Too much Might and Magic for me right now, I think I put so much focus over it during the extent of my working hours and it's obviously time for a break from this franchise. Well, Heroes of Might and Magic will have to wait quite a while. During the summer, I got quite a few franchises that I want to explore soon enough.
So Might and Magic IX puts a new paintbrush on the previous games in the series and makes it look snazzier, but doesn't really change the core gameplay. It's somewhat appreciative, just putting on the new graphics may be all that's needed. I played through the series in such an order that rivals that of the Wizardry series and watched it evolve into what it is at the moment, active-time, freeform navigation, plenty of sidequests and interesting story areas, and all that. Each game I felt like doing something different each time but even then it all feels the same. And overall, Might and Magic's later games do get easier, which is something I don't have a problem with.
So since gameplay is the same and character customization is as always a high point for the series, especially with all the class changes possible, it really boils down to how this game's plot goes. Imagine if you will, a plotline that goes off the rails because some random guy was basically deciding not just your destiny, but the destiny of your supposed opponent. Because that's exactly what happens in this game. Axeoth, the region of the game, is brand new, there's barely any mention of this place at all in previous games (apparently this takes place after Heroes of Might and Magic IV, which I will of course have to play in the long run). Then you have warring clans that you want to unite against foreign invaders and some crazed barbarian of sorts. You also have this Writ of Fate stating "you must defeat this guy". Except the guy also has a Writ of Fate stating "you must defeat the player character's party". So with all the intrigue and subterfuge going on, we do some Norse mythology stuff, or at least a knock-off of it in name (but I'm sure we can agree that Hallenhalt is Valhalla, Krohn is Odin, Njam is Loki, Fre is Freya, Hanndl is Heimdall, etc. No Thor if you ever wanted him though). So yeah, Krohn is the benevolent king of the gods, and realizes that yes, you and your supposed enemy are being trolled by the mischief god Njam the whole time. Well, so much for this whole war. All because one guy just wants things to himself (this includes Krohn's wife Fre, yeah, he wants to go there). And Krohn's his main obstacle, so he'll allow both sides of the conflict to work together to defeat Njam for the end. And that's essentially what happens and in all honesty, I'm not amused by this. Maybe cause I figured out that if we have anyone based on Loki as a main villain, it's going to be one of THOSE plotlines and needs to be done amazingly right, which this one doesn't really hit the stride as much as hoped.
Oh well, at least I can take a break from this tiring franchise for a while.
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