The Magic Candle III: Summary and Rating

     

The Magic Candle III

United States

Mindcraft Software (developer and publisher)

Released 1992 for DOS

Date Started: 7 September 2019

Date Ended: 8 March 2021

Total Hours: 36
Difficulty: Easy-Moderate (2.5/5)

Final Rating: 46
Ranking at Time of Posting: 369/412 (90%)

    

The Magic Candle series ends its three-game run (three core games, that is) having maintained a certain uniqueness. Although manifestly inspired by the Ultima series, it went its own way from the first entry, offering many elements not seen in other series, or at least novel twists on old ways of doing things. Every single one of them sounds good on paper: tactical, turn-based combat; a magic system that depends on acquired spellbooks; a complex skill development and training system, including both combat and non-combat skills; a tight economy with an option to work mundane jobs for money; dozens of NPCs and hirelings to choose from; and best of all, a high priority given to information and lore, including libraries where you can look up the history of the area and a searchable notebook that records your findings.

   

That last element is of particular interest to me. I truly value games that offer complex plots and require players to dig deep into the lore to uncover the truth. No game is doing that terribly well yet, but a few come close, and certainly this series is among them. If I have to keep a notepad going and create a little mini-encyclopedia as I play, I'm a happy gamer.

       

Yes! Tell me of Vorhamme!

       

It's hard to pinpoint exactly how it went wrong--and there is some extent to which it went wrong in all three of the titles--but I suspect in the end it revolves around that oh-so-elusive concept of "balance," combined with small elements that serve to undermine most of what would otherwise be 60-point games. Take the backstory and lore to start. While undoubtedly better than most of the dreck of the 1980s and early 1990s, this entry fails in making its story interesting. III would hardly be the first game to invent its plot well after the earlier entries, but most other series do a better job disguising it. (They didn't even bother with a subtitle!) There are suddenly these "Solian Lands" that no one has ever mentioned before with yet another collect of humans, orcs, elves, and dwarves--but no reference at all to Eldens, Aletsens, or demons. The forces of Gurtex came all the way across the ocean but ignored the lands just to their south?

   

But the primary problem with The Magic Candle III is how it makes so much of its own content superfluous. For a game that offers so many mechanisms of character development (awakening gods, paying for training, developing skills through use), it almost goes out of its way to make the development unfelt by the player. My characters didn't seem to get any stronger throughout the game at all. Granted, by importing two of the heroes, I started in a place of strength, but I would maintain that even a newly-created party, comprising any of the characters in the game, could win without a single skill or attribute increasing by a single point. I had to replace two of my characters late in the game, and the replacements performed just as well as their predecessors. 

      

Just walking in this game is a bit tedious, with characters having to rest or eat Sermins every 6 steps.

      

Throughout the entire game, I only used a teleportal once, and that was just to have the experience of using it. I never paid for any training. I didn't cast 80% of the spells, and I wouldn't have cast 90% except I made a deliberate late-game effort to experiment with some of them. I never tried to hunt for food. I used the "OTHER" dialogue option for only one keyword. I never used a mindstone. I had exactly one party member bother to work a job, and that was only because I was experimenting with that mechanic early in the game. (Come to think of it, I never returned to him.) I never picked a mushroom from a patch, slept in a stronghold, changed the party leader, played a musical instrument, or used the "Solo" command in combat (it's a weird command that almost provides an auto-combat option, but not quite). There are a million little things, admirable on paper, that never engage the player because the game isn't big enough, hard enough, or long enough. Take this quote from the manual:

   

When camping outdoors, blankets ensure comfort and full recovery of energy. Without a blanket, a camper will not be able to restore energy to above 50 points unless there is a skilled carpenter in the party to build a temporary shelter.

   

That's awesome! That's a roguelike level of detail and realism. In practice, though, you just chew a Sermin and move on.

   

In fact, mushrooms are a big problem in the series in general. A player who eschews them faces a much more challenging game, and it might be worth avoiding them for that reason. You need exactly three things to win The Magic Candle III (not to mention the two predecessors) without really trying: the "Jump" spell, Gonshi mushrooms, and enough money to buy them. That's it. Even late in the game, while Mirgets and Nifts were helpful, Gonshis and "Jump" got me through nearly every situation.

   

This application is horribly unfair to the game's spell system, which offers an incredible variety of buffing, healing, offensive, and exploration spells. I started to force myself to experiment with them, realizing after a few hours that I was basically writing the same entry as one I wrote for The Magic Candle II four years ago. Suffice to say that almost all my casting was "Restsoul" and "Shield," with a bit of "Sharpen" at the end.

      

As often happens, I've spent the better part of this "summary and rating" entry offering complaints about a game destined to land in the top 25% of GIMLET-rated games. You might thus be surprised to find that I do like The Magic Candle series despite everything I've said. As with my students, I try to judge games against their own potential rather than against each other, and thus the primary way in which The Magic Candle III is wanting is in light of the developer's own clear competencies. So let me try to offer some more obvious praise. It's one of the few Ultima-inspired series that managed to differentiate itself from Ultima. It's one of the few "complete" RPGs of its time, hitting every point on my GIMLET with enough force to at least earn a 3 or 4. It does a few things hardly any other game of the period is doing, such as the ability to juggle many more characters than the party allows, "assigning" them to various tasks and communicating by mindstone. It takes the trouble to create its own, mostly original, bestiary.

