About This Game Inspiration:The game is a classic western RPG inspired by the games from the 90s. Basically, it’s the kind of game I personally find missing nowadays. Light, fairy tale, epic, heroic and slightly humorous. One that does not take tons of hours to complete or require endless grind to progress. Something that caters to players like me who don’t have 80 hours to beat one game but still like to play and have a sort of nostalgia for the way games were made in the old days.It was inspired by Dungeon Master, Eye of The Beholder 2, Might & Magic 3-5, Crystals of Arborea (a not so well known prequel to Ishar series), GoldBox series (Champions of Krynn, Dark Queen of Krynn, etc).Core Design Choices:1) Classic, 90 degree rotation, FPP, turn-based, tile movement RPG.2) Party-based (7 party members assembled upon start).3) Open world with a big overworld to explore.4) Fast paced combat. Quick travel. Easy inventory management. No grind.5) Light, fairy tale like fantasy, epic story about heroes on a noble quest.Mechanics:Mechanically it’s 100% turn based (so you can go and make tea in the middle of a fight) with grid movement and 90 degree rotation. All this is very fast paced, both combat and travel is really fast. The goal was to cut down the boring parts and flesh out the fun parts.Overall, the mechanics are pretty traditional and straightforward with modern additions like weightless bag combined with equipment encumbrance system.World and Storyline:Storyline is a fairy tale, mythical heroic fantasy. You are the good guys on a quest to fight the forces of evil. The world is non linear, with very few locked areas. You basically can go anywhere and do things in different order. In addition you can choose a different set of quests to finish the game (but those are not mutually exclusive, so you can finish all quests if you like). It’s more world driven than story driven. The priority was to make the world feel alive and let you explore it as you wish than follow a linear list of quests.The game starts when the royal wizard finds out about an old crown that belonged to the royal family for generations. Yet, strangely no one ever heard about the crown and there was just a single mention of it in the royal annals. Upon further study he discovered that there has been cast a powerful spell of forgetfulness of unknown origin which caused everyone in the whole land to forget the crown ever existed. Without knowing who or why someone went to such trouble to conceal the existence of the crown he decided to investigate it. He summoned a party of noble heroes and tasked them with finding whereabouts of the mysterious crown and the origin of the spell. 7aa9394dea Title: Legends of Amberland: The Forgotten CrownGenre: RPG, Early AccessDeveloper:Silver Lemur GamesPublisher:Silver Lemur GamesRelease Date: 26 Mar, 2019 Legends Of Amberland: The Forgotten Crown Download Apunkagames I'm having a blast with this game. If you loved Might and Magic 3-5, you need this, but be warned, it's a wormhole to 3AM!. If you're reading reviews for this game, you probably belong to one of three kinds of old school RPG fans:1. The 'How is this compared to Legend of Grimrock? Why does it look so bad?' - go away, hipster. You're only here to bitc h about the price anyways.2. The kind of old school RPG fan that thinks Wizardry 7 is the best game of all time. You're looking for a hardcore experience that is comparable to, if not better than W7, provides hundreds of hours of content, tons of different mechanics and deep rulesets, so you can spend a whole day just creating the most optimized party possible - which you need to do, because the game is tough as nails. Also you think accessibility is equivalent to dumbing down and everything invented after 1992 - such as a proper inventory screen - is decline. Then this game is probably not for you. Check out Grimoire: Heralds of the Winged Exemplar. This game has all the things you're looking for.3. You have fond memories of games like Might&Magic and Bard's Tale, but you just value your time too much to put up with shi t that was already annoying 25 years ago. If someone claims his product offers 600 hours of gameplay, you're not thrilled, you're repelled. You're looking for a concise experience that still invokes the look and feel of those blobbers from the past. Then look no further - Legends of Amberland is made for you. I belong to this group as well and am having a lot of fun with this title so far. Gonna follow this EA development closely.Here's a few pros and cons of the current state of this game (0.21) that are apparent after 5h playtime:+If you're familiar with Might&Magic 3-5, you will feel at home immediately. LoA captures the spirit of those games very well.+It seems like the dev is listening to feedback and open to suggestions in general.+While there are still missing features and placeholders here and there, I encountered only a few minor bugs; no crashes.+The music is pretty good.+Gameplay is fluid and intuitive.+There are no random encounters and no respawning monsters. Hence, there's no need - or possibility - to grind.