When Digital Eclipse brought the very first Wizardry title into the modern era, I was so bloody excited for what it meant for the franchise. Granted, Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord is pretty rudimentary by today’s standards, but it helps set the stage for a beautiful future of fantasy dungeon crawlers. Moreover, Digital Eclipse’s updates and fine touches made it one of the greater experiences of 2024 for me, so it was a brilliant marriage of past and present. 59 Studio has made the move to take the next step, but has deviated from the main game series. Instead, they are pulling from the hitherto Japan exclusive catalog. As a result, the globe can now experience Wizardry: The Five Ordeals in all its glory.

In theory, The Five Ordeals is a phenomenal leap forward for the series if you’re only playing modern available titles. Whereas Proving Grounds was crafted in the 1980s, the contents of The Five Ordeals comes from the mid 2000s, over twenty years after the franchise broke ground. Wizardry has a steadfast fanbase in Japan that has a much longer tail than that of the Western groups, and, as a result, more and more details were added long after Crusaders of the Dark Savant was released (I don’t really care for Nemesis). Japanese players by and large approach life with the “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it” attitude, which can lead to things not changing or altering for years, if not decades. Still, given that parts of The Five Ordeals were released on Playstation 2, you’d imagine a certain level of polish therein.

And there is, there absolutely is. You have the option to go through the dungeons in either a full art mode with detailed walls and textures OR to approach in a very retro line art style. It gives a good amount of variety in both modes, and the result is hugely appreciated. Granted, it’s not a full reworking such as we saw with Mad Overlord, but I’m going to try really, really hard not to compare the two. They are very different undertakings, and I had some confusion about associating the two when I first started on The Five Ordeals. Digital Eclipse took a hallmark classic and gave it a huge face lift while preserving the core game, which makes it as much an art piece and a historical property as a fully fledged first person dungeon crawler.

By comparison, The Five Ordeals is embarking on bringing titles to an audience who may not have been aware of them previously. It’s a moonshot of an approach, especially when you consider everything that’s happening under the hood. Besides the core game 59 Studio has taken pains to also bring over two additional Wizardry entries that were Japan-only and made them as DLC for the main game. While this seems a bit crass in terms of release, it makes a ton of sense when you understand that the big appeal of The Five Ordeals is being able to port characters between scenarios, of which there are, well, five (plus a preliminary scenario to get you started). Theoretically, you can get a running start in The Price of Deception (the first story available) and, by the time you reach The Wheels of Flame you’re an absolute beast.

So what does this mean for the game itself? The Five Ordeals drops you in with no preamble or dressing whatsoever. You literally spawn as a faceless, nameless entity who can’t do a damn thing until you get down to the tavern and recruit a hero party, who don’t even need to have names. You can go full brute strength and just load up with samurai and fighters, you can play it safe with a balanced party, or come up with whatever mixes you’d like. Each character starts with not enough money to buy a ton of equipment, and you won’t know what else to do until you try, so head to the castle, get a short blurb about what’s happening, then dive on into the dungeon. Kill monsters, find loot and keep at it till all of them or all of you are dead.

While this might sound like I’m downplaying the game, I assure you I’m giving you the same amount of information that an average newcomer to Wizardry would receive. 59 Studio has put next-to-nothing into the game itself to help you out, though Price of Perception does have a helpful classroom dungeon where you can glean all sorts of information from learned professors. Keep in mind this “school” oddly setup, and there’s a chance of being attacked by monsters while trying to go between rooms, so it’s exactly like my junior high school. If you’ve still got questions, 59 Studio has a whole manual you can read in the options menu, which, thankfully, is now available in English (it wasn’t for a short time after launch). It helps you out with important ideas, like the fact that you will NOT level up until you visit an inn. 

At this point, I think it’s valid to throw up a big warning for all incoming players: The Five Ordeals doesn’t operate like a single modern dungeon crawler. From Etrian Odyssey to this uncomfortably sexual pirate game, you have certain concepts and predispositions to what you might see or experience. For example, a lot of players nowadays wouldn’t think they should have graph paper at their sides while they play a video game. But The Five Ordeals only shows you the map when a mage casts a spell, and that map vanishes when you get back into playing. You’re better off just crafting your own map as you go, both for ease of access and so you can detail it in a way that the mapping spell doesn’t really afford.

