Developed by Westwood Studios, the team that created the Eye of the Beholder series, brings to you a rich fantasy experience with tactical game play both turn based and real time. Set in the TSR universe, more specifically the Hollow World campaign setting, many gamers for the first time are presented with a new style of RPG. Players generated their party from the start of the game, further customizing their heroes with different classes and attributes.
Conventional D&D style portraits can be seen in the top picture with classes easily discernible from a quick glance. The expected mage, thief, cleric and fighter classes are all there with the choice of race to further match classes chosen keeping it true to the D&D rule set. I beat this game around 4 times (I have an unusual tendency to beat games an even number of times) yet always chose a well rounded group for my party consisting of a cleric, mage, and a 2 fighters or a fighter plus a thief.
The game play was tactical and more resembled a game of chess in comparison to the likes of Phantasy Star or Final Fantasy. Non dungeon battles were from a bird's eye point of view and turn based allowing the choice of character to melee or use ranged weapons such as spells and bows. The first person point of view that was utilized when entering dungeons is similar to the Eye of the Beholder series. For instance, real time battles in the dungeon setting forced players to react quickly using ranged attacks before the enemy closed in and then abruptly alternating melee attacks between each member in the party. I haven't played this game through in 17 years yet I still remember key encounters, how to beat the green dragon by spamming the same spell, and several secret alcoves.
The graphics are very well done with a variety of expansive environments in both the dungeons and open world sections. Westwood pioneered a unique look for Warriors of the Eternal Sun. Everything from the character portraits to the intro screen still bring a smile to my face after all of these years.
One of the areas the game is lacking is the story. It's a little cut and dry and the dialogue is sparse which would stand out less if other aspects of the game were less polished. For a game set in the TSR universe, it's a bit of a let down in story department.
The music is medieval themed and compliments the overall tone of the game the best it can with the hardware limitations.
(5 star scale)
Graphics ****
Sound ***
Gameplay ****
Story **1/2
Warriors of the Eternal Sun is really that good. Even by today's standards I would recommend this game as a great western RPG to check out.
Mario, this game is awesome. a big part of my childhood, next to the Phantasy Stars. I hate Gelatinous Cubes and Owlbears though. You can totally juke the red dragon at the beginning of the game to get some good items.
ReplyDeleteGlad you liked it. Yes, the gelatinous cubes were annoying because they could erode armor. Pretty neat how they incorporated that aspect into the game. I remember I used to cast Entangle to deal with dragons, specifically the green one in the swamps. What should have been near impossible became an easy battle. I guess they forgot to check that during quality testing.
ReplyDeletePhantasy Star 3 is great, I loved how the game progressed through different generations adding an epic feel to it.