RoA: Blade of Destiny HD - Free DLC 'With Blade and Brilliance'

Kordanor spotted this new free DLC for RoA: Blade of Destiny HD:

Free DLC "With Blade and Brilliance"

Celebrating the two year anniversary of Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny, Crafty Studios is proud to present an eventful blend of extra content - new classes, new spells and new events, along with various updates and additions - all packaged up in the free DLC “With Blade and Brilliance”.


Features:

• Additional classes: “Juggler” and “Skald”
• Extended magic: “Destructibo “, “Fury Blood”, Ball Magic for mages, Extended Spell descriptions and complete revision of magical items
• Additional NPC: Gerbald from Riva
• Additional events: “Days of the Nameless”, “Tula of Skerdu”, “Asleif the Bald” and “Rotten timberwork” in the Mine of Prem
• Additional items: Thorwal trousers, leather trousers, linen shirt, leather shirt, belt, silver ring, golden ring, silver tiara, golden tiara, feather hat, throwing dagger
• Atmospheric images for many dialogues enhance the game experience
• See Forum for the full list of additions: http://steamcommunity.com/app/237550/discussions/0/530649887218772370/

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More information.

Thank you for the info, Kordanor!

Didn't this release get hammered in the reviews?

rjshae said:

Didn't this release get hammered in the reviews?

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When it was first released two years ago it was nigh unplayable. I haven't looked at it since then, but I hear bugfixes have vastly improved it since then. I think there were a few folks around here who enjoyed it.

Yep, the release was in horrible condition. Since then they added tons of patches. And apparently they still have a decent active fanbase which is not only playing the game but also adding to it. Some of the Mods are not implemented as official patch from what I understand.

If the condition of the game is decent enough know, can't say for sure. It's still in my backlog.

Vastly improved since release. No enemy status indications put me off presently. You've no idea how much health they have left (even a slight/serious/near death indication would help) and no spell effect indications either, so you don't know if they're still charmed.

Played it a year ago. Loved it. Rough in spots but delivered a challenging, unique RPG experience with ideas I had not seen before (of course, it's a faithful remake, but I never played the original games). Could only be improved with the countless work Chris and his team put in.

I think I'm gonna give it another try now, although my expectations are low.
Release was really unplayable, though my main problem with the game has never been bugs but rather stuff like the UI, or the bland, low-quality 3D models from the Unity asset store that took so much away from the atmosphere of the originals. On the whole the game just felt cheaply made and clunky and not doing justice to the original. (I know a lot of release models were updated since then, I still think most don't look so great)

Perhaps somebody would be kind enough to post a review of the patched game?

Is that really necessary for a game in a 3$ bundle at BundleStars?

rjshae said:

Perhaps somebody would be kind enough to post a review of the patched game?

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I also played a year ago and enjoyed in enough to finish it, which I can't say, for example about Serpents in the Stagland.
The game mixes travelling across a map (In map view) exploring dungeons (or towns) which appear in first person like Might and Magic, and the game switches to grid form for battles. You have a party of six characters, and if you've played either The Dark Eye:River of Time or Drakensang, you'll be somewhat familiar with how skills work. The graphics are average to poor, the narration is not particularly good, the random events get repetitive after awhile, and the game reeks of being low budget. On the other hand the battles were challenging, the games mixes a survival travelling game (you can die of fever and starve to death if poorly prepared) and a dungeon crawler well. It feels in many ways like playing a pen and paper version of the Dark Eye, and like a 90s style game, meaning the game is pretty harsh on mistakes. Still I always pretty much knew what to do and never wandered around without a clue. The mechanics are deep, and the game encourages exploration. I never played the original, but I had fun with the
remake.

I'd give it a 3/5 in its current state. You'd have to like this kind of game and be able to tolerate its weaknesses to enjoy it, but I did.

I'm flabbergasted more people don't know the realms of arkania... f'ing loved that series. I'd kill for a remake of Star Trail, by far the best of the trilogy.

I'd say they all have their Pros and Cons. You can actually follow the "common development" of the market with the Realms of Arkania Game Series.

The very first one offers a huge world, lots of freedom, lots of optional content. But lots of it isn't designed very detailed.

Startrail limits the region a lot, there are only a couple of cities. But everything gets much more personality. You still have some freedom.

Shadow over Riva the is the final "most streamlined" experience similar to an AAA game. Completely fleshed out, but leaving hardly any freedom to the player, limiting itself to one city only, which was very well done. But it's a harsh contrast to the second and especially the first game.

And exactly the same can be said about the music. The first one is all about melody (due to lack of "real instruments" available in soundcards. The second one is a mix of melody and atmosphere, and Shadows over Riva pushes the Atmosphere in the foreground and the melody in the background. Still good tracks, but much less earworm potential. I mean who can remember the "Ding-Dideling Ding Ding" City Melody from the first Game, and who can remember the city melody of Riva?

Personally I loved both of the first parts, couldn't really decide which I like more. I think back in the days I would have chosen the second over the first. Riva was always too streamlined to me in comparison while still being a great game.

Edit: But Startrail is unique in that it's the only game which named itself after a Red Herring Quest in the game, isn't it?

Wrote the news to Myrthos as PM yesterday but I guess he overlooked it and I have no idea how to poke him, so I drop it here, in a short version:

Yesterday the developers announced to be working on Startrail.
Source is facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DSANordlandtrilogie/?fref=ts

Writing these lines has been an urge I had to resist for quite some time now, but today it is finally possible: Crafty Studios have found an agreement with UIG for the development of Realms of Arkania Startrail HD, official work on it has already been restartet. We will use the current Version 1.36 of Blade of Destiny as the Base for Development. There is also a new website at http://www.sternenschweif.com along with a development blog, currently in german only. We are looking forward to our journey into the Svellt Valley, even more since we can take you all along on the ride!

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Great news! RoA: BoD remake was quite fun and definitely a more hardcore RPG experience compared to modern games. Can't wait to check out Star Trail as well. At the very least, I'm sure it will be much more polished right out of the game this time.

Surely you jest.



Ah well, it might be good for a laugh or two, at least.

They mentioned in the Facebook comments that they are going to do an extensive early access test. Meaning that this time you should know what you buy at release.

In addition they take 1.36 as base to work on. So the biggest bugs area already gone.

Gorath said:

Is that really necessary for a game in a 3$ bundle at BundleStars?

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seems like this bündle isn't available anymore. Now it's $15 and another $3 for the DLC.

Hopefully some of the enhancements will be back ported into Blade of Destiny.

Yeah, that's what I asked the developers in facebook was well.

Their answer was:

Eines nach dem anderen - zuerst müssen wir mal Schweif hinbekommen, ein "backpatching" auf Schick HD behalten wir grundsätzlich im Auge, versprechen kann ich das aber noch nicht, das liegt etwas zu weit in der Zukunft, sorry

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->

One thing after the other - first we need to do Trail, "backpatching" on Destiny is something we keep in mind, but we cannot promise it yet. It's somewhat too far in the future, sorry

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