Yup, I was mostly a Nintendo kid growing up and loved my GBCs, GBAs, and DSs, but the PSP was the perfect handheld. Truly a magnificent piece of hardware. Its value proposition hasn’t been beat until the Steam Deck. It hit at that perfect moment when technology and the Internet intersected into the mainstream and were affordable.
A fantastic gaming machine, but also functional for general computing, not to mention that it was a great media player. I remember browsing the Internet frequently, watching movies, using it as an mp3 player, emulating my favorite classic Nintendo games. The homebrew scene was insanely vibrant. I certainly don’t miss the Memory Stick format though. I’m glad that died.
I'm happy with playing the Game Boy Color versions of the games (and King's Bounty on Gen/MD). Though I have to admit that Enroth is my least favorite M&M world. I still love Xeen.
Was Xeen the M&M setting with the explicit science-fantasy inclination? I’ve never played any of the straight RPGs, but I’ve trundled through enough wikis to discover some bonkers concepts in those games. Like, one ends with your party fighting through a dungeon only to discover that the dungeon is actually a buried space ship or something like that?
Yup, it's very clearly science-fantasy. Not just a buried space ship (there's another one in either 6 or 7 on Enroth). Xeen is a flat world with two sides - The Clouds and the Darkside. It was launched by the Ancients and there are two AIs / robots who are the real power players in the plot, even though they aren't as prominent.
Stopped playing when they left HOMM6 a buggy ruin. Inferno’s core racial ability didn’t even work at the beginning. And it took a while for them to patch that fix, IIRC. I still get irked seeing the list of bugs left they’ll never fix.
Ubisoft hasn’t gotten a single dime from me since, and likely won’t ever again.
Me personally the franchise peaked at HOMM5 Tribes of the East. Played a lot of that earlier this year again. Still need to give the 5.5 mod a try.
It’s interesting you are disappointed in the art style - it makes more sense, though, if you haven’t played HOMM3. Because the map art style and layout feels very HOMM3, moreso than the other 3D modernization attempt in HOMM5 (which I hated). My guess is you would have really enjoyed HOMM3, if this one plays how it looks.
Thanks for putting this on my radar, it really looks like a return to the HOMM gameplay I enjoyed.
I am certain that I would love HoMM3, but it’s just one of those games that I’ve never gotten around to sampling. As a kid, it was purely an access thing, but, as an adult, it’s a case of wanting that sweet nostalgia sauce drizzled over the meat and potatoes HoMM gameplay. Therefore, when the SRPG urge strikes, I find myself reaching for 2. I’ve heard nothing but good things about 3 though, so perhaps it’s high time to advance a little. Besides, I can only betray Roland for that sweet Archibussy so many times before it gets a little old.
My reservations about the art style aside, I think fans of the series would do well to check out the demo. I don’t pretend to be an expert, but, the price is right, and the gameplay feels very solid to me.
I checked out their FAQ, and it seems like the HoMM3 version of the fheroes2 project (or maybe vice versa, I’m not sure which came first).
I noticed that one of the features of VCMI was a totally reworked AI. Do you have insight into how that feels vs base game AI? A minor concern I have about these sort of fan projects is that the contributors tend to be among the most passionate and knowledgeable fans of the base game around, and their tweaks are balanced around that level of game knowledge.
If you enjoyed this game, you’ll really like shadow of war. It expands on a lot of the systems introduced in mordor and I really enjoy the nemesis system in that game, especially at higher difficulties.
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