Another Elminage thread! Let's use this thread to talk about all NON-GOTHIC Elminage stuff!

[Haplo]

hackncrazy

One other advantage of the Brawler (and even moreso Ninja) is that while trough most of the game their AC will suck, in the post game, if you play trough it, they will have the best AC by far due to the "-1 AC every 3 levels" ability.
But before that particularly the Brawler can be fragile.

Note that Valkyrie is a very solid healer (at least before post-game, when its better to treat her as a secondary healer). And Samurai is a backup Mage. Good for the utility mage spells and enemy debuffs. Altrough even his damage spells can be competetive before post-game (mages and clerics get damage/healing level scaled boosts after level 26).

Regarding the return trips, the first option that will open fairly early is the cleric (and Lord/Valkyrie) spell Honey Restorer. It's a level 4 spell that will return you to town. But there is one caveat: the caster will forget the spell after it's use. On next level up he's likely to recover it, but there is a limitation. Another reason why 2 healers aren't a bad idea.
Eventually the Mage (and Samurai/Bard) spell Diomente will become your main mode of transportation. Allows you to teleport to most uncovered blocks on the map, even move between dungeon floors. But some areas are off limits for teleport spells. One alternative is to use it in combat and teleport to a random place - even not uncovered yet. Some enemies use it offensively - beware teleporting into a solid rock, as nothing can save you then (save for reload).
It's a level 7 spell and it will take quite long to get it. But you'll celebrate when you do. You'll want to have minimum 2-3 casts of that. And early on you'll curse if a mana drain trap takes away that last level 7 spell from your mage.

Well the main aligment impact is what classes are possible for each character. So plan ahead carefully.
It's possible to join an evil character to a good aligned party, but it needs to be done in dungeon, via the search party option. You need to pause the game in dungeon, exit to town screen, create a second party, enter the same dungeon where you left the first party and merge the teams. You'll have a problem anytime you change the party composition though.

Thief isn't essential, a Ninja or Hunter can perform his duties (although not as well). Ninja also prevents 50% of enemy ambushes (which the Thief does not) and they can be pretty deadly. But only Thief can steal enemy equipment. Not a big deal in Gothic IMO, but in Original my understanding is that there is some pretty good equipment that can be only stolen. Particularly Brawler weapons...

And pots won't cut it. You'll not only need progressively better healing spells (eventually level scaled in post game), but also somewhat frequent use of ressurection spells. Some deaths are unavoidable.
Your AC may be good now, but expect to sometimes meet enemies that will punch right trough it. And beahead several of your characters in a single turn.

And your expectations are correct, success is the right mix of good preparation and proper, sometimes even creative, battle tactics. Which enemy needs to die here and now, which weakness to exploit, who needs shielding to make sure he survives and gets off that critical spell...

 

[Matador]

Eh, don't know about this. Sure beheading is great, but some enemies are resistant. As a fighter he will have access to much better weapons, have much higher attack rating and do a ton more damage. I'd say better multiclass options for fighters are Valkyrie (female neutral, preferably with race with good Piety max), Samurai (nonevil, preferably race with good Int max) or Lord (male good, preferably race with good Piety max). But a fighter will outdamage every other class, maybe except Brawler. And maybe Valkyrie, depending on gear available in Original (they get some sick stuff in Gothic and eventually can dual wield spears).
Probably the Thief is the better Ninja candidate... although late game Thief stealing monster weapons would be a good fit to his Brawler. And the Thief is more effective at trap disarming/finding secrets.

For me the ninja is more about flavour and gambling, not balance.

I like instakills and the sensation I have an assassin in my party either be able of just scratch a beetle, or insta destroy a fucking army of demons.

You need to experience that mechanic. With the fighter you have reliable damage, with the ninja you have bodies everywhere.

FUN.

