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King's Bounty: The Legend. Fantasy SRPG's just like the good 'ol days.
subedii
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
What is King's Bounty?
http://www.kings-bounty.com/
Never heard of it myself until recently, but it's only after playing the newly released demo (skip to end), that I decided that this game ought to have its own thread.
King's Bounty: The Legend is a new game in the King's Bounty series (which I've never played before, but that's besides the point).
It's a Hex based, turn based strategy RPG set in a colourful fantasy setting, jam packed with battles, quests, and hexagons.
Hexagons? Sounds scary.
Wait! This game is surprisingly accessible, even for a noob like me!
What's it play like?
There's two main aspects to it. You traverse a nicely stylised world in real time, talking to characters, getting quests, buying equipment and spells, and recruiting people to your army. When an enemy spots and attacks you or you attack them, then the second, combat phase kicks in.
To keep it brief (there's nuances that become apparent whilst playing but I don't need to go into unnecessary depth and scare people) Combat is played out on a hexagonal grid, typically with both sides starting off at opposite ends. Units take turns moving, attacking and casting. You can select your own spell book as well to cast spells that affect the troops, and there's also references to summonable monsters that level up and gain abilities with usage.
A rough explanation would be that it's a bit like Final Fantasy Tactics with 6 sides.
As you fight your way through the game, your character levels up, allowing him to invest skill points in a tree of special abilities that can be used inside and outside of combat. There are three different character classes to choose from at the beginning, specialising in combat, magic, and a happy medium between them. There are three Diablo-esque skill trees that your character can develop to different degrees depending on what class you've chosen. There's quite a lot of depth in how you can choose to develop your combat style.
What's it look like?
The graphics are very "Warcraft" fantasy in style, although a bit brighter. The art direction works very well for the game whilst not being a huge system hog, and looks best in motion, with plenty of nice little visual touches as you navigate the world.
Screenshots?
SCREENSHOTS!
Also trailers:
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/33145.html
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/38684.html
I may be interested...
Then sally forth, unto ye olde demo. It's pretty expansive, and gives you a good idea of the combat and the gameplay mechanics. Like I said, it's actually pretty accessible, and you really need to try it yourself to be able to appreciate the art style and the gameplay. Available from the following links:
http://www.gamershell.com/download_32652.shtml
http://www.fangaming.com/fileinfo.php?fileid=4475
http://www.strategyinformer.com/pc/demos/kingbounty/demo.html#id26422
Wikipedia is giving the release date as September 23, 2008.
http://www.kings-bounty.com/
Never heard of it myself until recently, but it's only after playing the newly released demo (skip to end), that I decided that this game ought to have its own thread.
King's Bounty: The Legend is a new game in the King's Bounty series (which I've never played before, but that's besides the point).
It's a Hex based, turn based strategy RPG set in a colourful fantasy setting, jam packed with battles, quests, and hexagons.
Hexagons? Sounds scary.
Wait! This game is surprisingly accessible, even for a noob like me!
What's it play like?
There's two main aspects to it. You traverse a nicely stylised world in real time, talking to characters, getting quests, buying equipment and spells, and recruiting people to your army. When an enemy spots and attacks you or you attack them, then the second, combat phase kicks in.
To keep it brief (there's nuances that become apparent whilst playing but I don't need to go into unnecessary depth and scare people) Combat is played out on a hexagonal grid, typically with both sides starting off at opposite ends. Units take turns moving, attacking and casting. You can select your own spell book as well to cast spells that affect the troops, and there's also references to summonable monsters that level up and gain abilities with usage.
A rough explanation would be that it's a bit like Final Fantasy Tactics with 6 sides.
As you fight your way through the game, your character levels up, allowing him to invest skill points in a tree of special abilities that can be used inside and outside of combat. There are three different character classes to choose from at the beginning, specialising in combat, magic, and a happy medium between them. There are three Diablo-esque skill trees that your character can develop to different degrees depending on what class you've chosen. There's quite a lot of depth in how you can choose to develop your combat style.
What's it look like?
The graphics are very "Warcraft" fantasy in style, although a bit brighter. The art direction works very well for the game whilst not being a huge system hog, and looks best in motion, with plenty of nice little visual touches as you navigate the world.
Screenshots?
SCREENSHOTS!
Also trailers:
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/33145.html
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/38684.html
I may be interested...
