Why not play old dungeon crawlers?

[MrPopo]

Im playing Strange Journey right now and I am enjoying it. IMO Its a bit less hardcore than Etrian since you don't have to map out the dungeons yourself but still enjoyable.

I dunno, at times I think it's more convenient to have the option to map out the dungeons. With SJ you have to step on every square to fully map out everything, which starts to suck with damage tiles. With EO you can map out places you haven't stepped because you can see more than the square you're on. Plus, if you step on every square in EO the only thing you have to add yourself is doors and special floors; walls are optional.

[sabrage]

Im playing Strange Journey right now and I am enjoying it. IMO Its a bit less hardcore than Etrian since you don't have to map out the dungeons yourself but still enjoyable.

I dunno, at times I think it's more convenient to have the option to map out the dungeons. With SJ you have to step on every square to fully map out everything, which starts to suck with damage tiles. With EO you can map out places you haven't stepped because you can see more than the square you're on. Plus, if you step on every square in EO the only thing you have to add yourself is doors and special floors; walls are optional.

I definitely stepped on the damage tiles just to complete the map! But the difficulty is more in line with traditional JRPGs so you can get away with it.

[BoneSnapDeez]

I like dungeons crawlers old and new. But I'll be the first to say that the genre has evolved and changed for the better over time. I don't mind old-school graphics and sound, but the brutal difficulty of games like Wizardry IV is a huge turn-off.

The best modern dungeon crawlers are Etrian Odyssey 1-3. I'm pretty excited about part 4 (on 3DS).

[MrPopo]

I like dungeons crawlers old and new. But I'll be the first to say that the genre has evolved and changed for the better over time. I don't mind old-school graphics and sound, but the brutal difficulty of games like Wizardry IV is a huge turn-off.

The best modern dungeon crawlers are Etrian Odyssey 1-3. I'm pretty excited about part 4 (on 3DS).

Wizardry IV is less brutal difficulty and more incredibly flawed design.

[BoneSnapDeez]

I like dungeons crawlers old and new. But I'll be the first to say that the genre has evolved and changed for the better over time. I don't mind old-school graphics and sound, but the brutal difficulty of games like Wizardry IV is a huge turn-off.

The best modern dungeon crawlers are Etrian Odyssey 1-3. I'm pretty excited about part 4 (on 3DS).

Wizardry IV is less brutal difficulty and more incredibly flawed design.

I basically agree. It's one of those "difficult for all the wrong reasons" games.

[gtmtnbiker]

I remember enjoying the text based adventures like Zork & Planetfall. Can anyone see themselves playing those now?

[sabrage]

I remember enjoying the text based adventures like Zork & Planetfall. Can anyone see themselves playing those now?

The Rock, Paper, Shotgun's forums have a text-based adventure for the error page when they go down. I always type in foul words and get errors back because I can't figure out what to do. I want someone to adapt Cleverbot technology to dynamically create text-based adventures, without the forced limitations of traditional text-based adventure interface.

I'm not sure how this is related to this topic in any way.

[CaptainHarlock]

I could definitely see people coming into these games for the first time being a bit put off by the classics. Early Wizardry was pretty brutal in comparison to modern RPGs (map out the dungeons yourself, permadeath, losing one party in the dungeon, and having to make a rescue party to find them, and god help you if you step on a teleporter). All of that in mind, I could certainly see why someone new to the sub-genre may be apprehensive about hopping into some of the older games.

I'm a-okay with them, though. One of my very first games as a kid was WIzardry I on the Apple IIe, and I loved that game to pieces (still do!).

[Erik_Twice]

So besides the incredible difficulty and the outdated graphics and interface, what do you think of those games? What do they offer me that Etrian doesn't, so as to speak. It's a honest question, it's a genre I really don't know anything about and that intrigues me.

I also welcome any discussion on specific series or games and which ones are better for a modern gamer to try out.

BTW, isn't Wizardy IV the game where you are the evil guy and most players never got outside of the first room? I remember the lack of leveling up picked my interest but it looked so hard I may as well avoid it

[MrPopo]

I'd say Etrian Odyssey is a straight upgrade compared to Wizardry. The story in Wizardry is so thin as to be essentially nonexistant. EO has the skill trees which make for interesting party decisions. The Might & Magic series, on the other hand, is much meatier. You have an overworld (also navigated first person) and a series of dungeons dotted around, so you have to use things like clues from talking to people to figure out where to go next.