Might and Magic 3
Reviewed by Michael LoCascio
Role-playing games have changed a lot over the last decade.
Obviously, today's RPGs are far more impressive visually
than the titles that appeared on older systems, and they
usually feature complex, emotional, mature storylines as
opposed to the typical 'warrior rescues the princess' plot
that was so common a few years ago. On the other hand, they
are typically quite linear in their game play, while 8-bit
titles like Ultima Exodus allowed you to explore their
expansive worlds at your leisure. I've really enjoyed most
of the role-playing games that have appeared for the PSX,
particularly Grandia and Star Ocean: The Second Story.
However, as good as they are, they basically follow a very
typical pattern: journey from town to maze to another town
to another maze.. until you finally meet up with the final
boss and complete your mission. Thanks to the superb plots
and character development featured in these titles, I'm
usually quite satisfied with them, but I can't help but
occasionally yearn for the days when role-playing games
allowed you to actually immerse yourself in a fantasy world
and discover secrets by conducting your own independent
exploration. Might and Magic III - Isles of Terra is one
such RPG that grants you complete freedom to roam its world
in whatever way that you desire, instead of dragging you
along a pre-determined sequence of events. Be warned,
however, that Isles of Terra will present you with an
incredibly daunting challenge, one that players who have
grown accustomed to the linear style of PSX titles will
likely find tedious and overwhelming.
Your adventure will begin in the town of Fountain Head; from
there, it's completely up to you to figure out where to go
and what to do. As a matter of fact, upon starting the game
you'll be totally oblivious to what your ultimate goal in
Might and Magic III will actually be. Suffice it to say that
there is a big bad villain wrecking havoc in the world - but
you won't have to concern yourself with him for a very long time.
Terra consists of five main islands, and scattered about on
these islands are towns, castles, caverns, dungeons, and
pyramids. While there are many secrets to be discovered as
you tread through Terra's overworld, it won't take too long
for you to realize that this fantasy world is absolutely
enormous, and that other methods of travel besides walking
must be found if you are to advance through the game.
Thankfully, there are a few ways that you can get your party
from one place to another in this land, among them being the
mirrors that can be found in each town. There is a
particular password that pertains to each town; should you
discover the password and announce it while facing one of
these mirrors, you will be transported to that particular
town. Entering these passwords with the Turbografx control
pad can get to be a nuisance, but believe me, it beats walking any time.
Might and Magic III is played from a first-person
perspective. At the very bottom of the screen are portraits
of the six characters that your party is comprised of. Each
character will make certain facial expressions that denote
their current condition. Beneath each portrait are the
characters' life meters. Rather than gradually being
depleted, these meters will change color as your characters'
health declines. The only way to determine exactly how many
hit points each character has is by bringing up a menu
screen. While a portion of the right side of your screen
will usually contain a map that fills in as you travel, you
can replace the map with an options menu whenever you so
desire to.
Options are aplenty when determining what types of
characters your party will be made up of at the beginning of
the game. Might and Magic III offers you a solid group of
pre-set warriors that you can use should you wish to jump
right into the adventure, but for the more advanced players
the game allows you to create your own characters. There are
five races to choose from when creating a character: Humans,
Elves, Dwarves, Half-Orcs and Gnomes. Each race is marked by
specific strengths and weaknesses; for instance, dwarves are
wonderful in hand-to-hand combat and have the unique ability
to tell when danger is looming, but they have no absolutely
no talent when it comes to the art of magic.
Along with race, you can decide what class each of your
characters will belong to. There are ten different classes
to choose from: Archers, Paladins, Rangers, Druids, Clerics,
Sorcerors, Barbarians, Knights, Ninjas and Robbers. It is
imperative that you create a party that is well-balanced;
prudent gamers will put together a group that is led by
strong, skilled fighters, along with clever sorcerors and a
wily thief who will contribute their unique abilities during
the quest.
There are dozens upon dozens of items that can discovered in
Isles of Terra, and certain items can only be used by
particular classes. Outfitting my party was quite enjoyable;
there's such a wide selection of items to choose from that
experimentation is really the only way to determine which
equipment works optimally for which characters. Besides the
fact that it is continually necessary to wade through menu
after menu, I had plenty of fun trading weapons and items
among the members of my party and turning them all into
fearsome fighting machines.
You won't be limited to just using the six warriors that you
choose at the beginning of the game; you can also hire up to
two hirelings at the inns in each town, meaning that your
party can consist of up to eight members at any one time.
Hirelings will demand pay for their services, however, and
as they become more powerful, their asking price will go up.