 

[Dorarnae]

In elminage Original I find brawler to be OP because when you inflict paralyse (probably other status too) monster doesn't seem to be able to recover. you can later steal some claw that has 20% paralyse (they're off hand too). with their multi hit, it's easier to land that status on boss.
valkryie in elminage original can equip a spear that does x10 dmg to gods type monster (need a thief to steal it).



thief are the best for disarming but I'd say it's mostly for disarming/stealing ennemies gear. last level of alchemy spell you can disarm trap without failing.

good and evil character can't be together. however you can send the character into the dungeon then switch party and go get him inside the dungeon. I don't really recommend doing that though because if your character ailignment change he won't be able to use the innocent gear
same for class changing (except if you're doing it with items like the medal of power...)

for AC, -10 will be lo and -20 VL, but it can go to like -300 (if you have a very high brawler or ninja, need to have gear with 'AC on' or whatever it is called for their skill to work).

one thing you need to know about multiclassing is yes you keep your current hp and spell will transfert(you keep 3 charge of each level of spell...) but if you get lvl drained, your hp will drop to what it should be around that lvl.

 

[hackncrazy]

Thanks for the heads up Dorarnae

I cleared up the first dungeon and retrieved the Jewel Ring. Now I have a lot of places to go, I think I'll go to the elven forest since the king talked about some trouble there.

Just one thing that I found strange: When my bishop lvld up, he gained STR and lost INT. I found this strange. It may be because he is using a walking stick on the backrow?

 

[Dorarnae]

Thanks for the heads up Dorarnae

I cleared up the first dungeon and retrieved the Jewel Ring. Now I have a lot of places to go, I think I'll go to the elven forest since the king talked about some trouble there.

Just one thing that I found strange: When my bishop lvld up, he gained STR and lost INT. I found this strange. It may be because he is using a walking stick on the backrow?

you'll gain stats on lvl up and sometime lose some too, but don't worry too much about it you'll reach the max...
in most dungeon, the deeper you go, the harder the monster are. so it can be good to explore other dungeon first floor...

also each map has its loot table (common/uncom/rare)

 

[hackncrazy]

Thanks for the heads up Dorarnae

I cleared up the first dungeon and retrieved the Jewel Ring. Now I have a lot of places to go, I think I'll go to the elven forest since the king talked about some trouble there.

Just one thing that I found strange: When my bishop lvld up, he gained STR and lost INT. I found this strange. It may be because he is using a walking stick on the backrow?

you'll gain stats on lvl up and sometime lose some too, but don't worry too much about it you'll reach the max...
in most dungeon, the deeper you go, the harder the monster are. so it can be good to explore other dungeon first floor...

also each map has its loot table (common/uncom/rare)

something i forgot to aks: how do you guys know about all these details? (ex. valkyrie learning cleric spells). Is that a d&d thing or you know just by playing?

 

[Dorarnae]

Thanks for the heads up Dorarnae

I cleared up the first dungeon and retrieved the Jewel Ring. Now I have a lot of places to go, I think I'll go to the elven forest since the king talked about some trouble there.

Just one thing that I found strange: When my bishop lvld up, he gained STR and lost INT. I found this strange. It may be because he is using a walking stick on the backrow?

you'll gain stats on lvl up and sometime lose some too, but don't worry too much about it you'll reach the max...
in most dungeon, the deeper you go, the harder the monster are. so it can be good to explore other dungeon first floor...

also each map has its loot table (common/uncom/rare)

something i forgot to aks: how do you guys know about all these details? (ex. valkyrie learning cleric spells). Is that a d&d thing or you know just by playing?

know by playing, I played each game in the series like 6 times.

 

[Hobo Elf]

How intrusive are the age limitations in Elminage Gothic? Not a big fan of aging characters, but in MM it didn't make much of a difference. I hear lots of people say that you should avoid short lived races in this game to save headache though, which is quite lame.

 

[aweigh]

sorry i haven't had time to paste.

regarding knowing things: 90% of the stuff in Wizardry (and thus, in Elminage, as it is a spiritual continuation of the Wizardry series) is derived from D&D.

But more importantly than that: 100% of the mechanics in Elminage can be found in some way or another in Wizardry, starting all the way back from the very first scenario "Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord" which is more than 30 years old.

something I notice hasn't been mentioned:

- Fighters/Ninja/Samurai/Valkyrie/Lord/Brawler/Hunters gain +1 natural attack every five levels. This means a level 15 "Fighter" using a Longsword (which has no extra swings per attack featuring only the number "1" in the column where it says minimun number of attacks); the level 15 Fighter using a Longsword is guaranteed to hit 3 "swings" per every melee attack. If the weapon has extra attacks, i.e. it has a number higher than "1" in the column where it says minimum number of attacks, then those are tacked on.

