A new age sans Llylgamyn. Let's Play Wizardry Gaiden IV: Throb of the Demon's Heart!

Hello, everyone!



My screenshot skills aren't up to par, but I'm still ready to do this.



Let's play Wizardry Gaiden IV!



This is a game that was released in 1994, by ASCII Soft, who obtained the Wizardry licence from Sir-Tech to use. Previous games in this Gaiden series (Wizardry has several) were on the Game Boy; this is the only title of the four to be released on the Super Famicom. And it makes good use of it, too!



Compared to Wizardry IV, which I also played through on this forum, Wizardry Gaiden IV is a much more straightforward Wizardry title; you create a team of your own adventurers, explore dungeons, fight monsters, and ultimately find important trinkets. Where it sets itself apart is in the overall quality of the gameplay, as well as the presentation. It also includes many character options from Wizardry VI and VII, such as races and character classes.



...and in its setting, which is based very roughly on feudal Japan. It's unique, for sure, but Gaiden IV doesn't shy away from turning it into a Wizardry-style melting pot of inspirations. Most of those inspirations, admittedly, are the rest of the Wizardry series!



This game is also notable, at least in my opinion, for its excellent art direction; these background stills are quite nice, and as I'll discuss, I like the sprite work, too!



Now, the game's manual is more explicit about our quest, but this demo, which plays by lingering on the title screen, tells us enough; the monster army is ready for round two, and we need to reclaim the Three Sacred Treasures to deal with it.



Before we do that, though, we are asked whether to play in Mania Mode. Mania Mode means that your party is saved to the cartridge only when you enter or leave town, not after battle or making camp, as is normally the case.

The name makes this sound worse than it is. In fact, I'd argue that Mania Mode makes the game easier by allowing you to more easily bail on a failed dungeon run. For that reason, I won't be playing on it!

But what I will be doing is...

Character Creation



Before you can actually play any Wizardry game (besides... that one...), you need a party, ideally of six. In my case, I will be taking more than six suggestions for characters from across the forums! That way I can rotate characters as I need them, and have a backup party in case my primary party wipes and needs to be rescued.

Obviously, each character needs a name, but there's much more to go through than that.

First, their race. Their species. This is permanent and it affects base stats (important for changing class), equipment options, and even resistances. Having a diverse party is useful!
* Humans are completely average. You're probably one of these yourself!
* Elves have high IQ and Piety, and are resistant to sleep effects, bu thave bad physical stats.
* Dwarves have good Strength, Vitality, and Piety, and resist poison.
* Gnomes have among the highest Vitality and Piety.
* Hobbits have good Agility and Luck, and resist various forms of special attack.
* Faeries have great IQ and Agility, and an AC boost, but can use very little equipment, since they're so tiny.
* Lizardmen have the highest Strength and Vitality bar none, but poor stats otherwise.
* Dracon can breathe fire, and have good resistances, too.
* Rawulf are puppies! They resist cold, and have good Vitality and Piety.
* Mooks are... basically those thins from Star Wars. have lower stats overall, but are fairly rounded, and also resist cold.
* Felpurr are cat people! They can avoid special attacks, resist cold, and have high IQ and Agility, too.

As sex goes, female and male characters differ very little; female characters get +1 Vitality, while male characters get +1 Strength. Female characters can become Valkyries, while male characters have no exclusive class.



Alignment does matter more, though!
* Good characters are virtuous, and are expected to leave non-hostile enemy groups to their own devices. They are the only alignment capable of being Lords; some classes, such as Thief and Psion, are not available to thme.
* Neutral characters are unbiased and favour neither good nor evil. They are the only alignment capable of being Valkyries (if female); other divine classes, such as Priest and Bishop, are not available to them.
* Evil characters spare none who stand in their way! They're the only alignment capable of being Ninjas; they're incapable of being those classes that require more discipline, such as Samurai and Monk.

It's worth noting that late-game items exist to enable a character of any alignment to take certain prestige classes. It's also worth noting that Good characters can become Evil, or vice versa, by acting incorrectly; Neutral characters will always have the same alignment. Finally, in theory, Good and Evil characters cannot adventure together; however, this is realy easy to work around.



