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King's Bounty: The Legend - All News

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Saturday - September 02, 2023
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Box Art

Saturday - September 02, 2023

King's Bounty - Free to Keep on GOG

by Silver, 11:19

GOG is giving away King's Bounty: The Legend for a limited time.

For starters, feel free to claim the  GIVEAWAY of  King's Bounty: The Legend until September 4th, 1 PM UTC. 
 
In this classic, turn-based role-playing title you can become a hero in a fantasy world of fearless knights, evil mages, wise kings and beautiful princesses. Explore the land, command armies and accomplish quests for your king to reap great rewards... or suffer devastating defeats.

Friday - April 27, 2018

King's Bounty - Retrospective

by Silver, 14:46

PC Gamer looked back at the classic King's Bounty: The Legend.

...
The most memorable feature of King's Bounty: The Legend was the ability get married. Romance and marriage isn't exactly a novel concept in RPGs, but these marriages matched the game's goofy, sometimes darkly humorous tone. That pirate princess I mentioned earlier was one of the more normal brides-to-be. I could also rescue the frog princesses from the Earl and make one my wife, and there was the potential for her to transform back into a frog if our love ended. 

Then there's the unforgettable side quest where a man admits to zombifying his wife, leaving me with the option to purchase said wife, and then the further option to leave her a zombie or cure her. Either way we can have kids together, though in King's Bounty: The Legend children were rarely worth their paltry stat boosts compared to loot, and starting a family paled compared to playing the wandering womanizer. Game of Thrones has nothing on the world of King's Bounty.

[...]

Friday - December 02, 2016

King's Bounty - Gaming History

by Silver, 19:12

@GamingGHD they look back at Kings Bounty: The Legend, calling it the best comeback in gaming history.

loading...

26 years ago, King's Bounty didn't really make a big splash in the industry. But it resonated enough with the right players to lead to the definition and the refinement of an entire genre. And 18 years later it lead to a fantastic game.

Buy King's Bounty The Legend on GOG
http://bit.ly/2fTj5zV

Sunday - January 13, 2013

King's Bounty: Legion - Now on Android

by Dhruin, 01:10

We don't really follow the mobile space closely but Kotaku highlights the Android port of King's Bounty: Legions, which follows on from iOS and a Facebook version:

Russian developer Nival has done an amazing job bringing an updated free-to-play take on New World Computing's 1990 classic PC turn-based strategy game King's Bounty to Facebook and the iPad. Now they complete the cross-platform circle with King's Bounty: Legions for Android, harnessing the power of Tegra 3 to make for the best mobile version available.

Friday - April 06, 2012

King's Bounty - Released on Mac

by Dhruin, 09:51

King's Bounty and Armored Princess have been released on OS X, according to Blue's:

1C Company announces the release of King's Bounty: The Legend and King's Bounty: Armored Princess for Mac OS X in English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, and Russian. The Legend is available on the Mac App Store and Steam and Armored Princess is available on the Mac App Store and Steam.

Source: Blues News

Sunday - February 20, 2011

King's Bounty - German Gold Edition

by Dhruin, 00:41

Alrik writes that dtp has released a German Gold pack for King's Bounty that includes Armoured Princess and Crossworlds.

Monday - August 09, 2010

King's Bounty - Retrospective of the Original

by Woges, 11:15

John Walker writes a loving retrospective on the original King's Bounty on the Mega Drive.

So I went in blind, beyond the peculiar future-vision of knowing how the remake plays, 20 years later.

You pick one of four classes – Barbarian, Knight, Sorceress or Paladin – and are then immediately commissioned by the King to find the lost Sceptre of Order. To do this you must wander the four continents, taking over castles from various scum and villainy, in order to acquire puzzle pieces to form a map of the sceptre's location.

As you wander (read: slide sideways on a horse across a top-down map, or sail a capsized boat) you encounter gangs of enemies, at which point you enter the game's turn-based combat.

Thursday - July 08, 2010

King's Bounty - Online Version Announced

by Dhruin, 21:06

We won't cover this in detail but apparently an online version of King's Bounty is on the way.  From Blue's:

KranX Productions and Nival Group each reveal plans for King's Bounty Online, an MMOG installment in the King's Bounty RPG series. The announcements are in Russian, and at this point there is no indication of their plans for releasing the game elsewhere. Here's a portion, translated through the help of Google: "King's Bounty Online is created with all the features and the rich possibilities of social networking ZZima.com. Among them - access to all projects through a single account, users communicate with each other, clustering, and more. With gaming and social networking ZZima.com online game King's Bounty Online Millions of players for the first time in the history of the series will be able to participate together in exciting journeys and adventures in the world of King's Bounty in 2011."

Source: Blues News

Wednesday - June 02, 2010

King's Bounty - Now on GOG

by Dhruin, 21:00

King's Bounty: The Legend is now available on GOG for $9.95.  It seems a bit early to be on CD Projekt's service but this is a (DRM-free) bargain if you haven't picked it up previously.

Tuesday - January 12, 2010

King's Bounty - Steam Sale

by Dhruin, 22:04

Both King's Bounty: The Legend and King's Bounty: Armoured Princess are on sale at Steam, for $4.99 and 9.99 respectively.  I'd almost argue KB:TL deserves better than to sell for that price, so you can't go wrong.

Thursday - August 27, 2009

King's Bounty - Screens @ Worthplaying

by Dhruin, 01:02

14 hopefully new screens from King's Bounty: Armoured Princess at Worthplaying.

Wednesday - April 08, 2009

King's Bounty - Screens @ CRPG.ru

by Dhruin, 13:23

Our friends over at CRPG.ru let us know they've posted eight new screens from King's Bounty: Armoured Princess after getting release code from 1C - which presumably means the Russian version has gone Gold.

Friday - February 13, 2009

King's Bounty - Ships to UK

by Magerette, 18:07

Apparently the publishers of King's Bounty:The Legend have finally officially released the UK edition, according to this post at GamersHell:

Nobilis and Ascaron Entertainment have announced that King's Bounty: The Legend has shipped to retail across the UK, exclusively for PC. King's Bounty: The Legend is a strategy game with tactical turn-based battles and RPG elements unfolding in a rich fantasy world.

The full press release is reproduced here.

Wednesday - February 04, 2009

King's Bounty - UK Release Date PR

by Dhruin, 22:35

Ascaron sent over this PR confirming a February 13th retail release date for King's Bounty in the UK:

SUMMON THE GODS TO BATTLE EVIL DEMONS IN KING'S BOUNTY: THE LEGEND

PULVERISE ARMIES OF ORCS AND DRAGONS WITH THE SPIRITS OF RAGE

King’s Bounty: The Legend, a knight saga that blends role-playing adventure and battle strategy in a fantasy land, will be released on February 13th 2009 by Nobilis and Ascaron Entertainment. The critically acclaimed* game requires players to command an army as they siege castles, conquer enemy territories and battle with ruthless beings. Supernatural allies, known as the Spirits of Rage, can be called upon to defeat ruthless armies and achieve victory for King and country.

The army will travel across land and sea, as well as underground, journeying through forests and caves to get to castles, villages and swamps. Hostile castles must be stormed for the player to expand the King’s realm and create a base, where supplies, extra troops and skills can be acquired. A hexagonal battle strategy sequence is played out, with a diverse army of humans, pirates, dwarves, hyenas and other species able to use their unique skills to slay enemies and ensure victory.

To triumph against complex enemies during more intense and arduous battles, players may need to summon the Spirits of Rage, a set of gods that can be commanded to destroy anything that lies in their path. The Spirits of Rage include:

Zerock, Stone Spirit - A huge creature, whose attacks inflict massive physical damage, breaching any defences and crushing even the most brutal enemies.
Lina, Ice Spirit - Battle sorceress from a magical world who has lost her body in a brutal battle. She will fire magical ice orbs and thorns at the enemy.
Reaper, Death Spirit - Sinister and powerful keeper of the Temple of Time, the Reaper has power over time and space.
Sleem, Swamp Spirit - This scaly monster has the power to poison swamps and its inhabitants.

