Might and Magic III: Mouths and Moose Rats

The opening town is appropriately named.

      

I was worried that the change to a new format would diminish the legendary early-game difficulty of Might and Magic. I'm glad to say that, other than the ability to save anywhere (which is, admittedly, a bit game-breaking), that isn't the case. My characters got slaughtered repeatedly during their first few levels in the starting town. It was a couple of hours into the game before, unable to defeat masses of "bubble men" and "moose rats" that prowled the alleyways of the town, I thought to poke my head outside--and found the battles with goblins and orcs in the wilderness much easier. That's the kind of thing this series will do to you.

But let me back up to character creation. The game uses the same set of attributes that appeared in the first title and would remain the same all the way through IX: might, intelligence, personality, endurance, speed, accuracy, and luck. Races vary a bit more from game to game; here, they are human, elf, gnome, dwarf, and half-orc. For classes, we get two new ones--druid and ranger--joining the eight from II: knight, paladin, archer, cleric, sorcerer, robber, ninja, and barbarian. (The first six of II's list appeared in the first game.) The player creates six party members and then can hire two NPCs to make a full party of eight. Note that this means that even with NPCs, the party cannot have every class.

Characters can be male or female, and there are two portraits for each potential race/class combination. Random rolls between 3 and 18-20 (depending on race) determine which classes you can join. You can re-roll as long as you want. Alignments are good, neutral, and evil. I made a mix of good and neutral characters, though some early game messages make me suspect that, just like in the early games, this one offers better rewards to parties of a consistent alignment.

       

Rolling a new character.

       

This is my party, and I apologize for the obviousness of the theme:

      

• Enebrine, a good female half-orc knight
• Yintor, a good male dwarf paladin
• Drobann, a neutral male human sorcerer
• Nassa, a good female elf cleric
• Yara, a neutral female gnome ninja
• Tom Morn, a good male human ranger

       

I partly randomized the selection of race and class. Although I didn't deliberately make this happen, the two NPCs available in Fountain Head--Allan Bow and Fineous--are two of the four classes I didn't use, archer and druid. They wanted around 160 gold pieces per day, so I left them alone at the beginning.

      

Adding characters to the party

     

The manual doesn't describe the ranger very well, saying only that he has "empathy with the forest."  You have to get him into the party before you realize that he can cast priest spells, just like the paladin. I should probably swap him out for an archer or druid to better balance my spellcasting.

The game starts in the city of Fountain Head, which appropriately has numerous fountains lining the streets, though as I started, most were filled with sludge. The game continues its predecessors' dedication to 16 x 16 tiles per map, except it has exchanged the earlier "razor wall" approach (in which walls had no width) for the "worm tunnel" approach in which there's always one square of space between parallel corridors. This significantly reduces the amount of explorable space in the typical city or dungeon.

     

The final map of the city, with the empty space between adjacent walls.

     

Because I dumped the starting party without looting their stuff (which I consider the epitome of lameness), my first priority was to get some equipment. Here, some major changes from the game's predecessors became clear. First, stores don't have inexhaustible supplies. What they show you is what they have, and if you buy something, it disappears from the store's inventory. The inventory does reset every day or two.

      

Icons helpfully show which items this character can wield.

     

Second, there are more things to wear. II only had helms and armor as standard items, although you could occasionally find a special magic pendant, choker, pin, and so forth. III introduces a greater variety of these wearables, including tiaras, crowns, helms, rings, belts, cloaks, gauntlets, pendants, scarabs, charms, and boots. In addition to its native armor class properties, each item might have a chance of an additional enchantment that increases resistance or boosts an attribute.

Items are distinguished by their material. You might find a bronze crossbow, leather gauntlets, or a coral plate mail. The best materials I've found so far are lapis and coral. Neither really makes sense as a material for weapons and armor. I suspect that a "coral naginata" would shatter on its first use. Whatever the case, with so many characters and so many potential upgrades, rarely do I find a treasure cache that doesn't provide an upgrade.

      

My ninja's equipment early in the game.

     

The interface for Might and Magic III is probably the best I've seen in my chronology so far. It does everything right and almost nothing wrong. You can control the entire thing with the mouse if you want, but every mouse action has an obvious keyboard analog, including the nine buttons available on the main interface: (A)ttack, (C)ast, (S)leep, (K)ick door or wall, (D)ismiss character, (J)ournal, (M)ap, (I)nformation about time and day, and (Q)uick reference chart. Character sheets come up by clicking on their portraits or hitting the appropriate function keys.

That's all standard for even an adequate interface, but things get even better as you get into the sub-menus. Every time the game shows a sub-menu command, you can activate it with the first letter. If you're deep into one of the character menus, like inventory, hitting any of the function keys switches you to the same screen for the other characters--you don't have to back all the way out. If you click on an item in the inventory screen and then click on another character (or hit that character's function key), the item transfers to that character. If you're shopping, you can move between characters and remain on the same inventory screen in the shop. There are a dozen other such useful shortcuts. This is one of the earliest games in which it seems the developer studied what would come intuitively to a real player and made sure to implement it. 

