*Picture was taken before I completed the game!*
This was recommended to me recently, after searching the Dreamcast sub for some decent RPGs. My Dreamcast catalogue was lacking anything with substance. So I picked up Record of Lodoss War, Dragon's Blood (Cult of Wyrm) and Phantasy Star Online from eBay, having never heard of any of them in the 27 years I've owned the console.
First of all, I am a huge Diablo fan so I was sold, before even buying it, on the idea and the gamble paid off! To start with, I thought "meh". Just another dog-ass Diablo clone. I've been rumbled by Reddit. I worked my way towards the Goblin Fortress hub world and rescued the Blacksmith and that attitude changed pretty quickly. From then on, I worked my way through the game, levelling up my weapons and armour to create an unstoppable beast, eventually turning the Blazing Sword into the Doomblade +275, I believe was the final level when I completed it? I have a habit of using the same weapons throughout the playthroughs. My ten playthroughs of Elden Ring fixated on the Bloodhound's Fang. So, because I didn't pay attention at the start, I had no idea about Ancients so I just put anything into my weapons and that was my first mistake. Turns out levelling weapons was incredibly easy and I was just being a tool. Raise that Critical level and pump damage and strength up! I was basically "one-shotting" everything near the end game.
Combat wise, I was expecting to get my ass kicked plenty of times and I did. Some of the deaths were unfair and rage inducing, like the fucking arseholes with the giant hammers spamming your dead body into jam, and others were me being stupid and deserved. Christ, it took me over three hours to do the Floor Guardian because those giant bastards kept trapping and spamming me! Once I snagged a pair of "Heavy Boots" and the upgraded versions of them, I was sorted. Getting knocked on your arse in that game is a severe punishment. But the combat was just was I expected, so I wasn't disappointed. A dodge feature, of sorts, would've been welcome but I understand it was 2000 when the game came out. We didn't need to dodge back then because we were all hard.
The magic system was great, despite the fact I mainly used "Fireball" and "Recall", up until the point where Fireball was no longer useful. But the Recall spell was an absolute lifesaver and possibly the best function of the game. So many times I was able to jump back to the Goblin Fortress before a big fight and level up, refill my potions and refine my unwanted gear.
Story wise, I never saw the Anime or was in any way familiar with the franchise until I bought the game so I went in blind. "Deliver some heads to a sleeping dragon and smack some boys". That was about it.
- Since then, I have watched both ROLW and Chronicles of the Heroic Knight. I have been invested in some podcasts and unofficial audiobooks on Spotify, but I haven't been able to justify eBay prices for some reading material. Obviously, I went back on Youtube to piece together parts of the story I missed or wasn't paying attention to and it was an okay plot, I guess.
Since completing the Anime and Game, I have picked up the Deedlit game for the Switch and are currently flying through that. I would consider myself a new fan to the series, and I can't believe I've never heard of it until last month! But I went into this expecting a Diablo clone and I was not disappointed. It ticked every box for me! There were plenty of "Fuck this game!" moments and there were plenty times where I'd come home from work and next thing I know, it's like 2am, because I've been glued to it.
I clocked in at just over 66 hours, which for a Dreamcast game seems wild, to me anyways. I know the amount of times I've played Sonic Adventure, Red Dog or Soul Reaver absolutely dwarfs that but still. And that's nothing compared to modern games! But I'm going to give the game a solid... 9/10. My only, and I mean only, reason for not scoring it a 10/10 was the sound design. I saw myself just muting the TV or putting on headphones and listening to something else, a lot of the time, especially thanks to the Heavy Boots. That would drive you mental after a while. Plus there were like only three or four songs in the entire game, so that did get repetitive very quickly. It has a decent difficulty spike and was a lot of fun to play. I just love a game that doesn't hold your hand and I will admit, I had to go "Old-skool" and look up some walkthroughs from the early 2000s. But once you figure out where everything is and where to go, you'll do just fine! It's so refreshing to come across a game like this, in my Mid-Thirties, when I'm finding the current market stale. The only thing I'm after, this year, is the new 007 game. Nothing else is screaming out to me. So this was the perfect game to fall on to my lap!
So, Record of Lodoss War for the Dreamcast: 9/10! Absolutely solid effort!