       

In the end, I praise the mechanics and intent of the game far more than the specific implementation. If it were a modern game, I'd say it was ripe for a dedicated modding crew who could rewrite the plot, jack up the difficulty of the enemies, and make a few tweaks to the interface. In many ways, it's a shame that the developers ended here without giving it another try.

    

1. Game World. The story of III works better as a standalone game than as a sequel to two prior games, but it's still a complete story, full of lore that's only revealed to you as you explore and research. I don't know why the creators felt that it was necessary to include the standard Tolkien races; none of them are interesting except for the orcs and goblins. I like how the Blight progresses during the game and creates a sense of urgency, even if the world otherwise doesn't change much during your time in it. Score: 6.

       

If you wait long enough, the Blight eventually covers the whole world . . . but the game doesn't end.

     

2. Character Creation and Development. I like it on paper. You have attributes and skills. You can pay for training to increase skills or you can just use them. There are original attributes, like "Bravery" and "Loyalty." Your attributes go up when you solve quests to awaken sleeping gods. Some of your skills help you make money at honest work, and even these have subtle influences on your adventuring. For instance, a good "Tailor" increases the party's effectiveness in dialogue, and someone with "Gemcutter" adds that skill to his "Trading" skill when selling gems. It's just too bad that things are so unbalanced in practice, where only the skills you employ in combat ever increase, and then maximize well before the end of the game; you rarely need the subtle bonuses imparted by the other skills; and even the weakest characters can succeed against the game's enemies with the right mushrooms. Score: 3.

             

3. NPC Interaction. A key part of the game, flubbed a bit by the interface. This is one area in which the creators would have been better off literally copying Ultima IV. NPCs don't have quite enough keywords; the "OTHER" command is under-utilized; and I've never liked the series' practice of making NPCs disappear and vanish at different times of day, forcing you to do things like pass 24 hours in the tavern just to make sure you talk to everyone. The division of joinable NPCs into regular NPCs and "hirelings" is a needless complication. I do like the variety of people who will join the party, and the game pioneers the concept of "banter" a bit. Score: 5.

       

There's no sense of characterization for any of the characters, but at least they have something to say.

        

4. Encounters and Foes. The game has an original bestiary with foes that behave quite differently, and there are more than enough to see you through the game. It might have been a good idea to include a few who don't fall so easily to the sword. There really aren't any non-combat encounters, alas, nor puzzles to solve. Score: 4.

5. Magic and Combat. Again, the system sounds good: a tactical grid, turn-based, with lots of positioning and spell options. There are three problems. First, a few tried-and-true strategies always carry the day, which discourages you from exploring all the options. Second, because of those strategies, combats are fundamentally too easy. Third, they're paradoxically too hard. Let me reconcile those two second points: the combats are too easy if you pay attention and know what you're doing, but too hard if you just try to blow through them. Thus, every combat ends up requiring time and mental energy while offering a predictable outcome. It's for reasons like this that you avoid as many as possible; that I found myself reloading rather than fighting if there was a way to avoid it; that Andrew Schultz's walkthrough has several pages of recommendations for creating tortuous formations of your party to avoid ambushes. I do have to give some points to the sheer variety of spells even if the game rarely calls for them. Score: 5.

6. Equipment. The series has never been terribly strong on standard RPG weapons and armor. You get slots for a melee weapon, a missile weapon, armor, clothing, and a helmet. There are no gauntlets, boots, rings, necklaces, and so forth. Even the meager slots you do get generally only have one upgrade during the game--from a bronze helmet to a steel one, say, or a long sword to a magic long sword. Usable items like shovels and picks add another dimension, and of course the real equipment advantage is in the variety of mushrooms and herbs. They're so effective that you almost wish the game didn't have them. Score: 3.

       

My dwarf's equipment towards the end of the game.

       

7. Economy. A strength. Those overpowered mushrooms are at least expensive, as are other items of equipment, spell books, training, and the simple renting of ships. You have a variety of ways to earn that gold, including combat, selling found items, putting characters to work for a wage, and gambling. Tight in the beginning, the economy is ultimately a bit generous; perhaps mushrooms should have cost a bit more. Score: 7.

8. Quests. One main quest, no choices, no role-playing. You can regard awakening the gods as "side-quests," and even without this, there are "side areas." I'll also give an extra point here in doing something original with the main quest. Score: 4.

9. Graphics, Sound, and Inputs. I don't like the iconography of this game. The graphics are too small and try to be too complicated for graphics so small. Even by the end of the game, I could barely distinguish my own characters in combat. I was forever trying to talk to trees and lampposts. I generally found the sound shrill and unimaginative. The interface is adequate. It can be run entirely by the keyboard, which I like, but . . . I don't know. I found it hard to get into a rhythm like you do when you master the commands of most games. Casting a "Heal" spell ought to be a matter of hitting the character number, then "R" for "Recall," then "H" for "Heal," then ENTER to select it, then "M" for "Magic," then the number of the character to receive the spell. But if I tried to do that too fast, I'd look up and find that I just ordered the entire party to eat a ration of food, or everyone was suddenly in camp, or something like that. It's one of those things that's hard to replicate when you deliberately try but it happens all the time in the normal course of play. There were other issues that I discussed with pooling and distributing items and acknowledging dialogue. The cut scene graphics are nice. Score: 3.