+The world seems to be pretty large. There's also a convenient fast-travel system to avoid excessive backtracking.+The combat initiative\/formation system is interesting.-The game is easy. I mean, really easy. It's a bit easier than Might&Magic 3 and a bit harder than the Windows 95 screensaver 'Labyrinth'. There are two more difficulty modes to be implemented, so this will probably change for the better in the future.-It's rather light mechanics-wise. Apart from exploring overworld\/dungeons, looting chests and applying close-combat weapons to monster heads, there's not much to do. There are no typical thievery skills, no social\/noncombat skills, no dialogues. Neither did I encounter an apparent riddle so far. Considering the roadmap, there probably won't be any major changes regarding this, I guess.-All quests so far are variations of 'get me X amount of Y from dungeon Z'.-There are 4 races and 6 classes to choose from. This seems a bit low for 7 character slots. A bunch of new classes have already been anounced, however.All in all, the game still has its issues, which is to be expected in EA. But what I saw is already really promising and if you're a sucker for the old M&Ms like me, you should definitely give this a try.. Okay, First of all, I really adore the concept of this game.I've found myself now getting a hold of the mechanics and starting to understand how to play.Now, I find things with a bit of a gap in the start of the game, meaning that it seems the types of enemies have a large space between their difficulties, but regardless, I've been able to wipe out a fraction of the Orc Horde without any issues.I'd say this game has a balancing issue, mainly with the factor that it has a limited amount of classes to work with, and with that said, those classes are trying to represent everything as a collective.Wizard uses All types of magic and basically overpowers all the other classes that can't heal. Rangers, Knights, and Wizards have been basically the only needed classes.So I think breaking up the Wizard class into more classes, or something like that would be beneficial instead of having one versatile unit.Which brings me to the next thing.Versatility.This game has a lot to offer, but not to the player directly.You have 4 species which each have their own 2 Genders. and then you have 6 classes. One of which doesn't even use its traditional weapon. The Bow and Arrow. I think we know which class that is.Really you don't need to create a whole "ranged weapon" system for it, as it's clear that's not a thing. But for the ranger, you could make a "flak position" mechanic to increase the stat of a ranged weapon depending on their position in the party, which sorta acts like a "Ranged Weapon" Mechanic. That way you can have a traditional Ranger unit.Next, and what I found interesting, Is the portraits of the characters compaired to the NPCs.All of our Portraits for the characters are either hooded, or open faced. But I tend to highly admire the work you've done with the Helmets of the NPCs. (And between you and me, I'd like my knight to look like that guy from the Inn in the town beside the 1st castle). So I guess what i'm saying is, You got the talent to make more then just open face portraits, and variety is everything is a game like this. Let people "Kin" with the characters they create.Another concept. Add more Races. Who said an Orc doesn't want to leave the horde for a better and more "human" life. I swear one of them was asking for directions to the capital before my mage set him on fire.Maybe my Grandpa used to be an adventurer and decided to crawl out of his grave to help me on my travels? I mean sure he's not as fleshy as he used to be, but he still knows how to swing that long sword we put him down under with. Called him the Lizard Chopper back in those days....It never stuck though.Class expansions are always interesting, Necromancer and.....uh..... Well Necromancer. (I didn't really come here with a plan other then to ask for necromancy and undead characters. this rest of this review is kinda a front).Paladins, Warlocks, etc.Plenty of things you could throw in. I'm sure. Probably.Otherwise, it looks quite nice for the time.You could also add Sword skills and such for the Fighter Classes so they arn't just drones. Allowing them to slash multiple monsters at once or add elemental damage to their strikes etc.On another note: I'd suggest buying this to support these guys, Has a lot of potential.Ps: You could also add Steam Workshop. I wouldn't turn down the exessive possibilities people could manage if you did that in a game like this.Portrait editors, Class creators, Race makers, Campaign builders, Map remodelers, creature spawners, Just an idea. Also the choice to start with less characters.When you think you're done, there is always more to do. Especially in midevel fantasy.