The BEST Old-School Dungeon Crawler | Lands of Lore: The Throne Chaos | Musings of an Idiot #9

Don't play as Conrad.
SUBSCRIBE TO KIKOSKIA - / kikoskia
AND WATCH HIS LANDS OF LORE LET'S PLAY - • Let's Play Lands of Lore
Twittah - / fandraxx
Anything third party in the video is the property of their respective owners, either Kikoskia or others under Creation Commons attributions.
Table of Contents
Intro - 0:00
History - 1:16
Story - 2:49
Characters - 3:39
Gameplay - 4:24
Accessibility - 9:01
Graphics, Soundtrack and Voice Cast - 10:37
Issues - 11:49
Closing - 14:23
#landsoflore #Review #retrogaming #dungeoncrawler

[@matternicuss]

Lands of Lore is not only a great DOS RPG for beginners, but a great dungeon crawler for beginners in general! It has the accessibility of a more modern title but also higher production values than most similar games.

[@Jigachader]

not for beginners at all, after playing TES1 Arena i wanted to check out other games and i quit LoL 1 at draracles cave because the goblet and jeweled dagger didnt spawn in so i was stuck and didnt wanna bother loading up some old ass save

[@matternicuss]

@@Jigachader I had to use the clue book for a few late game puzzles but other than that found Lands of Lore pretty beginner friendly. It was my first blobber. If you don’t want to use a guide I suggest asking for help on GOG’s forums. Lots of folks there much more knowledgeable about the game. As I recall you shouldn’t have to load an old save. I remember there being a way to backtrack to previous levels in the Droracles cave.

[@thecappeningchannel515]

Lands of Lore Throne of Chaos was the Eye of the Beholder 3 that should have been. Westwood made by the same team. The real eob3 was just a cashgrab.

[@liquidcore_]

Man, this game and the Kyrandia games were such a gigantic part of my childhood, it always makes me smile to see other people look back on it so fondly as well. Conrad best boi though, he’s the most well-rounded champion for your cause. Face it, you need someone with his adaptability.

[@CaptainBlaine]

I love watching Kikoskia’s “Let’s Replay Lands of Lore”. It’s comfort food at this point.

[@renzekai]

One of my favourite games of all time. Kyrandia 1 and 2 included. You mentioned the art. Rick Parks was the wizard behind the signature look of Westwood games (warm keys, cool rim lights, a certain N.C. Wyeth lighting and colouring quality, etc). You can see his style in Kyrandia and the Eye of Beholder 2´s intro scene. He was active in the amiga art forums with his amazing pixel art. He passed away sadly in 1996. You can still see him on a small doc about westwood and a few pictures and website in the net. An unsung hero. Thank you for the amazing video. This game is one of many 90s games that led me to my career/profession. Brought back so many great memories.

[@Wonzling0815]

Among my circle of friends any weather with billowing clouds with sunlight playing on them is to this day called "Westwood cloudy"

[@rafaelvormittag3153]

@@Wonzling0815 that is a cool comparison! Anyone who thinks about LoL in RL is cool in my book

[@Malisa1990]

Man, Kikoskia is one of the few let's players that's actually tolerable to watch and he almost always knows the game or at least knows how to play the games unlike majority of let's players.

[@XionSteel]

the comparison between games like this and the older dos games really makes me appreciate games like this. It's a simple game concept where all you do is move through a predetermined dungeon and fight things (i personally like team based and turn based random battles myself), but they are a lot easier to get into and just as engaging if not more. A Well build crawler has plenty of things to find and makes players want to explore everywhere even if there is nothing at the end of that long side path. For me, its just open enough to not feel like a straight hallway, but also not an open world where you can go anywhere but there is nothing in 90% of the map, just enough that i can get to the end of a dungeon in a decent amount of time without feeling lost.

[@JonasRosenven]

Seeing the Urbish Mines almost gives me a nervous tick :) That being said I really love this game. Just a little tip: You can right click the arrows at each end of the inventory bar to skip a whole page. The Scotia save editor is also really cool for people who just want to mess around. F1 to F3 can be used as attack buttons but are not mentioned in the manual. The cube and the green swords are a must in the tower.

