Wizardry VI marked a significant new turn for the series; not least of which because it was actually the first to use a new engine, departing from the one they'd had for five previous games and over seven years. With it also came a whole new slew of playable races, from Dracons to Felpurrs to Mooks, as well as numerous new classes like Valkyries, Bards, Psionics and Alchemists. Magic, rather than being simply divided into priest and mage spells, has been similarly overhauled, now comprising the domains of fire, water, air, earth, mental, and holy spells, restricted by class - only Psionics can use all of the Mental spells, for example, while Alchemists get a small handful from every sphere to simulate them brewing various potions and poisons. There's a limited skill system in place too, with some being tied to a particular class (such as the Bard's music skill) while most others can be used by several classes or even any class; though obviously things like Legerdemain (pickpocketing) and Skullduggery (lockpicking) are best suited to specialized classes like the Thief. The core gameplay remains quintessentially Wizardry, though - first person dungeon crawling with 90 degree angles, punishingly difficult battles and a whole lot of grinding - but you can at least do proper saves and reloads now rather than having to roll a whole new party each time you die. There is also no hub town this time - you start off straight in the dungeon itself and make do with whatever you scavenge from treasure chests or battles, or whatever scattered NPCs you can barter with. Something else relatively unique for the time is that each of the two games also have multiple endings - depending on how you complete the story, importing your party into the next game will start them in a different place in the next one and with slightly different surrounding story events, though the overall story and sequence of events remains largely unchanged. Still quintessentially old-school, brutally tough, grindy and "primitive" in design even a decade after the series' origins, Wizardry 6 and 7 are for a very niche audience, but those who enjoy their specific school of design swear by them.
