D'arc is sixteen years old. He has trained extensively in the Elemental arts for the past decade, under the discerning eyes of the Mage Masters of Iginor. Confined to an existence of academics and magical mastery in their tower, the inquisitive Initiate often wonders what it would be like to explore...
D'arc is sixteen years old. He has trained extensively in the Elemental arts for the past decade, under the discerning eyes of the Mage Masters of Iginor. Confined to an existence of academics and magical mastery in their tower, the inquisitive Initiate often wonders what it would be like to explore the secluded outside world.
D'arc's moment of reckoning arrives and his Masters put him to the test. The young Initiate is tasked with retrieving three items, which will test his magical and mental strength to full capacity:
A lock of hair from a powerful Enchantress.
The unspoiled shell of Griffon's egg.
The three-pronged horn of the legendary Trinicorn.
Join D'arc on a perilous journey across the medieval-styled land of Iginor. Brave the perilous Bloodbark forest where the Redcap goblins stalk. Trek across a barren desert wasteland rife with lawless Bandits and fierce Burrowers. Navigate over a vast lake where evil masquerades as beauty. And ascend beyond the lofty mountain peaks where the mysterious and hostile Flyterians dwell, suspicious of all outsiders. It is time for D'arc to prove himself.
Three quests. One chance. Will D'arc succeed and take his place among his fellow Mages?
Features
A uniquely-crafted RPG/Adventure game.
Gain new spells as your character improves. No stat grinding!
Replay as one of four Mage classes (Water, Air, Fire, and Earth), each with unique spells, puzzles, and solutions.
Beautifully detailed pixel-art character animations.
Over 30 detailed character portraits.
Over 9,000 voiced and lip-synced speech lines.
A complete digital music soundtrack, brimming with magic and mystery.
Battle against a horrid horde of monsters or avoid combat and focus on adventure.
Multiple story paths, depending on your in-game choices.
More than 50 magical gemstones to enhance your magical power.
I like both King's Quest and Quest for Glory that flavor this game, so if based on theme, story, music and charm of the world that was built, I would have given it a 4 out of 5. However, there's a few issues that bring it down a notch: no easy way to replenish mana, combat grinding doesn't really give you a good advantage over just playing it for the story, and a few bugs/issues like losing loot if you change screen to go kill another monster that wandered off. If they could fix these, and maybe they will, I would give it the 4 it deserves.
The first thing you'll notice when playing is how unbelievably clunky the combat system is. If you run into the enemy, you're pretty much stuck; you can't really dodge consistently and attack; you have to wait for some time after running away before you can actually interact with your surroundings...
But! The thing is that if you set the combat difficulty slider to 'easy' you can relax and enjoy the more positive aspects of the game - witty dialogs, beautiful backgrounds, nice music and puzzles that (almost) never send you in "WTF?!" state.
You won't be able to avoid combating completely, as there are a few boss fights, and some tight areas where escaping is a bit difficult, but after a few initial points in Int things tend to become much easier, and mosters drop a lot of gems which can be sold at an appropriate vendor for 10+ gold each. (that means zero money/mana problems after first trial)
About 30% of the puzzles is based on your element, and you get a special side quest for each class, which adds a nice flavour and some replayability.
This game DID scratch that everlasting KQ/QfG itch in a very satisfying manner, so, even despite some combat clumsiness, 5/5, will replay.
Bottom Line Upfront: A good attempt at classic point and click 90s adventure but gets tedious in various spots.
Overall, graphically the game does a good job emulating the feel of an old adventure title. The game graphics are great and character portraits are well done. The "cutscenes" leave a lot to be desired and I would have preferred they kept it pixelated fullscreen cutscenes not the pseudo-Disney look.
Sound effects and music were good and fit the mood but the voice was pretty sub-par. The main character was annoying at the best of times and his best friend was a bad fit. That being said, there was too much dialogue and exposition going on that didn't really add much to what was going on.
Storywise, it tried to be deep but ended up hitting some real low points. The overall iniation objectives didn't really make any sense, it just felt like go get these things and you'll "prove" yourself? hmm okay. Then the metastory didn't really jive for me either. I thought the mage's were supposed to be really strong and formidable? I wish there was more humor injected, I was expecting to see that Sierra gag humor but never really got it. The two guys in the bar don't count, they weren't funny.
The combat was pretty bad unfortuately. The quests hold your hand pretty much every step of the way, constantly directing you to pretty much every objective or auto teleporting you in some instances. Even your spells you use in the world give you "indicators" for use and the game does let you turn that off but honestly who's going to purposely increase the difficulty. I would have preferred no difficulty slider. I would have preferred the game to have an omptimzed way to play that you can't alter, an "as intended" version. I did enjoy there's an export feature for future games.
It's worth a playthrough as it does give some nostalgia back to those old days of adventure games. I hope they can make some improvements to the story and puzzles for the next title.
Being a ardent fan of King's Quest and games like it, I enjoyed Mage's Initiation immensely. The pixel art is breathtaking and the story and world are very interesting (specifically for spoiler-y reasons, which I won't include). The music was also very impressive. The battle system was simple and fun, and I look forward to replaying with a different element.
One small negative were the animated sequences, when were unnecessary and did not go with the rest of the game. Regardless, I still loved this game and will be on the lookout for a sequel.
I have way more than 1 positive point to list :
-Graphics : The pictures demonstrate their own life, the world is wonderful to walk on ! I'm admirative of the very good choice of style of colours and drawing. Visual effects are also present, and add dynamism to the game. The clouds of the sky are also moving. I simply love the graphics ! Graphics cannot be enough to make a good game, so...
- Characters : None of them are caricatural. Each of them has a personality, a psychology, and, depending of the situation, to show something unusual. The voice acting shows talent, commitment and sincerity. In one sentence, I feel as if the characters really exists :)
- Sound effects & musics : The quality of the sound is present. Nothing shocks or surprise, as the sound is according to the items, the situation. An anachronism or two doesn't hurt, and I appreciated the piano at the tavern ;)
- Lore : The context of the mages and why the era, what happened before. It's more than an adventure/RPG game, it's a story that shows. The game leaves books to the player, and whenver it's possible, characters are here to help. This avoids the player to "have the same brain as the devs", as the player isn't trapped in an impossible dead-end. No need of divination !
- Storyline : The game starts slowly, you have instructions to, ideally, become an initiate. Not everything is simple, and sometime, going straight to the goal. Everything has been made to create a surprise, and with replayability depending of the class of the mage, there are different ways to solve them !
- Technical : Playing often on a laptop, I'm extremely happy to say the game won't fry my computer ! I wasn't in need to buy a new computer just to play the game, thank you for using AGS ! It is important that a game doesn't require a complicated and over-demanding configuration
I'm 100% satisfied of the game, and wish for a sequel ! Huge thank you to the team for the choices that were made !
