A look back at: Heroes of Might & Magic 4 + expansions

 

Shake up the formula once, shake it up again, and shake it up some more. You can clearly tell that with the isometric viewpoint reminiscent of a number of games I played that things are gonna try to look a little more 3D. There's no grid-based movement, but arguably the true big change was actually putting in the heroes themselves to be battlers alongside their troops. This shakes up the formula quite a lot, now you gotta worry about keeping heroes alive and not to fall in battle, alongside all the other familiar things such as your towns and resources. The regular navigation is also 3D, and there's quite a lot to go through for both the main game and the expansions.

They also shook up the overall storyline of the whole universe. The world you know from previous Heroes games gets nuked, all cause Tarnum didn't really make it in Chronicles to stop Gelu and Kilgor from crossing those two legendary blades, destroying all of Enroth. Sure, Tarnum lives again, as do a number of others who, by some stroke of luck, manage to enter portals leading to Axeoth, the new world. But Heroes 4 doesn't really provide us with familiar faces to play with this time around. Everyone is new. Everyone has individual campaigns, ranging from love stories to conquering oceans to just being a barbarian son of Tarnum. The backstories tend to be far more interesting than the individual scenarios.

This does change with the Gathering Storm and Winds of War expansions. I don't know what it is, but I adore it when characters come together. Both expansions do this but in different ways. In the Gathering Storm, you build up the five main characters and they all join together to battle and defeat a greater enemy. In Winds of War, you build up the five main characters and have to have them battle each other while conquering a foe they all are trying to conquer. The latter expansion feels like you should play the most villainous of villains, cause the last scenario, you pick one to be your main conqueror. It does interest me how Heroes 4 isn't as well-received as the previous installments. I didn't find it too bad, but the shakeup of the formulas does play a part.

A look back at: Heroes of Might & Magic III, expansion packs, and Chronicles

 

Well what do you know. It's been quite the long while since I last left off on some RPG stuff, but that's cause I was doing things in consistent tandem. I definitely knew Heroes of Might & Magic III was gonna be a big one, and it truly was a big one in this regard. So big, I had to allot time to figure out how the hell I was supposed to do the expansion packs. Eventually I settled on Shadow of Death first, the Restoration of Erathia second (this is the main campaign), and finally Armageddon's Blade last. Oh, and Chronicles too, don't forget that.

From what I can tell, this is the peak of HoM&M as a franchise. The games before it have a system that was in the works, slowly becoming what it ends up being at the climax of this. And people really did appreciate it all alongside the scenario-based war battles. The hex grid is still a favorite, and there's just lots of customization options even if you are dealing with some level limits during these scenarios. It can be a bit too much at times considering you have to do some town building, recruiting of new and strange units, customizing their equipment, customizing your hero generals so their regiments are strong to go up against contenders, finding treasures, and trying to allot your time during the game so that you don't spend too much time in some scenarios.

Plot-wise, I am always sold on the idea of playing as one person or group, and then the focus ends up shifting towards a different main character. For this reason, I consider the Shadow of Death to be my favorite of the main episodes of HoM&M3. I mean, the first few campaigns all have one main hero each, but they then start coalescing, even the main villain you get to play as in his own campaign, and everyone gangs up on the guy. Restoration of Erathia provides some neat continuity to the canon storyline of HoM&M2, since Catherine is the wife of Roland and wants to find him, and then Armageddon's Blade serves as a more interesting continuity to Restoration of Erathia by then, and I love continuity a lot. Don't really care much for fighting necromancers a lot, but Restoration of Erathia provided a strange plot twist to it all. And then there's Chronicles, where while Tarnum is the only person you have as the main hero, his job class changes between campaigns, and the poor guy is looking towards just having a nice afterlife only to never get it. And honestly, going through all of these gameplay, expansion packs, and Chronicles, it can take a lot out of you, but I managed it. If you're a true die-hard for the series, this really ended up being the peak. 

A look back at: Heroes of Might & Magic II: The Succession Wars (+ The Price of Loyalty)

It's been almost two months. Yeah, it's somehow going slower once again, usually do to work commitments, but there's more to it for this installment. As expected, I went through HoM&M2, but I not only did it, I went through both main campaigns, Archibald and Roland. And this is the first time I actually did an expansion pack too, which consisted of four campaigns separate from the main game itself, yet with the same mechanics.

