Game 478: The Mystic Well (1990)

 

        

The Mystic Well

United States
Jing Gameware (developer); published as shareware

Released 1990 for Atari ST

Original version c. 1990 titled Mystic Mirror

Re-released as Daymare for DOS in 1992
Date Started: 3 January 2023

      

The universe has a way of getting the last laugh. In December, I blasted my "upcoming" list, partly because Walls of Illusion was next and I couldn't stomach the thought of yet another Dungeon Master clone. I repopulated it with fresh games, and the first one turns out to be . . . another Dungeon Master clone. And on the surface, it's worse than Walls of Illusion. Nonetheless, I'm going to stride forward. Every game I kick down the road just increases the percentage of bad games in the future pool. In any event, this one isn't so bad.

        

A few seconds of gameplay and combat.

         

Inspired by Dungeon Master, Well takes place in a 10-level tiled citadel. Your goal is to find and kill a powerful wizard who has channeled his life force into a golden skull. The original version of the game was titled Mystic Mirror and featured two players on joysticks. Well switches to a single-player mouse interface. The DOS port, called Daymare, keeps the maps of Well but changes the interface a bit and removes the different character classes; more on those differences later.

    

Character creation has you roll strength, agility, reason, and vigor on scales of 3-18 and then select from among four class choices: wizard, rogue, priest, and warrior. I almost never play a priest or cleric, so I went with that choice this time. The game does some interesting things with classes. Each of them has a strength. Warriors earn the most hit points per level (10); Rogues gain experience points from finding treasures; priests have a prayer ability for healing, protection, and a small automap; mages can use spell books multiple times (they are single-use for other characters).

         

The class is called "warrior" on the creation screen, but "fighter" on the game screen.

     

The game begins in a 4 x 5 area, where you can get used to its controls and conventions. The inventory pane is to the left of the view window and shows all equipped and carried items. To the right are meters for health, stamina, food, and water along with the character attributes and current resistances to (from top to bottom) physical damage, fire damage, electrical damage, and poison. The bottom of the screen has an action panel for movement, combat, eating, saving, and casting spells. Unfortunately, this panel is the only way to control the game's actions; nothing at all is mapped to the keyboard. I should make keyboard commands for at least movement a requirement for playing a game in the first place.

       

Starting out.

      

You can also click in the view window to pick up and use items--for instance, filling an empty vial at the well in the starting area. (I don't know if this well is the well.) The starting area has a pair of "city loafers" that increase agility by 1, nearly unlimited "stringberries" to restore health, a vial of water, an empty vial, a throwing rock, and two blank scrolls. When you're done exploring this small area, you move forward into a teleporter and start the first level. An oak club and a "Softens" (?) spell await you on the other side.

    

The Internet tells me there are 10 levels. If so, I hope they're not all as big as the first one--an enormous 78 x 18. Even accounting for its "worm tunnel" approach, that's a lot of squares, and it took a couple of hours to map them all. The first level didn't have any Dungeon Master-style puzzles, but it did have many of its other mechanics. Doors open with buttons and take up a full space (you cannot, alas, crush enemies in them). There were a few pressure plates, illusory walls, teleporters, and pits closed by nearby (tiny) buttons. Some walls had messages, others just decorations. 

           

The huge first level, mapped with the wrong orientation.

        

Of course, there were also enemies. They move and attack in real time. They respawn, but not fast. The game doesn't tell you their names, but they looked like giant worms or slugs, spiders, wild dogs, and some kind of carnivorous plant. To attack, you just mash the attack button. This rapidly depletes the stamina bar, but it returns just as rapidly. I found combat extremely variable: the same enemy that died in one hit last time might take eight or ten the next time. Nonetheless, none of them were terribly hard, which is really saying something given that for almost the entirety of this session, I had the weapon in the wrong hand.

         

What I assume is a giant spider attacks and hits.