Class is at once way more important *and* a bit less important than the previous decisions. It defines what a character can do, but it's also easy to change it (and I will be doing so frequently, in keeping with a character's original role, as the LP progresses).
* Fighters fight the best of any class, with the highest accuracy, and can use virtually all equipment. Otherwise, they're not at all impressive.
* Rangers slowly learn alchemist spells, which provide damage over time and utility. Their armour options are poor, but they fight reasonably well, can hide in shadows, and can use the game's best bows. They're also easy to qualify for. They cannot be Good.
* Mages cast mighty spells that deal lots of damage and provide some bread-and-butter battle utility. They're weak in most other respects, but they gain mage spells and spell slots very fast.
* Bards can do some thief work (lockpicking and trapfinding), cast mage spells, and use a decent array of equipment. They can also use instruments to cast spells "on tap". They're not very strong in any area, but they are flexible. They're easy to become, but cannot be Evil.
* Priests cast healing and support spells of all kinds. They can use decent equipment, too. As long as you're not Neutral, it's easy to become one.
* Alchemists are the best casters of alchemist spells, and learn them the fastest. They are otherwise similar to mages, with somewhat better equipment.
* Thieves are the best class for lockpicking and trapfinding. They are also great at hiding, which lets them then perform ambush attacks. Their equipment options are decent, and they level up faster than any other class. No Good guys.
* Psionics use the final spellbook, psionics, which excels at inflicting status effects. They can also do a bit of damage, healing, and everything else, too. They have HP comparable to priests but worse equipment than even maes. No Good characters here; see Monk instead.
* Samurai are lightly armoured warriors. They're one of the only classes capable of using katanas, which are generally very strong weapons that allow for critical hits. They learn mage spells, though slowly, like a classical gish. Their armour options are relatively poor, but still acceptable.
* Bishops learn both priest and mage spells! This sounds great, but it happens quite slowly. They have mage HP, but can use armour and weapons like a priest. Notably, they can identify items while in the dungeon, for free, rather than having to go to the local store. Like priests, Neutrality is unacceptable.



* Lords are one of the game's "prestige" classes, with very high requirements. They fight well and can use priest spells while wearing most equipment, and have better HP than Valkyries, but level up more slowly. Good only.
* Ninjas have the highest requirements of all classes! But they gain better AC as they level up, can avoid breath attacks, and fight extremely well. They can instantly kill opponents with critical hits using any weapon. In theory they gain alchemist spells, but it happens so slowly it's not worth talking about. Evil only, too.
* Valkyries are similar to Lords in all respects; they gain magic a bit faster but have less HP. Otherwise, they cast priest spells, fight well, and can use the heaviest weapons and armour. Neutral AND Female only.
* Monks are an interesting class; they wear very little armour, but can use some samurai and ninja weapons. They do not critically hit, but can knock enemies out, and they fight pretty well besides. They also learn psionic spells at a decent clip! Good or Neutral only.



Now, the highest priority for starting stats is to meet each class's requirements, but some characters will have points to spare. For those characters, here's what investing in each stat does:
* Strength affects melee combat accuracy and damage, particularly if it's very hih. It does not affect carrying capacity; eight slots for each character.
* IQ affects magic attack success rate and potency; each spell rolls random damage within a range, but I believe IQ helps keep your damage on the higher end of that range. It also affects the number of mage and psion spell slots a character might have.
* Piety is the same as IQ, but for priest spells and spell slots. I believe it may also have an effect for alchemists.
* Vitality affects hit point growth and some resistances.
* Agility affects turn order, AC (at very high levels) and some resistances. It's important for spellcasters, in my opinion.
* Luck does a bit of everything, but its most notable trait is affecting critical hit rate (for characters who can perform them) and resistance to most status effects. Many classes also require it!

And that's it!

