CRPGs are such silly games, aren't they? Tons of customization options for player characters, incredulously difficult gameplay with tons of micromanaging, this kind of stuff won't ever appeal to casual gamers. Which is why I find it so darn fun, honestly. Realms of Arkania has insofar been a rad series with the tactical combat, which I find more fun than the usual turn-based stuff that Might & Magic and Wizardry have been pulling me with. Battles will of course take a while, or not, depending on how strong you are and how chicken the enemies can be. The many niches of combat end up with quite a lot of RNG. The spell failed! The attack failed! Bear in mind I finished a Pokemon ROM hack recently and those games are of course rife with attacks and moves that fail, kinda like these ones. But as you might think, it's honestly all in good fun regardless and I still enjoy this stuff.
Though, frankly, there's really not a whole lot to talk about with regards to Star Trail. The changes are minor but are clearly better, so one who plays this first and goes back to Blade of Destiny will find the latter to be less than stellar (hah, a star pun). Personally though, I always play from the roots up. It's real nice that you can aim on a diagonal now. The music is really good. The dialogue in the game is quite interestingly voiced. The computer combat has nice imagery but is an incredibly risky way to skip some battles. And the overall plot does try to steer away from general cliches, but still has a few, like the shady briber who ends up being the evil sorceror summoning a dragon for the final boss. And well, you don't actually defeat that boss, you just have to survive. The alliance of races to stand up to another race was a nice main quest, but it was the main one and there was very few side stuff compared to the previous game. It all sets up for Shadows over Riva, whenever I get to playing that.
