Might and Magic Is Might and Magic 6-8 boring?

[J_C]

So, I made a stupid thread about this earlier, but it went to Retardo Land, so I want to rephase it now, since I want to get some feedback about this. (Stay away mods!)

I always was a vocal supporter of the Might and Magic 6-8 games, I find them very good (especially 6-7, but I enjoyed 8). But I must confess, I could only finish 8, way back in 2000-2001. Before you roast me, let me say that I played M&M6 many-many hours, I just never could finish it. I always get to a point, and then I stop playing it. Last time was a few months ago. I was thinking about the reason for this, and I think it is the combat. I like the dungeons, the character system, the world, but the combat against mob after mob becomes so boring after a while.

Do you like the combat in the last few M&M games? Don't you think that killing 100 mages, then 100 thieves, then 200 cobras is quite shitty design?

 

[Gregz]

These were great games, there's no debate here.

When I don't finish an RPG, many times it's out of respect. I love the world, my party, and the game so much that I would rather imagine it never ending than derp run to a credits sequence.

I never finished Wizardry 8 for this very reason.

 

[Bubbles]

If you can't even manage to finish MM7, you should just stop playing that kind of RPG altogether.

 

[rpgcodexusername]

I only had one magic user and it took a looong time to get anywhere,
Then I restarted and got 2 it was a lot easier casting flying and mass damage spells


Its fun to cast meteor spells and turn undead againts 200 skeletons

 

[ghostdog]

I was a big fan of World of Xeen and got butthurt from the changes in 6 so I never played those (Maybe I should, but that's another matter). Anyway, world of Xeen is a great game and it's my favorite M&M, but even though I've played it many times and devoted hundreds of hours on it I've never actually finished it. Ok, I've finished clouds, but never Darkside. M&Ms are mainly games about exploration so since they don't focus too much on the main story, I think it's perfectly fine not to finish them (especially if they are humongous like Xeen). I think the combat works very good for a game of such scope and style. Yeah maybe after a shitload of exploration and combat you decide to stop playing, but it's OK, these are games for you to get lost in their world, not to finish their main story.

 

[octavius]

When I don't finish an RPG, many times it's out of respect. I love the world, my party, and the game so much that I would rather imagine it never ending than derp run to a credits sequence.

I never finished Wizardry 8 for this very reason.

Heh, best excuse I've seen for not finishing a game.

Personally I finished MM7 but MM6 I both times quit in the Control Center or whatever that place crawling with robots is called. Was just too frustrating to play that part turn based.

 

[Scroo]

M&M 6 and 7 are good games, I replay them every now and then (same with the older ones) but I never managed to finish MM8. I don't know, somehow it's like the weird cousin you don't really get along with.

 

[Roguey]

My experience is similar to ghostdog's, played 4'n 5 when I was young, tried out 6, disliked it immediately, did not bother with future installments.

 

[DemonKing]

I finished 6 and 7 (albeit only as the evil side form memory). Never got to 8 due to crappy reviews, outdated graphics and more of the same syndrome.

They'll never be in my top rung of CRPGs but I liked the skill system and the inventory system was always fun.

I'll probably check out the full release of 10 when it eventuates.

 

[Broseph]

To me 6 is probably the pinnacle of the series and one of my favorite RPGs (I need to play Xeen more and I haven't played 1 or 2), but that might just be because I played it first. It has the best dungeon design of any M&M game I've played, amazing music and a charming (despite being butt ugly) art style. Yeah, the filler combat can get excessive but I felt the journey was worth it. 7 and 8 are still good, especially 7, but the dungeon design took a major step back and 8 is ridiculously easy/unbalanced. Also, the puzzles are practically nonexistent in 7 and 8 which always bothered me.

 

[Tigranes]

6 is one of the few games I simply cannot play because it looks too fucking shit. To me it looks only marginally better than Superman 64.

I'm trying to give World of Xeen a proper go right now, though.

 

[Daemongar]

^^^^ Well, I'm sure Xeen will cure what ails you in the graphics department...

