Might and Magic The Might and Magic Discussion Thread

[Alex]

They can but spells have level requirements to learn. I forget if finding spells in dungeons lets you learn them early.

Also, pretty sure alignments are still in. Aren't they? Maybe not. I know there was shit that only affected certain party members but maybe it was racial and never alignment.

The only times I remember getting spells out of guilds was when they were a quest reward. It has been a long time, so maybe I am wrong.

No, alignments went out of the window. There are some stuff that affects you based on class or race or sex. There are a lot of items with attribute requirements to use too. Like those thrones that had strict requirements to sitting on them, or those book that required you to be really intelligent to read them. Mostly, these added xp, though.

 

[octavius]

I just spent most of the reward I got for doing pest control in Vertigo on buying spells from the Guild. Hopefully I can find more spells in the dungeons. I've played Clouds of Xeen before, but remember little of the details. I remember Lord Xeen was perhaps the most anticlimactic end of game boss ever, though.

Seems alignments are out.
I must say that lots of things got watered down from MM1 to MM4/5. In MM1 your alignment could shift towards evil if you attacked good creatures like pegasi and unicorns, and in MM2 all the best items were alignment restricted.
But World of Xeen sure looks purdy...speaking of which, I wonder if Safana in Baldur's Gate was inspired by the tavern wench in Vertigo? They have the excact same "oooh, I'm soooooo sensual" voice.

 

[Alex]

I remember spending the money I made getting those gold veins in the dwarves mines getting the rest of the spells in Vertigo and then the skills. Great times! But yeah, Xeen is a bit limited, the beginning path you need to follow is pretty much set. The increments in magic spells, going from city to city are too obvious. But it gets better once you are done with the cities, I think.

 

[octavius]

So, what does a true Xeen Master do after leaving Vertigo?
Head straight for the Dwarven Mines, or help Myra the Herbalist, take a detour south to Toad Meadow (oops, almost wrote Todd Howard there) and get some antidotes that will come in handy in the spider infested mines?

 

[Alex]

So, what does a true Xeen Master do after leaving Vertigo?
Head straight for the Dwarven Mines, or help Myra the Herbalist, take a detour south to Toad Meadow (oops, almost wrote Todd Howard there) and get some antidotes that will come in handy in the spider infested mines?

I went straight to the mines, cause the monsters on the road were too tough, once I left the area square around vertigo. but if you feel like doing something different, go ahead! It has been a lot of time since I last played this, so maybe it isn't as linear as I thought.

 

[Luzur]

So, what does a true Xeen Master do after leaving Vertigo?
Head straight for the Dwarven Mines, or help Myra the Herbalist, take a detour south to Toad Meadow (oops, almost wrote Todd Howard there) and get some antidotes that will come in handy in the spider infested mines?

I went straight to the mines, cause the monsters on the road were too tough, once I left the area square around vertigo. but if you feel like doing something different, go ahead! It has been a lot of time since I last played this, so maybe it isn't as linear as I thought.

you can use the river as a cheat option and arrow the harder enemies to death from safety.

 

[Luzur]

Yeah.

Apart from the larger selection of portraits (MOAR PRETTY FEMALES FOR ALL-FEMALE PARTY YEAAAH) I actually think it's looking worse than the DOS version, though. The higher resolution of the graphics makes them lose some of their charme.

yeah the screenshot looked wierd, firt i thought it was some unknown PC Engine version.

 

[octavius]

Well, I found out that going to Castleview at lvl 4 was a bad idea. Getting 100,000 XP for solving a simple puzzle will unbalance the game.

 

[Alex]

Well, I found out that going to Castleview at lvl 4 was a bad idea. Getting 100,000 XP for solving a simple puzzle will unbalance the game.

:D

They had a very specific estimate of when you would do each point in Xeen, I think. At least early on. On the brighter side, or rather, on the darkside, things are less linear, if I remember well, as they expected some people to come over only when done with the first game.

 

[octavius]

What the hell is up with the XP system in World of Xeen?
My Robber has four times as much XP as the other guys. Is it all from opening chests? I also use her to search stuff, like beds, and to open doors and gates.
If there is any level scaling in this game it will not be a good idea to have one character being significantly higher level than the others.

 

[Stabwound]

Don't worry about experience. Before long your characters will have hundreds of millions of experience points, and quests hand out millions. But yeah, picking locks nets you XP which is why your thief character will have more XP at first. I don't believe there is any level scaling to speak of either, which makes some areas trivially easy if you explore them out of order, especially if you hop to the dark side at all like you noticed. The downside of open world games without scaling.

 

[Hobo Elf]

That's not really a downside. I'd consider it a reward for the player. If you go to some area that is lower level than you, then it usually means that you cleared some other place that was meant for a level higher than yours, thus giving you a higher than normal increase in power.

 

[octavius]

That's not really a downside. I'd consider it a reward for the player. If you go to some area that is lower level than you, then it usually means that you cleared some other place that was meant for a level higher than yours, thus giving you a higher than normal increase in power.

