The Realms of Arkania Thread

[CryptRat]

English voice acting and yeah based on my reading Star Trail is the one I will play. If I feel compelled to play another (or even finish), I will consider the others.

Just to be sure, you know you can import your characters from Blade of Destiny to Star Trail?
Blade of Destiny is already great, and not so long, I wouldn't skip it.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

Yes I am aware you can import, but I haven't played any game in the series and my research tells me that Star Trail is the best. I read that combat in BoD can take an awful long time.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

Oh CryptRat can you comment on playtime for these? I can;t seem to find that information.

 

[Gord]

I always liked the scavenger hunt idea and somewhat non-linear nature of the first part, but it definitely suffers from the old and somewhat simplistic engine.
Star Trail is much better in that regard. Would have been great if the remake of BoD had turned out better. Although it might be worth trying with all the latest patches (maybe).
Doctor Sbaitso , it's been a while, but I'd put the playtime at ~40 hours for a first time player.

 

[CryptRat]

Thanks, I've never finished Star Trail (I have got a playthrough on break) so I couldn't tell.

 

[NotAGolfer]

Combat in BoD doesn't take long if you always bring enough poison with you.
Or if you use magic wisely, preferring buffs like acceleratus and that strength spell and the only seemingly weak blinding spell over damage dealing stuff. Domination spells are also neat.
And concentrate your attacks on 1 or at most 2 enemies unless you have to disable some nasty wizards.

And keep in mind that everyone in your party has to specialize, you need a leader for dungeons, a healer (especially for diseases), a wilderness leader, maybe one for the towns/villages too (rogue or jester work best here), each with adequate skill specialization. And don't forget to take a wizard with you, that class is extremely important (but not mandatory, mind you). Party marching order is important, the char to the left is always the leader.
And don't carry too much junk around, you usually don't need more than rations, a waterskin and a blanket or better bedroll for each char, a second pair of boots (always take boots, shoes are not as durable) and replacement weapon for everyone and 2 or 3 lockpicks for the dwarf or whatever you use as the dungeon leader, and maybe a shovel and sometimes other stuff for dungeons. Many items have a couple of uses in the trilogy, like the net for example (you can offer one at an altar in some cave), but usually you don't need them if you specialized your chars well enough (a lot of items just make skillchecks easier).

Playtime for BoD isn't that long, just take notes about the hints NPCs give you and you should be able to play through it in less than 30 hours I guess. You don't need all map pieces, your party comments on it if they have enough pieces to make sense of it.

And for the love of Travia play with the advanced mode, you will want to distribute the levelup points yourself, the game itself handles that suboptimally.
Some skills serve no purpose and are a waste of points btw. Doesn't matter though, even if you invest in riding which serves no purpose whatsoever in the whole trilogy you'll be fine. Just stop raising skills around 15 or so, the chances get just too low.

 

[CryptRat]

Combat in BoD doesn't take long if you always bring enough poison with you.
Or if you use magic wisely, preferring buffs like acceleratus and that strength spell and the only seemingly weak blinding spell over damage dealing stuff. Domination spells are also neat.
And concentrate your attacks on 1 or at most 2 enemies unless you have to disable some nasty wizards.

I'd add that you should use some bows.

 

[V_K]

Yes I am aware you can import, but I haven't played any game in the series and my research tells me that Star Trail is the best. I read that combat in BoD can take an awful long time.

It's not that it's long, it's just that ranged attacks and spells only work in 4 or 8 cardinal directions, which makes for very inconvenient logistics sometimes. So I'd say playing Star Trail first is a wise choice - the games aren't that hard that transferring characters is necessary. Depending on what aspect of the game, overworld travelling or dungeon crawling, you like best, you may play Blade of Destiny (for the former) or Shadows over Riva (for the latter) after that.
On the subject of spells, get at least one Druid - their Dance spell is basically a cheap instakill. Mage's Salother spell works too, but it's much more expensive. I think there was one more instakill-like spell, but I don't remember which one.
Oh, and don't enter Lowangen until you have the mcguffin, IIRC you won't be able to leave if you do.

 

[NotAGolfer]

I'd add that (unarmored?) bowmen frequently make damage in BoD too.

