#it sounds like the background music of a certain location like a dungeon and such. so not battle music

[daz4i]

hardest challenge a girl can face. got a song stuck in my head and idk what it's called or where it's from but it's instrumental so i can't also keep singing it in my head till i find a lyric i can google. so sad

[nerdythebard]

#12: The Doctor [Doctor Who]

Brother, I disown you...

I don't know what my friend/chosen brother was thinking when he made this request... Actually, no, I know exactly what he was thinking! Well, no time to dawdle, let's do this Time Warp. Again.

Next Time: Before we return to the gods, I want to make a character very close to my heart. He is also a Doctor... only, word of warning, he's a little... Strange.

Well then... sigh, let's see the goals we need to meet to make the most brilliant alien in television playable in D&D:

Heroes Never Die: The signature ability of a Time Lord (and the most problematic), a way to cheat death and return to life. Yes, somehow we need to make a virtually immortal character in Dungeons & Dragons...

Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Even in his relatively serious regenerations, the Doctor is prone to flashes of randomness, acts of nonsense, mixing puns and physical comedy to often hide the incredibly fast and advanced brain processes.

Go-Go Gadget Galore: Do I even need to say anything? Besides his trusty TARDIS (which will not be included here, we're making the Doctor, not his equipment!), the Doctor also brandishes sonic devices of multiple varieties, psychic paper, the thing that goes DING, etc.

---

As you can imagine, finding the right race replacement for Time Lords wasn't easy. I'm definitely not using The-Movie-That-Does-Not-Exist solution, and making the Doctor... half-human, urgh. All we need to do is find a humanoid, almost-fossil race that can come back from death a limited amount of times.

The Doctor is a Human Revenant, a playtest race from Unearthed Arcana: Gothic Heroes. In-game, Revenant is an undead that came back to life to pursue a certain goal, whether it's vengeance, retribution, or to make amends. Putting some flavour into it, and turning it into a long-living, mysterious being who perhaps came from the Astral Plane to search for a way to save his home planet... why not? Regular Revenants get only a +1 to Constitution, but if we're using pre-existing race (such as Human), there's another set of rules. So, we get a +1 Constitution and +1 Intelligence, and we don't get to pick a skill or a feat. Not yet.

What's most important here is the Revenant's Relentless Nature feature. We are assigned a goal, a very specific one, that we must complete in order to achieve peace. Work with your DM on that one (the saving-your-home-world one from before sounds like a good start). Until we complete the goal:

If we are below Hit Points Maximum, at the start of our turn we regain 1 Hit Point;

We know the distance and direction to any creature involved in our goal (perhaps a fellow, once-friend Time Lord?);

When we die, we come back to life within 24 hours with 1 Hit Point. If our body is destroyed, we come back in a spot within 1 mile of our place of death (unfortunately, our equipment is destroyed);

BOOM! JUST FLAVOUR EACH DEATH AS A CHANGE OF FACE AND PERSONALITY, AND WE HAVE THE REGENERATION SYSTEM! HAH! YOU SEE THAT, BROTHER!?

Ekhm... back to work, then.

The Doctor is pretty far from home, so giving him the Far Traveller background seems like the right approach. We gain proficiencies in Insight and Perception skills, proficiencies with one musical instrument (perhaps a recorder?)/gaming set, we learn one language of our choice, and we get the All Eyes on You feature; our mannerisms and quirks definitely draw attention towards us and our group, but we can take advantage of that in order to fish for some information, secure an audience with the local nobleman, or... I dunno, snog Madame de Pompadour?

ABILITY SCORES

No surprise there, we start with Intelligence. We have a literal Big Galaxy Brain™ and we use it often, and only sometimes to show off. Follow that up with Dexterity, we're nimble and we're doing a lot of running, especially when being chased (plus, we've invented the Drunken Giraffe dance). Constitution is next, the Gallifreyan biology is significantly superior to that of regular Terrans.

Next up, Charisma. It usually works, sometimes it doesn't, but even then we're kinda adorkable. Wisdom is a little low, I think we all shall agree to that, the Doctor is a creature of whim. He gets lost in thought, has a hard time remembering to explain his logic to others. Finally, we're dumping Strength. Now, we're definitely physically stronger than humans, I just don't remember any particular feats of super-strength in the show.

Heck, you want even more Time Lord shenanigans? Ask your DM to implement the "every death/regeneration makes all ability scores randomly switch places" rule.

CLASS

Level 1 - Artificer: Once again, nobody is surprised we begin with the Smart & Techy One™ for the Doctor. Artificers were brought to 5e via Tasha's Cauldron of Everything. These magical tinkers have d8 Hit Dice, [8 + Constitution modifier] initial Hit Points, proficiencies with light armour, medium armour, heavy armour, shields, simple weapons, and optionally firearms (although that's definitely not the Doctor's style). We additionally get proficiency with thieves' tools, tinker's tools, and one set of artisan's tools we choose. We can't get the sonic screwdriver (although if you want one, hint to your DM about the existence of the All-Purpose Tool), we have all these tools to replace it with. Our saving throws are Constitution and Intelligence, and we get to pick two class skills: let's get History and Investigation.

Artificers start with Magical Tinkering, an ability to bestow harmless magical properties onto inanimate objects. We choose a Tiny object with no magic in it, and grant it one of the following properties indefinitely:

It sheds bright light for 5 feet and dim light for an additional 5;

Whenever tapped, the object plays a recorded message no longer than six seconds;

The object continuously emits a smell or a sound of our choice;

A static image (picture, lines of text, shapes, etc.) appear on the object's surface.

Artificers are also casters, so at the first level, we get Spellcasting. Our casting ability is, of course, Intelligence and the number of spells we can prepare is equal to [our Intelligence modifier + half of our Artificer level rounded down]. We also know how to cast rituals.

We start with two cantrips:

Magic Stone lets us imbue three pebbles with magic (or perhaps, in this case, kinetic energy?) for 1 minute. We can then use the pebbles ourselves, or give them to somebody else. On a successful hit, the target suffers [1d6 + our Intelligence modifier] bludgeoning damage and the spell ends on that particular pebble.

Prestidigitation is a cantrip of plenty varieties, which very well could be disguised as the Doctor's tinkering with his sonic screwdriver. It can be used to warm or chill food, clean or soil objects, or perhaps lighting and snuffing our small flames.

We start with two 1st-level spell slots, and we get three 1st-level spells:

Alarm sets up a secured perimeter, no larger than a 20-feet cube, for 8 hours. Whenever a create not-designated as safe while setting the spell, crosses its boundary, we get a signal informing us about the intrusion, which also wakes us up if we're sleeping. The signal can be set to inform only us, or everybody around.

Detect Magic informs us of any magical activity within 30 feet of us for 10 minutes (concentration). We sense magic lingering on objects, people, as well as locations, and we can determine the type of magic present (but not a particular spell, for example, we sense that a spell on the object is enchantment-type, but not that it's Power Word: Kill).

Identify is... pretty much the one function of the sonic screwdriver we've all seen. It lets us learn about an object we choose, including its magical properties (if any) and if it's affected by any spells. And it works on wood!

With a spell list like that, we can safely say

Level 2 - Artificer: We continue with the Tech Savvy Class, and we learn the Artificer's signature skill, Infuse Item. It lets us bestow magical properties onto mundane items. Similarly to Warlock's Invocations, Artificers have Infusions they can select and put into items. Starting from this level, we can infuse two items at once, and we get to pick four Infusions from the list. For the Doctor, let's pick:

Replicate Magic Item: Bag of Holding is probably the most useful infusion in the early game. The infusion does exactly what it says, and a Bag of Holding is always a good item to own (just watch out for the Bag Man!)

Enhanced Defence infusion puts some extra protection (+1 to AC) onto an armour or a shield.

Mind Sharpener is a helping hand for any spellcaster. The infusion put onto an armour, or woven into a robe, sends a jolt to re-focus the mind. When the wearer fails a Constitution saving throw to keep their concentration, one charge (out of four) of the infusion expends, to make them succeed instead. The charges are refilled at dawn.

Returning Weapon gives a +1 to attack and damage rolls of the weapon it's applied on and makes it return to the wielder's hand immediately after it's used to make a ranged attack. With the keyword "immediately", it gives your Rangers and other bow-users infinite ammunition with just one arrow.

We can also get one more 1st-level spell: Disguise Self changes our appearance for 1 hour, or until we choose to dismiss it as an action. The spell affects our body, clothing, and items we carry (including weapons). It is not a physical disguise, just an illusion woven around us; if we make ourselves thinner than we really are, and somebody was to touch the space where our regular body would be, they're going to feel the body, albeit invisible. For the Doctor, this seems like a combination of psychic paper and the Chameleon Circuit.

Level 3 - Artificer: At this level, we get the Right Tool for the Job feature. If we have thieves' tools or artisan's tools in hand, we can create any other set of artisan's tools.

We also get to pick our subclass, our Artificer Specialization. The Doctor is no alchemist, and we'll probably build Tony Stark at some time in the future, therefore we're picking Battle Smith. Those tinkers are masters of protections, being able to put up defensive mechanisms on the spot. Since the Doctor is a diplomat first, runner second, and combatant very close and reluctant third, focusing on support is a good option.

As a Battle Smith, we gain proficiencies with smith's tools, and we gain some more magic with Battle Smith Spells:

Heroism imbues the willing creature with bravery. Until the spell ends (1 minute, concentration), the target is immune to being frightened and gains Temporary Hit Points equal to our Intelligence modifier at the start of each of their turns (AKA every six seconds). When the spell ends, any Temporary Hit Points remaining are lost.

Shield creates an invisible barrier as a reaction to getting hit. It adds +5 to our AC until the start of our next turn.

Although a reluctant fighter, the Doctor as a Battle Smith also gets the Battle Ready feature. We gain proficiency with martial weapons, and when we attack with a magic weapon, we can use our Intelligence modifier instead of Strength or Dexterity for attack and damage rolls.

Finally, Battle Smiths get the Steel Defender. With our tinkering, we create our first companion, a steel defender; it is friendly to us and our companions and obeys our commands. With that, we got ourselves the one and only K9

Level 4 - Artificer: At this level, we get our first Ability Score Improvement! However, instead of upgrading our abilities this time, we'll grab a feat. The Telepathic feat from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything will represent the Doctor's limited psychic abilities: we increase one of our non-physical abilities by 1, let's go for Intelligence. We can speak telepathically to any creature within 60 feet, but the creature cannot reply (unless they're telepathic too, of course). Finally, we can touch a Detect Thoughts spell once per long rest, without a need to expend spell slots. Give your target a good headbutt, and learn their surface thoughts.

We also get our final spell: Catapult turns one inanimate object that isn't worn or carried (and weighs from 1 to 5 pounds) and turns it into a remote projectile. The object flies in a straight line for 90 feet before losing its momentum and falling. If it hits a creature, they have to make a Dexterity saving throw or take 3d8 bludgeoning damage. Distract your pursuers with a head of cabbage flying at their heads.

Level 5 - Rogue: We say goodbye to the Artificer, as we move onto Rogue for the rest of the build. Rogues use the same Hit Dice as Artificers, so nothing really changes when it comes to our Hit Points. We already have proficiency with light armour and thieves' tools, but we can pick one class skill – let's pick Acrobatics for better running and parkour chances when escaping aliens and responsibilities.

Rogues start with Expertise, which lets us double our proficiency bonus (NOT ability modifier) for two skills of our choice: let's boost Insight and History, to best utilize our centuries of living. We also learn how to speak Thieves' Cant, a special system of phrases and signals used by other Rogues to communicate without revealing their secrets. Finally, we have Sneak Attack: once per turn we can add 1d6 extra damage if a) we have an advantage on our roll, or b) the target is within 5 feet of another creature hostile towards it. The attack must be done by either a ranged weapon or one with the finesse property (like a dagger or a rapier).

Level 6 - Rogue: We get Cunning Action, which let us turn some Actions we can do in combat into Bonus Actions. That way, we still have an Action to spare if we decide to use Dash, Disengage, or Hide. Considering how much running the Doctor does, it's good to have something else to do just in case.

Level 7 - Rogue: Our Sneak Attack changes to 2d6.

We also get to pick our second subclass, our Roguish Archetype. Now, initially, I considered going Swashbuckler, as it combines nimble footwork and gives us some charm abilities. However, since we're going with the build that emphasizes support and actual combat as a last resort, we'll go with Inquisitive.

We start this subclass with Ear for Deceit, whenever we roll Insight checks to determine if a creature is lying to us, we treat each roll of 7 or lower as 8.

We also get Eye for Detail. This is mostly to be used in combat (or if your DM runs dungeons in Initiative Mode), as it allows us to use Perception or Investigation checks as a bonus action, where it would normally take an action.

Finally, Inquisitive Rogues get Insightful Fighting. As a bonus action, we can make an Insight check, contested by the enemy's Deception check. If we succeed, for 1 minute we can use our Sneak Attack on the target even if we don't have an advantage or the target isn't near another of its enemies.

Level 8 - Rogue: Time for another ASI! Let's raise our Intelligence by 1 point, and use the spare one for Strength.

Level 9 - Rogue: Our Sneak Attack changes to 3d6.

We also get Uncanny Dodge. Whenever we're being hit by an attack, we can use our reaction to halve the damage dealt.

Level 10 - Rogue: Halfway through the build, and we get another shot at Expertise. Once again, we get two skills to which we can double our proficiency bonus. Let's go with Perception and Investigation.

Level 11 - Rogue: Our Sneak Attack becomes 4d6.

We also get one of the better abilities in the game, Evasion. If we're being targeted by an AoE attack that would deal half damage on a successful Dexterity saving throw, we take no damage if we make the save. What that means is, we can now take a Fireball face-on, shrug it off and loudly proclaim

Level 12 - Rogue: We get another ASI. Let's improve our Dexterity by two points this time.

Level 13 - Rogue: Our Sneak Attack becomes 5d6.

We also get another subclass feature. Steady Eye gives us an advantage on Perception or Investigation checks if we move no more than half of our movement speed on our turn.

Level 14 - Rogue: Time for another ASI. Let's focus on getting some more Hit Points this time, and get +2 points to Constitution.

Level 15 - Rogue: Our Sneak Attack becomes 6d6.

At this level, we get Reliable Talent, which upgrades our abilities to almost anime protagonist-level. Whenever we make a check for a skill we're proficient in, we treat all rolls of 9 and lower as 10.

