Wizardry Empire (Japanese: ウィザードリィ エンパイア, Uizardyi Enpaia), subtitled "The Emperor of Naraka" in the fan translation, is a first-person dungeon crawler released exclusively for Game Boy Color in 1999. It is the first installment in the Wizardry Empire series, developed and published by Starfish, and was originally released only in Japan. A sequel, Wizardry Empire: The Staff of Resurrection, followed in 2000 using the same engine. This cartridge carries an English fan-translation, making the game playable in English.
Gameplay: Empire plays much like the first three Wizardry Gaiden games, sharing their engine while building on it specifically for this title. Like Scripture of the Dark and Throb of the Demon's Heart, it incorporates elements of Bane of the Cosmic Forge while retaining the core gameplay derived from Heart of the Maelstrom, and adds a significant amount of its own content.
Notable changes include:
- Added genders (male and female): males get +1 to maximum Strength, females gain +1 to maximum Vitality.
- Added the Archer class.
- Added new prestige classes: Valiant, Avenger, Musashi, Kunoichi and Summoner.
- Distinct equipment slots for both hands, allowing dual-wielding and shield-bearing.
- The Ninja class is now male-exclusive, while the Kunoichi is female-exclusive.
- The Thief, Ninja and Kunoichi classes have a 100% success rate at identifying and disarming traps.
- Added spell types (Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, Mind, Magic, Holy and None) with corresponding type-resistances.
- Added Valiant, Avenger, Musashi, Kunoichi and Summoner schools of spells.
- Priest and Mage spells renamed to conform more to Bane of the Cosmic Forge (given English names; the Special Classes' spells remain in Japanese).
- The restriction on having Good and Evil aligned characters in the same party has been lifted.