Meaning you break their bow with the Iron Rust spell and they still shoot you?
Might be, can't remember.
One bug I remember is that some pirate and bandit types in BoD have extremely high magic resistance though, making it impossible to use domination spells on them.

other advices:
Level up your mage's wand asap. You can do that in an inn.
In Thorwal and Phexcaer you better visit all of them same looking buildings. It sucks, I know. Star Trail has better artwork. Some of those samey buildings have interesting encounters and stories. In other towns you can safely ignore the brown boxes on the map.
Make sure your chars are not over encumbered. 5 movement points per turn are the minimum. For starting chars in heavy armor you often won't get more. Wizards, druids, elves and other classes with lighter armor should have at least 7 movement points in the beginning though.
Raise strength for everyone on the first levelups. Later everyone in your party will have an item that gives +5 strength but that's fine, the higher the better. From level 3 or 4 on you can start investing in the attributes that are checked together with skills though. So better look up which attributes the skills your char uses frequently are based on. Warriors should continue raising strength of course... and maybe courage.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

Thank you gents.

I am thinking Dwarf with picks, warrior , two elves with bows and various survival and alchemical skills, Mage focussed on buff/debuff and a Druid or priest.

Spent a few hours reading the manual, pursuing some advice and rolling a warrior with martial focus. Will post screenshots when party is complete.

 

[Roqua]

Seriously, stop being stupid bitches and support the development of new good shit. How do you do this you ask? Buy new good shit to make it profitable so others will make new good shit. Hmm, so are you saying people should buy the new and improved Realms of Arkania Blade of Destiny? Yes. There is very little different from game 1 and 2 so anyone who skips 1 and starts at 2 is not smart because there is no reason to do it, especially when there is a new and improved part 1 that is actually profitable to the good guys, real crpg makers. Who makes money off of purchases of the old Realms of Arkania? I don't know, no one making new good shit. Probably Zemimax or some other shit company filled with cretins and low brow console idiots.

This is really economics pre-101. If you like crpgs and not many crpgs are made the only way to get more is make them profitable by buying the ones that are made. Fuck it, buy two copies, or 20. Unless your dream world is a world filled with just Bethesda and Bioware games, in which case I doubt you'd be posting in this thread.

The remake came out incomplete. It is completely fixed now and is much better than the original with a bunch of new content. Is new content good? Well, I like it, but I guess I'm some sort of retarded idiot for wanting new crpgs to be made. Fuck me, fuck you, fuck all of us. Long live console!

 

[NotAGolfer]

I'm pretty sure they didn't profit from me "buying" the BoD remake either. Dunno how much I paid but it can't have been more than 2 euros.
Then I tried to play it and uncanny valley hit me hard. Presentation is all over the place in general, with combat sprites being fugly like hell and everything else looking like something modded in Dungeon Siege engine or some crap, only even more fugly than those fan remakes because Crafty Studios couldn't hire enough artists as it seems. I'm really curious, how the hell did they manage to make combat look uglier than the over 20 years older original? Pretty but extremely pixilated pixel art replaced with subpar 3d models from the unity assets store or whatever. Boggles the mind.

Seriously, I can deal with old games looking not that great and the original BoD isn't exactly pretty, but this mess of a remake is more than I can stomach. Either make something with good art or something functional where you don't have to take long and boring strolls between the same few always repeating houses that look like they don't belong in the setting. It's just as bad as in the original only that this time I can't even quickly move past all that filler (step by step movement is fast in original BoD).
I always hoped that another developer would pick up the ideas in these games and make something similar, and it doesn't need to be pretty, just deep and full of skillchecks and with the same focus on overworld traveling combined with dungeon crawling and on char skills and equipment being more than fodder for the usual dull and mindless CRPG levelup -> combat -> xp+loot ->levelup loop. But so far there isn't much out there that scratches that itch.
In any case this amateur shit they call remake is just offensive.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

On the contrary, I LOVE the art of the 90s in my games. It was fucking ART and not some bullshit model with a shitty skin. I also really like the abstraction of styled 2d graphics with vibrant colours even... striving for photorealism is a fucking mistake IMO. Where is the whimsy or art in yet another tree with 100,000 polys and super 4k HD skin? Yawn.

The originals look quite charming and I am not spending on some shovelware shit attempt.

