I have a Demon Steed now, he's pretty cool. Ice steed is nice too. Different horses are better for different missions and weather conditions. Missions? Weather? Sounds kinda cool at first.
Unfortunately, the entire game around the horses is a mediocre, repetitive grind of the same elements over and over again. Press the arrow in different directions at the right time to jump over obstacles on the side-scroller style course, forge new horse shoes, and make new herbal concoctions for your horses. Forging magical horseshoes? That cant be THAT bad! No really, it's not as exciting as it sounds.
To further bum me out, the "quests" that your horsie can go on (which i envisioned would be semi-fun, given the rpg style of horse level-up) amount to them trotting off the screen and a timer displays. When they return, youre given your loot and a description of the conquest.
Worse yet, in order to make a level three horse, you need to breed 2 level two horses. To make a level four, you need to breed 2 level 3's. Since you use up your higher level horses making the next higher level (they cant be bred again) you have to go about training/ breeding/training another horse to breed w/ the highest progeny to get the next level horse. It's mind-bendingingly boring and tedious and literally put me to bed early a couple nights in a row… ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzz
I'll update my game blog w/ some details at the end of the weekend.
Betrayal at Krondor is now officially kicking my ass, with Nighthawks coming out of the woodwork messing up my crew left and right. Just when I start feeling good, I get totally owned. My mage gets totally ridden so he cant cast a spell, making muscle my only way out - and when youre surrounded it turns into a battle of luck and attrition.
Oh good, my entire party now all have a collective total of 12 health again. What's that, another rusting in the woods as I'm attacked again? It's a good story wrapped around frustrating, difficult, and pretty ugly gameplay. Maybe I ought to stick to the horsie thing! ='.'=