[@kodiekulp]

I've been looking for a minute trying to figure out what this old dungeon crawler game was that I used to play at my friend's house. I couldn't remember the story. Couldn't remember much. But I remember that opening with glass thing they put over the king with the little pyramid on top. Great game. Used to go over to my friend's house who had a computer just to play it when I was ten or eleven. Great video! And history of the game I had no clue of! And I forgot all about Piccard being the voice.of the king. Ah!

[@kodiekulp]

I wrote that really late last night. I had to edit it so it made sense 😂.

[@caligulawellington3171]

Conrad has a passive bonus to defence/armour. The others only receive bonus from equipment. Kieran is the best thief.

[@hawkbirdtree3660]

Excellent video, and yes, I also love Kikoskia's improvised portrayal of characters in video games. He's one of my favorite voice actors in non-voiced games.

[@Eshaktaar]

Great video! Lands of Lore is definitely one of my favorite dungeon crawlers. Both of Kikoskia's Let's Plays are indeed very worth watching. Seeing him go through the White Tower in his first Let's Play without using Vaelan's Cube is still something to behold :)

[@fandraxx]

"I'm not going to the white tower. That's it. The end of the let's play." Classic.

[@JeremyBarbell]

Ugh that damn white tower. I hate it so much but I also love it.

[@Blisterdude123]

Ahhh, a Kikoskia fan, a man of culture.

[@savager9936]

I have played it again like 1 month ago!! I would recommend it a 100 times!!!!

[@Garroh]

The “they looked like THIS” fucking killed me lmao

[@Ithaca-vv5dy]

I love Kiko. Still watch him today

[@jernfuglen]

The only dungeon crawle I spent some time on was Etrian Odysey for Nintendo ds. It was pretty fun. Now I feel like I should start playing this one.

[@Modenut]

I remember getting this on release (disk version) and immediately soft locking myself lol. If I remember correctly there was some thingamabob you're supposed to grab from a tree in a forest before heading into a dungeon. The problem was that if you missed said thingamabob and entered the dungeon you could no longer back track and get it - thus borking your play through. Good times. 😃

[@GodzillasaurusJr]

Back in the 1990's, I didn't have any voice acting in this game (in the early 90's I didn't even have a soundcard and I don't remember if I did for this game) - I clearly remember voicing all the characters myself when I played this with a friend. I don't really remember anything from the game though, except the intro and Kieran.

[@qayss8977]

Very, very well done and informative. I dig your style of explaining basic things to non-nerds while keeping up the interest level. Great work!

[@fandraxx]

Glad you liked it! Thank you!

[@Zylo587]

RIP Unregistered HyperCam 2, the ancient marker of a good LP.

[@javvyjavvy]

I love all those games and every Goldbox Edition game as well. So many good old Dos games. Love Dungeon Hack, Unlimited Aventures, Stronghold, and Fantasy Empires.

[@tomhusted]

Just stumbled on to this video to see what the game is all about because it was suggested to med by GOG, something made me keep on watching and after 10 minutes I was starting to really appreciate your content, and when you when in with the cursed weapons - "speak-really-ironic-to-imply-stuff" - you had me! :D You got a sub and a like from me, great content :)

[@malcolmdale]

Nostalgia trip. I loved Lands of Lore back when it came on a CD

[@robinmattheussen2395]

I was 17 at the time of Kikoskia's first LOL video. I'm so old :( And yeah I actually saw his vids back in the day, since he played a lot of my favorite games before anyone else on YT.

[@tanyaglover2217]

I was 24 when I first played LOL. Still love the game. To me, LOL 2 & 3 were extremely weak sequels.

[@andystandys]

This is such a gorgeous looking game. I only ever played EOB1, back in the day, before I headed off for college and didn’t have time for video games anymore. I’m sorry I missed this. I just installed it on my vintage 486, today, so hopefully I have time to check it out.

[@usulordo]

I believe due to a mistake in the code, Michael has the largest mana progression of all the heroes though it is incredibly slow to bring him from Mage level 1 to 2. He then leaves Ak'Shel on the spot.

[@opa-age]

This was probably the pinnacle of 2D dungeon crawling.

[@fandraxx]

No question!

[@JeremyBarbell]

One of my favorite games of all time. I just loved the gameplay and spells and battle system. I loved going through the Gorka swamp. Urbish Mines were probably my least favorite, but I loved the creepiness of the white tower, even though I hated those wraiths and the snake attack. Yvel is probably my favorite city and Baccata is my favorite character. God I wish I could play it again.