Level 16 - Rogue: We're getting one more ASI. Let's raise our Dexterity again, putting 2 points in it.

Level 17 - Rogue: Our Sneak Attack becomes 7d6.

We get our final subclass upgrade for this build, the Unerring Eye. We can now sense illusions and magical tricks within 30 feet, as well as shapechangers not in their original form. We can detect there is an effect trying to trick our senses around us, but we don't know its nature (i.e. if we meet a creature that activates our sense, we cannot distinguish whether it's a Disguise Self spell, or a natural shapeshifting ability, or a Druid's Wild Shape).

Level 18 - Rogue: We get another one of the best abilities in the game, Blindsense. We can now detect the presence of invisible and hidden creatures within 10 feet radius of us.

Level 19 - Rogue: Our Sneak Attack becomes 8d6.

Our mind becomes more slippery with Slippery Mind. We gain proficiency in Wisdom saving throws.

Level 20 - Rogue: Our build's capstone is Rogue 16, which is also our final ASI. Let's finally cap Intelligence, as it should've been from the start when it comes to Time Lords.

---

There it is. My take on how to play as the Doctor in Dungeons & Dragons. I believe I've covered most if not all of the important features the Doctor has, but let's see:

Let's face it, we're not a frontline fighter... we're not even a backline fighter. We support. With 14 AC (without armour), 151 Hit Points on average, and a +4 to Initiative, our job is to manoeuvre, around the battlefield and let our friends take care of the enemy, while we do other things. With Reliable Talent and Expertise we are great at sweeping the room for clues and hints, even if in the heat of battle. Thanks to Unerring Eye and Blindsense, our senses aren't that easy to fool.

Unfortunately, our Strength is not great, and that means some weapons are just a hindrance (unless we pick a finesse weapon, which replaces Strength with Dexterity). While we have late-game proficiency in Wisdom saving throws, throughout the earlier stages those might prove a little problem.

---

And that is it for this build. I hope that you guys enjoyed it, and I'll see you for the next one!

- Nerdy out!

[self-loving-vampire]

Fallout: A Post-Nuclear Role-Playing Game (1997)

The Fallout series is currently kind of a big deal, but to date I think the very first game has the strongest atmosphere out of all of them. From the start, this game did many things right and expanded the way choice and consequence figured into the RPG genre.

I recommend playing it with the Fallout Fixt mod.

Summary

Fallout is, unlike the more modern games in the series, an isometric RPG with turn-based combat and a much heavier inspiration from tabletop roleplaying games.

Rather than using a fantasy setting as is the standard for this type of game, Fallout takes place in a post-apocalyptic world with a retrofuturistic aesthetic and a more mature atmosphere. This automatically made it stand out from the crowd, and then the game’s approach to quest design and character-building solidified its place as a classic.

Freedom

In terms of player freedom, there are few games that manage to even reach the same level as this one.

When designing Fallout, the developers tried to include at least three potential solutions to many of the problems the player may encounter, using the game’s robust character creation system to allow all kinds of characters to have options for how to proceed.

For example, an early quest involves rescuing a girl from a raider gang. Your options include fighting your way in and out of the place, using stealth to sneak to where she is and pick (or blow up) the lock, use your speech skill to intimidate the raider into releasing the her, purchasing her freedom, defeating the raider leader in a one-on-one unarmed fight, or even impersonating the leader’s father for her release.

To be clear, not all quests have quite this many options, but there’s still usually a few, including some that may not be obvious when playing certain kinds of characters.

This famously extends to the end of the game, where it is possible to overcome the final challenge without engaging in combat.

On top of quests having multiple solutions, the world itself is completely open, gated only partially by the fact that certain areas are populated by more powerful monsters (and even then, it is possible to avoid them).

While there’s never enough options and I can think of a couple of places where I wish I could have had different ones (such as during the very last conversation in the game), the game is generally doing a lot of things right on this front, especially for its time.

Many of the game’s factions and settlements also have various different endings depending on the player’s actions.

Character Creation/Customization

This is another aspect of the game that won over many RPG fans. The character creation uses the SPECIAL system, invented for this series following licensing issues with GURPS. 

It is a versatile system with three main components: Your SPECIAL stats (Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck), your skills (three of which can be tagged at the start of the game, gaining a bonus and increasing faster), and your traits.

Traits in particular were optional features that would grant your character both a bonus and a penalty. For example, the Fast Shot trait makes some of your attacks faster (consuming less action points) but at the cost of being unable to make targeted shots.

And it does not stop there. Fallout had “Perks” that could be gained every 3 levels, which could grant a variety of rewards, some of them very significant. For example, the Better Criticals perk makes your critical hits more devastating, sometimes even enabling them to become instant-kill attacks regardless of the target’s remaining HP. From what I understand, this perk system may have been the genesis of D&D’s feat system too.

However, the real strength of this character system lies in how the game implements it. Both your stats and your skills will affect what dialogue options you have available and what actions you can successfully take in the game world.

This might sound like it should be the default for any RPG, but you might be surprised to know how many games, even otherwise very good ones, don’t seem to even try to implement something like this. 

Many other games, even today, don’t let you specialize your character in any way outside of combat. All characters have access to all options and your stats don’t affect anything but combat.

It’s not all positive, however. There are some balance issues to be found.

In particular, Intelligence and Agility are overpowered, as is the Gifted trait. There are also many skills, traits, and perks that are of marginal usefulness at best. Skills like Throwing, Traps, or Gambling (for example) just don’t come up very often or provide meaningful advantages over other skills even accounting for the fact that a pretty low gambling skill is enough to gain essentially infinite money.

Story/Setting

This is really the part that draws people to the series in the first place. There’s just not that many post-apocalyptic RPGs out there (Wasteland and UnderRail come to mind).

The story is relatively simple. Nuclear war has largely destroyed civilization, your ancestors survived by hiding in an underground shelter called a Vault, but the water processing chip broke and now you have 150 days to find a replacement before your entire community dies of dehydration.

The search of this replacement has you leave the vault for the first time in your life and explore the wastes, and the many diverse communities that have begun to grow and rebuild in it.

Many mutated creatures inhabit post-nuclear California, and you soon discover an even greater threat in the horizon. However, this is not an RPG about dungeons and monsters. Most of your time will be spent in various settlements, dealing with other humans.

Immersion

Pretty good overall, though still not on the level as some of my other favorites like Ultima 7 or Gothic 2. The game has day/night cycles and a few simple NPC schedules that help add some life to it, but for the most part what carries this aspect is the game’s solid worldbuilding and the relative reactivity of its setting.

One areas that detracts from the game’s immersion somewhat is the limited animations. For example, NPCs don’t actually “sleep” in their beds, they only stand next to them at night.

Some NPCs don’t seem to have schedules at all either, remaining roughly in the same state and location throughout the day.

However on the net I’d say this is still a rather immersive game, especially if you can apply a bit of your imagination to make up for the lack of animations and background details (some more text descriptions of certain locations could have helped here probably).

One place I particularly liked the first time I played was Junktown, as a couple of quests and events there felt very spontaneous to my then-young mind.

Gameplay

As previously explained, there are a variety of non-combat options throughout the game. In particular I really like how the dialogue works, especially when you compare it to the approach taken in Fallout 3, Fallout 4, and even New Vegas.

In the first two Fallout games, you do not get a [Speech] tag pointing to the optimal dialogue options. You have to think for yourself about what the most persuasive thing to say is, and what your skill does is make the option show up at all. If your skill is not high enough then the option will be not only unavailable but hidden.

I prefer this to the game outright telling you that one of your skills is tied to a dialogue option, as in practice it ends up being the same as marking that option as the correct one most of the time.

And then there’s the combat. A lot of people don’t seem to like it, but I actually think it works fine as long as you set the speed to max as the animations are a bit slow by default.

Besides the speed issue (which is easily fixed), the main complaint about the combat is that it is overly simple. This is not entirely wrong, as even though there is a wide variety of weapons to play with there is not actually that much variety in combat actions: Move, attack, targeted attack, open inventory (for healing), and sometimes burst mode make up over 95% of what you will be doing from start to finish.

There are still some tactics involved in positioning yourself and taking cover from enemy fire, as well as making good use of targeted shots to cripple the enemy. However, the fact that you have no manual control over your party members limits this front. Party members in general are both unintelligent and quickly left behind in the base game, as they don’t improve or equip better armor. The mechanics for equipping them are also rather janky.

However, combat does have its positives too. The idea of targeted shots is great, as are the accompanying critical descriptions. The animations and sound effects also make combat extremely satisfying, every hit that lands seems to carry a real weight to it.

There is also some nice variety to the death animations. Where more recent games in the series largely just have people’s body parts explode or instantly transform them into piles of ashes/goo, Fallout 1 and 2 feel like they have much more in this department.

Aesthetics

While the non-combat animations are not too good, there is a lot to like about the general art style of the game, from the architecture to the incredible talking heads various NPCs have.

The atmosphere of the game is also amazing, not only due to the way it looks but also because of the dark and ominous soundtrack (give me this over 50s music any day) that helps make the world feel appropriately desolate and perilous.

Even just the game’s intro shocked a generation and clearly marked Fallout as something dark and different.

However, this game’s atmosphere goes beyond sight and sound. The gameplay helps to heighten it. Combat is very lethal even if not always difficult, and the lack of clear initial directions beyond “Try Vault 15″ also helps the players feel appropriately lost until they find a lead.

The talking heads in particular have aged extremely well. I would say they even look better than a lot of modern RPG graphics.

Accessibility

The same lack of direction I just praised might be off-putting for some, and while the game is mechanically very simple there is no tutorial. This alone can make some modern players fail to understand some of the core mechanics.

The quest log is also rather non-descriptive, so it can be easy to lose track of some details unless one takes some additional notes outside the game.

However, the game’s manual is not only complete and written for people new to RPGs, it’s also quite fun to read. A lot of people these days just don’t seem to think of the manual as something they should look at, but it helps to keep in mind that older games typically require it.

Don’t let the size of it discourage you either. You don’t need to read the whole thing at once and a lot of it is fluff or things you might already know from other games (like how to load or save your game). Just look at the index and see what might be good to know from the start.

Conclusion

It should be no surprise when I say that this is a game entirely worth playing, whether you are an existing fan of the series or not. Like many of the other games that I have reviewed and will review in the future, this one has great historical significance on its own on top of having many positives even when compared to the more modern games in the series, especially in terms of aesthetics.

Furthermore, the game is pretty short. It can easily be completed in about 20 hours or less for a first playthrough, and yet it offers so much more than that due to the many options and replayability it provides.

There is really no other game quite like this. Not even the few other post-apocalyptic RPGs that exist, not even other games in the same series (including Fallout 2). I would call this one of my favorites.

[thebigladjake]

AX3001: Oddyssey - TV Show Research and Development: Giygas and the Intrigue of having an unexplainable villain

When it came to making a TV Show, I always had an idea for an Earthbound spiritual successor since 2018 and over this last Summer when we were briefed to make three TV Shows. I had to really think about what ideas I wanted to do. However, during my downtime, I suddenly remembered one specific thing about my Earthbound experience...

Giygas

The Embodiment of Evil, the Universal Cosmic Destroyer or the Almighty Idiot according to who you ask, Giygas is the main antagonist of Earthbound and appropriately serves as the game’s final boss before your adventure comes to a close. Granted, him being the very last thing you fight leads to you leaving with that boss fresh on your mind. But, I hadn’t played Earthbound for a few years... And Giygas just suddenly popped into my head. And a lot of the questions were “Why is he like this? This cute and friendly game has a boss that looks like a nightmare?” I was absolutely fascinated by this boss and it led to my second playthrough of the game.

Onett, the start of the Adventure

This is the hometown of our main character, Ness and effectively our window into the world of this game. We see the town he lives in, it’s so bright and colourful with all the town essentials! A burger shop, a town hall, an arcade, hospital, police station and library, it’s familiar to us as our hometowns most likely have similar locations. The vibrant colours of all the buildings is eye-catching and welcoming! 

The music is also worth noting as it’s very peppy and upbeat, it feels like the theme of a small town with a nice community. Most of the music follows this formula.

Most of the towns in the game follow this design and it does feel like you’re exploring more and more of the world, like you’ve ventured further than you have ever gone before and you’re not going to stop because this world is so interesting and welcoming!

Some towns deviate from the formula, but the good people in the towns help to established the same welcoming energy that we’re used to.

Now, let’s take a look at the final map before Giygas’ lair...

The Cave of the Past, the end of the Adventure

Complete contrast to what has been established this entire game. There are absolutely no colours, there are no buildings, no operations of Giygas’ in the background. It’s just a path to the end of the journey and it’s so simple... But, it’s super effective! The lack of colour helps to make it feel otherworldly, makes it feel alien to the world that you’re used to and that’s exactly what Giygas is, he’s not from the world. 

Even our main cast of heroes could not be transported back in time without being transferred into robot bodies, all of their colour is gone too. All except Ness’ hat, showing a small bit of colour almost as if it’s that one bit of hope of beating Giygas.

At the end of games, usually going to the final boss’ lair will be some huge event where you see all of their plans, what they’ve built over time and will be accompanied by some epic score. Earthbound does things differently.

Just give that a listen, it’s a eerie, droning piece that doesn’t sound like a great confrontation theme. It sounds like ambience more than a score to me and I think that makes it scarier, like you are in the positions of the kids who are probably incredibly scared of what they are going to have to face once inside that cave. It’s so incredible and it’s a sample of the Beach Boys song, ‘Deirdre’.

It’s the opening note and I find it amazing how a single sample can do so much! There is another Earthbound track that I will link here which features a sample of the trumpet in the intro of the Beatles song, ‘All you need is Love’ and again, it sets up so much with just a tiny little sample.

This is used just before going to the Cave of the Past, instead being the Cave of the Present. It’s technically just two notes with a reverb, but the sample adds so much and it just feels uncomfortable. However, we don’t need to talk about this for long, let’s go right to Giygas’ lair!

Giygas Lair, the true contrast to Earthbound’s style!

I apologise for the size of the image, but it’s pretty much a straight path but LOOK AT THIS! A trail of organs and entrails twisting and turning through this dark void until you find this uncanny monstrosity of a machine made of the same organic material you were walking on. This. This is what made me come back, it’s such a disturbing idea. 

