Realms of Arkania: Star Trail HD - less shovelware this time?

[YES!]

If I haven't played the originals, should I play those first? This is obviously a question for those who think the game is good (now).

I don't think there is a need a need to play the originals first. The remake of BoD fixes all the bugs and missing content from original and has extra content and some nice quality of life improvements. By the time you are done with it, if you like it, the new Star Trail should have the few minors issues it has now fixed too and be ready for your party import.

 

[YES!]

remake made with modability in mind, plus extra content planned, plus a hybrid 3/4 ed system, plus fancy new graphics and animations, plus supporting the development and updating of the best crpg trilogy ever made. What exactly is a reason not to buy and enjoy the remakes? Why are people pissing their pants over a UU remake nd should support that but not a the remakes of the greatest rpg trilogy in the history of the known universe?

Give your money to people who deserve it. Stop giving it to multinational corporations that only care about making kids games that look great on youtube so idiots can watch other idiots play games.

 

[Sinatar]

plus fancy new graphics and animations

That look worse than the original pixel art by a pretty significant margin.

Why are people pissing their pants over a UU remake

There is no UU remake, Underworld Ascendant is an entirely new game that's influenced by UU but is attempting to do something new.

Give your money to people who deserve it.

I'm glad you've decided that you're the arbiter of who deserves money and who doesn't. The BOD remake was the drizzling shits and this one doesn't look much better. I'm sure as shit not giving money to half-assed garbage like this.

 

[YES!]

That look worse than the original pixel art by a pretty significant margin.

That is absolutely retarded to say. Have you paled the new game? The cities look amazing.

I'm glad you've decided that you're the arbiter of who deserves money and who doesn't. The BOD remake was the drizzling shits and this one doesn't look much better. I'm sure as shit not giving money to half-assed garbage like this.

Good, it helps with a consistent narrative of shitheads spending their money stupidly. With all the dating sims, poleman like games, stardew valleys, hipster fodder like Undertail and Pyre, you people have plenty to spend your money on. People who post here because they actually like and want real rpgs to be made and supported will buy it and love it. Just like they did with Arcanum, ToEE, Underrail, WL2, MMX, Underrail, TToN, Grimoire, etc.

The new Legends of Heroes is calling you, go have fun with your kid shit and leave the adults to discuss the real games.

 

[Lady_Error]

That look worse than the original pixel art by a pretty significant margin.

That is absolutely retarded to say. Have you paled the new game? The cities look amazing.

The original graphics have charm and inspire imagination. The new graphics are all over the place and the "photorealism" of the towns is just a lame excuse. There is literally nothing in this new version that is better than the original Star Trail.

 

[Ranarama]

That look worse than the original pixel art by a pretty significant margin.

That is absolutely retarded to say. Have you paled the new game? The cities look amazing.

Everything 3D in this game is incredibly ugly.

 

[Villagkouras]

I haven't played the original and decided to try it, because RoA is a Codex approved series.

This game had EA? Seriously? How desperate they were to release it?

The game is unoptimized. I don't mind the graphics at all, but running at 10-15 fps in a city with this level of graphics is bad. But things like this is something I don't really care, as long as I can set everything to low. Or things like typing errors.

I do mind that it doesn't have a quicksave and I do mind that among all the detailed tutorials, they didn't bother to add a combat tutorial. "Here is the battle, go fuck yourself". How am I supposed to figure what to do? How the fuck am I supposed something that is written on the upper left corner of my screen, when the font is white with no shadows whatsoever on light background?

Too bad, I'm in the mood for party-based exploration and TB game, but I think it needs months of patching before it's ok.

 

[Lady_Error]

Play the original Star Trail and avoid this wannabe "improevment" that isn't one. Seriously, Star Trail is probably one of my Top 5 RPG's of all time, Top 10 for sure.

 

[Teut Busnet]

Why don't you start with BoD though? Original or remake.

You can play with the same party for the whole trilogy and by the time you finished BoD, the Startrail should be fixed (if you play the remakes).

 

[Shackleton]

I haven't played the original and decided to try it, because RoA is a Codex approved series.

This game had EA? Seriously? How desperate they were to release it?

The game is unoptimized. I don't mind the graphics at all, but running at 10-15 fps in a city with this level of graphics is bad. But things like this is something I don't really care, as long as I can set everything to low. Or things like typing errors.

I do mind that it doesn't have a quicksave and I do mind that among all the detailed tutorials, they didn't bother to add a combat tutorial. "Here is the battle, go fuck yourself". How am I supposed to figure what to do? How the fuck am I supposed something that is written on the upper left corner of my screen, when the font is white with no shadows whatsoever on light background?

Too bad, I'm in the mood for party-based exploration and TB game, but I think it needs months of patching before it's ok.

