Your Top Five Grid Based Blobbers?

[huntsman1899]

Looking to scratch a bad Grid Based Blobber itch.

What are your top 5?

 

[Gregz]

Grid-based is very limiting, as I prefer other blobbers (Wizardry 8, Might and Magic VII, etc.), but here you go:

1. Stranger of Sword City
2. The Bard's Tale
3. Might and Magic II
4. Dungeon Master
5. Wizardry VII

 

[huntsman1899]

Grid-based is very limiting, as I prefer other blobbers (Wiz 8), but here you go:

1. Stranger of Sword City
2. The Bard's Tale
3. Might and Magic II
4. Dungeon Master
5. Wizardry VII

What is it about Bard's Tale that folks love so much? Is it a pretty deep RPG? More nostalgia? Always thought about trying it, but never took the plunge.

 

[Gregz]

My BT vote is probably nostalgia, but I can't tell. The remastered trilogy is pretty good though.

 

[Ysaye]

I differentiate between realtime grid based blobbers and turn based blobbers (I prefer turn based):

Real Time list
1. Lands of Lore - story based blobber does a lot of things very well without being exceptional - nice graphics, I liked a lot of the level designs and interconnectivity in the second third of the game. Also Dawn is hot;
2. Dungeon Master 2 - atmosphere is good, any character can trained up in anything (you choose 4 characters from a pregenerated group once at the start), spell system is good;
3. Eye of the Beholder 3 - AD&D, complete choice over characters, competent enough;
4. Legend of Grimrock 2 - again choose 4 characters, relatively interesting maps and puzzles; and
5. Legend of Skullkeep - story based, you gain and lose party members throughout the game, fairly linear, I remember liking it until I hit a bug...

Turn-based list
1. The Dark Spire - homage to Wizardry with good level design, simple clean GUI, quirky humor, good music and interesting wall design without overstatment, balanced classes maybe favouring magic towards the end. Also sometimes brutal but addictive gameplay.;
2. Elminage Gothic - massive dark fantasy game with lots of class and race options, great dungeon design, range of options open up as you progress. Stays interesting a long time and/or gets more interesting over time- it's a massive time sink;
3. Phantasy Star (*note only dungeons are grid based blobbers - overworld is birds eye view) - sci-fi fantasy blobber with fixed characters, good dungeon design, fairly large game for the time and a plot although the plot is not overbearing. Also the heroine is kind of cool in setting out to avenge her brother's death and lots of opening up ways to get to new worlds and dungeons;
4. Might and Magic 4 + 5 World of Xeen - large fantasy world with sci-fi twist, fair amount of options, humor; and
5. Wizardry 7 - fantasy-scifi with lots of class options, large world.

The second list is missing off a heap of close favourites including the unpopular Operation Abyss (Ive never played it but apparently Wizardry Xth was the original and is better) - decent maze design which is sometimes criticized as being too complicated or unituitive. Also hard to go past the original Wizardry, Wizardry 6, and also Shining in the Darkness is not bad and is easily available.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Wizardry-likes: Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord (1981), Wizardry VI: Bane of the Cosmic Forge (1990), Might & Magic: World of Xeen (1994), Paper Sorcerer (2013), Grimoire: Heralds of the Winged Exemplar (2017)

Dungeon Master-likes: Dungeon Master (1987), Chaos Strikes Back (1989), Captive (1990), Legend of Grimrock (2012), Legend of Grimrock II (2014)

 

[Covenant]

Surprised to see someone recommending EotB 3 over either of its prequels, but I never got past that stupid forest maze where you kept going through little holes, so maybe it picks up later on.

My own list:
1. Wizardry V
2. Might and Magic: World of Xeen
3. Eye of the Beholder 1 (though 2 is also very solid)
4. Stonekeep
5. Lands of Lore (for the reasons Ysaye gave)

 

[ManaJunkie]

Wizardry 6
Wizardry 7
Grimoire
Dragon Wars
World of Xeen

 

[octavius]

Turn Based:
Might&Magic 2
Might&Magic 1, Wizardry 1, 4, 5 and 6, Bard's Tale 2

Real Time:
Chaos Strikes Back
Dungeon Master
Black Crypt
Lands of Lore
Evil's Doom

 

[Darth Canoli]

Grid-based is very limiting, as I prefer other blobbers (Wizardry 8), but here you go:

1. Stranger of Sword City

If this is the quintessence of grid-based blobbers, i'm a flying turtle !

Isles of Terra
World of Xeen

Or just un-grid yourself and play Wizardry 8 !

Grids are overrated, except for tactical games.

 

[Martyr]

Wizardry 7
Wizardry 6
Pools of Darkness
Grimoire
Realms of Arkania - Star Trail

the only real-time blobbers I've completed are
Stonekeep
Ishar 3
Ravenloft: Strahd's Possession

 

[Ysaye]

Grid-based is very limiting, as I prefer other blobbers (Wizardry 8), but here you go:

1. Stranger of Sword City

If this is the quintessence of grid-based blobbers, i'm a flying turtle !

Stranger of Sword City is okay and has some really good things - some of the level design is nice (I enjoyed going back down through the desert into the tunnels underneath, then through the ghost town through to ....). It is too easy though to munchkin through basic multiclassing, the magic is too simplistic and I hate the ambush system and the pitiful rewards associated with them.

 

[Darth Canoli]

Ysaye

Interesting.
How do you like the city navigation, items management and all that shit outside of combat ?

