Game 493: Dungeons & Dragons: Warriors of the Eternal Sun (1992)

 

"Of" the Eternal Sun?! We just found out about the Eternal Sun!

        

Dungeons & Dragons: Warriors of the Eternal Sun

United States

Westwood Associates (developer); SEGA (publisher)

Released 1992 for SEGA Genesis
Date Started: 18 June 2023

     

It's been a while since we had a console game. When I took a break from Serpent Isle, I went looking for something that would contrast well with it, and Warriors of the Eternal Sun came up in a random roll. As I researched it, a lot of things recommended it for play. First, it's a Dungeons & Dragons title, and D&D usually serves up satisfactory RPGs. Second, I believe it's the first console-exclusive D&D title since the two Intellivision games in 1982 and 1983, neither of which really had anything to do with D&D. Thus, it's the first authentic console-exclusive D&D. 

   

Third, the developer was Westwood Associates, a studio that got a rocky start (BattleTech: The Crescent Hawk's Inception, Hillsfar) and always seemed to be in the shadow of Strategic Simulations, their frequent employer and publisher. But by the early 1990s, the company had matured and was responsible for the first two Eye of the Beholder games (1991). Warriors comes on the heels of those successes, right as the company was being acquired by Virgin Games, just before it published Lands of Lore (1993).

   

What can men do against such reckless hate?

     

Warriors was one of two games that Westwood wrote for consoles in 1992; the second was Dungeons & Dragons: Order of the Griffon for the TurboGrafx-16. I'm relying on Wikipedia's information that the former was released in July and the latter in October to designate Warriors as the first. Both games are set in the Mystara campaign setting, appearing here for the first time in a video game. Westwood would have had to get permission from SSI to use the D&D license; you can almost picture SSI saying, "Whatever--we're not using that setting anyway."

        

Apparently, the duke doesn't have a single mage capable of "Fireball."

    

Those with more detailed knowledge of D&D will correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding is that the Mystara setting is used as the default setting for the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set starting in 1981, although at that time, it was just called "the Known World"; it didn't take the name "Mystara" until 1991. My further understanding is that Mystara is a fairly generic fantasy world, much like Greyhawk or the Forgotten Realms, and that it uses the standard D&D classes, spells, and many of the same monsters. I understand the races are a bit different (one blog I consulted said there are a lot more "furry races") and there are no gods--only very powerful beings with godlike powers.

   

But perhaps the most important difference is that Mystara has an inside and an outside. The world is hollow, with a red sun (the Eternal Sun of the title) at the center, and the denizens of the two sides don't typically interact. The inside has become sort of a giant reservation for creatures threatened with extinction on the more volatile outer world. 

        

Things look grim for the castle denizens.

       

It is in this Hollow World that Warriors takes place. The four player characters are liegemen of a Duke Hector Barrick, who has been fighting a losing year-long war against goblins. (I imagine they either have some help or goblins are a lot stronger in Mystara.) Just as the goblins are about to overrun the castle and the defenders are all expecting to die, the ground rumbles, there's a flash, and the castle's occupants suddenly find themselves in a pleasant valley with a horizon that slopes upward on all sides. They have been transported to the inside of Mystara through methods unexplained and for reasons unknown. I assume they came from the outside of Mystara, but I suppose it's possible that the castle was transported from one of the other D&D settings; the manual doesn't specify.

      

I'm glad it didn't land on top of an orphanage.

      

The game uses Basic edition rules, which combine races and classes. You can be a cleric, fighter, magic-user, or thief--all of which are human--or a dwarf, elf, or halfling. Judging by what the manual says, dwarves are basically just fighters, elves are fighter/magic users, and halflings are fighter/thieves. Any choice can be male or female. I don't know what levels are achievable in this game, but all the demi-human classes have level caps, so I decided to throw ambiguity out the window and create a four-character human party. And for no particular reason, I decided to make them a sisterhood.

  

Character creation also has you choose a color, from three selections, one of them for some reason represented twice. You can roll the standard set of D&D attributes as many times as you want. The rolls are favorable; I never saw anything less than 9. At the same time, 18s are extremely rare. Characters have two active slots to which they can assign weapons, spells, or active abilities. Nobody starts with more than two.

     

Creating my final character.

