Game 535: Star Saga: Two - The Clathran Menace (1989)

 

         

Star Saga: Two - The Clathran Menace

United States

Masterplay (developer and publisher)

Released 1989 for DOS

Date Started: 7 December 2024

                

The oddly-punctuated Star Saga: Two is of course a sequel to a 1988 game that I reviewed in a single entry in 2022. As you'll see from that entry, I've struggled with these titles for definitional reasons—not as to whether they are RPGs (although that itself is a bit doubtful) but more whether they are "computer" games. The computer in Star Saga occupies a purely mechanical role; the story is found in the verbose books that accompany the software disks—nearly 1,000 pages worth of material. That the small development team managed to produce such a sequel in a single year is beyond impressive.

     

As I related in that earlier entry, that development team initially consisted of Rick Dutton, Walt Freitag, and Mike Massimilla, three Harvard University students who periodically engaged in a live-action role-playing game called "Rekon." They happened to meet Andrew "Werdna" Greenberg, co-creator of Wizardry, at a bridge tournament and invited him to participate. Greenberg (who passed away in August at age 67) saw enough promise in the LARP plot to turn it into a viable product. As Mr. Massimilla reported to me in several email exchanges, Dutton and Freitag handled most of the game design and text, Massimilla handled most of the programming, and Greenberg handled the business and production. Massimilla also credits Sheila McDonald, Greenberg's (then-) wife, for editing the text ("she added a lot of the humor") and Gerry Seixas for quality assurance.

    

The game came in a large box with lots of paperwork. Image courtesy of Black Gate: Adventures in Fantasy Literature.

     

The Star Saga games are meant to be played by groups. When I played the first one, I misunderstood some of the game instructions that said players shouldn't talk about what they encountered. This apparently only applied to the first few turns. Players otherwise were encouraged to discuss the game and their findings liberally and to help each other out by trading unneeded items when the characters met, a mechanic that the game offers an interface for. To mimic that experience as thoroughly as possible in 2024, I convinced Irene to play along with me. 

        

Star Saga: Two takes place in 2821, six years after the beginning of the first game. Humanity has colonized a local cluster of planets that, together with Earth, are known as the Nine Worlds. The invention of the dual-axis hyperdrive in 2257 made faster-than-light travel possible, and it kicked off an era of great expansion. This era came to a crashing end in 2490, when the Space Plague killed more than half of the human population. The interstellar government responded by creating the Boundary, a border around the Nine Worlds protected by constant scanning and rigid enforcement by the Space Patrol. Humans may pass through the Boundary on the way out, but no one outside of the Boundary is allowed into the Nine Worlds' territory.

       

Each character has a booklet explaining his or her backstory and motivations.

      

One had the players choose from among six characters, all carefully named as to be androgynous, all with their own motivations for going, as the game's subtitle had it, Beyond the Boundary. Because they all read (mostly) the same paragraphs and have the same encounters, however, the bulk of the game is not individualized to the characters. They all accomplish their original mission during the game, but in service of a much larger shared plot.

    

That plot involves the greatest of the pre-plague explorers, Vanessa Chang, whose ship, The Lockerbait, the player finds on the planet Outpost at the Arm of the galaxy. Chang had managed to achieve not just dual but tri-axis drive technology, which she used to explore areas beyond the known galaxy called The Fringe. There, they were captured by a reptilian species called the Clathrans who found humanity inexplicably disgusting. Chang and her crew managed to escape the Clathrans, then created the Boundary as a way to keep the Clathrans from finding the location of the Nine Worlds long enough for humanity to rival them in technology.

       

Choosing the active characters for the game.

     

Each character is given a slightly updated mission for the sequel:

 

• Corin Stoneseeker, a descendant of a comrade of Chang's named Soulsinger. In his travels, Soulsinger found an alien artifact called the Core Stone that has a variety of mystical properties. It was taken from him, and Soulsinger was killed, by a Clathran. His son escaped and founded a clan dedicated to finding the stone. Corin (who I played) accomplishes this quest in the first game and is now setting out to find the origin and purpose of the stone, hoping it can counter The Clathran Menace.

• Laran Darkwatch, a member of the Final Church of Man. Laran grew up reading the Six Holy Text Files but heard rumors of a secret Seventh, lost to the stars in previous generations. Laran defied church dogma to search beyond the Boundary in the ship Jihad. Finding Chang's ship on Outpost, Laran is now convinced that the Seventh Holy Text File must be on the planet Golgotha, somewhere in the galactic Arm. To find it, Laran will have to avoid The Clathran Menace. Okay, I won't keep doing that.

• Jean G. Clerc, an engineer who required alien technology to build the Ultimate Spaceship. Now in possession of such a ship (Run Amok), he or she seeks to improve it to fight the Clathrans, specifically by building or acquiring a Jump Engine.

      

The Nine Worlds celebrate Clerc's return from the first game.

   

• Professor Lee Dambroke, a xenobiologist interested in alien civilizations and abilities. He or she found out a lot about them—acquired them, even—during the first game. Back at Harvard, Dambroke and a colleague theorize about where the energy for these special abilities comes from. The colleague calls it "Dual Space" and suggests that it may be the key to fighting the Clathrans. Dambroke sets out again to research this phenomenon.

