OUT" of most of the basic starter equipment, but it turns out in this version, characters start with a basic set of weapons and armor in their possession. As you find better stuff in the dungeon, it's not "+1" or "+2," but rather an escalating set of synonyms for the base weapon. For instance, swords progress along the line of sword, rapier, epee, katana, and cutlass. Ultra high-level items are given special names like "Saber of Evil" and "Mjollnir." The same weird "invoke" system is present where you can sacrifice some pieces of equipment for permanent attribute changes.

      

The dungeon beneath the castle is six or twelve (see below) levels of 16 x 16, slightly smaller than the original games, likely to make the automap fit on the smaller screen. The game has a competent automap, called by the DUMAPIC spell (in the original, it just gave coordinates and facing direction), but I mapped the first six levels myself just so I'd have something to do. (Later, the "Teleport" spell, MALOR, also makes use of the automap.) Also, the multiple interconnected stairways, chutes, and teleporters are hard to understand unless you experience and annotate them yourself.

         

My maps of the first six levels. Darkened squares are literally dark squares (no light works), not indications that you can't go there.

       

The features of the first three games are all here: random and fixed encounters, messages, traps, chutes, teleporters, spinners, dark squares, locked doors, hidden doors, one-way doors. There's even an elevator. The major changes that I see are:

      

• None of the levels wrap east-west or north-south.

         

The automap works extremely well in this game, but it doesn't annotate teleporters.

        

• The bestiary is a mix of enemies from the early Wizardry games and some invented for this game. As far as I can tell, the artwork is original even when a creature's name is re-used from an earlier Wizardry.

         

"Nocorns" were in Wizardry II or III, but this is a new graphic.

         

• You select spell and trap names from a list instead of typing them. In the case of spells, the English patch translators put the spell effects in the list rather than the original names (e.g., MAHALITO, MOLTO), which is a big bonus.

         

The mage's available spells for each slot appear as a list.

           

• The thief character is a lot more successful in disarming traps than in my experiences with the DOS versions of Wizardry I-III.

• Spellcasters have to rest to restore spell slots; they don't replenish automatically upon leaving the dungeon.

• Instead of encountering "friendly" monsters occasionally, you oddly get the option to "hunt" some monsters if you want to be evil or leave them alone if you want to be good.

          

The only way to show virtue in the game.

         

• You can't just walk through walls to find secret doors; you have to "Search" for them. Once found, the door remains visible for the rest of the game.

       

This difference is explained in a message square.

       

• The early game is notably easier than in the originals. Full-party death is rare.

• You can manually save the game while in the middle of a dungeon and restore from that point.

       

I'm sure there are other differences--it's been a long time since I've played any of the early Wizardry titles--but most of the ones I listed are positive. (And for all I know, some or all of them were present in the Japanese console ports of the original games.) Everything else, the authors imported faithfully, even the stuff that didn't make a lot of sense, such as the bishop getting struck with fear while trying to identify equipment or characters sometimes losing attributes when leveling up. Murphy's Ghost even appears as a repeating fixed encounter on Level 2, although he's not worth quite as much experience.

         

My thief's inventory late in the game.

          

Suffering even mimics the first games' approach to saving and permadeath. Everything that happens in the town gets automatically saved, and you can manually save in dungeons for later play. But character deaths and full-party deaths get immediately written to the file, so you can't reload to cheat them. (You can still sort-of cheat by "taking out the batteries" the moment it's clear death is imminent.) If the full party dies, you can have another party find their bodies and bring them back to town for resurrection. In general, character state is independent from, and more important than, game state, as most places that are gated are gated by inventory. Still, I'm not entirely sure how the game determines that a particular character (especially if he's assembled into a new party) has already unlocked a particular door or seen a particular message.

          

Gideon levels up and gains intelligence.

         

Combat is easier, but there's sill a lot of variability, and you have to make your decision carefully about when you're ready to descend to the next level. You also have to be careful about saving spell slots for the return journey and keeping an eye on exactly how you'll get back home. I love the tension--the palpable fear--that the first game manages as you constantly decide whether to push forward or play it safe. Some of the most delicious moments are those when you get teleported, or sent down a chute, and you don't know how to get home.

         

The party surprises an enemy party.

         

I also always enjoy the early Wizardry attention to combat tactics, with its magic system exquisitely balanced so you never have quite enough spell slots to feel comfortable. Do I blast this enemy party with a LAHALITO and a BARIKO just to be sure, or do I spread out the damage to two parties and hope that the dice go my way? Do I spend this Level 5 cleric slot on a DIALMA (healing) for my main character, or do I save it for a BADI (death) against my next high-level foe? My opinion is that the original authors got the spell system exactly right back in 1981, and every attempt to change it has ruined the balance. Suffering doesn't really change it.