Mechanics-wise, HoM&M2 only really allows for more tweaking when it comes to totally new things. Now you have more skills, better use of army management, and a better magic system. Plus victory bonuses for taking specific paths. Things are a tad smaller this time around, which allows for more in terms of movement across a hex grid for battles, though regular navigation remains. When you factor in everything else, the second HoM&M really just plays like an improved version of the first. Maybe this is all I would be here for though. More "conquer everyone" missions. Though some with timers or specific characters that you need to keep alive. So they are improving in that regard while they keep the empire-building and other notable things intact.

While there probably isn't too much else to say at this point, it's really just a Heroes of Might & Magic-a-thon for me for the next couple of RPGs to check out. The biggest godsend this series has thus far is the ability to save at any time, as well as a flowchart that shows the branching paths. So having multiple saves on my file allows me to utilize things much better and make more interesting plans. I hear HoM&M3 is the most famous of the whole franchise, oddly enough, and now I wonder what's in store after all that strategy RPGing I took with this game. And there's even more expansion packs within it! This will take me quite a while.

A look back at: Might and Magic IX: The Writ of Fate

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.

A look back at: Might and Magic VIII: Day of the Destroyer

 

Ah yes, a good old case of "stop this whacko from killing everyone through world destruction means". At this point, this game in the series feels run of the mill, using the exact same engine as the previous two games, though I would say it's a bit better. Better classes to choose from right from the start, a fifth party slot, and the ability to recruit cool monsters as your party members is fun. I followed Eltimar's Youtube let's play playlist in figuring a few things out, and decided to go with what he did, recruit dragons! Oh yeah, it was really cool. It of course means my main character, the only one I cannot remove, is the weakest, but whatever, dragons feel overpowered and I enjoyed having to use them to fly around, breathe fire, and just be resilient to everything in general. And to have up to four is just amazing.

Still a tough game mind you, just like before, especially if you decide to start solo without recruits. Plenty of sidequests I loved doing off the beaten path and the usage of elements is something that isn't new, but still fun all the same. Yeah, fun, but I did take numerous breaks throughout. Since this game plays almost exactly like the previous two entries, there were quite a lot of instances of me getting bored with the gameplay and playing something else. Plus work gets in the way, always hard to play when you have work to do. But I'm glad this will be the last one to utilize this particular game engine, as Might and Magic IX is up next, and from what I have seen, will turn things around.

A look back at: Might and Magic VII: For Blood and Honor

Still going on that Might and Magic streak, yes, I will play other games as I play this, because if I'm going through a franchise like this all in one sitting, I'd get bored quickly. You gotta jump between franchises man, otherwise stuff will wear thin.

Anyways, the seventh iteration of Might and Magic proves to not be too different than the sixth. Or does it really? Frankly the core gameplay elements all remain, they just decided to bring back the other races aside from humans and add some new classes. And they then got the nerve to get inspired from FF8/FF9. Okay I kid, but seriously, an addicting card minigame was given into this one. This took a while to get used to though, so it really reminded me a lot of Triple Triad except probably harder. Well, that's kind of the deal with the Might and Magic series. Though easier than older iterations, M&M7 still has its many moments.

But I think we can agree that with all these branching points and the fact that I nowadays like to play a game all the way through only once, it gets to that point where half of my review is just me watching Youtube videos on the alternative paths to take while I take what I presume to be the canon path. And part of me keeps thinking that the non-canon paths could have been canon cause they are sometimes more interesting. I took the evil path, which proved to be quite fun. Didn't really understand what was up with the eight heroes and the fact that they all split themselves up into the good 4 and evil 4 and you had to pick a side. And them being advisors for other races, in the middle of you cleaning out your castle and realizing you've got some diplomacy placed onto your hands. Loved some of the ideas in the plot a lot more than the sixth game overall though, and I think the game is enjoyable regardless of the path you take. Still got that customization, still got the difficulty.

A look back at: Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven

It's going to be a Might and Magic marathon for me when it comes to some RPG reviews for a while, since I'll be exploring the remainder of the mainline games and the Heroes of Might and Magic semi-spinoff series. I say semi because this game sort of intertwines in the timeline of that series for some reason. Yeah, I'm probably going to miss some plot parts as I work my way through this.

With regards to the sixth game, I do miss the grid-based movement and the party size of six. That's quite the negatives there. But the positives are a bit better here. The sixth Might and Magic has already got full 360 degree movement going for it and even has not only real-time combat, but the option to turn it on or off. Wizardry 8 had at least one of these things, but the fact that this game came out before that already proves this series is already on a roll before that one. Real-time combat is a lot more engaging overall, as you're limited heavily in the traditional turn-based combat and many players of old probably got tired of that style, so having this come out at the turn of the century of RPG combat was nice. I enjoyed what I did overall using the real-time combat; combining this with the full movement range was icing on the cake.