This is open to interpretation, but the way caves are represented in Earthbound is to only make sprites of the ground and walls. All the stuff you can’t see is black, just like how a cave should be. Giygas’ lair has this same motif, but there doesn’t really appear to be any walls around. So depending on your view, they’re either walking through a tunnel or entrails or walking through the void as previously stated. Personally, I think both are terrifically terrifying but I definitely see the void more.

The organs pulse as you walk up them, the only noise complimenting the atmosphere is the clanking of robo-feet and the breathing of Giygas which is what I feel gives it the whole void feeling. It’s so unnerving that this is the final confrontation, but the fact that it is actually puts us in Ness and his friends shoes.

Getting to the Machine causes everything to stop, the ambience vanishes. Giygas’ intro music plays as the Machine changes to show the robots a picture of Ness’ face. Ness was prophesied to be the one who brings down Giygas and the first thing we see from the Machine is Ness, already suggesting to us that Giygas knows that we’re here...

Pokey, Ness’ childhood friend and eventual enemy over the course of the game, descends in a Spider Mech and just like that the Final Battle is about to begin!

The Final Fight

Of course, the final boss begins with Pokey standing before you with Giygas’ number one thought right now... Ness is here and he’s come to defeat me. This is a pretty standard affair for a boss, only Pokey can be harmed and he is much more a threat in this Spider Mech than he was previously in battle. 

Giygas has a shield that is impervious to any kind of physical or psychic attacks and cannot be destroyed or disabled. He attacks using the special power that only Ness knows ‘PSI Rockin’’. His shield will always reflect your shots back at the character who attacks him and even when they have shield themselves, they will get hit regardless. The Machine is what keeps Giygas stable and alive, making him completely invincible...

However... He has one big idiot on his side...

Pokey can be damaged and the strategy of the fight is to focus on him and avoid any attacks that hit the both of them. Pokey, like the main cast, is a kid and he’s incredibly immature. So as soon as his mech is defeated, he taunts the main gang and turns off the Devil’s Machine... The one thing preventing Giygas’ defeat...

Giygas Released

Once released, Pokey explains that Giygas isn’t even himself anymore. He became so powerful that his body was destroyed and had to be contained into a machine in order to maintain some sort of grasp on his thoughts. Without that machine, the four heroes are taken into a dimension of Giygas’ thoughts and since we play as Ness we hear his thoughts directed towards us the player.

He reaches out with such thoughts as repeating Ness’ (The player’s) name, saying “I feel... Sad.” or “It feels good.” and added upon these thoughts Giygas’ attacks cannot be comprehended by our characters. It really helps to add a sense of hopelessness because we have no idea what is truly going on and we can’t fight what we don’t know. 

An Unconventional Resolution

Attacks don’t work, defending won’t work either, you can’t heal or save yourself. All hopes seem lost until you notice a certain act that Paula can do. Pray.

When Paula prays, she reaches out to the world she left behind and the folks that are waiting for their return get the feeling that something bad is happening. So, they too pray from the bottom of their hearts...

https://youtu.be/cptFVD3eTEs?start=320&end=374

If you watch the small clip above, once he feels the support from the Earth. The sound cue to signify that Giygas has been damaged and that Giygas is not okay.

Onward to his next form.

Now I would like you to take a close look at this image, I’ve asked a few people about this and sometimes they get it without me saying anything and others don’t. So, just take a moment to find an image amongst the Giygas’.

Got it or have you given up? In the realm of Giygas, here in the black void is a pretty damn distinct shape of a baby. And this is what fascinated me about Giygas, there is a theory that this is symbolism for abortion as you go back in time to kill Giygas but that theory has been disproven by Shigesato Itoi, the game’s creator. There’s evidence that goes against this theory anyway, but this fetus imagery always stuck out to me. 

It’s said to be a coincidence that the Super Nintendo generated these sprites and in this pattern. But, it’s such a definite shape of a baby and I find it absolutely mental that it’s just a coincidence. And that curiosity is what brought me back to Earthbound, just this happy go lucky game where you make friends with a little monkey that chews bubblegum, make friends with a man who converts himself into a huge dungeon man and at the very end, you’re faced with this. 

It’s not only impactful imagewise, but storywise it’s just as impactful for the opposite reasons. As Giygas can now be damaged by feeling the love and support coming from the friends Ness has made across the world. Each time Giygas is hit, it gets worse, but the moment he really breaks down is when Ness’ Mother wakes up in the middle of the night and rushes downstairs with Ness’ little sister and their dog. They all feel uneasy and begin to pray for the safety of Ness and his friends.

https://youtu.be/cptFVD3eTEs?start=702&end=738

This is the moment Giygas truly breaks down, feeling the support of a loving Mother looking out for her son is a feeling he had long since buried. It’s about time I talk about the backstory of Giygas, while it’s not touched upon in Earthbound/Mother 2, in Earthbound Beginnings/Mother we see Giygas as an alien and we learn about how he came to be.

Giygas and Trauma

Giygas was an alien that was raised by Maria and George, a couple that was abducted by the other members of Giygas’ race. Maria adopted Giygas and looked after him while George studied their powers without their approval and eventually escaped with this knowledge, never being seen again. Once Giygas grows up, he was instructed to ensure that no human is capable of using PSI powers and not wanting to betray the people who raised him, he forcefully detached himself from Maria to prepare for the invasion.

Maria was sent back to Earth, but with amnesia and once the Eight Melodies are obtained, she regains her memory and explains that it was a song she used to sing to Giygas when he was young. This is very important.

Giygas’ first attempt to take over the world. He comes down, looking upon the gang and the battle begins. Starting the trend of Mother/Earthbound games having a unusual way of defeating the final boss. This time, the group begins to sing the Eight Melodies which brings up emotions in Giygas that he thought he had long since repressed or even got over. Giygas has a complete mental breakdown and recalls his forces, swearing revenge on the planet and that he will return.

In Earthbound, Giygas has worked on himself and made sure that what brought him down before cannot bring him down again. However, he didn’t do enough since the feeling of a loving Mother reaching out to her son in his time of need still hurts him severely and it’s at this point where Giygas can hardly do anything. His sprite starts contorting, the colours shift and the audio turns into a droning whirring noise.

Ness’ Mothers love is one thing, but it’s not enough. Giygas is wounded, but he is still fighting. Paula keeps praying for one more person and with a few more attempts, that person is you. There’s a moment in the game where the fourth wall is broken and asks you to enter your name. It can even be your full name, my name is pretty long and my name fits into it perfectly. It’s emotionally engaging since it includes you and you feel like in a way you are defeating him rather than Giygas being defeated by the world of the game. 

https://youtu.be/cptFVD3eTEs?start=838&end=938

After this Giygas loses control, the whirring increases, his sprite distorts further to the point where he is unrecognisable, the visuals cutting in with static occassionally. Static that appears at the very beginning of the game, suggesting the approach of Giygas and showing pictures of the invasion, and at the end of the game it suggest that he’s retreating, he’s getting out of reach and eventually he is gone.

And after all of that craziness, the robots are outside of Giygas’ lair. Everything is quiet, “The War against Giygas is over.”

What was Shigesato Itoi thinking?

Shigesato Itoi drew inspiration from an event of his childhood, where he had walked into the wrong screen at the theatre. He walked in on a murder scene which as a kid he mistook for a rape scene which had such a potent effect on him. He drew inspiration from it for Giygas’ final battle and some of the things Giygas says. 

In an interview, Itoi claims that there was a scene where a guy grabbed a woman’s breast which distorted it into a ball shape. He said “It all hit me really hard. It was a direct attack on my brain.” despite the fact that this doesn’t actually happen in the movie, which Itoi admits that his memories are a little fuzzy. It’s probably because it all happened so fast and his child brain may have created false memories or just failed to understand it. Itoi also goes onto say, "this sense of terror having atrocity and eroticism side-by-side, and that’s what Giygas's lines at the end are. During the end, he says, “It hurts,” right? That's... her breast. It’s like, how do I put it, a “living-being” sensation." and the purpose of the scene is to get the player’s mind working.

Another interesting part of this interview is when Itoi talks about typical villains and says this, “Well, you know, having a villain there who simply goes, “Wahahaha!” and the like would clearly be bad. But, actually, when I think about it, having villains go, “Wahahaha!” is a really intriguing pattern. But there’s no point in wondering all by yourself for days on end what it means for a bad guy to go, “Wahahaha!” at the climax of a game, you know? I get the feeling that there aren’t many people in the game industry who would do that sort of thing, though.” Which is something important to consider, Earthbound is such a colourful game bursting with personality, so having it end with just a standard final boss affair probably wouldn’t feel satisfying.

What the Earthbound/Mother series taught me about final confrontations?

Giygas’ character and what it taught me that even “Universal Cosmic Destroyers” can have trauma that they are trying to avoid and bury. It humanises them in a way and it can make the final confrontation that more powerful as it’s a problem we can all relate to. They’re not all evil for the sake of being evil, sometimes they don’t have a choice. 

I think this is a good thing to take on board and I have already begun planning on my main antagonist’s motivations on Oddyssey. It might be changed since it’s a sensitive topic for me right now, but these motivations won’t be brought up in Season 1 anyway

[zeldauniverse]

Fitness games have had an interesting journey through the annals of video game history. From the Power Pad on the NES to Dance Dance Revolution’s dance mat, they have seen a lot of ups and downs. It wasn’t until the launch of the Wii and Wii Fit when fitness games became a huge deal. Why just play video games or just go to the gym when you can do both at the same time?! That proved successful as Wii Fit (and its enhanced version Wii Fit Plus) sold a combined 43.8 million units, making it one of the best-selling games of all time, even beating out games like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

Since then, everyone has tried their version of a fitness game, but nowadays fitness games are becoming less common. Once people started getting tired of that type of game, most companies and developers changed course and began work on other things. Not only that, most fitness games present themselves as exactly what they are. “Oh you’re called ‘Fitness Boxing’? So you box to the beat and do fitness? Cool.” They stay in their lane and don’t try to be anything else.

This is where Ring Fit Adventure, the latest game from Nintendo EPD, tries to break the wheel. From the initial teaser in early September to the announcement trailer, we saw people having fun with a ring and a strap, and then we found out it was an RPG. It feels like someone went, “Final Fantasy, but Wii Fit?!”

It’s not exactly a combination you’d think were synonymous with each other. However, Ring Fit Adventure manages to blend them well enough to harbor an enjoyable experience while also making you sweat.

Full Disclosure Nintendo of America graciously provided us with a review copy of Ring Fit Adventure for the Switch. This review is based on version 1.1.1. As such, the new additions will be accounted for.

Meet the newest Switch accessory

What’s interesting about Ring Fit Adventure is that it markets itself as an adventure game. You fight monsters, explore fictional lands, and collect items on your quest. It just so happens to be an adventure game that you control with your body.

Ring Fit Adventure’s centerpiece is the unique pair of controllers you use: the Ring-Con and the Leg Strap. The Ring-Con is a heavily modified Pilates ring. The main difference is that Pilates rings normally have two hard plastic handles with concave sides with padding so it can be comfortable when doing thigh workouts. The Ring-Con replaces those handles with some small padding for your hands. As someone used to a normal Pilates ring, it feels a little strange, but it’s something you get used to. Then there’s the Ring-Con attachment itself, where you put the right Joy-Con. The Joy-Con’s accelerometer and gyroscope detect the Ring-Con’s position, whether you’re pushing in on the sides or pulling them away from each other. The IR sensor also tracks your heart rate by placing your right thumb over the sensor. It seemed to be fairly accurate, as it was within a 1 or 2 bpm difference when compared to my Apple Watch.

The Leg Strap is far less high tech — it’s literally a thing that you strap to the center of your left thigh and put the left Joy-Con in. That’s it. The Joy-Con itself does the work of making sure your leg is in the right position for the exercises thanks to its gyro and accelerometer.

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Admittedly, the story doesn’t try too hard to immerse you, but it still tries.

At the end of the day, however, the technology is nonetheless impressive.

One thing I do appreciate about the game is that Nintendo tries to make this game a circular experience. When you load into your file, the game asks if you want to warm up with some dynamic stretches before you jump in  so you can get your body ready and avoid straining or injuring yourself. During the game itself, it’ll ask you after a while if you want to keep going or cool down. When you decide you’re done for the day, the game asks if you want to do some static stretching as a means to cool down. This structure gives a nice arc that, as someone with a movement background, I appreciate.

I’m going on an Adventure!

The story is fairly standard. You control an athlete who meets a sentient ring, and together you explore the world and fight a bodybuilding dragon named Dragaux (yes, you read that correctly). You explore many worlds, help people along the way, and gain new abilities by constantly butting heads with Dragaux.

The plot is cookie cutter, but it also doesn’t try to be anything it isn’t. The basic story line works here. It’s moderately self-aware in parts, and it’s mostly enjoyable. It’s a tad basic at times, and Ring (the only character who is fully voiced) tends to repeat lines a bit, but it’s not enough to ruin the experience.

Expecting too much from the story would be a mistake, but it will help you pretend it’s not just exercise.

The game itself is very straight forward. Levels consist of two different modes — exploration and combat. The exploration is on rails, which makes sense because you move in one of two ways, either jogging or running in place or by doing small bends (what Nintendo calls “silent mode”). Silent mode is supposed to be a way to play the game without disturbing people by running in place. It was also the mode I used more because I dislike running.

As you traverse the levels, you can pull and push the Ring-Con to release gusts of air to hit boxes and suck up coins. Additionally, you can use the Ring-Con in other positions for specific actions, like pointing it down in order to jump, twisting it from side to side to row across a river, or pushing inward with your abs to destroy rocks blocking your way. You’ll gain experience as you continue, making you more formiddable in combat.

Speaking of combat, it plays out like a traditional turn-based RPG. You attack by doing various exercises from one of four different groups: Arms (upper body), Stomach (core), Legs (lower body), and Yoga (dynamic poses). The game telegraphs how long you hold the pose and then the release of it triggers the attack. Some of the exercises make you hold position for a while (the squats are rough), while others have you move to the beat. Certain enemies are affected more by specific moves; for example, red enemies are susceptible to exercises focusing on upper body. You get to decide what exercise to use, or you can shuffle the exercises, so there is a variety. The game also aids you in combat with lots of outfits and smoothies, Ring Fit’s equivalent to potions. Outfits have a set attack and defense stat like any armor in a typical RPG. There are also smoothies to consume, which have various effects ranging from from healing damage to boosting attacks of a specific type.