         

My bishop casts a mass-damage spell.

       

Most of the game is fighting combats, leveling the characters, and exploring the next square. Eventually, you do hit some plot developments. A fixed combat on Level 3 leads to a teleporter that takes you to a hidden area on Level 2, where a woman gives you a silver key and a message to pass on to the queen: "Nemesis is drawing near. Doom will devour Llylgamyn." If you go back to the castle after this encounter, you meet with some "wise men" who give you a little more information about the main plot, including the fact that the missing Sorx is the queen's sister. The key, meanwhile, opens the way to an elevator on Level 1, making visits to the first five levels much faster.

           

Hence, the title.

           

On Level 5, you have to assemble a time bomb out of a clock and a chest of explosives (purchased from an "old man" in a separate encounter) to blast the way down to the sixth level.

            

If it weren't for this sign, we probably wouldn't have even thought of it.

         

The sixth level has numerous teleporters connecting its various sections and lots of squares that automatically warp the party back to the town. Eventually, you find your way to the ultimate encounter with Taros, who attacks with a high-level fighter named "Flack." Flack is capable of poisoning and stoning with his weapon, and Taros can cast the TILTOWAIT ("nuke") spell, so this is the time to unleash everything you have. I stupidly played with a mage, a cleric, and a bishop in my back three (I always fall for the idea that the bishop will be useful) instead of two mages or two clerics, so it took me a few tries to beat Taros.

        

My cleric damages Taros in the big battle.

        

You get an orb when you beat him--it wouldn't be a Japanese game without an orb--and a teleporter in the chamber beyond warps you back to the town. If you visit the castle at this point, you see the queen herself and get a series of screens that together seem like an endgame message:

     

The queen sits on the throne. A tinge of grief is on her face. "Llylgamyn and I applaud you for your courage and wisdom." You are awarded a title. "I will go on fighting for my people alone." The queen smiles faintly. "Thank you. Now go and rest." However, everyone knows it's just the beginning. Peace is finally restored to Llylgamyn. However, secrets still lurk elsewhere . . .

      

Doesn't this seem like a winning screen?

         

I thought that was a pretty definitive endgame message, if a bit enigmatic in translation and obviously setting up a sequel, so imagine my surprise when I was visiting some web sites post-game and found that there are actually six more levels! There's another teleporter in the room beyond Taros that takes you to a new dungeon of six more levels. Apparently, the big boss in the second half is Sorx, although none of the walkthroughs I consulted really explained how she turned into a villain.

         

I thought I'd won, but the game offers to take me to even more adventures.

        

The game apparently wraps up on five levels of the second dungeon, but there's a sixth level that features even tougher monsters in case you want to continue building your party. According to the sites I consulted, if you could find one of every item in the game and sell it to Boltac, you'll be rewarded with The Book of Nature, a special item containing the passwords necessary to transfer your characters into other Wizardry games.

     

I started playing the second half, even getting my characters to a high enough level that my mage could cast the MALOR spell, but I ran out of steam. As much as I was enjoying this return to basic Wizardry, it was taking time away from my main list, and I don't think I was really discovering anything new. In fact, the fun drops significantly for me once the characters are capable of casting every spell in the game; there's much less to look forward to with each level-up (which occur at more distant intervals anyway). I don't know if I "won" the game or not. The messages I got suggested that I completed the main quest and that the rest of the game is a kind of bonus challenge, much like the "second round" of The Legend of Zelda or the "Phase 2" of Dragon Slayer.

       

The box made use of the traditional Wizardry font and logo.

         

Suffering was directed by Hiroshi Mita, who had directed the Japanese NES conversions of the first three Wizardry titles between 1987 and 1990, so it makes sense that this adaptation hewed so closely to their formula. He would later go on to direct the conversion of Wizardry V in 1992 and Bane of the Cosmic Forge in 1995. Although he wasn't involved, ASCII's follow-up, Curse of the Ancient Emperor (1992), seems to use the same engine, although telling a more original and expansive story. A third handheld Wizardry, Summoner, was published in 2001 by Media Rings for the Game Boy Advance, but even it uses the traditional mechanics (with significant graphical upgrades).

     

I was surprised to find a game that followed the original Wizardry template so closely, and thus had a better time than expected. It is markedly different than The Final Fantasy Legend in tone, but I suspect its strengths and weaknesses would balance, and it would score on the GIMLET somewhat close to Adventure's 38 (which would make sense, since I put the original Wizardry at 37). For the second time, I'm surprised to find a far more tactically-oriented game than I would have expected for a handheld device.