• Valentine Stewart, the scion of a wealthy family embroiled in a quasi-legal trading and smuggling empire. He or she decided to seek a little adventure before settling into a life of bureaucracy and paperwork, and accordingly stole one of the family's ships, renaming it Holly Roger. This theft screwed up a trading contract, and Valentine spent much of One assembling unusual trade goods to make up for it. He or she now seeks the source of Flame Jewels, which make tri-axis drives possible.

• M. J. Turner, a hotshot Space Patrol pilot who bent the rules once too often and was given the choice of resigning or accepting a secret mission to leave the Boundary and destroy a notorious space pirate. This turned out to be Silverbeard, the insane former helmsman of Vanessa Chang, who all characters had to kill to get access to Outpost. Back in the Nine Worlds, Turner has just been named the first captain of the Space Navy, a new branch designed specifically to address The Clathran Menace. Turner embarks on a mission to gather intelligence on the hostile Clathrans.

          

M.J. Turner's starting game status.

       

I decided to play Turner for this game, but Irene took up my former character, Corin Stoneseeker. I envisioned Corin as a woman, and Irene agreed. Turner is a man. This is only important because I'll be using the relevant pronouns in my coverage. Turner starts with an empty hold, plasma beams and stress fields on his ship, and "Telekinesis" and "Levitation" abilities. Corin has all the same stuff but also has the Core Stone. The game gave me the option to import Corin from One, and I assume if I did, she'd have several other abilities that I acquired in that game. I'll have to check later.

It took us a while to get things set up in an optimal way. Our first three-hour session eventually used three computers. One, attached to the television in our den, showed us the application (running in DOSBox) and the game map. But Irene and I also had our own laptops in front of us for reading the paragraphs while the other person was entering his or her inputs.

        

After you choose the characters, the game takes you to the first turn screen. Each turn, players can go in any order. Characters specify a number of actions, like moving from one sector to another, landing, trading, and exploring. You get 7 "phases" per turn; if your last action costs more than your remaining phases, you end up borrowing them from the next turn. As in the first game, the manual walks you through the first couple of turns, and the program won't let you deviate from what the manual tells you to do. 

     

 I tried to "go rogue" during the first few turns and got this.

      

As in One, the galaxy is divided into a bunch of triangular sectors, each color-coded, each touching no more than three adjacent sectors, all of which have a different color. To move across the galaxy, you specify a sequence of colors. Some sectors have "space walls" (which in the game's lore exist only in hyperspace) preventing you from moving to those adjacent sectors.

    

A small part of the galaxy. Black dots indicate planets.

      

Both characters start in the same sector of space, and both are instructed to navigate to the planet Outpost and land, which takes up all phases and borrows two from the next turn. Turner went first and, upon landing at Outpost, was told to read paragraphs 26 and 30 from Book A. The first paragraph summarizes the planet's history, including Vanessa Chang and Silverbeard. There are five other ships here—the other characters. The rest of the paragraph runs through the options available on the planet and provides a series of unique codes that you enter into the game interface to choose those options. Paragraph 30 instructs the player how to take notes about what's available on each planet and instructs him what to do for the next turn.

    

Options for Outpost, from the paragraph books.

      

Irene enters her actions and gets two different paragraphs, but oddly the first one has the exact same text, including the codes to use on Outpost. I guess maybe they replicated some of them so two people could read at once? The second paragraph is mostly the same, but where Turner is instructed to explore the planet (6 phases), Stoneseeker is instructed to visit the spaceport (2 phases) and search some nearby storage facilities for things Silverbeard might have left behind (3 phases).

      

The codes turn out to be unnecessary; you can choose the same options that are given in the book from a menu. I know there are times when the codes won't be on the screen and we'll have to type them in, but I'm not sure why they're necessary for the other times.

       

Choosing actions from the game menu.

    

Turn 2: Turner explores the planet and is given two new paragraphs to read. The first is quite long. He finds a hill that has been smoothed into a flat face on one side. He discovers it is a memorial built by Vanessa Chang. It reads: "In memory of humankind and her achievements. We will be avenged. V. Chang, May 30, 2519." This is odd because humankind was not destroyed, and that date is 26 years after Chang's final departure from the planet. Turner's computer suggests that it's a ruse to convince the Clathran's that they succeeded in wiping out our species. The computer notes that after returning to the Nine Worlds and setting in motion the Boundary and the Space Patrol, Chang disappeared in 2519, as did a ship called Fool's Errand. Turner insists that the computer spend a day analyzing the thing, and the computer determines that at exactly midnight (Earth time) on 30 May 2519, the tip of the memorial pointed directly at Earth.

  

The next paragraph instructs the player to search the spaceport and the storage area on Turn 3. That's what Irene is already doing with Corin Stoneseeker, so we turn to her. She finds a memorial to Silverbeard and wonders how he lived so long, whether he was really Chang's navigator, and why he went insane. Inside a hangar is a half-finished ship.

      

Inside the storage facility is an unlimited quantity of crystals, culture, fiber, food, medicine, munitions, radioactives, and tools. The paragraphs say that Corin can load any of those items into her ship, up to cargo capacity. The program takes her to an interface where she can do this. She has 10 cargo bays, so she loads one of each, plus one extra food, medicine, and radioactives. In the first game, all these items were for trading or solving puzzles, not for personal use, and I assume that's true here.

      

Loading up on trade goods.

