Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny

So, right to the point. Yes, I do recommend Realms of Arkania, but with a number of caveats. Realms of Arkania is definitely "budget," definitely indie, and most definitely rough around the edges in places. RoA still has a couple of UI glitches, and isn't always pretty to look at. The English voice acting is atrocious. However, the game-stopping bugs present at launch have been fixed. The visuals are adequate; not great, but not terrible. The voice acting, luckily, can be disabled. As for gameplay, RoA is almost more of a management sim than a typical RPG. I actually appreciate that. The preparation you have to put into traveling during the winter months is possibly more important than how well-equipped your party is for combat. You just don't see certain kinds of brutal gameplay concepts (exposure, thirst & starvation, exhaustion, sickness & disease) in these kinds of games anymore.

I'm not gonna talk too much about Realms of Arkania as a game. People who don't know the original ROA should read about it somewhere. I'm just gonna say this: its a WRPG where you have to THINK. Its a REAL RPG, where your skills are as much important inside battles AND outside. I'm here to talk about this reboot only, assuming everyone here knows ROA. First of all, this game was released in a very incomplete state when it came to STEAM. Almost unplayable, actually. The guys patched it intensivelly after that, but at that point, the game got some of the worst reviews ever (as bad as Big Rigs!!). The thing is: after all the patching, the game became QUITE playable... and very fun to play. But people didn't gave it a chance. Just like the original ROA, your party has TONS of skills that are used in battles and on the field. This is what I always liked about ROA, and its all here. Just li

I've never before seen a developer work so hard into making a poor product shine. That alone makes this title worthy of picking up. I have been playing pen and paper RPGs for over 30 years and computer RPGs since the late 80s, so I suppose I am more forgiving on graphics quality than some. What I fiend for in games are interesting combat systems and diverse skills. So far, this title doesn't disappoint. I feel that watching my fledgling characters grow as the adventure progresses will be quite gratifying in this title. I can't wait to get into some serious questing. One thing I still can't stand in this game is the English language voice acting. They need some serious help in the voiceover depatment. Monotonous doesn't even begin to describe the voice work, though it may be an ESL issue. Regardless, this is a small quibble about a product that has been considerably improved over the

NOTE: For 1.34(More Then A Remake) a short addition appended below this review. 1.33 review(To Cross the Borders) appended below this review. (Delaying the Ork Invasion is 1.32 review) *****Delaying the Ork Invasion***** Why I chose this title? Because at the release of this game, we all were leaning towards the thoughts that the game was doomed and orks would conquer the Northlands without our intervention. The game was a mess of bugs and a graphical parody to a degree where NPCs and surroundings would make you feel like in a zombie apocalypse version of Northlands. And furthermore the game used to lack many spells, mechanics and had several other gamebreakers which is probably the reason turned off many people. But...there is always a "but"...and this time it is a good "but". The game evolved...while I am telling you its evolved it is in the level of a pokemon evolution where you wo

After a real bad release this game had one of the strongest comebacks thanks to all the hardwork the developers put into trying to sort out their mistakes at release time.The game is worth the money and you are going to enjoy it .