[@JonasRosenven]

Just get a copy on GOG. I'm with you on the mines. Not a fan. When you start up the game from GOG there is a "settings" menu next to the start button. You can alter the graphics like resolution and some filters. If you don't do it the game will probably look pretty weird.

[@RFMongoose]

Kieran swings faster, and it's governed in part by his rogue skill. Akshell gets the most HP, Micheal does the most DMG, spells or otherwise. And you're right, Conrad gets 0 bitches.

[@1001digital]

Never played this one but I loved Dungeon Master on my Amiga. I also played Chaos Strikes Back and Dungeon Master 2 as well as both Eye of the Beholder titles. I wonder how many hours I spent in these dungeons... :)

[@alexl7213]

Kieran is fast. You give him the firebolt arbalest, and he cleans up everything.

[@corvuscorax9265]

I got stuck in the white tower back in the day...I am still trying to overcome the PTSD and try the game again :D

[@steverodriguez123]

Kilo is one of my favourite youtubers 😆

[@user-hl2dy3bt7j]

Yes still play it to this day

[@ZhaojuEphastine]

I-I am not sure if it was on purpose or a magical coincidence, but a lot of your lines were "in-sync" with the characters' mouth moves. It could be so badass as an Easter Egg, seriously. Obviously you talk way more than "the characters", but at least 95% of the time, character talking seemed to be put here and you wrapped your text on them, or you picked characters talking that matched your recorded lines. Anyways, it was a cool thing to watch! (Even if sometimes I got lost in the meanings of your words, too much fascinated by my potential discovery and I was pleased each time they would oddly fit each other satisfyingly. It would prove your hardship as well as the game's dev team attention to details that gave those pixelated characters believable mouth animations. :}

[@Dirkmez]

Lands of Lore really needs to be on Steam. I laughed when you said Victor is nice and trustworthy.

[@fandraxx]

Kinda surprised it isn't on Steam. A lot of people have asked for it, but it doesn't seem like it gonna happen, unfortunately.

[@Dirkmez]

@@fandraxx that's too bad. I liked this dungeon crawler better than Skullkeep and Skullkeep II.

[@Demiurge13]

kieren is best boy, because he's a cat

[@swordguy1243]

Wow the Pixel Art in this game is amazing

[@todddarling225]

I never played Lands of Lore, So I will check out GOG, I love Pools of Radiance and that whole series. You can't imagine what it was like to be a D&D player without a game and find PoR on the shelf. Dungeon and Dragon games just didn't exist prior to that and the ability to play on a battle map and have to very carefully try to measure out where a fireball would land and then watch the mobs drop one after the other. All written in Pascal, which I learned in highschool. I started playing games in 1978 on a mainframe at highschool and got my own computer with 16kb of ram in about 1980.

[@peb475]

Damn you really deserve more subs.. Quality content.

[@FullInstall]

Good review mate

[@opoaloas9563]

my first game a great game for me , one of the best games of all time, i played it in 1993 at the time in floppy version, now i use DosBox and i play it from time to time really a nugget, it is not known enough i find it unfortunate. timeless

[@spectreman2532]

The first 2 Eye of the Beholder are also amazing.

[@JonasRosenven]

I think The All Seeing Eye is a must for people who want to play them today though. Very few would tolerate drawing their own maps.

[@Gusanoman]

This game was incredible BUT the last maze in the last dungeon just before the final fight was completely bonkers. You lose your map, have a huge open zone covered in traps that send you to an inferior level in another maze (and you still can't use your map down there) and the walls have A LOT of random indents and niches. I never finished the game until a decade later, when I could use a guide only for that part.

[@fandraxx]

Full disclosure: I fumbled around blindly during that entire section until I eventually got through it. Couldn't tell you how I did it.

[@Gusanoman]

@@fandraxx Don't get me wrong. I loved this game. But I got so bitter about that last part it kinda ruined the experience for me. Not in a "I regret playing this" way but in a "This shit is ruining my memories of this great game".

[@wolfdyne]

I'd love to hear your opinion on StoneKeep

[@fandraxx]

Possible. I've actually never played Stonekeep, so it would probably be a fun video.