 

[Roqua]

I'm pretty sure they didn't profit from me "buying" the BoD remake either. Dunno how much I paid but it can't have been more than 2 euros.
Then I tried to play it and uncanny valley hit me hard. Presentation is all over the place in general, with combat sprites being fugly like hell and everything else looking like something modded in Dungeon Siege engine or some crap, only even more fugly than those fan remakes because Crafty Studios couldn't hire enough artists as it seems. I'm really curious, how the hell did they manage to make combat look uglier than the over 20 years older original? Pretty but extremely pixilated pixel art replaced with subpar 3d models from the unity assets store or whatever. Boggles the mind.

Seriously, I can deal with old games looking not that great and the original BoD isn't exactly pretty, but this mess of a remake is more than I can stomach. Either make something with good art or something functional where you don't have to take long and boring strolls between the same few always repeating houses that look like they don't belong in the setting. It's just as bad as in the original only that this time I can't even quickly move past all that filler (step by step movement is fast in original BoD).
I always hoped that another developer would pick up the ideas in these games and make something similar, and it doesn't need to be pretty, just deep and full of skillchecks and with the same focus on overworld traveling combined with dungeon crawling and on char skills and equipment being more than fodder for the usual dull and mindless CRPG levelup -> combat -> xp+loot ->levelup loop. But so far there isn't much out there that scratches that itch.
In any case this amateur shit they call remake is just offensive.

It has nothing to do with looks, it has to do with economics and content. Want more games that are like X, buy games like X. It doesn't matter if they are X-1 or X-2, or have whatever you don't like, the only way to get games like X made is to support the ones like X. I buy games I don't like all the time if it will advance the crpg cause in general, or increase the opportunity of games I actually may like being developed specifically.

Also every single sale counts. And I think the devs of the remakes live in Rowanda or something where they can buy 3 goats and a wife for 2 of your euroshekels.

On the contrary, I LOVE the art of the 90s in my games. It was fucking ART and not some bullshit model with a shitty skin. I also really like the abstraction of styled 2d graphics with vibrant colours even... striving for photorealism is a fucking mistake IMO. Where is the whimsy or art in yet another tree with 100,000 polys and super 4k HD skin? Yawn.

The originals look quite charming and I am not spending on some shovelware shit attempt.

You seem like a huge pretentious prick. I bet you go to poetry slams or other weird shit like that. You probably have a ponytail and go starbucks with your Apple laptop.

Do you know what is better than ART!!!! in games? Games. An ugly monopoly or chess board is still as fun as a super duper extra artful whimsy gorgeous one. A great game with great mechanics is a great game with great mechanics no matter what kind of wrappings its dressed in. Beauty is only skin deep.

Do you guys know why more games like the RoA trilogy were never made? Because of fucking short sighting dimwits and console fans. Console fans are a lost cause of retarded monkey-savages, but you shortsighted dimwits have hope if you just learn to do what I tell you to. Now stop being idiots and buy the fucking remake and fund these devs making Star Trail, and then buy Star Trail so I can also have Shadows Over Riva. And maybe they'll start making their own RoA type games with the newest edition of DSA in the RoA fashion. Also, stop being weird idiots who do stupid and weird shit.

 

[Roqua]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAjs8tS57U0

That is a good video of pony tale people

 

[Roqua]

Also, these are good videos about modern European culture-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyIScmtEdCc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YCOT5LasKc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSZoshxXSlg

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

Ignoring the insane blathering, two evenings in and I have the manual read and two characters created. Nice to play a game that gives total control over so many aspects of your party creation. Reminds me somewhat of late Wizardry level quality on party creation.

 

[eric__s]

I trust Guido Henkel with my life.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

From the Cluebook.

 

[Aenra]

Stop making us feel old you cretin!

 

[The Nameless Pun]

Seriously, stop being stupid bitches and support the development of new good shit. How do you do this you ask? Buy new good shit to make it profitable so others will make new good shit. Hmm, so are you saying people should buy the new and improved Realms of Arkania Blade of Destiny? Yes. There is very little different from game 1 and 2 so anyone who skips 1 and starts at 2 is not smart because there is no reason to do it, especially when there is a new and improved part 1 that is actually profitable to the good guys, real crpg makers. Who makes money off of purchases of the old Realms of Arkania? I don't know, no one making new good shit. Probably Zemimax or some other shit company filled with cretins and low brow console idiots.