There is one more decision to make after we have a party, but I can handle it myself. Still, if any of you have preferences, here it is:



At the outset, Wizardry Gaiden IV allows you to pick from three different dungeons to explore. They all play differently, and each one has one of the three Sacred Treasures that we need to win! They are:
* The Tower of Stillness, a Sengoku-era fortress staffed by warriors. It's the most straightforward, combat-heavy dungeon.
* The Tower of Witchcraft, a strange place inhabited by fairies. It's the most tricky, puzzle-heavy dungeon.
* The Tower of Spirits, an abandoned temple where the dead walk. It's the most dangerous of the three by far at first.

If you have a preference as to which dungeon you'd like to see first, feel free to tell me, as long as it's not the Tower of Spirits.

So, Tyrants! Please, fill my roster with adventuring talent! Use the following format, if you don't mind:

* Name:
* Race:
* M/F:
* Alignment:
* Preferred Class:
* Stat Priority:

Once a bit of that is done, we can get underway!

Let's see...

I went to check your old Wizardry IV thread after hearing there would be a new Wizardry IV thread and was sad to see it's another thread where the photos had been lost. Hope Loki can salvage it eventually, he's fixed many other old LPs here.

Anyway...

Name: Lizmet
Race: Lizardman
M/F: Female
Alignment: Neutral
Preferred Class: Samurai
Stat Priority: Strength

Name: Lemeza
Race: Human
M/F: M
Alignment: Neutral
Preferred Class: Thief (moving to ninja if there’s an item that allows a neutral character to do that)
Stat Priority: Luck

Ooo, good idea, Yimothy.

* Name: Alis
* Race: Human
* M/F: F
* Alignment: Neutral/Good
* Preferred Class: Valkyrie/Lord
* Stat Priority: Strength

* Name: Myau
* Race: Felpurr
* M/F: M
* Alignment: Good
* Preferred Class: Monk
* Stat Priority: Agility

* Name: Noah
* Race: Elf
* M/F: Either
* Alignment: Neutral
* Preferred Class: Mage
* Stat Priority: IQ

* Name: Odin
* Race: Human
* M/F: M
* Alignment: Good
* Preferred Class: Fighter
* Stat Priority: Strength

I have another one:

* Name: Lucia
* Race: Human
* M/F: F
* Alignment: Neutral (Good would be more appropriate, but the class doesn't allow it)
* Preferred Class: Psionic
* Stat Priority: IQ

* Name: Ovelia
* Race: Dwarf
* M/F: F
* Alignment: Neutral
* Preferred Class: Valkyrie
* Stat Priority: Up to you

I'm excited to see a new Wizardry LP from you. It's been a while.

Was this game released in the US? I only remember one SNES Wizardry game. Also, is that the font from Secret of Mana?

It was not! The entire Gaiden series was fan translated (alongside Wizardry 1-2-3 for the Super Famicom). Wizardry was available for the NES, though!

When I mentioned the manual, that's not to say I have a copy of it; I just read the relevant portions on a Japanese fan site. I'll be doing that for equipment and monster stats when needed, too!

* Name: Delita
* Race: Mook
* M/F: M
* Alignment: Evil (hot take!)
* Preferred Class: Fighter
* Stat Priority: Str, then Vit

Let's go to the tower of stillness.

* Name: Olan
* Race: Human
* M/F: M
* Alignment: Neutral
* Preferred Class: Psionics
* Stat Priority: Int, Vit, Agi

Hello again, everyone!

I appreciate all the characters you've put on offer, and I'll be using a very mixed party to start the campaign.



To start, let's talk about one of the more clever mechanics the game offers. If you have low base stats (a pool of 7 to 10 points to spend at the outset, I believe), the trainer will offer you a chance to gain three free levels -- one per year you spend doing so.



In many ways, this is a much better deal than starting with higher stats. It gives a character plenty of HP to survive the early game with, and levelling up increases your stats, anyways!



On the other hand, age is much harder to lose than levels are to gain, and it's not a huge amount of starting EXP. Really, there's advantages and disadvantages to doing this. But whenever the game offered it, I did it!

I won't talk about every single spell in the game as we learn them, but I will give a quick example of what alchemist spells are like. For Level 1, Karl has:

* OSLO provides an attack buff to the party. It can be cast outside of combat, but wears off quickly.
* NOLIS is a panic gas spell that makes enemies more likely to flee.
* NAGRA attacks a single enemy with "dragon's breath"; that is, if not resisted, the target takes half of the caster's current HP in damage.
* PONTI affects one ally, and only in battle, improving their AC by 1 and living them one extra hit per round if they attack.