- the maximum number of attacks for weapons was something like 10 or 11 in Elminage: Original, though it can go as high as 20 if spells like Orath are used or some very special weapons.

- Generally speaking if you're ever in doubt as to what weapons are better:

Add the minimum DMG number to the maximum DMG number
Divide the result by 2
Multiply that result by the total number of attacks (assume a minimum of "1" then add the number in the weapon's sheet)
Add the number for "Accuracy" to that result

If still in doubt, give "bonus points" to the weapon for every built-in enchantment it has, though this is completely situational. Generally speaking you're gonna be enchanting stuff for 2x DMG versus dragons, but end-game, and in post-game, you're gonna face a lot of Devils/Undead/Dragons/Gods/Giants.

Yep, this also means a pure Cleric's "Dispel" skill will definitely come in handy, but only in the post-game/end-game, i.e. the final dungeon (Dragon's Fang) and the Old World. When the Cleric reaches level 26 (i think it was 26, might be 24) they learn "Soul Release" which allows the party to earn experience points normally from using Dispel.

- intermediate martial classes (Bard/Servant/Thief) earn 1 extra swing per attack every 10 levels.

They "make up" for this by having shit the elite martial classes don't, such as the Bard's supremely OP Tarot skill, the servant's supremely OP herbs/treatment, and the Thief's nigh-mandatory ability to remove weapons and armor from an enemy and pocket them.

BTW, that also means (assuming this is a Humanoid-type enemy whose threat comes mostly from his weapons or his defense from his armor) that a Thief can effectively render such an enemy completely harmless by removing their gear even if you don't want or need to steal anything.

- The Cleric is a special case where he/she gains 1 extra swing per attack every 15 levels. Cleric is the only non-Martial class that gains extra swings. Alchemists/Bishops/Mages/Summoners never gain any extra swings and their number-of-atks is strictly dictated by what their weapon can do normally.


In Elminage: Original age isn't really a factor. Each race has a cut-off age where they are deemed "old" and after hitting that number the % for an attribute to drop or remain where it is rises and the % for an attribute to rise is lowered. In any case, E: Original is extremely forgiving about this and I really don't remember age or attribute drops affecting me in any way other than perhaps making me wait an extra level or two before being to class a character into a Lord or whatever the fuck.

Alchemist's PROTECTORATE spell (final spell learned at alchemist's final spell level, i.e. spell is learnt when alchemist character reaches levels 13-15) raises any char's attribute by 1 point then the spell is forgotten and is re-learned when that alchemist levels up again (60% chance to relearn the spell assuming INT is above 15).


Races' most important distinctions are what the maximums for each attribute can be; every point above 15 in the attributes raises exponentially the effectiveness of whatever that attribute is attached to.

Every single point (After 15, and yes that means BELOW 15 is bad) really, really counts. The difference in DMG output between an 18 STR human and a 22 STR dwarf is considerably, up to 20-25%, and a 24 STR dragonewt can deal 30% or more DMG than a human.

That sounds like a lot, and it is, but this doesn't mean any race is bad or gimped. Remember that 30% can be like, an extra 120 damage points in an attack dealing 1.5k, which means it really won't make much difference. When it makes the most difference is in the early-game and in the post-game: in the early-game it is obvious why stat differences would make a difference, but early-game no one is going to be rocking 24 STR, so it evens out and race doesn't really matter as everybody will be struggling to raise their attributes.

in the end-game/post-game it'll matter the most. Of course this doesn't mean a dragonnewt is the best race, as while DMG output is important every other attribute is equally important. Dragonnewt may be able to reach 24 STR but they get stuck with 15 Luck (or was it 16?) which means a Dragonewt thief will have a very bad time trying to steal shit from an enemy (stealing draws from LUCK and AGI), and the dragonewt's terrible AGI means they'll almost always go last in a turn. Etc.