I wrote a fairly long and rambling rant in response to this post, but then I just thought 'fuck it' and thought the best response to this level of casualization was to go and buy the game. So I did. Needs a quicksave and more hand-holding. Really? FFS. If you're going to shit on a game, do it because of the design, bugs, or glaring balance issues, not because you don't like lack of quicksave or the first combat being too hard for you.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

remake made with modability in mind, plus extra content planned, plus a hybrid 3/4 ed system, plus fancy new graphics and animations, plus supporting the development and updating of the best crpg trilogy ever made. What exactly is a reason not to buy and enjoy the remakes? Why are people pissing their pants over a UU remake nd should support that but not a the remakes of the greatest rpg trilogy in the history of the known universe?

Give your money to people who deserve it. Stop giving it to multinational corporations that only care about making kids games that look great on youtube so idiots can watch other idiots play games.

Is there a mod that adds Gjaskerlanders to the game?

 

[Villagkouras]

I wrote a fairly long and rambling rant in response to this post, but then I just thought 'fuck it' and thought the best response to this level of casualization was to go and buy the game. So I did. Needs a quicksave and more hand-holding. Really? FFS. If you're going to shit on a game, do it because of the design, bugs, or glaring balance issues, not because you don't like lack of quicksave or the first combat being too hard for you.

I see you like your UI as you like your men: Rough.

Listen you ape. From 1994 when the original came until today, there is a reason things like quicksave and tutorials are into games: They are fucking convenient. There is absolutely no reason for me to click on bad designed boxes repeatedly to save my game when I can do this with one button and no reason to go watch a YouTube video to figure out combat. Are there bad examples of tutorials? Sure, but the game already has detailed enough tutorials for other aspects of the game (like its atrocious WASD movement), so why not combat?

Playing the game for its content and suffer through these things are two completely different things. Will quicksave make easier for me and most people to play the game? Yes. Will it make the actual game easier? No and this is what matters. Why make a remastered version of the game if they don't intend to bring things that make our lives easier, while being faithful to the original? The difference is that in 1994 there were not so many games and we played them despite these issues. Now, I don't have time for this shit. I'll refund, leave a bad review and play something else instead.

My God, nerds like you are the biggest losers on earth but when you battle common sense you believe you are supermen. Guess what...

 

[Nephologist]

Complaining about the lack of a hand-holding tutorial is the very definition of popamole. Just sayin...

 

[thesheeep]

It's a bit weird there is no quicksave, indeed, since the previous remake has quicksaves.
Then again, the quick-save does only work in cities there for some reason*.

And it is also valid to complain about the lack of a combat tutorial if the game features tutorials for anything else.
You have to be a special kind of idiot if you do not recognize the lack of design consistency there.

Yeah, the BoD remake is full of little annoyances like that. And I'd guess this one is too.
Doesn't make it shit, but - besides the graphics - also prevents it from being better than the original.


*The reason, I'm 90% sure, is that the devs are ... partly giving off a bit of an amateurish vibe. They probably put together a "city" scene or logic in Unity and added quicksave to that instead of doing it game-wide. The same script was not added to taverns, inns, etc.
Which is hilarious as you can manually save pretty much everywhere.

 

[YES!]

I haven't played the original and decided to try it, because RoA is a Codex approved series.

This game had EA? Seriously? How desperate they were to release it?

The game is unoptimized. I don't mind the graphics at all, but running at 10-15 fps in a city with this level of graphics is bad. But things like this is something I don't really care, as long as I can set everything to low. Or things like typing errors.

I do mind that it doesn't have a quicksave and I do mind that among all the detailed tutorials, they didn't bother to add a combat tutorial. "Here is the battle, go fuck yourself". How am I supposed to figure what to do? How the fuck am I supposed something that is written on the upper left corner of my screen, when the font is white with no shadows whatsoever on light background?

Too bad, I'm in the mood for party-based exploration and TB game, but I think it needs months of patching before it's ok.

There is a quicvksave - f5. There is a combat tutorial. Talk to the soldier right near where you spawn after the tavern talks. Nice complaints. Very valid.

 

[YES!]

Play the original Star Trail and avoid this wannabe "improevment" that isn't one. Seriously, Star Trail is probably one of my Top 5 RPG's of all time, Top 10 for sure.

You are basing this on? Please don't spout gibberish. And when I joined this site RoA was not only not a "codex approved game" but was complained about all the bugs and shitty graphics, etc. Now that a remake fixes all that it gets shit on. Now that the second remake fixes all the complaints of the first, it still gets shit on about the same complaints from small minded sycophants that aren't even willing to give it a try.

 

[Morkar Left]

So far I don't know about Star Trail HD. It seems it could take some month or two to get probably fixed. Like most games nowadays. For BoD I can easily recommend the HD version over the original. Sure, it has orc butt ugly graphics, but brought some improvements into it (all equipment actually being useful etc), added some minor quest content etc. But the main reason I can recommend it is that it'S mod friendly and there are some nice mods out there (at least in german) which add more complexity and choices to the game (especially combat). Another big selling point is the town navigation. It's a lot easier to find your way in the new version which makes the game more convenient. But there is nothing wrong playing the original one, too.