If the XP only comes from killing monsters I'd agree, but when the game throws 100,000 XP at you for solving an easy puzzle the game gets unbalanced quickly and you end up with to challenge. No challenge leads to boredom. Boredom leads to the Dark Side. Or in this case the Dark Side leads to boredom.

 

[octavius]

So, what does a true Xeen Master do after leaving Vertigo?
Head straight for the Dwarven Mines, or help Myra the Herbalist, take a detour south to Toad Meadow (oops, almost wrote Todd Howard there) and get some antidotes that will come in handy in the spider infested mines?

I went straight to the mines, cause the monsters on the road were too tough, once I left the area square around vertigo. but if you feel like doing something different, go ahead! It has been a lot of time since I last played this, so maybe it isn't as linear as I thought.

I thought I had to go all the way down south to Toad Meadow to find Phirna Root, but it turns out you only have to go 6 steps after the bridge, following the river, and kill two Giant Toads, to reach the first one.
So I'd say it's a good strategy.

 

[octavius]

More World of Xeen:
So how do I cure Unconscious status with positive HPs brough on by Yak Liches? Do I need to sleep it off or seek healing at a temple?

Also, it seems visiting Rivercity may be a good idea before entering the Dwarven Mines, as long as you keep away from the Sorceresses, to get the Swimming skill and learn some useful spells like Cure Poison and Levitate. Funny, these were the excact same spells I missed in Wiz 7 too.

I found a Let's Play at Something Awful. The Mac version looks technically better, but I still prefer the artwork of the DOS version. But it seems the Mac version has some funny messages that the DOS version is missing, like for example this one:

 

[Gozma]

Isn't there an Awaken spell?

I get those sign things in the DOS version IIRC, it's just that most of the benches are blank.

 

[octavius]

Isn't there an Awaken spell?

Yes, Awaken worked, thanks. Seems a bit silly, though.

I get those sign things in the DOS version IIRC, it's just that most of the benches are blank.

Weird that the Mac and DOS versions should be different.

 

[Nael]

Wish someone would port WoX to Android.

 

[hoverdog]

Paging Trent Oster

 

[Falkner]

There are several ports of Dosbox for Android. Doesn't it work with those?

 

[Gozma]

Yes, Awaken worked, thanks. Seems a bit silly, though.

I think they tried to be clever and made it so getting below 0 HP triggers the same "unconscious" state as a sleep spell instead of making up two separate states.

 

[Luzur]

Isn't there an Awaken spell?

Yes, Awaken worked, thanks. Seems a bit silly, though.

I get those sign things in the DOS version IIRC, it's just that most of the benches are blank.

Weird that the Mac and DOS versions should be different.

around 3-4 benches are signed in Vertigo, i think Rivercity has signed benches too, + church goers you can talk too.

 

[octavius]

Isn't there an Awaken spell?

Yes, Awaken worked, thanks. Seems a bit silly, though.

I get those sign things in the DOS version IIRC, it's just that most of the benches are blank.

Weird that the Mac and DOS versions should be different.

around 3-4 benches are signed in Vertigo, i think Rivercity has signed benches too, + church goers you can talk too.

Damned, you are right.
I thought I had explored Vertigo from all angles, but obviously not.

 

[ohWOW]

I remember playing M&M 9, but it was SHIT.

Is VI any better, because I would like to try this series.

 

[Mary Sue Leigh]

Forget M&M 9, it was rushed beyond belief and even the developers said that it was shipped when it was not even a beta version yet. You know, there's deadlines to be met..

I wholeheartedly recommend Mandate of Heaven (M&M 6) as the BEST jumping on point to the series (if not the best part) since.. well, it was for me, too. Not that much background knowledge needed.. the intro is awesome, it makes ABSOLUTELY no sense!

Also they managed to make it real immersive, the music is my favorite, there seems to be more detail to enemy designs as just applying a different color overlay to the same sprites as in later games, the plot is uhm... well, all over the map, but enough to keep you interested. It isn't too complex, fairly manageable actually, not too buggy, and the controls are fine. Just fine. The world feels pretty open in that one and there is so much to discover with dungeons, shrines, other places of interest here and there. Even without a mission, you can have fun hours of just exploring and adventuring. And dying, lots, heh.
Part 7 is good too but could be a bit too much, especially starting out when you are unfamiliar with the mechanics (same engine), part 8 is kind of unappealing I found, seems all around half-assed and just TOO EASY, you see the decline happening there. Still a good game I find, but the series plummets to its grave after that. So hard actually that fortunately no one can ever go and pull it out anymore to give it a sleek, boring, sterile modern look with linear gameplay and super action camera.

As a disclaimer I have only played 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 so I don't know about the first four but I personally didn't care overmuch about the Xeen series, despite the interesting mechanics to combine the light and dark side of Xeen into one game called World of Xeen.. so I guess I DID play 4 and 5?
Still, certain kinds of nostalgia attached to part 6 and I liked the overall tone and style.