Next time I'll be clever enough to escape! Let's Play Wizardry IV: Return of Werdna!

Moved to 'Abandoned'

Boom! I'm back, dummy!

Welcome back, too, to Wizardry IV: The Return of Werdna. I realize it's been a while, but I have lots and lots of good excuses.



I was tempted, of course, to just upload the other two endings, since that would be a simple process of Maloring down to the Temple of the Dreampainter, changing swords, and doing exactly what I did before. But to be honest, those two endings are laid out the same way, even if Werdna's ultimate fate differs, and I didn't want to play through the same bland endgame three times.

In fact, I consider this update to include some of Wizardry IV's most interesting gameplay. This game was made in an era where RPGs were moving on, and so was the world. But it clings to the sort of jovial humour and rock-hard gameplay that defined early RPGs, where people had to put up with whatever the developer thought was interesting because there was no other game (har-har) in town.



But I can look past that, because there are some genuinely interesting aspects to the game. It might be the first RPG to feature a fixed rate of character progression (as opposed to some opportunity to grind or play tediously, but optimally). It's certainly the first RPG to allow you to play as a villain. Perhaps there were earlier RPGs that cast you in an antiheroic role, but none that declared you a 100 year old evil wizard bent on fighting your way through a deck of adventurous cards stacked against you.



So let me talk about why I didn't finish this LP, and in fact let it sit for a while. Although gold hasn't been useful up to this point, except for paying the Oracle for hints, I need 1,000,000. I started grinding with about 550,000. Both good and bad is that adventuring parties drop anywhere from 0 to 80,000 gold per victory. Bad is that they tend towards 0 to 1,000. The worst part is probably the number of times I was killed by Makanito and Lakanito.

So it was not the dungeon, nor each nail-biting combat with adventurers, nor the monsters, nor really the puzzles that stopped me in my tracks. It was the last thing the game can really throw at you: sheer tedium.

After that, I needed to complete the witch's fetch quest. I know it's been a while, but because of the nature of this update, if you're ever confused on exactly what I'm doing, the best medicine is to go back and skim the previous updates. This update is where Werdna finally lightens his load.



It could be because of my LED monitor or because of my vision problems, but the first screenshot is not animated, it only appears to be that way. The next bout of grinding is on level 5. I spent a half hour waiting for Horin's Holy Rollers to show up. The "rabbit's fur" is a piece of mediocre gear dropped by one of their members, the Magician's Hat. I believe it provides a slight magic damage bonus and AC bonus, but nothing like the Wizard's Skullcap Werdna is already wearing.



Our grinding concludes with my forgetting that I needed an item, not just gold, from Level 1. A fighter called Bloodmetal carries both a Blade Cuisinart and a Dragon Slayer, so to be sure that you're picking up the right sword -- the "blender" needed is the former -- you'll want to have two inventory spaces open.

Incidentally, I discovered that Zirkonian, one of the Fighters on Level 1, can cast spells. Some of the Lords I've been encountering can cast a few Mage spells as well. This shouldn't surprise me, given that the do-gooders are based on Wizardry adventurers, and a Lord casting Mage spells was probably the strongest possible character.

Let's go see the wizard. I mean, the witch.



While this is a cute joke about unions (although kind of unwelcome to me), I'm wondering why she asked us to bring all of those ingredients, including the blender needed to make her Blue Blood Special, if she already had it. Maybe it's so awesome, making it breaks her blender.



That seems unlikely to me though, given that it's a Dab of Puce.

Now we're going back to the inn.



There are several rooms en route to the elevator, the Softalk All-Stars, and then Hawkwind. Like any good inn, the Adventurer's Inn sees a lot of use, and different adventuring parties occupy each room. You can fight them, and generally will if you've no business with them, but the average player will typically have the Pennonceaux that Tygger's Cubs want.

They give us a "Gold Ball" -- the Orb of Dreams. Werdna already has a lot of dreams, I gather, but this item must be useful to him somehow, right?



A lot of powerful people are staying at the inn. Fortunately, these ones want exactly what Werdna, by sheer serendipity, has just obtained through a game-long fetch quest. Not only that, but they're kind enough to give him "Gwilym's Arrow" -- the Arrow of Truth.

Lastly, herein meets the Order of the Pelican:



The Maintenance Cap is the last item we'll get from this series of exchanges, and the one we need.

There's one more group meeting here, but they don't want to chat with us right now. Hopefully there's something we can do to fix that, because as with one's first taste of anything, Werdna's appetite has been wheted... for friendship.



They were complaining about his stench, so off we are to try bathing in various pools. There's one just outside the inn...



But Werdna is no cleaner for bathing in it. In fact, after bathing in this fountain, he lost the Orb of Dreams, the Arrow of Truth, and the Maintenance Cap. I guess they're not waterproof.



Well, thanks for telling me, but you're a little late on that one. And I didn't find it in a basket.



There's another fountain on the opposite side of town, but it's closed for repairs. There are no repairmen here, either. So as he's always done, Werdna leaves, equips his Maintenance Cap, and takes matters into his own hands.



Werdna is always usually sometimes successful!



But not every good deed goes rewarded, as Werdna is soon to learn. Landing hard on the ground, he asks a pledge of friendship from the lifeguard, but receives no such thing. I missed the second paragraph of dialogue, but the lifeguard essentially tells him not to dirty up the royal pool. He picks himself up, dusts himself off, and puts his hands in his pockets, shuffling his feet away.