You face Dragaux multiple times through your adventure, and he does have some variety in his attacks. He’ll occasionally throw boxes at you that you have to shoot with the Ring-Con, in addition to just flat out attacking you. The game also doesn’t penalize you should you die in boss battles either — it will let you just skip right to the boss fight if you want to. That choice is nice.

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Ring Fit Adventure sticks fairly well to many traditional RPG elements.

That includes the nemesis that monologues and swears this meeting will be the last.

It’s not as complex as franchises like Final Fantasy or Pokémon, but it does enough to be enjoyable. And with 20 worlds to explore, there is enough content here to last you at least 20-30 hours of just adventuring alone. Additionally, during your quest, you’ll come across certain minigames. These minigames, like trying to get points by tilting your body side to side, add an extra bit of variety to the overall gameplay.

Ironically, where Ring Fit Adventure drops the ball a bit is in its overall design and music. When I think of an adventure game or an RPG, I expect a vast array of beautiful trees, vistas and dungeons. Ring Fit sets its levels in one of three locations — a trail through nature, where you explore vistas and go through caves; a wooden obstacle course built in a dojo-looking area complete with treadmills, hoops, and more; and a ruins area for the boss fights. It got to a point where I noticed how often the areas cycle between each level. After a while, it does start to feel stale.

Ring Fit Adventure’s music is pulsing, upbeat, and modern to pump you up, but most of it is also forgettable.

Music is vital to how RPGs and adventure games create the mood you should experience in combat and cutscenes. Ring Fit’s music is pulsing, upbeat, and modern to pump you up for the exercises you perform. This is great for a fitness-centric game; however, most of the music is a bit forgettable. The music often gets drowned out by the sound effects and Ring’s lines, and, when you do hear it, it doesn’t really feel like I’m a hero exploring the world and fighting monsters. I feel like I’m in a fitness studio. For a game that’s marketed to be an adventure game first, it feels like they came too short.

Additional fun to be had

Of course, the adventure is only one part of Ring Fit Adventure. The game also provides some additional modes if you don’t have time to spend on the main campaign. The Quick Play mode has a fairly robust set of minigames and exercises you can do, separated into three categories: simple challenges (where the goal is to get the highest reps possible); minigames (more specific exercise with concrete goals, like making pottery while squatting to raise and lower the hands); and sets (consisting of pre-selected exercises from upper arms to glutes or from aerobics to flexibility). You can adjust the strength setting to make things easier or more challenging depending on your ability, and these modes are a very good way to quickly target a small set of muscles.

Your scores for these are also put online to see how well you stack up against other players. At this point, the rankings are all that online is really utilized for. It’s sort of disappointing that Nintendo didn’t add a way to play the adventure mode with online co-op, but maybe that’s just me.

There’s also Custom Mode, where you can make your own workouts using all sorts of different exercises. They have some preset options, or you can pick and choose from the standard Upper Body, Core, Lower body, and Yoga menus.

At least the devs acknowledge you’ll be binging Netflix at some point. “Multitasking,” indeed.

Lastly, there’s Multitask Mode, where you can work out using only the Ring-Con while you’re not playing the game. Basically it records the number of presses and pulls you do with the Ring-Con while the Switch is in sleep mode or turned off. Once it’s enabled with the right stick, you can continue doing other activities, like watching The Mandalorian on Disney+ (at least that’s what I’m doing) and exercise while you do it. The next time you boot up the game, you’ll get a bonus in the Adventure Mode according to how many presses you did. It does limit you to 500 reps, which seems low to me, but considering that most people are going to just sit and watch a movie or a TV show for more than two hours while exercising, I understand.

A nice way to gamify exercise

Despite the story falling a bit short, Ring Fit Adventure is still a very enjoyable experience with a lot of replay value. It has several different modes to play, a terrific variety of exercises, and is great if you want to get some workouts in when you don’t feel like leaving the house because of bad weather. If you’re a fan of the hardcore mechanics of RPGs like The Elder Scrolls, Final Fantasy or Pokémon, Ring Fit may be basic, but that’s not what it places its emphasis on. The mechanics are accessible so that anyone can pick it up and enjoy it, and maybe It’ll get people into traditional RPGs. The only thing holding it back is not doubling down on the adventure/RPG genre in terms of scenarios and music.

Score 7.5/10

Review: Ring Fit Adventure may be basic, but it nevertheless makes exercise fun Fitness games have had an interesting journey through the annals of video game history. From the Power Pad on the NES to…

[party-of-rpg-muses]

A Look At Stuff You Probably Never Heard Of: InuYasha: Secret of the Cursed Mask

Hello and welcome to another entry of A Look At Stuff You Probably Never Heard Of. And guess what! This is the same month when my former favorite anime first aired in English, InuYasha. So to celebrate, we’ll be talking about InuYasha: Secret of the Cursed Mask. (Under Read More for length)

InuYasha: Secret of the Cursed Mask is a T-rated RPG PlayStation 2 game initially released in Japan on March 18th, 2004, where it was called InuYasha: The Cursed Mask. It eventually saw a release in North America on November 2nd of the same year.

Similar to the anime, this game follows a half-demon dog named Inuyasha as he travels across Japan with his friends, collecting the shards of a powerful artifact known as the Shikon Jewel. At the same time, fighting against a powerful foe named Naraku, who also wishes to have the Jewel. However, the game itself has your character, default names being Kaname (female) or Michiru (male) Kururugi, suddenly being transported to Feudal Japan while walking through your family’s storage shouse. Your family also runs a shrine, just like Kagome’s family. With the power of Shikigami, your character travels with the group to help them out, figure out why you were sent to the past, and how to get back to the present.

As mentioned previously, this is an RPG game. For the most part, you travel from place to place, ranging from familiar locations such as Kaede’s Village to the territory of the Eastern Wolf Demon Tribe (Koga’s Tribe), as well as new locations like Mount Houho and Kasasagi Town. It’s similar to that of Super Mario RPG, in which to reach a new area, you have to travel down a road to reach it. But once you do, you can go straight to that area whenever you want. Not to mention that each screen is similar to Resident Evil, what with fixed camera angels and pre-rendered backgrounds.

When coming into contact with a purple cloud while traveling, a battle will start against some demons. It plays like your typical RPG, with faster characters going first, but there’s also an indicator showing which character will go next. When a character’s icon reaches the bottom of the indicator, it’s their turn. And once it passes, they return to the right said of it and have to circle around to get their turn again. As expected, the faster a character is, the less time they have to wait for their turn. There are ways to stop this, such as if a character is confused or paralyzed. And as for the special attacks, instead of using MP or Mana or something similar, characters all use Energy, with a maximum of 300, each orb next to their health indicating 100 Energy. Energy is gained by attacking, healing, defending, or getting hit, but only a small amount is gained. Of course, the more Energy a character has, the stronger “Techs” they can use, a lot of them recognizable, such as Inuyasha’s Wind Scar and Backlash Wave, Kagome’s Sacred Arrow and Sealing Arrow, and Sango’s Hiraikotsu and summoning Kirara.

As the game goes on, characters also get Co-Op attacks, which require a certain amount of Energy from both characters. One character may start and when the other character’s turn comes around, the attack starts, playing an animation of the two before attacking the target.

The graphics certainly aren’t bad, but somewhat basic. It’s easy enough to recognize familiar places, but with dungeons and such places, a lot of areas look the same, making it very easy to get lost or turned around. But each character looks just like how they normally do and their special abilities are given justice. The music is done quite well, with a lot of the scores sounding like music you’d hear in the anime. Not to mention the characters retain their voice actors from the anime; Kelly Sheridan returns to voice Sango, as does Richard Cox for InuYasha, and David Kaye for Sesshomaru. Michiru is voiced by Sean Broadhurst while Kaname is voiced by Carol-Anne Day.

Now, it’s time to get to the Final Recommendation: Never Let Go Of It||Get It||Hold Onto It||Try It||Consider It||Stay Away From It

The game is nice and very faithful to the anime, but there are quite a few issues, including the aforementioned issue with getting lost. But it also has an issue of bringing familiar characters in, have them do something, and leave for pretty much the rest of the game, apart from a possible cameo later down the line. Main examples being Koga, Kagura, and Kanna (though Kagura and Kanna no longer show up in the game after a certain point. There is a reason, but it crosses into spoiler territory.) There’s also a part in the game where you get the power to destroy barriers as an actual in-battle ability. But after using it for it’s intended purpose, it’s almost never used again, apart from one other instance. There’s also the fact that the start-up cutscene has Inuyasha with the Red Tessaiga, but never uses it in the game. In fact, the start-up cutscene is fairly strange, since it’s nothing more than a combination of scenes from the various intros of the anime, and a few from the endings, with a still shot of the player characters spliced in.

Another issue comes with your character. That being that they often have inner monologues that go on for a while and they may come off as indecisive or insecure or even somewhat whiny at times. They also tend to find themselves alone (be it getting separated from the others or going off on their own), but they aren’t particularly strong by themselves and need assistance. But they can still hold their own well enough, for the most part, as they’re basically the Red Mage of the group, as opposed to Kagome’s White Mage and Miroku’s Black Mage. But the point still stands, as at times, your character struggles to dish out reliable damage against sturdy enemies and minibosses.

Now, before I sign off, there are a few things I neglected to mention. Biggest one being that after major boss fights, the group can opt to take a day off to relax (though you’re free to turn it down for whatever reason). Each character pairs up with someone to spend time with them. That being said, you can spend the day with Sango, Inuyasha, Kagome, Miroku, or Shippo. While it may not seem like much, each time you spend a day with them, you increase your relationship with them. If your character is the same gender as the person, or example, playing as Kaname and spending a lot of time with Sango, you two will become best friends. But if your character is the opposite gender, such as Michiru with Kagome, your character will develop a crush on them. The exception being Shippo, as you two will always be friends, regardless of your character’s gender. This doesn’t serve much purpose apart from a single town where a demon can transform into the person you love/are best friends with. And if your character has a crush on someone, they’ll attempt to confess their feelings at the end of the game.

There are also special events that show up at certain times. More often than not, they don’t provide anything of worth, but are just laid-back. Be it a little in-game cutscene or a mini-game with everyone (other than your character and Shippo) playing Taiko drums at a festival. Before I end this, here are the various Co-Op Attacks used in the game.

So, now that that’s all said and done, I’ll see you next month, where we’ll be looking at another crossover game. With one of the series involved never having a game of their own before.

[aspenhollier-blog1]

Design Document

Restoration of Desires 

Start: 

The title screen presents a mystical background with the title of the story and an option to scroll downwards to the next screen. 

To make the background, I will use inDesign to create an animated background to create a setting for the story that is about to be discovered. 

A clickable button saying “Begin>>” will direct the user to the character selection.

The second screen presents the user with clickable characters, one being Lorelai the Wood Elf, and one being Alea the Moon Elf. A subheading will appear that says “Choose Your Character”. 

Once the user clicks either character, they are directed to the story. 

Character Design:

All characters will be digital renderings of sketches and drawings by hand. An in-progress example below shows a sketch of Lorelai for the introductory page which allows you to choose your character. The characters are used for the introduction and the conclusion, where the user is able to choose their character on the screen first, and secondly when the story concludes, the two characters will share dialogue on the screen. 

Description: 

The character plays as one of the two elves, and they are directed to search around a scrollable scene to find different things. Examples of clickable items and clues: 

Barrel (Clue: “Not behind here, lass! Keep lookin’”)

Old Man Wizard (Clue: “I’m busy with my own magic can’t you see? Move along, Lorelai”)

Cauldron (No clue, but a bubbling sound FX)

Sign of town map (Clue: “Library - for humans and their elven friends!”)

If you’re playing as Lorelai, you are searching through the space to find your parent’s Book of Magic. 

If you’re playing as Alea, you are first shown a small dialogue that lets you know you hold the book which Lorelai is looking for. Then, you are directed to the same space as Lorelai, on the opposite side. You are able to navigate you way to her. 

Overall, the storyline is directed in Lorelai’s life and world, which is the quest to find her magic book. 

Character Interaction: 

The two characters will not directly interact with each other until the final scene, where Lorelai retrieves her book. Until then, the user will be guided alone the storyline using clues and interacting with the surrounding rather than other characters. However, a backstory is required for the two characters, as well as a backstory about Lorelai and the reason for her quest. 

When the user is directed to choose a character, depending on their choice, opening dialogue will appear in a text box for them to read. 

Tools needed: 

Text box

Sound FX

Clickable button to advance to storyline

Dialogue: 

Opening Dialogue (Lorelai): A long time ago, your parents left the Book of Magic hidden in Rivendell, somewhere for you to find when you are ready to explore a word of magic you’ve never seen before. Are you ready to grow your magic in the same way you saw your parents before their tragic death? Explore the city, ask around, and search your entire world, and you will find the foresaken Book of Magic. 

Opening Dialogue (Alea): Your friend Lorelai, the Wood Elf is a very talented elf. However, her spells and magic are limited to the previous teachings of her parents, Adran and Thia Duskwalker. As her fellow elven friend, you must help her retrieve the Book of Magic which her parents planted within the Rivendell Library on the East Side of Rivendell. You spend a lot of time at the library, look around and see if you can find the forsaken Book of Magic. 

Walkthrough: 

Once you pick your character, you are transported to the town of Rivendell, which will have a side-to-side slide feature to explore an area of the town. As Lorelai, you are looking around, clicking on and interacting with different areas and items to search for your parent’s long lost Book of Magic. You will be able to check behind objects, and ask people on the street if they know where it is or have seen it. 

Playing as Alea transports you to the library in the east side of Rivendell, where you are told you hold the Book of Magic. You have to navigate your way outside of the library to find the street, and begin searching for Lorelai.

As a character, you will not be able to simply walk around like a video game, and your character will not be present in the frame as well, however you will be able to navigate and click on doors, objects, etc, which will bring you to a new page of a different location. Each clickable object will present a clue to the direction which either character will be - where Lorelai can find her book, or where Alea can find Lorelai. 

The overall solution to the exploratory story is for either Lorelai to find Alea, or Alea to find Lorelai in order for her to retrieve the book. 

Ending:

Playing Lorelai mode: Alea will be standing to the far right of the scrollable screen. The user will need to click on the door of the library to find her, and once she does, dialogue will take over the screen to indicate the story has reached it conclusion. 

