I should probably start out by saying that I ended up cheating a lot and using a guide + hacking my character stats once I got a decent amount into the game. My biggest problem was not having read the books, the plot wasn’t the easiest to follow and didn’t grip me as a result. That said, I do appreciate the amount of plot in here. The game is very true to it’s literary ambitions right the way through to the ending which has reams of text and a surprise twist. I applaud the ambition to do something different here and it’s so much more interesting a story than the typical RPG. I wish I’d read the books first though.
The cutscenes themselves reminded me a lot of Heart Of China (also Dynamix around the same era) but HoC did it better without the obvious wigs, etc.. It’s hard for real world fantasy characters not to look silly at the best of times I suppose. It’s curious they went this route with them.
As for the game, it sharpens focus and speeds up when you get into the later chapters accelerating towards the end rather than leaving you meandering the entire world as in earlier chapters. I really appreciate this sort of design as it leads to a much more satisfying endgame. I can’t say I enjoyed the combat overly – it seemed a case of luck at times with lots of reloading required for some of the more difficult fights. It’s at least quite quick though and doesn’t get in the way as much as other RPG’s. The preset, rather than random, encounters are always a godsend in this sort of game so it gets my approval in that aspect.
The scale of the game was off-putting these days but I ended up finishing sooner than expected with the chapters getting smaller later on. I have still sunk a LOT of hours into it this month even with the guide. It was a bit of a slog at times – I’d have appreciated it more back at the time. I think I can say that I can appreciate why it’s so beloved by some people – I’m not one of them but probably would have been if I was a Riftwar fan who played it back in the 90s. I still appreciate a lot of aspects about it and can’t think of anything else I’ve ever played that’s quite like it. Glad to have knocked it off the backlog this month.
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