From: krc@phoenix.irv.icl.com (Ken Craig)
Newsgroups: rec.games.video
Subject: More extended review for AD&D "Warriors of the Eternal Sun" for Genesis
Date: 17 Aug 92 20:00:45 GMT
Organization: ICL Advanced Development Group



         This is a more indepth review of the new AD&D game "Warriors of
     the Eternal Sun" for the Genesis.  It also has potential hints,
     spoilers and whatever at the end.


     PARTY GENERATION


        The overall theme of the game is to complete a quest for the Duke.
     To accomplish this objective you can create a party of up to four
     characters with the standard AD&D classes (ie. fighter, cleric, m-u
     and thief). These characters are human only. If you so desire you
     can chose to be a demi-human dwarf, halfling or elf.  The demi-humans
     can not be one of the standard character classes, they are what they
     are which brings up one of my first gripes/questions. The manual gives
     me the impression that a halfling is like and almost as good as a
     fighter but that's it.  If I remember my AD&D correctly halflings were
     usually thief-like in nature.  The ability to chose male/female is nice
     as I also chose an all female party to play.  After choosing each
     character you can choose a color to be assigned to their shield, robes
     etc. then give them a name.  One of the nice features of the character
     generation is the re-roll abilties option. By pressing the B-button
     you can quickly go through new ability rolls until you reach a
     combination that you like.  Once all the characters are generated you
     can start the game.


     ACTUAL GAME PLAY


        You start off in the Duke's castle and do the standard stuff. Walk
     around, check out the shops, talk to people and generally get your
     initial bearings.  Once you're ready to leave the real adventure
     begins. You can use the "view map" option to see that you are in a
     castle sitting in the middle of a valley surrounded by mountains.
     The first objective is to simply build your characters up to third
     and fourth levels. Once this is done the rest of the game becomes
     fairly easy. Until your m-u learns (entangle) or the cleric learns
     (darkness) it is not to wise to cross the bridge that is southwest
     from the castle.  You can build your charcters up by repeated
     assaults into the caves and dungeon that are under the waterfall
     that is northeast of the castle.  My procedure was to hit the
     flying vipers, giant toads, tiger beetles and carrion crawler then
     enter the dungeon and take out all the undead. The trolls and such
     that are in the dungeon are too tough for much success until you
     reach 6th or 7th level and by then there's other things that are
     worth more experience and gold.
        Each time you go up a level you can go back to the castle and see
     what new things have come up for sale in the shops.
        Once you decide to cross the bridge it's time to do some real
     exploring.  Since your world is surrounded by mountains the only
     thing to do is see if there are entrances to places at the base of
     the mountains (ie. walk around the base of the mountains trying to
     walk into the mountains). Doing this will put you on your way to
     completing your quests.
        As you complete the individual stages of your quest the prices
     for things in town will go up big time so it seems best to build
     up your gold and levels so you can buy the best stuff you can before
     completing a stage.  There are four stages to be completed which
     brings me to my second gripe.  After the second stage is completed
     DO NOT go talk to the Duke as he will throw you out of the castle and
     not let you back in until you've completed the third stage. The
     problem is once you've completed the third stage the castle is trashed
     and there's no one there to buy anything from so you're stuck with
     whatever you had before you spoke to him.


     COMBAT

         Their are two types of combat.  Indoors and out.  There are things
     I really like/dislike about the outdoor but I totally dislike the
     indoor.
         In outdoor combat the sequence of attack appears to be totally
     random as to who goes when once the first round of combat is over.
     This brings some much needed excitement to the combat system as you
     can't be sure if the monsters will go off again before you have a
     chance to put your master plan into affect for this combat.
         The problem I have with the outdoor combat is once the m-u and
     cleric have darkness/entangle they just throw these at their first
     opportunity and then it's simply a matter of beating on the monster
     till it dies. The spells always work!!
         As for indoor combat, I think it sucks.  The manual informs you
     that indoor combat takes place in real time so if you aren't quick
     on the buttons the monsters will just wail on you and it is true.
     I have my weapons in the A button column and any spells I might plan
     on using in the B button column. When I walk into a place and am
     confronted by monsters I hit the A button just as fast and hard as I
     can until all the monsters are dead.  To even let up for a second is
     to allow them to start smacking on you and until they're done you
     don't get any more attacks so it doesn't matter how fast you try and
     hit the buttons once they've started.


     FINAL THOUGHTS, COMPLAINTS ETC.