And I do enjoy the immersiveness of the game overall. Seeing NPCs walking around casually makes the series seem like it's going to be more lively in the future, and that's even seeing them walk around while I battled enemies. The sidequests are nice too, most are for further promoting your characters up in their classes. As I got more used to the combat, I will say that it's not as hard as it seems, but it still can be nasty. I mean, it's Might and Magic, it's going to be nasty. With real-time combat, there's a very good chance that swarms of enemies can easily overwhelm parties while you're trying desperately to input all sorts of commands. And I'll see more of this in the immediate next installment soon enough!

A look back at: Might and Magic V: Darkside of Xeen

 

It's the same! But different. But still same! Yeah, gotta find some fun in the Might and Magic series either combining games, or letting you import characters. Certainly more of that medievalness going around...wait that's right, there's a lot of tech stuff incorporated too. As well as familiar faces all around. Might and Magic IV+V, World of Xeen, keeps to the formula of the third game, while having a double dose. There's really not much different in the gameplay department, and characters can be imported. Music is basically the same more or less, but if there's one thing gameplay-wise that needs checking, it's this: imported parties have a much better time. Yeah, freshly starting is going to be a little harder than usual, and that sucks. Apart from that, veterans of M&M will see this as something similar to an expansion, with a few things to catch the eye. Like, say, a floor set up like a freakin' crossword puzzle.

So what's the deal with Sheltem and Corak and why do we have to hear about them all the time? Wait, Sheltem we know is a bad guy, and Corak is a good guy. Sheltem has been around. The party from back in M&M3 journeyed with Corak to battle Sheltem as he ran away, as M&M3 was a game without a proper final boss. But now we get to see some things. First off, Sheltem naturally is our big bad, impersonating King Alamar and making life a living hell for people on Xeen after Xeen himself has passed. However, he's an android? And Corak too. It was an interesting info dump to read all the stuff that was in the ship logs that both Corak and Sheltem had, and the fact that they both had memory banks that kept them where they are. Sheltem, of course, doesn't want the upper hand taken away from him, and basically ambushes Corak at whatever chance he gets. The party in M&M5 really just take the role of bystanders who basically turn the tide of things simply by fetchquesting, without much in the way of battling Sheltem, because Corak decides to activate a MUTUAL SELF DESTRUCT system. Personally it's quite hilarious that they both have it, and I guess it only works if the two were together. One seriously wanted to live and be evil, that was his goal.

And then there's the weird wedding where you have to save the bride and groom in different dungeons. And what's with the Dragon Pharaoh? Totally weird characters and weirder stuff. I'll continue to mess around with this franchise, hoping there's some more interesting plot stuff like this. It was quite the adventure.

A look back at: Might and Magic IV: Clouds of Xeen

 

As I continue to play this series, I really should be expecting more of the same thing. The deal with most, if not all, franchises has to be how they always end up playing out a lot like their predecessors, unless they really are going to twist things. Having been playing these computer RPGs for some time, there's bound to be subtle changes added to just about anything. Which hey, I'm down for that. Sometimes I can handle a game that just sort of feels like an expansion mission pack to everything that happened in a previous title (in this case, Might and Magic III). And then V comes after this, wait, what?

So Might and Magic IV and V are pretty darn complicated, considering you can actually combine both games into one. Eventually I would finish the first half, which is IV, glad to have done it so quickly. Then again, this was shorter and easier overall than any of III. Being a two-parter game may have contributed to that. What's really new though? Well, fancier character portraits, voice acting (not entirely bad either), interesting sidequests, a few changes to the menus. Just adding more and more without retracting from the overall formula. I still appreciate dungeon crawling, the occasional run-into of the overpowered monster, and the character customization. Xeen, the villain, though? Kind of a Skeletor ripoff, just a skull-wearing overlord who has to watch over a land with his name on it and making it terrible. Xeen's not that great. But interestingly, both games in the World of Xeen revolve around him, so I bet he'll be just like Sheltem, an overarching presence. Speaking of which, what even happened to those adventurers that went after Sheltem? I sure missed my old party. Oh, Might and Magic, if you were like Wizardry and allowed the importing of previous parties, I would have loved you far more.

A look back at: Might and Magic III: Isles of Terra

 

Well it's certainly been a while since I played an RPG of some sort! I focused heavily on platformers for the tail end of last year, but I did get a bit of a start playing Might and Magic III at some point. I just put it off for months to do Dooming and platforming and what not. But hey, I never want to leave a stone unturned, and I got right back into the swing of things. Though I did need to refresh myself somewhat, since it's been a while and this game like the others still remains quite hard.

