Together Retro: First-Person Dungeon Crawlers

[Ack]

It turns out she kept picking ones that start with the letter 'D', since her name starts with that.

I'm thinking I'm gonna throw her some odd balls in this next set. We'll see what she picks.

[Exhuminator]

For those of you who have played- is there a particular piece of gear worth saving up for (and holding off other purchases)?

Honestly I wouldn't worry about hoarding for gear. Orcs & Elves and Orcs & Elves II are very easy to beat. Strategic potion usage matters more than anything else.

Bah, she won't pick one soul crushing. You've gone soft.

All I can say is Ack should have already played Ultima Underworld II by this point in his life.

[Ack]

I gave her the choice of Ishar 1, Anvil of Dawn, and Thunderscape. She picked Ishar, so it looks like I'm gonna have to get used to spending gold to save my game. The thought of rampant party assassinations intrigued her.

[dsheinem]

Finished Orcs & Elves - I quite enjoyed it and agree that, for the genre especially, the game is fairly easy. It is cool to know John Carmack and his wife Katherine Anna King were the team behind it. Perhaps I will hunt down the sequel sometime.

I don't know that I really want to finish Skyrim VR this month (though I will certainly be playing it regularly), though I am about 60% of the way through the main campaign so perhaps I will rush to finish it in the next week or so and then get to the expansion content and other side-quests next month. I am also trying to finish an FMV game to make amends for missing out last month, so that may take priority next.

[Nemoide]

I'm definitely curious to try Orcs & Elves at some point. It sounds like some light fun and I always appreciate Id Software making anything other than an FPS.

At over 50 hours, I'm pretty sure the final ending for The Dark Spire is in sight; certainly on track to be done by the end of the month. My party's only level 21-22 but I've beefed up their stats so much that they're pretty capable of exploring the current floor. I finished the 7th floor a while ago which gave me the second ending (which was even less satisfying than the first) and am nearly finished exploring the final floor. The final floor seems to actually be some kind of demon dimension and instead of a floor number it's just "????." Modern mode is kind of interesting but everything is bathed in light to the point of it being pretty difficult to navigate or tell who you're fighting. Classic mode continues to look like classic mode and it makes exploring this floor much more enjoyable.
There was a puzzle which seems to assume the player is familiar with the tarot suits (or their corresponding magical weapons) and their elemental correspondences. Fortunately I totally know that kind of thing! A bunch of the seemingly useless skills you can learn earlier in the game have become relevant. I also found a place where you can raise your Charisma score. Of course, I don't really know what Charisma even does... it seems to be necessary to have at least a 10 to learn the "military strategy" skill which is necessary to becoming a Paladin secondary class, but beyond that... **shrug**

One of the quests (Slay the Archdemon) SEEMS to be bugging for me, which is annoying. According to walkthroughs on GameFAQs, you need to go to a certain room (which is normally a teleporter) and he'll appear. Alas, when I step on the square that should trigger the event, I just get teleported. I'll keep trying; maybe I'll get it after the final ending... I like the idea of finishing the game with 100% completion for all things, but I'm not going to get TOO hung up about a buggy side-quest or collecting every item.

[Exhuminator]

Finished Orcs & Elves

Congrats, it's definitely a worthy little FPDC snack. Its sequel is fun too, but unfortunately didn't get the special upgrade treatment like the DS port of the original.

I like the idea of finishing the game with 100% completion for all things, but I'm not going to get TOO hung up about a buggy side-quest or collecting every item.

Dude if you manage to get the good ending (or real ending, whatever) you've done due diligence.

-



In W:TotFL, I explored a large portion of the Moldy Fort tonight (level 6). Managed to upgrade one of my warriors into a knight. Meaning he can now learn priest spells. Coincidentally, I finally got the ingredients to create carcass stones, which teach the resurrection spell. This is a priest class spell, and I taught it to my priest and knight. Having two party members capable of resurrecting dead party members will be a huge boon. Enemies are definitely becoming stronger now.



That said, after spending the past 21 days playing nothing but FPDCs, I'm starting to feel a little burnt out. I've beaten two FPDCs thus far, put a good bit of time in another, and am about halfway through this one. I imagine I have at least 25 hours left to beat W:TotFL, if not more (logarithmic difficulty scaling here, not linear). So can I do that in a week and a half? Maybe. But it would require me to play nothing but W:TotFL exclusively the rest of the month. Considering I have other non-TR related games I'd like to get back to, that prospect isn't super appealing. So my plan is to play W:TotFL at a more measured pace, while also putting time into non-TR related games I want to finish. I still fully intend to beat W:TotFL, it just might not happen until post-May. All in all I'm feeling pretty good about my progress at this point.

[Ack]

Ugh, Ishar 1 has some issues. There is a general lack of documentation, and the game believes you have a numpad, so I ended up stumped for half an hour as I searched online to figure out how I could set the game in English. It asked me to press '1' but actually required I press 'End'. Things did not improve from there (I accidentally ended up playing it in French more than once), and I just got fed up with it. After talking with my fiancee, she suggested I move on to a different game and come back to Ishar 1 later.

[BoneSnapDeez]

je suis désolé.

[Ack]

You and me both, but I have plenty of other options, so I'm ok.

[prfsnl_gmr]

Cleaned up the Ebony Knight in the Fire World if Shadow Tower last night. The game is picking up steam now that I have more items and don’t have to tread so carefully. Also, there have been a lot fewer hidden doors recently...

The sound design in this game is exceptional, by the way. The draw in could be a lot better, though, and some areas are just too dark (when, really, they shouldn’t be...Why was it so hard to see in an area literally covered in flames?!). An HD remaster smoothing out some of the games’ rough edges would really be an experience.