This game seems vast enough, yet I keep getting the feeling that the designers had an even bigger game in mind. For example:

What's the deal with those ships in Arnika? I bet they had plans for some sea travel.

The Queen Rapax might have had a bigger role. If you can get her to leave the cave! Some skullduggery in court?

The crypt in the SE Wilderness in the Sorceress temple? The tomb must have been dedicated to someone important, but I didn't see any clues as to who he was. Some crusader? It would have been a good place for a chest/trap or a riddle. With booty in the sarcophagus.

Bela? He had little to do with the ending, as far as I can remember. (I'm on game 2 now, party of 4 and loving it). And what about Umpani and T'Rang helping (or at least showing up) at Ascension Peak?

These are just a few things that indicated the plan for this great game could have been even bigger. Maybe it was a lack of resources as the money ran out. Feel free to add other tidbits where you think the game was aiming for more! My 2 centavos.

And you dont meet any of the guys who say they should meet you in Ascension Peak...

I have to agree with you. Some places I've noticed that look like they should have more to them include

• N. Wilderness - there's what looks like a tunnel to the South of the map, also over by the waterfall I swear there looks like a path to climb but I can't get up it and then there's all that water on either side of the suspension bridge too
• Arnika - the lighthouse, the condemned area, the house with no door, the spaceship
• Rapax Castle - Upper Level seems incomplete to me to the NW portion of it
• Mtn Wilderness - it seems to me there should be something behind the waterfall
• Monastery - I just feel that there should be something out in the water that you should be able to get to with scuba gear on
• Sea Caves - past the waterfall you encounter if you keep walking along the beach to the "north". I want to know what the heck is over there!
• Trynton - Again, underwater areas - or maybe a secret tunnel inside one of those standing rocks out in the ocean.

Well, that's my wish-list for areas that I'd like to be able to get to and can't. Some of them just seem incomplete, others I see no reason why they were included at all unless they are just eye-candy.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>These are just a few things that indicated the plan for this great game could have been even bigger. Maybe it was a lack of resources as the money ran out.<hr></blockquote>

The Sunken Ship & the Spaceship were both confirmed on the VN spoiler board awhile back that they were to be extra parts in the game that just didnt make it in due to the financial problems Sir-tech ran into.
There were other area's that were supposed to make it in but dont recall what they were.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr> Bela? He had little to do with the ending, as far as I can remember.
<hr></blockquote>

Bela had "a lot" more to do with the story than some realize. He was in a previous Wizardry. I think it was 6 or 7 & if you had imported a particular item from that same Wizardry that Bela was previously in you could actually turn that item into Bela in Wiz 8 & recieve an exp reward.

Bela was one of the successful endings of Wiz 6 (Bane of the Cosmic Forge). If you chose not to take the Cosmic Forge, you could go to the next room and Bela would offer to take you to see the cosmic lords. Since I never did much with Wiz 7 (but I do have it), I haven't tried to import any parties

We should add the flying snake pool in the SE wilderness. It's crying for a quest or something extra. I mean, difficult mare-types seem to guard it. Was there an original horsey mythology plan here? A snake thing? It does stick out.

I agree. So much left out, or not taken far enough. For me it was not so much the things left hollow or unexplorable, but the logical consequences that never came to their fruition. Such as all the races meeting for a showdown at ascension peak. That seemed an obvious climax, and I was waiting a long to see it… in vain! I am relieved, however, that there was no mystery to the sw wilderness fountain. I thought I had missed something. But that whole area seems a useless waste. Beautifully rendered temple for nothing but a big fight and a do-dad or two (and a sorceress's heart). The money and labor it must have cost to make that scene could have been better spent on upgrading the endgame.