Wizardry Online beta signups now open

By Michael Dunaway, News Editor September 26, 2012

You're a wizard Sony! Sony seems on a role lately when it comes to conjuring up various free-to-play titles from the depths of its game filled cauldron. This time around we have the announcement that the beta signups for their upcoming MMORPG Wizardy Online are now open.

So what is Wizardy Online? From what we can tell right now Wizardry Online is a dungeon based MMORPG where players will be able to choose from 5 races and 4 different classes. The real distinctive thing about the MMORPG though is the permadeath. Once your character meets his demise, he well...meets his demise. With few recent exceptions (Diablo 3 comes to mind) most persistent multiplayer games have not had a permadeath system since the older days of gaming.

From the looks of it, it appears as though you are given 2 chances to complete a level. If you fail the second time around you lose your character and items forever. It should be mentioned though that there are some items that allow you to avoid your untimely demise, however these items are available for real money.

PvP is also a part of the game with players able to kill players in what appears to be an open PK system. Those that kill players excessively though will find themselves with a bounty on their head and banned from certain areas in the game.

You can signup for the beta by visiting http://www.wizardrythegame.com/. It will be interesting to see how an MMO with permadeath will work out in today's gaming society especially when it can be avoided with items from the cash shop. Are you excited for a game with so much on the line? What is your option on avoiding death through the cash shop?

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In this article: Wizard Online.

About the Author

Michael Dunaway, News Editor
Michael Dunaway has been part of the MMOBomb team for years and has covered practically every major Free-to-Play title since 2009.

Holden Heavyhammer 9 years ago

After watching some gameplay videos, this looks like it'll appeal to fans of Demon's/Dark Souls.

Also, as far as being able to pay for a chance to live or whatever, it's not a big deal. Most of the games appeal will probably come from the factor of risk involved in playing it. It'll feel dangerous every time you enter a dungeon. As opposed to most MMO's where it's like- "Bummer, I died. I guess I'll go grind some more and try again."

This looks promising, IMO.

Soxx 9 years ago

"Can I purchase items in Wizardry Online? There are hundreds of items available to purchase to customize your characters and weapons as well as enhance your gameplay experience. Additionally, an optional membership will be available for purchase that provides convenience and savings."

Im thinking it might be F2P like Wakfu is..

Reavermyst 9 years ago

Interesting. I've seen a couple games in the past fail because of systems like this, Face of Mankind for instance is set to where if you lose all of your clones, your character gets deleted. If I'm correct, they used to make people pay for new clones with real money, but since things kind of hit the pooper, they took that down.

mike 9 years ago

games's concept " when u die u die, that's how life goes", ...but if you pump up the cash " ur immortal"

xD 9 years ago

come on its not that bad all you have to do is to survive
use tactics and intellect well all that goes to drain

if its pay to win with items aswell and drop rates

sdfsdfsd 9 years ago

free players will die and lose evrything, dudes that use cash shop will live...wow interesting, money hungry much?

Thrones 9 years ago

I loved the original wizardry series. This is travesty, an insult to the wizardry name. Another stupid skill based game with anime graphics that has nothing to do with the original series ( at least from what I see in the video).

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fhpp 9 years ago

oh i agree the game might not last long enough, reason? selling "LIFE" in item shop, it sounds stupid, it is very stupid. that's the only reason why this game won't last long enough, there's enough hardcore players everywhere.

fhpp 9 years ago

I've played HARDCORE on diablo 2 for 2-3 years, I've played softcore for 1 day and got lvl 80 without even knowing how to play the game! so i was like FK it, Hardcore all the way. I've lost more than 30-40 chars in those years in hardcore all above lvl 80 (max lvl in d2 is 99) my two highest chars always lvl 97-93. Used to sell ubber leech, torchs and dang in hardocre, only who have done SOLO ubber in hardcore know what emotion is. Also before blizzard fix the hacks, people could turn from party friendly to instactly PK in mileseconds and 1 shoot a full party to death, was freaking amazing hardcore in that time! unfortunately they fixed it and hardcore turned less attractive! all I can say is, i want to play this game! and i want now!

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nexthazard 9 years ago

Yay Perm Def this is new and i love the idea look forward to playing :D Finally something wit a challenge ;D !!! !! o dang >.< hope not as repetitive as V or C9 -.-

Gamer 9 years ago

Oh man...
I just saw some gameplay videos of this...
It's like Vindictus where you go into dungeons and complete them... so it's not an open world.
And it's not fast pace as well... When the monsters hit you, you don't get knocked down or anything at all...
There also has a target system... So you could just run away and hit a monster.

Even though it has some better system than other MMOs, I wonder if it'll be any good to Vindictus or C9 at least...

rockmeo 9 years ago

so they dont get it? , 30 years on the making of mmorpgs? they said? LOL!.... is justa nother wow with diferent roles and monsters .... this is depresiing they should get sued cuzz making this kind of crap

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Sadiel 9 years ago

Permadeath and open pk hmm. Isn't this two things what attract hardcore players? I don't have any statistics but I'm going to go ahead and say those are the minority and this game won't last long. After all if people have a high lvl character and die forever chances are they are not going to keep playing unless they buy the item from cash shop to prevent it but need to know how much is going to cost because if its like $15~ I doubt people will buy that several times in the same month.

Also I think there was an mmorpg that had permadeath and open pk. Forgot the name of it.

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EddySRB 9 years ago

What is your option on avoiding death through the cash shop? ARE THEY CRAZY ????