For more information on King’s Bounty: The Legend visit the website
www.kings-bounty.com.

Friday - January 23, 2009

King's Bounty - Gamebanshee Launches Subsite, Armored Princess Interview

by Magerette, 18:07

Gamebanshee announces the launch of a new subsite for Katauri Interactive's strategy rpg, King's Bounty, featuring a walkthru in progres, the usual Equipment, Units, Skills and Spells databases, and some new content as well in the form of five Armored Princess screenshots and an interview with project lead Dmitry Gusarov on the upcoming expansion. 

Some snips from the Armored Princess interview:

GB: You've mentioned that KB's role-playing system will be improved upon in Armored Princess. Can you elaborate on this a bit? What steps have you taken to make the expansion feel even more like an RPG?

Dmitry: You can upgrade your hero to level 50 and beyond now. The hero's skill tree will be changed and updated. We'll introduce a reward system giving additional bonuses to the character. You can make contracts as in the original King's Bounty game, which allows you to gain double rewards for winning a battle and killing enemies. There will be the opportunity to fly on Pegasus...

GB: Are we still going to have access to Zerock, Sleem, Lina, and Reaper in Armored Princess? Will there be any other uses for Rage in the expansion?

Dmitry: No, they will be replaced by a real pet – a tamed dragon called Drago which will not sit in the casket. He will always be represented on the battlefield and act interactively to all of the occurrences happening..

GB: Will the additions and improvements made in Armored Princess be accessible in the original game as well? For example, can Princess Amelie be taken through the original campaign and can we gain access to the new spells, items, and units?

Dmitry: No. I considered that such projects like Armored Princess need their own special game mechanics and character development system. One thing is to transfer the model of the game, and making changes in locations or creating quests when you fly on Pegasus is absolutely another topic. That's huge work to do.

Friday - January 09, 2009

King's Bounty - Review @ ActionTrip

by Dhruin, 21:21

ActionTrip has kicked up a very short review of King's Bounty, with a score of 8.6/10:

Right from the get-go, you're bound to be drawn in by the slick design, appealing artwork and lovely background music. The visuals are very much behind today's standards, although we weren't bothered by this and I assume most of you won't be. Like I said, design wise, everything seems in place. Each unit or hero is animated with precision and care, both during turn-based battles and on the world map. The colorful landscape and the realms are astoundingly huge. It'll take you quite a bit of time to discover all the lands and solve all the quests.

...and Rock, Paper, Shotgun notes KB is on sale at GamersGate for $20 Euro.

Source: Blues News

Thursday - January 08, 2009

RPGWatch Feature - King's Bounty Review

by Dhruin, 01:20

While we get our RPG of the Year awards together, Magerette brings us a review of Katauri's delightful King's Bounty: The Legend.  Here's an excerpt:

The core role-playing elements that stand out in Kings Bounty are threefold; skills, items and quests. Many games including most arpgs have the first two down, but flunk on the third. Not here, where the quest system is alive and well and quirky, with both a perfect willingness to replay the golden Fedex oldies like clearing the cellar of rats (or in this case, a garden of overly-aggressive plant material) or to work in some of it's own twists on the usual, like helping the dwarves improve the quality of their wartime brew, coercing the portrait of the griffin king out of an extortionate artist, bribing your way into prison, or swindling a scamming pirate. NPCs abound, and conversations range from the sublimely nonsensical to the ridiculous, but seldom are they without the opportunity to pursue an avenue to wealth and/or experience and thus feed your need for checking off each NPC’s box in a satisfying and occasionally mind-boggling way.

Head here to read it all!

Tuesday - December 16, 2008

King's Bounty - Readers Choice Strategy Game of the Year @ Voodoo Extreme

by Magerette, 17:26

Voodoo Extreme is doing their usual year-end series of reader's polls, and in the poll for strategy game of the year, Katauri interactive's King's Bounty:The Legend, beat  competitors like Sins of a Solar Empire, Spore and Civ IV:Colonization for the number one spot. King's Bounty is also in second place behind Fallout 3 in their GOTY poll.

For best RPG, VE readers chose Fallout 3, with Mass Effect coming in third.

Source: Celestial Heavens

Friday - December 12, 2008

King's Bounty - Feature Article @ Gamespy

by Magerette, 17:28

Gamespy has an op-ed on Katauri Interactive's King's Bounty:The Legend, as an under-the-radar classic, entitled "The Games Less Travelled,"  which praises the devs for sticking with what made the original game from New World Computing great and makes the point that the industry can learn from their example:

Videogames have been around long enough to finally have a history. While we're all in favor of looking forward and pushing for innovation, there are lots of great gaming franchises languishing in the IP vaults of some really big companies...The gamers of today deserve to have some of the great gaming experiences that older gamers remember so fondly, and older gamers deserve to see some [of] these classics get remade with the technological updates made possible by today's hardware....Katauri brought back a classic and updated it in ways that would make the folks at New World Computing proud, which is why it's in the running for some of our Game of the Year awards.

Source: GameBanshee

Thursday - December 11, 2008

King's Bounty - Screenshot Competition

by Dhruin, 22:47

From the official King's Bounty site:

1C Company and Katauri Interactive announce the King’s Bounty: The Legend Screenshot Competition.

Contest rules:
Take an amusing screenshot (or several screenshots) from King’s Bounty: The Legend and accompany it with a funny caption. You can see an example in the thread “Competition” on forum.
http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=5601

The best shot will be chosen by the developers from Katauri Interactive!
Another winner will be chosen by forum members’ poll and will receive the “Forum members’ choice” prize!
The Main prize and "Forum members’ choice" prize is a free download of any game from 1C’s Buy & Download section

Monday - December 08, 2008

King's Bounty - Review @ GameCyte

by Dhruin, 21:25

GameCyte has a review of King's Bounty with a score of 4.5/5.  Here's a bit on questing:

This could all get boring in the long run, but the game manages to keep your interest with its involving quests. They still consist of RPG cliches like fetching items, defeating certain enemies, or saving damsels in distress, but you can often solve a situation in different ways, perhaps even by betraying the original quest giver if another NPC makes a better offer. If you don’t pay attention to the given text and simply click through everything, you just might get yourself in trouble, or lose a particular reward you would otherwise receive, had you chosen better. All in all, like a true explorer, you have to pay attention to get the most of this game. Even the world map promotes some thinking since only major points of interest get marked, while if you want to keep track of other locations, you have to mark them by yourself. On the other hand, the writing and humour, even with a less-than-perfect translation, complement that notion and ensure that your time has been worth it.

Friday - December 05, 2008

King's Bounty - Review @ Gamespot

by Magerette, 18:33

Gamespot weighs in on Katauri Interactive's strategy/rpg hybrid, King's Bounty:The Legend, giving it a mostly positive score of 8/10:

The only real difference between King's Bounty and Heroes of Might and Magic or Disciples is a greater emphasis on role-playing. Story is brought to the fore here in a much more overt way, thanks to a sarcastic sense of humor and a ton of quests to be solved. True, most of these quests have been scooped out of the big bag of RPG cliches (find stolen property, remove a curse, kill the big bad whatever that's plaguing our village, and so on). But many come with multiple parts that force you to venture all over the map to solve them, along with a great deal of personality conveyed through idiosyncratic characters and a lot of text. You can't just skip around like you're filling in blanks; do so and you're liable to get caught not paying attention...So even though these various tasks might not break any new ground, completing them is more involving than the map-clearing busywork that dominates the usual tactical RPG.

Source: GameBanshee

Thursday - December 04, 2008

King's Bounty - 2 New Screens @ GamersHell

by Magerette, 18:27

GamersHell has added a pair of new screenshots to their gallery for Katauri Interactive's King's Bounty:The Legend. You can view them here.