    

These graphics are quite nice.

    

10. Gameplay. It gets solid points here. It lies in the upper end of what I consider the 25-40 hour sweet spot. It's quite nonlinear after the first quest. It's mildly replayable, particularly with different party configurations. Its only major problem here is that it's a bit too easy.  Score: 6.

That gives us a final score of 46. I find myself surprised not that it's lower than the original (52) but that it's higher than II (43). This took me back to my final entry on the second game, which I haven't read since I wrote it. Looking it over now, I'm surprised at how much of what I wrote in 2017 would fit this game perfectly. I complain about the same things, make the same points about subtle issues of balance. In that entry, I made a list of all the things I didn't do, and that list is pretty much the same as it is for III. I even made a reference to "banter" in my discussion of NPCs. Overall, the scores are nearly identical except I thought the economy did well here and I was more charitable in the "graphics, sound, and interface" category there. I don't know why, since I complained more than I praised. Fundamentally, though, these are very similar games. They were only a year apart.

   

Scorpia really didn't like this one. In the May 1993 Computer Gaming World, she took it to task for some peculiarities with an early quest that I didn't experience. Where I found the economy satisfyingly tight, she just found it stingy. She did offer the same point I did about the endgame being a bit too easy, though. Her conclusion:

     

Magic Candle III is a dull game. I had a hard time getting into it, and slogged on mainly to get it over with. We've all been here before and there isn't anything really new or exciting. The game is unnecessarily lengthened by the constant need for money and, overall, one is left with the feeling of doing things by rote rather than going on a grand adventure. It is all very depressing and rather a shame.

    

While I think that goes too far, the "hard time getting into it" part definitely applies to me given that I took over a year between the first entry and the second. There is something ineffably cumbersome about this game that none of my entries adequately captured and that perhaps makes the rating of 46 a bit too high. Until I read Scorpia, I thought it was just me. 

       

      

The game's reception is too bad given how hard Mindcraft was trying to make a franchise out of this setting, although in doing so, they made some weird decisions. For instance, you hear repeatedly in III about how King Rebnard is busy conquering the continent of Gurtex. Mindcraft released Siege, a strategy game, the same year, which you would assume is about Rebnard's conquest. But no--it's about the original conquest of Gurtex by the forces of evil. Who wants to play that?

   

Siege had an expansion called Dogs of War the same year, which is set in the Solian lands, but again in a history largely unmentioned during III. Since the demonic forces never conquered the Solian isles, Dogs of War simply puts the "children of light" (humans, elves, etc.) against each other, something not even hinted in the histories of the core games. The company advanced its approach to strategy gaming in Ambush at Sorinor (1993), which most sites claim is set in the Magic Candle universe, although I didn't recognize any of the proper names, including the one in the title.

  

We'll have one more experience with this engine in the final Magic Candle universe game, Bloodstone: An Epic Dwarven Tale (1993), a prequel set sometimes in the Solian lands' past. I look forward to seeing whether one final pass at the engine improved it.

Clouds of Xeen: We Bought a Castle

 

Anyone know a good contractor?

        

Before I begin, I have to go back and cover something I forgot from last time: We bought a castle! A tax surveyor offered us the deed to a castle south of Nightshadow for 50,000 gold. It was so dilapidated that we couldn't enter it, but we bought it. The tax man said that the king's engineer could help us fix it up. I can't believe I forgot to mention that. 

     

We begin in Castle Basenji, which I have entered on a quest to destroy some wizards and retrieve a Scroll of Insight. The first level has mostly werewolves, who are capable of causing disease. Their straw beds yield a few treasures. There are four wizards--depicted as standing on flying carpets--in one chamber. They have a fire attack, but they're not too hard. Their chamber is full of scrolls that none of my characters have the language skills to read.

        

Does anyone else automatically picture a "wizard" in blue robes? Where does that come from?

    

Level 1 offers stairs to both the second floor and the basement. The basement has more scrolls that I can't read, more werewolves, and traps. This time there are peasants hidden in the straw beds, and releasing them nets 10,000 experience points each. One of them tells me that he heard a wizard use the passphrase THERE, WOLF. 

       

How do you know he wasn't saying "their wolf"?

        

This turns out to be the passphrase to get from the second level (which just has a few wizards and more unreadable scrolls) to one half of the third. There, I find the Scroll of Insight among even more scrolls I can't read (I suspect I'm lacking the "Linguist" skill). A stairway to another half of Level 3 brings me to the "cult leader," who dies in two buffed strikes. Making a note to return when we have "Linguist," we make our way out and back to Arie the Apprentice, who rewards us with the Jeweled Amulet of the Northern Sphinx and 750,000 experience. We return to the sphinx in A2, but this must not be the "northern sphinx" because it just tells us to get lost. So we get trained up to Level 13.