One of the commands brings up a "journal" that's half-lore, half-quest log. The "lore" part is presented as "Corak's notes," drawn from the journal that the players found and presumably launched their quest. Every map has a paragraph or two that establishes the character and theme of the area.

      

Corak's notes on the opening map.

      

The second page consists of a log of current quests, again appearing in the series for the first time. As the game begins, the party has learned that Morphose, the "Protector of Fountain Head," has been imprisoned, and the key quest for the map is to release him.

Fountain Head has an equipment shop, an inn, a training hall, a bank, a tavern, and a temple. The screen of each shop is well-composed and lightly animated. A small donation in the temple gets "Bless," "Power Shield," "Holy Bonus," and "Heroism" cast on the characters. This buffing was extremely helpful in some of the early-game combats.

      

Note the glint on the coins, the flicker of the candle, and the gnome's hand and jaw.

      

In addition to the closed-door shops, there are also several desks or counters in the city. These offer special items and services. One sold memberships to the Raven's Guild, the only place in town to buy spells. Another allows you to perform menial work for a week for 50 gold pieces (it doesn't seem worth it). A third sells the "Cartographer" skill, which makes the automap work. The skills so far seem to be the same as in Might and Magic II, although a character can earn more than two of them. I'm not sure what the limit is, or if there is one. My characters ended this session with some combination of "Armsmaster," "Danger Sense," "Swimmer," "Crusader," "Cartographer," "Spot Secret Doors," "Direction Sense," "Path Finder," and "Thievery." "Thievery" is the only one that has a number or level attached to it. Everything else is binary: you have it or you don't. This will change later in the series' development.

      

My ninja's profile and starting skills.

      

Fountain Head also had a lot of titular fountains, in which you can toss a coin. Until I solved the main quest of the town, most of them just had my coins sink into the sludge. One spawned three "bubble men" every time I approached it.

      

I guess this could be a reliable source of early-game grinding.

      

In a major change from the first two titles, there are generally no random encounters. Every map has a fixed number of enemies and you can "clear" it. From memory, I don't think they ever respawn. One mild exception is that some maps have "spawn points" that will eventually regenerate monsters, but you destroy these. Thus, character development and the economy are fixed in a way that they aren't in the previous games. (Although there might be an exception to this--see below.) This may have consequences down the road. One certain one is that you probably don't want to create a new party member halfway through the game.

The enemies in Fountain Head were behind locked and secret doors that you have to kick (doing damage to your two lead characters) to open. I kept forgetting to check whether you could shoot them open, instead, from a couple squares away. In the coolest interface option ever, the little gargoyle on the right hand side of the screen waves frantically when you sense a secret door in front of you.

    

This is so much neater than just a message.

     

Combat lies halfway between the system used in the first two games and action RPGs like Dungeon Master. For the first time in the series, you see enemies in the distance even when not directly engaged with them. You can cast spells and (S)hoot at range, and in the case of the latter command, everyone fires. They can shoot at you, too, if they have missile weapons.

      

Orcs comin' thro' the rye. I shoot arrows at them.

       

Once you get into adjacent squares, however, you enter a special combat screen in which everyone acts in turn. Here, you can attack, cast, use an item, block, or flee. There's also an option to set a default option for every character and then run through all of your characters' options immediately with the "quick combat" button.

You don't get to see exactly how many hit points your enemies have, but their names do change from green (no damage) to yellow (damaged) to red (almost dead) as combat proceeds. I verified these colors with Irene. 

     

Close-up combat with some deadly enemies.

    

You don't get any gold or items from combat until you clear out every enemy in the area who senses you, which in a town might include the entire town's stock of monsters. There are also occasional treasure chests, of course, which usually offer better items.

    

What kind of adventurer says "no" to this question?

      

Your own hit points and spell points do not regenerate from wandering around. You have to sleep, pay for healing at a temple, or find a fountain. Sleeping requires a day's worth of rations, easily purchased at taverns. 

     

Taverns also offer tips and rumors. The animated bartender wipes down the counter.

       

A man named Kronion, "Priest of the Five Forces," offered me my second quest from his house in Fountain Head: retrieve five "silver skulls" scattered about the island.  

     

The second quest of the game.

      

Shortly after this, I got frustrated with the difficulty of the monsters in the city and decided to explore the environs. As I mentioned above, I found the orcs and goblins outside much easier. My party only had one character with a missile weapon at this point, but even that one arrow wiped out several groups before they reached the party in melee. They occasionally shot their own arrows and knocked out one or more of my characters, but the "First Aid" spell revived them.

     

This game's take on the old reliable orc.

      

A well on the other side of the mountains from Fountain Head raised our armor class by 20, which helped a lot in clearing the area. In two places, I found the dens--the "spawn points"--of the monsters, destroyed them, and got significant experience, gold, and equipment awards.

     

I'm not sure I fully agree with the logic here, but whatever works.

      

I didn't exhaustively explore the area, but even 20 minutes of exploring was enough to get my party to Level 5 when I returned to Fountain Head. That, in turn, made the rest of the monsters in the city easier to slay.

      

Why training involves horseback riding is anyone's guess.