Playing Alea mode: Once you are able to navigate onto the street, your location will not change, as one character needs to stay put so the other can find them. You will navigate out onto the street and Alea’s portion of the story will be complete with Lorelai’s presence. After clicking to exit onto the street, the two will be greeted with each other. 

Ending Dialogue: 

Lorelai - “Oh, Alea, my dear friend. How are you? I hear your magic is coming a long way, and we much catch up for a jaunt in the forest some time.” 

Alea - “Lorelai, my friend, I have found what you have been looking for! Your parents book, the Book of Magic which will support you in your magical journey - I have it here in my hands! I am so glad I found you.” 

Lorelai - “I cannot believe this, dear friend! After searching I could not be more grateful you are the one presenting me this gift! I must repay you, please, I must!” 

In-project Clues: 

Certain clickable objects will present clues to which direction to seek, or to the thereabouts to book may have been left by Lorelai’s parents. The options for discovering these objects rest upon the users decision to click on certain objects over the others. Interaction with these objects will be as followed: 

Noticeable clickable objects in the background

Sound/light effects which indicate the object is clickable or has been clicked 

A box with dialogue, also entailing a clue of some sorts. 

Only the door to the library will be one that advances you in the story, as that is the end meeting between Lorelai and Alea. Clicking this door will then proceed you to the ending dialogue. 

Interaction Techniques: 

The opening title scene will show the title of the story and a clickable “click to start” button. The next page will present the two characters, also clickable, with the sentence under stating “choose your character”, with their names as well. Depending on the user’s character choice, the opening dialogue for either character will begin as a text box next to a closer image of the character before advancing to the main scene. There will be a clickable button saying “next>>” which indicates when the user is done reading, they may advance. 

Once in the main town of Rivendell, clickable objects will be lit slightly differently than the surrounding to indicate an interactive aspect to them, such as being clickable. Once clicked, a text box will appear, and the user can click anywhere else on the screen to return to the normal functions. 

Aesthetics: 

The overall aesthetics of the game will be surrounding Dungeons and Dragons culture, based in Medieval times, with folky and dark imagery throughout. For example, fires lit instead of street lights and electric lamps, typeface that suggests this time period is present. Additionally, as the story takes place in a magical setting, unreal or inhuman objects, plants, creatures, etc, may be present throughout. Again, drawing from Dungeons and Dragons as a main source for inspiration, supporting characters, props, music, or sound effects may be pulled from similar aesthetics/themes. 

Audio: 

The project itself will not have voice audio, however background music or sound effects will be required: 

The cracking of a fire pit

Dungeons and Dragons music to set the time and place of the story

Clicking sound FX

Sound FX from different creatures 

Sound FX of potions boiling 

Example of Music used to set a theme: 

https://open.spotify.com/user/1171336918/playlist/0IUo5byir39ABK7E4TavGF?si=0n3sMRseR1W4AVsi2dUA3Q

[pokemonapex]

Alpha Build 6 Now Available!

The epic story continues in Pokémon Apex Build 6! Return to Sagaxis Forest to explore the forboding Dajjal Temple. Though this is a bit on the short side as far as story content goes (nothing could really top Build 5, let's be honest), there are plenty of new toys for you all to play with. Here's a rundown of all the new goodies:

New story and maps! - In addition to the aforementioned maps, there will be plenty of juicy, juicy story morsels for you all to sink your teeth into. This build takes us most of the way through Chapter 2, though I'm saving the last part of the chapter for next time. Trust me, it'll be worth the wait!

New music! - 3 new background tracks have joined the game's already impressive score.

New sidequests, items, and more! - Lots of smaller details to enjoy, such as new NPC sidequests in Acacia Town, a new Caller ID and volume mode feature for the Phone, a mysterious new item (see if you can find it!), and lots more. Oh, did I mention that everyone's favorite 6-year-old will be making an appearance?

I'd like to thank everyone who contributed to this build. As always, Lesser Bay lent his musical talents to this build, and Candi whipped up some new sprites. I'd also like to thank the official playtesters for giving me feedback on last build's features and playtesting this build to knock out some of the more glaring bugs.

As always, join our Discord server to discuss the game, hit up the Wiki to share your knowledge of the game, and visit the subreddit to report any issues you may find (no matter how small).

Visit the Downloads Page to download the game or launcher.

Full changelog below:

Additions:

Sagaxis Deep Wood, Dajjal Temple, and all associated sub-maps are now available.

New events have been added to Dahlia's questline for Chapter 2.

Many important trainers now have in-battle banter when they send out their last Pokemon.

New custom border image.

Three new music tracks have been added. The background music for Old Jul'far Ruins and the battle music for Murmur Tower have been updated to use these new tracks.

New custom item: Skull Idol.

New custom item: Dungeon Key.

Non-human trainer types (ghosts, etc.) now use Summoning Sigils instead of Pokeballs.

Cosmetic lighting effects have been added on certain maps: Sagaxis Forest, Acacia area, Altar of Fortitude.

White fog has been added to all hot springs maps.

The map of Abbadon has been updated to show Murmur Tower and Dajjal Temple.

Calls from registered trainers now show caller ID, allowing you to decline the call.

Phone sound mode can be adjusted with the Left and Right arrows on the Phone app:

Sound mode: Caller ID is shown, and a ringtone is played (Default)

Silent mode: Caller ID is shown, but the ringtone is not played.

Do Not Disturb mode: No incoming calls are shown.

A Sadness emotion animation has been added.

New NPC's have been added to Acacia Town, including a few new minor sidequests.

Tweaks:

The Notes app now always lists notes in order of note ID, making it easier to see which ones you've missed, as well as keeping note series in order.

Armor receptor slots in Murmur Tower now have their own texture to make the armor puzzle more clear.

Wild grass tiles in Sagaxis Forest darkened slightly.

Removed initial Galestone activation message (now only shows a message for raised stats).

Mushrooms in Sagaxis Forest now have improved contrast.

Non-animated mushrooms are now purple.

Key items will now show their quantity when you have more than one of them.

Dahlia's Pokemon now have nicknames.

Slightly reduced difficulty of finding the Murmur Tower Secret Chamber.

The cowboy outside of Crazy Hakim's now gives a bit more helpful info about the shop.

Sagaxis caves now have tile shading.

New examination events added to the Puzzle House.

Pokemon in the party must now be no more than 9 levels above the level cap without being ejected (down from 10).

Load and save screens now show number of artifacts collected instead of badges (which don't exist). If the player has no artifacts, "???" is shown.

Removable gate in Jul'far now has its own texture.

Lowered intensity of sandstorm visual effect slightly.

The final puzzle in the Puzzle House (Challenge 1) has been increased in difficulty.

Fixes:

Updated the location tag of Note 16 (Murmur Tower (2)) to properly reflect its actual location.

Dahlia's happiness check now gives a correct value.

Fixed max level being calculated incorrectly after getting the War God's Hammer.

The game no longer crashes when attempting to battle Sayaka.

The barrel beside Bandit Patches is no longer able to be passed through. For real this time.

A certain NPC no longer appears in front of the treasure chest on Murmur Tower 3F after you open the portcullis to the room.

Performance improvements in Murmur Tower.

Weapon racks in Murmur Tower now have correct collisions.

Fixed audio issues in the Puzzle House.

[wombatlogic]

Fear and Hunger review

a horror rpg/roguelike by orange-, demo available at https://rpgmaker.net/games/9476/

a review

Fear & Hunger bills itself as a rogue with horror and RPG elements, although the only thing roguelike about it really is an inability to save. The player controls the nameable protagonist "Mercenary" while attempting to survive the Dungeons of Fear & Hunger. The only narrative is the one supplied by the player -- the game's heavy on atmosphere, not plot.

This is a review of the teaser demo, which features four levels and about half the planned cast. The scope of the full game looks to be a lot bigger (five playable characters for one thing) but there's a decent amount of content here, maybe one to three hours. I played to the end of the maps, I believe, but probably missed some other content. The review is mostly spoiler free but I'd probably skip the last section.

Aesthetics

While visuals might be the first immediate draw of Fear & Hunger, the sounds is what jumps out first in the game itself. The intro has some really well-fitting music, and simple as it is, it sets the tone for the rest of the game. The background music might not be custom for the game but it sure is employed well. There's a lot of sfx, and as it turns out, just something like low chanting or drip ambiance can be as effective if not more than bgm.

As for the visuals themselves - the painting and pixels work together really nicely, with a unique pixel style I can't quite put my finger on. The special effects on the maps (dim lighting, fog, torches) all complement it well. With at least four distinctive settings, it's always rewarding to get to the next zone just to look at it. It's a compelling reason to keep pressing forward. The map layout itself has a neat feeling where the Dungeons of Fear and Hunger feel less like a series of interconnected maps and more of one big environment -- rooms link together vertically in many places, around curves, or at diagonals allowed with the painted environments. Not your blocky RM game.

The subject matter is a bit of a different bag. While pixeldick isn't exactly something novel in "dark" RM games, F&H includes multiple explicit sexual scenes, a mountain of corpses and guts, and sprites for the playable characters in various states of armlessness. The standouts are probably the interior of a toilet hole and a twenty person orgy, located about thirty seconds away from each other. I've played other games that have gone for this sort of thing as shock value (and yeah, there's some shocking stuff) but usually there are standout elements that come across as "this was done to be edgy" that break immersion. F&H feels like a coherent whole, if a coherent whole that I would want to stay far, far away from.

Gameplay

I mentioned there was a really appealing intro. I was less enthusiastic around the 20th time I saw it. My experience in my first game was to take a few moments to come up with a fitting character name (important in jRPGs and RLs alike!), wandered inside the first room, scavenged a pinecone, then got killed by a on-touch encounter with a prison guard. Then I watched the intro again. Next time I didn't spend so much time on a character name.

Expect to die in F&H. "Unforgiving" would be one way to put it, but this implies the player has to make a mistake to die. Let me break down the combat system: F&H advertises a "strategic" dismemberment system, where the player aims at a body part with each attack. I attacked the prison guard's right arm at first, destroying it. Then the guard's so-called stinger began pulsing, so I attacked it, destroying it. Then the guard approached too close, clinched, and instakilled me. This is how guards work -- kill them in two turns or face the prospect of immediate death. While I eventually figured out that attacking the head usually kills the guard (at the cost of one of my own limbs) there's still a 33% or so that in any fight with a guard I'd miss an attack or two and end up dead. The combat is more akin to a survival horror in that fights should be avoided because resources are limited. And with extremely limited resources, expect to live for two to four encounters... And it's not like they can be run away from either.

I play a /lot/ of roguelikes, so I want to expand on some of key shortcomings of F&H versus pretty much any modern RL. One core principle is that death is always the fault of the player. With an accuracy that feels around 60%, this is iffy to say the least. Not to mention the non-combat deaths. F&H is one of those games that likes to drop the player into unwinnable scenarios. "Climb into the toilet hole? Y/N? Oops can't get out." That one is probably my fault, but it's the equivalent of getting oneshot by an out-of-sight enemy. While it's technically avoidable, it has an unfair aftertaste.

Keep in mind F&H does not allow saving. This means every time The Mercenary misses a guard twice, it's time to watch the intro again, play through the same early game again (potentially getting unlucky and losing to the first encounter, again) and spend another ten to twenty minutes playing through an area of the game that rapidly loses its novelty. In a roguelike, after losing a character, the player is free to pick a different class, explore a different area, etc. In F&H, there is no redeeming grace here. Playthroughs are virtually identical. Loot is randomized, but this is actually counterproductive -- it's very possible to not spawn an early key to recruit the second party member (The Girl) or find any helpful items at all (maybe 80% I could find no use for). Enemies are vaguely randomized, but this is also annoying -- I would sometimes just restart the game if there were too many guards in the first area.

The way this adds up is that death turns into an annoying time penalty. Having this punishment for every action induces a sort of paranoia that negatively affects the game's core loop. Most RPGs have an explore vs exploit metamechanic built in -- once I've found an effective strategy, how likely am I to keep using a strategy I know works vs keep searching for a strategy that works better? F&H skews this. If I'm paranoid about combat, I will never aim for anything but the head, because I know this wins me the fight 75% of the time, so I'll never explore the depths of any limb targeting system. If talking to NPCs triggers a fight 30% of the time and that fight could cost me 20 minutes, I will never talk to NPCs. I'll never take a yes/no decision to touch some viscera (spoiler: unwinnable fight). After I found talking to prison guards and priests just gave them an extra turn to attack me, I never explored talking to any further in-combat NPCs because the cost of failure is just too extreme. F&H heavily penalizes exploration and favors exploitation.

Overall, the gameplay just feels arbitrary. If there's a strategy to the fights, I wasn't afforded the freedom to discover it (too afraid of dying and watching the unskippable intro again). The stealth system doesn't add much as enemies spot the player from out of sight, and I only managed to once or twice escape after being spotted. To drive this point home, F&H even features a visual onscreen coinflip. Call it right, and find critical loot, evade the guard, etc. Call it wrong, and find squantus, get oneshot by the guard, etc.

Themes

"Theme" seems like something dumb to call this section, like trying to look for the "moral," but the way the game is marketed doesn't shy away from posing moral questions. The gamepage seems to present at least two. First, the question of what is or is not suitable to depict in a game. It sounds pretty edgelordy, but I didn't get much of this feeling in the game itself, and was pleasantly surprised.

There was also another question presented -- what is or is not acceptable to do to survive? This is a little more interesting but almost self-defeating within the first few minutes of the game, by two elements. First, the prison guards that try to actively murder the player. Killing them is a matter of self-defense, not morality. Second, without any exposition, it appears that The Mercenary voluntarily arrived at the Dungeons of Fear Hunger. Combined with lore admonishing the player to "turn back now" and so on, it seems like a choice to continue exploring the dungeons. There is no escape or survival element, instead, the dungeons feel like a tribulation. What am I trying to prove by putting myself through this hell?

There was only one time I actually stopped to consider the implication of any in-game decision. At a certain point in the game, the player finds a magic circle. With the second character, The Girl, in tow, the player is asked to perform an "act of sacrifice" or an "act of love" to obtain favors from the old gods, or walk away with the girl unharmed.