----Essentially the Balancing issues come from the player being a bit too powerful early on, hence why I suggested the split in classes, to devide access of certain spells and abilities, allowing indeviduality to the characters you use. It might make it harder for the players, but then you can make more abilities specified to that class.. Okay, First of all, I really adore the concept of this game.I've found myself now getting a hold of the mechanics and starting to understand how to play.Now, I find things with a bit of a gap in the start of the game, meaning that it seems the types of enemies have a large space between their difficulties, but regardless, I've been able to wipe out a fraction of the Orc Horde without any issues.I'd say this game has a balancing issue, mainly with the factor that it has a limited amount of classes to work with, and with that said, those classes are trying to represent everything as a collective.Wizard uses All types of magic and basically overpowers all the other classes that can't heal. Rangers, Knights, and Wizards have been basically the only needed classes.So I think breaking up the Wizard class into more classes, or something like that would be beneficial instead of having one versatile unit.Which brings me to the next thing.Versatility.This game has a lot to offer, but not to the player directly.You have 4 species which each have their own 2 Genders. and then you have 6 classes. One of which doesn't even use its traditional weapon. The Bow and Arrow. I think we know which class that is.Really you don't need to create a whole "ranged weapon" system for it, as it's clear that's not a thing. But for the ranger, you could make a "flak position" mechanic to increase the stat of a ranged weapon depending on their position in the party, which sorta acts like a "Ranged Weapon" Mechanic. That way you can have a traditional Ranger unit.Next, and what I found interesting, Is the portraits of the characters compaired to the NPCs.All of our Portraits for the characters are either hooded, or open faced. But I tend to highly admire the work you've done with the Helmets of the NPCs. (And between you and me, I'd like my knight to look like that guy from the Inn in the town beside the 1st castle). So I guess what i'm saying is, You got the talent to make more then just open face portraits, and variety is everything is a game like this. Let people "Kin" with the characters they create.Another concept. Add more Races. Who said an Orc doesn't want to leave the horde for a better and more "human" life. I swear one of them was asking for directions to the capital before my mage set him on fire.Maybe my Grandpa used to be an adventurer and decided to crawl out of his grave to help me on my travels? I mean sure he's not as fleshy as he used to be, but he still knows how to swing that long sword we put him down under with. Called him the Lizard Chopper back in those days....It never stuck though.Class expansions are always interesting, Necromancer and.....uh..... Well Necromancer. (I didn't really come here with a plan other then to ask for necromancy and undead characters. this rest of this review is kinda a front).Paladins, Warlocks, etc.Plenty of things you could throw in. I'm sure. Probably.Otherwise, it looks quite nice for the time.You could also add Sword skills and such for the Fighter Classes so they arn't just drones. Allowing them to slash multiple monsters at once or add elemental damage to their strikes etc.On another note: I'd suggest buying this to support these guys, Has a lot of potential.Ps: You could also add Steam Workshop. I wouldn't turn down the exessive possibilities people could manage if you did that in a game like this.Portrait editors, Class creators, Race makers, Campaign builders, Map remodelers, creature spawners, Just an idea. Also the choice to start with less characters.When you think you're done, there is always more to do. Especially in midevel fantasy.----Essentially the Balancing issues come from the player being a bit too powerful early on, hence why I suggested the split in classes, to devide access of certain spells and abilities, allowing indeviduality to the characters you use. It might make it harder for the players, but then you can make more abilities specified to that class.. I'm having a blast with this game. If you loved Might and Magic 3-5, you need this, but be warned, it's a wormhole to 3AM! Version 0.20.1 released: The first Early Access update is out. It's a typical first EA update, totally boring and containing almost only fixes of mysterious bugs that were not detected during internal testing. All right, I also managed to make some interface improvements (related to features that might have been confusing) and finished descriptions of all overworld areas. But other than that fixes.- [interface] Changing party member's position more intuitive (added "Position" text next to < > buttons and listed the position name "Frontline" or "Left/Right Flank").- [interface] Fixed help/hotkeys font size (so it's readable in all resolutions).- [interface] Replaced help/hotkeys "Close" button with "Back" button which makes you return to help main screen (which makes more sense).