April: Legends of Amberland: The Forgotten Crown

[SpellSword]

You don't think a Dwarven Battlesmith is worth it?

I don't. TLDR; the buffs are deceptively bad, and his individual damage is paltry compared to true Fighters.

The partywide +.1 to physical damage multiplier (not an actual multiplicative x10% as the spell description would have you believe) is paltry on Hard+, and bringing along another Warrior to wail on a mob for hundreds of damage in the Battlesmith's place (remember, Battlesmiths suffer a massive opportunity cost in terms of individual damage, due to receiving a far smaller damage per level scale) simply makes more sense. The armor buff is a decent complement to the Wizard's armor buff early game, but after that it's negligible. In exchange they get access to some fire DDs that they will in practice never make use of, due to all their mana going to buff casts. If you focus on a Battlesmith's Knowledge/Willpower to scale his spellcasting, he'll be even worse as a fighter and need to be in the rear/flanks - in which case, you might as well just have brought another Wizard.

My takeaway from the hybrids, and especially the racial unique classes, is: very very cool idea and the execution goes in the right direction, but falls far short of the mark in terms of usefulness/power/balance. Racial classes pay heavily for their perks, and the perks themselves just aren't worth what's lost.

My sole possible exception is the Sage. Sage gets access to all Wizard nukes, and a second nuker is very nice in many situations. Along with this they get Mass Power Heal and some buffs. But it's a tough road to get there, and I don't believe they get Power Heal, so you're banking on a very late game before they really come into their own.

My first win had a Battlesmith, and he just never pulled his weight. He was a subpar fighter who struggled to get the mana necessary to cast his buffs.

Sharpness may not be that great but what about using the Battlesmith's "Reinforced Armor" in combination with "Magic Shield" and "Vitality" to gain +7 armor for the party?

[WhiteShark]

Sharpness may not be that great but what about using the Battlesmith's "Reinforced Armor" in combination with "Magic Shield" and "Vitality" to gain +7 armor for the party?

Testing on my level 50 mountain dwarf warrior:

• Armor 18: -31 to -63 (average -47)
• Armor 15: -26 to -52 (average -39)

+3 armor is basically worthless.

[rusty_shackleford]

The movement between tiles without any transition makes me feel a bit queasy tbh.

[WhiteShark]

The movement between tiles without any transition makes me feel a bit queasy tbh.

That didn't really bother me, but I did find it confusing in cases where I would turn and nothing in the viewport would change, making me unsure whether I had turned at all.

[rusty_shackleford]

Having hotkeys for abilities would be nice.
Also, taking a ranger with me felt like a mistake rather than another fighter or mage. Oh well. Would have been cool if it affected mapping or something.

[Anon]

I haven't been hating the ranger tbh, I like the aspect of having somebody who's tanky enough to tank abuse in the flanks, while at the same time being useful in plenty situations (if against somebody resistant against physical damage, they'll deal considerable magic damage; if against somebody resistant against magic, they'll deal good physical damage).

For reference though, I'm in the desert. Guess it can be considered midgame?

[rusty_shackleford]

also, need a way to take notes ingame

distance to check for rest doesn't include line of sight, mistake imo

[Anon]

also, need a way to take notes ingame

distance to check for rest doesn't include line of sight, mistake imo

Map markers would've been even better

[rusty_shackleford]

combat feels too 'simple' — no consumables, can't block, etc.,

I'm hoping the sequel does better in this part. I don't want to sound overly negative, it's a good game for a first entry.

[rusty_shackleford]

also, need a way to take notes ingame

distance to check for rest doesn't include line of sight, mistake imo

Map markers would've been even better

Map markers serve something else, and are also useful, yes. I like to leave a lot of notes when I play rpgs, having it with the game itself rather than an external text file helps.

[Rand]

combat feels too 'simple' — no consumables, can't block, etc.,

I'm hoping the sequel does better in this part. I don't want to sound overly negative, it's a good game for a first entry.

There are a couple of extra things you can do in combat, as a class ability usable once per rest, and a slightly different resistance system, but it's otherwise identical.

[Anon]

Okay so I've figured out I've been missing the griffin this whole time because I was refusing to pay 100 gold for the starting boat because I thought it was meant only to bypass the bridge without fighting the troll. Oops

[Xenich]

combat feels too 'simple' — no consumables, can't block, etc.,

I'm hoping the sequel does better in this part. I don't want to sound overly negative, it's a good game for a first entry.

Exactly, I hope to see him continue on with each new game, building on the previous one. Would be interesting to see him reach the feature level of M&M and then continue to expand into new concepts, maybe even branching some of the Wizardry features into it as well.

[Rand]

@rusty_shackleford Can I please have the Legends of Amberland badge or do I have to finish the game again?

This was from my first playthrough late last year:

[Rand]

This is puzzling me. Where did you find 8 more monsters to fight than I did?

[WhiteShark]

This is puzzling me. Where did you find 8 more monsters to fight than I did?

No idea. There are too many optional dungeons and monsters roaming the map for me to even guess. I was pretty thorough.

[Rand]

This is puzzling me. Where did you find 8 more monsters to fight than I did?

No idea. There are too many optional dungeons and monsters roaming the map for me to even guess. I was pretty thorough.

It was basically a rhetorical question, but yeah, that's weird. I thought I got everything, but I seem to have missed some high XP targets.

[WhiteShark]

I seem to have missed some high XP targets.

Did you break the two mirrors behind the sealed doors in the ogre forts after getting the door unsealer? Those were worth 100k xp each.

[Chris Kozmik]

Having hotkeys for abilities would be nice.