The first time at this choice, I did nothing. Fine. I'll try to win without killing/raping people I rescue from a cage, thanks. Then I died to a prison guard and figured I needed an edge in combat to get anywhere and this was going to be one of "those" games where power comes at the cost of moral taint. Okay, fine. I sacrificed the girl. The screen went dark, she's beheaded, and Gro-Goroth granted me a virtual ohko-ing "Hurt" skill. After depleting my MP using Hurt once and then dying, twenty minutes later, I found the magic circle again, and casually chose the second option, "act of love." After a confirmation, the message simply said "No." And I was presented with game over.

That's probably the moment that's stuck with me the most after playing through the game maybe a week before writing this review. I couldn't get why the game would reward the player for killing her but punish the player for attempting sex with her. At first I thought F&H must have some inbuilt if questionable moral system -- they're both abhorrent acts, but F&H only wants to encourage a certain kind of abhorrentness. I did go back and question what exactly made me think it was permissible to take that second option, and it's probably the old explore/exploit question -- the skill from option #1 wasn't actually that great, so I chose option #2 in the sense of "I went left last time, this time I'll go right." Replaying the game so many times and freeing the girl from the cage so many times did a lot to cheapen her life. When I initially sacrified her, my thinking was that if this was the wrong decision, who cares, she'll be back in that cage in about five minutes when something else in turn murders me. That self reflection was probably the deepest thinking I got in this game, but it did stick.

But then after reexamining the gameplay, it became clear to me that outside of my reasoning behind making this decision, this whole sacrifice setup was just another cointoss. In F&H, punishment and reward are arbitrary, and life and death are arbitrary. Hell, the courtyard level consists of hanged men in one map and then an orgy in the next. What did the hanged men do differently from the revelers? There are bestial prison guards and ghoulish prisoners, but without context, no reason those roles couldn't be reversed. Maybe they failed a coinflip somewhere.

Moving forward...

F&H is just a demo, but at the moment it's hard to recommend. The game is a unique experience, which makes it a shame that it's so frustrating having to replay the intro so many times to actually access the stuff in the back. I'm sure I missed out on content because I ran out of patience with Level 1 and stopped engaging most NPCs or taking questionable dialog choices.

Was the demo successful? Well, it succeeded for me in painting a picture of a foul hellhole where life is capricious and death is up to fate. That's a compelling effect. Except it makes for a frustrating, ungameish game. There's dissonance between this master effect and the gameplay itself, no, but it's just not a good experience. Adding more content would just compound the problem -- adding just one more dungeon level would mean I have to spend twice as long replaying the rest of the game to get there. I haven't put much thought into what would improve the game per se, but it needs something altered in its core loop to make it actually fun and not an exercise. I really hope this game can find a synthesis with gameplay that is less aggravating but still supports its unique effect.

[ciathyzareposts]

Game 348: Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny

              Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny

Germany

Released in Germany as Das Schwarze Auge: Die Schicksalsklinge

attic Entertainment Software (developer); Fantasy Productions (German publisher); Sir-Tech (U.S. Publisher)

Released 1992 for DOS, 1993 for Amiga

Date Started: 13 November 2019

               Where Britain and France mostly created their own styles of RPGs, and largely failed at it, German developers found more success analyzing and modifying the mechanics of the most popular U.S. releases. In the few years after Germany’s RPG industry really got started in 1988, we saw games inspired by Ultima (Nippon, Die Dunkle Dimension), The Bard’s Tale (Legend of Faerghail, Antares, Spirit of Adventure), Alternate Reality (Fate: Gates of Dawn), Dungeon Master (Dungeons of Avalon), and Demon’s Winter (Sandor). Each of these games introduced its own innovations, to be sure; there are plenty of times, as in Fate and any of the Bard’s Tale-inspired games, when the German adaptation exceeded the original.            

Starting out in Arkania. The screen is nearly identical to Might and Magic III, although none of the gameplay is.

            Realms of Arkania strikes me as the apex of this process of adaptation, drawing not from just one source (like most of the German titles) or two sources (as Faerghail did with both The Bard’s Tale and Phantasie) but rather at least four. Building on the engine previously used in Spirit of Adventure (1991), attic has combined the basic exploration of The Bard’s Tale with the main screen arrangement of Might and Magic III, the inventory interface of Dungeon Master (or perhaps, more directly, Eye of the Beholder), and a combat system inspired by the Gold Box while looking more graphically advanced.          

The inventory interface recalls SSI’s Eye of the Beholder.

          Arkania is a licensed adaptation of the best-selling German tabletop RPG Das Schwarze Auge (“The Dark Eye,” although I always have to remind myself that it’s not “The Dark Age”). It started as a relatively obvious adaptation of Dungeons and Dragons (the developer, Schmidt Spiel & Freizeit, had first tried to get a license to publish D&D in German), but it got more innovative as the editions moved forward. In particular, I find that the inclusion of “negative traits” (introduced in the third edition) creates more memorable characters.

Arkania followed the by-now common 1990s tradition of telling one backstory in the game manual and another one–complementary but usually not identical–in the animated opening scenes. The opening is set in Thorwal, an ancient free settlement “populated with indomitable warriors and seafarers, rich in treasures from innumerable forays.” Thorwal is surrounded by plains in which orc tribes roam freely and occasionally semi-organize into a threatening confederacy. This is currently the case, with a “great chief” gathering orcs on the steppes, planning “the utter conquest of Thorwal.”           

Evocative graphics introduce the setting.

         Somehow this threat is going to involve a certain captain named Hetman Hyggelik who lived a couple centuries ago. He made a fortune pillaging the “hated slave trader towns of the south.” After a particularly successful expedition, he had a magic sword forged in the Cyclops Islands, then took it with him into the orcish lands, where he and his band were slaughtered. I suspect that his sword is the titular Blade of Destiny, and that it will be needed to fend off the invasion.            

If it was just left sticking out of a dirt mound, someone’s probably taken it by now.

          Either way, very little background is given regarding the party. Your group of six simply arrives in Thorwal seeking fortune and glory.              

Character creation offers some good graphics for each of the classes.

          Character creation is complex enough to tie in knots even an experienced CRPG player. There are 12 classes, which the system calls “archetypes”: jester, hunter, warrior, rogue, Thorwalian, dwarf, warlock, druid, magician, green elf, ice elf, and sylvan elf. (Female versions have slightly different names in the manual, even when spectacularly unnecessary, as in “she-jester,” “she-rogue,” “dwarvess,” and “magicienne.”) Among them are five different magic systems. There are seven positive attributes (courage, wisdom, charisma, dexterity, agility, intuition) rolled on a scale of 8 to 13, seven negative attributes (superstition, acrophobia, claustrophobia, avarice, necrophobia, curiosity, and violent temper) rolled on a scale of 2 to 7.            

Allocating numbers to attributes as they’re rolled.

           There are 52 skills, arranged into seven categories: combat, body, social, lore, craftsmanship, nature, and intuition. I have been jaded by a long string of Paragon games into suspecting that a lot of them will turn out to be useless. My money is on “Dance” and “Carouse,” but I’m also suspicious of “Self Control,” “Streetwise,” “Human Nature,” and “Tactics.” “Ancient Tongues” sounds like a skill that will come in handy exactly once, but on that one occasion it will be pivotal.             

Selecting skills to increase during character creation.

             When creating a character, you can choose the class you want, but if you do, you only get the minimum attributes necessary for that class. The other method, which generally results in higher attributes, is to let the game roll the numbers and you allocate them to the attributes as they arrive. You could get unlucky and end up with worse than minimum statistics, but you can always start over. One positive of the character creation process is that you can take its steps in any order. You can wait until you see what kind of character you have before assigning name and sex, or you can start with those answers and then take whatever you roll.        After spending far too long studying the materials, I went with:              

Female Thorwalian

Male dwarf

Male druid

Female green elf

Female magicienne

Male ice elf

              My analysis was that if Realms is like similar fantasy games, spells will be more important than physical skills, and this configuration gives me the most spell options. I lack only the warlock/witch. I thought they had the smallest selection of spells, many of them sounding more like solutions to puzzles than typical RPG magic (“Witch’s Eye,” “Heal Animal,” “Camouflage,” “Fire’s Bane”). It may turn out that I’ll miss the position for just this reason.               

Choosing my green elf’s starting spell skills.

            My primary angst is over the first two characters. I felt that for role-playing reasons, I ought to have a Thorwalian given the setting. I felt that the second character would need to be more of a rogue, but I didn’t want to leave the party too weak in physical combat, as a rogue would be, and dwarves seem a bit like warrior/rogues. I’m happy to take recommendations, though, since I haven’t gone very far into the game.           

The city of Thorwal.

         Gameplay begins at the Temple of Travia in Thorwal. In Arkania, it is at temples rather than inns where you can manage your party members. Thorwal is a 16 x 32 map with ocean to the south and west and rivers and ponds taking up some of the inner space. The buildings create irregular patterns in a way that goes back to the original Bard’s Tale. Also adapted from that game is a tradition by which nearly every square of building can be entered, although many are houses occupied by offended Thorwalians who immediately tell you to leave. Sometimes, the residents give you a hint. Sometimes, the houses are locked and you have the option to break in.            

This manual conditioned me to expect something else when I encountered a “Thorwalian.”

          There are numerous taverns, inns, inn/tavern combinations, armories, banks, supply shops, temples, and healers. (I bought some standard items like torches and rope at the supply shop.) These seem redundant, but each has its own unique name, and I suspect there will later be quests that require me to visit a particular location. I enjoy some of the location names, including the taverns “Drunken Emperor,” “Boisterous Welsher,” and “Red Morrow.” There’s also a temple called the “Temple of Tsa,” which in the game’s all-caps font makes it sound like it was founded by the one person who respects American airport security. The temples are all named after the names of their gods, which also seem to be the names of the setting’s months.         

I don’t know how well I’m going to sleep tonight.

               The taverns are quite odd. When you enter, you have options to order drinks or talk, but whatever you choose, events have a way of unfolding on their own. For instance, if you order drinks, you’ll probably end up with a clue anyway, but if you choose to just start talking, some bartender will say, “Aren’t you going to order anything?” Anyway, the “leave tavern” option seems to disappear a lot, so you get trapped in a loop of ordering round after round until your party members get drunk. (I guess this is governed by the “Carouse” statistic.) Also, if you have any talent in music, dancing, or acrobatics, you have options to engage in those activities for the amusement of the patrons, and thus have a little money thrown your way.            

I don’t want to know what kind of dancing Bramble was doing.

          There are no combats on the game map, which distinguishes Arkania from most of its predecessors, including Spirit of Adventure. There are occasional random encounters in the street, such as traveling merchants, beggars who ask for a ducat, and a weird repeating encounter where a “small fellow” dances around a “table containing a mass of floral arrangements” and then falls down dead.             

A random event. No, that is totally not “OK.”

             There are a number of unique buildings and oddities among the doorways on the map. These include:             

Three estates with multiple entrances, all blocked by guards who refuse entry. Two are called “otttaskins” and are owned by groups named the Stormriders and the Windrunners. I don’t know what “ottaskin” means; a Google search suggests the game may have invented it.

            Can you just tell me what it is?

            A large monolith at the end of the street that seems to have no entrance.

A post office called the “Beilunk Riders.” It was closed.

Two “embassies,” one from the “Central Empire,” one from the “New Empire,” both closed.

A couple of closed towers.

            Maybe this will become important later.

          A shipbuilder’s where you can have your own ship made for way more money than I have.

An academy of magic where you can purchase potions and get artifacts identified.

                  I thought this harbor scene was particularly well-drawn.

           There are four exits from the city, oddly placed. Only one is at an obvious point at the end of a road at the edge of the map. Two others are found in the harbor and a fourth in a random building in the northwest. Each exit seems to take you to a different option for moving forward on the overland map.               

Each exit takes you to the outdoor map, but to different destinations on it.

            As I mentioned, some of the random denizens offer a bit of intelligence when you open their doors. Everyone seems to be talking about the gathering orcs, and it’s rumored that they’ve sacked a city called Phexcaer, but we also heard a little about other people and locations in the town.

Unfortunately, Arkania seems to have dropped Spirit of Adventure‘s keyword-based dialogue for more traditional dialogue options, some of which are either poorly translated or deliberately nonsensical.            

Dialogue options allow us to insult the innkeeper for no reason.

             During one visit to a tavern, a guard entered to announce that Hetman Tronde Torbensson, ruler of the city, is looking for heroes to take on a dangerous quest. We found our way to the Hetman’s house at the west edge of town. There, Torbensson reiterated the danger posed by the orcs, united under a single chief, amassing in the Upper Bodir Valley.             

The party learns of the main quest.

             Noting that orcs are a superstitious lot, Torbensson suggested that their federation might collapse if a hero showed up wielding Hetman Hygellik’s lost sword, called Grimring. “It is said that the sword put the fear of the gods into the orcs and their shamans or whatever they call their religious leaders,” the Hetman recounted.

The sword is probably buried in Hygellik’s tomb, and the Hetman suggested we start by visiting Hygellik’s last surviving descendant, Isleif Olgardsson, in the city of Felsteyn. He gave us a writ allowing us to take a certain number of weapons from the city’s armory. I always like it when a game has an answer to the common and obvious objection of forcing characters to fund their own adventures when the fate of the world is at stake.             

The Hetman lays on the main quest. I love how my characters can say they have “just one question” when I have no idea what the question is.

            There is one dungeon–the lower levels of an old fortress–accessible from Thorwal. The captain of the guard (or something like that) asked us to investigate the lower levels because someone keeps stealing supplies stored on the upper levels.

              It took me a while to figure out how to light a torch. You can’t just “use” the torch, nor can you use the tinder box. You have to pick up the torch, then right click on the tinder box and “use” it. This is annoyingly undocumented. 

             Coming across a chest.

          Anyway, the first dungeon level had a couple of combats and one chest. I’ll write more about combats in the future, but for now suffice to say that it blends several systems. The screen uses the axonometric 45-degree rotation that feature heavily in British adventure games (Knightlore, Cadaver) and RPGs (HeroQuest, Legend) of the period. Characters move on discrete floor tiles, and action is turn-based, with the player selecting both movement and attack options from a menu. There’s an auto-combat option called “Computer Fight” that puts your players under computer control, with or without magic. Overall, it plays a lot like the Gold Box games, and a “Guard” command (the player stands still until an enemy comes in range, then gets a free attack) particularly points to a Gold Box origin.

           The combat interface.

