New Game: Secret of the Silver Blades

Playing on: DOS PC (EGA, Sound Blaster 1.5, 286 16MHz)

Year: 1990

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After the defeat of Tyranthraxus in Curse of the Azure Bonds it is finally time to move on to the second half of the original gold box quadilogy with Secret of the Silver Blades, released in 1990. It’s also time to switch over to a more capable PC to play these games on though if I wanted I could easily complete the last two games on my trusty Tandy 1000rl using Tandy color and sound. Secet does support EGA graphics as well as a mouse and Adlib sound. The box claims it supports CMS sound but there is no option for this during installation. other than the intro song at the title screen the game doesn’t seem to use the Adlib chip anyways.

I was able to pretty easily port my group over from Curse via floppy disk and using Secrets character importing option I was able to transfer the group into the new game pretty easily. The character screens in this game feel a little more polished.

After porting my group it was time to start my newest quest.

The game starts with your party being magically kidnapped against their will to a land in the frozen north in order to face some new mysterious threat to a small mining town.

Yes, the intro says your group has indeed grown bored with the peaceful life but I don’t quite think that translates into “Gosh, I wish I was randomly teleported away to a frozen waste without any money or the magical weapons, armor, or items I have acquired over the past adventures”. Obviously, the game needed a way to, once again, separate the group from its previously hard-earned magical goodies but it’s really feeling extra contrived at this point.

My group, being the nice chaps they are forgive this and gladly accept the new quest. Once my party arrived I was immediately exposition dumped about how the humans had delved too deep into the frozen mines and now monsters have started to appear and threaten the town. My group was teleported here by a sort of magical wishing well of knowledge that the town previously had access to but that was now in the hands of monstrous forces.

I’d still call being unexpectedly teleported away without any money weapons or armor more than an “inconvenience” but whatever. The mayor at least gives the party some money and a few random magical weapons and armor. after diving things up and buying the rest of what’s needed at the local armory I decided to exit out of the main town gate and venture into the ruins.

I quickly encountered my first battle as the ruins are patrolled by groups of minotaurs and bugbears.

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Battles play out as they did in the previous game and my group quickly dispatched the group of minotaurs. I could immediately see there was an improvement in graphical quality in this title. Secret of the Silver Blade also immediately destroys its economy by giving the group thousands of coins and gems from the very first battle. After wandering around and fighting a few more battles I stumbled upon what appeared to be an entrance to a mine shaft though I couldn’t find a way down. It was at this point I remembered the mayor telling me that there was a portal in the back of his home that led to the magical well he spoke of earlier and figured maybe that was supposed to be my first destination.

On making it back to town I used my newfound riches to finish equipping my party with the best weapons and armor I could and then decided to rest at the mayor’s house. It was then I was attacked unexpectedly by a group of assassins. They weren’t very hard to kill but it was an unexpected encounter. This has also happened to me once more during a random rest since then so my guess is this is going to be a random occurrence I’m going to need to get used to.

This could end up being a real problem if I’m forced to rest after a particularly difficult battle and I am attacked in a vastly weakened state.

After finishing off the assassins and resting up I found the portal that the mayor talked about and hopped through. I was pretty quickly thrown into the middle of a fight between a group of priests and a group of wizards called the Black Circle. I was given the option to stay out of it or pick a side to fight and I decided to attack the black circle. First off I wanted some sweet sweet XP and second no group called the “Black Circle” can be good guys. After killing the wizards the priests promptly attacked me, turns out they were priests of Bane, oopsie.

When returning to rest the Maoyer filled me in that the Black Circle appeared after the monsters appeared and so far have been attempting to help the town. There’s even a wizard in town where the group can buy a few magical items.

traveling back through the portal I discovered an inner area surrounded by a metal fence. on entering the area I was attacked by a group of infant red dragons. After defeating them and moving past the second fence my group was assaulted by two adult red dragons which thankfully weren’t too problematic. In the center area, I encountered an ancient red dragon which pretty quickly decimated my unprepared and greatly weakened group. You would have thought I would have rested and prepared after the first two dragon encounters but I had pressed my luck.

On my second attempt, I was much better prepared and was able to beat the dragon without any casualties.

After killing the red dragon I had freed the well of knowledge as well as acquired some nice XP and treasure. The well then talked to my group and explained that the black circle is actually here to awaken the “Dread Lord” who is trapped in his frozen castle within the glacier. They are using the mines to access the castle and attempting to free this “Dread Lord”. I knew these Black Circle guys were bad news. The well also informs me that I can return here and offer gems for hints on where to go next as well as that a new portal has opened up in this area. The well also gave me a map and the location of an “Amulet of Eldmar” which it claims I must collect. Before heading for the amulet I decided to head back to town and take care of the magic shop run by the Black Circle now that it’s confirmed they are evil.