However, you never have the opportunity to witness any
interaction between the members of your party. Considering
that most of the people you come across in the game are
rather strange and only look out for themselves, Might and
Magic III can feel very lonely at times. It would have been
nice to get to know the folks that make up your little
fellowship, but instead, the game focuses solely on their
quest. This is one game that takes itself very seriously,
which is rather unfortunate, because it is sorely lacking in
feeling and emotion.
Besides the inn, there are a number of different
institutions that you can pay a visit to while you're
exploring a town. There are the standard weapon shops that
pop up in most every town in any RPG, except that the guys
who run these shops aren't your typical bumbling fools who
repeat the same line every time you speak with them. You can
actually ask these helpful little folks to examine items
that you may have discovered and have them determine if the
items in question have any special, hidden powers. For the
magic-users in your party, there are guilds which you can
visit and purchase spells from. You will have to earn
membership to each guild before they will sell to you,
however. You can also have a few drinks and overhear a few
secrets at the taverns, heal yourself at the temples, or
store some surplus cash in the banks. Unlike most
role-playing games, however, the towns in Might and Magic
III are usually full of evildoers that must be demolished
before you can really feel at ease while strolling about the cities.
Along with the towns, there are huge, impressive castles
that you can visit. Three of the castles are run by kings
who ask a specific favor of you: they all desire that you
bring them the Power Orbs that can be found scattered
throughout the land. Each king belongs to a different
alignment, and naturally, they all oppose one another. It's
up to you to decide which king you wish to help. Bear in
mind, however, that you must give one of the kings at least
ten Orbs before you will be able to complete your quest.
The mazes and dungeons in Might and Magic III are terribly
difficult affairs that typically require you to either solve
a riddle, perform a certain task, or fight off some
incredibly powerful opponents. The rewards that can be
discovered in these dark, dank corridors are well worth the
effort that it takes to attain them, but you had better make
sure that the members of your party are already in
possession of adequate weaponry and have garnered a great
deal of experience points prior to entering the game's
dungeons. The riddles are abstract and ridiculously
difficult; as much as I hate cheating, I have to confess
that I'm quite happy that NEC decided to include many of the
answers to these puzzles in the game's instruction manual.
Even if you aren't asked to solve some type of brain teaser,
you'll be forced to fight the elite members of the enemy's
forces, among which are Cyclopes, Liches, Minotaurs, and all
sorts of other frightening monstrosities.
Before you take on some of the more difficult challenges
that the game has to offer, you'd be wise to obtain numerous
special skills for the members of your party. Some
characters will already possess a few skills as soon as you
begin the game, but others will need to acquire skills along
the way. Among the skills that you can obtain are
map-making, swimming, and path finding. Skills can not only
come in handy for traveling and navigation, but some of them
are also crucial to solving particular puzzles that arise
during the adventure.
The key to the game lies in the mysterious pyramids that can
be spotted at certain locations throughout the adventure.
Enter these buildings to discover the greatest challenges
that Might and Magic III has to offer - along with its most
crucial secrets. Without giving too much away, when entering
a pyramid you had better be prepared to face advanced types
of machinery and weaponry that would seem quite out of place
in any of the game's other environs.
Combat is quite interesting in this game, in that you can
attack your enemies from a distance (as can they attack
you). In most first-person RPGs, it can seem as if you have
plenty of wide open space ahead of you, only for an enemy to
suddenly appear out of no where. That won't happen in this
game; you can spot your enemies from far away, and should
you possess the appropriate weaponry or magic spells, you
can kill them off before they even come close to you.
The graphics in Might and Magic III are fairly decent; the
enemies are animated and contain a healthy amount of detail.
The music is excellent, thanks in part to powerful,
throbbing drums. The sound effects are not only bad,
however, but they can also be downright odd at times. There
are sure to be a few instances where you hear a strange
sound and think to yourself, 'What in the world was that?'
One major reason why many people aren't too fond of the
Might and Magic games is that there is simply too much to
keep track of during the course of the adventures, and
nothing at all comes easy. For instance, acquiring
experience points isn't enough to move up a level; you'll
have to pay a visit to the training grounds that can be
found in each town and give up some hard-earned gold before
the game will give in and allow your characters to advance
in levels. Also, you'll need to constantly keep an eye on
your party's food supply, an element that is typically left
out of RPGs because it is such a nuisance. And if you didn't
have enough problems already, the game keeps track of your
characters' ages, and it's possible to die of old age. Never
mind the fact that your characters are prone to getting
drunk, going insane, and even falling in love. This is
obviously one very complex video game.
There are really only two types of people whom I would
recommend Might and Magic III to: those who fondly recall
the days of non-linear RPGs like Ultima Exodus, and those
who feel that they've mastered the current crop of
role-playing games and are looking for a new challenge. If
you fall into one of those two categories, there's a very
good chance that you'll love this game (like me). If not,
then you'd probably be better off sticking with PSX games.
Overall: 8 out of 10
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