Posted on: September 18, 2014
zombiemane
Владелец игрыИгр: 1227 Отзывов: 1
An unexpected gem
At first glance I was almost ready to skip this game: it seemed like any typical RPG of its era, with throwaway plot to justify the mindless Hack'n'Slash that follows. The intro certainly doesn't help: a mysterious evil sorcerer appears out of nowhere and kills your father, the king and now it's your duty to take revenge. Can you even get more cliché than that? Don't let this first impression fool you. The plot is actually one of the best I've seen in any RPG up to that era. Nothing is what it seems to be, and once you're forced to leave your sheltered life in the castle, you start uncovering it all. Perhaps the story wouldn't seem so special when compared to what we've seen in later RPGs, but remember, the game came out on 1992. Even better than the gradually unfolding story is the setting (which true to its title includes 5 different realms, each of them very different than its neighbours) and the NPCs and party members. This game features hundreds of fleshed out NPCs and rich dialogues and many subquests, definitely on par with Ultima VII, which came out on the same year. Many of the NPCs are recruitable, and when you recruit them they tend to comment on your actions or join dialogues (and if my memory serves me right, they'd also quit your party if they disagree with your actions). This game use the same engine as Bloodnet, which came out a year later, and they both suffer from a clunky combat interface, which gets worse as the game goes on and your party size grows. The other major disadvantage is the time limit - you've got 100 days to finish the game before the world succumbs to darkness, which kills the option of carefree exploration. But despite its flaws and clunkiness, this game is a real classic. If it came out from a comapny more established in the RPG genere and didn't have the bad luck it be released in the same year as Ultima VII, it might have got the recognition it deserves.
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