Wednesday - December 03, 2008

King's Bounty - Euro Release Date PR

by Dhruin, 22:18

It's hard to believe Nobilis still hasn't released the retail version of King's Bounty in Europe.  Anyway, here's a PR announcing a vague "early 2009" release:

KING’S BOUNTY: THE LEGEND ANNOUNCED FOR EARLY 2009 RELEASE

LEAD AN ARMY OF VAMPIRES, PIRATES, SNAKES AND DEVILFISH TO BECOME A HERO AND SERVE YOUR KING


King’s Bounty: The Legend, a knight saga that blends role-playing adventure and battle strategy in a fantasy land, will be released next year by Ascaron Entertainment and Nobilis. Players must become heroes and travel in real-time with their army across a huge continent, completing missions such as leading revolutions, overthrowing evil tyrants, slaying dragons and taking part in strategic battles to stop those with plans for world domination.

There are many unique aspects to the game. Armies can be completely customised to include units consisting of snakes, pirates and vampires, as well as the more traditional humans and dwarves, leading to exciting and extraordinary battles. Characters are able to start their own family by marrying a zombie, or any other supernatural creature that takes their fancy, before gaining extra bonus points by fathering offspring.

The game is set on a giant continent made up of different kingdoms and realms. Players travel with their armies across land, sea and underground, journeying through forests and caves to get to castles, villages and a variety of other locations. As missions are completed, characters develop new skills and collect different equipment and weapons for more demanding quests. A range of puzzling, formidable and totally unexpected challenges await, which will bring players face to face with Demons, Orcs, Fire Dragonflies and Devilfish.

King’s Bounty: The Legend will be released early next year by Ascaron Entertainment and Nobilis.

Saturday - November 29, 2008

King's Bounty - EU Version gets 1.7 Patch

by Magerette, 18:20

Katauri Interactive has released a patch for the European edition of King's Bounty published by Nobilis, which includes some of the fixes from the 1.6.5 version already issued for the Atari US version. You can see a comparison of the two changelogs as well as pick it up at Worthplaying. The patch is also mirrored in various languages at several sites, including  The Patches Scrolls, GamersHell, and  Action Trip.

Source: Blues News

Thursday - November 27, 2008

King's Bounty - Review @ Eurogamer

by Woges, 20:08

Dan Whitehead has reviewed King's Bounty for Eurogamer where it's praised again with a score of 9/10.

King's Bounty is also a game that rewards independent, adventurous spirits - it's every Choose Your Own Adventure book ever made, all stapled together so you can stroll from one page to the next at will - and the downside to this is that it's often frustratingly obtuse, giving you very little in the way of instruction or guidance despite the plethora of icons, gauges and menu screens that combine to form its dark heart. It's not nearly as complicated as it looks, but that doesn't excuse the fact you're left to work out the basic mechanics of a very deep game. Key elements such as the Spirits of Rage are just plonked into tiny buttons with no fanfare or illumination. Strip back the daunting clutter of options, insert some plain English explanations, and you've got a game with much broader appeal.

Monday - November 17, 2008

King's Bounty - Review @ ComputerGames.ro

by Dhruin, 11:39

King's Bounty has been reviewed at ComputerGames.ro, with the text reading harsher than the 86/100 score:

Is the new King’s Bounty a Heroes of Might and Magic 3 with real-time travel? As I was saying, only as a first impression. In King’s Bounty, you don’t own a castle and you can’t choose other heroes than the standard ones. You also don’t get any form of economical management, with your only resources being money, Leadership and ability runes.

The adventuring part offers flexibility in terms of meticulous exploring and riding around the map, but it’s also one of the reasons this game has no multiplayer whatsoever. It’s difficult to imagine a match between human opponents who travel in real-time simultaneously. But, on the other hand, no multiplayer = low replay value.

True, many elements are randomly generated at the beginning of each game, but after you go through the game with a second... maybe third class, that’s it. Also, there’s no map editor or scenarios, there’s no Quick Combat and the fast travel feature is almost nonexistent.

In many ways, King’s Bounty is a step forward regarding the combat aspect for turn-based games of the HoMM variety. But barring this, Katauri Interactive’s latest creation is nothing more than an RPG in which the only hero evolves in terms of basic genre principles that are already set in stone.

Source: Blues News

Wednesday - November 12, 2008

King's Bounty - Review @ Softpedia

by Dhruin, 22:04

Softpedia has kicked up a review of King's Bounty, with a score of 8.5/10.  Here's a snip:

King's Bounty: The Legend is old school while also being innovative. And it's coming from a Russian developer, so you know you can expect something a little bit weird, like CD Projekt's The Witcher or STALKER from GSC Game World. It does not disappoint those who are into tactical battles and character development, even though the game, out of the box, has some well defined bugs and at times seems to be just too hard for the average gamer.

Other than that, King's Bounty: The Legend is a blast. You get a hero, you can recruit an army, you get spells, fight monsters, save princesses and defeat the baddies. What more could you want? Well, even if you don't know it, you actually want more humor, weird fantasy tales and fighting options and that's exactly what King's Bounty offers. How about having a zombie wife whom you can turn into a human and then back into a zombie for humor? How about having a Pandora's Box which you can control for more combat options? And how about ending a dwarf miner strike for more fantasy storytelling? These three ideas sum up King's Bounty pretty well. 

Monday - November 03, 2008

King's Bounty - The Princess Expansion Revealed

by Dhruin, 22:58

Worthplaying has a very brief bit on an expansion for King's Bounty titled The Princess.  Four screens are included with this short detail:

Katauri Interactive is already working on the first expansion, King's Bounty: The Princess, adding new races, classes, bosses, arenas to fight in, improved interface, bonuses for awarded medals, and the ability to play as a female character, Princess Amelie.

Sunday - November 02, 2008

King's Bounty - Review @ GamersInfo

by Dhruin, 21:01

No score as usual for GamersInfo with their review of King's Bounty online, though they did seem to like it:

In all, I would highly recommend King's Bounty: The Legend to anyone who was looking for a game that offered many hours of entertainment at a pace that you choose. It was easy for me to play a session lasting 10 to 15 minutes to one lasting upwards of four to five hours. And with the pause feature (by pressing the space bar in combat or on the main map), you can quite easily get up and walk away from the game without having to worry about anything bad happening while you are gone (except perhaps one of your children taking control or the random power outage or the ever-so-rare alien attack).

Source: Blues News

Thursday - October 30, 2008

King's Bounty - Review @ GameBanshee

by Dhruin, 21:11

GameBanshee has kicked up a lengthy review of King's Bounty.  The score is an impressive 9.3/10 and here's a snip:

Most of the game's enjoyment and focus is on three things: thoroughly exploring to collect treasures and creatures and new quests, building up your hero to be the most powerful treasure hunter this side of Cap'n Jack Sparrow, and of course the combat (the way to prove your ever increasing power). If combat on the battlefield wasn't so entertaining to watch and full of virtually unlimited options to defeat your opponent, the game would get stale quickly. Thankfully, that isn't a problem as it is done in such an addictive yet thoughtful manner that you'll find yourself always wandering a map looking for just one more army that you deem easy enough (or challenging enough) for you to defeat. This in turn inches you that much closer to another level or unexplored area with new unknowns. Also, I must note here, once defeated, enemy armies thankfully do not respawn!

Sunday - October 19, 2008

King's Bounty - v1.6.5 Patch

by Dhruin, 12:02

Lucky Day sends word of a 1.6.5 patch for the Atari version of King's Bounty:

King's Bounty: The Legend patch (version 1.6.5) is now available for download. This patch is for use with the English version of King’s Bounty: The Legend released on September 23 by Atari.

The patch fixes several issues with video and game balance, as well as some other bugs. Please find full list of fixes here. You can download the patch (9.22 Mb) here.

Looking at the GamersGate version, it appears they've had this patch for a little while.

