Dragonsphere

I really thought this game was either going to really challenging, or really disappointing. I was pleasantly surprised that the story was clear enough to understand, and the different races of beings in this world were easy enough to distinguish and understand. I think the items that you could collect needed to sometimes be a little more obvious, but I liked the user interface showing general commands all the time as well as specific commands for individual items when highlighted. I liked the plot twist halfway through the game.

I'm not a big fan of point & click adventures as a whole, and this game has its share of what I consider common flaws of the genre, but they're not as severe as in some comparable games, and it has it's good points. Besides, you get it as a freebie here. Now, I like the fantasy genre, but it often gets pretty derivative. Dragonsphere has its share of sealed evil wizard and prophecy plotline, but it at least avoids feeling like yet another elves, orcs and dwarves Tolkien-via-D&D knockoff. The faeries are about what you'd expect, but the other races you meet feel somewhat fresh at least--especially the Soptus Ecliptus! They've got a different flavor to them that I really appreciated. There's also a nice plot twist that I did not see coming. The graphics and sound are decent for their time, but not overwhelming. Puzzle-wise, the game is acceptable. You get unlimited automatic retries if you die, so theoretically, you can muddle through by trial and error. Some of the deaths are interesting in their own right, too (going to the wrong place in the desert, for instance...) However, some of the proper actions are rather obscure and I did have to look at a walkthrough a few times, but thankfully not very many, although most of the times I did consult one, I probably wouldn't have figured the solution out without much mindless flailing (and hairpulling). I would say the authors did only a partially good job at fulfilling their claim of "intuitive puzzles", but it's better than some adventures can live up to. Now, there are some very annoying bits. In the sprite puzzle, you have to click on the right sprite at the right time, but you have no way of knowing which one is which until you've already clicked! Really tedious. Also, playing the stones game with the Caliph drove me up the wall, because he says the same lines over and over with every move, like a broken record, and it gets really grating. Sometimes, there are items you need that are easy to miss--while you get infinite retries, that doesn't help much if you don't realize there's some obscure thing lying around that you need. Sometimes there are also cases where the character imposes his will on the player rather than vice versa. There's one puzzle where some guards tell you that you need a companion to get into an area. There's also a place in the same phase of the game where someone offers to travel with you, but you are NOT allowed to choose that solution to the guard puzzle simply because it would be against the main character's honor. You're forced to find another way. Despite all this, there are a lot of trials that aren't that bad to figure out, so you can get a reasonable amount of satisfaction from solving them. And in doing so, you get to explore the enchanting game world a little bit more as a reward. If you're into this genre more than I am, definitely check it out. If you're not, at least give it a shot anyway just for the interesting fantasy setting to explore--it's a freebie, after all.

TL;DR: This game is set in an interesting world and has an amazing storyline. You should buy it. Dragonsphere is one of the first games I remember purchasing in the store for our home computer, so bear in mind that my opinion of this game is soaked in nostalgia. This game has a lot of interesting things going for it. The world that was created for this game is great, from the fair humans to the faeries of the forest, to the shapeshifters of Slathan, to the Soptus Ecliptus of the desert. A lot of thought was put into these cultures and how they interact with one another. The story of the game is worth the price of the game by itself. If a book were to come out based in the same world, I would read it. The downside, as far as I see it, is some of the puzzles in the game seem forcefully tedious (I'm looking at you, maze sprites), and some of the interactions seem random at best (as in, you figure out what you must do at times by sheer luck, or trial and error). Luckily, if you die, the game automatically puts you in the most recent place you were before you caused yourself to die. My other main beef about the game is how you can't change your characters speed. He just sort of saunters around everywhere he goes. So if you're on the left side of the screen and want to exit on the right, click and wait 6 seconds for him to get there. All in all, the good parts of this game far outweigh the bad parts, so I recommend acquiring this game and playing it now!

I hadn't heard of this game before signing up for GOG and I thought it was absolutely brilliant. I'm at an age where my attention span wanders very easily. I'll start books, games, tv shows, films and never finish them. But Dragonsphere had me gripped until the end. It's like Quest for Glory but without the awkward fighting. Definitely worth a playthrough, particularly if it's free!

I wanted to love this game. It's got detailed graphics, fluid animations, refreshingly different puzzles and fantasy elements, a serious tone with an understated sense of humor, lots of flavor text to increase the immersion, and an engaging story with a great plot twist. It also has serious flaws with the challenge design. The game makes it sound like you should explore the world as much as possible before storming the evil sorcerer's tower. However, each location has puzzles you can't solve until you reach the end of the tower. This creates a strange progression where the early game consists largely of exploring new areas, collecting items, and gathering clues; and the late game is nonstop puzzle solving. This is a problem because so many vital clues are only provided once, and often missed forever if you choose the wrong dialogue options. The clues are usually so far removed from the relevant puzzles that you absolutely need to take notes about EVERYTHING to stand a chance at beating this without a walkthrough. It's frustrating to hit a wall and not know if you permanently missed a clue or just need to return later. Clearer objectives would help tremendously. As for the items, over half a dozen are useless aside from giving you points. Many puzzles solve themselves as soon as you get an item you didn't know you were looking for, and the rest tend to test your clue-gathering skills more than your creativity. Frustratingly, the game overlooks several clever applications for your items. Other qualms include uneven voice acting, music that doesn't always fit the atmosphere, mild interface issues, and an abrupt ending. Still, this is worth a try if you know what to expect. Note that there is copy protection; see "answers.txt" in the game folder. You can die, but you don't lose progress and can't dead-end the game, and you get a survival hint on Novice difficulty. For sensitive players, deaths are bloodless and include being stabbed, eaten, and quickly melted.