Untold Legends - Brotherhood of the Blade

 

After finishing Wiz1, I wanted a break and to play something a little more action orientated.  This game seemed to fit the bill.

 

Keeping with my 'action' theme, I selected a beserker.

The game is an action-rpg similar to Diablo (I will probably be making quite a few references to Diablo in this mini-review).

 

Unlike Diablo, you have direct control over your character, with the X button used for attack, and O and Triangle used for special abilities. 

  

Took me a few weeks to complete, playing an hour or so a day, not very challenging.

Pros:  Nice graphics, plenty of locations

Cons: Boring quests, samey items

I think the poor item design was the main problem for me, for example in Diablo2, you are constantly finding new items with interesting special abilities which make you pick and choose.  In this one however, you are choosing based solely on how much damage the item does/prevents.  All the other abilities (cold etc) can be added to the items with use of gems which are widely available at the shop, hence no real excitement for finding loot.  Also, you seem to end up very quickly with more money than it is possible to spend.

Overall, a nice diversion, but back to a real RPG next.

Wizardry 1 - Completed!

After an epic trip to the bottom of the dungeon, I met Werdna and his vampire friends.
The first time I was here, I was met by 2 Vampire Lords, 4 Vampires & Werdna himself,
who cast Tiltowait (the biggest damage spell there is) two times in a row and wiped out the party.

I had to then level up the reserve team (by this time I had a full roster of twenty characters), and
used a magic dagger to change a fighter into a thief then into a ninja.

Going back, Werdna's friends seem to have deserted him, there was only Wedna, 1 vampire lord
and 1 vampire.  To make it even easier, Werdna kept casting a spell to dispell undead on my party,
which of course had no effect.

I then loaded up Wiz2 and had a quick look at it, I was surprised to find that my characters went
back to level 1, I thought that they kept their levels.  Oh well, at least I still have a ninja for the
sequel.  I've decided though to play another game first and come back to wiz2.

Wizardry

Since last posting, I have been playing Wizardry pretty much to the exclusion of all other games.  It's not easy.  

The main issue is the constant autosave after every battle.  If one of your characters dies it battle, it's saved instantly.  You then have to either proceed back to town, where the temple has a 80% or so chance of bringing him back to life, or cast a spell which has a 50% or so chance of bringing him back to life.  If this fails, you character is turned to ash, which requires a further donation to the temple to bring him back to life - but there is yet another chance of failure, which causes your character to be DELETED forever, along with all his items.  

If you party gets wiped out in the dungeon, you can mount a rescue party to go and fetch them, however I've found that by the time my rescue party is strong enough to get to the original party, they are of a similar level anyway.

I currently have two parties trapped on level 10 of the dungeon, and a third stuck on level 4 in a series of rooms without exit (I hope to rescue them later with the teleport spell), and yet another party involved in training up for a rescue mission (they are only level 5 or so at the moment)

Wizardry I

After completing Breath of Fire 3, I decided to start another classic RPG - Wizardry 1, with the aim of completing 1 through to 5.  I have previously played 1 a few times, first on the Commodore 64 (never finished), then on a old Powermac (completed), and more recently the PC version (completed a couple of years ago). 

I've never started 2, 3, 4 or 5, so am looking forward to them. 

After researching the various versions, many people seem to report that the SNES version is the superior one, so I'm playing that one on an emulator running on my PSP.

 

Character creation, went for a party of 2 fighters, 1 thief, 1 bishop, 1 cleric and one mage.

 

The dungeon proper.  Looks a lot nicer on this version than the DOS one I remember.  So far am not really noticing any differences that matter, just a few little ones, like the @ sign next to Balno above, this signifies that he has enough experience to gain a level.

A terrifying encounter with some skeletons.  Combat at low levels is brutal, you have to make sure you keep a few steps away from the stairs until you have gained a few levels.... 

 

... or this happens.

I seem to remember that spell points are regained automatically in the PC version when you return to town, however in the snes version, you are required to sleep at an inn to get them back.  I wonder if this will affect aging by the time I complete the game(s) or whether they are short enough that it doesn't matter.