Friday - October 17, 2008

King's Bounty - Review @ Game Vortex

by Magerette, 17:44

GameVortex posts their review of King's Bounty:The Legend, giving it an 88% score and seeming pretty pleased with the game. They find the combat intense and challenging and have a positive take on the graphics:

Although it doesn't have quite the graphical chops as other PC games, King's Bounty: The Legend has a great visual style that has a decent bit of charm and allure to it. It's nothing you haven't seen in any other fantasy games, though everything is varied and helps create an appealing, yet consistent game world. Oddly enough, the most appealing aspect of the entire visual package was how bright everything is. Again, it isn't anything major, but with so many games trending towards multiple shades of brown and grey, it's nice to see a developer explore the rest of the color palette.

Source: GameBanshee

Tuesday - October 14, 2008

King's Bounty - Review @ Games 32, RPS

by Dhruin, 23:54

Games 32 has reviewed King's Bounty with a score of 90%:

I also mentioned earlier that there are two types of quests: those given by the King, a.k.a. main quests, and all the other, a.k.a. secondary, or side quests. They are your "bread and butter", as the saying goes, and the rewards they provide will be invaluable. Quests can be obtained from friendly troops on the map, or by talking to people in castles, taverns and other locations. They are very diverse and can range from bringing several types of units to a priest, saving a boy from werewolves, or finding a skeleton its missing head. Often, quests will take you into combat with troops defending castles, or with "keepers". The "keepers" are the protectors of powerful artifacts, and have to be defeated in order to upgrade certain items, certainly an interesting addition. These fights are by no means easy, and extra care should be taken when facing the keepers and their annoying, spell casting towers.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun's article isn't actually a review but Alec Meer is Still Consumed By King's Bounty:

Finding myself, for the first time in at least two years, with a weekend in which I didn’t have an insane amount of work to do, I idly returned to crazed Russian RPG-strategy delight King’s Bounty, which is continuing to entertain me more than any game this year outside of World of Goo. Without quite realising it, I managed to clock up something like 14 hours of play over the weekend alone, which I feel awful about - especially as that’s on top of the 25 or so I put into the game a couple of weeks back. I haven’t been this bad with a game since the height of my terrible WoW addiction a few years ago.

Sunday - October 12, 2008

King's Bounty - Trailer @ GamersHell

by Magerette, 19:49

GamersHell has added another 'Tales of Endoria" trailer to their King's Bounty collection. This is #6, and takes a look at recruiting and leadership. You can catch it and all their other King's Bounty media here.

Thursday - October 09, 2008

King's Bounty - Review @ GameZone

by Magerette, 15:59

GameZone posts their review of Katauri Interactive's strategy/rpg hybrid, King's Bounty the Legend, giving it a score of 8.2/10:

However, the sound and graphics will fade to the rear when the game's strong point, the fighting system, comes into play. Using the hired muscle to move and attack on the battlefield grid is a pure pleasure as you use strategy and cunning to usurp your foes. Standing towards the back, you can launch magical attacks and really light up your enemies. I personally will always have an affinity for turn-based RPGs and this one does not disappoint with its really deep combat system. There's even treasure chests and such that appear mid battle that can help or hurt you when you open them. Commanding your minions to take moves around the grid, kind of like a chess game, the well laid-out battlefields, the varied attacks you can get when you start really loading up your troops ... I can't do it justice, just know that the game's fighting is really well done.

Source: GameBanshee

Friday - October 03, 2008

King's Bounty - Review @ Strategy Informer

by Dhruin, 12:06

Solid reviews for King's Bounty continue with Strategy Informer offering their opinion and a score of 8/10:

For all those negative comments I have to admit to really enjoying this game. It’s easy to jump into and out of for quick gaming pleasure but it’s also easy to spend hours absorbed in the title. The world to explore is absolutely huge and the game will offer many hours of gameplay to anyone interested in finding it. The games best feature is the tactical combat screens. Each battle screen has random obstacles, dangers and even rewards which allow players to make strategic choices in battle. The animations in combat are also fun to watch. There is a definite Battle Chess quality to combat as you eagerly watch each new unit you encounter in action. They do grow old after a while though and the menu option to use fast animations in combat becomes very welcome.

Source: Blues News

King's Bounty - My Zombie Wife & The Belt O'Doom

by Dhruin, 01:04

Not a review but Rock, Paper, Shotgun's Alec Meer is having so much fun with King's Bounty, he wanted to tell a couple of stories:

First, the belt story. I found a belt! This was excellent news, as armour for my main character is rare and expensive. Better yet, the belt, apparently, could be upgraded. Right-click to upgrade, it said. So I did. I expected the game to tell me I was lacking Rare Crystal X or something, but I was surprised. “Are you sure you want to fight the keepers?”, it asked. “Er,” I said. “Yes? But I thought I was upgrading my be…”

I’m fighting inside my belt, at war with mystic guardians for the right to build a better belt. Unfortunately, it turned out said mystic guardians outnumbered my own meagre, low-level army by 10 to 1, so I was roundly thrashed within seconds. Now, in any other fight in the game, if all your troops get knobbled, you continue - respawning at the main town and receiving some sympathy cash to go hire some new guys with. This time, I got a game over screen. I was perma-killed by my own belt. Man! That’s never happened to me before. The lesson here: never upgrade your belt.

(Inevitably, I tried again later, when I was several levels higher. And I won! Hundreds of my troops were killed, but my belt is now 1 better at defence. And really, that’s all that matters.)

Thursday - October 02, 2008

King's Bounty - Review @ IGN

by Dhruin, 00:31

Reviews for King's Bounty have been a little slow to come out but IGN has posted their critique, with a score of 8.1/10:

You're going to be spending a lot of time in combat and, fortunately, that's a good thing. The turn-based battling system in King's Bounty is fantastic. At its core, the combat is simple, yet extremely deep. Like Might and Magic, skirmishes take place on flat, small, hex grids. While your chosen hero will not participate directly in battle, you'll be able to utilize summons and spells to turn the tides of war. Your army typically starts out on the left side of the grid, while your enemies are situated on the right. Each character type is allowed to move a certain number of spaces. Think of it like chess.

In addition, certain classes have different advantages. Archers can kill enemies from a distance, mages can cast defensive/offensive spells, robbers can teleport, knights excel at melee attacks, and so forth. To add to the depth, all of these classes have the ability to learn new, specialized skills. However, having more and stronger troops will not always ensure victory. It is also important to keep track of the terrain. Your surroundings will favor certain unit types over others. Demons have a higher defense on lava levels, the undead get a morale boost for fighting in cemeteries and so on. Tactically, levels with narrow passageways will funnel melee units into a potential death trap. Then there are also the grids that have obstacles like bee nests, which attack either side indiscriminately. Conversely, the battlefield sometimes has chests filled with gold, items, and spells. Having to factor all of this with the enemy's ability to counter attack provides a lot situational obstacles to overcome. While the combat is simple, there's something here for the micromanager in all of us

Tuesday - September 30, 2008

King's Bounty - Updated Demo

by Dhruin, 23:56

Rock, Paper, Shotgun has noticed an updated demo for King's Bounty if you haven't tried this little gem yet.  Word is it "features improved text and translation, video card support and - perhaps more appealingly - new character classes of Demons, Orcs and Cyclops".

Source: Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Saturday - September 27, 2008

King's Bounty - Review @ Digital Chumps

by Dhruin, 02:20

King's Bounty has been reviewed at Digital Chumps, with a score of 8.8/10:

You only command one hero through the entirety of your experience so you’d better plan out your character building if you don’t want to be disappointed on high levels (similar situation with MMORPGS). This has its disadvantages as having only one character takes away from the strategy elements of choosing the right team and it also presents problems if you wish to develop your character differently from the moves you’ve already allotted. However, the advantages are that you get a better sense of story and connection with the main character and the amount of customization is more focused and thus more expansive.