[@wolfdyne]

@@fandraxx it looks similar to this, but slightly forward in the graphics department

[@retroguardian4802]

It was nice to hear someone else talk about these issues. I'm always thinking it to but everyone always says "For the time period". If it is graphics then yea but a lot of awful gameplay comes down to something as simple as using the worst controls possible or giving the player no in game hints to a puzzle they couldn't possibly solve without. My biggest issue playing these games back in the day was simply the text size. Most peoples t.v.s were so bad you couldn't read text on screen back then. If I got stuck and couldn't go on without reading what the game said I would have to put it aside and wait till I went to someone elses house to see if there t.v. could display the text. Lots of the devs just don't consider the player enough and it doesn't require the modern era to do so.

[@presicion25]

I played it in late 1993/ early 1994 for a long time and got to a point i couldn't pass. I used to play it on a Packard Bell.

[@shaunfrost720]

After playing smt strange journey and etrian odyssey I've been looking for more classic dungeon crawlers ever since.

[@poppers7317]

World of Xeen is also still great fun.

[@RascanThe6th]

His name was Paulson

[@user-xj6pl4rz6p]

i loved lands of lore the 1st the second was nasty

[@poppers7317]

The beginning was great but the dungeons were really lonely and annoying. (I mean the second one)

[@nunosousa4689]

emerald blades rock the ivory tower

[@bravalloy]

You could try Stonekeep! Westwood made Dune 2.

[@poppers7317]

There will never be a first person dungeon crawler with real actors ever again in human history.

[@banks3388]

Based Kikoskia reference, I miss the days of Necroscope as well...

[@robinmattheussen2395]

That Necroscope accent though

[@Multi-Wizard]

Hi, I'm almost sure I have played this game many years ago.

[@jamesyar]

Sir Patrick, not Sir Stewart!

[@Scotia_Philosophy]

Best game ever!

[@linuxrant]

All those mouse controlled dungeon crawlers play wonderfully with MagicDosbox on android touch devices. It's like they were created for touch controls. Lands of Lore included (since you have all those rock throwing, spellcasting and moving onscreen) BTW I am such Anvil of Dawn Fan. Best FP Crawler I ever played.

[@upyours2707]

as usual, there is always a gem of a comment from a kind soul. thats one hell of a tip.

[@maunomattila4695]

You have excellent videos in your channel. Very informative, clear and sharp words. Could you make a video about these western-rpgs on old consoles? Because there are some awesome console ports for 8-bit and 16-bit consoles, sometimes even better than computer originals. Here's few examples. * SMS (1990): Ultima IV - Quest of the Avatar, which was late port of the game. It has the best graphics of any original Ultima IV port, doesn't have the ugly wireframe 3d dungeons and more advanced combat mechanics. This is the best way to experience the classic. * NES (1992): AD&D - Pool of Radiance, which is the arguable the best version of the game with excellent gameplay. This sold very well and is the only version with a complete soundtrack. * PCE (1992): D&D - Order of the Griffon. This was developed by the famous Westwood Associates company and is a good old-style RPG. * SMD (1992): D&D - Warriors of The Eternal Sun. Very interesting western RPG with awesome music, 3D dungeons and very original game setting of Hollow World campaign as well as original D&D 1st ruleset. Also developed by the famous Westwood Associates company. * SNES (1993): Dungeon Master. Very accurate port and plays very well. * SEGA-CD (1994): AD&D - Eye of The Beholder. Has CD-quality music from famous Yuzo Koshiro, good graphics and full gameplay of the PC original. Arguable the ultimate version of the famous D&D game. And so on. But since most RPG gamers used PCs to play SSI/TSR games etc. these console ports often were neglected and forgotten. They shouldn't be.

[@Endarire]

You could have listed an affiliate link to GOG for this video!

[@felixfletcher8070]

I love this game, the version I played online for free seems to have removed Patrick Stewarts voice for some reason. The music is great as well as the level designs, especially the White Tower, the Alien level and Scotia's Castle. Michael was my go to as a kid, and he ended up being almost as powerful a mage as Ash'kael on one of my recent playthroughs! Kieran is HORRIBLE, his only benefit is he can steal the Ruby of Truth in the swamp. Conrad is meh, couldn't find a benefit of using him. Ash'kael is a glass cannon and you run out of MP super fast, especially casting level 4 spells. so at end game, he sits there doing nothing after 2 casts. Michael all the way!