      

In Turn 3, the two characters mirror each other's interactions in Turn 2, finishing with both of them meeting the other pilots on the planet. For that final action, the authors wrote five paragraphs, one for each character. The only thing that differs among them is the list of "other" ships that the character sees. This is exactly the sort of thing I meant when I said, in my Star Saga: One entry: "I have long been of the opinion that the computer is a better place for [passages of text] since they can be informed by in-game variables without requiring the publisher to have printed multiple paragraphs with only slight variations." Witness the text-heavy Betrayal at Krondor for an example.

     

But this "meeting" paragraph is more collaborative than anything we got in One. There, the characters could have been aware of each other through the players' sharing of information, but they weren't explicitly. This paragraph makes all the characters aware that six people simultaneously found Flame Jewels, constructed tri-axis drives, and followed Vanessa Chang's trail to Outpost. The paragraph elides how all six of them have memories of individually defeating Silverbeard. Anyway, all the characters agree to delete any mention of Earth from their databases, including of course its location. If they want to go home, they'll have to return to Outpost and figure out the direction from Chang's memorial. The last sentences instruct each player to "introduce yourself in character" to the other players and to share experiences and ideas, but it notes "you are not required to tell anybody anything, nor are you required to always tell the truth." I tell Irene that I found the coolest laser rifle at the Chang memorial, but she must not have found it because I got there first. She believed it. She was very upset and vowed to beat me to the other two options on Outpost: visit where Silverbeard used to build his weapons and visit the ancient hangar where Chang's most famous spaceship "is enshrined."

    

At this point, the game lets us plot our own turns. We both decide to finish exploring Outpost before blasting off, since we have no clues about where to go. The game notes that we were already at the weapons workshop, since that's where we got the plasma weapons and stress field. The game says that we take some time to repair our ships, which weren't damaged, but we can come back later if they are.

    

The game offers feedback on Irene's actions this turn.

       

At Chang's ship, Lockerbait, the game gives us the option to spend the next turn reading Chang's message to future explorers, which I got in One but Irene didn't. I choose it anyway to refresh my memory. The message is quite long, but it recaps the following points:

      

• Chang's Engineer, Miller, hypothesized the tri-axis drive, but they needed a special crystal for it.

• They found the crystal, a Flame Jewel, in the possession of an alien race. The aliens gave it to them in exchange for one of the crew volunteering to help test an experimental Jump Engine. Science Officer Sherin Mosswell insisted on doing it and disappeared during the test.

• Using the tri-axis drive, the crew found Outpost and used it for supply missions deeper into the Arm.

• After a few years of exploration, they encountered the Clathrans, who were immediately and inexplicably hostile. The Clathrans boarded Chang's ship and took them prisoner, holding them on the planet Morikor.

• The Clathrans are a large, humanoid species covered in green scales. They pride themselves on knowing about every species in the galaxy, so they were angry that they knew nothing about humans.

• The crew managed to keep the location of the Nine Worlds a secret. They eventually escaped, stole a ship, and fled, leaving helmsman John Silverbeard behind.

• Their ship's axis drive failed, so they were forced to make their way slowly home while in hibernation, enduring some crash landings on the way. When they got home, they learned about the plague, which seemed poised to kill every last human but eventually weakened. 

• When Chang and her crew returned to Outpost, they met a number of other explorers, including organizations to which all the characters in this game belong.

• Chang thinks the Clathrans never learned the location of the Nine Worlds, but they engineered the Space Plague to affect only humans and released it, figuring that someone would eventually bring it to the humans.

• While on Morikor, the crew saw the Clathrans building a huge fleet. Chang things this fleet will be used to survey the galaxy in an attempt to log the locations of all species, including humans.

As we wrap up our options on Outpost, the game gives us unique paragraphs with some hints as to where to go next. Corin's computer digs up a reference to Soulsinger having visited a planet called Zyroth, with a population of peaceful aliens called Zyrans. There's no information as to where it is. Turner gets a radio call from the Institute of Space Exploration, recommending that he go to the other end of the Arm, near the galactic core, to get information about the Clathran's "survey line"--the fleet of ships the Clathrans have deployed to search the galaxy for Earth.

      

Turns 6-11 go like this:

    

M. J. Turner: 

    

• Leaves Outpost, heading "west" across the galaxy. 

     

Moving across multiple sectors in one turn.

     

• Gets a random radio call from someone named Marc Tremont on Para-Para claiming to be an ISE employee. He doesn't seem to want anything specific. Turner chastises him for potentially revealing his location to the Clathrans. Tremont happens to mention that violent crime has recently increased in the Nine Worlds.

• Discovers the planet Holoth in Sector 503. It's a crystalline planet, characterized by "glittering mountains capped by radiant clouds, chasms plunging to mysterious depths, and crags jutting out at you from bizarre angles." A polytheistic species called the Hadrakians—"a centaur-like combination of tiger and gorilla"—calls it home. Chang visited them. All Hadrakians are born male, and in their younger years are the traders, soldiers, and laborers. They earn citizenship through victories in arena battles. They change to females at 30 years old, chill out, and become teachers, administrators, and scientists.

      

Discovering a new planet. I'm not sure that planting a flag is a good idea, though.

     

• Is contacted by a Hadrakian diplomat who tells him a bit about the world and relates that when Chang visited, she won arena battles on virtually every planet in the system. She directs Turner to a port for foreigners, where he has options to visit the commodities market or fight in the arena. Turner makes the mistake of visiting the market first; as a non-citizen, he doesn't have any valid options.