        The game is too easy.  As the first person who posted a review said
     once your characters reach sixth level it is like a cakewalk. The first
     time I finished the game my characters had just reached 8th level and it
     had taken me 40 hours of playing to finish.  To give you an idea, it
     took me 8 hours to finish the Immortal, 12 hours to finish Arcus
     Oddessy (sp?), 100 hours to finish PSII and 120 hours to finish
     Warrior of Rome I.  If you are very experienced in D&D type things you
     will probably find it too easy; if you're a neophyte in this area then
     this is probably just what you're looking for to introduce you to RPG
     type games.

     The Thief and all the demi-humans are useless.  The thief will detect
     traps but can't remove them and there is only one place in the game
     where this comes into play. The manual says once thiefs reach 10th
     level they can start learning magic spells. What a joke. If you haven't
     finished the game long before the 10th level it's because you've been
     dicking around fighting monsters for fun for a week. The hiding ability
     is useless because most of the real game is undeground and they can't
     hide there. The elf's potential secrect door detection is un-needed if
     you, like me, are in the habit of trying every wall for secret doors.

     Most of the spells aren't used unless you just feel like seeing what
     one does.  When fighting indoors you rarely have time to go to the
     inventory menu to try and select a specific spell for your combat so
     you prepare the one you want ahead of time. My cleric only uses heal
     and darkness and the m-u uses entangle.

     You don't get to defeat the final monster. It is done automatically
     once you reach the point where it is.



     OVERALL GRADE:  C -> B-


     One final comment.

     After reaching 8th level the experience required for going up levels
     remains constant and the fighters will only get 2 hit points per level
     and the cleric/m-u will only get 1.
     By not finishing the 3rd part of the quest I've managed to get the
     armorer to pull out +3 shields, the weaponer to pull out +3 swords and
     the mu shop owner has offered me spells that are nowhere else in the
     game plus a couple of wands that aren't anywhere. I've decided to see
     how many levels it takes to max out the cleric and mu with spells just
     to try and feel like I got my moneys worth out of this cartridge.
     If anyone wants any specific hints or something just drop me a line.


     HINTS and SPOILERS Follow
























        When first starting out there is a secret chamber in the m-u's
        shop, the inn and the nw corner of the chapel. There is enough
        good stuff here to make the journey to 3rd level relatively
        easy.

        I think there are 6 or 7 entrances to underground caves from
        the waterfall in the sw quadrant of the map to the ascan entrance
        in the ne corner of the map.  Most of these have gold in them.

        When walking around in the caves/dungeons and you see a branch
        coming up where the path splits off. Stop right before the branch
        and turn in its direction. You can usually see if any monsters are
        hiding right around the corner this way.

        When exploring the ascan temple, if you are in a hallway and find
        a secret door, use it because it usually allows you to bypass a
        trap in the hallway. The ascan temple is nothing but traps but you
        have to get to the bottom. When you get to the jungle the first
        time the ascan temple is north/north east of your position.

        When you get through the beastman caves the first time the lizard
        mens village is ne of your position

        I have found 2 places outdoors that will give you a dragon ~75% of
        the time.  The first one is west of the entrance to the elves caves.
        The elves caves are located east of the swamp that is south of the
        river. If you go east from the entrance you'll see a flat portion
        where the swamp meets the land. If you position your lead character
        on its extreme west point and move east slowly you will see a
        character drop down into the open space then come up a little when
        it hits a bump then drop down. If you stop after the second drop
        down most of the time you will get a hydra or black dragon to come
        after you from the east.
        Since the hydra is worth ~1000 pts and the dragon is worth ~2000
        points you can gain experience and gold pretty fast. It is best not
        to try this until your best fighter has over 45 hit points because
        the hydra makes 9 attacks at a time.

                           2

              ______       3  1
                    \
                     \_/-\_4

        Crude example.



        The second place can only be gotten to after you have the rings of
        fire resistance. When you climb up on the lava stay to the west
        wall and go north then east.  When you reach the end of this stretch
        there should be a small divot in the wall and then it continues
        north. If you can make out the individual sections of the wall count
        up to where the third and fourth sections join. There should be a
        couple of diagonal lines that are very close together. If you
        position your lead character there and turn around and walk far
        enough east so that the characters separate the middle character of
        the three will be standing with their back against these lines.
        If all this is done correctly you will get a red dragon ~ 90% of
        the time. This takes practice. Since the red dragon and fire giants
        are worth about 6000 points and the dragon usually has about 2000
        gold it only takes about an hour to jump everyone up a level and
        acquire large amounts of gold.