Sorcerian: Three More Quests, Final Rating

Encountering Zeus seems a little much for Level 2 characters.

     

Sorcerian

Japan

Nihon Falcom (developer and publisher)

Released 1987 for PC-88, 1988 for PC-98 and Sharp X1, 1990 for DOS and Sega Genesis, 1992 for TurboGrafx CD

Date Started: 24 January 2011

Date Ended: 25 January 2011

Total Hours: 6

Difficulty: Easy-Moderate (2.5/5)

Final Rating: 28

Ranking at Time of Posting: 14/42 (33%)

Raking at Game #453: 254/453 (56%)

     

I played through three more Sorcerian quests today--enough to feel like I got the gist of the game. Although I allow that it's CRPG "enough," it's not my kind of game. I wasn't sure whether to progress to the second quest in the first group or the first quest in the second group. I tried the former and it proved rather difficult, so I theorized that within the three groups, the first quests are of uniform difficulty. This proved to be the case. In fact, the first quests of groups 2 and 3 were much easier than the first quest of group 1. 

    

    

In "The Master of the Dark Marsh," I was commissioned by a worried father to rescue his daughter from a dragon. The dragon, assuming the form of a human, had tricked the girl into eloping with him. When I found her, she had (for some reason) been transformed into a giant bullfrog.

   

Next quest, we get Jack-and-the-Beanstalk. This game is quite a melange of themes.

        

Professing her love for the dragon, she was reluctant to accept my help, but I gradually gathered the ingredients to make a potion--incidentally slaying her fiancé in the process--and ultimately convinced her to drink it. Her father rewarded me with a "Coin of Joy" that got me 200 experience when I gave it to the king. 

            

"The Garden of the Gods" was a short series of fetch-and-carry missions for Greek Gods. The mortals below hired me to figure out why Zeus suddenly started tossing lightning bolts at them.

An atheist is born.

       

I found Zeus in his throne room after bribing his guard with a bottle of wine, but he immediately tossed me back to the earth. 

     

       

Some seeds I had found soon sprouted into a beanstalk, which I used to climb up and visit other gods. Hephaestus wanted a Seed of Flame from Apollo, who wanted to know what would win Aphrodite's heart. Dionysus had the answer (a red fruit) but wanted a bottle of wine for his trouble, which I got from Hephaestus. Finally, I had to recruit a young harp player (the game would only allow me three characters in this scenario just for this purpose) to play Aphrodite's harp for Zeus so he'd chill out. Calmer, Zeus told me he got angry because his priestess, Adana, stole a bracelet that granted her immortality. 

    

Adana looks a bit like Figment.

      

I defeated Adana, returned the bracelet to Zeus, and got the expected gold and experience for my efforts. The scenario only lasted about 20 minutes and was still a bit tiresome. Neither of these two scenarios put much emphasis on combat. Both had a couple of screens that swarmed me with creatures, but the odds of defeating all of them (some of them flew) seemed so remote, and the experience rewards so paltry, that I really didn't bother--I just ran past them. 

   

"Whadda you got?"

        

After the gods, I took a break to train my characters in various skills. Training takes a couple of years, so you don't want to do it very frequently, but I dispersed skill in item identification, monster identification, trap identification, and combat among them. 

     

Wow. That's original.

       

My third quest of the day (my fourth total) was "The Lost Talisman," in which a talisman with the power to control the weather had been stolen by an evil wizard named Destru. My "monster identification" skill immediately came in handy, since I otherwise would never have guessed that these creatures attacking me--who look the same size as me--are "hill giants." 

     

"Talk like this."

      

One of my characters (the elf) died fighting Destru, but the resurrection potion worked, and...you know what? I'm bored even writing this. Trust me, it's not worth playing except as a historical curio. Better games await you, and me. I read through a walkthrough by some chap styling himself dammit9x. The other quests seem largely more of the same--particularly fetching and carrying with large amounts of backtracking. Naturally, they get more difficult, and as your characters age, they run the risk of dying in their sleep. The walkthrough confirms my suspicion that there's no real "end" to the game. In fact, in the Japanese PC version, the number of scenarios eventually increased to 50. You'd have to really love the game.

    

A quick GIMLET:

     

The game world is undistinguished fantasy fare. It combines so many themes from literature, mythology, and fairy tales, it really doesn't seem to know what it's about. Your actions have so little lasting effects that you can keep replaying the same scenarios (2). Character creation and development are limited, but there are interesting elements with the occupations and the skills. Managing the aging process adds a unique challenge to long-term players, and the skill system is mildly interesting. Fighters seem a bit overbalanced at the beginning (3). There are a number of NPCs, but your interaction consists of just listening to them and occasionally saying "yes" or "no" (2). 

     

Since I need you to finish the quest, I guess that's a "yes." That's some serious role-playing.

      

The encounters are mostly lame, but I like that each level has a "boss," and defeating him gets you a cool XP reward; no real role-playing opportunities that I could see, though. Though I usually like respawning, I don't like immediate, constant respawning (3). Magic and combat are extremely basic; you set your favored weapon or spell and then just hold down ENTER or SPACE to cast and attack; there are virtually no tactics, and you can just run away from most monsters (1). 

    

Trying to jump around and defeat these rock-tossing buzzards is more work than its worth.

      

You are limited to a basic selection of equipment, but you do find one or two useful upgrades every quest (4), and the ability to enchant the items with spells adds a nice touch and ensures that the economy never grows stale; you can always use more money for upgrades and training (5). There is no main quest, but the game consists of 15 side-quests, all of which have a clear objective and several sub-side-quests. You can "role-play" these only to the extent that you can choose not to give the quest item to the king or the gods and instead keep it for yourself (4). 

   

I didn't know where else to put this picture of me climbing a vine.

       

The graphics are very dated. I'm not usually much of a graphics guy, but I have to hold action CRPGs to a higher standard, as graphics are half the point. Sound is also very primitive. The controls are easy enough to grasp, although it's somewhat annoying that "jump" and "use" (to go through doors and talk to people) use the same control (2). Finally, the gameplay is very linear within the quests, with no role-playing opportunities or real replayability. The quests are, mercifully, quite quick (2). The final score of 28 seems about right. I liked it marginally more than Mission: Mainframe, but not enough to keep playing when there was no way to "win." Incidentally, every time I rank something in my spreadsheet these days, I scan backwards and see Swords of Glass sitting there with its paltry 27. Swords of Glass feels like the girlfriend I dumped too soon over a misunderstanding. I should have given it more of a chance. Oh, well.

      

On to Star Saga. Never played it, never heard of it, have no idea what to expect.