Dark Wizard

Dark Wizard is a sprawling tactical RPG in which a kingdom has fallen to a dark sorcerer and you lead the resistance from the first skirmishes all the way to the final siege. Right at the start you choose one of four heroes, and each one has their own opening chapter, different allies, and a different sequence of battles, so the game offers several playthroughs that differ by more than just the main character's name. Battles take place on a grid where terrain, range, and correct spell timing all matter. A special feature is recruiting and commanding entire units of different types — besides the heroes you have regular soldiers, cavalry, or flying creatures at your disposal, which can be promoted and reinforced between battles.

On the Mega-CD, the game uses the disc mainly for music and visual presentation: illustrated scenes introduce the chapters, animations accompany combat attacks, and the English version has voiced introductions. The soundtrack is unusually rich, with more solemn orchestral motifs that give the battles proper weight. The battlefield itself is kept plain and legible, with an emphasis on clarity, since the maps tend to be large and packed with units. The pace is slow — a single battle can easily stretch to tens of minutes — but the game compensates by giving almost every clash its own victory condition and its own trap.

At the time, it was one of the few deeper strategy titles on the add-on, and reviewers praised its scope and replayability above all, while criticizing its length and the need to replay longer stretches after a failure. Compared to the better-known Shining series, Dark Wizard remained in the shadows, but among genre fans it earned a reputation as an underrated gem. Today it's a game for the patient: anyone who takes to its unit system and pre-battle planning gets one of the most substantial adventures the Mega-CD has to offer. The choice of hero at the start also gives a real reason to come back to it again, since the allies and part of the map change as well.