I'm starting to wonder if the love for Xeen (which I don't share) is a Codex thing. It certainly doesn't get much love on CRPG Addict's blog. But I can't help wondering if the comments would have been different if the Addict had shown more enthusiasm for the game.
There was a poll at celestial heavens or another M&M fansite with 1K+ votes for ... Isles of Terra whom landed first.
8 present party character creation a situation that single is better than 4 or 6: Changeable members.
If you create all party from start, you will tire of the portraits, voices, and abilities after a while.
But with 8, you can replace old member with newer, more powerful characters. Like an ancient druidess you just cure the petrification. Or an dragon you meet deep in a wyrm cave. Meanwhile you can concentrate consumables on your main char (horseshoe, apple, skill books). Older characters can still be of use once in a while if you concentrate on certain skills of them (level skill to useable threshold, do their things, throw them back onto the Inn, get them out when need skills) Like smith to craft weapons, embue them, create potions etc...
This aspect is essential for long games with broad class and broad skills.
VIII does a lot of things right, it's a bit too short and the elemental planes are just a nuisance though but with some more polish, it could have supplanted VII.
Still, VI offers more freedom, if not diversity and it's important, along with having way more content than any Might & Magic released after him.
Fans of the series are generally divided into two types. The first type believe that M&M 6 is the best part of the series. The latter believe that World of Xeen is the most brilliant game of this style. It all depends on what is valued in this type of role-playing games.
For me, the order is this:
- 3: Isles of Terra. The prettiest art style, the best exploration and the most interesting puzzles in the series.
- World of Xeen. Similar to M&M: 3, bigger game, better in many ways. But I still miss something in it. I believe that M&M: 3 is better and more consistently designed.
[Censored]
- 7: For Blood and Honor. The only game I like in the 6-8 trilogy. But this is (for me) a lower league than the three above. The character system is good. The choice between a good and evil campaign is interesting. But the dungeons are small and uninteresting.
I don't really like the other parts of this series. M&M: 1 is too archaic for me. M&M: 2 is brilliant, but also too archaic and too clunky to enjoy. M&M: 6 is a complete disaster for me: boring, badly balanced, forcing us to wade through monotonous corridors filled with insane hordes of enemies. In general, the 6-8 game engine is a failure for me. M&M: 8 has the relatively best dungeons in the 6-8 trilogy, but otherwise it's too easy and too short. M&M: 9 has a bad reputation - and I played too little to verify it (I know I liked some dungeons, but the graphics are quite disgusting and the engine is not very successful).
For the safety of our youngest members, i censored the part about X, it was disgusting!
Aside for that, i agree with Kilwer, almost perfect analysis combined with Laclogan's VIII analysis and everyone's disgust for X.
To me Isles of Terra is first, it'd be better with QoL features from Xeen but it's still a better game without it.
Then, comes VI, character development was improved, the world is vast and there's a lot of freedom in character development, it's also slightly faster to get to masters.
Then Xeen, VI and VIII, all of them do some thing right, Xeen Art-style and QoL are great, some puzzles too (III also has great ones).
VII introduced Arcomage and new class system which has pros and cons, like masteries limitations, going a bit too far.
VIII has smaller dungeons of the bunch but they're good anyway, also pushing the class and races system further in a good way even if there's still too many restrictions for my liking, cities in VIII are way better and the plot is tighter than in VI or VII.
Late game in underwhelming though.
As for X, i think i've said enough about it on multiple occasion on the Main thread, easy to find, last one probably in the last 5 pages.
