Rating
Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls
The magic torches are lit, the monsters are ravenous, and the kingdom is waiting for a new hero. Experience the legendary Wizardry series’ modern rebirth as you traverse perilous dungeons and take on hordes of fantastic enemies. Are you up to the challenge?
Details
- Released
- December 8, 2009
- Developer
- ACQUIRE Corp.
- Genres
- Role-playing (RPG)
- Publisher
- XSEED Games, Marvelous USA, Inc.
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Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls Reviews
Professional reviews from gaming critics
If you’re under any illusions about whether Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls is for a general video game audience, don’t be. It’s not. It’s not even for general RPG fans. Hell. If you enjoy modern dungeon crawlers you’re still going to need to be adventurous to get a kick out of this one. On the other hand, the developers of this Wizardry respected the game’s heritage, understood the audience for this kind of game, and the uncompromising commitment to delivering for that audience is admirable. Especially for oldies like me that grew up playing these games. The trip down memory lan…
Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls takes this classic dungeon exploration and combat system and pairs it with beautifully hand-drawn graphics presented in striking high definition, creating a seamless blend of classic gameplay with modern-day visuals.
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. At times, it seems wilfully obscure and unaccommodating, as if it doesn't want you to understand its esoteric ways: "This isn't for you; now, move along." But after time, you realise it's not hostile at all; it just expects a high degree of genre competence from you. Flatteringly, it assumes that ...
Nostalgic to a fault, this return to the classic series learned nothing from the decades of game development since the last main entry.
It’s a game that feels like it should have had a big manual when it first launched, but without that manual, you only have half the picture, and so you’re stumbling around in the dark trying to make sense of everything. Sometimes that’s fun and mysterious. But a little too often, various parts of the game clash, and Labyrinth of Lost Souls becomes more trouble than it’s worth.
On the whole, this game is a case study for how the small details truly make the game. It hits all the broad strokes well, and it has a solid foundation. With more polish, I would genuinely call this a good game. Unfortunately, as it is, it just comes across as a jumbled mess that slingshots between unfair and trivial, without enough fluff to make up for it.
Once upon a time, Wizardry was one of the biggest names in gaming. It and Ultima shaped the genre and provided the inspiration for everything from Final Fantasy to Elder Scrolls. The turn-based combat systems, complex dungeon designs, and in-depth character creation literally changed the game. Nowadays, however, few people know these franchises ever even existed, and Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls is not about to change that. A port of a PS3/Vita title, where it would have been just as out...