NAGRA and PONTI stay useful forever, though they won't always be worth the turn they cost. PONTI in particular will see use in early- and mid-game boss battles.



Lizmet is a contrast to Karl, with excellent stats but a low starting level. As a samurai, she also has a katana!



As for Delita... well, I'll make him a Fighter, but I don't know. Maybe he actually had a point and Ramza was a wimp?

Just kidding, I actually really like Ramza (he's way better than Denam, and I say that as someone who likes Tactics Ogre more overall). I have a reason for making Delita Good... for now.

Also joining today's party are Lemeza, as a thief (starting at Level 4), Noah, as a mage (starting at Level 4), and Lucia (for whom the psion requirements mean she starts at Level 1).



It occurs to me that I've failed to show off the world map menu, and I will sometime, but here are the main services in town. Benten Bar is where you add or remove characters; the Adventurer's Inn is where you rest to restore HP and MP *and* to level up; and Daikoku's Store is where you buy equipment.

I actually make a number of purchases with our starting funds. For Karl I buy two Hand Axes; they're not the best weapons, but they fit, and you can dual-wield them. For Lemeza I actually buy a Bullwhip! There are M- and L-range weapons that can hit from the back row, and the Bullwhip is M-range. That means Lemeza can hit the first two groups of monsters in any given battle, but can't target "back row" monsters, if he's in the back row himself.

Noah gets a Short Bow for ranged attacks. It's worth noting that while Mages can use those, Psions cannot! Lucia has to use a Sling, which is weaker. It's no Psy-Cannon, that's for sure, but it's pretty helpful to have every single member of the party attack. In the earliest Wizardry titles, there were no ranged weapons; the back row would be stuck defending if they didn't have spells to cast.



But I'm sure you're all bored of housekeeping by now. Gerad said to go to the Tower of Stillness. I will happily do this!



"...aesthetic beauty."



"...with not a hint of ornamentation."



So, we get the picture: the fortress is well-defended. But it's a very pretty picture! The flavour text is one of the reasons I like the dungeon design for this game. It's not around every corner, but it's always fairly deft and satisfying when they do have it, and it's used more for crafting an atmosphere than telling jokes, like it was in Wizardry IV.

Speaking of atmosphere, the game has a rather nice soundtrack. Here's the music for this dungeon! I would recommend against browsing the track list for this game past the track numbers I link to though; that way lies spoilers.



One final note: the game has a minimap! It's a 5x5 area surrounding your current position. It's really nice; I *can* map with graph paper or a spreadsheet, but I would really rather not when I just want to sit down and slay some foes.



Speaking of foes, our first battle is not far from the entrance; it's against an Initiate, a monk-type opponent, a few levels higher than our party.



We win in round 2, but it's... not a clean victory. Lizmet gets hit for 7 damage, then 3 damage, since this fellow is (was) dual-wielding fists and feet.

The Kandori Temple back at Hiren Castle (our home base) can revive the dead, however! It starts expensive and very gradually gets more manageable as your party starts to make money (and stops needing to buy new equipment).



This is now a good time to talk about Lucia, because without a Priest, Bishop, or Valkyrie, she's our only healer. Psions get DIOMAS as a Level 1 spell; it restores 2 to 6 hit points (contrast 1 to 8 hit points for the Priest spell DIOS). They also start with SIOS, a single-target damage spell that can also inflict temporary insanity.



Incidentally, while wandering the dungeon, we meet a Komusou, a particular type of Buddhist monk from the Edo era if Wikipedia does not mislead me! In this game, they're psions of above-starting level.



Which hurts, since they have RIOS, SIOS's stronger cousin which hits an entire group (in this case, our entire party) for 2 to 10 damage. It also has a small chance to inflict insanity, as you can see.



So I break out the... artillery. I don't want to say "heavy". Here's the basic Mage spell, HALITO, a single target fireball doing 2 to 8 damage. It has an animation!

