Dark Side, the one with vampire Snow White cover.
Oh, shit! I had no idea this was a thing. I thought it was Warriors of the North - I had no idea another game came out in the series. How was Dark Side, did anyone play it? Should I play it?!
I thought the last one was considered inferior to Warriors of the North, and Crossworlds was still considered the best. If that’s wrong, then there are at least 3 worthwhile games in the (modern-ish) series which amounts to a crapton of gameplay. Now I need to dig whichever I have of these out…
I read one review that hinted at the same, several recent reviews liked it, but overall it doesn’t look like something I need to get right away - I have plenty to play anyway. If this drops down to $5 in a sale, I’ll snag it.
Doh, sorry, I missed that you were referring to Warriors of the North as the ‘last one’.
The internets tell me Crossworlds >= Warrior of the North > Darkside, but with of course varying opinions on the details for anyone playing along at home.
Crossworlds (and really even just vanilla AP) > The Legend > Warriors of the North. Dark Side is the only one of the four that I haven’t played; it is in my Steam library, and that might not be the worst way to spend the next couple of gaming weeks.
Everything out there indicates that Crossworlds is Armored Princess plus stuff, and there is no reason to go for AP.
The thing I can’t tell though is if it is worth it to go back and play The Legend first, or go right to Crossworlds. There seems to be a lot of love for the first, but it apparently lacks a lot of QoL of that later versions.
I wouldn’t worry about playing Legend. It’s good, but easily has the most backtracking and other QoL issues that were fixed in AP. The stories also really aren’t related, so there’s no lore reason to worry about it. AP/Crossworlds is also plenty long, and even if it is your thing, it can be easy to tire of it before reaching the end. And if you’re not tired of it by the end, the third and fourth iterations are still out there for you.
Excellent to know, thank you!
All this talk has spurred me to check & apparently I own the Legend through GOG, D2D & Gamersgate; I wonder how that happened.
I also own Armoured Princess, Crossworlds, Warriors of the North & Dark Side. I didn’t know I owned Dark Side; I recall being put off by reviews but I guess it must have got so cheap I couldn’t say no.
Seems like I never played Crossworlds or the last 2 either.
Armored Princess and Crossworlds confusion is the common one. The answer is you should play Crossworlds, it’s what you’d call Enhanced Edition today.
The Legend is more or less obsolete. The series is iterative. Crossworlds is a huge improvement over The Legend in many ways including proper wide-screen support, better UI, better world design (backtracking is minimized cause you get a ship and almost every map has a coast), much better progression system (a lot of The Legend skills were basically mandatory QoL improvements and you get them for free in Crossworlds) etc. People say Warriors of the North and Dark Side are worse but those games are basically standalone expansions and are built on the same gameplay loop.
I actually own them, but just assumed they were all more of the same and never looked into the improvements, though, as I said, I played a lot of Legend. I may be reinstalling…
I remember enjoying Warriors of the North less because it felt you were fighting the same enemy race for the majority of the game, before they mixed in the other races.
Darkside was amusing for the “dark fairytale” angle, but a bit slight.
If you go for one, go for Crossroads for the reasons mentioned earlier.
Ps- I also read the RPS bit before seeing the update in this thread, and was similarly confused why the writer compared Witcher 3 favourably -as being the superior RPG title - to this fantasy combat series with light RPG elements.
Just wait until he realises Call of Duty allows for choosing perks!
Ya know, I just installed Crossworlds and I think there isn’t enough nostalgia + gameplay to keep me interested. Maybe I need to be in a different mood. 10 years or however long since Legend released and I think I am ready for whatever this new iteration brings.
Looking at my steam library, looks like the one I own is Armored Princess. So therefore, that’s the one I should try out.
New preview:
I like it, I’m pretty sure, although I’m saddened that a lot of the more fantastical elements of King’s Bounty: The Legend appear to have been sanded away.
If that is the entirety of the battlefield, it’ll take getting used to after playing so much Planetfall. Then again I don’t know what the movement paradigm is for this game, maybe units move 2 or 3 hexes max?
I won’t bang on about the story of this sequel, as I found it stilted and a little dull
hmmm…that’s not good.
It’s a beautifully rendered setting, particularly after you escape the wintry tutorial area and find yourself in the more varied Crown Lands, which feel huge and non-linear, but without quite reaching the daunting scale of an open world.
better!
From what I’ve seen of the game, I think it will suffer when compared to modern open world RPGs, for which a ‘living, breathing world’ is of paramount importance.
this is the 2nd preview that I’m aware off that seems determined to compare this to full on rpgs…which is just odd imho.
Next sentence is a bit more hopeful though:
However, if you approach it from another angle—as an ambitious reworking of the core King’s Bounty concept—there’s more to be hopeful about.
I’m actually more hopeful after reading this than I was before. I’ve been taking peeks at the steam pages over the last few month, and I thought it was going to be linked to KB in name only, but it seems quite close to the recent stuff, but with slightly more grounded fantasy, and supposedly better battles.
I still intend to buy this though.
Really though, if I can’t marry a zombie, what’s the point?
Wait, is this not a fantasy game anymore? That’s one of the best part of King’s Bounty.
It is, it just (allegedly) lacks the creative insanity that Katauri imbued The Legend with.
Not sure this is worth a separate thread, but there is a new Disciples game coming:
It looks like a (much) darker KB, same idea it seems from the trailer.
Although my memory of the first games was that they were more HoMM than KB, although KB and HoMM have a fair bit of crossover.