Wizardry Online was released Jan 30th in the US with very little press. The game was available for some time as a Japanese release, then went into beta testing in the US late last year. While the game release was plagued with server outages and rubber banding (what new MMO isn't?) the devs appear to be working out most server issues and it is progressively getting better.

What is it?

It's a free-to-play bare-bones hardcore MMO. If open-pvp, constantly dying, and the possibility of permadeath sound like a horrible time for you, this is not the game for you. This game will not coddle you.

Free to play or play to win?

First of all, the game right now is truly free to play. I've done about 3/4 of the content so far for free and I have access to the rest of the game for free as well. The subscription benefits give you some extra inventory space and discounts in the real-cash shop and some XP boosts, but that is about it. I personally don't even think the subscription is worth it since you do not get Station Cash (Sony's currency for in-game purchases). If you get a $15 walmart Sony Station card you get a month subscription and 500 Station Cash, which seems like a way better deal than subscribing.

However, I've been having a blast without spending a single cent.

The Game Itself

This is a Japanese game through and through. The art assets itself are very weird. It feels like Final Fantasy XI with a slight bit of anime slapped into it and it doesn't quite work. In addition, the main story-line is pure JRPG pseudo-nonsense with annoying text that scrolls at 2nd grade level reading speed. You will probably skip every single story cutscene available since they are all garbage IMO. In addition, the UI is fairly terrible and the graphics are fairly dated (FFXI era), but do a decent enough job.

You start the game by creating a character from 4 races and 4 classes (fighter, thief, mage, or priest) and receive a random amount of points to spend on ability points, ranging from 6-70. There are 3rd party auto-rollers available to assist in getting ability pool points above 20, which are incredibly rare.

The main game is a central city with instanced, but public, dungeons, very similar to D&D Online. There is a pvp part of the city where Player Killers hang out, and the majority of the city has guards to arrest PKers. The majority of your time will be spent doing dungeons.

Leveling

The leveling system is interesting. Since characters are essentially disposable, your main progression is called a "soul level", which is independent of character level. All characters on an account receive benefits depending on the soul level of the account, for instance at soul level 5 you can switch classes and get an xp boost for early levels.

When you switch classes, you start over at class level 1 in the class you switch to and can retain a certain amount of skills from the class you leveled in. For instance, as a level 20 priest I can switch to a level 1 mage, retain some heals and buffs from the priest class, level to 20 with the mage, switch to a level 1 fighter and retain a certain number of both priest and mage skills. This allows a high level of class customization, with the cost of a good amount of re-doing dungeons, because there are only so many.

In order to level up your character, you have to rest at an inn. Then your ability scores either increase or decrease (it is random) and you get to choose a new skill.

The Dungeons

The dungeons and combat play a lot like D&D Online. There are traps that you have to dodge that can kill you, if you open chests they can kill you, other players can kill you, everything can kill you; you will die constantly.

There are only 8 dungeons right now. The first few can take a couple hours to finish, the later ones the time and difficulty become nerve-racking. You definitely will need a party for later dungeons, and mages will require a party at all times. Fortunately, getting a party is relatively easy.

The dungeon designs are interesting, but the art direction is very bland. You start off with no maps of the dungeon, teleporters exist which can take you to either the beginning of the dungeon or the next part of it, and without trial and error you can't tell which is which. Each dungeon typically has several statues that require you to either go read some plaques or gather materials in the dungeon, then solve a riddle to progress to a boss battle and further into the dungeon. You have to either pay attention to the story of the dungeon or look up the wiki because you will be screwed if you don't have this information. Boss battles are nearly all the same, a giant room with one or many big bad evil dudes.

Throughout the dungeons I had a constant feeling of anxiety, a combination of being constantly lost and fear of keeping myself alive. In the later dungeons, this gets amped up to 11.

Death

When you die, you turn into a ghost form. You then have two options, either warp back to the last "soul checkpoint" with a 25% equipment durability and condition loss or try to run your ghost back to the checkpoint. If you run your ghost back, you have a possibility of being attacked by reapers, which decrease the possibility of being rezzed by a moderate amount.

When you go back to your soul point, there is a certain percentage chance that either you will be revived, or turn into ash and permanently die. You can donate items from your inventory and gold, if you have any, to get the percent revive rate to 100%. Personally I've always been revived, but apparently the higher level you are the more difficult it becomes. You can spend Station Cash with real-money to get a better revive rate, however, you can also grind soul medals which do the same thing. To me, as long as you do not get hit by a couple reapers or chance a revive roll <100, permadeath does not seem to be a big issue right now. If you rage-quit before you revive, I believe you only have about 15 real-life hours before you turn to ash.

PvP

Anytime in dungeons or in shady parts of town you can encounter criminals or PKers. Their name will either be yellow to signal they are a criminal, or they will flash red if they have PKed or helped a PKer. I've logged about 50-100 hours (or more?) and have only been PKed once within a dungeon, although I assume this will become more common, and I have gone to the shady part of town a few times to hunt PKers. PKers can loot your stuff, but apparently it is somewhat difficult unless they are a thief. Once you revive, they can no longer loot your stuff. You can also put items in the bank to prevent theft or buy medals with real money to prevent certain items from being stolen.

If you've been PKed, you can place a gold bounty on the PKer, to give others incentive to exact revenge for you.

Final Impressions

This game is very bare-bones, with a lackluster to non-existent story, few features, and bland and inconsistent art style. However, it is free, and if you're looking for a hardcore MMO I suggest you try it, because it will definitely have you at the edge of your seat, either in anxiety or frustration, and hey, some of us want that in a game. There are still some server issues (lag, disconnects, server restarts, rubber banding) but these have steadily been improving.

About Me

The other MMO I'm currently playing is Lord of the Rings Online, which is the exact opposite of this MMO in every single way. Previous MMO experience includes a lot of EQ, UO (a little), Eve Online (a little), FFXI, D&D Online, WoW, and lotro.

Links

Main website to download the client

Official Wiki

Forums

Hints

Put at least a few points into luck, it affects the frequency and quality of loot drops. Don't heal a Player Killer or you will be flagged as a criminal. Keep the wiki open at all times for the dungeon puzzles. Make some friends and never travel alone. Mages right now are very rare in the US server and have the highest DPS, but they are incredibly fragile. Never go AFK in a dungeon.