This guy also runs away after casting that, before we can kill him, so we get no EXP for this fight (but we still do get gold).



We survived that nicely, but our next encounter is with some Bouzu, who can attack at medium range. They do this, and actually kill Lucia.



By the way, some treasure chests are trapped (not every enemy leaves their loot in their pockets). Treasure chests are the only way to get items as opposed to just gold, but you want a thief (or a bard, ranger or ninja) to identify deal with chest traps. Lemeza proves useful for this, but there are risks: this looks like a false positive to me, as a Ghost's Hand is a higher level trap. So, with the risk factor too high, I actually leave this chest behind.



I revived Lucia, by the way. It's worth noting that this game has palette swaps *within the same enemy type*, generally. It's basically variants instead of calling it a new enemy. Also, Noah has Level 2 Mage spells, since she started at Level 4, meaning that she has MELITO -- a nice area attack, doing damage comparable to HALITO to multiple enemies.



While exploring, we come across a locked door! In general, a door with a "standard" appearance for the dungeon has a lock that can be picked; some locks do require keys (but many locks that "require" keys can be opened by a very high level thief, too!).



Unfortunately, putting a weight on the door does nothing to open it. Lemeza will need to be a better thief to start picking this lock. Or the several other locked doors I encounter on this floor, for that matter.



This one, however, is quite clearly intended to take a key; it's a metal grate instead of a door, and it's a specific room to boot, as opposed to generic dungeon corridor.



Here is where alignment matters: if you have either Good or Evil characters, you will sometimes meet friendly enemy groups. If you attack them while you have Good characters in the party, they may become Evil. On the other hand, if you spare them and your party is Evil, people might start turning Good. It's odd, but it's a holdover from the very first 1981 entry to the series -- for which it was frankly a phenomenal "roleplaying" option.



Don't mind me, just showing off enemy sprites!



Also, you may be wondering what the overall layout of the dungeon looks like.



But I can show you, and legitimately, too! The Level 1 Mage spell DUMAPIC isn't just for coordinates in this title; it gives you a full overview of the dungeon floor that you're currently on.



Oh, and congratulations to Delita for doing exactly what I didn't want him to do! This is the wrong level up, but at Level 2, he lost a point of Piety. It's possible to lose stats (and becomes more common with age). It doesn't happen often, but it can be a pain when it does. And people complain about bad levels in Fire Emblem!



At least Lizmet is reliable. She gains lots of stats and HP on her levels up, and she starts to learn Level 1 Mage spells now, too! You get new spell levels at fixed points for each class, but the chance of learning new spells is based on your IQ. Higher IQ characters will fill out their spellbooks faster.



Speaking of levelling up, Lucia is gaining new psion abilities, too. This one hints at a type of interaction we haven't had yet.



Around this point I decided to leave Karl at the bar for a bit, since he's already Level 4 with about 40 hit points; he's strong enough by default that I can catch him up at any point without having to go for easy encounters first. Ovelia, on the other hand, can learn Priest spells, which I'm starting to want. She's also Level 1; Valkyries start with a Spear each, which means I can have Lemeza move up to the front until she gains some HP.

The game actually plays sound for this, by the way.



And an animation, too. (Please, ignore the errant mouse cursor, I'm getting used to GIF captures.) It actually keeps playing after you dismiss the dialogue box, which is neat.



Nothing comes of it, though...



There's also this.



And these! Good thing Lemeza's here.



So the ready room had nothing, but at the northern centre of the floor, there is this well. I... decided to take a detour before examining it, though.



This detour theoretically got Lucia killed, but after I revived her at the temple...



She reached Level 3, basically doubling her hit points. And because she's a "pure caster" class, Level 3 as a character means the second tier of spells. And they're good stuff; mostly utility, but RIOS here will see a fair amount of use.



"Klonk...
Splash..."

Again, the game includes two sound effects for this.



Oh no!!!



Okikusama here appears to be some sort of yuki-onna type lady. The "kiku" here is the same as in the mythical princess Kikurihime, for what that's worth. Either way, she has special battle music, and she's a little bit more dangerous than the other enemies we've faced up to this point.



