I've played for about 4 hours now, and I just wanted to list some initial impressions:
Fore the record, I am running a PIII @ 700mhz, 128meg RAM, Voodoo3 2000 (OCd to 3000 level) Win98 First Edition.

Graphics Setting: 1024x768 D3D
Monsters: Seldom, normal
Difficulty: normal

I am quite impressed with the graphics of this game!! Perhaps I'm easily amused, but I was very pleased with the ambient effects; the vultures circling in the forest, the gentle flitting of the butterflies, the fish.. Oh, and especially the fireflies at night! A wonderful touch. Also impressive to me is the ability for these ambient beasts to be affected; for example, I saw a butterfly fly into the windmill, and get mushed! Very nice.

The monsters seem to be amazing; among the best I've seen in a 3D environment; very little tearing or jaggies, and the attack animations look great!

The spell animations are so-so, but there seems to be a good variety of spells.

The monster AI seems to be good sometimes, then poor at othertimes; I see a lot of beasts get stuck on corners, etc. Othertimes, I've noticed them track me a considerable distance after I've wounded them and had to retreat!

Difficulty: Maybe I'm just a wimp, but I found myself dying numerous times at the start of the adventure. I think each of my characters died at least 3 times, and my first two hours were spent killing beasts to get gold to resurrect my fallen party members! I like this, though; games which are a challenge are my favorite!

So far, everything seems pretty "formulaic".. a lot of FedEx Quests, but I also like the element of having a few more mysterious ones; for example, Ukabu. What the heck is Ukabu? Talk to Ekdu. Who's Ekdu? greatest toad warrior! Hehehe

I also found the Mendosa toad (or whatever his name was) to have an interesting conversation style; did anyone else notice his reciprocal affirmations? (I'm sure English majors will have the correct term, but this will suffice for now.) "Ukabu need toads. Toads need Ukabu!" Little nuances like this are what make or break a game; I enjoyed the inclusions.

Sound: I think the sounds are quite excellent! The screams of pain, the shrieks of terror, the howls of rage from descending beasts, the gut-wrenching moan as you cleave a beast into bloody, twitching chunks; nice! I just wish the corpses were persitant for a much longer time, like M&M; I like to walk amongst the bodies of my foes, whistling a merry tune!

The combat system; at first, I hated it, but now I'm getting used to it; the only thing that irks me is that the monsters keep moving (not necessarily attacking) while you're accessing your spellbook! There should be a "quick-spell" list of your last 4 or 5 spells that pops up when you hover over the spell icon.

And now, the big conclusion; you know what this game reminds me the most of? Ultima: Ascension! A beautiful game, with a lot of potential, but a number of serious bugs and shaky design decisions. Even the way it looks, the way it feels; it reminds me a lot of U:A. To me, that's not necessarily a bad thing.

My final question: What the heck is with the rotating vegetation along the shorelines? Are these secret satellite dishes being used by the trolls so they always know where I am? It sort of freaked me out.

Peace, I hope you hear your viewpoints, and happy gaming!

In regards to the spells...

I fight combat in turn based mode, and when I have a chance to attack I choose my wizard (if he has not already
attacked that round). Now on your left side of the screen you can see the spell that your wizard last attacked with. You can scroll through your spells from that box. Click the up/down arrows and it will scroll through the spells and then click on the baddie you want to attack.

That might save you some time, or perhaps I misunderstood your take on spell casting

Ah, thanks Valkyr!! I hadn't noticed that. That should definitely save some time! I was always going to the spell screen, and scrolling through the little circles, and all of that jazz.

I love the flamedrop spell! Surprisingly, it works great to clear the lagoon of those unpleasant lagoon piranhas!

Speaking of gals.. are there any on this board? I'm always curious, as the female gaming population always seems to be very tiny, at least from boards that I've seen.
Peace!

I've seen quite a few female posters in this forum

I'm a gal
Been CRPGing since it was invented. Played almost every one published.

Wyv

Ack! Please don't compare this to Ultima Ascension, for it is 100% better. I couldn't reasonably play it on my system and I had a lot more then U9 recomended. No wonder Richard Garriot doesn't work for for Origin anymore!
W&W did find a good way to bring realism to a turn based RPG, although sloppy in ranged combat. I think as soon as monster or player was able to either cast or attack it should have swithced to a more rigid turn based system.
My favorite part was my first encounter with Erathmador the dragon. I followed him around for a while so I could watch him. Definately the best dragon I have seen in any game.

...hello everyone. I just got here and I thought I would add some praise and (commonly expressed) complaints....

...This game is great fun to me. I see it as a mix of M&M and Everquest. Everquest...without idiots online and without WAITING and XP LOSS. Wizardry was also one of my favorites in the days of Nintendo and Super Nintendo...
...I love the plot so far, the humour of the toads is definitely appreciated and the diversity of character development possibilities fires my imagination the way AD&D always has...
...the Dragon is worth it on its own...I can't wait to be a charcoal briquette..err kill one...heh heh...
...if you haven't, read the idiot savant's post concerning how we shouldn't buy this so elequently described by him game...you'll laugh yer heads off...
...as far as all the bugs go, they are a pain in the arse but fortunately this game is endearing enough to me that I really don't mind...I do swear fluently when it crashes to my desktop. I have mixed feelings though as I REALLY enjoy the ability to make gold at will in the INN...
*looks guilty* hehehe
...a side note to everyone...there is a movie called Clash of the Titans...if you like this game...I am sure you would enjoy that movie...I saw it when I was five and I think that was what started my interest in midieval roleplaying style games to begin with...welllp...thats it fer now...peace and love to all...

Glad to hear more women are playing these games. I only know one gal where I work that who is a gamer, and into RPG's.

Wyvern, gosh not that it matters, but I would have never guessed you were female! I think that's cool, I've always worried all this hack and slash RPGing was just as guys being weird or something.

My thoughts, what a great game. True, some tough things, annoying bugs. I ended up with 5 Zenmasters and 1 Valkrye that were so strong that its not even funny. I ought to put a save file on the web, only the gold and guild cheats were used, but I solved all the quests. But it was a challenge, every step of the way! Well worth the money.

Kudos

Scronan

It's nice to see female gamers! So far I haven't used any cheats or exploitations, and am going to try to beat the game without doing so; to date I've never cheated in a game without having beaten it first, so I hope to continue the tradition here The lack of money is actually somewhat refreshing, but it does become a pain; I hate the fact that being cured for poison costs 4 times as much as being resurrected!

Is anyone else sojourning with less than 6 characters? I have 5 right now, a warrior, a thief, a priest, and 2 wizards.