• Chooses the option to fight in the arena. Only hand weapons are allowed, since missile weapons could hurt spectators. The game goes into its combat system, in which it tells you what items or abilities you're using for offense and defense, if any. In this case, I get 100 strength from my "Telekinesis" offensive ability and 100 strength from my "Levitation" defensive ability, and I only need 100 to succeed. Turner gets citizenship, explores more of the planet, and learns about a second, bat-like race that lives there, the Holots. He also learns of "The Battle, Inc.," a "Clathran resistance organization."

     

My first battle in the game. Against a homeless person.

      

Corin Stoneseeker:

 

• Decides to head "south" towards a couple of nearby planets.

• At the end of her first group of jumps, she's listening to a talk radio program from Norstar, one of the Nine Worlds. It mentions that suicides are up 15% this year over last.

• Makes her way to Worzelle, a large planet currently in the middle of a war that has lasted thousands of years. Corin lands in the only safe area and is greeted by a four-armed native with something "between fur and scales" for skin. He explains that most Worzellians spend their lives in combat, training for some ultimate battle that everyone knows is coming but no one knows anything about. There are seven options available on the planet. The first—"enroll for a two-week session of military arts training in the Academy"—takes Irene out of the game for a couple of turns.

• It turns out that Worzellians don't sleep while in training, and Corin has to take drugs to keep up with them. She learns a variety of combat strategies and tactics, and she is drilled to remember three general strategies in a particular order: oisu (sneaking), takai (bluffing), tiisai (fighting), and hurui (using mobility to evade the enemy). This order comes into play in the final test, as Corin is pitted against a much stronger, faster, dexterous Worzellian. The game asks her first, second, third, and fourth moves, and Irene chooses options consistent with the above order. (It's not that hard, but I'm proud of her for figuring it out.) She becomes an honorary Worzellian, gains the "Tactics" skill, and can use the medical facilities for free.

        

Irene works out a fairly easy puzzle.

     

I hated to wrap up this first session with still a few things to do on our respective planets, but we needed to go to bed. I understand that ship combat and a few other mechanics are a bit different from Star Saga: One, so I look forward to experiencing those things.

    

Irene enjoyed the game enough to continue for at least a couple more sessions. Having played for a little while with another person, I'm still lukewarm about the multiplayer experience. We talked a little about theories—both of us concluded immediately that we'll be meeting Vanessa Chang in the flesh at some point, for instance—but despite a little conversation, it still felt mostly like two people playing individual games while sitting next to each other. Maybe it will feel less like that as we go along.

   

Time so far: 3 hours

Game 534: The Castle of Kraizar (1993)

 

The tile screen for a game distinguished by its artwork.

        

The Castle of Kraizar

United States

Mnemonic Productions (developer and publisher)

Released 1993 for Commodore 64

Date Started: 29 November 2024

Date Ended: 30 November 2024

Total Hours: 5

Difficulty: Hard (4.0/5)

Final Rating: (to come later)

Ranking at time of posting: (to come later) 

        

The Castle of Kraizar is a competent but ultimately frustrating "afternoon RPG" from a single developer. It takes place on a single screen. You wouldn't think that one screen would offer five hours of content, but here we are. The game blends influences from Ultima (1981) and Sword of Fargoal (1982), although it is ultimately simpler than both.

    

You play a hero called The Legender, come to the city of Kraizar to kill Jrakhos, an evil sorcerer who has taken over the castle and unleashed monsters on the innocent population. You start with 40 health, 20 strength, 10 magic, 100 gold, 1 skill point, and no experience. Your goal is to wander around the city, fighting monsters, gaining experience and gold, and using them to develop your character. In addition to becoming strong enough to defeat Jrakhos, you have to find the eight parts of the key to Kraizar.

      

That Ibonek Nawibo doesn't have a good track record with apprentices.

       

The city is ringed with houses, which you can enter. Each time you do, there's a random chance of finding gold or encountering a monster. The keys are seeded in 8 of the 54 houses. Four of the others, plus the towers at the corners of the inner walls, have special services:

 

• In the middle of the eastern block of houses is the Ball and Chain Armory, where you can buy weapons and armor. You can only ever buy the next upgrade from what you already have. There are seven weapons (dagger, hammer, sword, mace, axe, halberd, magic sword) and seven armor types (cloth, leather, banded mail, chain mail, scale mail, plate mail, magic armor). This "scale" of seven items each is one of the game's Ultima influences.

      

That's a lot of money for a weapon that, as we'll see, I won't be using.

     

• In the middle of the south row is the Broken Bottle Tavern, where you can buy ale that cures poison and food that restores strength.

      

My hit points are shaded, indicating I'm poisoned. I need some healing ale.

       

• In the middle of the west row is the Apothecary. He sells spells (there are eight of them, from "Wind" to "Death"), potions that restore magic points, and rejuvenation potions that restore everything to maximum values.

     

Rounding out the elemental spells.

       

• In the middle of the north row is the Wanderer's Inn. Sleeping for a night restores you to maximum hit points.

• The northwest, northeast, and southeast guard towers all have guards who will give you tips and bits of the backstory for gold. 

     

The manual makes it sound like he was born evil.