Then sally forth, unto ye olde demo. It's pretty expansive, and gives you a good idea of the combat and the gameplay mechanics. Like I said, it's actually pretty accessible, and you really need to try it yourself to be able to appreciate the art style and the gameplay. Available from the following links:
http://www.gamershell.com/download_32652.shtml
http://www.fangaming.com/fileinfo.php?fileid=4475
http://www.strategyinformer.com/pc/demos/kingbounty/demo.html#id26422
Wikipedia is giving the release date as September 23, 2008.
subedii on
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One of my all-time favorite Genesis games.
Precursor to Heroes of Might and Magic.
Demo here we come!
猿も木から落ちる
It does bear a lot of resemblance to Blizzard's art style. In a way this looks like the turn based strategy game that they never made.
http://www.pcgames.de/screenshots/original/2007/07/Heroes_of_Might_and_Magic_5_Tribes_of_the_East_Vorschau07.jpg
(linked because it's a huge pic)
Yeah I'm sure it does. I never really played the Heroes games (always meant to), so I guess my lack of experience with the genre is showing.
Still, given that starting point, if this game can get me interested I figure others might be.
You have a bunch of links to the demo files but you don't have anything to the official site..
I KISS YOU!
Thanks, fixed. There's an official demo link on the site as well, but last time I tried it it was hammered. Figured it might be best for them and us if I linked the mirrors.
I was going to say this too. It looks so much like Warcraft it's silly.
Still, it does look pretty freaking fun.
Not that you're a CORPORATE SHILL or anything.
After playing with the demo a bit more I've figured out how the summons work. Basically after the first mission you get given the ability to summon one of four montsers (only two in the demo, the other two might only be available when you level up enough, who knows).
During battle as you attack you gain points towards a type "rage" meter. Gain enough and you can summon the moster for an attack. Use the monster enough during battle and it levels up, allowing you to choose to either level up an existing ability or to grant it a new one.
Pretty groovy. Like I said I've never really played the Heroes series so this is largely new to me, so I'm surprised at how accessible it all was from the get-go.
Check out the demo if you already haven't.
http://www.worthdownloading.com/download.php?gid=1963&id=16403
The original game (DOS and Genesis)
Heroes of Might and Magic: Quest for the Dragonbone Staff (PS2)
The HoMM game is a very faithful remake of the original.
King's Bounty is not really a series per se, but it's a nifty genre offshoot. A blending of a chesslike tactics game with an army-building simulation.
I take 10.
Man, the only place I can find it listed is play.com and they've got a UK release date of 28th of November.
I might've been down for a digital download of this game if it were on Impulse, but if possible I want to get a hard copy with manuals and stuff.
Well, everyone knows that Blizzard is the biggest bunch of rip-off artists around. So, I don't see any problem with someone ripping them off. :P
I bought a pack with that, HoMM1, and HoMM2. Never really got into it, though.
If so, absolute must have!
But since the graphics are so amazingly beautiful, I doubt it...
Some of the battle maps appear to be randomly generated, in that they'll sometimes have logs and boulders and things blocking up hexxes so forcing certain routes. To be honest I don't think it makes too much difference, but that may be because I've only experienced an early part of the game, and things get more varied as things continue. One interesting addition that sometimes happened was an on-map beehive that would send out swarms to attack nearby character. The main world map isn't random though, and I doubt the boss fights are either.
Albie the racist dragon supports this post.
Whoa, dude, don't go overboard or anything!
Anyway, I'm looking forward to this. Assuming any stores around me actually carry it on release here. I had a hard enough time finding Witcher EE.
The game is very focused in the tactical battles, so sometimes it can burn the players (a fight, another fight, another fight...) They are like the already mentioned HOMM3 but better thanks to a slightly bigger battlefields (not really much bigger, but units are usually slower), great variety of units with tons of unique abilites (every creature have 2-7 special abilities or talents), a good repertorie of spells which can change a battle in a lot of directions (lots of 'tactical' spells, instead of just direct damage spells), and some interactive stuff in the battlefield like cursed statues, chests, explosive barrels, etc.
Impressions for anyone who cares (no actual spoilers other than stuff that's in the manual and box art):
Game looks like HOMM with overland map and hex-based tactical battles. Much of the game is pure HOMM (unit types, most combat mechanics, buying units at castles and towns and inns and such, equipping artifacts and weapons, etc.), although apparently HOMM was largely based on the first King's Bounty. I never played that one in '89 so I wouldn't know.