       

I found a few rocks and shurikens on the level, but I'm sure I'll get sick of picking up missile items, and enemies haven't been so hard that I've needed them.

 

Hit points regenerate between combats, and although it happens more slowly than stamina, it's fast enough that you can find a corner to park yourself between combats. Enemies don't seem to bother you unless you're very close. I've yet to determine if something like the "combat waltz" is possible. Some enemies seem to react too quickly.

      

If I was going to use missile weapons, it would be against these plant enemies, which don't seem to be capable of movement.

     

Speaking of graphics, you almost certainly have an opinion by now. Yes, they're primitive. The monsters seem to use a lot of ovals, and the colors--to the extent I can distinguish them--are a bit garish. As usual, poor graphics don't bother me so much; until we get to an era in which graphics are truly immersive, the nice textures of something like Eye of the Beholder excite me only a little more than the stark wireframes of Wizardry. But aside from the quality of graphics, the author did some odd things with them. Damage taken by the character is signaled with x symbols in the corners of the view screen, but they all appear every time, so you can't tell what direction damage is coming from. Confirmation that you've executed an attack is made with a kind of arrow in the center of the window. You get no graphical feedback on things like hitting enemies. When you throw objects, they just immediately appear in their destination squares, with no animation showing the objects in the air. Some of the colors are a bit wonky, too, though that might just be for me. When I found a compass, I didn't realize what it was for hours because I couldn't see the blue needle against the black background. I mapped the entire first level with north as west.

       

No, the dog doesn't have a stick in his mouth. That's my "attack" symbol.

      

The floors of the dungeon are strewn with treasure, which makes it tough on your seven inventory slots. I can only hope that there's some kind of chest or sack later, because I spent most of this session leaving useful-sounding items on the floor. I stopped carrying food and water because the meters deplete very slowly and I needed the slots for other things. Or, at least, I think I needed them for other things. The game comes with virtually no instructions, and most of the items are unexplained.

     

Well follows a long tradition of Dungeon Master clones in telling you nothing about the relative value of weapons--worse here because you can't even see damage done to enemies (this is one thing that the DOS port fixes, apparently). I found about half a dozen oak wood clubs, a couple iron daggers, a couple wooden staffs, and a bronze sword. I assume the sword is best, particularly because a nearby wall message tells you as much, but I otherwise don't know how they compare. I'm also not sure why there were so many of them given that you only have one character and weapons don't seem to break.

          

An iron dagger awaits in a small room.

     

For armor, I found only a few pairs of city loafers, leather pants, and a pine shield. There are slots for a helmet and body armor that remain empty on my character. With armor, at least, you can see the effects on physical resistance and attributes. It was for this reason that I noticed I had the weapon in the wrong hand, since the shield only works when placed in the left hand on the paper doll (the doll's right hand, assuming it's facing you). To be honest, I'm not entirely sure that I'm right about this even now. One point of confusion is that the lower-right button does a bunch of different things. It throws any throwing weapon you have in the right hand. It casts a spell if you have that in the right hand. If you have a melee weapon in the right hand, it seems to duplicate the attack function. And if you have nothing, it cast's the priest's special spell. I don't know what it does for the other characters.

   

There are a lot of coins on the level--gold galleons, silver trunions, and copper bismarks. I'm only aware of "galleons" being used as currency in the Harry Potter franchise; is there any precedent that would explain both appearances? I doubt J.K. Rowling played The Mystic Well. A "trunion" is, I believe, part of a cannon, and given its spelling, I like to think that "bismark" references Leon rather than Otto von. Anyway, you also find various gems and jewels. Each coin takes up individual inventory space, so for a while I wondered what the point to them was. Then a sign clued me that I should "TOSS TREASURE IN WELL FOR MUCH XP." I don't know if it worked or not. You can't see your current experience point total, and my level never went up when I was tossing things in the well.

     

The titular well offers both water and a place to dispose of valuables.