But so are we, especially with Noah having hit Level 5. MAHALITO hits an entire group for a fairly substantial amount of damage, especially at this point in the game. I'll be seeing a lot of this.



Defeating her gives us this unidentified Key (which we must either pay to identify, or just use). But it also gives us 2100 experience points; comparatively, most battles on this floor hand out 200.



So to close out this adventuring day, our characters all level up! Ovelia is easily the most impressive, gaining tons of stats and reaching HP levels comparable to Lizmet. Lucia also does fairly well. Delita at least gains stats rather than losing any. Noah's stat gains are much more modest (and he only levels up once), but that's okay; what really matters are the spells.

So, taking a page from the Phantasy Star LP, I'm going to end this update with a...

To-do list!

• (Stillness) Figure out the bath house in the ready room
• (Stillness) Get to the kimono behind the grate
• (Stillness) Use the key Okikusama dropped
• (Stillness) Pick some locks

I will also include a running tally of character deaths (which the game helps with by providing a "RIP" statistic on the character sheet)!

Lucia: 2, Lizmet: 1.

See you next time!

Also, I apologize for the giant GIFs. My screen's 4K, so that just kind of happens. If people really want me to resize them, let me know!

You might try wrapping the GIFs in [thumb] tags. That's a lot less work than resizing them yourself.

Do divine casters also rely on IQ to learn new spells?

That's helpful to know about! Thank you.

No, they use Piety instead. Each of the two stats is, to my knowledge, only useful if you possess spells of the appropriate type (...which doesn't actually require you to be in an appropriate class!).

Heh...Killed in the very first fight in the game.

Also I know you mentioned it up top, and I know this is one of the first of many Japan original Wizardry installments, but I'm still surprised by just how distinctly Japanese this game is right from the start.

I've never played an honest-to-god Wizardry game before (I should really fix that), but I've played a lot of Wizardry-inspired games, since I love dungeon crawlers (reading this first update has me really hankering to dive into a new one), and I didn't appreciate before now just how, shall we say, thoroughly inspired the Elminage games are by this. These classes, stats, and mechanics are all very familiar to me.

I’m glad to see my representatives pulling their weight and staying in character.

I can definitely recommend this game or any of the three Game Boy Gaiden titles if you want something to play! This sub-series is a bit overlooked, in my opinion, for the overall quality of gameplay.

And yeah, Elminage is definitely Wizardry with the serial numbers filed off. There's nothing at all wrong with that, but it's the truth! You'll even find some of the late-game gear and foes to be especially familiar.

My one disappointment with Elminage is that despite having a very, very high level curve, it only has two spellbooks (summoning SORT of counts). There just isn't much to have your characters do other than get bigger numbers after a point, and not even necessarily in vital stats (Strength, ...).

This game is something of an exception! Most of the Japan-original Wizardry installments are much more Western.

And yes. Someone went down in battle #1. But hey, a few levels later and that's way less likely now!

I forgot that (the original Western entry based ones anyway) magic spell names are sometimes anagrams. DUMAPIC is DUngeon MAp PICture, for example.

For the record, THUMB tags don't seem to work for these GIFs. I can either resize GIFs by hand, or they can remain gigantic allowing you to see EVERY PIXEL. What'll it be, if any of you have preferences?

Seems to work OK?

Oh, I see! I tried wrapping IMG tags in thumb. That makes sense to me!

The thumb images are pretty good, but you’d get much smaller file sizes if you shrank them (or were recording at in-game resolution).

Delita dropped a point of piety, but don't blame him. Blame yourself or god.

Hey there! This update is brought to you by Wendy's Poutine. Anyway--



Here's our party for today. Lucia is taking a break, since I'm at the point in the game where Alchemist spells are going to ramp up; I want Karl.



The door opens with a satisfying click sound and an "Unlocked!" message after I use the Storage Key. There's guys inside!

Further inside...




Oh no!!!



So this fight is interesting in that it's not particularly dangerous (despite the awesome sprite), it gives 1,000 EP, and it's repeatable until you leave the square. It's a bit odd, but I do fight it a few times to make our party even stronger. At this point in the game, that's a huge yield.