     

• The southwest building (where a guard tower would be if not for a break in the walls) is the Adventurers' Guild. As you cross various experience thresholds, you can pay money for weapons training and magic training. Weapons training increases your strength and enables you to wield better weapons. Magic training increases your magic skill and enables you to cast higher-level spells.

        

Visiting the guild.

        

Combat takes place in rounds, for which your only choices are attacking with a weapon, switching weapons, casting a spell, or fleeing. Enemies start off easy--rats, spiders, and bats. But as you gain experience, your maximum health points incrementally increase, which leads to tougher monsters, including slimes and snakes (which poison you), ogres, trolls, ghosts, skeletons, cyclopes, werewolves, gargoyles, demons, dragons, and liches. Just about everything scales in Kraizar, including enemy difficulty, the amount you pay for services, the damage you do in combat, and the amount of gold you find in the houses.

             

Combat options against a demon.

      

During combat, the game plays sound effects that I think were inspired by Sword of Fargoal (1982). I encourage you to watch this video not just to hear them but to also get a sense of the pace of the game at era-accurate speeds. It must have been excruciating. I played most of it at 600% and was still impatient.

     

Most of the game is grinding against these enemies. It takes a comparatively short time--maybe 20 minutes--to round all the houses and find the eight parts of the key. It takes four hours (and that's with the machine set fast) to build your way up to the maximum number of experience points, max out spell and weapon levels, and get all of the best equipment. It's tempting to stand outside one house and repeatedly enter it, finding gold and battles, as a method of grinding. But it doesn't really work because you frequently have to rest to restore hit points, and you frequently get poisoned, requiring a visit to the tavern. The inn and the tavern are on opposite ends of the screen. You thus end up making loops around the map rather than grinding in one place.

        

I'm not sure how I ethically feel about saving the city by looting all of its houses for gold.

       

The author made some curious mechanical choices that lead to some frustration and imbalanced combat:

   

• Every time you swing a weapon, you lose strength points, making you less effective in your next swing. Unless you want to stand outside the tavern and buy food after every combat, it's easier just to keep your "hands" equipped as the primary weapon through most of the game, as you lose no strength when you attack with your hands. Damage depends far more on strength than weapon type anyway.

• The magic armor and the  magic sword are more curses than blessings. When you swing the magic sword, it depletes both strength and magic. The magic armor doesn't deplete anything, but it disappears if you run out of magic points (leaving you with plate mail), forcing you to purchase it again.

• Spells cost 10 points to cast per level. The starting character can cast one "Wind" spell before he has to replenish magic, and a character at maximum experience can cast one "Death" spell. Spells are, at best, "Hail Mary" options. Many enemies are capable of draining spell points, so you're almost never at your maximum. I basically didn't cast any spells during the game despite buying them all.

     

Finally, the late game enemies are simply insane. Dragons and liches can destroy a fully maxed and healed character in one hit. You can flee from most enemies, but they often get the first attack. Fortunately, you can save anywhere, and the late game becomes a process of saving every few moves. One thing I appreciate in games that scale enemy difficulty is when they scale maximum difficulty rather than minimum. That happens here. You still encounter rats and spiders when you're at maximum level.

     

Maximum statistics towards the game's end. I think there's some randomness in the max hit point and magic point values, so yours may be higher or lower.

        

When you have the eight parts of the key, all the best stuff, and max levels, it's time to head for the titular castle at the center of the map. There, you fight two battles in a row, the first against a dragon, the second against Jrakhos. If you thought anything in the previous phase of the game was frustrating, it pales in comparison to this final battle. Both the dragon and Jrakhos are capable of attacks that wipe away 2/3 of your hit points at once, plus attacks that drain your level and strength. Each has 5,000-6,000 hit points, but if you survive their physical attacks, it isn't long before you're feebly punching them with your hands, doing 50 points of damage, because your strength is depleted. They're both completely immune to spells.

    

This was not my winning attempt.

     

Your only hope against either of them is that they use physical attacks (rather than strength or magic-draining attacks) and the dice go in your favor or that they try to cast a spell that is deflected by your magic armor. If those things happen during the first few rounds, you can hopefully get in a few whacks for 1,500-2,000 hit points each with your magic sword, although you miss a lot even at full strength. Based on my experience, there's about a 1/8 chance of winning the battle against the dragon and a similar or harder (maybe 1/10) chance of then winning the battle against Jrakhos. You get a rejuvenation potion in between, so the battles are really somewhat independent except for the inability to save. The random numbers that govern their actions and effects are pre-generated, so you can't manipulate the outcome with save states. 

       

Having run out of magic, I'm down to plate mail and hands.

         

After about 20 losses, I wrote a macro to fight the battle for me, reloading if it lost. (Fortunately, the keys for moving one step north and reloading do nothing during combat, and the keys that fight battles do nothing outside of combat, so a sequence of N)orth, A)ttack, L)oad wasted a lot of keypresses but did the job.) I recorded the screen and went off to do a few errands. When I got back, I found that the macro had won the game on loop #42.

   

Winning gets you a narration describing how Jrakhos uses his dying breaths to summon a demon, but the demon turns on him and drags him to hell. You get a couple of nicely illustrated scenes, much better than we typically see in a C64 title.