I love Xeen and think its one of the best RPG's ever. Also finished 6, 7, and 8. I really, really liked the direction in 6, and could barely finish 8, even though it was probably shorter and more full featured than 6. MM6 just had a heroic feel to it, and even though you fought 100 skeletons, or snakes, or spiders or whatever, it was a huge battle on a huge map or in a huge dungeon. After the end, you could loot, explore, grab quest items. Personally, I think it really built on World of Xeen: there is always something to do no matter where you are. There were very long term quests (dragon pillar), medium level quests (promotions), and immediate quests (kill all the bandits over here.) And the loot was awesome and just random enough.

So no, I liked the combat in MM6-8, as in a sense that unlike other games, you could just take a beating and run past mobbed areas if you really wanted to and the game didn't care.

 

[Zetor]

I finished 3 and 4-5 (though I didn't like Xeen as much as 3 for some reason), and got about halfway into 7 before losing interest. I actually finished 8, but that was only because it was really short compared to 7...

 

[J_C]

Maybe because I'm a bit older now and don't have the patience, but I can only bear the 200 mobs/dungeon fights up to a point. And it is really a shame, because as I and the others have said, the game has great dungeons, maps, character system and art style. Maybe if I lacked good games to play, I would be more tolerant, but when I have a butload of classics on my GOG account, I find it hard to play a game until the end, when it has a major part I don't enjoy.

Hm, maybe if I had a party which can steamroll over the enemies...

 

[Cyberarmy]

I even finished 9... Really, don't play that one...

Dungeons are hardly that crowded except some (dwarven mines and temple of baa in 6) Real problem with lots of mobs starts outside but after getting meteor/starburst/fly/waterwalk.
And 7th-8th games don't have dungeons like 6th, they are also shorter than 6.

I only hate "breaker" mobs in M&M 6-7, item break on hit mechanic.. it only slows down combat after a while.

 

[made]

^^^^ Well, I'm sure Xeen will cure what ails you in the graphics department...

I love Xeen and think its one of the best RPG's ever.

I recently finished Darkside after several attempts and starting from scratch over the years. In hindsight I'll have to revise my opinion of the game. The exploration was fun as ever although the main story pretty much forces an optimal path through the game (get key, unlock next dungeon). Combat however is so utterly banal, 90% of the time it's just holding down A and mowing down hordes of mobs without wasting a second thought unless you find yourself in an area that's vastly beyond your level. Stat inflation is ridiculous at higher levels and the whole character building process becomes pointless. At level 70 or so you can easily beat everything the game throws at you save for a couple optional areas but the game keeps piling on levels and stat boosts, there's just not enough gold to actually train so it's back to grinding gem mines over and over but there's really no point to it.

I don't remember if Terra was like that too. Played it only once on the Amiga 20 years ago. Gonna give it another run sometime soon.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Personally I finished MM7 but MM6 I both times quit in the Control Center or whatever that place crawling with robots is called. Was just too frustrating to play that part turn based.

You ragequit at the control centre, but finished the Lincoln in MM7, which was like a hundred times more horrible?

 

[Invictus]

Might and Magic was the first CRPG series that really destroyed the whole "who cares about graphics" movement from the 80s, especialy with the release of my favorite Might and Magic III Isles of Terra.
The graphics where bright, colorful and wonderfully animated and I can still remember countless nights in my school's dorm during highschool taking turns with my roommates and playing till dawn; the game was almost as much fun to watch as to play.
Admitedly World of Xeen was a more polished and better game but Terra always had such a strong impact on me and my buddies that I actualy prefered the it.
The later M&Ms (6 to 8) simply had no appeal to me at all; the colorfull cartoony graphics where gone, the varied party was not only reduced in numbers but in races and classes, the only things I prefered where the paperdoll equipment screen and the story and gameplay where a bit more evolved...but the charm of the earlier games was lost to me.
I understand the later games are good, they just never grabbed me in the same way as the earlier games

 

[J_C]

Maybe I should try the Xeen games (yeah, I haven't played them, shoot me). As I understand they are more similar to MMX for example, with no 100 monsters mobs.

