Arcana
So I'm playing through the game on the Ouya, with the benefit of being able to save my place and quit at any time, and I'm seeing why I never finished this game before.
As I remembered it is "well paced" in the sense that you never need to INTENTIONALLY grind, but the encounter rate is so high that it "self grinds" for you
The bigger issue, is when you couple the ludicrously high encounter rate with the middle and later dungeons...
Some of these you'd be looking at multiple hours to get through, if your building the map as you go along.
Enjoying the game, but on the SNES with the need to return to town to save and quit, it would get pretty frustrating.
As I remembered it is "well paced" in the sense that you never need to INTENTIONALLY grind, but the encounter rate is so high that it "self grinds" for you
The bigger issue, is when you couple the ludicrously high encounter rate with the middle and later dungeons...
Some of these you'd be looking at multiple hours to get through, if your building the map as you go along.
Enjoying the game, but on the SNES with the need to return to town to save and quit, it would get pretty frustrating.
Comments
I started grinding the piss out of the last area (Chapter 5) and it made it eaiser. I started using status effects of sleep and paralyze, sylph has paralyze all which helps a lot. Sleep can wear off, paralyze will not, and once you get the spirit sword it's unlimited use as a healing item, so you can regen all HP in an encounter by leaving one paralyzed foe.
I was also late in figuring out how good cards were, even at the 5th chapter I'd still toss out 3 cards at foes from time to time. I didn't know how damned cheap they were.
Last boss though, good god she has a jump in power vs everything you fought in the tower leading up to her. She kicked my ass twice.
Still haven't played this game. How high is the encounter rate compared to say, Final Fantasy III on the SNES?
I moved to a square, and fought a fight. I turned to the left, while still on the same square, and had a fight. I moved 2 more steps, and had a fight.
FFIII isn't that high of an encounter rate, and not in the same league. But in arcania's defence, an encounter loads much much faster. No screen changes, just monsters show up with no real animation. But it's such a sloooow game to begin with.
Originally posted by: Stryphos
Still haven't played this game. How high is the encounter rate compared to say, Final Fantasy III on the SNES?
The encounter rate is considerably higher than any other RPG I can think of.
By dungeon crawler standards it is ridiculous (you can walk through some floors in Wizardry V without only a couple of encounters, for instance, barring guaranteed encounters behind doors -- whereas in Arcana, as Ozzy points out, sometimes you can get 2 or 3 encounters on a single TILE)
The tradeoff, is that deliberate "grinding" is not necessary, since it's built in.
Also, by RPG standards, the game is REALLY generous with how much HP your have versus most opponents.
(in Wizardry, you start with something like 8 or 10 HP, in Arcana you start with more like 200 HP)
If you're REALLY careful, you can avoid ever needing to go back to town, but it involves knowing who is going to come and go from your party in the course of the dungeon, and having some field-party-HP/MP items (tents) on hand.
And yeah, Ozzy, the cards can be a life saver when you run into large groups of magic users that you just need to wipe out fast.
Way more effective against large groups of medium-HP enemies than one or two very strong enemies, where your weapon can individually hit harder.
Originally posted by: Ozzy_98
Originally posted by: Stryphos
Still haven't played this game. How high is the encounter rate compared to say, Final Fantasy III on the SNES?
I moved to a square, and fought a fight. I turned to the left, while still on the same square, and had a fight. I moved 2 more steps, and had a fight.
FFIII isn't that high of an encounter rate, and not in the same league. But in arcania's defence, an encounter loads much much faster. No screen changes, just monsters show up with no real animation. But it's such a sloooow game to begin with.
The worst is when you get rear-attacked, so you spin 180 degrees, and then get in ANOTHER couple of fights while turning yourself around
Originally posted by: arch_8ngel
Originally posted by: Ozzy_98
Originally posted by: Stryphos
Still haven't played this game. How high is the encounter rate compared to say, Final Fantasy III on the SNES?
I moved to a square, and fought a fight. I turned to the left, while still on the same square, and had a fight. I moved 2 more steps, and had a fight.
FFIII isn't that high of an encounter rate, and not in the same league. But in arcania's defence, an encounter loads much much faster. No screen changes, just monsters show up with no real animation. But it's such a sloooow game to begin with.
The worst is when you get rear-attacked, so you spin 180 degrees, and then get in ANOTHER couple of fights while turning yourself around
or worse, happened to look away and not see you were turned around. At least they have a map and compass
I've yet to put any real time into a 1st person/dungeon crawler RPG on the SNES, which bugs me. I love PC games like Might and Magic VI, Ultima Underworld, and Stonekeep (*duck*), and really want to try out Might and Magic III, Wizardry V, and Arcana.
What is wrong with liking Stonekeep?
BTW, the Grimrock games are on a big sale right now at GOG. I've beaten the first, and need to finally pick up the sequel.
I've yet to put any real time into a 1st person/dungeon crawler RPG on the SNES, which bugs me. I love PC games like Might and Magic VI, Ultima Underworld, and Stonekeep (*duck*), and really want to try out Might and Magic III, Wizardry V, and Arcana.
What is wrong with liking Stonekeep?
BTW, the Grimrock games are on a big sale right now at GOG. I've beaten the first, and need to finally pick up the sequel.
It was pretty heavily bashed at the time
I've yet to put any real time into a 1st person/dungeon crawler RPG on the SNES, which bugs me. I love PC games like Might and Magic VI, Ultima Underworld, and Stonekeep (*duck*), and really want to try out Might and Magic III, Wizardry V, and Arcana.
What is wrong with liking Stonekeep?
BTW, the Grimrock games are on a big sale right now at GOG. I've beaten the first, and need to finally pick up the sequel.
It was pretty heavily bashed at the time
I never had it back in the day, but had no hard feelings toward it.
I picked it up for a buck on GOG awhile back, and while I haven't played it much, yet, it seemed like a pretty good implementation of the dungeon crawling mechanic.
As much as I want to get through the entire Might and Magic and Wizardry series of games, the time I spend rolling a party (and then second-guessing my choices), sort of kills the experience compared to games where you either have a set party or a single player character (like Stonekeep, IIRC)