[Poll] Ishar, Arkania and Amber

[octavius]

Just noticed there are lots of similarities between these trilogies.

They are alle made by continental west European developers.
They were trilogies (OK, the last Amber game was not completed)
They were all made in the era 1992-1996
They were all developed on the Amiga (I think?)
I have not played any of them (yet). For some reason I prefered American games to "euro trash", and I also kind of gave up on Amiga gaming when I couldn't run Ultima Underworld or Might&Magic 3 on it.
They all had a lesser known prequel - Crystals of Arborea, Dragonflight and Spirit of Adventure. Of these the last one is most obscure, but also the one that sounds most interesting to me with a medieval Germany setting and Bard's Tale combat (but hopefully not nearly the same frequency of random encounters). Anyone played it?

 

[made]

Only the first DSA came out for Amiga, and it was a shoddy port.

Anyway, the games are not really comparable as they have vastly different gameplay. Only thing they have in common is relative freedom of where to go and explore. And well, a party, but that was commonplace back then so pointless to bring it up. DSA offers the most in-depth RPG mechanics, while other two are pretty barebone, which makes it the winner by default I guess.

But since it's clear who'll come out on top I'll have to side with the underdog here. Ishar holds a special place in my heart. <3

ps: M&M3 was available on Amiga

 

[Hobo Elf]

Ishar looks nice, but the combat is utter garbage. RoA all the way.

 

[Morkar Left]

Amberstar (and I suppose Ambermoon too) is a very well rounded rpg experience (besides the cities are a bit empty). RoA series is probably the best p&p rpg implementation ever made. Which of this two series is better depends purely on personal taste. For me both a top notch. Ishar is clearly behind of this two series because of its boring rt combat and the writing isn't as good either. At least what I experienced so far (only played part 1 and a bit of 2). Crystals of Aborea is a barebone rpg. There is basically no interaction, dungeons are mostly boring (and brown), the combat is ok. You can play it at one weekend. Spirit of Adventure lacks a lot behind the RoA series for me. I couldn't get into it. Dragonflight I never played.
From all this games I enjoyed Amberstar the most and it is in my Top 5 of rpgs of all time.

 

[MMXI]

This isn't even a competition. The Realms of Arkania series is one of the best RPG series of all time and is probably the most hardcore. The Ishar games are average real-time blobbers while Amberstar and Ambermoon are fun but very stat light and more like Ultima-esque exploration games with slightly more interesting combat.

 

[octavius]

ps: M&M3 was available on Amiga

I could never get it to run on my Amiga 501.
Disillusioned by the fact that both Ultima Underworld and M&M3 were out of my reach since I couldn't afford a PC and to upgrade it all the time, I wandered the streets aimlessly. In the seediest part of town I met some shadowy figures who beckoned me over. "Feeling down, depressed and lonely? Try this." And they handed me some Play By Mail manuals. Again I was in nerdvana and it was not untill 1996-97, with games like Diablo, M&M 6 and Heroes of Might and Magic that I bought a PC and computer gaming would become my main hobby again.

 

[Angelo85]

Amber was fun but can't quite reach Arkania.
Makes me wonder how long it will take until we finally see an Albion reimagining :D

 

[eric__s]

They're all enjoyable in their own ways, but the Realms of Arkania series is the best and I'd start there if you haven't played any of them. Ishar is very nice to look at and fun to explore, but the combat is pretty atrocious. Ambermoon and Amberstar are pretty cool and of the three series, the one I've spent the least amount of time on. They've got super nice music and an interesting blobber battle system that incorporates movement. Very fun to explore. But yeah, the Realms of Arkania games are some of the best RPGs ever.

I've also played Spirit of Adventure and it's a lot like the first Realms of Arkania game, except worse. Everything about it is not quite as good; the combat is like Wasteland's, you don't use or need skills that often, the character creation doesn't really make sense, the writing and story are kind of dumb. It's pretty forgettable, I'd skip it.

I think one guy might have worked on all three of those games, or at least all the Ambermoon and Arkania games. They each have these faces that look almost identical in both of them. Maybe there was only one guy in Germany that could make faces...

 

[MMXI]

They've got super nice music

They do indeed. As do the Realms of Arkania games, especially the CD audio versions.

Star Trail Soundtrack
Shadows Over Riva Soundtrack

 

[Vagiel]

I agree Isthar should not be on the list, but do not underestimate Amber series, they have very nice setting and exploration while having nice battle mechanics. The many adventure elements they have give them a very unique flavour. Of course Arkania is probably king but you know that so i voted for amber to raise some interest.

 

[mondblut]

Well, you could consider Albion a replacement for Ambersun, it has exactly the same gameplay as the Ambers, just in a different setting. Also terrible railroading, but that was a trend already began by Ambermoon, so I imagine Ambersun would be little different.

Well-noted about the prequels no one ever played I only played SoA for a few minutes, there is hardly any medieval Germany there?

Anyway, I felt obliged to vote Arkania, although I consider it overall pretty boring (and whoever disagrees, feel free to shoot at me diagonally ). Ishar had grand graphics and atmosphere but little else to go with it, and Amber too fairytale-ish and jrpgesque; both lacked character creation and decent ruleset, and boasted horribad combat. Arkania wins by the virtue of having autocombat.

