Realms of Antiquity: The Shattered Crown

Old school look, new school mechanics.

This game is probably not for everyone, but if you have ever played any of the older Ultima/Gold Box/Avernum games, you should give it a try. The sprawling world, with lots of little (and big) secrets to be found really evokes a sense of adventure, the combat is simple but pretty fun, and the writing is expressive given how little text there is. The only negative points I can think of are that it's pretty slow paced (though luckily you can increase the emulator speed) and there are too many monsters wandering about, so I found myself fleeing from most battles towards the end of the game.

A good game that captures the spirit of games like Ultima 4 / Questron / Magic Candle... if you can afford to spend the time it requires to play it. My gripe with it is that's It's sometimes slow paced, with only a few keyboard commands that don't make party management user friendly. It would be nice to have some kind of option since it's emulated (like a key combo to speed up things as featured in some emulators) to speed up the game when the user wishes it so. Crossing large plains or fighting weak monsters is sometimes a chore. As for the developer, he is a very nice person and follows closely the developement of his game and tries to be as helpful as possible to solve problems you might encounter. Having played a lot more after my first failed endeavor (some characters are really more powerful than others and I refuse to pick up the hero, that would be too easy... why was my first character a thief? I wonder...), I sometimes feel the constant respawning of monsters in cerain dungeons very tedious, that would be my number one problem with some areas: it is either a waste of time for powerful characters or a hamper on game progression and suspense. The interesting storyline and the scope of the game are impressive for something meant to be played on an oldie computer of times gone by. Maybe if this game was ported to Android, it would be a nice time killer there too.

Bro have you ever played Ultima? Have you ever wanted it to be 1985? I wasn't even alive in 1985 and honestly am glad it's not 1985 anymore because Reagan is dead now and there was a lot of misogyny back in those days and the hair styles were bad but this game is pretty much 1985 all over again in the best way possible dude even programmed this ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ on an APPLE II. That's the kind of dedication and absurd commitment to historical fidelity that I can get behind so you should buy this game because it is pretty much like those old Ultima games but made to not be quite as embarrassing because we've moved on as a society in the past 40 years which this game mostly gets. And don't be put off by my time played I've mostly played offline while working undercover for the San Francisco PD busting the Russian Mafia while they were smuggling in illegal reefers which I then sold to the devs on the DL via the dark web which is how I got this game for free.

Edit: I finally beat this, after having several months off it to cure my respawn induced burnout. Here is my final review - A wonderful tribute to the ultra-old western RPG classics like Ultima 5 (closest comparison I think), that evokes a sense of adventure and exploration that is rarely encountered in today's games. This game is very nearly one of the greats, and probably would be except... It WAS deeply marred by a monster respawn system that bombards the player with trash monster encounters in Dungeon areas every minute or so, hampering exploration and causing, in me at least, great fatigue at the thought of having to engage in 'yet another fight'. This has been toned back, and that was a good move by the Developer. I'd tone it back even further but I'm happy to see it addressed in any form :). It also has a problem with frankly torturous dungeon design, particularly in the second to last Dungeon. In that one, you basically have to explore every square looking for secret doors, while under continuous attack. The inventory system is also pretty clunky, but that is less of a problem. All of that said, this is a very good game, and a rare gem if you like old-school world building and lots of atmosphere. It is also a technical marvel given it was built for an ancient early 80s era TI-99 computer (!!!) and still plays better than some games built for modern powerhouses! Also the Developer is very approachable and helpful and listens to feedback (see his comment below). Protip - bring or recruit a Rogue and leave them selected as your point person. It helps a lot with exploration (there is a spell that replicates the ability I refer to, but the rogue's always-on passive is way more convenient)

one of the best CRPGs ever crafted. also wild in scope.

[quote] Love RPG? [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/39973073/]Make sure to Follow my Curator Page[/url] for plenty more! [/quote]Impressive 100h+ adventure for old school fans. Interesting quests, huge world and killer rabbit boss... ✔️9/10 👍 Pros: ✔️ A massive world to explore ✔️ Deep, tactical combat ✔️ Nostalgic pixel-art and music ✔️ Feels like a lost CRPG classic 👎 Cons: ❌ Emulator ❌ No map and quest log https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhO-4ze463o [quote] And don't forget to [url=https://www.youtube.com/c/WizardWorm?sub_confirmation=1] Subscribe to my Youtube [/url][/quote] [quote] Join my [url=http://steamcommunity.com/groups/wizard_rpg] Steam Group [/url] [/quote]

EDIT: Now that I've just beaten the game, and you're reading this review - JUST BUY THE GAME. If you're looking at the reviews for a retro CRPG then there's not much to mull over - this is an excellent, excellent game. You won't be disappointed. ___ I am leaving this review whilst being part-way through the game. You are set free in a world where you're not sure what is going on and which begs you to explore it. There are no mundane quests (like fetch quests), and seemingly innocuous quests end up being far more interesting than you would expect. The pay off is generally at a longer term time scale, in the sense that you end up completing quests after having explored more of the world. By way of example, there was an early game quest to check out a graveyard which I stumbled upon c. 10 hours into the game. I ended up resolving this quest 30 hours in after having traversed a good chunk of a certain area of the map. This is very good game design as it necessitates exploration. Although you level up and have skill points to use, real power comes from exploring off the beaten path and finding powerful items or relics. There also doesn't seem to be any HP bloat. Another point to good game design. Turn based combat takes places in a separate 8x8 grid and is generally very fast. I quite like it as encounters (random or otherwise) take less than a minute to resolve, with the harder fights requiring more time and strategy to win. Magic is also very interesting - you equip a spell book (which takes up inventory space) which comes with certain select spells from certain colour domains. Your character(s) have affinity to certain colour domains. Of course you can swap spell books during combat but this takes a turn, so it adds more flavour to the tactical combat. Overall, this is an incredibly fun game. Highly underrated - I did not grow up playing games of the TI-99/4a era, so I certainly do not have any nostalgia goggles on. I was just looking for a CRPG which ticks all the right boxes for me (turn-based, fun combat with satisfying exploration), this was recommended to me and now I am recommending it to you. If you get stuck the people over on the Discord are very helpful.