            

        

And thus the game--as well as this entry--ends on one of Kraizar's strong suits. The author, John Patrick Green of Freeport, New York, clearly had a talent for graphics. It makes sense, then, that he went on to a career in the field, including work on Disney Adventures magazine and the graphic novel series Jax Epoch and the Quicken Forbidden (1996-2005) and InvestiGators (2020-present). I reached out to him through his web site, and we corresponded over the weekend. He tells me I was correct about the Ultima and Fargoal influences, but not about Questron (which I had originally hypothesized). He says that he was also inspired by Times of Lore (1988) and Mars Saga (1988).

         

"You beat me!? I am destroyed."

The demon explains that Jrakhos has displeased him.

The last we see of Jrakhos.

           

Green was able to send me some screenshots of the manual, which I was unable to find online. "I was really into the extra materials [that] games came with back then," Green told me, so he took the time to create illustrations of all the creatures in the game.

The game's bestiary also shows an Ultima influence in the formatting.

         

Green wrote the game while in high school. He published it through his own label, Mnemonic Productions, the same year. His other published games include Melee: The Battle Board Game (1993) and Gun Runner (1994), a space-trading game influenced by Space Rogue (1988) and Sentinel Worlds (1989). Green sold his games through ads in magazines and newsletters, charging $19.95 for Kraizar. He says he only sold about 5 copies, but he went into the project knowing that "the Commodore 64 was very well past its prime . . . and for me it was really just a hobby." As for my frustrations: "I never really spent much time doing a full playthrough from start to finish . . . It is very likely that when actually playing the game, there are conditions the game ends up in that I didn't account for."

      

The manual cover has a similar but not identical image as the title screen.

        

In addition to his graphic novel work, he's dabbled in artwork for video games in recent years. He developed but did not finish a fun-looking adventure game called Nearly Departed, which you can see in trailer form.

    

As often happens with both independent developers and afternoon RPGs, I see moments of inspiration here that I wish the author had the time, interest, and resources to expand upon. I don't think he lacked the talent. Kraizar could be a decent base for a solid game--say something in the vein of The Bard's Tale, with the main screen serving as a compromise between the banality of a menu town and the pointless sprawl of the actual Skara Brae. Various houses and towers could open into dungeons. Add a few more combat options, more balance to the spell system, some NPCs, and perhaps some Bard's Tale-style graphics for the various shop and service screens. I've played such games and rated them "recommended" at least. At the same time, I recognize a place for games that scratch the RPG itch without a major commitment of time. I just think most players would throw the disk across the room after the tenth failed battle with the dragon.

     

However, I'm happy to buy the game for the retail price. Green suggested a donation to Able Gamers, so I'm designating that the "Charity of the Month" and donating 20% of my Patreon proceeds. 

Betrayal at Krondor: Comin' Round the Mountain

Gorath dreams of a better future.

        

In the last entry, Gorath and Owyn, stuck in the northlands of the Moredhel, had tried to make it to two of three passes leading south. They were both too heavily guarded, so as this session starts, we have to loop all the way around to the west and south, hoping to reach the Inclindel Pass north of Tyr-Sog, although it was impassable the last time we were in the area.

    

Most of the game takes place on fairly linear corridors, bordered by mountains, through which a main road runs. In this part of the world, the "corridor" is quite wide, particularly to the south, so I thought as we headed around, instead of sticking to the road, we'd hug the mountain that lies in the middle of our journey's arc, if that makes sense. 

        

Cullich's text makes sense, but I don't know what that woman modeling her character was doing.

      

The game scoffs at my attempt to avoid notice by having us attacked by goblins and Moredhel almost immediately. Behind them is a little cottage with a well, and when we click on the house, Owyn is astonished when Gorath boldly enters. Inside is a Moredhel woman named Cullich to whom Gorath says, "Your husband is home." Instead of greeting him with warmth, Cullich mocks his fall from grace. It's clear she bought what Murmandamus was selling and is now a full member of Team Delekhan. Gorath offers his vision for the future of the Moredhel, when they're civilized and trade and treat with the Kingdom of the Isles just like the Eledhel elves.

     

I wish Irene and I sounded this sophisticated when we argue.

    

Nonetheless, she still has enough fondness for Gorath to give us some help. Gorath asks her opinion as to what path we should take south--it would be nice if we had come here first--and she directs us to the Inclindel. She also does something that allows Owyn to understand Moredhel and that increases his magic power. Finally, for 800 royals, she teaches Owyn a spell called "And the Light Shall Lie" that will disguise him as a Moredhel when we enter Moredhel towns. Not that this has been a problem so far.

    

I have to say, I found the writing superior in this section. Both Gorath and Cullich made some excellent points, used apt metaphors, and otherwise engaged in a level of dialogue rare to RPGs of the era.

        

Cullich explains why she's charging us.

    

Moving on, we continue hugging the mountain, but it's a bad choice. We run into so many parties of Moredhel and ogres in a row that Owyn is soon "near death" again. There are literally like five battles within the space of a few steps. We find some minor treasures, including a skill book called Kalem's Dialectic that we must have already read because it does nothing.

       

One of many battles during this section.

      

Eventually, we're on the west side of the mountain heading south, but before long, the gap narrows, and the mountains crowd up to the main road again just as we see the city of Harlech. Owyn casts "And the Light Shall Lie" as we get near, and Gorath confirms that it worked. We have to refresh it frequently as we explore the town.