Nearby, but separately...



The party opens this box, too. Smoke pours out, but when it clears, there's a switch, not a monster. When they flip it, they hear an iron grate opening in the distance. Score! That's our ticket to the second floor of this tower, centre and north:



By the way, beyond excellent stats, Ovelia can now heal!



...that isn't enough to make the second floor safe for us, though. The enemies here can hit for between 10 and 20 damage, particularly the Crossbowmen, who almost always hit. Here's our current map of the Tower of Stillness, first floor.

And here it is after some exploration! Lemeza managed to unlock some of the first floor doors. They have some staircases up, too! We... won't be using those yet.



We found a lot of loot, but no real upgrades; cursed items like the Dull Shield (doesn't change AC) and Rusted Chain (likewise) aplenty. To remove a cursed item, you need to pay half of its purchase price, which can really hurt.



Let's try out the Tower of Spirits for a bit!



But first, some levels up, which I forgot to do! (The spells here are ROKDO, MONTINO, and REIMAR.) The casters always benefit most; Noah's latest level of mage spells is not too impressive (as with level 3 to 4 in D&D spell parlance). However, Ovelia's picking up new spells quite nicely, and Lucia demonstrates the "swiss army knife" approach of psionics; they can cast a spell to hide in shadows like a thief, making them impossible to target (but still subject to area attacks) and able to ambush, which doubles damage and allows for melee weapon attacks from the back row.



Virtually adjacent to the entrance, there's this iron gate, with some flavour text and sound too.



And near that is our first wall switch! These can be hard to see, depending on the tileset. Here it's not too bad; in Bane of the Cosmic Forge, which introduced them to mainline Wizardry, they're a bit painful to pick out (at least to my weak eyes).

The enemies on offer here are very different; a few are living, some are dead, many are spiritual. The oldest gravestones in the area offer up repeat encounters that are relatively dangerous (Zombie Alchemists still have Alchemist spells) but drop a lot of gold. Others simply read "Here Rests a Nameless Adventurer".



Lots of fun creatures to fight, here...



And something else, too!




There's a swamp behind it. Gross, but not important... yet?



At any rate, I've explored the Tower of Spirits as much as one can without trying to pick iron gates (which is sometimes possible, as here, but very difficult).



Time to show off why you don't come here first!




"...You accidentally knock part of the gravestone over."

Daisoujou here is not to be messed with! With ~40 hit points, decent AC, and the mage spell SOCORDI, he can create a battle you can't win in just one round.

You see, SOCORDI summons monsters based on the caster's level -- and for this fellow, that will generally be Sidelles or Scrylls, both of which are mid-level demons. The Sidelles get multiple very accurate attacks per round, while the Scrylls (which appear in sizable groups) can cast MAHALITO.

Even if you do manage to kill these foes, he can cast SOCORDI multiple times. And it's impossible to run! The reason that the Tower of Spirits is so dangerous isn't the majority of its contents, though it is probably the hardest dungeon of the three, but because of this mandatory boss fight maybe five or ten minutes in.

Shown here, Ovelia is casting MONTINO hoping to maybe silence him, Karl is casting FISQUREA to create a damage cloud that might wear him down even if most of the party dies, Noah is casting TZALIK, a single-target electric damage spell that deals as much as 50 damage (if it's not resisted), and Lucia is casting MAPOBA, a time-warping spell that improves the party's AC by 2 and hampers the enemy's AC by 2.

But ultimately it's all for naught, because...



Noah's spell works, and one-shots the guy before he can get off one of his potentially party-wiping summon spells. Hooray!



The last thing to show off on this floor is our first NPC, but I've opted to wait to do that. Our party's going to take this key and get some much-needed rest (and levels, probably).

To-do list!
* (Stillness) Figure out the bath house in the ready room
* (Stillness) Get to the kimono behind the grate
* (Stillness) Pick a couple remaining locks
* (Stillness) Get strong enough for the next floor
* (Spirits) Go to the next floor

Deaths!
Lucia: 2, Lizmet: 1, Karl: 1.