Play Wizardry Gaiden 1 Online

Wizardry Gaiden 1 came out for the Game Boy in 1991, developed and published by ASCII Entertainment. It was part of a wave of dungeon crawlers that tried to bring a complex, PC-style RPG experience to a handheld, at a time when most portable games were still pretty simple. You didn't see many games like this on the system, with its focus on deep mechanics over quick action.

You control a custom party of adventurers, delving into a multi-level dungeon to uncover its secrets and defeat the evil within. The game plays out screen by screen in a first-person perspective, with random turn-based battles against monsters that can quickly overwhelm an unprepared group. Key mechanics include managing your party's limited resources, mapping the labyrinthine corridors by hand (since the game doesn't do it for you), and making careful choices in combat and exploration to avoid costly mistakes. The pacing is deliberate, and the difficulty is steep, demanding patience and strategy over quick reflexes. It feels like a tense, methodical test of your planning and endurance every time you step into the dark.