Hobo Elf
Arcane
Chapter list:
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Dedicated to shiteatingnippledick who helped me get this game up and running on a modern computer.
What is Areena 4?
Areena 4 (translated Arena 4) is a fantasy gladiator RPG in which you hire different creatures and heroes into your team, outfit them with gear and spells, train them and compete against other teams in turn based combat. The idea of the game is that there are 16 teams competing to become #1. This will be our goal. I will explain more about the game during the actual LP.
There is a newer sequel to the game simply titled Areena 5 which expands upon a lot of things, but this is the game that I played first and the most and so is nearest and dearest to my heart. If this LP provides to be good I will LP Areena 5.
Why Areena 4?
The 90's was a time of incline when it came to Finnish game development. We saw the release of many wonderful shareware and indie games, Areena 4 being very much a part of this era. There was a lot of creativity and we saw many, many great games. Unfortunately this whole scene was all but dead after the 00's. My goal here is to share a little piece of my childhood and show the world what kind of games Finland was making before Death Rally, before Max Payne, before Angry Birds.
Manual
Since the game is Finnish, everything in the game is written in Finnish. The game isn't all that text heavy, however, and is quite easy to understand for anyone who has any kind of experience with RPGs. I have some pictures here with translations and explanations of what is what. I highly recommend reading this first before going into the actual Let's Play.
From top to bottom: New Game, Load Game, Quick Instructions. We will choose New Game.
Players (1-4). The game can be played with up to 4 people.
Insert name for your gladiator team
Here is the main screen. I have translated all the stats and what the various tabs do. All images from here on will be presented in the same order as the tabs are in the game (1-9). Also, forgot to mention that above the first tab you can see your TEAM NAME, MONEY and the current DATE. The game uses real months (Tammikuu = January).
Here you can pick which gladiators you wish to participate in the current battle. You may have up to 4 people at a time.
The shop. You can buy Spears, Swords, Axes, Maces, Bows, Crossbows and Armor. The last tab, Tarjous (Sale), displays all the current equipment on sale for this month.
This is the Inn. Here you can hire new guys into your team.
Spell shop. There are damaging spells, healing spells, buffing spells and snares.
The school. Here you may train your gladiators to increase max HP, Power, Speed and Mana up to their max capacity. All the different races have different caps.
Other teams. You may look at the rosters of your enemies to see who you are going up against next round or just have a look at which guys are top dogs at the moment.
Here is a list of all the 16 teams divided into 4 divisions. The goal is to become #1 in the first division.
And here is the CUP ranking. Each year (season) there is a CUP and the winner gets lots of money. Typically the winner is someone from the 1st division. Entering CUP matches is a huge bummer when you are still stuck in the 4th and 3rd divisions since it typically means that the beefier guys from the higher divisions are going to put your dudes in the ER and so you won't be able to use them in the next proper matches. Of course this applies to the other competing teams as well.
And here is the programme for the season. It shows who you will be fighting in which month and whether it is a CUP match or a normal series match. The last two months, November and December are winter holidays and no matches are fought during those times. Team members may engage in brotherly Finnish traditions such as docking in the sauna.
Shop List
Spells
Hyökkäys (Attack) spells
Unfortunately I can't think of a translation for Turjake so I will explain what it means instead. It is an adjective that we can use to describe, for example, a dog or a person. Someone who is unclean and shaggy. Sometimes even a bit of a degenerate as well. Basically you could imagine that this spell will summon a hobo / alcoholic that will attack the enemy.
Next I'll add a list of all the magic spells and their descriptions. Unfortunately some spell names might not get translated as I can't think of a way to translate them.
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Dedicated to shiteatingnippledick who helped me get this game up and running on a modern computer.
What is Areena 4?
Areena 4 (translated Arena 4) is a fantasy gladiator RPG in which you hire different creatures and heroes into your team, outfit them with gear and spells, train them and compete against other teams in turn based combat. The idea of the game is that there are 16 teams competing to become #1. This will be our goal. I will explain more about the game during the actual LP.
There is a newer sequel to the game simply titled Areena 5 which expands upon a lot of things, but this is the game that I played first and the most and so is nearest and dearest to my heart. If this LP provides to be good I will LP Areena 5.
Why Areena 4?
The 90's was a time of incline when it came to Finnish game development. We saw the release of many wonderful shareware and indie games, Areena 4 being very much a part of this era. There was a lot of creativity and we saw many, many great games. Unfortunately this whole scene was all but dead after the 00's. My goal here is to share a little piece of my childhood and show the world what kind of games Finland was making before Death Rally, before Max Payne, before Angry Birds.
Manual
Since the game is Finnish, everything in the game is written in Finnish. The game isn't all that text heavy, however, and is quite easy to understand for anyone who has any kind of experience with RPGs. I have some pictures here with translations and explanations of what is what. I highly recommend reading this first before going into the actual Let's Play.
From top to bottom: New Game, Load Game, Quick Instructions. We will choose New Game.
Players (1-4). The game can be played with up to 4 people.
Insert name for your gladiator team
Here is the main screen. I have translated all the stats and what the various tabs do. All images from here on will be presented in the same order as the tabs are in the game (1-9). Also, forgot to mention that above the first tab you can see your TEAM NAME, MONEY and the current DATE. The game uses real months (Tammikuu = January).
Here you can pick which gladiators you wish to participate in the current battle. You may have up to 4 people at a time.
The shop. You can buy Spears, Swords, Axes, Maces, Bows, Crossbows and Armor. The last tab, Tarjous (Sale), displays all the current equipment on sale for this month.
This is the Inn. Here you can hire new guys into your team.
Spell shop. There are damaging spells, healing spells, buffing spells and snares.
The school. Here you may train your gladiators to increase max HP, Power, Speed and Mana up to their max capacity. All the different races have different caps.
Other teams. You may look at the rosters of your enemies to see who you are going up against next round or just have a look at which guys are top dogs at the moment.
Here is a list of all the 16 teams divided into 4 divisions. The goal is to become #1 in the first division.
And here is the CUP ranking. Each year (season) there is a CUP and the winner gets lots of money. Typically the winner is someone from the 1st division. Entering CUP matches is a huge bummer when you are still stuck in the 4th and 3rd divisions since it typically means that the beefier guys from the higher divisions are going to put your dudes in the ER and so you won't be able to use them in the next proper matches. Of course this applies to the other competing teams as well.
And here is the programme for the season. It shows who you will be fighting in which month and whether it is a CUP match or a normal series match. The last two months, November and December are winter holidays and no matches are fought during those times. Team members may engage in brotherly Finnish traditions such as docking in the sauna.
Shop List
Spells
Hyökkäys (Attack) spells
Unfortunately I can't think of a translation for Turjake so I will explain what it means instead. It is an adjective that we can use to describe, for example, a dog or a person. Someone who is unclean and shaggy. Sometimes even a bit of a degenerate as well. Basically you could imagine that this spell will summon a hobo / alcoholic that will attack the enemy.
Next I'll add a list of all the magic spells and their descriptions. Unfortunately some spell names might not get translated as I can't think of a way to translate them.
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