This is really economics pre-101. If you like crpgs and not many crpgs are made the only way to get more is make them profitable by buying the ones that are made. Fuck it, buy two copies, or 20. Unless your dream world is a world filled with just Bethesda and Bioware games, in which case I doubt you'd be posting in this thread.

The remake came out incomplete. It is completely fixed now and is much better than the original with a bunch of new content. Is new content good? Well, I like it, but I guess I'm some sort of retarded idiot for wanting new crpgs to be made. Fuck me, fuck you, fuck all of us. Long live console!

You make a good point and I'd like to know if the remake is worth it. If it's the same System and mechanics with new graphics, I can't find a reason to not give it a try.

 

[NotAGolfer]

Seriously, stop being stupid bitches and support the development of new good shit. How do you do this you ask? Buy new good shit to make it profitable so others will make new good shit. Hmm, so are you saying people should buy the new and improved Realms of Arkania Blade of Destiny? Yes. There is very little different from game 1 and 2 so anyone who skips 1 and starts at 2 is not smart because there is no reason to do it, especially when there is a new and improved part 1 that is actually profitable to the good guys, real crpg makers. Who makes money off of purchases of the old Realms of Arkania? I don't know, no one making new good shit. Probably Zemimax or some other shit company filled with cretins and low brow console idiots.

This is really economics pre-101. If you like crpgs and not many crpgs are made the only way to get more is make them profitable by buying the ones that are made. Fuck it, buy two copies, or 20. Unless your dream world is a world filled with just Bethesda and Bioware games, in which case I doubt you'd be posting in this thread.

The remake came out incomplete. It is completely fixed now and is much better than the original with a bunch of new content. Is new content good? Well, I like it, but I guess I'm some sort of retarded idiot for wanting new crpgs to be made. Fuck me, fuck you, fuck all of us. Long live console!

You make a good point.

No.
Remaking already existing games 1:1 with maybe a couple of minor additions like more travel encounters is just as lazy as the cargo cult design other studios practice. And I wouldn't support talentless hacks with their heart at the right place either, because they are still just hacks and their games are doomed to be shit. For a niche game type to draw any attention from a considerable amount of players you first need to have a hit, a flagship title all those cargo cult morons in the industry can copy afterwards. Crafty Studios will never be able to create anything like that.

 

[The Nameless Pun]

Seriously, stop being stupid bitches and support the development of new good shit. How do you do this you ask? Buy new good shit to make it profitable so others will make new good shit. Hmm, so are you saying people should buy the new and improved Realms of Arkania Blade of Destiny? Yes. There is very little different from game 1 and 2 so anyone who skips 1 and starts at 2 is not smart because there is no reason to do it, especially when there is a new and improved part 1 that is actually profitable to the good guys, real crpg makers. Who makes money off of purchases of the old Realms of Arkania? I don't know, no one making new good shit. Probably Zemimax or some other shit company filled with cretins and low brow console idiots.

This is really economics pre-101. If you like crpgs and not many crpgs are made the only way to get more is make them profitable by buying the ones that are made. Fuck it, buy two copies, or 20. Unless your dream world is a world filled with just Bethesda and Bioware games, in which case I doubt you'd be posting in this thread.

The remake came out incomplete. It is completely fixed now and is much better than the original with a bunch of new content. Is new content good? Well, I like it, but I guess I'm some sort of retarded idiot for wanting new crpgs to be made. Fuck me, fuck you, fuck all of us. Long live console!

You make a good point.

No.
Remaking already existing games 1:1 with maybe a couple of minor additions like more travel encounters is just as lazy as the cargo cult design other studios practice. And I wouldn't support talentless hacks with their heart at the right place either, because they are still just hacks and their games are doomed to be shit. For a niche game type to draw any attention from a considerable amount of players you first need to have a hit, a flagship title all those cargo cult morons in the industry can copy afterwards. Crafty Studios will never be able to create anything like that.

You're right, they're just using something someone else did to make money. I didn't consider that.

 

[Gord]

Is it really 1:1 (barring graphics, obviously)?
How about improvements to interface or inventory? Startrail's engine updates improved a lot there, e.g. offering more equipment slots.