I'm not a big fan of Brawlers but mostly because they're terribly over-powered. Also their armor selection is restricted (because they gain -1 armor class every 3 levels, which is good, you want your armor class to be as negative as possible), and I like using all the loot you pick up.

Oh, if you class an Alchemist -> Hunter, the Hunter will retain 9 castings of the Alchemy spells. Normally when you multi-class you retain 3 castings of your previous class' spell school, but the Hunter is a special exception and only specifically for the Alchemy school.

If you class a Mage/Cleric/etc into a Hunter they will retain only the normal 3 castings.


Don't really know what else to add really as everybody as already covered most everything. E: Original is quite forgiving but my opinion on that is skewed because I played it after Elminage: Gothic (which is not forgiving) and after playing a bunch of other crawlers. For example in E: Original while VIT does indeed affect % of a resurrection spell working correctly, I think in all my E: Original playthroughs I've only ever had chars turn to ash like 4 times total.

In E: Original direct-damage spells are extremely potent so a pure Mage's Enterook Mista is fucking apocalyptic and very good from beginning to end, and the difference in DMG between a Mage's spell and a Bishop's spell is very noticeable.

My usual E: Original party is:

Fighter -> Lord
Valkyrie
Samurai
Thief
Bishop
Alchemist

Pretty standard party. In Gothic I now skip the Lord and go for a ninja, and skip the Valkyrie and go for a pure fighter. Ninjas and Brawlers are extremely OP (imo) in Elminage: Original, so I avoid them, as they trivialize the encounters of the mid-game.

For E: Gothic you need every single advantage you can possibly get so I go for maximum power-gaming.

 

[aweigh]

Hobo Elf

In E: Gothic the age limitations are a bit annoying because they didn't remember to adjust the race ages accordingly to the size of the new game. Gothic is easily twice, I dare say 3 times as "long" as any of the Elminage games before it, and it's very easy to have "old" chars in Gothic post-game.

like I wrote above, though, what that means is that if, for whatever reason, those old chars need an attribute to go up, it'll be harder for them, and you'll be casting PROTECTORATE on them more frequently than on non-Old chars in order to raise an attribute that happened to go down in their last level up.

it's technically possible to die of old age but ironically it has nothing to do with age: a char who has an attribute with less than 5 points in it will have a 70% chance of dying during an Inn stay. This plays into an old char's attributes going down more frequently but honestly it's kind of hard to have a char with 5 points in an attribute not counting the beginning of the game.

only way you'll be in such a situation mid-game and onwards is right after a multi-class where a char's stats drop to their race minimums. Unless you're multi-classing a char who is already "old", though, they'll never die.

in fact, i've never had a char die of old age in Elminage games, and my first time clearing Ibag's Tower my party had 2 humans in it who were both 100+ years old.

 

[Dorarnae]

Hobo Elf

In E: Gothic the age limitations are a bit annoying because they didn't remember to adjust the race ages accordingly to the size of the new game. Gothic is easily twice, I dare say 3 times as "long" as any of the Elminage games before it, and it's very easy to have "old" chars in Gothic post-game.

like I wrote above, though, what that means is that if, for whatever reason, those old chars need an attribute to go up, it'll be harder for them, and you'll be casting PROTECTORATE on them more frequently than on non-Old chars in order to raise an attribute that happened to go down in their last level up.

it's technically possible to die of old age but ironically it has nothing to do with age: a char who has an attribute with less than 5 points in it will have a 70% chance of dying during an Inn stay. This plays into an old char's attributes going down more frequently but honestly it's kind of hard to have a char with 5 points in an attribute not counting the beginning of the game.

only way you'll be in such a situation mid-game and onwards is right after a multi-class where a char's stats drop to their race minimums. Unless you're multi-classing a char who is already "old", though, they'll never die.

in fact, i've never had a char die of old age in Elminage games, and my first time clearing Ibag's Tower my party had 2 humans in it who were both 100+ years old.

well it's mostly because in gothic rezzing your char increase your age, where in original it doesn't seem to do that.
I had a fairy in gothic who died at age 58 I think heh.