After calling the guards bluff and slaughtering them I defeated the Black Circle mage running the shop. After clearing out the shop I tried reentering and apparently, the locals immediately reopened the shop selling the items at a discount.

After this, I reentered the ruins and following the map made my way to the red dragon. making short work of him and recovering the Amulet. It still feels odd to me that Red Dragons are just an inconvenience at this point and I still have an entire game to go through in this series.

At this point, I was a little lost and unsure where to go, and spent some time wandering the ruins. Eventually, I made my way back to the Well of Knowledge and after exploring some more back into the ruins and then a headquarters of the Black Circle. The headquarters is filled with various rooms full of high-level fighters as well as magic-users that love to cast annoying spells such as lightning bolts and enfeeblement. At one point my party ran into the old clerk from Pool of Radiance. This was a fun nod to the first game as the party was seeing her likely more than any other NPC in the first game.

Apparently, she was acting as some kind of liaison, and once you catch up to her she’s happy to hand over some journal entries. There was also an instance where I was able to cast dispel magic in order to counter a magic assault while advancing through the compound which was a cool idea to be able to do that action outside of the tactical combat screen.

At the end of the headquarters was a final battle first with some young red dragons and then a group of Black Circle fighters and mages.

Now, I have to admit after this point I was kind of lost. I mean, I knew that I had to enter the mines to progress but I had no idea where the mine entrance was. The one mine entrance within the ruins I did know of was apparently sealed and nothing happened when I would go to that location so There was either some step I had missed or there was a second mine entrance.

I do enjoy the little details such as the townsfolk randomly shouting encouragement

Now at this point, I have to confess, I pretty much never draw maps. It’s not that I hate the idea but first off I feel it just slows the experience down to a crawl and second between my sense of direction and memory I’ve never really found the need to map, I always seem to be able to navigate the dungeons. I never once mapped in any of the previous gold box titles, nor games like Eye of the Beholder or any of the score of console RPGs I’ve beaten, as a matter of fact, Wizardry is probably the only game I’ve even found the need to map. That said I found myself utterly deated by the ruins in Secret of the Silver Blades. No matter how many hours I spent wondering about the ruins I could not progress. Finally, I broke down and referenced the clue book map which led me to a second mine entrance….I still don’t know how I failed to stumble across it in my hours of wandering the ruins.

On using the correct entrance I was given the option of selecting several mine levels to descend to as well as a temple. I chose the temple being it was the first option. Saving in front of the temple entrance I expected some kind of fight inside but upon entering I received text describing the temple as having a good aura….which kind of made looting the few treasures and magic weapons inside a bit awkward feeling. Upon exploring the temple I eventually came across a dwarf…or gnome, can’t recall who apparently had been expecting my party.

The dwarf (or gnome) explained a little more about the backstory and that he is the last surviving member of the group of heroes that originally defeated the lich. To enter the lich’s castle and defeat him I have to, apparently, get past a ghost paladin and to do this I need a magical staff. The staff is, of course, broken into eight pieces spread over eight different levels of the mine.

Most people have very fond memories of the first two gold box titles and up until this point, I felt Secret was actually pretty solid and I started to become curious why it wasn’t as beloved. I now think I know why.

So far I have recovered four pieces of the staff on levels 1-4. despite some random flavor text about seeing eyes glow in the dark and such and a handful of other described chambers the first four floors have been all the same as far as looks and also feature the same enemies, although in slightly more numerous amounts. This just all feels really lazy and to be honest when compared with sections of earlier games just feels like filler to me. Thankfully if you have gems you can go to the well of knowledge which will tell you which of the four directions to go on watch level to find the staff piece so if one chooses you could probably breeze through this section pretty quickly. Unfortunately, I want to explore watch level in its entirety which means a lot of monotonous encounters with giant centipedes, minatours, and cackatrices which can on occasion turn party members to stone.

There are monster lairs sprinkled around the mine levels which, after a fight with a group of monsters yield a few seemingly random magical items, so there is that.

There are a few, what appear to be, scripted encounters with Umber Hulks.

So I think this may be a good place to end part one of this playthrough of Secret of the Silver Blades. I suspect I may be about halfway through the game though I’m not really sure. I’m really hoping the game gets a bit more interesting and varied after I get this business of the staff and mines sorted out.