Instead of multiple heroes and armies, though, you've just got one (three classes to choose from, all seem viable). Skill tree progression is pure Diablo (or WoW) with each class having preferred skill trees of Might, Mind, or Distortion. Nice hook, though, is that you don't advance skills by experience per se. You advance them by runes for each of the three areas. You get some runes when you level up, but you can also find them on the world map or get them as booty.
Art direction is a) completely unoriginal (for real), and b) consistently beautiful. It's as if they decided, okay, we're not going to waste any creative energy trying to reinvent the fantasy wheel. But our dwarves, griffons, skeleton archers, swordsmen, snakes (!), bears, etc. are going to look terrific. Also the world map is colorful and vibrant, with lots of activity and interesting stuff making it feel like a living world (as much as a HOMM style map can anyway.)
So HOMM w/ single character w/ Diablo style RPG character growth. What about Final Fantasy?
1. Boss battles! In a HOMM style game! Only beaten one so far, but it was pretty cool. The box art and manual spoil at least two others.
2. The "Rage Box." After a couple of early quests you get the Rage Box which contains 4 trapped demon spirits. Once you unlock them (by talking to them and doing quests for them individually) you can 'summon' them to powerful effect in combat using "rage," which is like mana that you generate by having your troops kills stuff (and which slowly depletes on the world map). Interestingly, these rage spirits gain experience and level up as you use them.
The number of units you can have in each stack is capped by your leadership. So this makes for a nice spread of the classes with spell casting and rage.
Warrior: Best Rage, Best early game leadership, Worst mana
Paladin: Medium Rage, Medium leadership (good late game apparently), Medium mana
Mage: Worst Rage, Worst leadership, Best mana
I know that sounds pretty typical, but they've appear to have it balanced so that all the classes are viable.
The story is typical fantasy fare. Nothing special, nothing terrible. Some of the quests are quite funny and have meaningful choices attached to them.
With the exception of a couple unit types (like "peasant") new troop availability is finite, which brings a really interesting level of strategy into things. I just emptied the one store on the continent at the end of my play session of my beloved "Royal Snakes," and so will have to find a new unit type to rely on once they are killed off over time.
Also, game is not a cakewalk, even at "Normal" level. Sure, there are weak mobs. But true to HOMM form, there are plenty of devastatingly hard mobs wandering the earth. You can unlock a cheap mind skill that lets you right click on wandering monsters to get a sense of their difficulty (and that skill can be leveled to give you more specific info.) That's a pretty necessary skill imo. So far the difficultly feels challenging but not frustrating. Right where you want it really.
Whoever said the art takes a heavy cue from WoW is spot on. In many ways this actually feels like a Blizzard game in that there is virtually nothing you can point to in the game that is original. But everything that is there is well chosen, fun (if you like the genre), and polished.
EDIT: Oh, and I forgot about the Disgaea part of the game. Some weapons and artifacts can be 'suppressed' by entering them and fighting the gremlins that live inside (hard battles). Successfully beating them levels up the item. Apparently (although this hasn't happened to me yet) some items will actually rebel over time if you aren't doing things that they like, and need to be suppressed again.
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
Also, are there random maps?
Or at least a shitload of scenarios one can choose from, from the start?
And perhaps most importantly, they strike without the enemy stack getting to counterstrike. Plus they look cool.
It does but you can skip the three tutorial missions. Maps are not random, but monster and treasure distribution is, as is (I believe) which units are available to recruit outside the castle.
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
wOOOOt!
No, but the game is huge. Really, I purchased the game from Gamersgate on Sunday, have been playing at least 50 hours so far (haven't really got anything else to do this week...thankfully) and I'm not even remotely close to finishing the game. There's still time to have even more kids with my zombie wife (well, if I don't divorce her and find a new one) :P
It's probably my favourite game so far this year (at least in the top 3). The game plays, looks & sounds great...and it's completely addictive. Love it!
Here's some screenshots I've taken at various places in the game. They don't really spoil much (if anything), but I'm going to wrap them in that tag anyway.
Looks better in motion and without jpeg compression though.
IOS Game Center ID: Isotope-X
Well from playing the demo, the translation seemed to be just fine. I can't say I noticed anything jarring or weird in the text.
I've heard the story isn't up to much in general, but then most fantasy games generally have that problem.