 

[aweigh]

man when i was playing through Wiz Empire 2 (the 1st playthrough) my fairy-bishop kept dying nonstop during the post-game. Every fucking time I went to town to rest and level up i had to save-scum because the bitch kept dying haha.

After that experience I avoid Fairy race a lot, though it has more to do with the gear restrictions than anything else. I really can't stand not being able to use the shit I find.

Oh, hackncrazy

btw, regarding age there is a chest trap called "Kiss of the Goddess" (might be called Hug of the Goddess or something like that) that lowers the chest opener's age. That is the only good trap. Anything other than a goddess kiss is bad.

best way to determine if the chest has a trap is to either use Alchemy magic or to use a Thief. Hunter/Bard/Ninja can do the job but it you won't have the certainty.

 

[Haplo]

Yeah, fairies are a really bad pick for frontliner characters due to their low Vit, low maximum age and very limited access to gear. Could work as Bishops for example, who get next to no equipment anyway and stay in the back row. Their high Agi comes handy for turn order.

 

[hackncrazy]

Thanks for the great post aweigh ! A lot of good info there.

Right now, I'm going as far as I can with a Fighter, Brawler, Samurai, Thief, Bishop and Valkirye.

I cleared the first forest dungeon easily but had I'm having some trouble in the "dark" Mirror Marsh. The shitty thing is that my OCD always makes me reset when I have a character who dies because I don't want to spend my hard earned money in the resurrection. Anyway, I'm having a good time with the game. The fights are not mash to win anymore and are requiring a good deal of strategy to advance. I just hate when I face a female mage (don't remember the name of the enemy exactly) because she can cast a thunder spell that is a instakill in any of my chars.

 

[Dorarnae]

Yeah, fairies are a really bad pick for frontliner characters due to their low Vit, low maximum age and very limited access to gear. Could work as Bishops for example, who get next to no equipment anyway and stay in the back row. Their high Agi comes handy for turn order.

they make good alchemist and probably ninja too but would have to check the weapon they can equip.

 

[Dorarnae]

Thanks for the great post aweigh ! A lot of good info there.

Right now, I'm going as far as I can with a Fighter, Brawler, Samurai, Thief, Bishop and Valkirye.

I cleared the first forest dungeon easily but had I'm having some trouble in the "dark" Mirror Marsh. The shitty thing is that my OCD always makes me reset when I have a character who dies because I don't want to spend my hard earned money in the resurrection. Anyway, I'm having a good time with the game. The fights are not mash to win anymore and are requiring a good deal of strategy to advance. I just hate when I face a female mage (don't remember the name of the enemy exactly) because she can cast a thunder spell that is a instakill in any of my chars.

dunno if you already have it, but some items can be used during battle, the flamberge cast a line flame spell, which is very nice in the beginning. if the character using the flamberge in battle can't equip it, I suggest equiping a flame seal to increase your fire damage. btw all stat except AC does not stack. so if you have an item with +50 fire resist and another one with +100, it'll be +100, not 150.

at 100% elemental resist it does no dmg to you.
over 100(or is it 200?) you drain the attack
300% you reflect the attack.

 

[aweigh]

if you're gonna reload on every char death you're never gonna finish any blobber! i do reload if an undead/devil type enemy uses a level draining attack on a char, though, that shit is just mega-annoying.

one thing i cannot stress enough is the usefulness (yes, the importance, but more to the point: the usefulness) of having a pure Cleric char in your starting-party so he/she can learn the resurrection spell ASAP.

being able to resurrect a party member mid-battle or right after the battle ends is simply priceless in its convenience and importance. Seriously, if there is one pro-tip that applies to literally any Wiz-type dungeon crawler RPG is to get a way to resurrect without having to return to town ASAP.

pure cleric learns Rizefus spell at around levels 8 or 9, give or take. For fastest possible XP gain go with a "basic" race, like a Human.

(yeah, races each have different "XP multipliers", with the more "elite" races like Devilish gaining XP at the slowest rate).

the other "XP multiplier" is, of course, the class. A bishop will learn rizefus too, but at like level 18 or some bullshit like that (assuming same race as the cleric, in this example).