             

My party is:

   

• Vanya, a fighter. She comes with a sword and shield.
• Sarah, a cleric. She comes with a mace and a "Turn Undead" spell.
• Zoqui, a magic-user. She comes with a staff and a "Magic Missile" spell.
• Mezzy, a thief. She comes with a dagger and a "Hide" ability.

      

After character creation, the party is tasked by Duke Barrick with exploring the new environment and finding allies. Gameplay begins in an axonometric interface inside the duke's castle. The character icons and movement looks like it must have been inspired by Ultima VI. You control the lead character, and the others fan out behind her, moving as necessary to get around obstacles. The directional pad controls movement; the "A" button performs most actions and acknowledges messages. The "Start" button brings up a more extensive menu, which mercifully includes an "Options" selection where you can a) turn off music independently of the rest of the sound, and b) change the hit point bars to actual numbers.

    

The duke sends us off.

        

Controls are, of course, a lot simpler since we're using a three-button controller rather than a keyboard. NPCs speak automatically when you near them, and they only speak one line. If you belly up to a store counter, it's automatically assumed that you want to shop there. The castle has an armor shop, a weapon shop, a magic shop, a caravan master, a temple, and a number of other buildings where NPCs work and live.

      

I don't know what this is about.

    

From the NPCs wandering around, I got:

   

• We all wish you well in your journeys.
• Some spells don't work in this new land.
• The beastmen have a camp to the northwest.
• The beastmen come from the north.
• I've heard a rumor there's a monster in the city's dungeon.

          

I thought he meant some city out in the game world. I guess he meant this city.

       

• Good luck on your journeys!
• The beastmen bear ancient markings.
• Beware of the swamps.
• Equip yourself well before venturing forth.
• Praise the maker that we have been spared.
• The duke is a kind and patient man.
• There are dinosaurs in the swamps.

     

There's also a graveyard, with four open graves prepared for the party members. That was considerate. Each of the stones in the graveyard has a punny rhyming epitaph worthy of any Ultima game.

        

• They came, they saw, they died.
• Here lies Todd. He angered a god.
• He's dead Jim.
• Eric was given to roam; all that's left is this stone.
• He boasted of his might. But death was his plight.
• This dwarf was much feared till he tripped on his beard.
• A thief that did fink has become quite extinct.
• He quenched his thirst but the water was cursed.
• Many ladies he cherished, and now he has perished.
• Here lies Louise. A thief shouldn't sneeze.
• Here lies Dwight. A knight he did smite.
• His wandering eyes soon caused his demise.
• Here lies poor Mel. He cast the wrong spell.

    

The graveyard makes me wonder about the specific nature of scooping up the castle and dropping it into the Hollow World, like how much soil and bedrock was included in the teleportation, and why it didn't just leave a big mess when it was deposited in its new location.

     

I guess the duke doesn't have much confidence in us.

              

After exploring the castle, we head outside. An overworld map shows us the entire valley. The castle seems to be situated on a large island surrounded by rivers. I head east for a little while and face my first overland battle against a giant leech. More on combat in a bit, but suffice to say for now that it's like Gold Box combat but with non-discrete movement. We get damaged by this one creature, and it occurs to me that we don't have any armor, so we head back to the castle to buy some (they only have leather). We also rest, which takes about two days. I hope there's no time limit on the main quest.

       

Our first battle.

     

In return expeditions outside, I keep doing well against individual monsters but am slaughtered by larger groups. And I know there are dungeons somewhere, but I can't find any. I want to show at least one dungeon shot before I end the first entry, so I take a look at the hint book to see where the closest one is--and it turns out there are dungeons right in the castle. In fact, there are three in the duke's throne room alone. I don't know how you're supposed to find them. The entrances are hidden by the oblique view and just look like walls.

         

The game world--or at least part of it.

      

If you didn't know that the company behind Warriors had also made Eye of the Beholder, you could probably figure it out from the dungeon exploration. Unlike in the outdoors, the movement in dungeons is by discrete tiles. The graphics are very similar, and combat works similarly to any Dungeon Master clone, albeit with simplified controls. You switch between characters with the "C" button and use the readied weapons, abilities, or spells, with the "A" and "B" buttons. (Using either "A" or "B" automatically switches you to the next character after the attack executes. I'm not yet sure if that's a benefit or a drawback.) I haven't experimented enough to try it yet, but I suspect you could do the "combat waltz" if the room was big enough. You can't pause except to enter the menu, so you have to be relatively quick with your fingers.