The good news? Well, things are far more convenient. Menu options are done much better so that I can get my spells easier as well as getting experience and saving, more conveniences makes the challenge much less but sometimes it's appreciated. To offset this, there's no number values visible on the screen for HP and what not, you just get character portraits (still an indicator of their status) and color bars (a less-than-adequate way of indicating health). Thankfully there's still the menu options which are a godsend coming off the heels of the previous game. So Might and Magic III, your gameplay improved greatly and I'm starting to ease into the series a bit more and more as we go along. Indeed, the gameplay and the character customization are still the strong suits and remain strong.

The weak suit, of course, is the plot, which, well, hey, the franchise has so far been quite primitive in storyline and there's not much to really go by. But this one in particular is a bit more confusing. So new setting, that's nice, but the adventurers of Terra that you recruit and use aren't really connected to anyone in particular. They're not the same ones from the previous game, as they live on Terra. They just somehow get caught up in the whole Corak vs. Sheltem conflict. And there's no endgame boss to speak of, Corak just pursues Sheltem with your party pursuing both. And I hear somehow that the party loses their way and ends up in a distant sequel as opposed to the fourth game, according to the Wikipedia article? Seems strange. I think Wizardry does better with the storylines compared to Might and Magic, but I'll still see just how far Might and Magic can go with its craziness and maybe there's some interesting stuff later on.

A look back at: Might and Magic II: Gates to Another World

 

DOS RPGs are sure fun aren't they? For the seasoned console RPG player like myself, I really do gotta get down to the nitty and gritty to play this, as well as the first game and the Wizardry games. Amazing how despite not being made by Japanese developers who certainly made their first RPGs difficult, this proves to be almost, if not much more difficult. Especially for newer players. Ya gotta grind man. And lots of it.

Sure enough, Might and Magic II like any other sequel just proves to expand upon what was already brought to us with the first game. The same dungeon crawling and battle mechanics, the same character system. All classic stuff. A couple of new classes, but what I wasn't expecting were special quests made for specific classes, meaning you can only take them with those particular characters. The hirelings kinda resemble a few other RPGs I played, as they are mercenaries for hire (the Silva Saga games for example had a similar mechanic). There's quite a lot of balancing, as well as getting specific skills, and sadly I'm certain I didn't get everything this time.

It's certainly always interesting to watch as a fantasy-themed RPG series decides "let's put in the technological stuff!" In a way, the plot of this game sort of resembles that of Phantasy Star 3, despite all the medievalness you all of a sudden realize you're in a floating biodome. But it seems to be heading towards the sun at the very end, and the way to solve it is to solve one of those cryptogram puzzles you probably saw in a newspaper or something. Quite funny, I don't think I've ever seen anything like that yet in an RPG! Might and Magic looks like it will continue to improve in its sequels the more I go through it, and I'm itching to go through the whole franchise at this point now.

A look back at: Might and Magic Book One: The Secret of the Inner Sanctum

 

Here we go! I dive into yet another CRPG series that is super old and takes well after the classic Dungeons & Dragons formula. And yet, despite all this, the game really is a lot like Wizardry, or at least the first few Wizardry games! Lots of getting lost with dungeon crawling, annoying enemies with nasty attacks, a few sidequests to provide degrees of nonlinearity, it's all here, in this multi-ported Might and Magic game. A whole lot of this stuff seems completely inspired by Wizardry, which really wore the pants better in my opinion. At least so far, since this is only the first Might and Magic game I've played and I'll get to the others later. Better options for classes and races. Better usage of magic (this one with the numbers take some to get used to, if we're being honest).

Naturally, the diverse element of customizing your party right at the beginning probably is not just the biggest hassle, but the biggest strength for this game overall. Beats grinding like crazy at least. What would I do without a buttload of customization? Even though you can grind up your stats and all many enemies can really kick your ass, or in some cases, eradicate your characters. Like deader than dead, like failing to revive an Ashen character in Wizardry, well, not really, in this game you CAN bring back eradicated characters. But that's one thing that can take you by surprise, if the old school difficulty doesn't already prove that.

Not too much in this game's plot overall, since this is all divided into "books" each plot ends up different for each segment. Thankfully that makes some of these games short, assuming you cut all the grinding out of it. Find the secret of the inner sanctum? Sure, an almost typical adventure plot. I definitely will plan to play more in the Might and Magic series, even going as far as to playing the tactical Heroes of Might and Magic when I get to them somewhere along the line. And then when I finish with this stuff I'll move on to Ultima, hopefully rounding out all of the old school CRPGs that got directly inspired by D&D then!