Wizardry V: Heart of the Maelstrom

The Good
The graphical look of the game is very welcoming and much easier on the eyes than the earlier computer versions of the game. Menus in the castle are accompanied by a background picture, making them more interesting to look at. The dungeon walls have texture instead of grid lines, so you can see doors and corners from several squares away. Monster sprites are crisp and bright and the shadowy versions of them are a cool feature. Adding to the game's atmosphere are orchestral-sounding music tracks that let you know where you are in the menus and how deep you are in the dungeons.

Gameplay is extremely faithful to the original versions of the game, but with new praiseworthy changes. The control scheme caters well for lack of a keyboard. You can comfortably press the D-pad to navigate smoothly and select the menu option you want. You no longer need to manually type the name of spells to cast them, you just select them from your spellcaster's battle menu. The pacing in combat is much faster, but pay attention to your PCs' health points so they don't die without your knowledge.

The Bad
One major problem with the game is that there isn't a proper method of saving your game such as a password or multiple save files on the RAM, which means you can't really correct any mistakes you make in the game, so you'll have no choice but to go along with your losses (works like that in real life).

The control scheme isn't perfect, because in some places it can make the game drag on a bit longer than you'd like. Pressing forward against a wall will make you bump into it and you may accidentally repeat that when you meant to close the message box. You always need to remember that the action button opens unlocked doors and not the forward direction. And the down direction spins you around instead going in reverse. If you practice you can get the hang of the way the controls work.

The Bottom Line
Wizardry V got the royal treatment with this remake. Every element in the game was made with care and attention. D&D fans are in for a treat. Even young adventurers will like this one. If you've got time to delve down and play a good long number of hours on your Super Nintendo, you can never really go wrong with this fifth title in the series. A virtual console re-release on Wii or Switch would be desirable, so if you find this one, then your adventure has begun.