Wizardry VI: Bane of the Cosmic Forge

Wizardry VI: Bane of the Cosmic Forge is a restart of the legendary series that keeps its uncompromising face while shedding the crutches of its era. A party of six characters enters an abandoned castle where a vanished king and his wizard have left traces leading to an artifact capable of rewriting reality. The whole game takes place within a single sprawling complex that opens up floor by floor, and its story is pieced together from journals, inscriptions, and conversations, not cutscenes. The player has to work out the full plot alone, often only after several returns to already explored parts of the castle.

The system is obsessively deep: a wide selection of races and classes, the ability to change profession mid-game, skills that grow with use, and magic split into several schools with manual control over casting power. Combat is turn-based and merciless, because a badly built party simply won't get past the first floors. Conversations are conducted by typing keywords, so the player has to keep notes as carefully as a map, and the puzzles are among the hardest the genre ever offered; several genuinely require thinking hard about what you've seen and read where. Resting isn't free either, and a badly timed pause can get the party into as much trouble as a lost fight.

Technically it was a noticeable modernization. Drawn monster portraits, an auto-map, and a clearer interface stripped away Wizardry's worst period baggage without simplifying the game. The atmosphere of an empty castle where you meet nothing friendly for a long stretch is dry and oppressive. At the time, the sixth entry was received as a return to form and remains popular among hardcore RPG fans today; a saved character can even be carried over into the sequels, so your party lives on. Today the game demands patience and paper on hand, but whoever adjusts finds one of the most honestly designed dungeons of its time. Also worth noting is how strong the series' standing was in Japan, where it influenced a whole generation of local RPG creators.