Another Saturday, another leap back in video game history to ponder how far we've come. I recently wrote an essay-ish blog on the evolution of video games, from the misty past of 1992 from which today's game hails to the present day, and how in the midst of all the technological advancements (and the many new genres and recurring game features that were born from same) there's been an undercurrent of refining the genres we already have, or revisiting them years after their day in the sun as a form of nostalgic retreat. Invariably, whenever these older models are improved upon, it's done so in a way that seems to prioritize the user experience. More opportunities to save without penalty, in-game maps, fast travel, instant restarts, etc.

We've seen a few cases of this already with this feature alone. Dungeon Master helped revitalize the hoary first-person dungeon crawler by switching the dynamic to a tense real-time environment - there were still turn-based dungeon crawlers after this, of course, as juggernauts like Wizardry and Might & Magic continued to flourish, but the branching path of this genre led to big name games like Eye of the Beholder and Lands of Lore: Throne of Chaos which exist because of Dungeon Master (not to mention throwbacks like Legend of Grimrock, which I also discussed in the above essay). There's also the god sims Populous and Mega Lo Mania, who took a very staid and contemplative strategy-simulation genre and simplified in such a way that took none of its edge off.

Anyway, with today's game we take a look at how CRPGs used to be. More first-person dungeon-crawling shenanigans, of a sort, but very much a change of scenery. Literally, as the game in question spends almost all of its time in outdoors environments: almost unheard of in 1992. If you've been following my recent reviews, open-air environments was also one of the big changes made with Legend of Grimrock 2 so that's largely what inspired today's choice of game. (Honestly, though, as far as big gameplay changes go it seems a bit... surface-level.) (Jokes.)

Ishar: Legend of the Fortress

Ishar: Legend of the Fortress is the first part of a trilogy - which essentially meant that it was set in the same universe and you could import your characters from game to game - and the successor to Silmarils's earlier CRPG Crystals of Arborea. Silmarils, incidentally, is a French company named after a Middle-earth artifact, so you know they're legit when it comes to developing CRPGs. I might be returning to them a few times with this feature, because they made a lot of weird and interesting (though not necessarily "good") content in their time. Besides the aforementioned focus on outdoors environments, Ishar's very much a story-driven game in which you're following a series of hints and roaming around the countryside to achieve various goals with a little less stress on the whole "loot and kill" dynamic.

It's also got some crazy proto-Souls mechanics seemingly designed to spite new players, though maybe it's simply meant to "test" them. Games of this era respect longevity as a virtue, but that usually means having to restart because you made a bad decision or two that you couldn't possibly have known were such. For instance, you can recruit and dismiss characters as you find them - there's no create a character system, not even for the protagonist - but they'll in-fight a lot depending on their race and disposition, leading even to murder and running off in the middle of the night with half the party's valuables. Some Yurt the Silent Chief shit. Money's also in high demand everywhere you go (you even need it to save the game) and the two best (or only) ways of earning some is to either hunt random mobs or to recruit characters only to kill them off and keep their starting gold. If I was going to be a dick about the French, I'd say it was a frog-eat-frog world out there.

Whether you're an old person who actually remembers playing these games when they were new or you're someone who has a fondness for the older, more inventive and usually more abstruse style of CRPG, there are essentially three ways you can play these games: A) Deliberately and carefully, keeping maps and writing down hints and directions and being ready to restart from one of a sparing number of save files (remember: each save uses up gold) in order to optimize the playthrough. Be prepared to get instantly killed by accidentally going into a high-level area or some other equally forbidden copse (see below) and adjust accordingly after reloading. B) The second, and more time-efficient way, is to follow some kind of guide or newbie instructions until you get a sense for how everything works and choose to take the training wheels off (at your peril) at some point in the adventure. Many systems tend to be a little too Byzantine for their own good, and this is largely the result of trying to fit in a lot of UI and RPG rules within a framework defined by the technological limitations of the era. The Gold Box games are a good example of this, because at the time they were highly regarded for their fidelity to the D&D ruleset. That meant an interface that had to work within the confines of 8-bit platforms like the C64 and still accurately convey and interpret the many rules and conventions of the complex Advanced Dungeons & Dragons system. As such, while everything you could need to interact with such an elaborate setting was available, it's all behind reams of menus and text. It's a tad intimidating when compared to later games like Baldur's Gate, which had a lot more breathing room for its UI to squeeze in everything in a more naturally intuitive way. (Having a much higher screen resolution helped too.)