I had a minor set back, when my lawful cleric got changed to evil when I attacked a group of friendly monsters ( by accident I swear, I just got a bit carried away hitting the NEXT button and ended up in combat! ).  This means he can't journey with the rest of the group, and I have retired him and created a new one.

I plan to have a few spare characters which I can use for rescue missions in the dungeon (if your whole party is wiped out in the dungeon, their bones remain there for you to discover and bring back to town for resurrection later.)

Breath of Fire 3 - Completed!

.

Since the last posting, I've managed to complete the game.  Be warned, this posting will contain major spoilers about the plot, so read on if you have completed the game, have no intention of playing the game, or just don't care about the plot!

 After travelling through the desert for what seemed like weeks, we came across a monster hiding in a hill.  I was so surprised by the change of scenery, that I completely forgot to grab a screenshot of it.  After defeating it, Nina fell ill due to heatstroke.
  

 After wandering around the camp, I soon came to the realization that the only thing you could interact with was the rakha (camel like creature) that had been helping me cross the desert.  I decided to take a swipe at it with my sword, and it promptly died.

 Felling a little guilty, I butchered my faithful steed.

 Way to rub it in Rei...

 At last, the Oasis.  Unfortunately not much of interest here, so it's off to see the village elder to get information about the next dungeon...

 ... and of course to stock up on items.  My fortune from killing legions of monsters in the desert was soon spend on upgraded weapons and armour for everyone.

 Then it's off we go to a ruined city of the ancients.

 Luckily the main character is well versed in operating ancient computer systems.

 Ok, so apparently we are now on a platform high up in the sky, abandoned by the ancient people eons ago.  This monster must have an exceptionally long life span to sleep for so long, but now we must wake and slaughter him just for his keycard.

 

A horde of fearsome ... CHICKENS??? wtf

 

 OK, now for the rather cliched RPG introspection section.

 A reunion with a character from early in the game, Teepo, Rei's adopted brother.  Unfortunately it is revealed that he is also of the dragon brood, and soon attacks us.

 

Pressing on, we soon come to meet 'god' Myria face to face.  Somewhat to my surprise, we find that she's not some kind of computer, but a angel.  Oh well, can't guess them right all the time.

 

GAME OVER.  

I gave up my dragon powers and lived in the space station with Myria.

Nah, just kidding, I then reloaded and selected not to give up my powers, and, rather predictably, Myria attacks.

 

 After a rather long, but not very challenging, battle, my party triumphs and we escape the space station, and take back control of the world to the hands of humans.

Well, still progressing through the desert of death, keep getting lost and running out of water.  At least the experience is good, with all characters leveling up nicely.  Money isn't bad either.

Moon Tears - one of the more useful items found in the desert

Drak

 This firebreathing desert lizard is somehow unable to attack in the first round of combat due to being overcome by the heat, something that doesn't seem to affect my rather overdressed party!

One of the random drops gave me some royal armor, the best armor I've found to date.

 My thoughts exactly.  The whole desert sequence feels unnecessary and overly long. 

 Hey, this is new, a big monster popping out of a hill, maybe this means progress at last!

Breath of Fire 3

The first game I'm posting about is Breath of Fire 3.  Originally a Playstation 1 game, it was ported to the PSP in Europe/Oceania.  I've been playing it for quite a while now, and am currently wandering through a massive desert.

The Valiant Heroes

Nearly there

I've been walking around this desert for about 4 hours real time now, trying to follow the stars, but so far am not getting anywhere.  The screen shot above is one of the more exciting ones, being in the daytime, unfortunately I ran out of water before making it to the oasis, maybe next time!

Posioned again

Every couple of minutes you are forced into a battle area, where there is always a bag containing either a healing herb, a multivitamin or a fishing lure (why someone has scattered fishing lures all over the desert I'm unsure about).

Hopefully I will progress more and leave the desert soon.