Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny Review (1992)

[@tvg9778]

The Pen and Paper RPG behind it is basically the German DnD equivalent, it is also much bigger than DnD in German speaking countries. Awesome game, played it more than half a dozen times over the last 25 years. ... very good review!

[@fmhummel]

I wonder whether it is still bigger nowadays. They made some rather ... odd choices in material they published over the last few years and can imagine that this has harmed their influx of new players. Their publishing tactics seem to be rather focused on the few whales among their hardcore fanbase.

[@tvg9778]

@@fmhummel that may well be true, am not up to date anymore. what choice of material and publishing tactics are you referring to?

[@wayner396]

My mom bought this for me for Christmas when I was a little kid and I loved it. I spent so many hours on this. I loved the world map. I got real close to beating it but couldn't get all the map pieces because of some bugs.

[@psymcdad8151]

I know Im late, but anyway: Those where not bugs. Those where intentional. Just like there where 'dead end'-Scenarios in leisure suit larry and other games of that time, RoA featured 'consequences', meaning that a bad decision early on could get you to a state where you could not beat the game anymore, quite frequently without explicitly mentioning it. This used to be more common back in the 90s, and even Morrowind had this as a possobility, where you could kill important NPCs and lock yourself in an unwinnable game (tho, morrowind was nice enough to tell you that you just locked yourselfe)

[@wayner396]

@@psymcdad8151 yeah, I rememeber a lot of those early pc games having stuff like that in them. I rememeber one map piece was impossible to get as I broke off a lock pick trying to open the chest and everytime I went back it would tell me I couldn't open the chest because the hole was blocked by a broken lockpick. Still this was one of my first rpgs and really cemented fantasy as a genre I love. Exploring the overworld map in this game might have been what led to my love of maps. So much fun

[@psymcdad8151]

@@wayner396 He... I missed out on two map-pieces frequently; One from the one guy that should just hand it over, but I had the most uncharismatic member of the party leading the group, thus doing the talking, thus the guy never gave me the map... and died later. Also, I never got the timing for that damned unicorn right.

[@wayner396]

@@psymcdad8151 yeah, the unicorn usually poked somebody with its horn, talked to them telepathically, then moved away leaving a cut across their chest and ran off. I never got much out of that. I did about everything in that game minus get all the map pieces. Including destroying the orc camp, the ghost ship. And exploring every edge of the map. Was honestly still a fun game. Another fun bug was the dungeon in the capital. A guy hires you to explore it. He gives you half the gold now and half on completion. The bug was that you got the first half when you entered the dungeon. If you turned around and left, then went right back in you got paid again. As soon as I discovered that my friend and I stayed up an entire night at a sleep over taking shifts entering. Turning around. Exiting, and going right back in. We got over 10,000 gold since one of the viking boat guys in the main city told us a dragon boat costing 10,000. Needless to say it didn't change his script when we showed up with the money but it was a fun challenge. So instead we bought all the best equipment and weapons in the city and had a huge early lead in the game.

[@psymcdad8151]

@@wayner396 . The poking part and the thiny slice I got. But you needet to return exactly... I think 5 days later? -Traveling the same road and hitingthe correct Pixel within a certain time. Then the unicorn would actualy give you one map piece... at least: thats what I heard years later. Never got it myself. And I remember doing the "Starter-Dungeon" a lot later once, with lvl 5 or 6 chars. That thing had quiet some extra levels beyond the "Stay out!"-sing (or was it a closed of tunnel? Not 100% sure...) ... and I eventualy got a TPK by horned daemon.

[@HerbJon]

Played this back in '92 and I frekin loved it! Thnx for the review!

[@whatistruth101]

very nice review, thank you for taking the the time on doing it

[@samtheguru]

Love how you are giving a positive review about how realistic and unforgiving the game is, up until 8:30 where your pure rage kicks in because the game goes up a notch when you lose all your best, magical items in a swamp. There are a lot of instant death moments in the game. Unicorn and doing something in one of the dungeons springs to mind. There are also quite a lot of dungeons in the game, so you were clearly following a direct walkthrough as a lot are optional. Exploring the map and doing other dungeons helps to get more xp to transfer your chars through to the later games. You are also able to choose the difficulty of the game with your party selection and will pay dividends in the later games; and you have gone for more or less none thinking mode to speed run RoA 1.

