While Wizardry was created by Andrew C. Greenberg and Robert Woodhead and is recognised as one of the foundational releases in the history of the RPG, the franchise has taken on a life of its own in Japan, where it was equally influential and spawned its own region-specific sub-series.
Back in 1991, it even got an anime adaptation thanks to TMS Entertainment. It has been confirmed that there's another one in development (thanks, st1ka), based on the Blade & Bastard series of light novels penned by Kumo Kagyu (Goblin Slayer) and illustrated by so-bin (Overlord).
The novels, which span five volumes, started in December 2022. In June 2023, they were adapted into a manga series.
The Blade & Bastard narrative features characters such as Iarumas, Garbage, Raraja, Ainikki, and Berkanan, all of whom assume a different character class taken from Wizardry.
"Deep in the unexplored reaches of the dungeon, a corpse is discovered—one that shouldn’t exist," reads the synopsis. "After Iarumas is resurrected, his memories of life before death are gone, and he spends his days delving into the dungeon to retrieve the bodies of dead adventurers. Can they be revived as well? Or will God reduce them to piles of ash on the altar? Either way, Iarumas collects his finder’s fee. And though his skills earn him some grudging respect, he’s also scorned for this cold, utilitarian attitude. The living keep their distance—Iarumas consorts primarily with the dead. That is, until he meets Garbage, a feral young swordswoman who’s the sole survivor of a massacred party. With Garbage by his side, Iarumas ventures deeper, scouring the dungeon for clues to his past, avoiding monsters, traps, and the inevitability of a permanent ashen demise."
The Wizardry franchise kicked off in 1981 with Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord on the Apple II. This title was recently remastered for modern systems by Digital Eclipse.
2001's Wizardry 8 was the last game developed in the West. Since then, Japan has been blessed with a flurry of sequels and spin-offs.
Wizardry: The Five Ordeals recently launched on Nintendo Switch and is based on the PC version originally released in 2006.