Might & Magic - Remembering the Titans - Might & Magic (Part I)

Boris Bezdar reminisced about the first five games of Might and Magic.

It all began in 1986, when Jon Van Caneghem released the Might & Magic Book One, after working on the game singlehandedly for almost three years. After the original release on Apple II, the game had achieved such a success, that ports on nearly a dozen different platforms followed shortly, IBM PC and PC Engine included. The Secret of the Inner Sanctum was even released on NES at the beginning of the '90s, manifesting and celebrating the undoubted popularity of the game.

Though Book One was not nearly the first RPG for home computers, with Ultima, Wizardry, and SSI's series of Gold Box games holding the vast majority of the market, it still managed to take a foothold for a franchise to come and sold nearly a hundred thousand copies by 1989.

Plotwise, the game didn't invent the wheel. From the start, there are hints to some rivalry between two mighty wizards, named Corak and Sheltem, the good one and the bad one respectively. The later story falls in line with many popular RPGs of that time, with mixing of sci-fi elements into the fantasy setting. So, Corak and Sheltem weren't actually wizards, but cyborgs, build by higher race of Elders to serve as wardens of the colonised worlds. Sheltem had gone rouge and went into hiding, and Corak had been sent to deal with him. It is upon the player and his party of six characters to travel the world of Varn (that actually is not a world per se, but a 'Vehicular Astropod Research Nacelle'), find the main baddie, and follow him to another world. There are also lots of sidequests on the way to grind through.

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"Sheltem had gone rouge …"

He turned into a reddish powder consisting primarily of ferric oxide?

I'd love a M&M III "Enhanced Edition".

Originally Posted by DR490N
I'd love a M&M III "Enhanced Edition".

I never finished any of the earlier M&M games, but isn't World of Xeen generally considered the magnum opus of the older titles?

magnum opus

I prefer III, probably because of that : III is a large game, but with the different isles, which are very different, you always know where you are, where you haven't been. The following two are probably too big for their own good, with a world building that seemed too random to me.

Originally Posted by JDR13
I never finished any of the earlier M&M games, but isn't World of Xeen generally considered the magnum opus of the older titles?

Quite true. After that we had the parts VI and WII, which were excellent, followed by a relatively decent VIII and the atrocious IX (it looked worse due to the poor use of the LithTech engine and had atrocious art in the inventory).

I am not a fan of what Ubi did with the franchise, as they went for a high fantasy setting, removing the wholse science-fiction component of the series and ignoring completely the events from all the previous NWC titles.

I've played the first 3 M&M titles on consoles and somehow the series managed to keep my interest in it.

From the Ubi era, we had only M&M X Legacy, which is actually decent. Dark Messiah tried to be something different, but it was loathed by the series fans, just like NWC's Crusader of M&M or Legends of M&M were. Ubi tried a few other approaches, but none had the wanted success (a puzzle RPG, a mobile game). And the Ubi's own continuity is a bit of a mess. While the Heroes titles had some success, it was nowhere near of what Ubi hoped for. But that is mostly their own fault. Lots of devs fragged by Ubi left the titles in a buggy state. I don't think that at this point is anyone looking forward for an another M&M title from them. The goodwill is long gone.

Originally Posted by tekulte
"Sheltem had gone rouge …"

He turned into a reddish powder consisting primarily of ferric oxide?

A surprisingly common error over the years. I facepalm everytime I see it.

I don't have anything to add, but simply have to post on an M&M thread. They say you never forget your first love - so true!

I loved all the M&M. Didn't play IX. I know I'm alone on this but I enjoyed M&M II the most. I played that game for a solid year and I had to upgrade my dad's Apple IIe to get it to run with all those fancy new graphics and memory.

M&M II is by far the toughest game in the series. III and VII are my faves but 3 really looks rough after all this time. I thought it had some fun puzzles and great themed dungeons.

This is a series that could really use some EE love. Fix a few bugs, make them run better on modern systems, update the fonts, allow higher resolutions and leave the story completely alone.

Yup, I'd really like to see a company like Beamdog step up and redo these great games with better graphics and to run more easily on current systems. The biggest benefit would be introducing a whole new audience to some of the very best games that have ever been made.

Originally Posted by wolfsrain
Quite true. After that we had the parts VI and WII, which were excellent, followed by a relatively decent VIII and the atrocious IX (it looked worse due to the poor use of the LithTech engine and had atrocious art in the inventory).

I meant among M&M I-V when I said that. Personally, I'm a bigger fan of VI & VII than anything that came before them.

I just couldn't help myself….I had to dip my toe back into the World of Xeen earlier today, I've not replayed this one in a few years so took some time this morning and rolled up a team. I'll finish off Queen's Wish first, and after that I'm diving right into the Light side of Xeen!

This way, to the action-packed, treasure-filled mines of the Red Dwarf Range

Originally Posted by DR490N
I'd love a M&M III "Enhanced Edition".

Yeah. I played one of the old games, but it was only a few years ago and they were too old to be enjoyable. The whole interface was atrocious. I'd really like an enhanced edition.

Originally Posted by crpgnut
This way, to the action-packed, treasure-filled mines of the Red Dwarf Range

I can STILL hear that voice from the game when I read that!

Originally Posted by Caidh
I can STILL hear that voice from the game when I read that!

The voice line I mostly associate with Might and Magic is the mirrors in MM4/5 which are asking "WOHINN?" in German. (1:17 in video)

Either Worlds of Xeen or VII, I'm not sure which is my favourite.

MM1 and MM2 have always been amongst my favorites and were big influences to me back in the day. I LOVED 1 & 2 but for some reason all the rest I just could never get into and I am not sure why. Everyone loves IV but I have started it many times and I always lose interest. Same thing with VI.