Review 4 Fat Chicks approve of Blade&Sword

[Vault Dweller]

Tags: Blade and Sword

<a href=http://fourfatchicks.com>Four Fat Chicks</a> posted this very <a href=http://fourfatchicks.com/Reviews/BladeSword/BandS.shtml>positive review</a> of <a href=http://www.whiptailinteractive.com/games_bladeandsword.php>Blade&Sword</a> saying that <i>it had enough addictive qualities that I was compelled to see it through to the end</i> which is more that could be said about way too many games.
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<blockquote>Confused at first, I grew to appreciate the gem system in Blade & Sword. There are a few things I feel obliged to point out, though, that hampered my experience. First and most important, one's ability to experiment with the gem refinement process is handcuffed by the inanely restrictive save system. If you screw up (and I did, more than I care to mention), you are stuck with that flawed gem, as you can't load a game without saving the game first. You also can't quit the game without saving first. Blade & Sword really wants the player to be accountable for his actions, I guess! The manual itself says to go ahead and experiment with the gem system in order to create really powerful gems, but this ends up being a crapshoot. One can risk combining the three pure gems in the hope of creating an uber gem, but the refining process is just as likely to backfire as succeed. What compounds the frustration is the relative scarcity of the gems. I found enough to fill all of the slots in my sword and armor, but I was not able to experiment enough with combining them to create the special gems. It's a shame, too, because I needed all of the power-up help I could get in order to make it through Blade & Sword.
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An interesting tweak of the D2 gem system. I don't think that many gamers would appreciate gem-related backfires, but it would certainly make uber gems more valuable.
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Spotted at: <A HREF="http://www.rpgdot.com">RPG Dot</A>

 

[Nightjed]

i would like backfiring to cause the gem to have both positive and negative bonuses (higher bonuses than it would had if it only had good ones)

i hate when the randomizing turns items that took you hours to get into useless junk, gimme at least something i might had an use for

 

[Sol Invictus]

The problem with the system is that it's developed completely for multiplayer play which the USA/International version of the title seems to lack. I'm sure it works fine when you're playing with 7 other guys (as the game supports 8 players in the Chinese version) and the monsters as well as their drops scale up to match the number of players in the game the same way magic drops do in Diablo II.

The fact that the USA/Int version completely lacks this multiplayer feature means that the gem system is completely screwed up as chances of a rare/unique gem are practically nil at the 1-Player scale and drops happen too rarely to be of any good. It's a pity that the publishers didn't consider all of these facets when they decided to release the game in the USA.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

I'm surprised they dropped the damned multiplayer. After all, many of the reviews have bashed the game for lacking multiplayer so far. Several of them said it would have gotten a much higher scole had there been multiplayer.