Wizardry: Curse of The Ancient Emperor

[MacGyver]

Here's another Wizardry bestiary, this time for the second Japanese-only Gaiden Gameboy game: Curse of The Ancient Emperor. This one is unique in that the storyline involves Chinese/Japanese, rather than Western, mythology, in the form of the four legendary beasts (Genbu, Suzaku, Seiryuu, and Byakko). It also has the hardest last level of any Wizardry game I've ever played--I can usually beat a Wizardry game with my characters in the mid-teens, this time they had to be in their mid-twenties (that may not sound like much to you if you're used to playing stuff like Final Fantasy that go up to Level 99, but in Dungeons & Dragons, the 20s are quite high), and I still barely survived. There's a fair amount of re-use of monster sprites from Suffering of The Queen, which is disappointing, but that's what I expected.

Special thanks to Ebe for clueing me into that Japanese Wizardry site, as my monster data would be nowhere near as comprehensive without it, and it also provided the solution to a puzzle I couldn't solve myself.

http://kramwartap.fortunecity.com/wizardry...E_bestiary.html

[Ebe]

The Scaly Empress actually COMES with stuff? And one of those things is Despairant?? How in the world did you beat her?


It's like every time someone beats the last Wizardry game they made they're all like "Damn it, no one will beat it THIS time!"

[MacGyver]

It was incredibly brutal. Pretty much your only hope of surviving is casting Mogato on Despairant (which instantly banishes it back to Hell--if you hit with it), and Labadi on Scaly Empress (which reduces her down to 1-8 HP, again, only if you manage to hit with it). Then, you have to hope, nay, pray, that one of your other characters manages to hit her with a weapon or spell to knock off that last little bit of HP. Did I mention that you pretty much need to do all that on your first turn, overcoming their insane ACs and Magic Resistances, before they get to act and (probably) annihilate you (their breath attacks alone tend to do three figures worth of damage, 200+ is not at all uncommon)?

The really bad part is that I had to fight her twice--the first time I beat her, my inventory was full, so I couldn't get the Empress' Scale item.

Needless to say, every boss battle on the last level is incredibly unfair--the programmers definitely went way too far/hardcore with the final level of this game. I imagine your average gamer would give up in disgust/frustration pretty quickly.

On another note, I updated my Wizardry III bestiary to include the more detailed stats from that Japanese Wizardry site, as well as a new sub-section for the ten monsters that aren't in the Famicom/Super Famicom versions:

http://kramwartap.fortunecity.com/wizardry3_bestiary.html

[Ebe]

Hey I was looking through the names on here again. Shyannui should be Xian N¨¹ (ÏÉÅ®) which is the Mandarin Chinese pronunciation for those heavenly maidens you always see in their arwork. They're easily identified by their waving scarf-type fabrics.

If you're wondering, "Xian N¨¹" is pronounced something like "Shyen Nyu."

[MacGyver]

Sounds good to me; I updated the bestiary to reflect the change. Thanks for the info!