Additionally, this game is frigging hard. I don’t mean “get good and learn to dodge” hard, I mean that it relies so much on you pulling yourself up by the bootstraps and hoping for the best. Monsters hit for a really decent amount out the gate and, like I said, you never have enough cash to fully equip as soon as you start. The best thing is to be in Price of Deception, use the free healing springs around the tutorial to powerlevel as best you can, and then fling forward and hope RNG is in your favor. Death awaits around every corner, and death can be pretty permanent if you fail in resurrection throws at the cathedral. Plus, I didn’t really have a backup party, so dying means putting together a troupe of level 1 newbs and hoping I remembered where I died.

The Five Ordeals scratches an all important nostalgia itch, and I do appreciate the overall presentation and what it means. The music is wonderfully atmospheric, with some appropriately schlocky sound effects to really put you in the sword and sorcery mindset. The traps are punishing if you don’t have a thief, the likelihood of failure is high without a priest, and the explanations are always short and to the point, though sometimes a bit muddled by the translation. It was exciting to find weapons and armor in treasure chests and then rush to the surface to try and get them identified to see if they meant a better tomorrow for my party. Also, I really liked that each of the chapters of The Five Ordeals felt self contained, but equally rewarding to play through sequentially.

And making choices on how to improve your party often comes with enormous growing pains. In a world where most alignment choices of games means wildly different story branches and quests, Wizardry makes it plain as day that certain people just won’t play together, so you can’t just throw your priest into the role of a ninja and expect that they can still party with the very noble samurai. Yes, there are awesome bonuses, but now you don’t have a healer and nobody wants to hang out. You might actually want to spend some time creating and destroying character just to see how it all works for what play style best accompanies your own ethos. 

At the end of the day, the QOL improvements to The Five Ordeals feel very surface and cursory, almost as an afterthought. Sure, there are three different UI settings to give handheld and docked players variety, and the choices of walking animation speeds or monsters shaking are nice touches. But it almost felt like putting garnish on an overcooked steak. Yes, it’s a nice visual addition, and it definitely wasn’t there before, but the meat is still crazy tough. If you weren’t already a fan of what’s happening behind the scenes (a Wizardry title that is almost primeval in its mission statement), these updates aren’t going to sway you.

Wizardry: The Five Ordeals must be applauded for what it brings and how it brought it. The ports of these games were made for the original audience (Japanese Wizardry enthusiasts) first and everyone else a distant second. The price is right, and the option to add even more titles to this collection for a small fee is a smart move. The Switch version, sadly, has no level editor or option to add fan created dungeons, so keep that in mind and consider the PC version if you’re interested in home cooking. Still, people often complain about how games used to be versus how they are today. The Five Ordeals is a primitive scream from the past, and it’s done with all the volume of the future, resulting in a deafening, appreciative present.

Graphics: 6.5 The updates to the world and the dungeons themselves are fine and give solid stage dressing. Monsters are pretty unpleasant, on purpose, but the lack of animation outside of some small shaking leaves combat visually dull. The choice to drop down to lineart is fun but definitely not for me, as my childhood started after the 386 was released.	Gameplay: 6.0 Dungeon crawls are always hazardous and literally the only thing you do for the entire game. Reading the manual is necessary to understand certain tips and tricks for success. The lack of constant map visuals is intentional but really took me out of the dive. Decent, but barebones, story points and a good variety of magic and weapons.
Sound: 8.0 It’s worthwhile to enter into an area and just sit a moment with the soundtrack, since it can change very quickly between locations and events. It’s well composed and gives an entire perspective to the world that you might not get otherwise. Speakers versus headphones are recommended.	Fun Factor: 6.0 The Five Ordeals has the same kind of reward to figuring out how to be good at the knife game: it’s painful and slow at first, but, gradually, it gets easier and better. Once you get the hang of it, it can be exhilerating and downright satisfying, but one wrong move knocks you down even further than before, complete with bloodloss.
Final Verdict: 6.0

Wizardry: The Five Ordeals is available now on PC and Switch

Reviewed on Nintendo Switch.

A copy of Wizardry: The Five Ordeals was provided by the publisher.