      

The first dungeon battle.

      

The first "dank dungeon" has just a few cells, one with a beastman and one with a giant rat. The message window gives atmospheric messages as you explore, which I like. The entire dungeon is only 6 x 6, and with worm tunnels. I tested for secret doors even though I didn't find any obvious "holes," and I found one. It led to a small cell with a pair of Gauntlets of Ogre Power. A random party member picks up any items you find, but you can transfer them later. Lesson learned: secret areas may be found even when they would create "razor walls." 

        

That must have required some real dexterity! Wait. I haven't made the precursor joke yet.

         

Other dungeons may get bigger, but an automap keeps track of your progress, so you don't have to map. I'm curious if there will be any Dungeon Master-like puzzles. The other two "dungeons" in the throne room are just guard towers that lead to nothing.

   

Now that I know what to look for, I find a third dungeon (technically, a tower) in the cemetery. "This tower has been converted to a crypt," a message reads as we enter. It is quite short--a few rooms housing the "noble family of Sperry Glen" and "the remains of King Offord." A secret door leads to the remains of a fighter who has a +1 chain mail. In a final tower in the northeast corner of the castle, I found a +1 sword, which I give to my thief.  

       

The game is funny if you add the phrase "with chopsticks" after all its messages.

        

Thus slightly better equipped, we set out again, avoiding for now the beastmen's camp to the northwest. I don't know whether the "world" map shown in the game is the entire gameworld or just the starting area, but either way, I print it so I can explore it systematically and take notes. It looks like the only way off the starting island is a bridge to the southwest. I decide to start there and work counter-clockwise around the island, which I'm hoping will ensure that I'm at least Level 2 before I hit the beastmen again. 

    

I don't find anything in the wilderness except combats with boars, giant leeches, panthers, flying vipers, giant racers (a kind of snake from the graphic) and beastmen. In the turn-based combat, characters and enemies go in an order of initiative that must have some random element to it. During their turns, characters can move (not indefinitely, but I'm not sure how to figure out the maximum), attack, cast a spell, or use a skill or item. The one major difference from the Gold Box is that there's no consideration of personal space. Characters can walk and stand on top of each other to get into melee range. 

   

Injuries and death are handled at the temple for no fee, which is handy. Walking back there can be kind of annoying. I assume that's quintuply true when I'm exploring the more remote parts of the valley. 

      

For a second, I could have been playing Serpent Isle.

        

It becomes clear that my mage is going to take forever to level up, so after my fighter and cleric hit Level 2, I give the beastmen camp another try. By slowly approaching from the west, I manage to encounter them in an advantageous arrangement where I can attack a couple of the beastmen close to me while the others take several rounds to even get into range. The strategy works, and I'm able to wipe out the beastmen. It helps that their THACO is pretty bad.

       

Would assume "hairy" was a defining trait for "beastmen."

     

With nothing else to hold my interest on the central island, I cross the bridge to the mainland. Halfway across, the game tells me that my mage and thief are nervous about crossing. I assume that's because they're still Level 1. I explore gingerly and run into parties of hill giants and grizzly bears. I'm able to kill a couple of them individually, getting my thief to Level 2 and my fighter and cleric to Level 3. But a large party soon tears us to pieces, and I suffer my first full-party death.

         

Who are "the townspeople" in this scenario?

Why can you resurrect us individually but not collectively?

      

I reload and return to town to find that the shops have new items. I'm able to buy better armor for my fighter and cleric and missile weapons for everyone. That should open up some more combat tactics. I'm looking forward to the mage getting more than one pathetic magic missile.

       

The weapons shop offers a lot more than when we landed.

      

So far, it's all right. I like the backstory and setting, and it makes as good use of D&D mechanics as any console game we've seen so far. Like any console game of the era, those mechanics are simplified from what you'd expect on a PC, but that doesn't mean it's bad. I've come to realize that console gaming can offer a relaxed experience that only requires half your attention in a way that a good PC game doesn't--the difference, perhaps, between watching a movie and reading a book.

   

Alternating between Serpent Isle and Ambermoon has been getting a little tiresome, so I'm going to mix things up with this third one for a bit. Any bets on which I finish first?

   

Time so far: 3 hours