   

Knocking on one door, we find Delekhan's son, Moraeulf. Gorath tries to pass himself off as a messenger from Delekhan, saying that Moraeulf is to round up The Six and join the search for Narab. He also teases out some intelligence that Delekhan's ultimate goal is to free Murmandamus from a Kingdom prison. Again, the official line is that Murmandamus died at Sethanon in the book, so it's unclear whether Delekhan knows something we don't, whether he's just making it up to unite the clans, or whether something else is going on.

       

These "Six" get more mysterious by the day.

     

The only other building open is a tavern called The Point, but nothing much is happening there. Keeping Owyn's disguise up, we make our way out of town to the south. Cullich only promised that it would work in Harlech, and sure enough, when we reach the next ambush of three Moredhel and two goblins, we're forced to fight. It occurs to me that perhaps this chapter was meant to be a "stealth" chapter, in which case I'm really bungling it. I've left more bodies on the road in this one chapter than in the previous three combined.

    

We fight three or four more battles, one at practically every junction, as we continue south. In between battles, I typically take a potion or use a magic item to prepare for the next one. The nice thing about this game is that when you use a magic item, it doesn't wear off until the next battle, no matter how far in the future that is. There are a lot of items to use. There are potions, like Dalatail Milk, which adds to your defense; Fadamor's Formula, which adds to your strength; and Redweed Brew, which adds to your melee accuracy. Owyn gets Lewton's Concentrate, which adds to casting accuracy. There are lots of items to apply to weapons, including Naphtha (adds fire damage), clerical oilcloths (enhances damage), and Silverthorn (poisons). There are items to add to your armor, but these mostly protect against effects that are somewhat rare, like frost or enchanted blades. Anyway, almost every battle or treasure chest delivers a few more of these items, so you don't need to really conserve them.

        

Gorath forgets we're not in Prince Arutha's lands.

      

There are several slain Moredhel at the junction of a road heading west, so out of curiosity we take it to the fortress city of Armengar, which features prominently in A Darkness at Sethanon. Prince Arutha finds Guy du Bas-Tyra, assumed up to this point to be a villain, in charge of the city. Shortly afterwards, Murmandamus attacks and destroys it. In the game, the Moredhel have set up a shop and a tavern in the ruins. The shop sells herb packs and restoratives, for which I never seem to run out of need. I typically have an herb pack going at all times. 

    

In the tavern, we meet a Moredhel named Irmelyn who isn't a fan of Delekhan. His friend Obkhar has been kidnapped by the Six and tossed into the Naphtha Mines. Gorath--certainly not acting on my instructions--asks what Irmelyn can offer if we free him, and Irmelyn replies lots of gold. Delekhan tells him to get the gold together, as if we don't have more pressing things to do. I mean, I'm usually up for a side quest, but I'd like to make that choice, Gorath.

        

Dude, I agree with you, but maybe you want to keep your voice down.

      

There's an entrance to the Naphtha Caverns from the city, so we take it, but it's just a menu screen on which we find a bunch of Naphtha, making Gorath sick in the process. I'm not sure where the Nahptha Mines are--maybe back north on the part of the road between Sar Sargoth and Harlech that we skipped.

           

This is another situation in which your characters can nearly die but you don't find out until you've exited the menu screens.

      

We keep moving south. A side road leads to a store called Children of the Green Heart, which sells adventuring supplies, including herb packs and restoratives. I can't complain that this chapter doesn't give us plenty of opportunities to buy healing items. 

  

The next battle is with two goblins and one Moredhel warrior, which ought to be easy, but Owyn, despite having a casting accuracy of 100%, accidentally nails Gorath with a "Fetters of Rime" meant for a goblin. That means Owyn has to take out the three enemies on his own, which he mostly does with his Lightning Staff.

     

Enemies guard the third and last bridge.

       

We get excited as we near the Inclindel pass, only to find it guarded by Moredhel who demand "the password from Moraeulf." We spoke to him, but he didn't give us any type of password. Fortunately, the game lets us just fight the group of three Moredhel warriors and two highland ogres. Owyn has enough stamina for a full-strength "Evil Seek," which as usual does wonders.

    

We cross a bridge but face another battle against Moredhel warriors and goblins. On the other side of them, a Kingdom guard named Finn comes trotting up the pass, demanding to know what Owyn is doing with a Moredhel. Owyn demands that Finn take them to Prince Arutha in Dimwood Forest. "Why would he want to see a boy and a Moredhel?" Finn demands. Owyn, lacking time or patience to explain the real story, just says that Arutha sent us to spy on the Moredhel. "They'd never suspect a scrawny nineteen year old boy and a Moredhel."

     

Why are you bringing my mother into this?

      

Finn buys the story, and Chapter 4 transitions to an end as Gorath and Owyn reach Arutha's camp and show him the plans. Arutha is skeptical: "How can I believe this scroll you have given me is the genuine article and not a forgery trumped up by Delekhan?" Owyn delivers a pass phrase that James gave us, and Arutha concedes. Like James, he is concerned that Delekhan hasn't designated enough men to successfully seize Northwarden, so he wonders what the strategy is. "Honestly, he has never displayed that kind of wit." Arutha asks us to go on to Krondor to apprise Master Magician Pug of the situation.

         

This was a well-composed cut scene.

       

Chapter 5, "When Rivers Run Blood," begins from James's perspective. He and Seigneur Locklear are in Northwarden. James has told Baron Gabot about the coming attack, but Gabot is more concerned that his magical adviser, Patrus (who we met in Chapter 3), has gone missing with Nighthawks in the area. James and Locklear head out to recover the mage, and they find him toying with a Moredhel spy.