      

I found several iron rings that seem to do nothing and a "Shield Ring" that increases my physical resistance by 2. I found nothing yet for an amulet slot. There are also a few items whose use is completely mysterious, including blank spell scrolls and a "mana cube."

    

Spells are one-use items (for all but the wizard), and here again the uses are a bit mysterious. I found several whose uses seemed to be obvious ("Burning Hands," "Mystic Zap") and some that seemed to do nothing ("Hide It", "Magnetic Eye," "Mnemonic Warp," "Soften"). Spells have little runic symbols around their names, as if the author was trying to mimic Dungeon Master's spell system. I guess maybe they can help you determine what types of damage they do (or protect from). 

      

Then again, the rune next to "Mnemonic Warp" doesn't seem to match any of my symbols.

     

My priest's special ability was handier than I expected. It takes about half the character's stamina (which restores in about 6 seconds) but heals a small amount of damage, increases all resistances by 3, and shows a small area map. The area map doesn't distinguish between places you've been and those you haven't, but it does show buttons, objects, enemies, and illusory walls. Unfortunately, it disappears the moment you move.

        

There are a few graphical mysteries. In addition to the wall plates that I think are just decorative, there are occasionally floor symbols and patterns that don't seem to do anything. I have learned that dark slots at the bottoms of walls are supposed to resemble the drainage grates of Dungeon Master (or is it Eye of the Beholder?), and they do occasionally deliver valuables if you click on them.

      

What is this supposed to be? A fairy ring?

      

At the end of my level explorations, I was Level 6. Leveling up increases your maximum health, and I think it has some effect on combat, as enemies died more quickly towards the end of the session. I explored all of the level except a locked door in the northwest. I found an iron key but it doesn't seem to open it. Honestly, I'm not sure about keys. I found several other doors that seemed to be locked at first but later I got them open. I'm not sure whether this is because I had the iron key or whether it's because the game just didn't register my mouse clicks on the doors' buttons the first time; controls are a bit sluggish and the game sometimes misses your inputs.

   

The southern part of the level seems to draw some inspiration from Chaos Strikes Back. There are five staircases up, and the messages next to them suggest that at least four of the destinations are meant for different classes, although the language is obtuse enough that I'm not sure [please assume a sic for all transcriptions of messages in this game]:

   

• THE GUARDIANS ON STRIKE.
• TEMPLE OF PUGHI. PUTRIFY THYSELF.
• KNEEL TO THE GOD OF PUTRIFICATION.
• ROGUE CITY. JOIN THE PARTY.
• WIZARDGUILD. DOIT WITH MUSIC.

      

In the middle of the rectangular corridor that contains these stairways is a secret room, with wall messages even more mysterious:

    

• EYE OF BEHOLDER. FLOATING GHOSTS.
• JUST A LIST FOR PLEASANT DREAMS.
• ANCIENT DRAGONS. VAMPIRE WIZARDS.

               

Participants in a Klan rally?

       

There are also two staircases down, but both of them are relatively close to pits, and I suspect they're just ways to get back from falling. I'll investigate anyway.

     

I love how the pit has a down arrow, as if you couldn't figure out what direction it went.

       

I'm having a few technical issues. Every once in a while, the program tries to access the disk and gets stuck, essentially freezing the game. (The Steem emulator shows a couple of "bomb" symbols when this happens, which I assume is a bad sign.) So far, I've been able to reload the last save state (which I'm using liberally), and everything is fine for a while after that. I get bizarre error message ("FILE SAVE ERROROGRESS") every time I try to use the in-game save feature. I know there's supposed to be some basic sound, but I can't get a peep out of it.

       

The game crashes as I study the area map.

    

So far, The Mystic Well would be a failure as a commercial title, but it doesn't work badly as a shareware offering. I think it would have been worth the $10 fee. My primary concern is that it's going to last forever right when I need a little momentum. For now, it's an easy enough romp, and I'm never completely dissatisfied when I'm making maps.

    

Time so far: 3 hours