Le Maitre des Ames: De Retour au Château

"Together we shall vanquish the evil. I am swearing."

Le Maitre des Ames continues to offer up interesting gameplay elements and tantalizing clues. Wandering the halls, amidst slaying orcs, mushroom people, and rats, I managed to pick up an NPC, learn from a disembodied spirit that looks like a bee that someone named Baldigorn holds the key to victory, and to learn from a sign that to kill someone (presumably the big lizard an orc told me about), I need to protect myself from his claws.

Okay, is he saying he's a spirit enslaved to Kharam, or that he is Kharam's spirit?

As I mentioned in my last Maitre posting, reader Eugene Hung was kind enough to refer my translation request to a friend of his, Julien Van Reeth. Julien kindly translated the entire manual for me, clearing up much of my confusion about the game--particularly how to cast spells. Thanks a lot, guys!

There are still a couple of mysteries to the game: I've found items that look like potions but for the life of me I can't figure out how to use them, and I don't know how or if my accumulated experience translates to levels. When I create a party, my characters don't seem to keep the same statistics that I originally rolled (maybe this is a bug instead of something I'm confused about).

I take it "miam!" means "yum!"

The manual tells you how to eat, but it isn't very helpful as to the question of when to eat. Each of my characters has a "hunger" (faim) score, but I can't tell what it means. Sometimes when I eat it goes down, sometimes it goes up. So does a high faim score mean you're hungry or full?

As I continue to play, I'm realizing how futile it is to map the castle. First, the game gives you no indication--no stairs, no ladder, nothing--when you go "down" or "up" a level. You just go through a door that ought not to be there and wind up in a place that's impossible on your existing map, so you figure you've gone up or down. On Level 2, meanwhile, I ran into a series of rooms with signs next to the doors that read "Those who enter here never come out." Prophetically, all the doors seem to double back on themselves, locking you in a series of about six rooms. It took me a while to find the right door would get me out.

One of the game's more annoying features is that you can only equip two items at the same time, and yet the game offers three basic items: weapons, armor, and shields. I guess the shields are a bit superfluous. But that pales in comparison to a maddening interface element. When you click on your characters to see their stats or inventory, instead of briskly popping up the relevant screen, the game runs through a tiresome on-screen animation. It only takes a few seconds, but those seconds add up and get on my nerves.

On the plus side, dying offers one of the more memorable on-screen graphics of any game:

My characters deaths have doomed the whole world!

I know I've been going a bit nuts with videos lately, but DOSBox just makes it so damned easy. The brief video below shows the process of several combats, finding hidden doors, reading signs, picking up items, and using keys. I used YouTube's commenting features for the first time to add some commentary and translation to the action. When I get a chance, I'll explore video editing software that will also allow me to add audio commentary (suggestions welcome).

While I continue to like this game and think that it has promise, I don't look terribly forward to my gameplay sessions. First, the process of constantly translating is a little tiresome--why do the French games have to be the wordiest games? (If Mission: Mainframe was in French, it would hardly be any different.) (And yes, I know how lame that complaint must seem to those of you who said you learned English from CRPGS; by the way, Rizla, where did you go?) Second, the overall uncertainty the game leaves me with respect to items, food, and leveling makes it hard to just sit back and enjoy it.

I figure I'll keep playing at least until I encounter this giant reptile that the NPCs keep going on about--I'm guessing it's the "big boss" of the first part of the game or something. Then I'll reassess.

In the meantime, if anyone knows of any Spanish CPRGs, do let me know. I'm going to Argentina in a few months on business, and I really need to start brushing up.

*****

Notes from 12 November 2017: For some reason, I abandoned Le Mâitre des Âmes after this entry, but I picked it up again seven years later and completed up. Read the updated coverage.