 

Source: Gamerankings

Wednesday - September 24, 2008

King's Bounty - Review @ GameSpy

by Dhruin, 09:02

GameSpy has been quick to review the freshly-released King's Bounty, where it scores an impressive 4.5/5:

It's when the player goes into combat that the real attraction of King's Bounty: The Legend becomes clear. The conceit of the battle system is that the player's hero doesn't personally fight in battle. Instead he acts as commander and chief spell-caster for armies of men and monsters that struggle with each other across a hex-grid battlefield in the manner of classic turn-based strategy games. Katauri Interactive's recreation and update of this system does their team and the legacy of New World Computing proud. King's Bounty's battle system is incredibly deep and enjoyable, more than a match for the original game or any of the classic Heroes of Might and Magic games they inspired.

Tuesday - September 23, 2008

King's Bounty - Released @ GamersGate

by Dhruin, 13:06

The digital version of King's Bounty from GamersGate is now available.

Monday - September 15, 2008

King's Bounty - Demo and Release Date

by Myrthos, 15:37

The demo for King's Bounty can be downloaded from the the 1C server and will probably be available soon at other locations as well. The demo includes the first city in the game, all three character types, multiple quests and dozens of spells.

The US releae date for King's Bounty is set for the 23rd of September and is distributed by Atari. In Europe it is being distributed by Nobilis, but the press release showed no release date for Europe though.

 

Saturday - August 23, 2008

King's Bounty - Preview @ Blue Alien

by Dhruin, 11:47

A nice overview of King's Bounty is up at Blue Alien:

The basic concept is that as an adventurer or hero in the King's service you travel around the world assembling an army to fight for you. What types of soldiers fill your army is determined by your actions in game. For example if you are a crusading slayer of Orcs you are unlikely to be able to recruit any of them into your army. Don't worry about your lack of Orcish cannon fodder however as there are over 60 different recruitable units in the game. Your actions in the name of the King will also play into your recruitment - someone who consorts with demons, even though he is doing the king's work, may reflect poorly on him. As you gain experience and win battles you also will slowly develop a leadership score that determines the size of your army and changes with your successes or failures in battle. The company you keep in your army will also determine what kind of side quests will be available to you. For example keeping lots of elves in your army means that you will have a lot of elf-related side quests while you might not see any of the dwarven ones.

Source: Blues News

Wednesday - August 20, 2008

King's Bounty - Screens @ Worthplaying

by Dhruin, 22:46

Nineteen King's Bounty screens are on offer at Worthplaying.

Monday - August 18, 2008

King's Bounty - GenCon Preview @ Destructoid

by Dhruin, 22:45

Another mini-preview and video at Destructoid, this time for King's Bounty.  Apparently WoW was an inspiration:

King’s Bounty: The Legend is an upcoming PC strategy RPG developed by 1C and published by Atari. Unlike most strategy RPGs, the concept behind King’s Bounty is to create a unique and rich experience outside of the turn-based style battles. The game certainly has an MMO vibe accompanying it. As I watched the presenter at Gen Con navigate the massive map, pick up quests, buy items, and interact with NPCs, all that I could think of was how inspirational World of Warcraft has been to the creation of even single-player PC RPGs.

Saturday - August 16, 2008

King's Bounty - Hands-On @ GameSpy

by Dhruin, 03:09

Previews for Katauri's King's Bounty continue to reinforce a positive vibe.  Here's a snip from GameSpy:

More importantly, as we played through some of the early game with our newly minted Mage character, we were pleased to note that the gameplay just feels right, particularly to someone who still remembers the original fondly. The RPG and strategy systems seem to mesh together well and provide the player with quite a number of deep and interesting strategic battles.

Thursday - August 14, 2008

King's Bounty - Screens @ Worthplaying

by Dhruin, 22:45

Four new King's Bounty screens are on offer at Worthplaying.

Saturday - August 09, 2008

King's Bounty - Trailer #4 @ GamersHell

by Magerette, 20:18

GamersHell has posted a new trailer for Katauri Interactive's strategy/rpg hybrid, Kings Bounty:The Legend,  featuring  a 1.44 minute look at the hex grid combat and some spoken backstory.

You can stream it here.

Wednesday - July 23, 2008

King's Bounty - Trailer & Screens @ Gamers Hell

by Dhruin, 20:48

A 1:36 gameplay trailer and five new screens for King's Bounty are available at Gamers Hell.

Monday - July 21, 2008

King's Bounty - E3 Preview @ Gamespot

by Magerette, 20:57

Gamespot takes a quick look at the E3 viewing of Katauri's King's Bounty: The Legend and posts a few factoids on various game elements:

A rage spirit is a type of powerful entity (of which there are several), which you will encounter in your travels. If you collect one, it will ask you to complete some quests, and upon doing so, it will ally itself with you, placing its formidable abilities at your disposal. One rage spirit we saw resembled the grim reaper, and when summoned, could cast a black hole on the battlefield. This not only looked cool (a giant, black swirling vortex presided over by a wicked wraith), but it also damaged every enemy on the hexagonal field...

In an interesting twist, our hero was married. His wife was depicted in the upper left-hand corner of the character screen, and she had four bonus-bestowing items of her own--including a baby (+5 to combat experience!). We aren't entirely sure how matrimony or procreation will work in King's Bounty: The Legend when the game finally ships on September 23, but we can't wait to find out.

 

Source: GameBanshee

Thursday - July 17, 2008

King's Bounty - Preview @ IGN

by Dhruin, 14:40

A short look at King's Bounty is up at IGN:

Along with your hero you'll acquire an army, and accruing leadership points through combat will allow you command them more effectively, but it seems to be the hero that gets most of the cool abilities. On the character equip screen you'll be able to view statistics and a variety of special abilities that can be powered up by acquiring different kinds of runes, as well as swap in and out equipment.

You can also see your wife. Yes, you'll be able to marry in the game, something you actually choose to do in the game. In this case the wife provided a few extra inventory slots and, because she'd given birth to a child, granted an experience bonus. Kind of a cold, impersonal kind of relationship, but whatever.

Friday - July 04, 2008

King's Bounty - Preview @ GamingExcellence

by Dhruin, 00:44

King's Bounty preview code is doing the rounds with GamingExcellence posting the latest article:

The game is divided into two styles of gameplay: the first has you riding around the map on your horse, army in tow. This part of the game feels most like a traditional RPG, as you can talk to people to get quests, shop at various stores for equipment or soldiers, find treasures and other locations of note, and of course fight enemies. This brings us to the other half of the game: the battles.

For anyone who has played any Heroes of Might and Magic titles, the battles are going to seem even more familiar than the overworld map. Like HOMM, your hero doesn’t fight the battles himself, instead delegating the combat to an army that you can gain throughout your adventures. This army is limited only by your funds and your character’s leadership, an attribute that is raised throughout the game, allowing you more numerous and powerful units. As you fight through battles, you gain experience which levels you up and gives you runes. These runes (which ones you get depends on your class) are used to purchase abilities in three categories. You don’t get too many, but then finding them on the ground is just as likely, if you’re willing to fight your way to them.

Wednesday - July 02, 2008

King's Bounty - Preview @ Games Radar

by Dhruin, 09:40

A short but promising preview of Katauri's King's Bounty is up at Games Radar:

The sizable, cartoonish, open world requires dozens of hours of free exploration to unveil, and is crowded with distinct geography and stocked with an eclectic range of critters and skill-enhancing loot to increase your unseen hero general’s abilities. Early on you’re limited to recruiting a handful of tenderfoot swordsman and archers, but over time I graduated to fielding Dwarven artillery and werewolves that can terrify opponents into paralysis or eviscerate them with massive Wolverine-style claws.

Source: Blues News

Tuesday - July 01, 2008

King's Bounty - Trailer & Screens @ GamersHell

by Magerette, 18:14

 GamersHell has added a three minute gameplay trailer and eight screenshots to their gallery for Katauri's upcoming fantasy strateg/rpg hybrid, Kings Bounty:The Legend.