There's also option C) Play like an idiot and get massacred because you have no idea where you're going or what you're doing. Invariably, all first playthroughs follow this path. It's generally not conducive to a victorious game state, but it's what you're going to see below (spoilers). I've clearly become a lot more impatient since the 90s...

So that was a disastrous first (well, first in a long while) playthrough, but like many otherwise wasteful washouts I did at least learn a few things: always have a destination in mind, don't wander too far off the beaten path (not that there was any path I could see, but it's a figurative statement), consider farming gold a bit for some better armor and weapons (or just any weapons) and stay the fuck away from trees. My next playthrough will undoubtedly be better, and I barely spent an hour gathering that much before getting wiped. It's to these old games' credit that, should you be attentive and patient enough, you'll eventually conquer them not just because you managed to out-pace your enemies in pure numbers - as with every RPG - but because you also ascertained and mastered the game's oblique quirks along the way. In that sense it can be a doubly rewarding experience, if you can put up with frequent TPKs like the above.

Fortunately, if you're not the type to bang your head against a wall until it either finally gives way or you're too concussed to care, the next two Ishar games are considerably better balanced. No paying for saving the game, for one, and the mechanics get ironed out and start to approach something a bit more logical and intuitive.

The Ishar series is presently available on GOG as a four-game bundle that includes Crystals of Arborea. Just be wary of what you're getting yourself into and they might just be a rewarding old-school experience. Incidentally, if you thought these games are intimidatingly abstract Silmarils would later make Robinson's Requiem: a game that makes the Ishar trilogy seem comparatively sane and straightforward. I'm not sure I have the constitution to play that one for a ST-urday.

(Back to the ST-urday ST-orehouse.)

You lasted slightly longer than I did when I played some Ishar during the early years of me having a GOG account and buying anything vaguely resembling an RPG on sale. I put that and like... the first Realms of Arkania game on the same pedestal of impenetrable European-developed early 90s CRPGs. Even compared to their North American counterparts, there's usually another level of inscrutability that probably isn't helped by the language barrier.

@arbitrarywater: True, having their own house-rules on top of the language barrier is a potent cocktail of what-the-hell-even-ry. It does make me more curious to try out a modern Das Schwarze Auge game like Drakensang or the Arkania reboot though. I'd assume they've been engineered to be a little more accessible to those unfamiliar to the table-top game. You also have to contend with all the customary "weird ERPG jank" that tends to follow games made on this continent, but then that stuff's half their charm.

Of course, the correct answer to "what European RPG should I play next?" is Witcher 3. I just need to scrabble up enough lucre for something to play it on.

I can confirm that the Blackguards games (which use a modified version of Das Schwarze Auge) are solid tactical RPGs, maybe a tad sadistic/trial-and-error and janky. All I can tell you about the Arkania remake was that it was broken as shit when I played it. It's the only time I've ever requested a refund from Steam and they granted it to me without much trouble. I've had Drakensang in my steam library for years too, but I've never played it. From "people who would know" (i.e. RPGcodex types), I'm to understand those games are ok but not fantastic.

I always enjoy reading this series of articles so thanks and keep up the great work.

Great stuff as always, @mento. The deepest I've delved into CRPGs is Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights and the like, so I tremble at the thought of playing these engimatic European offerings. I'm quite happy to let you torture yourself for my enjoyment, though! :P