[@princelorian]

I wouldn't trust having *skynet* in my party

[@radastepanovic8886]

Main problem is it cuts experience during savegame,not like sequals you can save as much as you want,does someone know how to erase epxerience cutting

[@mixschnack]

Saving in temples avoids loss of experience points. There is one exception of this rule: When you save in a Phex temple, you lose experience points just as if you saved outside a temple.

[@RanFuRe]

Great Video! Personally, I prefer the second (and third) installments of the series, simply because they feature the instantly calculated battle outcome option. Those battles can take quite a while, and I just lack the patience for that. Though, I much prefer the drawn tiles for the dungeons and towns in this first installment to the crude 3d approach of the later two.

[@soapmode]

I loved this game, never got around to playing the sequels unfortunately, but grinding out those levels so I could finally summon a demon was a blast.

[@Aurora2097]

Best travel mode in rpgs ever!

[@lanceFin85]

Never got to play this one. You really made me want to give it a try. Thank You. :)

[@usulordo]

still playing solos of this gem these days. you level up fast and can import the char to the sequels star Trail and shadows over riva. it's the only way to get a char up to level 21. btw the sidequests in this game are the dungeons basically, each of them telling stories through flavour text

[@OtomoTenzi]

What exactly do I need in order to be able to play this game on Windows 7 and up?

[@doomfan12345]

This game looks super dope.

[@doomfan12345]

Might throw this on the backburner with the others.

[@HerrFenrisWolf]

Played it back in the day and then again in a re-relase just before 2010. Loved it, all of it. First game especially... the sequels I found way harder. Damn dragon eating melee-fighters and spitting out bones, I look at you.

[@holden6104]

I remember reading a review of this game in a gaming mag back in the day. The reviewer said he would put the game on auto-combat and then come back a half hour later. He would review the combat log and notice that several times his heroes would hit themselves lol. Props to you for having the patience to play through this slog.

[@jonstiffer4994]

It doesn't take that much patience. It's a really fun game.

[@5thRing]

I loved that trilogy.

[@mhjmstultiens]

I was in way over my head with this game at age 12 years or so old... but watching your review in 2024 I'd like to give BoD another try.

[@PointReflex]

Lol that party. Damn the things you had to endure to entertain us, the game is really nice for something that at the time would require one of the expensive VGA cards but its not for me. I can handle Darklands but this kind of micro management is just to much. But then again is as you said, one of its kind, and specialy a game for that time when one just didn't had to pay the bills.

[@RetrospectiveGaming]

Seemed appropriate to name most of my characters after Fallout haha! ...it's been a pleasure checking out these old CRPGs

[@torgo_]

nice vid man, i kinda miss how they used to make games

[@tonny8881]

I need your help. I'm a huge fan of FO3, FNV and FO4. I was thinking of trying out fallout 1&2 because they seem really interesting after watching your video, though I'm not quite familiar with those type of games. Would it be worth giving a shot anyways?

[@lopsidedponyiii2094]

Yes,and if you don't know a good starting character type just look up character guides on google that usually helps players that are new.

[@RetrospectiveGaming]

Yes indeed! ... There will be learning curve if you never played an isometric RPG before but after like an hour you will get the hang of it ...just remember to look up character builds if you any issues ...I recommend getting your agility up to at least 8 or 9 and use the trait gifted to get an extra special point for SPECIAL

[@lopsidedponyiii2094]

Yeah today i used random number generators for my age and stats and the number i got for my agility is one fucking ONE

[@lopsidedponyiii2094]

Oh and your going to have fun at Mariposa just you wait

[@ryanc5572]

Two years later... they're the best games in the series.

[@jasonwhitehouse8638]

Well great review. For me this game leans more to realistic elements to survive. It becomes very tedious and therefor takes the fun out of playing. Way tooo many things to keep track of just to make sure you dont die over and over. I think if they would have eased up on these things, it would have been more enjoyable for me and I would have finished it.