     

What spell is this and why isn't it in your spellbook?

      

As we get control of the game, the party comprises James, Locklear, and Patrus. James has all his equipment from Chapter 3, and I guess Locklear has the equipment I left with him in Chapter 1, but obviously that's not such good equipment anymore. Patrus has a Lightning Staff and Standard Kingdom Armor. His spellbook is much poorer than Owyn's, although it has both "Evil Seek" and "Fetters of Rime." James has the party's money from Chapter 3, so if we find a store, we'll be in good shape.

     

Locklear kept all of his stuff. And the mustache.

       

Our goal is to "defend Northwarden!" We're just to the south of it, so we head up the road. I soon have cause to regret not spending more of James's money on restoratives when I had the chance. We face three battles back to back, each with at least a couple of Moredhel spellcasters (who start far away) in addition to witch hags, goblins, and sentinel ogres. It sucks when enemy spellcasters hit you with "Fetters of Rime." I have to reload twice because someone keeps getting knocked out, and I don't think the urgency of this chapter is in line with resting for days to recover from "near death" status.

    

But eventually, we make it to Northwarden, where the shop sells herb packs and restoratives as well as a suit of Dragon Plate for Locklear.

      

That looks like a relatively defensible position.

     

When we're done, we visit Baron Gabot in the great hall. He explains that two of his field captains have been found dead. "That leaves me with one garrison company and two field companies operating under green commanders." He wants us to "find ways to slow down or stop the oncoming enemy companies," which the scouts estimate at 1,500 Moredhel. I would have thought Gorath and Owyn killed that many. Gabot thinks Nighthawks have infiltrated the troops, and when the siege begins, they'll slaughter their way through the command structure.

      

But with all those medals you've won, surely we'll be victorious.

     

Gabot tells us to go find Duke Martin, a major character from the two Magician books. When the books begin, he is Duke Borric's Huntmaster, but he later finds out that he's the bastard son of Borric himself and the older brother to Lyam and Arutha. When the king dies during the Riftwar, Borric's house is next in line, and there's a tense moment where Martin nearly challenges Lyam for the throne but ultimately backs down to become Duke of Crydee.

       

He does not, under any circumstances, look like this.

     

Gabot can't tell us where Maritn is--just outside the castle somewhere--but he also asks that we look for the minstrel, Tamney. "It will work against the morale of the men should he remain absent."

   

It takes us a while to find Martin south of where we started. He and James exchange pleasantries and he gives James and Locklear some bow training. As our first mission, he asks us to find fairy chests in the area (which the Moredhel use for storage; they only reason we've been able to interpret the riddles so far is that Gorath has been with us), figure out how to open them, and poison any rations inside.

    

The text on a fairy chest when there's no one to translate it.

     

It was useful for Owyn and Gorath to have the spyglass, but now I wish James had it. At least he has the Coltari poison.

    

We try going north at first, but all we find in that direction is endless battles with goblins. After we win three of them and there are still goblins in view, I assume it's not possible to clear them. 

    

Why is Patrus taking on all the enemies himself?

       

Not far from where we met Martin, we're ambushed by three witch hags and two goblins. The party starts in the weirdest configuration sometimes, with Locklear and James together on the far left of the screen and Patrus by himself on the far right. We make short work of them regardless and find three fairy chests nearby, which I'm sure I've already opened. I consult my notes and see that I mentioned them a couple of entries ago. The passwords are DOOR, OUTSIDE, and ONION.

     

Patrus looks like Ebeneezer Scrooge fighting in his bed clothes.

     

Patrus has to cast the "Union" spell to read the text. There's nothing in any of the chests, including no rations, and I can only assume that's because we looted them earlier. I end up poisoning some of my own rations and leaving them in the chests, which I hope is good enough. 

   

Applying poison to some rations.

    

My notes don't mention any other fairy chests in the area, so I head back to Martin. He next wants us to find Tamney, and of course we have no idea where to even start. The closest town is Dencamp-on-the-Teeth, so we decide to go there. There are so many battles on the road with Moredhel, goblins, witch-hags, ogres, and the like that we make slow progress. Both James and Locklear get poisoned in one battle, and lacking any means of curing it, I go all the way back to Northwarden to buy Silverthorn anti-venom.

    

The Moredhel will pay for this.

       

There are Moredhel in Dencamp-on-the-Teeth, too. When we clear them, we visit the tavern. A patron talks about a bard who played there recently, and the description is clearly Tamney. He was looking for a place to sleep and someone told him about a nearby barn. We can't get the door open, so we have to buy some Fadamor's Formula at a nearby shop.

   

We muscle the door open and find Tamney the Minstrel. He's scared to return to the castle, not believing he can do any good there. The others try to convince him that a minstrel's songs can make the difference in battle, but he's still on the fence about going back. He wants us to retrieve a pattern stone, which can foretell the future, from the nearby Diviner's Halls. Yeah, that seems like a good use of our time.

     

Tamney makes a good point.

     

I guess we're about halfway through the game at this point, with the titular betrayal coming up in the next chapter. I was really hoping to get there this entry, but games stop being fun when you push them too hard, so I think I'll stop here and just look forward to another dungeon next time.

    

Time so far: 49 hours