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just some guy, age 23
-yuri is life
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just a passing thru kamen neko...

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Emptyeye
@Emptyeye

As reported by Robert "Trebor" Woodhead on August 30th.

You maybe don't know who Andrew Greenberg is. If you're into any form of digital RPG--Computer, Console, "Western", "Japanese", though, you should.


Aided by a small team at Sir-Tech Software, Inc., Greenberg, along with Woodhead, was one of the main architects of 1981's Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord. While Wizardry wasn't the first computer RPG, it was the first to really take off into the public consciousness of the day. It was also one of, if not the first, computer RPGs to let you control a full party of characters with their own specialties--their attempt at simulating multiplayer Dungeons and Dragons and computer mainframe RPG sessions in a single-player format.

The influence of Wizardry cannot be overstated. Besides the fact that it spawned seven "mainline sequels", numerous Japanese-exclusive side games, and at least one "Wizardry In All But Name" series, Yuji Horii cited Wizardry as being a primary inspiration for a little game called Dragon Quest. You know, the game that all but invented the "JRPG".

Its influence lives on today in series like Dark Souls. I'm trying to track down an interview where Miyazaki (The "face" of the Soulsbornering series) mentioned that one of his goals with those games was taking the tricks and challenges of Wizardry's turn-based format and applying them to real-time. (The "elevator-that's-actually-a-crusher-trap" from Elden Ring reminds me a whole lot of the Burma Shave rhymes that invariably ended badly for your party in various Wizardries, especially the one in Legacy of Llylgamyn that ends "...you are in rock!")

Wizardry 1 actually got an HD remake just last year, kind of out of nowhere, with numerous quality of life improvements added since it went into and then left Early Access. I'm exactly the target audience for such a thing, but I recommend it.

The work that Greenberg created will live on in all the RPGs we play.


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