Hmm, abilities have a hotkey, like all buttons (the game can be fully played by keyboard alone, or gamepad, if one desires). Or you meant a way to use abilities outside of combat?

also, need a way to take notes ingame

distance to check for rest doesn't include line of sight, mistake imo

Map Notes were implemented in the sequel, I plan to backport those to the first LoA later.

also, need a way to take notes ingame

distance to check for rest doesn't include line of sight, mistake imo

Map markers would've been even better

As above (planned to be backported to LoA later).

[rusty_shackleford]

Hmm, abilities have a hotkey, like all buttons (the game can be fully played by keyboard alone, or gamepad, if one desires). Or you meant a way to use abilities outside of combat?

I mainly meant it for spells in combat. I've messed up more than a few times by hitting the repeat-last-action key, and in any tougher fight I find myself having to open the spellbook to pick spells. Being able to bind spells to hotkeys would be useful.
Or does this already exist and I missed it?

[WhiteShark]

I mainly meant it for spells in combat. I've messed up more than a few times by hitting the repeat-last-action key, and in any tougher fight I find myself having to open the spellbook to pick spells. Being able to bind spells to hotkeys would be useful.
Or does this already exist and I missed it?

I don't think there is. 'c' will repeat the last spell cast but you still have to open the spellbook to pick a new one. Being able to put them on number keys would have been nice.

Or you meant a way to use abilities outside of combat?

That would have been nice, too. I don't know if it was a balance consideration, but I didn't see much reason to make stuff like the Bard and Healer abilities combat-only.

[Dorateen]

If we are sharing Victory screens, here is from when I completed the game in 2019 version 1.



I know there were a ton of class and balance changes made in subsequent updates since I played. It's still a fun open-world exploration adventure.

[SpellSword]

Victory!

► Ending Screen Spoilers

► A Few Random Thoughts

The final boss didn't feel like a final boss.

Battlesmiths make poor warriors.

Cloaks of Displacement are worth their weight in crystals.

The entire game is strangely relaxing to play.

Overall Game Rating For Legends of Amberland: The Forgotten Crown:


There was more I liked about this one than things that I didn't and I'm looking forward to playing the sequel Legends of Amberland II: The Song of Trees.

This is puzzling me. Where did you find 8 more monsters to fight than I did?

Some could be lurking in the Frost Labyrinth. That place is huge and I get the feeling that if any monster went down a corridor you'd already checked it would easily never be found.

[Anon]

GG my fellas

► Show Spoiler

The difference between knight and warrior was barely unnoticeable for me, they were effectively the same thing by the end of the game

First off, the game is pretty easy, you can win with pretty much any party combination. Though the utility of having a wizard + bard + healer will certainly make the game a lot more simple.

As mentioned previously I didn't hate the ranger. Before lvl 30 they held a nice position in the flank, holding by themselves while being able to both attack with spells with similar dpr as a wizard or attack in melee, always being useful in battle, while either the warriors or the wizard were useless depending on the context. However, after lvl 30 the power spike other wizard classes get is so huge that ranger is completely knocked out of the park and is never able to catch up. By the end of the game the melee weapons are so good that the ranger just becomes a worse warrior. So yeah I think a 2nd bard would be way stronger than a ranger.

Battlesmith is similar to ranger, but they get good AOE and some buffs that aren't significant but better than nothing. Also, being dwarves, they are significantly more tanky than rangers. Rangers have better single target spells though, but they fall off after lvl 30. After that point, the battlesmith was way more useful.

Bards are extremely useful though, their buffs are really great, and are almost as good as a healer at single target healing, while still being able to hold the flanks.

Sages are amazing though, until the end of the game they are the uncontested biggest damage dealers. Though they become useless in some fights against enemies resistant to all types of spells.

As mentioned, the final fight is quite baffling. The black dragon is the true final fight in my eyes.

I'd rate the game a 3/5. Got me distracted some good hours and I played it until the end. Not worth replaying though, as it'll be pretty much the same experience.

[Kalarion]

I didn't bother with the Eye of Morgol on the island or the Dreadful Dungeon of Doom because fuck that. I did everything else, including the Black Dragon.

OK, so at least on Hard, Wizards and Sages (especially Sages) still absolutely crush 99% of the game. The only time they struggle are on the highest level Warlocks, the dragons, Eyes of Morgol and the Dark Knight. And even on those (including the Black Dragon), they can generally do OK, they just don't do 2,000 damage in a single hit like normal

My dorfs did great damage towards end game, when Flails of Slaying and Swords of Heroes came online. Once I got the final Master Craftsman and access to Grand Flails of Slaying they were rockets, going over 1K per hit on crits. But they could only beat my Wizards in damage when the monster had resistances. Otherwise my Wizard and Sage were slinging 1.5-2K single target hits and 600-1200 AoE like it was nothing. It was great.

[rusty_shackleford]

I didn't bother with the Eye of Morgol on the island or the Dreadful Dungeon of Doom because fuck that.

CHEATER! NO BADGE FOR YOU!

[rusty_shackleford]

@WhiteShark has the highest score so far btw, he managed to barely edge out @Dorateen.

[rusty_shackleford]

Spoiling to not ruin the data, so please do NOT click this if you haven't begun playing yet and aren't at least a couple hours in,
The sample size is small, but it's interesting that nearly all of us picked 'Hard'. I tend to pick one minus the hardest option available when given the choice of multiple difficulties because the hardest is usually overtuned for people who already played, and normal too easy.

[Rand]

I chose "normal" because I believed this tooltip:


And by the time I realized it was too easy, I was unwilling to start over.
I would now recommend hard as the best level to play, but am still unhappy with the doubled prices at that level.

[Anon]

At the end enemies become huge hp sponges and it gets quite annoying though. Normal is better if you just want to be done with the game (which I did towards the end).