- [design] All overworld regions descriptions added (click "Info" to read). NOTE: At this stage of Early Access grammar & spelling check is not done yet.- [misc] Removed cheat spell "Ultimate Destruction". It was a leftover from the internal testing phase.- [misc] Added emergency teleport button (fix for levers position bug in v0.20). Go to Options, enable "Show fixes" and then click the button "Fix 1", it will teleport you to the overworld.- [fix] Magic shop starts empty (on new game only).- [fix] Inconsistent food prices (town/inn).- [fix] Levers position was reset after game was reloaded, which might leave you confined behind a closed grate in some cases. If you got confined you can salvage your save by using emergency teleport fix (Options/Show fixes then click appropriate button).. Version 0.21 released: This Early Access update focuses on adjusting things that were found confusing or unclear and introduces several balance tweaks.- [feature] Rest renamed to Quick Rest and Comfortable Rest to Full Rest, also adjusted the time passed while resting (more logical and intuitive now).- [feature] Added notice to magic doors to avoid confusion.- [balance] Rebalanced spells, overall those have more power but require more MP.- [balance] High arcane spells got less steep arcane requirements increase for mastery levels.- [balance] Damage from magic barriers, traps and lava tiles increased considerably.- [balance] Significantly reduced experience gain from level 10+ monsters (players were leveling the party way too fast).- [design] Added 2 new locations (eastern area).- [design] Adjusted magic dust availability and magic dust quest requirements.- [design] Adjusted ogre forts (grates placement less confusing).- [design] Added a new spell for Wizard, one for Ranger, two for Healer and one for Bard. Those are mostly high arcane spells available at higher levels.- [design] Added NPCs (in early inns) explaining how shops work (missing master craftsmen and the Guild).- [interface] Adjusted screen height per pixel values so it looks better (bigger pixels allowed) in windowed mode. Especially useful for people who play on windowed maximized mode (which BTW is not recommended since borderless is a way better mode).- [interface] More visible hotkeys (font color).- [interface] Shops made less confusing (added counter of master craftsmen available and a sell button which is disabled for now).- [fix] Magic Dust availability.. Early Access has started!: Hello!I'm Chris and I'm the designer of Legends of Amberland: The Forgotten Crown. I would like to welcome you to Early Access of this game.One thing I would like to put straight, it's an Early Access title, which means the game is incomplete. There might be bugs, some side quests are unfinished and so on. If you prefer to play a finished game without the issues I urge you to wait till the final release.But if you are an adventurous soul and would like to help to shape the final feel of this RPG you are welcome to join in. Such help would be appreciated since the game went through a limited testing period only.So, if you want a complete game WAIT, if you want to help to test and provide feedback JOIN right now!We will be using Steam forums for the purpose of the Early Access, please post there any feedback, comments and the like.. Version 0.25 released: If I was naming the updates, which I don't, I would call that one something like "The Great Configurator Update". It introduces difficulty settings and keybindings. Now you can choose from 4 difficulty levels: Easy, Normal, Hard and Insane. Normal difficulty is the one you were playing so far, it's the most balanced level, it provides an adequate challenge and allow you to enjoy the journey. Easy is for people who are somewhat stressed and want to make it, well, easier, still it's not very easy, just easier. Hard is meant for hardcore RPG players, with lots of experience and so on (that's the recommended difficulty if you came from RPG Codex or similar community), still the difficulty on Hard is reasonable. Insane is meant for those who constantly complain the games nowadays are too easy, it's unreasonably difficult, with penalties to everything and probably unbeatable for most people. One thing to note, I tried to keep the pacing similar in all difficulties, so I abstained from heavy bumping monsters HP and other mechanics that would make the game longer than harder. It's more like that harder difficulty levels introduce more deadly environment than more resistant one. As for keybindings, not much to say I suppose, you can bind up to 3 keys per action and rebind almost all keys (except very special like Escape).- [feature] Difficulty levels upon new game start (Easy, Normal, Hard, Insane).- [feature] Rebindable keys (Options/Controls).- [design] Additional shop items (including Arcane buffing items).- [design] Tower of Despair unofficial name was dropped in favour of the official Ivory Tower (it was confusing using both names, now the Tower of Despair appears only in the lore/rumours sections and it's always accompanied by the official Ivory Tower name).- [balance] Reduced regular shop prices for items tier 4 & 5.