Star Trail I'm a bit sceptical about the level up mechanics that got altered. It seems to me it makes level up too easy and chars too predictable. On the other hand they added more combat variety and the like which is a huge plus. Navigating through cities and dungeons should be easier than in the original, too. Replaying a bit around 3 years ago I remember the non-step based "fluent" walking was very annoying for me compared to step-by-step dungeoncrawling. The world map from the remake actually looks really cool, good job there!

I will finish BoD HD before I jump over to Star Trail but I'm pretty sure I will get this one, too.

 

[NotAGolfer]

Combat looks atricious again. Dat character movement. Dat floating back to the square they are supposed to be standing in. Dese shadows!
The rest looks more bearable than BoD HD at first glance but all in all it's the same like with the first remake, the art style is all over the place and not coherent like in the originals. And again I see broken features, like NPCs not turning around when you speak with them. I bet there's a bazillion more issues like that.
And everything takes a lot longer than it needs. Moving from door to door is two to three arrow key presses in the originals, just saying ... Did they replace the realistically sized towns in the original - many doors and many inhabitants, most of whom don't give a shit about you - with some popamole bullshit where they replace the town with a few shops and quest givers? How is the whole trapped in Lowangen quest supposed to work then?

Fuck this. And fuck Crafty. I didn't ask for this. I didn't ask for my favorite game series to be insulted with such a halfassed and shoddy attempt at a remake. Blasphemous!

 

[Eriador]

That footage is from the Early Access version and it's almost a year old. The released game looks slightly better.

Here, judge for yourself.

 

[NotAGolfer]

Also they still can't animate for shit.
Just started up the BoD remake again. That intro is just sad. Extremely sad. I take green orcs over this any day.
But I'll try to stick to it this time, although these constant samey looking buildings give me cancer - in the original it was a tech limitation of the time, here it's unforgivable.
If it isn't an asset they can buy in the Unity store then it's not in the game.
At least the character generation is less annoying in the remake. Just keep spending one dice roll on courage and then reroll the deity until it fits the role. Then don't allocate anything to courage until you got the perfect roll (I don't think this is intentional design-wise ). Took me less than an hour to get a 6 character party that I could only dream of in the original (no attributes lower than 10, lots of 12 and 13).

Thorwal indeed suffers from popamole town design. There seem to be more taverns and inns than ordinary NPC houses. I mean sure, they are Thorwalians but this is just too much.
At least the NPC models are not as fugly as they were at release. Still very fugly though. And they are all just standing there and repeating the same pointless animation loops. A few are wandering around, which seems even more pointless (can't talk to them and they don't enter or leave buildings).
Why did they update this to newfag 3D? Only because they also can't draw for shit so all the art is commissioned or bought somewhere. Making something with stylish modernized graphics and limited freedom of movement like let's say Grimrock would be so much better but what can you do, only some hacks wanted the job.

...
Can anyone recommend some must have mods for that BoD remake? But I don't want shit that breaks the character classes. They have their limitations for a reason. And no encounters that add fanfic level writing.
And is there anything that replaces the utterly pointless and ugly insides of shops, inns and so on with some nice paintings or with imitations of the original pixel artwork?
That mouse-heavy UI control scheme is rather annoying too btw. This game seriously needs some keyboard shortcuts.

 

[Morkar Left]

Get lunatic's mod manager. You can look up all mods from there (press space for a description). It's all selfexplanatory. Basically just take whatever you like. Basically everything is lore-friendly. Actually a lot of them are expnading the lore and make it more lore-friendly compared to the original. Maybe stay away from Auf Reisen. It just adds pointless and lots of additional food cluttering your inventory besides some of the nice (but unnecessary) things.

 

[Lady_Error]

Play the original Star Trail and avoid this wannabe "improevment" that isn't one. Seriously, Star Trail is probably one of my Top 5 RPG's of all time, Top 10 for sure.

You are basing this on? Please don't spout gibberish. And when I joined this site RoA was not only not a "codex approved game" but was complained about all the bugs and shitty graphics, etc. Now that a remake fixes all that it gets shit on. Now that the second remake fixes all the complaints of the first, it still gets shit on about the same complaints from small minded sycophants that aren't even willing to give it a try.

I'm talking about the original Star Trail, which was an improvement over the original Blades of Destiny. It's also better than Shadows over Riva. If someone claimed that Star Trail was buggy or had shitty graphics when you joined this site, that person was a moron. And I already said why the original Star Trail is better than the remake, like literally two posts above the one you quoted:

"The original graphics have charm and inspire imagination. The new graphics are all over the place and the "photorealism" of the towns is just a lame excuse. There is literally nothing in this new version that is better than the original Star Trail."

 

[Darth Roxor]

That look worse than the original pixel art by a pretty significant margin.

That is absolutely retarded to say. Have you paled the new game? The cities look amazing.

Indeed

 

[JDR13]

The music is horrid.

 

[Eriador]

The cities do indeed look amazing, especially from this angle.

Spoiler

It's pretty much still in early access.

Let's hope they do same thing as with BoD HD and fix the most glaring bugs sometime.

Also, I have it on maximum details.