Have any of you played Might & Magic IX?

[rusty_shackleford]

Tell me about it.

[Cedric]

9? Well, it's widely considered the worst. I didn't finish it. It's very ugly and makes very little sense. That said, for the time I did play it, it did tickle the RPG receptors in my brain.

Imagine Wizards & Warriors, but then filter it so that it becomes more broken, buggy, ugly, nonsensical and unfinished and I think you'll get the idea.

[Sweeper]

The switch to 3D was a hellish era for RPGs.

[Ratcatcher]

I told you multiple times how it's the best title in the serie! How could I forget such locations as the Beet Hoven? The spectacular geese dungeon?

And let's not forget such groundbreaking innovations as the End-Game lever. In the final dungeon, you reach it, pull it and the game ends.

I **** you not, the last action you take in game is pulling a lever. Then it's all cinematics. Spoiler (lolwut?) warning. Timestamped:

[Tweed]

I demand a full list of rpgs that end by pushing a button or pulling a lever.

[J1M]

I demand a full list of rpgs that end by pushing a button or pulling a lever.

Mass Effect trilogy
Deus Ex and its sequels

[wishbonetail]

Here's some write-up i did on the...other..site. It's mostly a comparison with MM6-8.
First things first, it has at most half of the content as previous 3do's games. Empty indoors, empty outdoors, minimum objects, minimum enemies, minimum environmental interactions. It is BUTT-UGLY, textures much worse that in MM6, 3d models are "baby's first 3dmax effort", most music tracks are short and annoying.
SO, with that out of the way now specifics:
- My biggest gripe. No mini map with wizard's eye and the big map is uninformative. This means your can't point on a dwelling an see it's title.
- Trainers are now loitering around the streets and you cannot see NPC's name until you click on him, which in combination with ****** map warrants a pretty frustrating combing of the layout. Even MM2 was easier in that regard. People who couldn't find Caius Cosades should feel right at home here.
- Interface is uninformative. Lack of feddback on what status effects your chars have or what status effects they cast on enemies. Come to think of it, i dont remember statuses, other than desease, my party were suffering from and i didn't care about resistances whatsoever. Maybe they simply not working.
- Some spells are bugged. Torchlight not working and Divine intervention is a one huge exploit. Also, most of the magic, other than buff, seemed worthless.
- Obvious effort from devs to tone down the fun. You cannot outrun enemies without Fleet feet spell and you get most of the loot from bodies, not chests. Also, no waterwalk, no levitation, no jump. It seems devs wanted for player to follow the specific setup and not to have fun. What is this? Oblivion?
- It seems turn based mode is bugged as you will take far less hits in realtime. Or maybe im imagining things.
- Party's Inventories are huge. Makes me wondering, why they didn't implement one general inventory.
- No rations and fatigue. Ingame dialogs suggest there should be rations and fatigue.
- You can hire up to 3 NPCs but their stats are anemic and, by the midgame, you'll just be wasting time during their turns.
- Magic system is reshuffled. Just where is my fireball? I mean elemental schools were the staple of all MMs and HoMMs. Getting rid of them makes it less of a MM.
- Can't attack NPCs. Decline.
Okay, other than that it's still MM. Munchkinism, powerleveling, partybuilding, promotions, are still incredibly satisfying, as in all MM games, and head and shoulders above anything they **** out nowadays.
PS Latest gog installer includes unofficial patch, so the game is surprisingly bug-free.
PPs Still better than Skyrim.

[wishbonetail]

Oh, and I wanted to add, as game is somewhat nordic-themed I found it fitting to play it with OST from Norhtern Journey. It makes all the difference.