 

[MMXI]

(and whoever disagrees, feel free to shoot at me diagonally )

Looks like you didn't play past Blade of Destiny.

 

[mondblut]

(and whoever disagrees, feel free to shoot at me diagonally )

Looks like you didn't play past Blade of Destiny.

Nah, I know they had a sudden fit of mental clarity after shipping RoA1, but that's a jab impossible to abstain from when talking RoA Still wondering what were they thinking back in 1991, though. 199fucking1. Guten morgen, Vizard's Crown, hov did you manage to throv ze stuff diagonally 7 years ago on 64 kb RAM, 2 mhz KPU 8-bit komputers? Itz a magik ve ze german ubermenschen kannot into!

 

[Morkar Left]

Ultima, Magic Candle and some other rpgs skipped diagonal shooting/casting, too. I think it was considered as a gamebalance mechanism. Especially in RoA shooting was already overpowered enough (BG is another candidate for this). Still, I didn't like it either as a realisitc fag.​

 

[villain of the story]

It turns out that the GOG version of RoA doesn't have CD Audio.
http://af.gog.com/en/forum/realms_of_arkania_series/realms_of_arkania_1_2_fixed?as=1649904300

Does that mean better music or better sound effects?

 

[Morkar Left]

On CD was the very good soundtrack/music. Soundeffects are the same. The CD version of RoA had a better mousedriven interface, too. Just try to get an image from somewhere when you want the soundtrack or play it in your mp3 player.
For RoA2 you need actually two cds, a lot of versions were only shipped with one cd and you had two switch from cd soundtrack to midi at some parts in the game.
If ordering in Germany and German language is a possibility for you get the "Nordlandtrilogie - Heldenedition" from the "Play Indie" label. It has all cd images included. At least it is the most complete besides the first original releases.

 

[eric__s]

They've got super nice music

They do indeed. As do the Realms of Arkania games, especially the CD audio versions.

Star Trail Soundtrack
Shadows Over Riva Soundtrack

I could gush pretty much forever about how much I love all the various aspects of Star Trail, but I think the soundtrack is my favorite part.





One of the best game soundtracks of all time. It creates an atmosphere so contrary to what you'd expect from burly, shirtless warlords but so fitting.

Also, in regard to CD audio versus MIDI, I think the MIDI version is better. The CD version uses goofy 1994 era soundfonts that sound super cheesy and outdated today. I don't know if Blade of Destiny ever got a CD audio release, but every version I've ever played used adlib and sounded really bad. This is not at all what it sounds like in the game.

 

[Cenobyte]

Also voted for Ishar. Was one of my first cRPGs, very fond memories
NLT/RoA is of course better from an RPG pov and the underlying mechanics, but it will win this poll anyway, so why not support the underdogs?

 

[Luzur]

well i liked Ishar alot due to the graphics, RoA for the big ass map, and Amber because it was among the first Amiga RPG's i had.

 

[groke]

I don't know if Blade of Destiny ever got a CD audio release, but every version I've ever played used adlib and sounded really bad. This is not at all what it sounds like in the game.

There is indeed a CD version and it sounds exactly like that.

edit: actually, I'm not sure the English CD version has CD audio. The German one does, though, and renaming the English BLADE.DAT to SHICK.DAT (or the similarly named file for ST) and dropping it into a German installation effectively translates the entire game (there's still "DER Fireball hits DIE Orc" shit, but you can change that pretty easily with a hex editor if you have the inclination).

 

[ForeverdarkWoods]

I have not played any Ishar game more than a little under an hour, personally. Didn't grab me that much. Between Amber and RoA, I'd probably pick RoA. Gameplay in RoA wins over Amber, and Ishar didn't manage to grab me at all.

 

[Goliath]

This isn't even a competition. The Realms of Arkania series is one of the best RPG series of all time and is probably the most hardcore.

This.

 

[Bruma Hobo]

WTF, VotS... Don't bring one liners to this thread.

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

Guten morgen, Vizard's Crown, hov did you manage to throv ze stuff diagonally 7 years ago on 64 kb RAM, 2 mhz KPU 8-bit komputers? Itz a magik ve ze german ubermenschen kannot into!

1 mhz computers actually. Truly the magic was greater than they had forseen.

As for the topic, I won't vote until I have played all of the trilogies.

 

[turrican]

I have not played any of them (yet). For some reason I prefered American games to "euro trash", and I also kind of gave up on Amiga gaming when I couldn't run Ultima Underworld or Might&Magic 3 on it.

Haha you:patriot: .
As was mentioned before, Das Schwarze Auge (Realms of Arkania) is so vastly superior to the other choices, it is not even funny. One could actually play the games with the pen&paper sourcebooks (DSA 3rd edition) at that time instead of the game manual. The CD versions have pretty neat music, too. I highly recommend starting with Realms of Arkania.

The Amber series is sort of a reimport of a JRPG style by western developers, however I hold a lot of nostalgia for Amberstar/moon. Ishar was probably too ambitions for its time and as I remember it was quite buggy, I would recommend watching a play-through on youtube or something similar first.