Realms of Arkania - HD Remake Announced!

Originally Posted by Kordanor
Of course you can have seen it all back then - in one playthrough. But in this case you must have used a guide/walkthrough which also points you to every dungeon which is not relevant to finish the game.

Nah, all you had to do is follow every possible path from every waypoint. Which I assume a lot of people have done because travelling simply was fun.

And while people exist who have seen it all, I am pretty sure that the vast majority of players have only seen like 70% or less of the original game. If they finished it at all. Of course, that isn't of any help for you unfortunately.

I guess there are some people who like 'hardcore' RPGs but haven't played RoA and would be put off by the graphics or interface. But that's a really small niche I think.

Originally Posted by Sacred_Path
Nah, all you had to do is follow every possible path from every waypoint. Which I assume a lot of people have done because travelling simply was fun.

Please remember that discovering some (hidden) paths/caves/dungeons required a party member with high perception to be the party leader. Many people might have missed this detail or had a party member that did not meet the reqs. Many people might have also not made it through the mountains in Star Trail due to a lack of appropriate equipment and/or party member's illnesses.
And finally there is a fair share of totally random encounters that some people might have simply missed out on due to the luck of the draw (or lack thereof).
There are many possible reasons why players might have missed out on some parts of the games.

I originally played the RoA games without a guide in the 1990s. I managed to finish BoD on the second try (first time I encountered the time limit) and had no chance to finish the game. Star Trail, I got stuck on the whole Salamander plot and Lowangen part (which was quite complex and required doing things in a certain order to succeed) and so I did originally not manage to finish the game on the first try. SoR, I was able to finish with a little guidance from a gaming mag IIRC.

Later on I replayed all three games with one party that I took through the entire trilogy and I consulted the official (I think) guide books for all three parts and -following the guide books- it was quite amazing how much else there was to the games since quite a lot of stuff depends on meeting requirements and successful skill checks (= dice rolls).

These games are definitely not a play once, seen it all affair, not even for completionists since some content is dependent on being at the right place at the right time with the right party (or stat/skill set) and then some luck when the dice are rolling.

Originally Posted by Kordanor
Unlike BG which is almost linear and has next to no replay value, the first Realms of Arkania is almost a sandbox game with no linear path. If you play it again today, you will probably find tons of stuff you did not experience before.

I haven't played RoA, but Baldur's Gate is far from being linear, and to claim it has next to no replay value is just dumb.

Originally Posted by Moriendor
Please remember that discovering some (hidden) paths/caves/dungeons required a party member with high perception to be the party leader. Many people might have missed this detail or had a party member that did not meet the reqs. Many people might have also not made it through the mountains in Star Trail due to a lack of appropriate equipment and/or party member's illnesses.
And finally there is a fair share of totally random encounters that some people might have simply missed out on due to the luck of the draw (or lack thereof).
There are many possible reasons why players might have missed out on some parts of the games.

These games are definitely not a play once, seen it all affair, not even for completionists since some content is dependent on being at the right place at the right time with the right party (or stat/skill set) and then some luck when the dice are rolling.

Welp, I remember the manual was quite clear about party leaders for cities, wilderness, and dungeons. Personally, I would even say those skills weren't checked ENOUGH, and some were outright useless. In any case pumping nature and 'personal' skills on your outdoor leader(s) was kind of self-evident.

The only encounter that depended on luck that I remember was the ghost ship in Blade of Destiny. Well, I think I also remember encountering some knights in Star Tail which might have been random… or was that Darklands? I might confuse the two.

The only real choice I remember was fighting the battle mages south of Lowangen or giving them the salamander stone in Star Trail. Although, if you defeated them you didn't even get a text blurb and you end up with two salamander stones, so you probably weren't even expected to make this choice.

Not that I'm knocking these nice old games, but I definitely hope for some new twists in this remake.

RoA's combat could definitely use some small changes. Only being able to fire projectiles at 90 degree angles (which is probably related to how the original game figured line of sight)? No consequences for moving in and out of melee? Just a couple of slight tweaks is really all that it needs.