Saturday - June 28, 2008

King's Bounty - Peek #1 @ RPG Vault

by Dhruin, 11:49

Katauri Interactive has penned a Peek article for RPG Vault on the King's Bounty property and history:

It has been 18 years since the publication of King's Bounty, which was a straightforward game about a knight who, by the will of his sovereign, travels with an army across a fantastic kingdom. He collects treasures, employs troops, and battles with enemy forces during various quests. It was a concentrated RPG with no superfluous elements, a huge variety of game situations and a randomly created gameworld; those elements made the game a hit and caused us to remember it ever since.

Alas, there never was a sequel. Its developer, Jon Van Caneghem, decided to develop games in a different direction, with less of an RPG focus, and more on strategic battles. This why we now have a whole new series - Heroes of Might and Magic. The lonely, landless knight was turned to a governor who builds castles and develops the kingdom, and who investigates and conquer new grounds with the help of numerous heroes, mercenaries and their armies. The romanticism and freedom related to him was replaced by cares about owning a kingdom.

Monday - June 23, 2008

King's Bounty - Preview @ Strategy Informer

by Magerette, 17:42

Strategy Informer is the latest to put up a preview of the fantasy  strategy/rpgish title from Katauri and Atari/1C, King's Bounty:The Legend, and they start by listing some of the problems of hybriding game genres:

Hybridization is a funny business. When you take various aspects from several games, you are running the risk of two possible results. It will either be a culmination of brilliance or a confused failure. It's a tricky design choice that often leads to fingers being pointed with the cry of “clone.” King's Bounty: The Legend is not apart from such accusations. The debut...title from Katauri Interactive seems to be founded on the consumption of already seen ideas. Its most obvious point of reference is the long running Turn Based Strategy series, Heroes of Might and Magic (which has arguably had its heyday). Its graphics engine is reminiscent of Warcraft 3, a blend of a bright colour pallet with cartoon-esque rendering. A quick glance can easily revoke any excitement but after getting a chance to play it, the nostalgic takes over and quickly puts any qualms to rest. This is a title [both] for those that have been there and done it and those who have yet to take their tentative steps into the generic fantasy realm.

 The overall impression is positive however:

The final point worth noting is the presentation. Loading times are lightning quick and only occur when entering a battle. For a preview build we were dutifully impressed. Sound comes down to simple fantasy tunes which neither please nor grind. The game's world is deliciously detailed with lush forests, dank caves and beautiful beaches. Despite its cartoon edge, it looks fantastic. It's not machine-breaking and the build was very stable. It's a well-rounded experience which we hope continues throughout the game. 

Tuesday - June 17, 2008

King's Bounty - Preview @ Frictionless Insight

by Magerette, 19:00

Gaming site Frictionless Insight posts a preview  of Katauri's and Atari/1C's fantasy strategy title Kings Bounty:The Legend with a few words on the RPG aspect of things:

I had the chance to play through the tutorials and the opening areas of the game, as well as see some more advanced combats, and King's Bounty: The Legend is shaping up to be an impressive combination of turn-based strategy and role-playing epic...

Players can pick from warrior, mage and paladin archetypes. Warriors start with stronger leadership skills (allowing them to lead more troops into battle) while mages start with more powerful magical talents (allowing them to support their forces with powerful magical spells). Paladins strike a balance between the two, with added strengths against undead creatures. All classes can grow, becoming more powerful by increasing leadership, gaining levels (role-playing-game-style) and learning new abilities in a developmental skill tree...

....I also got a taste of the RPG-type character development, and while I was only able to learn a few basic skills, it's easy to see how there are innumerable choices for configuring your character. By focusing on spell casting, leadership or special talents, it looks like one will be able to enjoy a tremendously different gaming experience. 

Source: Blues News

Thursday - June 12, 2008

King's Bounty - Preview @ 1UP

by Magerette, 17:45

King's Bounty:The Legend is getting quite a bit of attention in the last few days, it seems. Here's another hands-on of the demo at 1UP. This one is all about compaints on the localization: 

 The character descriptions are a good indication of what's to come during my short time with King's Bounty. The game received rave reviews in Europe, but so far its localization isn't where it needs to be for an American release. The game looks great, and the mechanics -- explained in detail in our previous preview -- are enjoyable, but the poor writing really hurts the experience. When playing a fantasy game, I want to be able to immerse myself completely in the universe and learn all that I can about the characters and the world. That's difficult to do in King's Bounty, as the poor translation forced me to spend time deciphering the text. This hinders the game's ability to establish a narrative.

You can read about the earlier preview here  if you missed it. 

King's Bounty - Previews @ Gamespot, Gamespy

by Magerette, 17:06

Two more big sites have put up previews of the strategy/rpg King's Bounty:The Legend from 1C and Katauri. The first is at Gamespot:

We played through several hours of a demo version of King's Bounty and are pleased to report that fans of the old-school turn-based role-playing game should enjoy the familiar gameplay mechanics as well as a few new surprises. First we chose a mage from the three preset classes. There are no immediate player-customization options, but you will equip a number of items as well as pick and choose your way through skill trees moving forward. The mage specializes in magic, the warrior in combat, and the paladin dabbles in both.

And Gamespy adds their bit: 

At the risk of parroting one of the reviews posted on the official King's Bounty site, it is indeed clear that some high-grade, heartfelt work went into creating the game. It has the unmistakable sheen of a game that someone truly cares about -- evidently a real labor of love, and despite the super-earnest fantasy corniness, it's difficult not to appreciate it. A localized version of the game is supposed to come out sometime this year, to be published by Atari, so look for more impressions soon.

Source: GameBanshee

Wednesday - June 11, 2008

King's Bounty - First View @ RPG Vault

by Dhruin, 00:41

Jonric has whipped up one of their (very) short First View articles for King's Bounty, essentially summarising some basic info.  Here's the "commendations" part:

As a demonstration that it may warrant considerable attention internationally, King's Bounty was named best game and top RPG at this year's KRI development conference in Russia, where it has also achieved bestseller status. It marks the return of a property that grognards may remember; the original was created by New World Computing, and is sometimes considered part of the famed Might & Magic franchise. The art direction fits perfectly, capturing the aesthetic feeling of the classics while updating the visuals to current standards; even at first glance, some rather imaginative monsters and eye-catching combat animations quickly stand out. The combat system appears to balance good accessibility with enough depth to keep the learning curve interesting over the course of playing through the entire campaign.

Tuesday - June 10, 2008

King's Bounty - Trailer @ GamersHell

by Magerette, 18:12

GamersHell adds 3 minutes of in-game footage from Katauri's King's Bounty:The Legend in this trailer available here. 

Saturday - June 07, 2008

King's Bounty - Preview @ IGN

by Magerette, 17:24

IGN takes a short hands-on look at  Katauri's upcoming Kings Bounty:The Legend and posts their impressions:

The easiest way to describe The Legend is that it's sort of like a blend of Heroes of Might & Magic with Master of Magic, with an art design that will remind you a bit of WarCraft. This is a sort of adventure strategy game where you guide a hero and army around a map, and they encounter hostile armies which they do battle with. King's Bounty has a few twists on this formula, though...

The first is that the adventure phase, which involves wandering around a map, is done in real-time rather than turns. This makes it more like an old school Final Fantasy game in a way, only you can see enemy armies and encounters on the map..[while] The Legend's combat system...is a turn-based mode that's not unlike the one found in Heroes of Might & Magic.

There are special attacks that you can call upon, such as spirits. These are basically elemental spirits that can carve a swathe on the battlefield, such as the spirits of rage that manifest some demons that can attack multiple units simultaneously...Should you be victorious after a battle you'll amass experience that may be enough to level up your hero. Then you can usually select an upgrade, such as improving the hero's leadership ability or giving him a boost in a certain statistic.

Source: GameBanshee

Sunday - May 25, 2008

King's Bounty - Music Tracks @ Official Site

by Dhruin, 01:01

We may have already reported most of these via our friends at CRPG.ru but in case you missed them, the official King's Bounty site has six music tracks to check out. 

