Thread by @ulsairi

It's not the weekend, but let's talk about another JTRPG, Night Wizard! Designed by Takeshi Kikuchi of FEAR, I'm actually going to be talking mostly about 2E Night Wizard instead of the more recent 3E, and I'll explain why. Come along, will you?~ #JTRPGInfo

First, a summary of what it is. Night Wizard is a modern fantasy RPG, wherein magic-wielding heroes called Wizards battle shapeshifting evils wanting to deprive you of your prana, called Emulators. Except one wrong move, and they could all be deleted. Whoops. #JTRPGInfo

Night Wizard was first published in 2002, but I never got my hands on any of the 1st edition. Instead, the 2nd edition, published in 2007, was where I got my start. Right alongside the anime that ran roughly at the same time! Unfortunately I don't think it's streaming. #JTRPGInfo

It was fairly unique because it strived to be multi-media. Not just an anime, but drama CDs, video games, replays, all kinds of things were released for Night Wizard! It also set up its world in the tradition of Slayers--there were multiple worlds, all linked. #JTRPGInfo

I believe the only one that actually made it out was the more medieval fantasy-oriented world, Seven Fortress. I might be wrong on that, but basically the idea is you could play any character from any setting using the same rules. NW in SF and vice versa. #JTRPGInfo

Now, the world of Night Wizard is like our Earth, but it's actually called Far-the-Earth. Other than wizards and demons, its major distinction is the World Barrier, which enforces "common sense" upon the world. Things that defy common sense, get erased. #JTRPGInfo

So if your wizard pops off huge fireballs in the middle of Shibuya, the world itself goes "hmm, no? wizards don't exist" and deletes the wizard's existence, as if they had never been born. Too much of that runs the risk of *magic itself* being purged. #JTRPGInfo

The Emulators are at risk of this too, but they have a secret weapon. They can erect "Lunar Caskets" that punch holes in the World Barrier and let in the demon world. If the Casket is left unchecked, it overwrites the world in that area, becoming permanent. #JTRPGInfo

Emulators, btw, are called that because they "emulate" things. They largely take any form they think will allow them to drain precious prana from humans. So, they tend to look like the monsters of legend. But the strongest, the Maou, know a better way. #JTRPGInfo

You can probably tell by the picture, but the Maou take the form of cute girls to lure humans and take their prana. No, I'm not joking. The Maou figured out the best way to do things was to be moe. They're all named after Solomon demons too, of course. #JTRPGInfo

And that's essentially it. Wizards fight Emulators to stop the rewriting of the world. Emulators keep cooking up new ways to try and destroy the Barrier. The anime featured a girl who could determine what "common sense" was, I believe, and they fought over her. #JTRPGInfo

Now, why am I focused on 2E over 3E? To be blunt, while 2E had its issues, it also was *actually interesting* in its mechanics. It's SRS-based, but it took risks and tried things. 3E was much more balanced and sane, but it also was very bland and dry, closer to SRS. #JTRPGInfo

The basic resolution mechanic was 2d6+stat, roll over. But prior to each session--yes, each one!--each player rolled 2d6 twice. The first result was your critical value, the second was your fumble value. You wanted your crit to be close to 7, and your fumble 2 or 12. #JTRPGInfo

If you rolled your crit value, you re-rolled your dice and added 10 to the result. This exploded, so if you kept hitting your crit value, you'd keep rolling and adding 10 each time. Fumbles made you use your modifier alone, -10. #JTRPGInfo

In addition, prior to each session you'd get 'prana' up to your 'essence'. You could spend this prana to adjust your crit or fumble values 1:1. But you also used prana during the session to reroll checks, pay for abilities, and lots of other things. #JTRPGInfo

To make a character, you'd first select the character's two elements (you could pick one twice, too): fire, wind, water, nature, heaven, hell, or void. The combination would give you your stats. So double fire would be heavily physical attack-based, etc. #JTRPGInfo

In addition, you'd pick a class. There were a tooooon of classes, and in 2E each one had a unique niche even! I'll touch on that later though. The other thing that made 2E really unique was that you'd also pick a *style*. Defender, Attacker, Caster, or Healer. #JTRPGInfo

So you could be a Vampire Defender, for example, and tank via HP drain. Your Apostle could be a Caster or a Healer, or if you wanted to go all out, a tank or a physical attacker, sure, why not. It let you choose your role within the party and play any class to do it. #JTRPGInfo

(Of course that was in theory... NW2E had *bad* scaling issues, and some classes were just more obviously suited, or even pigeon holed, into specific style classes. When I GMed it, my tank never got hurt ever, but anyone else would get one shot instantly!) #JTRPGInfo

Another unique aspect to it was its Initiative system. Each player had a Count, and that would be your turn order. But... after you took your turn, you reduced your Count by 10. If you still had Count remaining, you'd get to go again that round. #JTRPGInfo

Some classes (Werewolf) were so ridiculous at this they'd have Counts into the 50s. And, since turn order still went down the line they'd get 3-4 attacks before anyone else went! One of my cool bosses was totally murdered by a Werewolf before she even moved...! *sniff* #JTRPGInfo

To make it more interesting, some abilities from your class would also cost Count. So mainly, most characters got 1-2 attacks and buffed themselves up with Count cost abilities. It was fun to balance! #JTRPGinfo

Now for class niche, some classes were just designed around An Idea and you knew it. Dark Hero put negative conditions on itself, grew more powerful the more it had, and spread them around. Hero was built around Big Moments, especially stuff that only worked on bosses. #JTRPGInfo

Another unique aspect to the game was the idea of Brooms. Most Wizards could get a Broom, but a Broom was unique to the Wizard. So for example, Samurai Wizards would have a katana Broom. Broom Riders would have mech Brooms, and so on. #JTRPGInfo

The Broom was totally customizable, too. You could make it ridiculously huge to get more range, improve power, add unique abilities to it... I believe one was even a sponsor sticker, to get money every battle or something?? It was wild. #JTRPGInfo

It also had a system of "wearable" magic. Mostly defensive barriers or supportive magic, but some were offensive, like vortexes of darkness. They cost no MP, so you could spam them. And of course, you had spells too--you could only use those of your element(s)! #JTRPGInfo

And finally, it had ridiculous random dungeon generation. Full tiles, tables upon tables, events upon events. It used poker cards and I believe a system for the GM to spend cards to introduce random complications. It was truly almost like a board game. #JTRPGInfo

Unfortunately, literally all of these aspects disappeared in 3E! You still pick elements, now get two different classes instead of class+style, but initiative is standardized, far weaker dungeon generation, blander abilities and Brooms. Boo. #JTRPGInfo

I recommend checking out the anime if you can, it's really cute and fun. There's few things that will give you a better appreciation for how wild the setting can be. It starts with typical high school stuff, and ends with blowing out a chunk of Saturn's rings. #JTRPGInfo

That's all for now. ♥ Hopefully you enjoyed this look into a game I really liked, even despite its flaws! I'll try to put out a few more, and maybe I should cover some games already in English...? #JTRPGInfo