Game #231: Wizard’s Crown – Victorious!

Matt Barton, from Dungeons & Desktops: A History of Computer Role-Playing Games, describes Wizard’s Crown as “probably the most hardcore RPG of its time” and “one of the most sophisticated tactical CRPGs ever designed.” I’d have to whole-heartedly agree with both of his statements. It took me 57 hours to beat Wizard’s Crown and when I was finished my emotions warred between euphoria and relief. The only other game that took me longer to complete was Moria which was played on the Plato system.

Compute! magazine favorably reviewed Wizard’s Crown describing it as “probably the most unusual fantasy game to hit the market in some time”. Citing its graphics and detailed combat, the magazine stated that the game “will excite and challenge even the most seasoned veteran of fantasy warfare”. Computer Gaming Worlds’s Scorpia admired the game’s advanced use of injuries and bleeding when simulating combat, but believed there was too much emphasis on fighting or hack and slash, with only a few trivial puzzles and too light on interactions. In 1993, she became more positive, describing it as a “better-than-average hack n’ slash. ANALOG Computing magazine called the Atari version “superb….a true gem, an addictive game which you will find yourself playing day in and day out.”

SSI sold almost 48k copies of the game in North America and it was the company’s second best-selling Commodore game as of 1987. It was the first game to be designed in-house by SSI, previously known as a wargame company. The game design and programming was done by Paul Murray and Keith Brors, both of whom have a background in wargaming. This explains the complexity of the Wizard Crown’s tactical combat. For example, shields block attacks only from the front or the left, not from the rear and the right. Spears can attack two squares away, flails ignore defender’s shields, axes have a chance of breaking shields. Bows provide targeting and long range strategic options. There is an option for quick combat, and high level skirmishes can take as long as 40 minutes to complete per encounter. The game would spawn a sequel entitled The Eternal Dagger and it’s combat engine would find it’s way into SSI’s best selling Gold Box Series.

There has been much time that has passed since my last update. This was a conscious decision on my part because I did not want to inundate you with updates on new equipment or magical items found. What I have discovered in my game play is that Wizard’s Crown is time intensive and it might be the “grindiest” game I have ever played thus far. Each time I felt confident in the power and strength of my party I would meet crushing defeat within the ruins outside of the city and realize that I needed to spend more time grinding my characters higher. Hours upon hours were spent earning enough experience points so that I could raise attributes, skills, and life points. Each time you accrue experience points you have to choose very specifically what you’re going to increase. EVERYTHING needs to be increased! Skill points, life points, attributes like Strength and Dexterity, all of them demand your attention and so the grinding process is excruciatingly slow. Every single time you think you’re finally there, a big beat down in a particular part of the game informs you how wrong you truly are.

You can see in the character snapshots up above that the gameplay is very rogue-like in the sense that you need to acquire powerful items which augment both your protection and strength. I discovered that as the dungeons get increasingly more difficult, you’re going to need a couple of +5 weapons in order to get to the final battle. Each character also needs at least three items of protection to help aid against magic thrown at you by enemies. The need to increase your character’s statistics and to hunt for increasingly more powerful items to aid you in your quest makes the grind very real.

The object of the game is to rescue a magical crown from Tarmon, a wizard who sealed himself and the crown in his laboratory 500 years ago. In my previous blog post, I had explored the Old Thieves’ Guild and discovered an Emerald Key. I found that the key grants access into Gozaroth’s Mansion which is in the western part of the ruins. I soon discovered that I was no match for the denizens lurking within the mansion and went back to grinding. Once I felt my party might be strong enough, I entered the mansion again.

Gozareth’s Mansion consisted of three levels. There were three things of interest that I found within the mansion: 1) three parts of a staff hidden throughout the levels – with all of the parts you can then form the Golem Staff – a powerful magic item needed to help with an early battle within the Palace 2) the password needed to get through the gate of the Palace and lastly 3) you learned more of Tarmon’s plans as shown below:

Once the pieces of the Golem Staff were assembled, I felt it was time to storm the Palace and discover what lies within. Once I made my way safely through the gate and started exploring the first dungeon level, I was brutally reminded that I needed to leave and do a lot more grinding. Hours and hours of grinding ensued until I felt I was ready to storm the Palace once again.