Wednesday - April 23, 2008

King's Bounty - Wins KRI Awards

by Dhruin, 23:18

Not exactly big news, I know, but I thought followers of King's Bounty might be interested to hear Katauri's game has won four awards at the Russian KRI game developers' conference, according to the official site.  King's Bounty won Best Game, Best RPG, Best Game Design and the Audience Choice Award, so it looks like this one might be worth keeping a close eye on.

King's Bounty - First Russian Review, Screens

by Dhruin, 00:44

CRPG.ru dropped us a line to say they have posted the first web review of Katauri's King's Bounty.  The score appears to be 9.5/10 so apparently they like it a whole lot - but we'll need the help of any Russian readers to know more.

Anyway, for the rest of us, check out the three dozen new screens.

Wednesday - April 09, 2008

King's Bounty - Screens @ Official Site

by Dhruin, 00:41

A large batch of sweet screens from Katauri's Kings Bounty are up at the official site.

Monday - March 31, 2008

King's Bounty - Music Track @ CRPG.ru

by Dhruin, 12:36

CRPG.ru let us know they have a music track on offer from Kings Bounty titled Valley of a Thousand Rivers.

They tell us the game is due to be released in Russia on April 18th and hopefully they'll keep us up to date on that.

Saturday - March 15, 2008

King's Bounty - Preview @ Hooked Gamers

by Magerette, 16:09

Hooked Gamers previews Katuari's tactical adventure /RPG, King's Bounty:The Legend,  giving a general overview plus some gameplay details:

Developed by Katauri Interactive, Kings Bounty: the Legend mixes RPG adventure with more tactical, turn-based combat. During battles, the player controls an army of strange creatures, moving over a grid made of hexagons. Your army improves as your leadership stat does. Although your hero does not appear to directly participate in battles, he can summon creatures and give other aid to his allies...

My first impression of the King’s Bounty: The Legend battle system likened it to a game of chess. Big, shiny, tough, sparkly, flashy, pointy-thing chess. With swords. In other words, it looks like fun, particularly for fans of other tactical games.

Units...will also be able to acquire greater skills and specific features to give battles a greater tactical aspect. Your hero can command up to five squads, and while he summons Rage spirits and casts spells, his parameters, skills and totems will influence the units.

Source: Bluesnews

Thursday - March 13, 2008

King's Bounty - Music Tracks @ CRPG.ru

by Dhruin, 23:14

Our friends at CRPG.ru dropped us a line to say they have two new music tracks from Katauri's King's Bounty.  Here are the three currently available, including the first that we reported a few months back:

So, here are the tracks:

1. TriHorn Productions (author aka compositor(s)) "Main theme" (track title) - http://www.crpg.ru/article.php?sid=11485

2. Lind Erebros "Siege" - http://www.crpg.ru/article.php?sid=11501

3. Lind Erebros "Citadel" - http://www.crpg.ru/article.php?sid=11540

Thursday - March 06, 2008

King's Bounty - Website Launched

by Magerette, 17:05

1C has launched a new website for Katauri's fantasy title, King's Bounty:The Legend. Here's the site's game summary:

1C Company launches the official website for King's Bounty: The Legend - an adventure game with tactical turn-based battles and role-playing elements. In a fairy tale fantasy world of fearless knights, evil mages, wise kings and beautiful princesses the player controls a hero who explores the game world, commands armies in battle and accomplishes incredible quests.

Saturday - February 02, 2008

King's Bounty - Battle Trailer @ GameVideos

by Magerette, 18:16

GameVideos has a gameplay trailer up for 1C's and  Katuari Interactives title King's Bounty:The Legend which shows details of the hex grid turn based combat and real time movement through the game world. You can view it here.

Source: 1Up

King's Bounty - Screenshots @ Official Site

by Magerette, 17:34

The official Russian language site for Katuari Interactive's strategy rpg King's Bounty:The Legend  has posted eight new screenshots, including a look at a spellbook very reminiscent of those in the HoMM series, and the hero character screen. You can view them here. 

Source: GameBanshee

Wednesday - January 16, 2008

King's Bounty - Music Track @ CRPG.ru

by Dhruin, 22:29

Oops, I overlooked this email from our friends at CRPG.ru letting us know they have the first released music track from Karauri's King's Bounty.  Hit the link to download a 2.63Mb (.ogg) sample of the main menu track from TriHorn Productions.

Thursday - November 29, 2007

King's Bounty - Screens @ Worthplaying

by Dhruin, 22:26

21 new screens from Katauri's King's Bounty are up at Worthplaying.

Wednesday - November 07, 2007

King's Bounty - Screens @ CRPG.ru

by Dhruin, 00:34

CRPG.ru dropped us a line to say Katauri recently sent them 42 new screens from King's Bounty:

This pack of screens is partly from the eniglish version of the game, partly from the russian one. Anyway, among quite usual images, there are some that demonstrate never shown before game elements. For example, the world map or the kraken mini-boss, etc. Hope you'll enjoy these screens.

Wednesday - October 03, 2007

King's Bounty - Interview #2 @ RPG Vault

by Dhruin, 22:56

RPG Vault continues their discussion of King's Bounty with Part 2 of their interview with Katauri:

Jonric: Will items represent a significant aspect of the game? How much gear will the player character be able to equip?

Ivan Magazinnikov:
Items can be found, bought, gained as rewards or taken from monsters. There will be about 150 in the game. The player has eight slots for items, and can receive four bonus slots in the case of getting married. You can wear helmets, weapons, armors, shields, belts, boots, artifacts and king's regalia. The amount of items you can wear depends on the class of the character and his wife - only a warrior or general's daughter has two weapon slots. It is clear that you won't be able to wear two helmets at once though... do you think players will enjoy a two-headed wife?

Let me tell you a little about weddings. First, you need to find a prospective bride and to conquer her heart by completing several quests. One girl asks you to extract revenge on some elves for the death of her family, another wants a ring from a dragon's lair, and the third says she will only marry a duke. Another interesting fact is that you can have children or get divorced. So, you can replace the annoying daughter of an orc shaman with a pretty widowed vampire countess. It's up to you!

King's Bounty - 1C Product Page

by Dhruin, 01:04

1C has kicked up a product page for Katauri's King's Bounty, finally giving us something in English to look at.

Source: Bluesnews

Monday - September 24, 2007

King's Bounty - Interview & Screens @ RPGVault

by Magerette, 16:44

RPGVault has posted a feature article  on the strategy RPG title King's Bounty:The Legend, in development by Katuari Interactive. It gives a little background on the original 1990 strategy title from New World Computing, along with some detailed screens showing the hex-grid combat and unit placement. The article goes on to an in-depth interview with Dmitir Gusarov and Ivan Magazinnikove of Katauri:

 

  Jonric: To get the interview started, what are the basics we should know about King's Bounty: The Legend? What type of game will it be? What audience and ship date are you targeting?

Dmitri Gusarov:
King's Bounty: The Legend is a role-playing game with turn-based tactical combat. The main hero explores the world in real-time mode. His character reveals as he improves skills, communicates with NPCs and accomplishes quests - just like in any other classical RPG. Speaking about the adventures, this game is a bit like Fallout. The player has the opportunity to travel around the world, deal with different characters, gather various resources and develop his skills.

 

Jonric: How will your game reflect the qualities of the original, and on the other hand, what additions and improvements are you implementing?

Ivan Magazinnikov:
We wanted to make a high-quality, fascinating and attractive game. At the same time, we wanted to keep the magic atmosphere, classical appearance and the spirit of adventure as they were in the original. And the gameplay, of course!

We felt a lack of action in the adventures; that is why everything happens in the real-time mode in The Legend - the monsters are roaming, day changes to night... We added a role system, and plenty of characters and quests. We also created an interactive and highly detailed universe. The search for treasures became a specific game element, the idea of "living items" came to be, and the hero even received an opportunity to get married!