Eventually his sad wandering takes him back into level 4. Well, all right. Not really. I just Malored to where I need to go next.



Wondering whether dungeon water could be any cleaner that the pool on the surface, Werdna decides it's not like his prison has a shower installed in any case, and tries bathing there.



Doing so shifts his alignment to Neutral. This does nothing on its own: adventurers will still attack us, for instance, and we could still go up to the Temple of Cant and slay Kadorto.

But perhaps Werdna is clean enough now to bathe in the royal (but for some reason public) pool?



Looks like it.



If he's not clean enough for the Order of the Rose now, I'm wondering what alignment they are.



What an accolade! And they aren't joking, either: although equipping the Crystal Rose they give us is mutually exclusive with equipping the Black Box, most do-gooders, regardless of alignment, will no longer attack us, randomly or at fixed encounter squares, so we're not at risk of being stolen from anyway.

It's just too bad that I had to fight the Walking Wounded (and die a few times doing so) en route to getting the Rose. Werdna decides not to tell the Order that, however, and they'll just grumble at us as we walk past on our way out, so it's all fine.

Now we're going to the citadel, where we previously slaughtered the Dukes of the Realm and obtained the Mythril Gauntlet. We're coming here this time for a different reason entirely, however.



That reason is... I guess, to pay a million gold pieces to the Captains' Council. I didn't know what weregild is until now, but even if I'd be skeptical of Werdna's redemption, I'm not sure an exorbitant sum of money would be true proof of restitution, either. Let's call the grinding I did community service on Werdna's behalf, though, and continue.

They give us a Rallying Horn, which like so, so many items before, Werdna puts in the Black Box. I wonder if it is strictly speaking possible to beat the game, with any ending, without the Black Box.



Next up is the Barons. All of these faces feel vaguely familiar to Werdna, but he's not sure why. Possibly he really did defeat everyone here at one time or another.



This seems a lot more reasonable than just demanding money from us. It's impressive, though, that getting one faction on Werdna's side results in another faction asking for his aid not five minutes later. Just how small is Llylgamyn? Since it has a functioning political system, it must at least be bigger than Britannia.



Still, they're asking for rights, not money. I can respect that.



I guess we'd better see what the rulers of the realm think about an evil good wizard gaining control of half the city in a few minutes.



Well, damn. As much as I might poke fun at this turn of events, Werdna's had his pocketbook tested, then his kindness, and now his courage. Still, considering the good, kingly sort we're dealing with, this isn't much of a question. Werdna brandishes his badass magic sword of petrification and stands ready.

Werdna's goal has always been power. But his true goal, he now realizes, was the power of friendship.



He no longer stands alongside monsters, but alongside his fellows.

The first game to let you play as the antagonist was also, I believe, the first game of that type to let you redeem yourself. And it might just be me, but no matter how it's implemented, I think the idea of redemption is pretty poignant.



As an additional historical footnote, the Japanese PSX remake of Wizardry IV features a secret ending. By collecting every item in the game and then visiting the witch on Level 4 of the maze, the witch proposes to Werdna, and they marry. Very much fortunately, that probably wasn't the original intent with the witch's favour. In fact, like most of this ending, it's left open, so those wishing for a happy ending for Werdna before now have it!



That is, if they're content to let this niggling thought rest.



But as with the previous ending, the game acknowledges our prowess, going on a spiel that if we're still unsatisfied, there is surely more.

While that's true, I'm going to think about whether I want to complete and post the three remaining endings. My two year absence should indicate you to that this game exhausts me.

Sheer frustration has never been enough to tire me of a game for good, which I suppose is how I LPed the game up until now; boredom is a developer's greatest weapon against me, and The Return of Werdna wields it in desperation. Nothing difficult remains about the game but continuing to play it.

If it's all right, I'd like to call this Let's Play active -- but I'd rather it be labelled completed if I can't muster the energy to continue playing this game rather than one I could enjoy. That being said, my preferences don't change that I haven't 100% completed the game, and if someone would like to play through the remaining endings in my stead, I can probably figure out a way to give them my save file, and they are welcome to take up my sword (or one of the other two).

Thanks for reading!

Next time: The Return of Werdna: Four Swords Adventure.
Death count: ~100 (~12x longsword, 1x staff, 1x Dragon Slayer, 1x Were Slayer, 1x dagger, 1x shuriken, 1x mace +1, ~4x molito, 15x makanito, 1x litokan, 15x lakanito, 1x lahalito, 1x dalto, 1x badi, ~7x mahalito, ~3x halito, 4x tiltowait, 1x teleported into rock, 2x entrapment, 3x mines, 4x Trebor, 1x theft, 1x falling damage, 1x item loss, 1x Karl Maudlin, 2x Hell, 1x cage, 1x sacrificed to Kadorto, ~15x unknown).

So did you actually fight them all, or did they just want to make sure you were willing to do it?

By the by, all of the Orders and nobility are based on real-life friends and acquaintances of the developer in the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism). Hawkwind is the dev's nom de guerre there as well.

I thought it was "Anachronism." Or am I thinking of something else? "Creative Anarchism" sounds like a quick way to go to jail.

A quick google search turns up Society of Creative Anachronism.

The latter. If I'd fought them all, I probably would've complained about the number of times they killed me.

I think we can all agree that you deserve a break with Ultima IX!

Whoops, haha.

That was great fun to read, if horrible to write.

Thanks!

I really enjoyed reading this. Thanks for the great LP of an insane game.

This was a great LP with heroic effort on Asema's part and I'm slightly ashamed I missed it.