        

"Lookin' to train?" is a phrase I'll remember until I die.

      

The Northern Sphinx is, in fact, in B1, which we explore next. It's an oddly barren desert map; the sphinx is the only feature of note except for combats with sand worms, scorpions, and sand golems. "You may enter," the sphinx says as we approach, "but be warned: none shall leave alive."

    

We very nearly do not leave alive. The sphinx is full of traps that curse you, coffins that curse you when you open them, mummies that cause disease, and stone golems and earth golems who hit very hard. While exploring, I catch myself doing something stupid. Since you see items and enemies in the environment in this game, there's no reason to step on literally every square. If there was something there, you'd see it from an adjacent square. Nonetheless, the map doesn't feel "complete" unless I've filled all of it in. You know you have a problem when you deliberately step on a trapped square, inflicting your entire party with a curse that will cost almost 2,000 gold pieces to cure, just so you can have a complete map.

     

Mummies swing.

             

There are three thrones in the map, marked "king," "queen," and "thief," all of which just seem to damage me when I sit in them. I get the "Item to Gold" spell in one alcove--a spell that every game should have. It automatically "sells" your inventory items in case you get over-encumbered between stores. A few of the rooms have nice gem deposits.

   

There are hieroglyphics on the walls that we cannot read. These seem to have something to do with a riddle that will take me to the next level, so I have to leave in ignominy. I'll find that "Linguist" skill eventually.

    

Although no one has this skill, I keep blaming my orc sorcerer for not having it. Surely, an elf sorcerer would have come with the skill.

     

  

The Desert of the Sphinx continues into map C1. There, gargoyles join sand worms and scorpions. There is a well that gives a temporary +50 boost to endurance, but otherwise no other interesting features; the developers really embraced the "desert" concept. In its final columns, the map transitioned to mountainous terrain, and the final column offered a chest with a quest item called the Scarab of Imaging.

  

The northeast corner of the game map is dominated by volcanoes surrounded by a permanent lake of lava. We started to see this in D1, with a blasted, charred land surrounding pools of roiling lava. Lava golems attacked as I got too close. I was capable of killing them, but only barely, with buffs.

 

This is an intimidating sight.

     

None of the spells I've accumulated so far seem to offer any help with walking on lava ("Levitate" does nothing), so I abandon my exploration pattern at this point and simply skirt the active lava zone. It brings me briefly down into D2 and then back up to D1, where I am attacked by a great hydra. I'm only able to kill him with the +250 hit point and +50 might buffs.

     

We haven't met any regular hydras yet!

      

While trying to skirt a lava river, we pick up an Ever-Hot (but apparently not too hot) Lava Rock in E2. A couple more lava golems seem a lot harder than the first one. It is only when I try to shoot at one and nothing happens that I realize that the lava golems are capable of breaking weapons. How obnoxious.

   

The lava keeps us from exploring most of F1 and about half of F2. We know we're out of the worst of it when plain old orcs start attacking us again and we burn their little outposts. Pretty soon we're back in mountains and seeing Red Dwarf mine entrances to our south.

     

This is not going to go well for you, my little friend.

     

Having now explored the maps around the outer edge, I just need to do the middle four columns (B through E) of the middle two rows (2 and 3). Before doing so, I return to the Temple of Yak, thinking I still need to kill the Yak Master there. I forgot that I've already done that. But it's a good thing I return, because "Wizard Eye" reveals an area I haven't explored (I have to "Teleport" to get to it). In that area, I find 6 more King's Mega Credits and two pools that cause +5 increases in endurance and personality for some of the characters.

   

I also return to the Witch Tower because I want to explore the cloud layer above it. The first thing I come to is a statue. "You are unable to understand the strange runes," it says when I go to read it. Wow, this session is tough on the uneducated. There are some harpies to kill (and a nest to destroy) and some gems to pick up, but a second statue deters me from continued exploration until I get the "Linguist" skill.

  

Seeing these harpies is giving me a flash-forward to Might and Magic VI.

    

After a stop by Vertigo to refresh, I resume outdoor exploration in E3. It's an area of forests and waters, with easy stingers and orcs for enemies, and a dungeon I can't enter. A fountain offers +25 hit points; a shrine gives us +20 to resistances; a wagoner offers to teach us "Spot Secret Doors." A druid in a megalith says he will need the Last Snowflake of Winter before he can give us the Last Raindrop of Spring. There was another guy like this on the other side of the map.

   

I already half-explored mountainous D3 getting around the lava. Two Red Dwarf Mine entrances are here, plus several orc outposts. A +50 speed fountain is worth noting the location of.

     

Why did he fill me with a visceral terror?

        

D2 transitions from mountains in the north to forest and the lakeshore in the south. A guy in a hut teaches the "Merchant" skill for 6,000 gold. I don't have the patience to try to centralize my buying and selling, so I buy it for everyone. I start to encounter "jousters," who stir an immediate reaction of dread, but they aren't very hard. I must have had some kind of instinctive response to a similar monster in another game.