          I would finally note that the game has a decent automap, with walls, corridors, and doors clearly annotated by color. This helps make up for the fact that it’s hard to see some doors when they’re to the party’s side rather than directly in front of you.

          The automap alerts me to a couple of doors that I missed on my first loop.

          Realms of Arkania is a thick game, meaning it has a lot of little elements that I may forget to talk about if they don’t play a big role in my experience. When starting, it offers basic and advanced modes of gameplay; the primary difference seems to be that the computer controls your skill and spell leveling (and character creation) in basic mode. I’ve been playing on “advanced.” Money is in gold ducats, silver crowns, and copper bits at a 1:10:10 ratio. At temples, you can donate and pray for miracles. There’s a food and drink system by which you “feed” characters by picking up items and clicking on their mouths. You can split the team into two or more groups. An adventurer’s log keeps track of major plot points. When camping, you assign various characters to guard duty for the hours of the day. Wounds, sickness, and poison can be treated with skills as well as spells. Armor and weapons degrade and must occasionally be repaired. You can pocket-pick shopkeepers. If I never mention any of these elements again, it means they weren’t really important.

I thought Spirit of Adventure had a lot of promise, so I’m going to remain optimistic about Realms even though the first few hours have covered a lot of well-trod ground.

Time so far: 5 hours

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/game-348-realms-of-arkania-blade-of-destiny-2/

[theescapekey-blog1]

What Is Escape the Room?

In in escape room sandy utah the present day's Internet society it is not uncommon to note people of all ages and completely different ethnic teams, hooked up to free on-line games. Some readers may be left wondering the place they will come up with these so called escape games to play online without cost. A random search in Google will yield greater than one million outcomes. Considering that escape games are browser primarily based video games in-built flash, by Adobe, thousands of free arcade web sites are increasingly internet hosting these type of games. The escape game style has grown to such extent, they are now cut up into different themes, the most popular being room escape the mystery escape room salt lake city games.

Room escape games start you off in a virtual room. The first transfer made by the player would usually be to look around for clues. Hints shall be given as to where you are and the right way to get out of your confinement. Secondly, the participant might want to make an effort The Escape Key Social Network to put these clues together in order to provide you with some type of plan of easy methods to escape the room. The game follows a simple to use interface by using arrow keys and some use of the mouse. Some games even function a zoom perform to higher close in on some objects.

Partaking these video games don't require the player to study long and complex rules. Room escape games are made for all ages. Both young and old can't only play the sport efficiently, but take pleasure in themselves as properly. The implementation of new and more superior graphics know-how allow for background photos of impressive detail. The music score and particular effects are top notch as properly. Extra decisions are available www.theescapekey.us/ to the gamers, to the extent that they'll selected a room theme through which to play in as a recreation choice. Thus, having the ability to configure your game in this method every time you play, will present the gamer with virtually a brand new sport every time. One also can regulate the extent of problem you want to expertise. Though the problem level will automatically increase with the completion of each degree.

It's simple to see why so many online players fall in love with this kind of game. A easy story line, and simple to make use of controls, allow for a simple to use but thrilling sport anyone can play escape room utah groupon It could be additionally true that as you go up within the ranks, some puzzles might pose an undesirable stage of problem, which may stand in the way to a profitable completion. Nonetheless, the experience of beating these arduous to beat obstacles truly makes the sport a lot more exhilarating. Ultimately, you will be left searching for extra and harder challenges, making you an avid fan of escape games on-line.

Escape rooms are rising in their popularity. Basically, they're a physical adventure game the place gamers are required to resolve totally different puzzles by making use of hints, clues as well as technique so as to be able to complete set out aims. escape room utah valley Often, the player has a time restrict set by which he must have unveiled the ploy hidden throughout the rooms. There are totally different locations where the game might be set and it contains house stations, dungeons and even jail cells and so on.

This sort of sport set is sort of common in several elements of the globe. There are areas that have gotten everlasting escape TheEscapeKey rooms. Escape room fanatics observe the video games throughout so as to benefit from the thrill that comes with it.

This sort of sport usually has groups of around six to 12 gamers. They are required to govern and use the environment so as to realize the set goals. The spaces are themed in a certain way in order to problem and thrill contributors to endeavor to work together.

In escape rooms, the players are wanted to make the most of all their senses. They should use their ears, eyes, brains and your complete physique so as to be able to resolve all of the clues left. There isn't any have to know something specifically. Even very younger children can take part.

What they entail

Escape rooms are normally primarily based on a theme where one needs to flee. Most occasions, the time is about at one hour. This sort of setup has develop into a phenomenon worldwide and they have captured company entrepreneurs as well as researchers at universities. mystery room layton utah This sport permits folks to interact. People leave the screens in order to engage in a nose to nose kind of journey. There are so many challenges that you could encounter at such rooms and every member of the team can try their greatest to be the hero.

All the members within the game are anticipated to convey one thing to the table that can help the entire workforce to finish the sport in time and escape. The video games are normally designed so effectively and it is up to the workforce to really find methods in which they will circumvent the puzzles as a set.

Completely different teams handle the challenges in a different way. Some select to make it look chaotic as the rooms are turned the wrong way up. Those who use this tactic declare that it's accomplished as a means of discovering the clues after all the puzzles have been gathered. Generally making errors is frequent with such games. The clues will be wherever throughout the room so the staff wants to stay alert and eager with all the items around.

Stories and themes are tremendously emphasized in this sort of recreation. It's essential really get into it in order to enjoy the game and be capable of find all the clues. The clues are all linked and that's how it is best The Escape Key room utah to treat all of them. There are individuals who have created games that have gotten world famous on account of their creativity and problem level. Players feel fairly fulfilled when they're able to clear up the game.

Setting a while apart for frolicsome leisure is actually a wholesome exercise that helps human growth and improvement. That is why each college has games as a part of their curriculum. As we develop into adults, time becomes scarce and there is barely The Escape Key room salt lake city any room left for recreation and video games. Nonetheless, the Internet has been in a position to present a back door for folks, who are actually able to interact in on-line leisure with out having to leave the consolation of their workplace.

Pc video games have been around for some time now. The new fad is that they are now out there on-line by the hundreds. Additionally, the rising availability of high pace Web connections at decrease prices, boost the gaming expertise even more. One of the newest genres featured in on-line sport websites are room escape video games. The character of these games gives some type of appeal for folks of any age. As unbelievable as it might sound, thousands and thousands of people go browsing on the lookout for games every day. The number of games in demand doesn't change, however the popularity of genres, pretty much like clothes and music.

A large number of websites have begun spawning room escape video games as the newest form of entertainment. Whether or not they're free arcade sport websites, or sport directories that provide a hyperlink to different websites providing such The Escape Key room logan utah games, game seekers are certain to come back across a recreation they like with little effort. The development in the direction of a brand new genre merely follows avid gamers' demands, to the unfortunate demise of some other style.

Escape games aim to check your problem solving and detective skills. There numerous classes inside this sport style, situating the player in locked environment of some variety. Relying on the structure of the room, a special plan for escape is required. You are prone to find a variety of objects The Escape Key games utah lying around relevant to the game theme, and which provide clues to finishing the game. Themes embody a typical room, toy room, princess room, office, spa room, labs, class room, store room, storage, space ship, locked automobile, elevate and may very well be something with 4 partitions.

Venue does not matter in the escape games. Spotting the proper of clue is crucial if you end up locked in. Step one in your downside fixing process is to look at the room carefully. Secondly, the player should click on each idle item left within the surrounding area, on the lookout for clues. Certain objects will lock the clue inside by way of a puzzle, which the player might want to resolve so as to acquire it. Room escape games enhance many basic skills like analytical, reasoning and logic, which is not potential if we idly sit in front of television.

Online Escape video games could be accessed around the clock and might be performed anytime. You simply want your mouse to enter into the cyber escape room video games. Since escape games are a tremendous stress reliever, many people come again dwelling and start taking part in these games to shed off all of the tensions and hassles of life at work. Since escape video games could be discovered within the realm of free on-line games, you can play with no speck of fear.

Having fun and on the identical time putting our minds to a take a look at, what a genial idea! In fact, that is precisely what you get when you play room escape video games: some minutes of really enjoyable good time and a terrific read this article intelligence check. Subsequently, get able to trans-go the borders between the true and the web world and to place all of your senses to work, for you have simply been locked in a room apparently impossible to flee from!

In a few phrases, let me tell you how these games work. It can be a typical room, a resort or a even a kitchen where you abruptly discover you have been locked in. After you overpass your surprise and also you recover from your quick moment of panic, you need to start scanning the inside you're in to its even most insignificant (on the first sight not less than) objects. Often, as a saving anchor, which is thrown to a drawing man, instantly after mystery escape room utah reviews you find yourself trapped in that specific room , in a lot of the escape room video games a lower scene appears, establishing a sure context. You are instructed by which mysterious methods you've got landed there and sometimes some very useful details about that strange place you're in. Quite scary, however on the same time very thrilling, is not it, to discover yourself as the primary hero of the identical game you're taking part in!

So, we have got this half all cleared up: in every room escape recreation there is a locked room it's important to work out methods to escape from. Their second major characteristic is that the room is at all times crammed with hidden clues on how you possibly can find your way out. Scan all the pieces, do not spare any object you will discover in your room.

You may as well rely on your mouse to focus on the objects on the screen or move around the room. Some items are, themselves, the clues it's worthwhile to collect to insure your escape, however others have to be used in a sure manner or work together with other objects there within the room and contribute to your escaping plan. So, expensive Sherlock Holmes, make a fantastic group with your personal laptop mouse and start opening the doors, the drawers, don't let any hiding place escape you until you have found all the "clue objects" that will enable you to solve this thriller! The clock is consistently ticking and the place do you add that in many room scape games there's a actually intricate labyrinth product of several rooms, not only one, that it's important to undergo until you discover your method out of this puzzle.

Video games which might be primarily based on the real life adventures make among the best when you wish to check yourself at totally different levels. Such video games also promote crew work once you participate as a group and they are often real studying adventures to help you sort out life higher. Escape rooms are a should try for individuals who wish to strive mystery room utah their wits in puzzle fixing within very brief intervals of time failure to which there are repercussions. An escape room is usually a real life journey recreation that isn't on-line. Which means you really get locked in a room and are expected to make use of parts within that given recreation to solve puzzles and escape the room inside the time given.

The rooms come in several themes and you may select the challenge, in accordance with how a lot you're feeling you'll be able to take and the kind of enjoyable you need to take pleasure in. Most include Visit Website added lighting and sounds to make the experience as actual as possible so you can work fast in finding the clues and solving the puzzles to gain your freedom earlier than the time elapses.

Selecting your video games

Some of the vital considerations when it comes to escape room video games is the length of every session. Often, you will have about 60 minutes to resolve the puzzle and escape out of your room. It is important to keep in mind more information on wikipedia that the games can get fairly intense, supplying you with adrenaline rushes that may leave you shaken by some means. Guarantee that you could handle the length of the sport with out going into a critical panic attack.

Since it could actually get fairly intense inside the room, consider how doable it's for you to get out as quickly as you feel you cannot take it to the tip. You do not need to be compelled into going all the way in which to the tip of your minutes if you don't want to. A recreation that gives you the consolation of a panic button so that escape room sandy utah you could be let loose as soon as you feel the necessity to is therefore vital. Chances are you'll wish to push yourself to the sting, however you additionally should have the freedom to go away the room as quickly as you begin feeling uncomfortable. Not everybody can handle the same levels of endurance so don't be ashamed to walk away.

[mega-tinytreestudent-blog]

Sony PS4 Pro Review (PlayStation 4 Pro).

However no my question your sugetion about my question I need my question is that my samsung galaxy mobile certainly not participate in retail store working simply my question is actually that. PlayStation VR possesses a comparable secret with its own movie theater method, which certainly not simply collaborates with PS4 games however likewise sustains almost everything with HDMI online video output, featuring Xbox and also COMPUTER. The cost-free variation from the activity has gamers having command of the Hundred Kingdoms, Revenant, or the Faeborne in a battle for energy and command of the land. Certain, some of the most ideal VR knowledges to date could be actually Job Simulator, which observes you doing menial tasks like offering behind the counter from an edge store. Folks along with rheumatoid arthritis or diabetes mellitus have a greater risk of contamination in the weeks following an operation. This Go Kart Racing Video game may look instead simplified, however don't let those looks fool you. There is actually a central center filled with places to check out, land sea and also air nationalities both on-line as well as offline, and also each brand-new personality discharged uses a new means to play with set up material. Giving you the odds to play as Darth Vader's Force-fuelled Pessimism pupil, it had all the trappings of a terrific Celebrity Wars video game - good lightsaber fights, huge set pieces, wonderful use of famous characters and also high development market values. The occasional Video Cassette Recorder tape merely aids contribute to this, offering some editorial when you play it by experiencing the substance's several terrors from someone else's perspective. http://solairebeaute-blog.info is actually the fully cost-free model from the renowned NOVA 3 video game. You MAY manage to locate an online video player off from the play store that may do that however I typically change anywmv reports that I may wan na use my phone tomp4. However the game doesn't end-- you instead become your follower and try to final a lot longer in your regime compared to the master prior to you. It's the return to form for the franchise business; the pay attention to exactly what creates a Gears game thus wonderful, that truly succeeded our company over. So maybe Matthew Fox off Lost isn't precisely the individual you wanted when you considered which they could cast as Katniss in The Appetite Gamings, yet I was actually influenced to develop that after I saw this website referred to as Jackimals. They are actually almost all family-friendly as well as created for having fun with a group, making for an enjoyable night of sophisticated play. 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You could mug some canisters around your little wattles as well as appreciate average sounds, or you can easily enter into an engrossing sonic adventure just before the 7.57 takes in to Paddington. Apple Music possessed a solid proving, however like Spotify its only definitely significant component is its songs. Marvin Gaye was an undisputed brilliant, however select this track in particular, due to the fact that some of his things is actually a little bit of on the slow edge. Gamers may make their very own games within the game and share them on the internet with the world. This card game application permits total spades partnership play where you reach select which to enjoy with as well as whom to bet. If http://solairebeaute-blog.info into gorgeous-looking games with an exciting story and constantly active gameplay, the prize-winning Leo's Luck is totally for you. This's a trendy video game with straightforward gameplay technicians and razor blade sharp wit, where you aim to maintain your kingdom running smoothly through socializing with consultants, people, sorcerers and various other personalities in your empire. They require time to primarily establish the video game to service an XB1/PS4 version of the game. Given that you read Gadgets 360, you probably want to purchase electronics, and so we would certainly likewise recommend following @DealsForGeeks on Twitter - the handle picks out on-line offers as well as tweets them thus you can locate loads of wonderful promotions that way. A deep-seated internet game." This is actually the only activity I've ever come across with that said background. That is actually a relatively violent ready just how easy this is, to make sure that is actually something to remember. The latest Zelda game prepares you loosened in a gigantic, stunning available world, where you can battle with dungeons, resolve challenges, paraglide around the heavens or just prepare some food. There is actually some strange IAP snooping (like the video game asking you to pay for added actions as soon as you end), however overlook that as well as Imago's among best perplexities around. This is just one of the finest method activities released during the course of a year of great technique games, and eminently deserving of the Homeworld name. You can easily play the Understanding Synthesizer Body Mk 1 utilizing either your personal computer keyboard or the on-screen tricks. Each amount demands you to create a path out of some forms provided, as well as the method lies in finding out where to put each shape to guarantee the path is actually tough sufficient. The Xbox One S supports HDR games, but merely for choose first-party video games such as Forza Perspective 3 and Gears from War 4. The PS4 Pro sustains a stable of HDR-ready games, and all PS4 models are HDR-ready as of the device's 4.0 program update.