- [balance] Decreased Arcane requirements and Magic Points cost for high level offensive spells.- [interface] Disabled hot keys when in Quick Menu mode.- [fix] Keyboard bug from v0.24.- [fix] Inconsistent portraits highlights bug (now I understand why so many players were asking "what it means if the portrait has a yellow outline" :D).- [fix] Other small fixes (extremely rare and harmless which probably no one noticed).. Early Access starts soon!: Legends of Amberland: The Forgotten Crown will enter Early Access next week.The plan is to forge out all issues quickly, reexamine balance (and fix it if needed), then move on to finishing side quests and minor features.After that's done (I aim to do it before summer) the game will leave the EA and be released as a fully playable game.. Version 0.26 released: This version focuses on finishing & polishing end game elements also it dealt with some things that were confusing to new players. In addition, there is now a "Compatibility" beta branch on Steam which you can use in case of problems with running the game.By the way, I will be showcasing Legends of Amberland: The Forgotten Crown in a few days during Digital Dragons in Cracow. If by any chance to attend this event, drop by!- [design] Added proper final dialogue and end game conclusion.- [design] Mirrors finished.- [design] Added alternative [...] (SPOILER PROTECTION: all I can say is it's something related to mirrors).- [design] New side quest for Royal Cook.- [misc] Added "Compatibility" branch to Steam, which can be used is some very rare cases where the game won't start. To activate: right click on 'Legends of Amberland' and open Properties, the select 'Betas' tab and choose "compatibility" branch from the dropdown list. Steam will start downloading it. You can revert this by opting out. Note that this version won't be updated as often as the main branch so it's to be used as the last resort.- [interface] Added "Next Character" button on the party creation screen (it was confusing to some players how to select another character, the old method on clicking the portrait works of course).- [interface] Attempting to enter locked grate gives a notice "This grate is locked" (it was slightly confusing to new players).- [interface] Clicking by mouse on lever popups a notice "Enter to interact (move forward) with objects" (operating levers was sometimes confusing to new players).. Version 0.23 released: In this version I focused on selling items, experimented with new racial classes and made a bunch of fixes and small improvements. Now you can sell items you don't need and what's more important, you can buy them back if you decide you actually need them. In addition you have an option to deposit unneeded items in any inn which basically let's you deal with unneeded items in two ways. I was also implementing new racial classes, the idea is each race would have two special classes available for them only (except half elves who share those with humans and elves). The racial classes are at the moment disabled since only some of them work, still you can check those. The last thing is a quick linguistic QA pass, so probably around 90% of spelling and grammar errors were fixed in this version. Therefore, from now on I'm starting to accept spelling error reports.- [feature] Can sell items to the shop and buy them back (for a small fee).- [feature] Deposit items in the inn (in a magic chest, accessible from any inn).- [misc] Healer's restoration spell makes the target weakened (just like the ability), which is more consistent and logical.- [misc] Time runs slower when exploring indoors and during combat (it's more realistic now).- [misc] Improved magic door's description.- [misc] The first pass of linguistic QA finished, from now on I'm accepting spelling mistakes reports.- [misc] You can now see unfinished racial classes on new game screen, all of them are disabled in this version.- [design] Ogre Fort: Ghar - inaccessible grates fixed.- [interface] Shops display the number of master craftsmen rescued (which affect the availability of items).- [fix] Incorrect end game statistics (monsters killed, gold looted, etc).- [fix] Yet another Girdle of Carrying bug.- [fix] One potentially serious memory bug fixed.- [fix] Paralyzed characters able to train.- [fix] Elven healer cleanse removes weakened status but actual attributes were not restored.. Version 0.23.1 released: Quick fix version to address the missing deposited items bug. Contains also one feature and interface improvements.- [feature] Added "Auto Create Characters" on party create to auto fill all empty character slots and redistribute all remaining attribute points (you can still adjust those afterwards manually).- [interface] Back button on party create changed to "Exit to Menu" (it was misleading and confusing).- [interface] ESCAPE key now closes any open window/tab (previously it was not working on help and save screen).- [fix] When monster dies a hero sometimes was skipping a turn.- [fix] Deposited items not saved.
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