Easy going RPG for Amiga?

[lordofchaos]

So I fancied playing some good old fashions RPG's on the beloved Amiga, the Ishar series always looked good to me So I thought I'd give Ishar III a try...Several hours in and I'm enjoying myself..I make it to the Wizard guy (the one you give the deck of cards) but alas my progress ends there because I failed to perform tasks in a certain order. To make matters worse I ended up saving past the point of no return and now my party is stuck in limbo! Ughh, well I guess in my older age I'm loosing the will power to try these things over and over again.

So I ask this question, are there any RPGs on the Amiga that are more forgiving and less prone to punish you for your mistakes? Something that doesn't require so much trial and error? Don't get me wrong I enjoy a challenge but I draw the line at games that effectively end once you make one mistake. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[BarryB]

Dungeon Master is a MUST plus Black Crypt and Eye of the Beholder 1 & 2.

[lordofchaos]

Originally Posted by BarryB

Dungeon Master is a MUST plus Black Crypt and Eye of the Beholder 1 & 2.

Haven't played Dungeon Master before, Black Crypt eh? I always thought that was insanely tough, well that's the impression I got from watching my brother all those years ago. Oh bugger! I've screwed up the title for this thread...RGP?

Lol well it seems the magic moderator in the sky has corrected my typo

[jimbob]

I really like the ishar games. But I do hate their habit of including puzzles that require you to break up your party and level up a bunch of new guys. I gave up on ishar 2 for pretty much the same reason you gave up on three.

I always fancied playing Perihelion but haven't yet. I read it is quite short but tough at the beginning.

[BarryB]

How about the Might & Magic, Wizardy or Bards Tale series?

[lordofchaos]

@jimbob.

Yes I share your pain, these days its hard to invest time and energy in some of the older games because they are often so demanding and exacting. With modern RPGs we're spoilt, it's impossible to get lost and save points are often..I can't help think that Skyrim is dumbed down for the masses, I`m all for getting rid of the stupid things that make RPGs difficult but at the same time I don't like to be led my the hand all the time..I digress..

@BarryB

I've often seen these games when browsing Lemon and though they look and sound cool, I could always take the plunge I suppose and give them a try, how hard are they to get into?

[Marcuz]

The few easy, as in understandable what's going on, not punitive interface and/or gameplay, not throw away the game because you forgot to do something 30 game hours before:

- Eye of the Beholder 1 and 2,
- Perihelion (provided you read the recipes for spell widely avalable online)

A bit harder
- the whole Pools of Radiance series (journal, and a bit of dungeons and dragons knowledge required, plus interface is slow, but great stories)
- Heimdall II, different but great (difficulty is in some harder passages; some pen and paper work on the side of the keyboard may be needed).

Also: Black Crypt is "easy" provided you:
- understand how bosses fights are to be managed;
- flee frequently and never get cornered;
- keep careful track of your map and compass (as soon as you have the spells in your book);
- check online what spells are useful to have and what not;
- keep a tidy inventory and keep track of water and food consumption.

In my humble opinion, whatever else rpg you can find in the HOL list:
http://hol.abime.net/hol_search.php?...C&limitstart=0
is either harder than that, different from an rpg adventure à la Ishar or crippled by some design fault or too old design at all.

[lordofchaos]

@Marcuz

Thanks for the suggestions, at the moment I'm leaning towards the Eye of the Beholder games, it seems people can't rate them highly enough. The only other games I've played in your list are Perihelion and Heimdall II, I spent some brief time with both but being a teenager I lacked the patience, they looked and sounded great though!

[vroom6sri]

Bard's Tale 2. Loads of simple fun.

[Marcuz]

Originally Posted by lordofchaos

@Marcuz

Thanks for the suggestions, at the moment I'm leaning towards the Eye of the Beholder games, it seems people can't rate them highly enough. The only other games I've played in your list is Perihelion and Heimdall II, I spent some brief time with both but being a teenager I lacked the patience, they looked and sounded great though!

About Perihelion, I was amazed by its looks and sounds me too at the start, but after having played it throughouly, it's actually how consistent is its narrative that makes it a great game to me.
Just too short, and easy (just keep going the fights without killing too early the last opponent, to build up your characters to between 180 and 200 points in the stats, no more or you break the system).

[lordofchaos]

@vroom6sri

Well simple and fun sounds good to me, I`ll put it on my "to try" list :-)

@Marcuz

Hmmm, well the way you describe it sounds like it could be fun. " build up your characters to between 180 and 200 points in the stats, no more or you break the system" - Hehe sounds like it could have used some more play testing and dev time, isn't that the way with so many Amiga games ;-)

[Thalion]

I absolutely recommend Amberstar and Ambermoon. For me two of the best RPGs ever made.

[lordofchaos]

@Thalion. Both of those games look epic, detailed and steeped with atmosphere but how accessible are they? I seem to remember reading stories of people getting far into the game and certain objects/locations causing game crashes, to memory I can't remember if these were on certain cracked versions of the game or not.

I played Ambermoon several times until the loving end. Never had any problems.

Really awesome game. My RPG favorite ever.

[lordofchaos]

Originally Posted by xterminated

I played Ambermoon several times until the loving end. Never had any problems.

Really awesome game. My RPG favorite ever.

Well that's an endorsement if ever I've heard one, Looks like I have some more games to try out

[Big-Byte]

I really liked the Faery Tale Adventure. A lot of wandering about for most of it and great squelching sound effects when you attack someone with your sword.

[Gordon]

Ambermoon is a beuitful game. But i wouldnt call it easy going. I found it quite difficult and never managed to complete it.

[TCD]

It didn't age too gracefully, but I'd say before playing Amberstar or Ambermoon ,you could give Dragonflight a try. The game is a bit more easy going than the later Thalion RPGs.

The Ultima series could also be worth a look. Even if they might be not really easy, they are open for exploration and you won't get stuck

[lordofchaos]

@Big-Byte. Never seen that one before but it looks simple enough.

@TCD. Thanks for the advice. I've been looking at the Amber games and I must say they do look quite complex, I'm still going to try them out, once I get familiar with the games interface and how they work I`ll be ok. I can always try out Dragonflight if the other suggestions don't work out.

I've spent a large chunk of the day downloading these games as ADF's, next step is to transfer to real disks...Even got the old Philips MKII out for old times sake :-)

[Marcuz]

I don't understand how people find Dungeon Master easy, with food, water (stamina?) consumption, micromanagement of rune spells.
Interesting mazes design, nice but boring graphics, but gameplay could be better (much).

Ishar 3 also is much more harder than the previous two chapters, that while they have the same micromanagement crap than DM, at least have CFOU! tweaks for them and quite possible to follow walthroughs around.

Ambermoon is not so much hard as much layered;

Instead, about very much harder yet compelling because of other characteristics:
- Captive (lush graphics, but I never manage to understand the basics of gameplay), and its second chapter, Liberation (same difference);
- Fate: Gates of Dawn, marvelous very early nineties graphics, very hard game to follow.

If you want to try something different, you could as well not try many games, concentrate on one of the harder ones above, that represent the off beat path.