Realms of Arkania: Shadows over Riva
Here are my initial impressions of this game after about 4 hours. I have completed the first two games of this trilogy (Blade of Destiny and Star Trail), but it's been several years, so I'm having to reacquaint myself with the UI and quirks. It also should be noted that this is one of those rare RPG series where you can transfer your party over from beginning to end. So my party today was created in September of 2017 when I started BoD.
-This is a very difficult game to get into. What I mean is, documentation leaves a lot for the player to figure out on their own. There are numerous items that have no documented use, but sometimes end up being useful if you can figure it out on your own (or with the help of someone else on the internet). The GOG Forum page for the Realms of Arkania series has quite a few gems hidden there. Look for Pinkerton's Blade of Destiny Reference Guide (lots of weapon/armor/herb/magic item details that apply to all 3 games) and the Riva Strategy Guide (a mod that you install to the DOS game that expands the in-game help to include maps, hints and full-on answers).
-Lots of resource management required. Limited item slots on characters mean you need to choose wisely what your players carry. If you come across lots of loot, chances are you will have to make multiple trips to the nearest merchant to sell it all off. Or just leave the least valuable items behind...
-Players get tired, weapons and armor wear out and break, food and water rations take up inventory slots. But the cool thing is the game makes things like camping, foraging for food, and sharpening/repairing weapons and armor immersive and entertaining. And the soundtrack is top notch throughout, which adds a whole level of sensory immersion.
-The combat is turn-based and isometric and is mostly unchanged from Blade of Destiny. Graphically, it is the weakest part of the game, but that makes it no less fun. It's just visually jarring the first few times you enter combat and see a major downgrade in graphics compared to the rest of the game.
-Visually, walking around the city and dungeons looks amazing for a DOS game. About on par with Daggerfall or Ultima Underworld 2. You can go full-screen, but then you must depend on memorizing keyboard shortcuts to navigate the menus. The game runs well full-screen on my P200. Occasional hints of choppiness, but overall a smooth experience. However, on a system this fast, text windows scroll by too fast during combat. You must set "Text Display" and maybe even "Combat Speed" to "Slow" in the game options to compensate. The game requires 450KB conventional and 6MB EMS or XMS, but I had some weird mouse glitching when using EMS, so I switched to XMS and it's been smooth sailing. I believe the readme mentions using "NOEMS" switch, that might be just as good.
-Animations and Illustrations can use SVGA if your system is capable. Artwork is gorgeous. The in-game help and strategy guide can also be in SVGA.
-I'm playing the GOG version, which has the BIN/CUE files included, so I used that to burn a game CD which I installed from and play off of. This game only has support for music played from the CD. No FM, MT32 or GM support.
I've found I've spent most of my first 4 hours re-learning the UI, going through inventory items and figuring out what they do, and buying/selling (mostly selling). My imported party was loaded with a rare herb called Atmon, which is very expensive. If you do this prior to exporting your Star Trail party, this can set your party up with enough ducats (in-game currency) to not have to worry about scrounging for money. I think I did this intentionally at the end of Star Trail, but it's been awhile so I don't remember for sure.
EDIT: As I have my first several combats in the dungeon below the cemetery, I've noticed that this game has a graphical dichotomy that is nearly unresolvable. The combat engine is from the original Blade of Destiny, thus requiring low processing power, leaving it speed sensitive. The first person movement engine requires high processing power. This means if your cpu is fast enough for the first person movement to run smoothly, it's too fast for combat IF you want to control your characters and read the text results of your attacks. The game tries to accommodate this scenario by having a Text Display speed option, but even on the slowest setting, text flashes by too fast to read during combat. I tried using SETMUL to disable Branch Prediction and V Pipeline on my POD200MMX. This slows it down to about P120 speeds, which does help, but not enough. I'm guessing a P90 would be the best CPU to run this game on. Of course, I've read reviews that say the combat sucks in this game and to just set it up for Computer Combat. I don't agree, but I can see how people would not like the combat. It's pretty old-school turn-based and does have some movement limitations. For example, melee combat does not work in diagonal directions, while missile combat (bows) does. Just a heads up to those planning on playing this game.