   

At long last, I find myself standing in front of Castle Burlock, on the shores of the unnamed central lake. So many things happen here that I have to bullet them out:

   

• "Mad fools" are roaming the rooms and corridors, attacking us while juggling colored balls. I can mostly kill them at a distance with arrows. 

     

Good timing, Might and Magic. There was almost a danger that some sense of immersion might take hold.

    

• Numerous suits of armor have motivational slogans on them: "Don't worry, be happy"; "Speak softly, but carry a large magic sword"; "Have a nice day."

• The king's engineer, Emerson, is sitting at a desk. He offers to have a wall built around my castle for 5 King's Mega Credits. We say "go for it."

    

I'm not sure I accept your thesis.

     

• Artemus, the king's advisor, tells us a little more about the backstory. Baron Darzog, the king's master sorcerer, grew jealous of the sway that Crodo had over the king. Then both Crodo and Darzog disappeared, and Artemus thinks that Darzog has imprisoned Crodo in his tower (which we already knew). The king is so obsessed with his search for the Sixth Mirror that he doesn't care.

• In a nook, we find the "Book of Languages" and finally get the "Linguist" skill. Another book also grants the "Astronomer" skill.

• King Burlock orders us to find the Sixth Mirror, last seen near a "great volcano."

         

I say we go collect the 16th mirror and scratch the "1" off.

    

• Up in one of the turrets, Princess Roxanne asks us to retrieve her diamond tiara from a gang of thieves in Rivercity. We already have it. Returning it to her nets us 200,000 experience and some items.

• I don't meet him, but there's apparently a "Prince Roland" because we see his armor.

• On a floor above the king's throne room is an empty throne. When we sit on it, triumphant music plays, but I can't tell that it's done anything for us.

• Two floors above the throne room is the king's bedroom. There are a couple of chests in nooks. Opening them is apparently the wrong thing to do because it unleashes dozens of castle guards and king's guards. I have no choice but to slash my way through them.

        

I feel like I'm back in Questron.

       

• The basement has some monsters behind bars, including some mad fools, some ice trolls, and a dragon. The dragon's chamber has a bucket that increases might by 10 for one character.

     

After Castle Burlock, we return to our own castle and find that we can now enter it. (The tax man gives us something the workers found--a Stone of a Thousand Terrors, which is probably the entry stone to one of the nearby dungeons.) We spent some time wandering the empty interior map, which is a standard 16 x 16. Some of the piles of debris have treasure; some release wood golems.

   

It seems like a nice piece of land, but it looks to me like the king's engineers have built the castle wall outside the moat. That's an unusual approach.

        

Which one of you unimaginative dullards chose "Newcastle"?

      

At this point, I take stock of what we have to do. These are the various things I've left behind me:

   

• Cave of illusion: return and pull the plug now that I know where to boost my strength.

• Witches' Tower: return to explore clouds now that I can read.

• Two dungeons in the southwest area: One of them must open to the Stone of a Thousand Terrors.

• Southern sphinx: no idea.

• Druids who have the last whatever of whatever: no idea.

• Castle Basenji: return now that I can read.

• Northern sphinx: ditto.

• Figure out a way to survive on lava, or just wait until I'm strong enough to suck up the damage.

• Dungeon in E3: no idea.

• Return to Burlock and buy more upgrades for my castle if I can afford it.

    

Miscellaneous notes:

    

• The damned bat queens respawned in Nightshadow again. Was I wrong all along? Does this game feature respawning?

• One night when I slept, an image of Lord Xeen appeared and laughed at me.

      

He looks either futuristic or Japanese.

     

• To give you a sense of the equipment variety, here are some of the things I sold at the last shop reckoning: iron battle axe, amber hand axe, maul, pyric short sword, amber short bow, freezing crossbow, silver broad sword, thermal grand axe, flashing spear, coral flail, bronze helm, brass helm, witch ring mail, incandescent cloak, sonic chain mail, wooden chain mail, glass plate armor, bronze boots, iron shield, gold gauntlets, thunder ring mail, fuming cloak. I don't have time to juggle all the statistics with these various items. I just assume the more expensive one is better and thus sell the cheaper ones.

• If you look at the bed in the king's bedchamber from the direction of the footboard, you can see two eyes under the bed--likely a scared cat.

   

This is not the sort of detail I would usually notice.

     

• I have some items that are supposed to cast "Town Portal." The menu shows a town called "Asp" that I haven't found yet.

    

The little I was fed on the main quest during this session doesn't do anything to dull my perception of Clouds of Xeen as a silly game with a silly plot. These mechanics would have been better served in a title more serious about its world. But as usual, the sheer frequency of stuff happening at least keeps it from being boring.

   

Time so far: 25 hours

 

The Magic Candle III: Won!

"Return to Kabelo"? Why would I go back to that hellhole? I want to return to Oshcrun.

    

A common feature of The Magic Candle III is that what ought to be challenging is instead just annoying. That applied to almost all of this final session. It took me about 11 hours, or 25% of my time with the game, but I blew through it just to get it done. Even then, I had to look up a few things in the hint book.