[ciathyzareposts]

Game 348: Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny

              Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny

Germany

Released in Germany as Das Schwarze Auge: Die Schicksalsklinge

attic Entertainment Software (developer); Fantasy Productions (German publisher); Sir-Tech (U.S. Publisher)

Released 1992 for DOS, 1993 for Amiga

Date Started: 13 November 2019

               Where Britain and France mostly created their own styles of RPGs, and largely failed at it, German developers found more success analyzing and modifying the mechanics of the most popular U.S. releases. In the few years after Germany’s RPG industry really got started in 1988, we saw games inspired by Ultima (Nippon, Die Dunkle Dimension), The Bard’s Tale (Legend of Faerghail, Antares, Spirit of Adventure), Alternate Reality (Fate: Gates of Dawn), Dungeon Master (Dungeons of Avalon), and Demon’s Winter (Sandor). Each of these games introduced its own innovations, to be sure; there are plenty of times, as in Fate and any of the Bard’s Tale-inspired games, when the German adaptation exceeded the original.            

Starting out in Arkania. The screen is nearly identical to Might and Magic III, although none of the gameplay is.

            Realms of Arkania strikes me as the apex of this process of adaptation, drawing not from just one source (like most of the German titles) or two sources (as Faerghail did with both The Bard’s Tale and Phantasie) but rather at least four. Building on the engine previously used in Spirit of Adventure (1991), attic has combined the basic exploration of The Bard’s Tale with the main screen arrangement of Might and Magic III, the inventory interface of Dungeon Master (or perhaps, more directly, Eye of the Beholder), and a combat system inspired by the Gold Box while looking more graphically advanced.          

The inventory interface recalls SSI’s Eye of the Beholder.

          Arkania is a licensed adaptation of the best-selling German tabletop RPG Das Schwarze Auge (“The Dark Eye,” although I always have to remind myself that it’s not “The Dark Age”). It started as a relatively obvious adaptation of Dungeons and Dragons (the developer, Schmidt Spiel & Freizeit, had first tried to get a license to publish D&D in German), but it got more innovative as the editions moved forward. In particular, I find that the inclusion of “negative traits” (introduced in the third edition) creates more memorable characters.

Arkania followed the by-now common 1990s tradition of telling one backstory in the game manual and another one–complementary but usually not identical–in the animated opening scenes. The opening is set in Thorwal, an ancient free settlement “populated with indomitable warriors and seafarers, rich in treasures from innumerable forays.” Thorwal is surrounded by plains in which orc tribes roam freely and occasionally semi-organize into a threatening confederacy. This is currently the case, with a “great chief” gathering orcs on the steppes, planning “the utter conquest of Thorwal.”           

Evocative graphics introduce the setting.

         Somehow this threat is going to involve a certain captain named Hetman Hyggelik who lived a couple centuries ago. He made a fortune pillaging the “hated slave trader towns of the south.” After a particularly successful expedition, he had a magic sword forged in the Cyclops Islands, then took it with him into the orcish lands, where he and his band were slaughtered. I suspect that his sword is the titular Blade of Destiny, and that it will be needed to fend off the invasion.            

If it was just left sticking out of a dirt mound, someone’s probably taken it by now.

          Either way, very little background is given regarding the party. Your group of six simply arrives in Thorwal seeking fortune and glory.              

Character creation offers some good graphics for each of the classes.

          Character creation is complex enough to tie in knots even an experienced CRPG player. There are 12 classes, which the system calls “archetypes”: jester, hunter, warrior, rogue, Thorwalian, dwarf, warlock, druid, magician, green elf, ice elf, and sylvan elf. (Female versions have slightly different names in the manual, even when spectacularly unnecessary, as in “she-jester,” “she-rogue,” “dwarvess,” and “magicienne.”) Among them are five different magic systems. There are seven positive attributes (courage, wisdom, charisma, dexterity, agility, intuition) rolled on a scale of 8 to 13, seven negative attributes (superstition, acrophobia, claustrophobia, avarice, necrophobia, curiosity, and violent temper) rolled on a scale of 2 to 7.            

Allocating numbers to attributes as they’re rolled.

           There are 52 skills, arranged into seven categories: combat, body, social, lore, craftsmanship, nature, and intuition. I have been jaded by a long string of Paragon games into suspecting that a lot of them will turn out to be useless. My money is on “Dance” and “Carouse,” but I’m also suspicious of “Self Control,” “Streetwise,” “Human Nature,” and “Tactics.” “Ancient Tongues” sounds like a skill that will come in handy exactly once, but on that one occasion it will be pivotal.             

Selecting skills to increase during character creation.

             When creating a character, you can choose the class you want, but if you do, you only get the minimum attributes necessary for that class. The other method, which generally results in higher attributes, is to let the game roll the numbers and you allocate them to the attributes as they arrive. You could get unlucky and end up with worse than minimum statistics, but you can always start over. One positive of the character creation process is that you can take its steps in any order. You can wait until you see what kind of character you have before assigning name and sex, or you can start with those answers and then take whatever you roll.        After spending far too long studying the materials, I went with:              

Female Thorwalian

Male dwarf

Male druid

Female green elf

Female magicienne

Male ice elf

              My analysis was that if Realms is like similar fantasy games, spells will be more important than physical skills, and this configuration gives me the most spell options. I lack only the warlock/witch. I thought they had the smallest selection of spells, many of them sounding more like solutions to puzzles than typical RPG magic (“Witch’s Eye,” “Heal Animal,” “Camouflage,” “Fire’s Bane”). It may turn out that I’ll miss the position for just this reason.               

Choosing my green elf’s starting spell skills.

            My primary angst is over the first two characters. I felt that for role-playing reasons, I ought to have a Thorwalian given the setting. I felt that the second character would need to be more of a rogue, but I didn’t want to leave the party too weak in physical combat, as a rogue would be, and dwarves seem a bit like warrior/rogues. I’m happy to take recommendations, though, since I haven’t gone very far into the game.           

The city of Thorwal.

         Gameplay begins at the Temple of Travia in Thorwal. In Arkania, it is at temples rather than inns where you can manage your party members. Thorwal is a 16 x 32 map with ocean to the south and west and rivers and ponds taking up some of the inner space. The buildings create irregular patterns in a way that goes back to the original Bard’s Tale. Also adapted from that game is a tradition by which nearly every square of building can be entered, although many are houses occupied by offended Thorwalians who immediately tell you to leave. Sometimes, the residents give you a hint. Sometimes, the houses are locked and you have the option to break in.            

This manual conditioned me to expect something else when I encountered a “Thorwalian.”

          There are numerous taverns, inns, inn/tavern combinations, armories, banks, supply shops, temples, and healers. (I bought some standard items like torches and rope at the supply shop.) These seem redundant, but each has its own unique name, and I suspect there will later be quests that require me to visit a particular location. I enjoy some of the location names, including the taverns “Drunken Emperor,” “Boisterous Welsher,” and “Red Morrow.” There’s also a temple called the “Temple of Tsa,” which in the game’s all-caps font makes it sound like it was founded by the one person who respects American airport security. The temples are all named after the names of their gods, which also seem to be the names of the setting’s months.         

I don’t know how well I’m going to sleep tonight.

               The taverns are quite odd. When you enter, you have options to order drinks or talk, but whatever you choose, events have a way of unfolding on their own. For instance, if you order drinks, you’ll probably end up with a clue anyway, but if you choose to just start talking, some bartender will say, “Aren’t you going to order anything?” Anyway, the “leave tavern” option seems to disappear a lot, so you get trapped in a loop of ordering round after round until your party members get drunk. (I guess this is governed by the “Carouse” statistic.) Also, if you have any talent in music, dancing, or acrobatics, you have options to engage in those activities for the amusement of the patrons, and thus have a little money thrown your way.            

I don’t want to know what kind of dancing Bramble was doing.

          There are no combats on the game map, which distinguishes Arkania from most of its predecessors, including Spirit of Adventure. There are occasional random encounters in the street, such as traveling merchants, beggars who ask for a ducat, and a weird repeating encounter where a “small fellow” dances around a “table containing a mass of floral arrangements” and then falls down dead.             

A random event. No, that is totally not “OK.”

             There are a number of unique buildings and oddities among the doorways on the map. These include:             

Three estates with multiple entrances, all blocked by guards who refuse entry. Two are called “otttaskins” and are owned by groups named the Stormriders and the Windrunners. I don’t know what “ottaskin” means; a Google search suggests the game may have invented it.

            Can you just tell me what it is?

            A large monolith at the end of the street that seems to have no entrance.

A post office called the “Beilunk Riders.” It was closed.

Two “embassies,” one from the “Central Empire,” one from the “New Empire,” both closed.

A couple of closed towers.

            Maybe this will become important later.

          A shipbuilder’s where you can have your own ship made for way more money than I have.

An academy of magic where you can purchase potions and get artifacts identified.

                  I thought this harbor scene was particularly well-drawn.

           There are four exits from the city, oddly placed. Only one is at an obvious point at the end of a road at the edge of the map. Two others are found in the harbor and a fourth in a random building in the northwest. Each exit seems to take you to a different option for moving forward on the overland map.               

Each exit takes you to the outdoor map, but to different destinations on it.

            As I mentioned, some of the random denizens offer a bit of intelligence when you open their doors. Everyone seems to be talking about the gathering orcs, and it’s rumored that they’ve sacked a city called Phexcaer, but we also heard a little about other people and locations in the town.

Unfortunately, Arkania seems to have dropped Spirit of Adventure‘s keyword-based dialogue for more traditional dialogue options, some of which are either poorly translated or deliberately nonsensical.            

Dialogue options allow us to insult the innkeeper for no reason.

             During one visit to a tavern, a guard entered to announce that Hetman Tronde Torbensson, ruler of the city, is looking for heroes to take on a dangerous quest. We found our way to the Hetman’s house at the west edge of town. There, Torbensson reiterated the danger posed by the orcs, united under a single chief, amassing in the Upper Bodir Valley.             

The party learns of the main quest.

             Noting that orcs are a superstitious lot, Torbensson suggested that their federation might collapse if a hero showed up wielding Hetman Hygellik’s lost sword, called Grimring. “It is said that the sword put the fear of the gods into the orcs and their shamans or whatever they call their religious leaders,” the Hetman recounted.

The sword is probably buried in Hygellik’s tomb, and the Hetman suggested we start by visiting Hygellik’s last surviving descendant, Isleif Olgardsson, in the city of Felsteyn. He gave us a writ allowing us to take a certain number of weapons from the city’s armory. I always like it when a game has an answer to the common and obvious objection of forcing characters to fund their own adventures when the fate of the world is at stake.             

The Hetman lays on the main quest. I love how my characters can say they have “just one question” when I have no idea what the question is.

            There is one dungeon–the lower levels of an old fortress–accessible from Thorwal. The captain of the guard (or something like that) asked us to investigate the lower levels because someone keeps stealing supplies stored on the upper levels.

              It took me a while to figure out how to light a torch. You can’t just “use” the torch, nor can you use the tinder box. You have to pick up the torch, then right click on the tinder box and “use” it. This is annoyingly undocumented. 

             Coming across a chest.

          Anyway, the first dungeon level had a couple of combats and one chest. I’ll write more about combats in the future, but for now suffice to say that it blends several systems. The screen uses the axonometric 45-degree rotation that feature heavily in British adventure games (Knightlore, Cadaver) and RPGs (HeroQuest, Legend) of the period. Characters move on discrete floor tiles, and action is turn-based, with the player selecting both movement and attack options from a menu. There’s an auto-combat option called “Computer Fight” that puts your players under computer control, with or without magic. Overall, it plays a lot like the Gold Box games, and a “Guard” command (the player stands still until an enemy comes in range, then gets a free attack) particularly points to a Gold Box origin.

           The combat interface.

          I would finally note that the game has a decent automap, with walls, corridors, and doors clearly annotated by color. This helps make up for the fact that it’s hard to see some doors when they’re to the party’s side rather than directly in front of you.

          The automap alerts me to a couple of doors that I missed on my first loop.

          Realms of Arkania is a thick game, meaning it has a lot of little elements that I may forget to talk about if they don’t play a big role in my experience. When starting, it offers basic and advanced modes of gameplay; the primary difference seems to be that the computer controls your skill and spell leveling (and character creation) in basic mode. I’ve been playing on “advanced.” Money is in gold ducats, silver crowns, and copper bits at a 1:10:10 ratio. At temples, you can donate and pray for miracles. There’s a food and drink system by which you “feed” characters by picking up items and clicking on their mouths. You can split the team into two or more groups. An adventurer’s log keeps track of major plot points. When camping, you assign various characters to guard duty for the hours of the day. Wounds, sickness, and poison can be treated with skills as well as spells. Armor and weapons degrade and must occasionally be repaired. You can pocket-pick shopkeepers. If I never mention any of these elements again, it means they weren’t really important.

I thought Spirit of Adventure had a lot of promise, so I’m going to remain optimistic about Realms even though the first few hours have covered a lot of well-trod ground.

Time so far: 5 hours

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/game-348-realms-of-arkania-blade-of-destiny/