Inspiration:The game is a classic western RPG inspired by the games from the 90s. Basically, it’s the kind of game I personally find missing nowadays. Light, fairy tale, epic, heroic and slightly humorous. One that does not take tons of hours to complete or require endless grind to progress. Somethi...
The game is a classic western RPG inspired by the games from the 90s. Basically, it’s the kind of game I personally find missing nowadays. Light, fairy tale, epic, heroic and slightly humorous. One that does not take tons of hours to complete or require endless grind to progress. Something that caters to players like me who don’t have tons of hours to beat one game but still like to play and have a sort of nostalgia for the way games were made in the old days.
It was inspired by Dungeon Master, Eye of The Beholder 2, Might & Magic 3-5, Crystals of Arborea (a not so well known prequel to Ishar series), GoldBox series (Champions of Krynn, Dark Queen of Krynn, etc).
Core Design Choices:
1) Classic, 90 degree rotation, FPP, turn-based, tile movement RPG.
2) Party-based (7 heroes, either predefined or manually assembled upon new game).
3) Open world with a big overworld to explore.
4) Fast paced combat. Quick travel. Easy inventory management. No grind.
5) Light, fairy tale like fantasy, epic story about heroes on a noble quest.
Mechanics:
Mechanically it’s 100% turn based (so you can go and make tea in the middle of a fight) with grid movement and 90 degree rotation. All this is very fast paced, both combat and travel is really fast. The goal was to cut down the boring parts and flesh out the fun parts.
Overall, the mechanics are pretty traditional and straightforward with modern additions like weightless bag combined with equipment encumbrance system.
World and Storyline:
Storyline is a fairy tale, mythical heroic fantasy. You are the good guys on a quest to fight the forces of evil. The world is non linear, with very few locked areas. You basically can go anywhere and do things in different order. In addition you can choose a different set of quests to finish the game (but those are not mutually exclusive, so you can finish all quests if you like). It’s more world driven than story driven. The priority was to make the world feel alive and let you explore it as you wish than follow a linear list of quests.
The game starts when the royal wizard finds out about an old crown that belonged to the royal family for generations. Yet, strangely no one ever heard about the crown and there was just a single mention of it in the royal annals. Upon further study he discovered that there has been cast a powerful spell of forgetfulness of unknown origin which caused everyone in the whole land to forget the crown ever existed. Without knowing who or why someone went to such trouble to conceal the existence of the crown he decided to investigate it. He summoned a party of noble heroes and tasked them with finding whereabouts of the mysterious crown and the origin of the spell.
FAQ:
Q: How long it takes to beat the game?
A: According to Early Access players it can take between 20 and 50 hours to finish the game (I estimate a typical playthrough would be 25-40 hours for most players).
Q: Can I create party members or are they predefined?
A: Yes, you can create all party members upon start if you wish (there is also a quick start option).
This game could be a gem, in your hoard, filled with games.
If you like old rpg games, mostly dungeon crawler, you will very likely love it.
If you are not afraid of:
-bright coloured world,
-a very little animations (no cut scenes!),
-moving one square at a time,
-little bit of magic,
-a whole bunch of hacking through enemy's hordes
you could give it a try.
It is a fresh breeze of rpg as a Legend of Grimrock once was.
I'm not sure why everyone mentions Eye of the Beholder or Dungeon Master. Those have a specific gameplay which is focused on mapping and puzzle-solving dungeons, levers, doors, pressure-plates, with lots of secret buttons/walls; plus real-time combat. Legend of Grimrock and countless other games made a fantastic hommage to that.
This game is something entirely else really, a specific hommage to early Might & Magic, and it's an almost exact replica of M&M 3, down to the world islands layout, the huts, the division of dungeons in caves/towers/castles, the turn-based combat system, the UI, etc. That's not a bad thing, since a hommage to that specific branch of old grid-based games was something really missing. I've played MM3 I think probably 20 times at least, and I found here the same irresistible, plain, fun.
It's not about slowly puzzling out a dungeon. The effectiveness of the formula is about a quick and rewarding loop of exploring self-contained dungeons, finding new gear, solving a quest, going back to town, leveling up, and hop, on to the next dungeon. Simple, fast and addictive, slowly reaching out further in the world map as you grow stronger. Another key element here is the humor. Contrary to dark serious games like EoB, DM, LoG and so on, M&M games were light-hearted, with Monty Python-like humoristic breaking of the 4th wall. All that tone is perfectly nailed here, and I'd say even better than the original which had some juvenile silliness at times. The only thing missing is the sci-fi mash-up, but that's actually ok, I always found it a bit silly too.
4 stars because:
- Dungeons are of a too uniform size and design. Most are fine as is, but it could be good to have some really big/huge ones.
- Loot could have more variety, especially in the top end. The immunities and resistances systems is cool though.
- Art is a bit hit and miss, the colorful retro artistic direction is good, but the execution is uneven.
I bought Part 2 and looking forward to it!
This is one of the games where you delude yourself into playing more because it reminds you of better games. It just isn't up to that and I had to decide to stop playing it as it was habit, not satisfaction, making me play more.
Let's face it - this is a clone of Might and Magic 3 to 5, but simpler in ways that quickly takes the wind out of its sails. Yes, you see enemies move on the map and in the dungeons. But you can only engage them when running into them. No ranged combat in spite of there being a Ranger class. The only thing you can do here is maneuver a bit (as they advance semi-randomly) so that the monsters don't crowd up on you.
Combat is the bread and butter of such a game, and it's also lacking. Your basic options are hit, cast offensive magic, and cast healing magic. You have a few one-time-per-rest powers that aren't all that great, either. Battles are hence heavily repetitive exercises in wearing down the HP of the enemy. It didn't seem to matter even how many enemies I faced because even single monsters seemed to get multiple turns...? Anyway, the combat is not fun. My choices barely seemed to matter, and the biggest choice you have is when to withdraw a bit and rest.
What makes the game uninteresting? On the one hand, it's mostly a game about choosing in which order to fight your battles. You can basically tell from the HP counts of your enemies where you need to go next. But even then it feels like you can't get ahead of the enemies. The game maintains its "challenge" by skewing the numbers in a way that you feel like catching up often. It would be a more palatable game if it at least was something you casually breezed through. It's too bland to spend more time in it.
This goes for the map, too. Exploration is nowhere near as fun as in Might & Magic, it just imitates the vibe poorly. The map is too small and there's not enough to find in it. Dungeons have switches but no secrets...
I actually wanted to like this but it ends up a solid meh.
Well executed and good programmed reanactment of the classical might and magic I to V games. The game experiance and the controls are up to date. The Story and the game play are a wonderfull Hommage. If you have been ever at xeen (and know what that means) you will love legends of amberland!
This game just feels amazing, I gotta say that I've enjoyed the experience. Gameplay runs just like a typical dungeon crawler. The magic feels fine. The classes are varied, and interesting. However, it lacks only a few things that were present in old school dungeon crawlers
-secrets, there is no secret buttons to press that open hidden treasures
-it feels a bit too linear, you could add different ways of completing certain quests
-perhaps add a hardcore mode where your hunger meter drops if you don't eat.
That's why I give it a 4 star, it's almost there, but it could add some features.