[@bulanet271]

Ah nice you are getting into the dark eye stuff. Damn when will i finish Drakensang idk; i can continue the main quest but stuck with the main sidequest, that's kinda what brought it to a limbo + some other i can't seem to finish. I hate to leave them behind as a completionist

[@sirrudolf519]

3:00 The Life Of Pablo

[@Kai-tn4yx]

The remaster of this game is on Steam. Had many bugs in the beginning (hence bad reviews), but that's all fixed now: store.steampowered.com/app/237550/Realms_of_Arkania_Blade_of_Destiny/

[@monstergelo1072]

Should i get classic or remake?

[@stanhanley6004]

This game was amazing deadass why I never did my homework

[@chozilla]

Actually, the game is not a "One of a kind experience". I love the series and if you liked the first part, play the two others and be amazed by the improvements they make. Suddenly combat is way better.

[@fayazabdullah4300]

just curious Che, do you have any plans to play dragon age origins this summer? (p.s nice review)

[@RetrospectiveGaming]

Not for Dragon Age Origins ....I do plan on reviewing ELEX sometime this summer ..and some other stuff in the backlog )Hopefully

[@fayazabdullah4300]

oh cool that is a recent game, was it develop by the same people who made Gothic series?

[@RetrospectiveGaming]

Yep and Risen

[@Krondon-SSR]

Hmm why the fuck can't modern games be this deep?

[@Krylo22]

I don't think I have the patience for something this old. That's just me.

[@jackiejack999]

Lol Is every character in your party based off a Fallout 2 and NV character? I recognize Lanius, Veronica, SkyNET, and Goris. I know Che is supposed to be you, but who's Alice?

[@RetrospectiveGaming]

Alice is someone close to me ...so I name some characters after her when I play some games and hell yeah dude .. With the power of Fallout .. I can fuck up orcs and haripes!

[@lopsidedponyiii2094]

And if any extreme purist ask just say a portal sent them to a different universe or something idk.

[@mathewworkman1625]

Awesome, brings me back.

[@AK-xn6ds]

There is a discount in GOG for this series.

[@midnightchannel4856]

Dude I fucking love your voice and personality

[@Krondon-SSR]

*Can't get over SkyNET*

[@RetrospectiveGaming]

SkyNET massacred many orcs

[@Alianger]

Did the 1994 cd version have cd redbook music?

[@SNKManiac]

Gameplay sound great, i should check out the PS4 remake.

[@TheRealClaylex]

Whats that *sniff, sniff* a retrospectivegaming video I smell!

[@PinoyMukbangPro]

the thing that stopped me playing this game is the slow combat.

[@LargoGabriel]

Awesome review.

[@ricemenarq6230]

Damn. Is the lore at least worth all that time and effort?

[@RetrospectiveGaming]

It depends ..it was enough for me ..there is a bit more to the story than what I said (I had to spent a lot of time talking about the mechanics so I went light on the story) but this is a trilogy and you're suppose to transfer your character to the second game ...more backstory than I mentioned in the review for sure

[@quarkzo]

Yes

[@lopsidedponyiii2094]

I would pay good money to watch Che stream Fallout Brotherhood of steel drunk

[@Mortal-Monk]

You think thats bad when my dad got me this game for us to play we went through the swamp and we lost the Blade of Destiny, it was the worst experience ever. The game is super hard and I actually dont think it matters how much skill you have in certain parts of the game, the biggest bullshit moments are when they put traps especially in chest, if you didn't know bettwr you would thing it would be okay to take a certain item only for it to kill your entire party. Its bullshit. The game is unique and it is worth a playthrough. But man you have to save it. Whats worse is that if you save it anywhere but a temple it will remove 50 xp not a total big deal but unforgiving. Also sometimes common sense does not work, like a spoiler would be that you have to leave the spider eggs alone, you think it wouls be wise to burn them all like in Aliens, but nope, you'll die and its bullshit. There is no logic behind the game, you have to either gamble or guess. Some of it is straight forward. Thats just my two cents.

[@87Julius]

Robbed for some ducats!

[@RetrospectiveGaming]

Never thought I would say that ever haha

[@JuraIbis]

This is overall terrible but if remade properly for QoL it could be a good 2020 game. Edit : Well well it seems like there is a HQ remake, we'll be trying that instead.

[@jonstiffer4994]

The graphics are not great by today's standards but it's a great game anyway. Very deep with lot's of things to explore.

[@humphrex]

eat more cheese toast