one of the most-delayed games in adventure history (surpassing even the year-long wait for Ultima IV), and the date of its release is still up in the air". In 1986 Robert Woodhead attributed the delay in "certain 'un-named' products" at Sir-Tech to the time required to port them to UCSD p-System. Difficulty "The Return of Werdna" is considered an extremely difficult game; the designer was Roe R. Adams III, a well-known gamer and writer who was the first to solve Time Zone. Computer Gaming World stated, "This game was designed expressly for the expert Wizardry player." Knowledge of the first game of the series is vital to completing Wizardry IV. It is equally unforgiving of mistakes and bad luck as its predecessor trilogy, but unlike the trilogy, there are no experience points for defeating enemies, and therefore no reward for surviving difficult battles, or opportunities to grow stronger at the player's pace. The only way a player may grow stronger is to fight their way through the current level, and find a pentagram on the next level, no matter how overwhelmingly difficult the foes on the current level may be. Some of these foes include ninjas capable of killing Werdna instantly with a critical hit, mages with area-effect spells that can wipe out entire parties of monsters, thieves who can steal items that are critical to completing the game, and clerics capable of resurrecting Werdna's fallen adversaries. Like the previous trilogy, mapping out levels is vital to avoid becoming lost. But the difficulty of mapping out levels is increased. While the previous games included occasional traps that could throw the player's maps off, such as dark areas, teleporters, pits, chutes, and rotating floors, these traps and many more are abundant in "The Return of Werdna". An early level contains a minefield, with an invisible safe path that can only be discovered through exhaustive trial and error. Another level is a series of seemingly identical intersecting pathways, with rotating floor tiles on each intersection. At the top of the dungeon is the Cosmic Cube, a 3D maze consisting of dozens of rooms, connected by passageways, chutes, ladders, and teleporters, all of which have their own unique tricks, traps, and mapping difficulties. In addition, some of the most deadly foes in the game roam the cosmic cube, and because it contains the final pentagram, no further strengthening is possible. Another major example