Wizardry IV: The Return of Werdna
| Wizardry IV: The Return of Werdna | |
|---|---|
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| Developer(s) | Sir-Tech Software, Inc. |
| Publisher(s) | Sir-Tech Software, Inc. |
| Designer(s) |
Andrew C. Greenberg Robert Woodhead Sir-Tech Software, Inc. |
| Series | Wizardry |
| Platform(s) | Apple II, DOS, NEC PC-88, PC-98 |
| Release |
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| Genre(s) | Role-playing video game |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
Wizardry IV: The Return of Werdna (originally known as Wizardry: The Return of Werdna - The Fourth Scenario) is the fourth scenario in the Wizardry series of role-playing video games. It was published in 1987 by Sir-Tech Software, Inc.
The Return of Werdna is drastically different from the trilogy that precedes it. Rather than continuing the adventures of the player's party from the previous three games, The Return of Werdna's protagonist is Werdna, the evil wizard that was defeated in the end of Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord and imprisoned at the bottom of his dungeon forever.
The game begins at the bottom of a 10-level dungeon. Most of Werdna's powers are depleted, and must be gradually recovered throughout the game. The initial goal is to climb to the top of the dungeon, reclaiming Werdna's full power along the way. Each level has one or more pentagrams at specific points. The pentagrams have three purposes: The first time a pentagram is discovered in a level, Werdna's strength increases, and a portion of his powers are restored. This only happens once per level; finding multiple pentagrams on a single level will not increase his powers multiple times. The second purpose is that monsters may be summoned from the pentagrams. The higher the level, the stronger the monsters available. There is no cost to summoning monsters, but only three parties of monsters may be summoned at a time, and any existing monsters will be replaced by the summoned ones. The third purpose is that pentagrams refresh Werdna's health and spellcasting capacity.
Instead of fighting monsters, the player fights against the heroes from the past three Wizardry games. Players of the first three games who sent their character disks to Sir-Tech might have their characters present in Wizardry IV.
The release of Wizardry IV was delayed for years, and did not occur until late 1987. Sir-Tech was so confident that it would release the game in time for Christmas 1984 that it told inCider to announce it as already available in the November 1984 issue. The company listed the game with a price in a 1985 catalog, but Computer Gaming World advised "I wouldn't send any money off for it yet; this has been one of the most-delayed games in adventure history (surpassing even the year-long wait for Ultima IV), and the date of its release is still up in the air". In 1986 Robert Woodhead attributed the delay in "certain 'un-named' products" at Sir-Tech to the time required to port them to UCSD p-System.
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