A tremendously difficult battle occurs on the second level of the Palace. A fireplace reveals a secret door which leads to the stairs to level three. However, once the secret door is triggered, golems appear out of the woodwork to assault the party. This is where the golem staff comes in handy. Strategic placement of your party here is also imperative for the win. Winning this battle and continuing on to the third level is a watershed moment.

When I reached level three, I was faced with a rather “shocking” surprise. The entire level was a treacherous maze. One wrong step in any direction triggered a deadly lightning strike. I spent an entire evening painstakingly mapping out the entire level by trial and error. You do find a map on the first level which is supposed to help you in this endeavor, but I found it to be completely useless.

While mapping out the maze I uncovered strange writing on a pillar that proved to be a valuable clue that I would need later.

The fourth level proved to be a puzzle of a different kind. In order to progress through the level, you need the proper combination of open and closed doors. I found the puzzle to be extremely frustrating as you had to backtrack and open and close doors and then return to see if you could then open a closed door to proceed. The clue from level three actually provided misinformation but the organization of the clue itself and what it portended told me what I needed to do to solve this puzzle. There are three important finds on this level: 1) you find a non-magical spear with a glowing tip that can aid you in your battle against Tarmon 2) you are told by a prisoner that magical weapons do not affect Tarmon and that if you try to use them, they will disintegrate upon impact 3) you find a secret word that you will need to get the crown itself.

Level 5 was a real heartbreaker. There is an EXTREMELY difficult battle here with a horde of Demons and High Demons. I found that no matter what I did, I was no match for them. I had to completely retreat and backtrack through the 5 levels of the Palace and begin to grind once more. I spent another few hours grinding and I also spent much of my gold reserves improving my magical weapons so that three of my party members wielded +5 weapons. Once I felt confident enough to try again, I once more stormed the Palace. I made my way slowly back to the fifth level and this time I was able to defeat the demon horde. I was finally able to climb the stairs to level six.

The entire sixth level was called The Garden of Life. There is a stream here and you can heal your entire party if you drink from it. I drank deeply and then moved forward to confront Tarmon. Strategically Tarmon places himself behind a demon horde and he casts spells safely from this position and he also teleports all over the place. I found it best to charge forward and take on the horde as quickly as I could instead of letting them sling spell after spell against me. This is the hardest battle of the game, and it took me over an hour to complete this particular battle. In order to win, half of your party members need to retain their most powerful weapons so that they can properly tackle the demon horde. The other half of the party you have to equip with non-magical weapons as they are the only thing that can cause damage to Tarmon. I barely survived the encounter, but I was able to defeat Tarmon and his horde.

I found the wizard’s laboratory, and this led to the discovery of the crown! If you do not speak the secret word found on Level 4, DORVAL, you will die instantly here.

Once you have the crown you then have to make your way back out of the palace. Before leaving this level, I drank from the Stream of Life again to heal my party. This proved to be a good thing, because just as you are about to exit the palace, demons erupt from the surrounding pillars, and you have one last titanic battle on your hands with 24 Hell Born. I was able to miraculously survive and escape the palace with crown in hand.

The trek back to the city was very difficult. You are assaulted by monsters almost every third step of the way. Despite this difficulty, I was able to make it back through the gates of the city. When you return you are greeted with the following message:

This was a very difficult game. It required great patience and perseverance to get to the finish line as well as a lot of time. It took me 57 hours to achieve victory, and the journey almost made me change the way that I do things. I strongly considered starting another game and going back and forth between the two because the grinding almost made me lose my mind a couple of times. I was worried however that if I split my time between two games, that it would merely take me that much longer to finish, so I am glad that I stuck with it. I am curious what the percentage of people are who actually finished the game after starting it. If you’re someone who loves to character build, and you love grinding over long periods in the pursuit of better equipment and higher attributes, then this is the game for you.

Next up on the playlist: Instead of tackling another game from 1985 I am going back in time once again to 1979 to a game that I missed: Space

Until next time…….