krok's pointless list of post-game favourites! (spoilers)

[krayzkrok]

This is a gratuitous post with little merit, but having just beaten Wizardry 8 I wanted to write down various favourite (and least favourite) elements of the game. Maybe someone out there will find this vaguely interesting!

Favourite character - heh, call me boring but I liked my Dracon Fighter the most. Apart from his cool appearance, constant love of dark witticisms ("She has escaped into sweet obvilion" as my mage dies yet again from an extended attack), he was always guaranteed to kick seven bells out of anything with his berzerk attack mode. Towards the end, x3 strikes with Fang often gave 200 to 300 damage per round (max damage 335 against an unconscious Ironwood Sapling on AP). My Dracon samauri came in second, with regular lightning attacks and instant kills, he was also a killer with the heavy crossbow armed with lightning bolts. Finally, his developing mage skill came in handy every now and then.

Favourite weapon - Fang, closely followed by Ivory Blade. Never found Excalibur.

Favourite armour - if only everyone could have worn Mirror Plate.

Favourite spell - tricky one. In terms of functionality, probably Soul Shield. In terms of regularity, probably Bless or Heal Wounds . In terms of gratuitous effect, probably Death Wish, Banish, Crush or Dehydration. Most hit and miss was Summon Elemental - usually acted as a decoy rather than did anything useful, except near the end when it always became turncoated and attacked me! I only had access to priest and mage spells, so I'm sure this would be different using other characters.

Least favourite / most useless spell - Any paralysis spell (utterly useless except in the very early game), Turncoat (so much promise, so little chance of working when it mattered), Light (um, and the purpose of this was...?), Charm (did anyone ever actually need this spell?)

Most hated enemy spell - Oooh, there are several: Death Cloud (aargh!), Toxic Cloud, Pandemonium (no, not insanity again! Nooo!!), Eye for an Eye (go sit by the sidelines Mage and read a book while we fight this one)

Most useless enemy spell - Freeze All (zzzzzzzzz)

Favourite monster - Psi Sharks (they looked too cool, and were quite a challenge), Nessie (I want one for my aquarium)

Least favourite monster - Juggernauts (boooooring!), Pestilent Rats (no! No! Don't even think about giving me... OH NO! I'm diseased AGAIN!)

Hardest monster relative to my party - Rynjins (I could never come close to beating these until I'd developed my spell resistances quite a bit - most satisfying victory when I first beat them!)

Hardest battle - Rapax Prince and Al Draco at AP, about 30 Rapax and three Elementals. Only time I've had to use numerous Resurrection Powders to keep my party alive, plus dozens of potions because my priest and mage kept biting the dust. Great fun, though!

Easiest battle - Um, probably a group of shrieker bats I met on Arnika-Trynton Road before I went to AP. One Nuclear Blast from my mage (second action of the encounter) and 12 bats went up in smoke with 100+ damage each

Most frustrating moment - trying to survive in the Swamp for the first time, wondering how on Earth to combat all the magic being thrown at me.

Most annoying moment - spending numerous attempts trying to open the blasted padlocked door in the Sea Caves, returning every few days with a new object or key thinking it led to Marten, then one day looking on the automap and discovering it was the other side of the door that I'd already found behind the stone wall. AARRRGH!!!! [img]smile.gif[/img]

Most enjoyable moment - Beating the Rynjin sentries at the entrance to Bayjin Shallows, seeing their Mind Flay spells bounce off me at last. Closely followed by finally finding Marten!

Heh, well I could probably go on, but I'll spare you. [img]smile.gif[/img] I had a lot of fun with this game, as you can probably tell. I'll play it again eventually, although now I have to catch up on a LOT of work that I didn't do because I was playing Wizardry 8!

Cheers,

krok