Kayerts
Arcane
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2011
- Messages
- 883
Stumbled across this title. It looked like one-man shovelware, but despite some ominously ungrammatical writing, I persevered. For the first two-thirds, I thought it was a very fun game.
Comparisons to the style being like Wizardry 8 or Might and Magic 6-8 are accurate, and deserved in some ways. Mechanically, I would say it is both simpler and more difficult than those games: It is simpler in that the player gets a smaller toolkit, and more difficult in that a large number of fights felt like I was one mistake away from a party wipe. People who enjoyed the Arnika Road segment of Wiz8 should feel at home.
It has a power curve that keeps things varied during the first two thirds of the game, and fun exploration and encounter design. There's a sense of being in a dangerous world, wanting to push yourself to overcome some of the higher level roadblocks and unlock later towns, and a need to scrounge for manageable XP driving you to explore. Most every level of every mage school contains something that changes how you play in some way, so it does feel rewarding to find the higher level skill teachers who can unlock those. There's not much of a story to speak of, though it's surprisingly good at cultivating atmosphere. It stays fresh and fun for a long time, and if it ended with the demon lord fight (the two-thirds point), I'd say it's one of the better old school RPGs of the last few years.
Unfortunately, things fall apart during the last third of the game; combat becomes both simpler and more of a slog, after you unlock the magical equivalent of Nuke It From Orbit options. It remains pretty dull until the final level, which is a welcome return to form.
Overall, pretty fun game for combat/exploration blobber enthusiasts.
Comparisons to the style being like Wizardry 8 or Might and Magic 6-8 are accurate, and deserved in some ways. Mechanically, I would say it is both simpler and more difficult than those games: It is simpler in that the player gets a smaller toolkit, and more difficult in that a large number of fights felt like I was one mistake away from a party wipe. People who enjoyed the Arnika Road segment of Wiz8 should feel at home.
It has a power curve that keeps things varied during the first two thirds of the game, and fun exploration and encounter design. There's a sense of being in a dangerous world, wanting to push yourself to overcome some of the higher level roadblocks and unlock later towns, and a need to scrounge for manageable XP driving you to explore. Most every level of every mage school contains something that changes how you play in some way, so it does feel rewarding to find the higher level skill teachers who can unlock those. There's not much of a story to speak of, though it's surprisingly good at cultivating atmosphere. It stays fresh and fun for a long time, and if it ended with the demon lord fight (the two-thirds point), I'd say it's one of the better old school RPGs of the last few years.
Unfortunately, things fall apart during the last third of the game; combat becomes both simpler and more of a slog, after you unlock the magical equivalent of Nuke It From Orbit options. It remains pretty dull until the final level, which is a welcome return to form.
Overall, pretty fun game for combat/exploration blobber enthusiasts.