The battles changed too. First of all, we increased the role of the arenas; we made a lot of different ones and made them interactive. Units can acquire skills and specific features, and the magic system became very intricate and interesting. Players will also enjoy such innovations as Rage Spirits and super powerful bosses.

Sunday - September 23, 2007

King's Bounty - Detailed Q & A @ gry.02.pl

by Magerette, 20:40

An extended interview with Dmitri Gusarov of Katuari Interactive, developers of the upcoming strategy rpg title King's Bounty:The Legend, is given here in English and Polish language versions. The session covers a variety of topics from game mechanics to sound and graphics engine, and places a decided emphasis on the importance of the role-playing aspect of the game:

Klecha (Gry.o2.pl): How is the development team balancing the Real-time/Turn-based Strategy with RPG?

Dmitri Gusarov (Katauri): Well, you see - King's Bounty is not a strategy [game], our game is a real-time role-playing game with turn-based tactical combats. There is one famous and similar game called Fire Emblem. You could travel around the map and then to fight in a large arena moving your warriors turn by turn there too. But nobody claims that game to be a strategy. All Final Fantasy games are based on that principle too. We run to a place we want to visit, deal with other characters, and when the battle starts we find ourselves on a special arena.

Klecha (Gry.o2.pl): What can you tell us at this point about how the single player missions will be handled? How linear or non-linear is it?

Dmitri Gusarov (Katauri): The story is linear, though as we said before it is full of surprises. So don't even dream about the opportunity of getting bored - we have a lot of things to be impressed with!

There will be plenty of side quests. Their mission is to offer to the player a chance to investigate the hidden locations of Endoria. It is interesting that you can receive quests not only from NPCs, "alive items" and Rage Spirits will also assign you some missions. They will vary from simple tasks when all you need is to make some delivery job to complicated quests that can be completed with different methods and cause different results.

Source: Bluesnews

Sunday - August 19, 2007

King's Bounty - Screens @ Worthplaying

by Dhruin, 23:56

Worthplaying has 11 new screens from Katauri's King's Bounty: The Legend.

Wednesday - August 01, 2007

King's Bounty - Interview @ SC

by Dhruin, 00:36

Katauri Interactive was interviewed at E3 by StrategyCore about their upcoming King's Bounty title:

SC: The hero doesn't participate in the combat, only the troops?
In King's Bounty, you got one hero which moves around the gameworld in real-time. Unlike the Heroes series, it is all happening in real-time. It’s not mission based and there’s only one hero on the map. As soon as battle mode starts, it’s turn-based, and it’s only your soldiers, your troops that are fighting on the map. The hero himself does not participate in the battle. He coordinates the battle and helps with some magic spells but he doesn’t participate in the battle.

SC: What are the RPG elements?
There are a whole lot of RPG elements in the game. We’ve got a huge tree for the main character, where he has characteristics, perks and so on. There are actually 3 character classes that you start up with at the beginning of the game: warrior, paladin and magician. After you pick up your specialization you develop the character through the game. You can also develop the rage demons that you’ve seen. They also have 3 levels, so you can upgrade these creatures as well.

Friday - July 13, 2007

King's Bounty - E3 Previews @ IGN, GameSpot

by Dhruin, 23:06

A couple of previews have rolled in for King's Bounty, although both articles are fairly short.  Here's IGN:

Battles are all turn based and play out on a grid covered in hexagons. Depending upon the fight, logs may block out squares and create a bit of protection or gold may be scattered around for the ambitious. Environmental distractions aside, King's Bounty combat is all about moving and attacking. Archers have the range, knights have the strength, but the summoners are where it's at. We saw a reaper cast a cloud of death and a poisonous creature summon that was most effective, so much so that he surprised our 1C rep demoing the game.

...and GameSpot:

You'll be able to select either a paladin, magician, or knight to start with, and you'll also be able to distribute limited attribute points to customize your character a bit. Our demo began with us in control of a knight atop a horse. The overworld map was viewed from an almost top-down perspective and had a medieval setting. There will be other levels, though other than a castle with a moat of lava we didn't get a chance to check them out. You won't be capturing castles in King's Bounty, nor will you be given mission objectives to complete a scenario. Instead, you're able to roam free and get quests by talking to people throughout the land. You will be able to visit castles, where you can spend your hard-earned money on new party members, items, and supplies.

King's Bounty - E3 Trailer

by Dhruin, 12:09

The offficial King's Bounty site has an E3 trailer for Katauri's strategy RPG.  Although the site is Russian, the link for the 155Mb file is fairly obvious. 

Source: Bluesnews

Friday - May 04, 2007

King's Bounty - Preview @ 1Up

by Dhruin, 14:06

1Up has served up a short preview of Katauri's King's Bounty. Did I mention it's short?  Here's one of the four paragraphs:

Set in a world populated by fantastic creatures, King's Bounty: The Legend is an RPG with strategic turn-based battles. As a warrior, paladin, or mage, the hero moves about in real-time through the world and enters battle by touching one of the free-roaming enemies in the environment. From here the game switches to a turn-based mode with the hero acting as a tactical commander. Though the hero doesn't actually enter the skirmish, he controls a small unit of men and beasts in move-and-strike strategic style.

Monday - April 23, 2007

King's Bounty - Screens & Trailer @ Worthplaying

by Dhruin, 22:23

Previously known as Battle Lord, Worthplaying has 28 new screens and a trailer for King's Bounty: The Legend, the upcoming game from ex-Space Rangers developers who formed Katauri Interactive.

Wednesday - March 28, 2007

Battle Lords - Now King's Bounty

by Dhruin, 22:52

In an interesting move, 1C and Katauri (ex Elemental Games, Space Rangers) have decided to rename Battle Lord to King's Bounty: The LegendKing's Bounty is, of course, New World Computing's forerunner to Heroes of Might & Magic and was the inspiration for Battle Lord:

MOSCOW, Russia, March 28, 2007 – Leading Eastern and Central European publisher 1C Company announced today that the hotly anticipated game Battle Lord (working title) has changed its name. Moving forward the project’s official title is King’s Bounty™: The Legend. The change of names does not mean any changes for release dates or the main conception behind the project.

“King’s Bounty: The Legend is an adventure with tactical turn-based battles and RPG elements unfolding in a rich fantasy world. The character and his army of companions travel across a huge continent, visiting dozens of different locations all connected to each other. While communicating with NPCs and fulfilling different tasks, the player controls their character in real-time mode and all battles take place in classic King’s Bounty mode with a strong emphasis on turn-based tactical elements”, says Ivan Magazinnikov, project lead designer.

Developed by faithful fans of the original King’s Bounty, King’s Bounty: The Legend continues the remarkable traditions of the legendary role-playing adventure. This creation of Katauri Interactive is not just a spiritual successor for the critically acclaimed series, but its true rejuvenation.

“Our aim was to create a game that would preserve the traditions of the classic PC title,” adds Nikolay Baryshnikov, International Sales Director of 1C Company. “King’s Bounty was a founder of a new and very popular genre. There are still people that remember and love this game throughout the world. I’m sure that together with Katauri Interactive, the creators of the successful Space Rangers series, we will able to deliver a game worthy of its famous predecessor.”

The current release date is scheduled for Q4 2007.

Additional information about the game is available here: http://int.games.1c.ru/kingsbounty/

Source: Bluesnews

Wednesday - November 01, 2006

Battle Lords - Screens @ CRPG.ru

by Dhruin, 21:18

CRPG.ru let us know they have lots of new screens from Katauri's Battle Lords.  You may recall Katauri was formed from ex-Elemental developers (Space Rangers).

Information about

King's Bounty: The Legend

Developer: Katauri Interactive

SP/MP: Single-player
Setting: Fantasy
Genre: Strategy-RPG
Combat: Turn-based
Play-time: 40-60 hours
Voice-acting: None

Regions & platforms
Internet
· Homepage
· Platform: PC
· Released: 2008-09-23
· Publisher: 1C Company