 

[aweigh]

to deal with enemy mages the most effective strats are:

1) strategize around having a high-agility character who is able to (optimally) 1-hit kill the enemy mage. Hunters bypass the AGI requirement with their Lightning Strike/Swift Strike (depends on the translation) ability and make EXCELLENT mage snipers. If you go ahead and have your party's Alchemist enchant the Hunter's weapon to do Double-DMG versus "Mage" type enemies (yes, there is a Fighter-type, a Mage-type, a Cleric-type, and a Thief-type for the enemy-types; btw, all enemy "ninja"-like enemies are almost always classified by the game as "Thief"-type).

2) have party alchemist (who, optimally, has high AGI... again, for the turn order, remember the point is to go before the enemy casts their nukes); have party alchemist cast the alchemy spell that raises the party's magic resistance, i think it's called RAPOOLFEI.

2b) alternatively the party alchemist can also simply cast the spell which speeds up the party's turn order which should then make your damage-dealers go faster in the turn order and take out the problem enemies.

As Dorarnae pointed out remember that there are weapons that cast all sorts of shit; and they always say so in the description. Case in point the sword FLAMBERGE which casts the Row-hitting flame spell Mabalad.

off hand i can't remember which item casts RAPOOLFEI or the speed spell but there definitely is one or two in the game. Still, it's much easier to beat up Avi statue for 40 minutes and level up a human-alchemist until they learn RAPOOLFEI than it is to wait around for one such item to drop.

ULTRA PRO TIP: if you have less chars in the active party they receive more XP. Fastest power-levelling Avi Killing method is to pair the newbie char with a char who can 1-hit Avi, and only have the two chars in the party; thus the normal XP awarded is divvied between 2 chars instead of 6.

If you're too lazy to bench chars you can simply have whoever doesn't need quick XP run away from the battle; the XP awarded is always given only to whoever is left standing at the end of the fight.

 

[aweigh]

also this really won't be much of an issue until end-game / post-game but the enchantment system has a quirk to prevent min-maxing:

Example:

- your fighter has flamberge and you enchant it to do 2x dmg to DRAGONS.
- your fighter has equipped an armor that deals HALF DAMAGE to DRAGONS.
(in the item's sheet it will appear as a red-colored minus sign instead of the regular = equal sign, which means 'normal damage' or '1x' multiplier; a "2" means... 2x dmg, a star means 5x damage and a circle means 10x damage, and a red 'x' means NO DAMAGE, which is what 90% of weapons will have under the UNDEAD TYPE column).

- the armor piece will always override the same-enchantment on the char's weapon. This rule applies to Head, Body and Leg items. Accessories don't affect/override weapon enchantments.

- your fighter has a weapon which deals 'X' or '-' (minus) damage to whatever-type of enemy.
- your fighter then equips a head/body/leg piece which has a '=', '2', star or circle under the same enemy-type column.
- your fighter will then deal the damage equivalent to the head/body/leg piece's enchantment.

The armor 'double-dmg' enchantments always will be "built-in" as there is no way to enchant an armor piece with DAMAGE, only DEFENSIVE-type shit. This means armor pieces with built-in enchantments for Enemy-type DMG are valuable, and worth considering for equipment even if they have worse AC than another piece.

the earliest piece of equipment (armor like) with a DMG enchantment you'll get (unless you go waaaaaaaaay out of your way, heh) will be Forest Walker boots which will have built-in 2x DMG versus animals and insects. This means whichever char equips the boots will not benefit from their weapon having a DMG enchantment versus those 2 types; even if the weapon's enchantment is a star or a circle it will always deal the 2x DMG from the boots.

 

[aweigh]

hackncrazy

how goes it mang? we're all chomping at the bit for a mini blog-post about your playthrough!

 

[hackncrazy]

aweigh

I'm having a loooot of trouble, so much that I tried resetting the game and rolling a new party, but things aren't going that well.

I have some ADD and OCD and light autism issues that make me go crazy when one of my characters die, even more when I'm deep inside a dungeon with no way of reviving it/curing it. So, that makes me reset the game A LOT, so much that I raged two days ago and deleted my 25 hour save.

