Digital Eclipse’s next big release is a real throwback to the oldest of gamers.
A full 3D remake of Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord, is coming to modern platforms. After being on Early Access for the past few months, Digital Eclipse announced on Twitter that the game is releasing on May 23, 2024, to PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, and PC.
While they didn’t share the specific platforms, given the scope of this title, it’s likely that this one is coming to PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. Digital Eclipse already put the game up on Early Access on GOG and Steam, so it will likely come to those platforms for PC as well. They also revealed on their FAQ that they were aiming to make this title Steam Deck Certified, but for now, we don’t know if it will be.
Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord is the first party based RPG video game, the first in the Wizardry series of video games, one of the very first video games with the Dungeons & Dragons license, etc.
Originally released on Apple ][ in 1981, it is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential video games of all time. The way I would explain this to modern audiences, is that this franchise, and game in particular, is the missing thread that links Japanese RPGs and Western RPGs, even if most gamers would have no idea.
But of course, the party based RPG would become a staple in both Western PC games and Japanese console games, from Sir-Tech’s continuation of the Wizardry franchise, and the Ultima series, and their seminal Japanese counterparts in Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Phantasy Star. And so this game and franchise can also be credited with so many other things in the industry as a whole, including the shift from arcades to home consoles.
Digital Eclipse put in quite a bit of work to make this game happen. They licensed the Wizardry trademark from Japanese mobile company Drecom, and then licensed the game itself from what remains of Sir-Tech. They then used the original Apple ][ code as the basis for this newer port, which allows them to add the original graphics as an optional layer on top of the new 3D graphics presentation.
Digital Eclipse has also chosen to keep the harsh difficulty, but add QOL improvements in other areas. So navigation, combat, spellcasting, party management, and everything else should be much easier now.
For the generations of gamers who hadn’t played this game before, Digital Eclipse’s rerelease promises to make it engaging and worthwhile for them.