[@ArturRadzikhovskyi]

What is the name of the game on 14:34?

[@fandraxx]

Legend of Grimrock

[@MrSzundaraj]

My favorit is Anvil of Dawn, mostly beacaus you got only one hero, i hate playing as team i dont care about in real time combat.

[@StarElysia]

please stonekeep review please omg also lands of lore 2 would be cool

[@ICEMAN-]

Not on steam?

[@fandraxx]

Not as far as I'm aware. I will say, though, I tend to prefer to purchase DOS games from GOG. In my experience, they're a little easier to edit/work with if anything goes wrong.

[@ICEMAN-]

@@fandraxx darn

[@jujumama7509]

Land of lore is a great game you know other good game ?

[@stigkenobi7525]

SSI not dumbing down their 2e dnd game for future 5e gamers, is not their fault though. They couldn't predict just how dumb and useless gen z would end up.

[@StiffAftermath]

Ultima Underworld I and II are also amazing! ❤

[@maiddresses5153]

You should chack out Ultima Underworld It stands out from the most fantasy d&d like games and stands way ahead of it's time only by the fact that it's not grid based with good controls

[@DKarkarov]

Lol the Conrad hate is strong. I will say these games did not die off in the way you imply here, they simply stopped getting made by western companies and came out mostly on consoles. Turns out the Japanese game devs love first person dungeon crawlers and have made boat loads of them, like a ton of wizardry spin offs, etrian odyssey, the "Shining" games, etc.

[@markskirby]

i first found out about this game through kikoskia after i binged watched his playthrough of stonekeep probably 10-13 years ago, Im currently on GOG and noticed LOL 1 and 2 are on sale for 2$. great video, convinced me to be risky with my 2$ and buy it, im a real risk taker

[@strafer8764]

EOB2 was great. Lands of Lore was underwhelming. I bought it when it came out thinking it would be great. Now, Darkside of Xeen was awesome

[@pcuimac]

Atari ST & AMIGA were a much better plattform to play on than DOS. VGA gfx of course helped make DOS dominant, but cost more than a complete Atari ST system with monitor. Pool of Raddiance also had a bug. The number of random enxounters was much too high. SSI wasn't a very good dev. Dungeon Master was one of the best Dungen Crawler with real time fights. The best RPG of alk time is Ultima IV Quest for the Avatar. It had a story that developed with your advances and it didn't explain too much. Everything came from talking with NPCs and hints. There were secrets and even a baloon controlled by wind which had to be directed with spells. And D&D players who stole a beggars gold to be efficient would never see the end of the story, because their morals didn't make them a role model for others. No Codex of Ultimate Wissom for you!

[@takis76]

Westwood wasn't a small gaming company back in 1994. It was a huge and successful company. It was already released Command & Conquare strategy game Series and it was already known with other games like Legend of the Kyrandia and of course the previous Eye of the Beholder and other Dungeons & Dragons games that might will not be so familiar to you. Also to hire Patrick Stewart back in those days was cheaper "No so cheap" but they paid many thousant dollars just for Patric to say few lines of document at the beginning of the game. Also Patric's voise wasn't exist in the initial version of Lands of Lore 1, that was released in 1994. The initial version weren't have any voice acting and the only voice was Scotia's that was generated with computer and was the one at the end. The white Label version was the one that Patrick Stewart was spoken and the voices were added somewhere in 1998 when Westwood studios already beeing a huge company with huge success and large funds from Dune, Command & Conquare, Red Alert, Nox, and many other games and they afford to pay few thousand dollars to Patric just to speak few times at the beginning of the game. Also you said was a conundrum how they spent so much money or managed to hire Patric for an old DOS game. $30000 weren't much among the millions they are earning. They have the capital to pay Patric, Patric accepts and they add his voice. You do not need anything special. Patric Stewart doesn't care what kind of game you have, he is an actor and he will be paid for his voice. You only need to have the money. And Yes. Lands of Lore 1 it is old for YOU today in 2023 but, back in 1994 the only gaming platform on PC was the DOS and even 1998 we had windows 98 that were fully compatible with DOS too. Even if it is conundrum for you. Lands of Lore 1 still can be played today even after almost 30 years. Westwood was at the peak of its success and then Electronic Arts arrived and they destroyed them. As Electronic Arts usually use to do.

[@poppers7317]

Command and Conquers was released in 1995