I think that the problem for me is the frustration that I have for the lack of understanding the systems in the game. And don't get me wrong. I hate text-heavy tutorials and such, but I think that a game like Elminage, with so many little things interacting between each other, should offer some guidance for the new player other than "You should know Wizardry inside out to know that X class can go to Y class and use spell X further along etc etc etc".

I know that all of this sounds like a loser's complaint, which it really is in this case.

In short, from this experience I can only conclude that 1) blobbers aren't made for me or 2) I should start with a VERY EASY one to be able to understand everything that goes on so I'll be able to go back to Elminage and advance it.

And that makes me really sad tbh. I really like the whole concept and philosophy of blobbers. Navigating through the dungeons immerses me like almost any other game can't do it (aside for the souls maybe or some dungeons in the Zelda Series), but when I enter a battle, the frustration starts to show, be it for receiving an unexpected 1HKO or being attacked by a spell cast by a wizard in the 10th line of enemies which fucks my whole party.

 

[aweigh]

hackncrazy

Have you tried out the new "high def" PC port of Elminage: Original? It has a very different feel to E: Gothic and is more of an traditional RPG instead of being a straight-up emulation of hard-core Wizardry.

E: Original (which looks fucking fantastic in the new PC port, yup, graffix whoring and shit) is much more of an "adventurous"-feeling game with light-hearted themes and the artwork and music all reflect this.

Unlike E: Gothic, which focuses completely on providing a "hard-core Wiz experience" with little "fluff", E: Original instead features a ton more NPC interaction, the music is very bombastic and adventurous, the color palette is full of blues and grees and the dungeons themselves are comprised rarely of "mazes" but instead almost all of the E: Original mazes feature:

- large, large open areas with few twists and turns with most (if not all, basically) of the dungeons revolving around gimmicks or puzzles in order to "beat" them such as one dungeon where in order to open some Doors each door requires that you have taken a specific amount of steps before approaching the door; or another E: Original dungeon standout where it takes place completely underwater for the entirety of the dungeon, so on and so forth.

- E: Original dungeons rarely put you inside actual dungeons with half of them being Forests, a quarter of them being mountains (with even one where you climb all the way to the clouds at the Mt. Peak and use the FLOATING spell to navigate thru the clouds), and one where you have to travel into the bottom of a volcano (although E: Gothic also has a Volcano dungeon and does it better).

- It is overall less difficult than E: Gothic in that the loot enemies drop is always good, items never have maluses, and enemies are simply "weaker" overall in terms of stats.

- E: Original is also a much shorter game than E: Gothic as around half the dungeons are "optional" in the sense that the Main Quest path only requires beating 6 of them (out of 11).

This isn't a list of pros/cons by any means, and as you know I personally prefer E: Gothic by a large margin, but it's a great case example of how the same studio took 2 completely different approaches to the EXACT SAME MECHANICAL FORMULA and produced 2 Wiz-clones that play very, very similarly (identically in terms of actual mechanics) but one is light-hearted adventure with lots of NPCs and dungeons that focus on gimmicks/puzzles instead of being mazes, and where items drop less often than in E: Gothic but they're all always very clear upgrades (I'd say most of them outright over-powered).

A lot of people prefer E: Original to E: Gothic, with the caveat that "a lot of people" = the 20 or so souls who actually even know of these games to begin with.

Obviously, though, it is a fact that regardless of the differences in execution anyone who enjoys Gothic will enjoy Original and anyone who enjyos Original will enjoy Gothic. They are different, yes, but not fundamentally so that if one did not enjoy one they will not magically enjoy the other one.

 

[aweigh]

video taken from fluent 's channel:

 

[aweigh]

look at dat high def upscaling, menu looks particularly scrumptious!

BTW, yes, anime shit, so must remind everyone...

THE CHARACTER AVATAR PORTRAITS CAN BE CHANGED TO TRADITIONAL WIZARDRY CLASS ICONS, AND/OR GAME ALLOWS YOU TO SIMPLY UPLOAD YOUR OWN AVATAR .PNG SO DON'T BOTHER WHINING.

 

[aweigh]

as per Scrooge 's request, a tag.