 

[moleman]

...
Pools of Darkness
...
Realms of Arkania - Star Trail
...

Do the Gold Box games and the RoA games qualify as blobbers? Serious question.

 

[Ysaye]

Ysaye

Interesting.
How do you like the city navigation, items management and all that shit outside of combat ?

City navigation is classic Wizardry style as in it is menu. Item management is also easy enough; again it is pretty much classic Wizardry setup.

The problem is you pick up so many junk items, it's like going to the tip to hand over goods to be recycled.

 

[Martyr]

...
Pools of Darkness
...
Realms of Arkania - Star Trail
...

Do the Gold Box games and the RoA games qualify as blobbers? Serious question.

imo yes, they do. you're controlling a party of adventurers in first person view as one entity. that is the defining characteristic of a blobber for me. the combat isn't the defining point here.

 

[Hobo Elf]

In no order:
Might & Magic 3
Might & Magic 4+5
Etrian Odyssey 5
Wizardry: Tale of the Forsaken Land
Wizardry 1

 

[Darth Canoli]

City navigation is classic Wizardry style as in it is menu. Item management is also easy enough; again it is pretty much classic Wizardry setup.

Classic wizardry style ?
Which wizardry are we talking about ? Aren't you mistaking wizardry and Japanese so-called wizardry "clones" ?

And even then, doesn't seem we played the same game, menus are overcomplicated for no reason, it's like they asked theirs competitors to do the town/items menus for them and trusted them blindly to do something efficient.

 

[MpuMngwana]

Classic wizardry style ?
Which wizardry are we talking about ? Aren't you mistaking wizardry and Japanese so-called wizardry "clones" ?

He is talking about Wizardry 1-5, which from your response I assume you haven't played:

 

[octavius]

...
Pools of Darkness
...
Realms of Arkania - Star Trail
...

Do the Gold Box games and the RoA games qualify as blobbers? Serious question.

imo yes, they do. you're controlling a party of adventurers in first person view as one entity. that is the defining characteristic of a blobber for me. the combat isn't the defining point here.

For me a blobber is also defined by being more gamey and less "realistic" or simulationist than the GB or RoA games, with abstract combat, random monster groups, navigation puzzles and so on.
The only thing they have in common is the FPP when moving.

 

[Scroo]

Fate: Gates of Dawn
Wizardry VI
Might and Magic: World of Xeen
Lands of Lore
Dark Heart of Uukrul

 

[Dorateen]

1. Crusaders of the Dark Savant
2. Grimoire: Heralds of the Winged Exemplar
3. Might & Magic II: Gates to Another World
4. Might & Magic: World of Xeen

5. If we are going to allow Gold Box games for their grid based first person exploration, then Pool of Radiance-Pools of Darkness

 

[Bigg Boss]

Might and Magic III
Might and Magic III
Might and Magic III
Might and Magic III
Might and Magic III

Because I don't care for the genre.

 

[ToddMcF2002]

1. Wizardry 7
2. Wizardry 7
3. Wizardry 7
4. Wizardry 7
5. Grimoire

Or course you need to survive the Wizardry 7 experience to try anything else.

 

[huntsman1899]

I differentiate between realtime grid based blobbers and turn based blobbers (I prefer turn based):

Real Time list
1. Lands of Lore - story based blobber does a lot of things very well without being exceptional - nice graphics, I liked a lot of the level designs and interconnectivity in the second third of the game. Also Dawn is hot;
2. Dungeon Master 2 - atmosphere is good, any character can trained up in anything (you choose 4 characters from a pregenerated group once at the start), spell system is good;
3. Eye of the Beholder 3 - AD&D, complete choice over characters, competent enough;
4. Legend of Grimrock 2 - again choose 4 characters, relatively interesting maps and puzzles; and
5. Legend of Skullkeep - story based, you gain and lose party members throughout the game, fairly linear, I remember liking it until I hit a bug...

Turn-based list
1. The Dark Spire - homage to Wizardry with good level design, simple clean GUI, quirky humor, good music and interesting wall design without overstatment, balanced classes maybe favouring magic towards the end. Also sometimes brutal but addictive gameplay.;
2. Elminage Gothic - massive dark fantasy game with lots of class and race options, great dungeon design, range of options open up as you progress. Stays interesting a long time and/or gets more interesting over time- it's a massive time sink;
3. Phantasy Star (*note only dungeons are grid based blobbers - overworld is birds eye view) - sci-fi fantasy blobber with fixed characters, good dungeon design, fairly large game for the time and a plot although the plot is not overbearing. Also the heroine is kind of cool in setting out to avenge her brother's death and lots of opening up ways to get to new worlds and dungeons;
4. Might and Magic 4 + 5 World of Xeen - large fantasy world with sci-fi twist, fair amount of options, humor; and
5. Wizardry 7 - fantasy-scifi with lots of class options, large world.

The second list is missing off a heap of close favourites including the unpopular Operation Abyss (Ive never played it but apparently Wizardry Xth was the original and is better) - decent maze design which is sometimes criticized as being too complicated or unituitive. Also hard to go past the original Wizardry, Wizardry 6, and also Shining in the Darkness is not bad and is easily available.

Dungeon Master 2 - does this have cool puzzles/problem solving/role playing? Or is it more just kill/loot/levelup?
Might and Magic 4/5 - how do these compare to MM6 as far as depth?
Wizardry 7 - does this play like MM6/7? I know the combat is different, but talking more about the role playing, puzzles, etc.