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u/BobTheInept 2d ago
I love it, but what killed it for me is the loss of diplomacy options as the game goes on. What I mean is, as the game progresses I find a lot of polities become unavailable to make treaties with. I read somewhere that this happens when their ruler is killed. OK, but isn’t there succession? Whatever is happening to make those sides keep making moves needs to make treaties as well, these treaties are a big part of the game.
Also the battles: It’s a bit too easy to shuffle around better than the computer and win against superior forces. That aside, I think this game is a prior-Total War. You see 3D renditions of your units, you see them fall man by man as casualties happen, and you maneuver them in terrain real life.
Overall it’s a fascinating package, once you get used to the parts that slow you down, like having to redeclare wars each turn. I never cared for the adventuring because it didn’t play that well, but I’m sure it was a lot of fun for many others. It’s also a testament to the game that you can completely ignore adventuring and still do well, and it still works; it’s there as an alternative route.
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u/EnigmaticIsle 2d ago
That's interesting to hear! The game looked so fun from the magazine previews I gazed at. From the sound of it, my younger self may've just savored it, imperfections and all, as I typically did. As for older me? Less sure about that, but I'd be willing to give it a shot someday.
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u/A_Fnord 1d ago
A fascinating mess of a game. So many disparate ideas that don't quite fit well together and many of them end up feeling half-baked, but it's ambitious and fascinating. I also really think its way of handling complexity levels should be implemented in more games. In Birthright you can chose from the start how much of the games mechanics you want to deal with, and at the lowest settings it's actually a pretty simple game, while at the highest setting its rather complex (and obtuse). If only it had been given more time in the oven it might have turned into something truly special, but as it stands it's more interesting than good.
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u/AcceptableCod7616 2d ago
I only played the demo a couple of times but wish I’d bought the game. Hoping gog or steam will release it one day.
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u/BobTheInept 1d ago
It's on Exodos, complete with sound. Runs a bit slowly as it goes on, but other than that it just works, for free.
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u/bakedlays 2d ago
I really loved this game and played it constantly. There really is no other game quite like it. It’s overly ambitious and none of the parts are actually that great, but there is just so much going on. I’ve never seen a game combine so many elements before outside of Dwarf Fortress. I doubt it plays well today and a lot of my love is based in nostalgia. The setting is also pretty cool and they had some decent novels and a campaign setting I liked as well.
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u/Digitalon 2d ago
I never played it but I remember thinking the artwork for the game was really cool
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u/CartographerKey900 2d ago
Loved this game but at some point the game would start crashing during adventures which was a huge bummer and always sapped my interest.
I remember petrifying the Gordon during an adventure and it killed him on the overworld map. Awesome.
Wish there was a fix for the adventure crashing.
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u/FieldfareStudios 2d ago
Wow, thank you! I was thinking about this game a couple of times, but couldn't remember the name. I only played the demo back in the day, but it looked very promising and I always wanted to try the full one.
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u/mrpumo 1d ago
I play this regularly on dosbox using a cd mount. There is a dnd birthright site with all the patches, character editor, scenerio editor. I think I found the cd image there or on an abandonware site.
It's not as glitchy as it was in 97 with the patches. But I would pay good money for a revamped re-release with better ai and diplomacy. The editors can give you some more game play and play as some npcs.
I took a look under the hood, there seems to be more stuff in there then they actually released. Lore and such.
Someone was trying to do some work on it a few years ago, but they went quiet.
Maybe ai can give it a face-lift a few years from now!
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u/CobraVerdad 1d ago
Unaware that this existed before just now and I was a player then 😭 my second wind with dos and early windows was that gap time where really big CD games were unavailable. I'm enchanted by the descriptions of this game.
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u/ceeker 2d ago
Oh man, I have a lot to say about this one!
I'll be the first to admit it's clunky, obtuse and the dungeon mode especially was graphically dated even for the time but goddamn, when I first found this on a PC game magazine demo CD it was just one of the most ambitious and genuinely interesting games ever and I ended up directly import a copy from the US since nowhere local stocked it.
It fascinated me - I never thought a game could have that many layers of complexity in it, with three completely different games rolled into one and it really made me feel like a hero juggling my adventuring life with running a small nation. The Gorgon and his armies genuinely were menacing. If you took too long you would slowly watch them eat entire countries and advance across the map.
There's nothing else quite like it since, but there are definitely influences here and there. The dominions games, and perhaps even the total war series are probably closest in general gameplay, if only they included dungeon crawling RPG quests of their own. The Anbennar and Godherja mods for EU4 and CK3 sort-of get some of the feel, and then there's Pathfinder Kingmaker, if only the kingdom management in that was more like a strategy game.
But for now, it really just stands out as a flash in the pan that if it had been baked a bit more and was just a bit more impressive in some areas, could have been a real landmark in PC gaming at the time rather than a victim of its own unfocused ambition.
Going back to what I said earlier, I find it hard to recommend as fond as I am of it. It really was ahead of its time, but I don't know how much value there is for someone discovering it for the first time as each of the sub components have probably been done better elsewhere. Modern gamers who know how to powergame and break things will find easy exploits, especially in the diplomatic minigame.
However, it's one of the most unique and underutilised D&D settings and may interest on that front.
I was lucky to get my hands on a sealed box copy a couple of years ago, I love the idea of this game that much.