 

I had ended the last session with the (spiritual) defeat of the wizard Alvirex, the revelation that he was responsible for the Blight, and the knowledge that the spell to stop the Blight was contained in the Solnicon, a spellbook that no longer exists. Rather than pursue these related leads immediately, I finished my exploration of the islands. There wasn't much else to find. There was a temple to the goddess Entas on one of the islands, and I learned her password. A final island held the Tower of Qaldiur, a six-level dungeon that I was probably supposed to start with (it was very easy). A sleeping god lay in the basement, though, and I never found the password to wake him up.

      

The party decides to let sleeping gods lie. Did I already make that joke? It feels like I did.

      

The rest of it was just the usual rooms, teleporters, and ambushes. For the only time in the game, I had to cast the "Walkwater" spell to get over water obstacles, so that was something. It made me realize that the spiders and snakes that you had to "Repel" in the first two games don't appear here. Neither do the energy barriers that you have to "Pierce." I certainly don't miss those.

   

You have to cast about 50 of these to get across a small pond.

    

I tried to experiment more with magic as I explored the rooms--I really did--but I was so overpowered for the enemies that I could make most of them run away just by talking to them. Besides that, the game has a fundamental problem in that none of its offensive spells are as damaging or decisive as a good physical attack, even when the attacker is relatively weak. This was true in both previous games, too, but this one exacerbates the problem by giving its new spellbook ("Alasol") a couple of spells that strengthen physical attacks. There isn't a single spell that's more efficient than swallowing a Gonshi mushroom, casting "Jump," and sending the character to melee range of some smug bastard on the other side of the room.

      

In the end, the only reason to explore Qaldiur was to find a magic axe called Bonecleaver. I already had two characters using magic axes and really would have preferred a magic sword or another magic weapon. I ended up giving it to Garz when I got him back in the party (see below). He turned out to be too weak to wield it, and yet he refused to give it back, so the whole dungeon was really a waste of time.

       

I did leave the dungeon using a teleportal, for the first and only time in the game.

      

The next waste of time was my own fault. I spent an hour revisiting all of the libraries in the land to research SOLNICON. While I was at each one, I also inquired about other geographic and proper names that the game had fed me, feeling a bit ashamed that I hadn't done that previously. There really is quite a bit of lore in this game, much like its predecessors, and the only major problem is that it poorly supplements what we learned about the world in the previous games. Why didn't the demons ever take over these islands? Why is there no mention of Eldens and Aletsens? That kind of thing. Anyway, thankfully, one of the places that I researched was RINORA, which turned out to be fortuitous.

     

I learn some stuff that would have been interesting hours ago about the Herring Isles.

    

Still, there was nothing on the Solnicon. Only after I'd tried the libraries in Eisheim, Urkabel, and Telermain did I remember that I'd discovered the lost library of Archos in the ruined city of Nekros. Someone had asked for a name when I knocked on the door, and I only found the one to use (GORION) after I had visited. I had never returned.

   

Making my way back now, I spoke to the ghostly librarian and got the rundown on what I would have to do to end the Blight:

Protection of the Realm: To guard the Realm, its races must unite to build and light a cleansing candle in the Chamber of the Gods atop the Tower of Rinora. The candle must have a mold in which it will be built; wax from which it will be made; a wick to allow it to burn; a flint to provide its flame.

From the north comes the keeper of the mold. The royal orc places the candle's mold on the chamber's floor and whispers "Kabelo" to keep the mold upright. The keeper of the wax is a dwarf from the west. The waxkeeper places the wax in the mold and whispers "Rastanna" to allow the wax to melt. The wickkeeper is an elf of ancient lineage. While dropping the wick into the wax, the elf's whispered "Illorio" hardens the wax and causes the mold to drop away from the finished candle.

The fourth task falls to the keeper of the flint. The halfling lifts the flint to the candle's wick and whispers "Solia." The candle glimmers into flame. Finally, the human leader whispers the syllable "Ur." The candle blazes bright, and the Realm is protected against all harm.

 

You can imagine the fits of swearing that accompanied the revelation that I would have to dump two of my longstanding characters just to artificially shoehorn an orc and an elf into the party. To be fair, it turns out there's a teleportal chamber right next to the final chamber of the game, and I could have cleared out the final dungeon with my existing party, teleported out to grab the elf and orc, and teleported back in. I didn't know this at the time, however. [Ed. And I'm wrong anyway. There's no way to teleport BACK to Rinora after you leave, and you can't re-enter via the caverns because a bridge collapses behind you.]

          

I only knew of one orc NPC, Prince Garzbondgur. There are probably several elves, including some back at Castle Oshcrun, but my mind immediately went to Toriala, who we had left in Alvirex's tower. She seemed to fit the Solnicon's requirement for an elf of "ancient lineage." I was frankly worried that Sakar wouldn't suffice as the dwarf; that we'd have to get one specifically from the Solian lands. That turned out not to be the case, thankfully. 

     

This is how much of a jerk Garz is: He won't let you in his room unless you ask for GARZBONDGUR. Just GARZ isn't good enough. Typical @#$%&* orc.