      

I exposed a hole that led to the Fountain Head dungeons, full of rats and bats. They were also full of swinging pendulum traps. If there's any way to disarm these traps, I don't know what it is. I just had to suck up their damage every time I walked through. If one was situated at a corner, the ability to strafe was important to minimize damage.

      

It took me a long time to build up the courage to walk here because I thought it was a pit and I'd fall.

      

The dungeon held colored barrels, appearing here for the first time. This will be a feature at least through VIII, and the colors never change: red for might, green for endurance, blue for personality, purple for speed, white for luck, orange for intelligence. Here, not every barrel increased an attribute. Some were poisoned and others held items. But if the barrel did increase an attribute, it was always consistent with its color.

Among the barrels, I found the five silver skulls that Kronion wanted, so I went back up to return them (every trip up and down requires a rope and hooks, which disappears from your inventory, so I had to keep buying more). He gave me 1,000 experience and a password (RATS) to a magic mouth in the dungeon.

     

I don't quite know how "RATS" is the answer to his riddle, but it works.

     

Using that, I bypassed the magic mouth, found my way to a set of stairs, and emerged in a small area of Fountain Head cut off from the rest of the city. There, I did battle with the "Rat Overlord," a tough opponent but not overly so.

     

        

After killing him, I made my way to the corner behind him, opened a chest, and freed the spirit of Morphose, solving the town's main quest.

      

     

Part of the consequence of solving the quest was that the town's fountains flowed freely again. Each offered a different rhyming hint to the quests to come:

            

• Two wizards locked in mortal strife, destroyed each others' keep. Now bound in life that isn't life, they seek the peaceful sleep.

• Ancient items of evil and good and neutrality, too, were concealed. Search the sands, mountains, and woods, for their value will soon be revealed.

• Six brothers settled in the land, with names arranged in certain course. One then vanished from the band, and left the others in remorse.

• Take the twisting horn of gold to the central meadow. Find the unique steed of old and relieve its dying sorrow.

• Seek the sister of the waters blue, near the southwest corner true. Bring her shells from the Great Sea's depths, and greatly shall she aid your quests.

• Entombed in curse the Princess sits; raw sorrow fills her halls. Gifts of heart to her submit to breach her loveless halls. 

     

Did you just rhyme "halls" with "halls"?

            

• The mistress of mauraders at the northeast tip of flames. Seek the pearls her greed requires for her spirit to be tamed.

• Below the canopy of the vaulting sea lies the mystery of the Ancient's dream. An Ultimate Adventurer must ye be to unravel their tangled scheme.

• Powerful orbs hold the key for ultimate rule of the land. Deliver them to the kings of three to strengthen their command.

• With the presentation of one past ten, two shall be forever vanquished. Their strongholds felled and kingdoms barren, your title of Champion is established.

      

The final fountain--the one that spawned bubble men before--now accepts gold for an equal number of experience points. It's always nice to have such a literal "money sink," though it will be a long time before I feel comfortable using it. I still have a ton of spells and skills to buy first. 

     

Buying a spell at the guild.

      

As I close this session, I'm preparing to fully explore the outdoor areas of A1 and probably B1, although I can't explore them completely until I get the "Mountaineering" skill and whatever skill allows me to walk in dense forest. I'll hit as much as I can and then follow the road south to whatever adventures await me.

     

Messages-written-on-walls remains a key trope of the series.

     

There's a natural order to the maps in general. Since I can't swim across the sea, I have to progress south on the first island, alternating between columns A and B. At some point, I must get some ability to travel on water (or teleport) and thus reach the other islands. I really hope that whatever it is, it means that the game becomes nonlinear at some point. If instead it leads me from island to island in a fixed order, I'm going to be disappointed.

I have a bead on a few things:

      

• A message in Fountain Head said that good characters should deliver Ultimate Power Orbs to King Righteous in Castle Whiteshield. A Sir Praythos in the same castle wants "artifacts of good." I found the castle, but I can't get in until all my characters have the "Crusader" skill. 

     

Guess you don't want these orbs or artifacts that bad.

     

• There's a magic mirror in Fountain Head that allows fast travel between locations--but you have to have those locations' code words. HOME returns you to Fountain Head. The only other one I have is ARENA. If I recall correctly that this takes you to an arena with new combats every time, that might be an exception to the "closed system" of experience and gold that I discussed above.

       

Could a player with spoilers jump right to the endgame?

       

• Two messages on walls in Fountain Head told me to "Seek the Slithercult Stronghold" in Druid Haven and that the "Yellow Key grants access to the Fortress of Fear."

     

There is a briskness in Might and Magic III that wasn't present in its predecessors. This is felt in several ways: the semi-action combat, the way you so swiftly clear the areas, the sub-quests in each area, and the rapid leveling. I think it probably took my II characters three times as long to hit Level 5, with nine times as many reloads. That isn't to say that III is too easy, but the ability to save anywhere does mean that you lose far less progress per death than the earlier games. I might eventually grow to miss that extra challenge, but for now the fast-paced nature of III means that it's really difficult to force myself to stop playing and start blogging. I haven't had a game like that for a long time.

   

Time so far: 3 hours

Reload count: 5