 

[subotaiy]

I agree with the OP, MM6 and 7 become boring as fuck aster a few hours, the combat is terrible; most posters here speak from nostalgia.

 

[octavius]

Personally I finished MM7 but MM6 I both times quit in the Control Center or whatever that place crawling with robots is called. Was just too frustrating to play that part turn based.

You ragequit at the control centre, but finished the Lincoln in MM7, which was like a hundred times more horrible?

To be honest, it's possible I didn't finish MM7 either. The last thing I definitely remember was late in the game approaching an opening to something and facing a large pack of demons and some of them being able to dispel all my buffs, including that wonderful Fly spell, with a sicking, unpleasant sound.
I checked a Let's Play of the Lincoln area, and it doesn't ring any bells, so now I'm uncertain wether I finished it or not.
Oh well, it's on my Play List for 1999.

 

[Invictus]

Hey Octavius whatsup, where is your cat avatar?

 

[MicoSelva]

Many RPGs are an acquired taste games, and MM6 to 8 are no different. They are great games if you are in a proper mood, but at other times You might wonder why exactly do You even play them. And some people never fall into this kind of mood at all.

 

[Melan]

I recently finished Darkside after several attempts and starting from scratch over the years. In hindsight I'll have to revise my opinion of the game. The exploration was fun as ever although the main story pretty much forces an optimal path through the game (get key, unlock next dungeon). Combat however is so utterly banal, 90% of the time it's just holding down A and mowing down hordes of mobs without wasting a second thought unless you find yourself in an area that's vastly beyond your level. Stat inflation is ridiculous at higher levels and the whole character building process becomes pointless. At level 70 or so you can easily beat everything the game throws at you save for a couple optional areas but the game keeps piling on levels and stat boosts, there's just not enough gold to actually train so it's back to grinding gem mines over and over but there's really no point to it.

I have similar experiences. The game has a lot of charm early on, and the way you can combine two games into the World of Xeen is really cool, but it ends up becoming banal in its second half.

6 and particularly 7 have made better impressions on me - the character-building was very satisfying, since you had to go out and find various places to train your skills, and you always had something going on with that. I liked fighting the hordes of enemies when I played these games, although I suspect I'd not find this as much fun now that my time is more limited. I guess these games are the product of their times, and may not have aged as well as, say, Wizardry VII. Flying above a huge throng of enemies and bringing down meteors on them will never grow old, though.

 

[kryminator]

Do you like the combat in the last few M&M games? Don't you think that killing 100 mages, then 100 thieves, then 200 cobras is quite shitty design?

I like the combat. I don't know why, because I also think it is shitty designed, idiotic sometimes. No strategy/tactics at all. Nevertheless, I don;t know why but I enjoy killing that mages. And I enjoy playing 6-7 and also 8. I have finished 7 two times and currently I am playing 6 for the second time and maybe after that I will play 7 for the third time. Some of You probably finished those games more than two times, so 2 times doesn't look like a great achievement. But apart from Fallout 1/2 and Another World these are the only games I finished more than one time. In fact, I don't know what is so special about them. When I think of them they don't seem to be games for me (many character levels, poorly designed combat with completely idiotic opponents, many unused spells etc). But when I am playing it (as I said currently playing 6th part), I completely forget about real world, the game is sucking me into its world.

I agree with the OP, MM6 and 7 become boring as fuck aster a few hours, the combat is terrible; most posters here speak from nostalgia.

Combat is terrible indeed but the games itself are very addictive. At least for me. And I am not speaking from nostalgia. I would say that Wiz7/8 (the only I played) are boring. I spent many hours playing them but I have never finished them. But I will (got about 80% progress in 7th part ;p). And I have stopped playing Wiz7 to play M&M6.

M&Ms are mainly games about exploration so since they don't focus too much on the main story, I think it's perfectly fine not to finish them (especially if they are humongous like Xeen). I think the combat works very good for a game of such scope and style. Yeah maybe after a shitload of exploration and combat you decide to stop playing, but it's OK, these are games for you to get lost in their world, not to finish their main story.

That +character building may be the reason why its so addictive for me.