    

In terms of replacing them, I could only get rid of Rimfiztrik, Evixa, and Eneri. The ritual requires no wizards at all, and only one human. But Eneri was just too powerful to dump, so I lost the two wizards and put spellcasting duties for the rest of the game on Gia, Eneri, and Toriala. There was one major problem with this: Toriala, like Garz, is a hireling, not an NPC. She refuses to hand back anything valuable that you hand her, including spellbooks. I really needed her to memorize "Jump" and "Restsoul," but these come from different books that I also needed for Eneri and Gia. I ultimately spent a lot of time in camp, having Eneri and Gia memorize 99 of every spell they could possibly need from the two books before passing them (irrevocably) to Toriala. 

     

I get rid of an actually-useful party member in exchange for someone who insists on a "fair share of the treasure" despite the fact that you just rescued her from an evil wizard.

       

With the party in place, that left finding the necessary elements. I had the candle mold and wick, having found them unintentionally while exploring other places. I didn't even have a notepad entry for WAX or FLINT. I sighed and started circling the cities, asking about those two keywords. I got bored and frustrated quite quickly and ultimately looked up the answers in the game's official cluebook. But if I was going to do that, I wanted to at least find out where I was supposed to have gotten the clues. Both turned out to be a bit unfair. To wit:

   

• A refugee from Voliplan tells you about the wax--specifically, that he buried some in the southeast corner of the ruined city. He hangs out in one of the two taverns in Telermain from around 17:00 to midnight. But he doesn't spontaneously say anything about wax; you have to feed him the keyword with the OTHER command. I looked up transcripts of NPC dialogue in the game, and I don't think anyone tells you to ask him about it; you just have to be using that keyword on everyone.

• A ghost in Nekros tells you that the flint is buried in her chimney. There are couple problems with this. First, she only appears between midnight and 01:00--one hour a day--and again, no one tells you this. How did anyone figure this out back in the day? No one is going to pass 24 hours a day just standing around every part of every map just in case someone appears. [Ed. I was wrong about "no one tells you this." I don't know why I made such a statement with such confidence, as NPCs in this game are easy to miss. In this case, I missed someone in Eisheim.] Second, when I talked to her, she just told me to return when I was "fully prepared." What the hell does that mean? I just dug up her chimney anyway and took it, but only because the cluebook told me where it was.

It's not like it's doing anyone any good where it is.

      

With everything in place, I returned to Telermain to stock up on as many mushrooms as I could afford, prioritizing Sermins and Gonshis, then Mirgets, and then buying a handful of the others. I did my spell memorization, fixed my equipment, buffed everyone's shields, and headed for the Tower of Rimora, the source of the Blight.

      

An NPC in Eisheim had already told me not to bother with the front door. Instead, I would have to enter through the Caverns of Crowndeep to the northeast. I had somehow missed this dungeon while exploring the island, which is probably a good thing, as once you enter, you can't leave. Since I explored fairly exhaustively, it may be that the door doesn't appear if you don't have the necessary items. The goddess Entas was sleeping in a chamber near the entrance, so I got a final boost in statistics, plus some advice for the battles ahead.

     

The specific nature and origin of these "lords of the blight" is left vague.

     

The caverns turned out to be 6 large, mundane, tiresome levels. They were followed immediately by a 10-level tower. The caverns were the worst, though: huge levels full of navigational obstacles like stalagmites and fumaroles and very narrow corridors. There were frequent ambushes and a fair number of side rooms and dead ends that just wasted time. My normal strategy of just keeping to the right wall ultimately got me through the place, but it was just tedious.

   

An ambush in a narrow area. Each of these necromants is going to require a "Restsoul" after I kill him. Ugh.

       

The only saving grace is that I had enough mushrooms that I wasn't really worried about running out. I was able to keep Gonshis (extra attacks) in my system ahead of every battle, which took the edge off all the ambushes. As we'll discuss in the final entry, Gonshis and "Jump" are really the only tools you need. But I confess I also did a lot of cheesing the system with reloads. If I poked my head in a room and saw there were no exits, I usually just reloaded. I didn't need any treasure by now, and there was no point in spending even five minutes fighting a battle just to find 8 Luffins or 6 skulls or a fountain full of "Heal" spells. 

    

The caverns took like three hours, so they deserve a second screenshot.

       

The 10-level Tower of Rinora was no harder (for nine of the levels) than any other dungeon. I again just kept to the rightmost wall and went up when I found a way up. If it led to a dead end, I went back down and tried again with another staircase. Except for some narrow corridors, there wasn't much else to it. By now, I was not only keeping Gonshis going constantly, but also swallowing Mirgets (more powerful first attack) and Nifts (fully protect against next three hits) before every room, keeping "Shields" at 99, and even keeping "Sharpen" running on the characters most of the time.

  

When the halfling makes that point, you know things are tight.

        

Level 6 offered a puzzle. To open a door further down the line, I had to throw the right gem into each of five pools. Fortunately, the encyclopedia entry on RINORA had warned me about the puzzle and given me the list of gems: A topaz to the Pool of Regret, a ruby to the Pool of Betrayal, and so forth. Equally fortunately, I'd been keeping two of every gem I found just in case they were necessary for something more than selling for coins. If that latter bit hadn't been true, I might have been in a "walking dead" situation. I'm not sure if gems are found anywhere but treasure chests (which don't respawn), and I only found emeralds in Rinora itself.

