Gamers new to the genre probably won't find much to like here and should look to games like the Etrian Odyssey series if they want to stick their foot in the Dungeon Crawling waters. But long time fans of the genre like me will definitely get their $15 worth.
(Play the demo it see if you want it or not) There is just one thing I want to say before I begin DAMN YOU MUSCLE MEMORY! If you have any love for the Wizardry series and decide to pick up this game you will know how I feel. I recommend this game because it is a rarity that a indie Japanese game gets released to America (I looking at you The Last Story, Pandora's Tower, the only f**king reasons I even bought a Wii). There is also DLC Red Shadow of the Sister, but I haven't gotten the chance to play it yet. This game is hard in the same way the original release of The Witcher 2 is hard it doesn't tell you crap. (Check out the TV trope's site where you can get a lot of important information to know how to play the game also ****?title=Wizardry:-Labyrinth-of-Lost-Souls-Trophy-Guide ).
I will give you some tips before you go to any of the dungeons go to the item shop and buy a map it's the cheapest one there, for easy leveling up weaker characters you can go to the Temple and pay a tilith. I won't recommend it if you are just starting out, and make sure to have a Bishop in your party, they do free appraise an item which you will need to use a lot, and a mage because at higher levels they have the spell free warp sorry I do not know what level, they get it. I really want to play the sequel Wizardry: Torawareshi bourei no machi, so you guys better play this game a girl can only survive on Japanese demos for so long.
I last played a tile-based, turn-based dungeon crawler in the 80's. I was looking for another one and found this - one of only two that I know of that are available on PS3. It's a shame that all of these games are on mobile systems these days.
I don't have much to compare this to besides the 80's games I played.
What I like most about this game are the dark corridors, atmosphere, turn-base/tile-based system, and hard difficulty. If you want to get lost in a dungeon and then barely make it out with only a few of your party members left alive, then this game has that.
It follows the formula of the older wizardry games almost exactly. The bad part about this is that there's really no improvements and several things are simplified (particularly the story).
The difficulty is great, but it relies more on randomness instead of anything that you can control. For example, all battles on a floor are random, regardless of where you are on that floor. So your very first fight on the floor might be an overpowered mob of enemies that's impossible for you to beat, or it might be a single weak enemy. Enemy placement based on where you are on the floor would have been better.
Also, enemies use attacks and skills randomly. They might heal themselves (when they don't need healing), defend (for no reason), use a standard attack, or they might use a devastating spell that wipes your party. There's no consistency in what each enemy type does, which makes saving after each battle almost a requirement on certain levels. Well, unless you have been grinding and have over-leveled, which then makes the game too easy (although you're still not impervious to instant random death by a fluke battle).
The thing is, is that I seem to like the randomness. Well, at least for this game. It's not much different from the 80's games I played, but I fully expect I'll get tired of this as I find and play more of these types of games.
I was having a fairly great time in the game, going to each new level, figuring out which enemies might wipe my party or use skills that decrease character levels (permanent level loss is horrible by the way - in any game). Getting new random weapons and armor from enemy drops, which helped me in later levels, was also great. And then level 10 came and it was over. It sure is short. I might have spent maybe 30 hours in the game, and I didn't want to double my purchase price of the game to get another 5 DLC levels.
It was quite fun finding new weapons when I was in a state of just barely killing enemies. But there wasn't nearly enough of this. One of my main fighters only had three different weapons throughout the entire game. The default weapon, the Katana I bought from the weapon shop, and a better Katana that I found in the dungeon. I found nothing else, not even +1 or +2 versions of those weapons.
To scratch that itch of progression and delving deeper into the dungeon, the game really needed an endless level mode or extra dungeon that you can progress through after the main story. But, there's none of that (unless you pay more for DLC - and it doesn't offer enough).
Fighting and combat mechanics are also basic. For the most part, everyone gets the same spells and attacks. Spells are named and described quite strangely (and some are mistranslated), but you eventually re-categorize them in your head as just single, row, or group attacks with different elements. Physical attacks are singe-target damage dealers only. No special things here. And then each character class gets a special ability, some of which are useless, so you'll naturally move toward turning your casters into Bishops and fighters into Samurais, just to get the most useful abilities.
The main story is basically a side quest. At some point, you get it, go to a few specific spots in the dungeon to read some short dialogue (about 6 different places), fight a few bosses, and then that's it. The last boss is also disappointingly easy compared to the other random battles on level 10. Although I might have just gotten lucky since it did just stand there and do nothing a few times.
So if you're looking for a first person, turn-based, tile-based dungeon crawler to play, and primarily only care about progression through a dungeon, you'll have some brief fun with this one. Just don't expect it to be a full game.
Ultimately, Lost Souls will reward masochists and scare off anyone intimidated by the slightest bit of a learning curve. There's a great challenge in store, but it doesn't pull any punches or make any apologies. Know that going in and don't say you weren't warned.
Labyrinth of Lost Souls, for better or for worse, just puts a new coat of paint over its old-fashioned trappings. Whether or not that's something you actually want to play is entirely dependent on your personal taste.
For the already-converted, Labyrinth of Lost Souls is a more than solid dungeon crawler. Its fulsome selection of side-quests, items, and expansive dungeons could keep you exploring for many hours, making it excellent value. But it's hard to imagine it winning over the unconvinced or the uninitiated.
We don't want to offend the longtime fans of the series, but we honestly can't understand why anybody would want to play an archaic RPG like Wizardry when there are fantastic games like Skyrim around. Being nostalgic is one thing, being ignorant another. [January 2012, p.85]
This game is horrible
I loved Etrian Odyssey, The Dark Spire and Strange Journey on the DS and all other dungeon crawlers on PC or PS but compared to those games this game almost seems amateurish.
Really, the menus are very loveless, the dungeon design is terrible and they were REALLY lazy with the character portraits in the dungeons that just stay there the whole time.
I mean, this game is on PS3 and I find the graphics of mentioned DS games 10 times more appealing than the graphics of this game. It just seems like a sideproject of some students in their college years. One guy for the programming, one for the graphics and one for the music and testing.
Yes, it is a hardcore dungeon crawler but it could have been so much more. I could have made a better game with the RPG maker. Just look at Etrian Odyssey - THAT'S what I call a good dungeon crawler. The whole presentation **** beyond belief. Gameplay is horrible. to I dont even want to write about it cuz all this random stuff (random hp gaiwas so frustrating that i cant even handle to think about it. Noot mention that story is 20-25h long, after that you can do your mindless grind for some kickass weapons without any use becasue you already beat the game.. or farm kills for 50.000 kills trophy what will take atleast 300h.. As a Wizardry fan i really had high hopes with this game. Such a shame.
I like Wizardry games but this game is atrocious. Wizardry 8 came out in 2001 and it is a great game this thing is all about grinding instead of dungeon exploration as it should be.
Legends of Grimrock came out a while ago and it perfectly captured the spirit of good dungeon crawl. Stay away from this.
SummaryFollowing in the grand tradition of the Wizardry series is the very first version available for today’s Next-Gen gamers; Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls features a deceptively simple game system complementing deep and involving dungeon designs. Hardcore RPG fans will find an extensive and grueling 1st-person 3D grid-based dung...