     

They're all Pools of Greed as far as I'm concerned.

     

There were only two difficult battles in the entire dungeon. The first was an ambush in a very narrow corridor on Level 9. The creatures that attacked were all blight-somethings (blightcats, blightapes, etc.), each of which has a special ability. Blightcats can cast spells, for instance, and blightmen are technically undead and require "Restsoul" to finish them off. Multiple blight creatures can cause illness. The bigger problem was that they filled every available space, so there was no way for me to get my stronger fighters to the vanguard with "Jump." (Even if you kill a creature, there has to be a free square to shove its body out of the way for you to jump to its former square.) Even with all these disadvantages, I got through it without losing anyone, so it wasn't really hard.
    

Credit to the enemies: this was a good place for an ambush.

    

The second battle was in the penultimate room on Level 10, and it was hard because the game violated its usual rules about the distribution of enemies. Not only were there more than usual, there were a bunch of them on my side of the room!

   

Worse, they were almost all necromants. They're spellcasters who like to target a single character, blast away his shield, and kill him with offensive spells. They have shields at 100 themselves and generally can't be affected by offensive magic. They're undead, so they require "Restsoul" to fully kill or they just get up the next round. And they had a kothspawn with them, who in addition to making copies of himself can cast "Forget" on spellcasters, wiping out all of their copies of whatever spell they have in memory. This was a particular problem if I was going to have any of them recall "Restsoul" or use "Jump" to get across the battlefield, particularly since Tori's selfishness would prevent Gia and Eneri from re-memorizing those spells.

 

I experimented here with "Zapall," but even nine consecutive castings from three different characters only succeeded in wiping out the necromants' shields, not in actually damaging them. This is one reason why physical attacks in this game are always superior to spells.

      

The offensive magics of the necromants was the biggest threat, and I concentrated on killing and "Restsouling" them as quickly as possible, primarily by swallowing Gonshis every round. But I made sure I un-memorized any active spell before the last action of the round so the kothspawn couldn't zap me. I lost Garz and had to resurrect him but otherwise made it through the battle. Think about that: The hardest battle in the game resulted in the loss of exactly one character.

    

Late in the battle.

     

The game's final battle was pathetic by contrast. It involved four blightlords, one kothspawn, and one necromant. Blightlords basically have the same strengths as necromants, but they're not undead, so they're easier to kill. They can cast "Heal," but that only helps them if you don't kill them quickly. I entered the room buffed with Gonshis, Mirgets, and "Sharpen." I immediately had Tori "Jump" Gia, Eneri, and Sakar into melee range, and those three characters killed every enemy before any of them even had a chance to act.

     

Just for fun, I tried to have Gia "Rally" the party for the final battle and it worked.

     

When the battle was over, it was a bit unclear what to do. There was no exit from the room. I took another circuit through the level and found no other places to visit. I finally realized that this nondescript room was the place that I had to perform the candle ritual. You'd think there would at least be a dais or something.

     

The final ritual was much like in the original Magic Candle except there was no risk of unleashing a demon if I screwed something up. I simply followed the instructions given by the Solnicon: My orc, elf, halfling, and dwarf each stood in their appropriate positions around a central square. (I used the center square of the room, but I suspect anywhere would have done.) Garz dropped the mold and said a magic word; Sakar applied the wax and said a magic word; Tori stuck in the wick and said a magic word; Tuff used the flint to light it and said a magic word; and Gia said a final magic word. 

     

Yay!

     

I haven't done this for a while, but I recorded the ritual and final screens. I wish I'd thought to get the final battle in there, too. Oh, well. Next time.

     

      

After the ritual, a series of well-drawn special screens brought the game to an end. The Blight recedes; the party returns to Kabelo to learn that King Rebnard has finally completed his conquest of Gurtex (which started in the last game). Rebnard is now "sailing to the aid of the Solian lands!" the game says excitedly, as if we hadn't just solved all their problems. Orcs, humans, elves, halflings, dwarves, and goblins sign a treaty of eternal friendship. Gia wonders if we've really conquered the blightlords or just driven them off temporarily. I think if there had been a Magic Candle IV, it should have been about the fleeing blightlords landing on Deruvia and freeing Dreax from his candle.

     

"To protect the Solian lands with the Magic Candle, you need a representative from each of the Solian races. Except the goblins. #$&@ them." -- Author of the Solnicon.

        

As usual, there are good elements here that were somewhat bollixed in implementation. Take the two puzzles--the pools and the creation of the candle. Both of them should have been real puzzles, where we had to figure out the process through hints and clues and logic, rather than having them just handed to us by the game's version of Wikipedia. And the lack of challenging combat, including extremely limited utility for most of the spells, is going to be a sore point in the final entry. The bright side is that it did something different. There's always something to be said about innovation for its own sake, and The Magic Candle series has been more innovative than most.

   

Final time: 36 hours