RPG 198 BEATEN: Live a Live

Playing on: Nintendo Switch

year: original SNES release (1994), Switch remake release 2022

Live a Live was a Japan only SNES title from 1994 that I had always heard about but never really looked into much. The game had an English fan translation for quite some time but was recently officially translated and remade for the Switch. After doing a lot of research it seemed that the Switch version was the definitive version and the version I wanted to play as it seemed to stick strictly with the plot and soul of the original while only improving sounds and visuals to a 2.5 graphical style. There are some quality of life features such as a sort of map guide to help determine where to go next but you can disable these, as I did, so your experience is more like if you were playing the original SNES version.

The game is quite interesting and was pretty innovative for its time as it lets you tackle a number of seemingly unrelated stories from different time periods stretching from prehistory to the far future. In the end after completing all stories a separate scenario opens up and eventually everything is tied together.

The game varies in playstyle as well with some scenerios playing as very traditional JRPG fare while others may involve very little combat and may play out very unconventional for an RPG. When combat does take place it is done in a turn based side view but you can move around the battle area as opposed to being stuck on one side and trading blows akin to something like the early Final Fantasy games.

The first area that I tackled is the prehistory scenario. This scenario basically amounts to trying to
“get the cave girl” while playing as a caveman accompanied by his…ape man(?) friend. the girl is continuously captured and recaptured by a rival tribe of cavemen to be used in a King Kong style sacrifice. At multiple points in the scenario, the player faces off against the rival tribe’s pretty boy war chief and ends in a climactic battle against, of course, a T-rex-looking dinosaur. Some interesting things in this scenario are the total lack of any language or voice acting as communication is done via grunts, images, and pointing as well as the players’ ability to use scent to reveal enemies on the map. This scenario overall is sort of played on a comedic angle complete with flintstones style rock cars.

The second scenario I tackled in roughly historical order was imperial China. This scenario plays much more seriously than the first which the player controls an aged kung fu master as he searches for and trains three new disciples to carry on his art. The king-fu master started at level 10 and unless you screw up royally is mostly unbeatable through most of this story-driven scenario. The first half is played out exploring a relatively small area around your mountain school to recruit three students. After this is a section where you continuously battle these students in order to raise their levels. This section is quite repetitive but short. After this, in a sad and unexpected twist, two of the three students are killed as local bandits from a rival martial arts school raid your mountain school. I believe the student that survives is dependent on which one you trained the most. The last portion of this scenario is the master and his last remaining student storming the rival school ending in a confrontation with the school’s master and its students. Unlike the prehistory scenario, this one was much more serious in tone though as I mentioned earlier, it can be repetitive in parts.

The next scenario I played was the Twilight of Edo Japan. In this scenario, you play as a ninja or shinobi trying to infiltrate a castle and ultimately slay the rival clan leader who is in league with demons and plans to conquer the whole of Japan. It seems like a pretty simple setup but the castle complex itself is quite large and even a little maze-like. There is an extra challenge as you can attempt to complete the scene using stealth with no kills or the opposite and kill every human. I just went in killing anyone that stood in my way but didn’t go out of my way to kill everyone. The castle is full of secret areas and there are several ways to reach the endpoint with the opportunity to pick up characters to help you as well as a few secret super bosses that grant you some powerful items upon defeat. Besides the final confrontation and the castle guards and demons there are also several enemy “generals” you can face. The castle and its inhabitants have a lot of character and I really enjoyed playing through this area.

The next chapter I tackled was the Wild West chapter which once again plays out differently from the prior scenario and is also very short, easily being able to be completed in a single sitting if you’re determined. The setup is a pretty classic old-west movie scenario where a town is about to be attacked by a villainous outlaw gang and it’s up to a mysterious gunslinger stranger who wanders into town to rally the meek townspeople and fight off the attack. The meat of the chapter plays out within a short time span where you and your impromptu ally, a bounty hunter that’s been previously on your trail have to score the town for random items and then use these items to make traps which you assign to various townspeople to set up in anticipation for the attack. Each townsperson takes different amounts of time to set up the traps. Traps include distracting girly posters, pit traps, Molotov cocktails, and hidden dynamite. On my first attempt, I was able to eliminate all but two members and their leader. There are no experience points or leveling in this chapter so completing it is all about strategy and setting up the traps. The final battle of this chapter was quite difficult and I failed it on my first try as the boss seems to have a virtual one-shot kill attack that he employs sometimes though I found the positioning of my characters was very important in this battle.

The Present Times chapter is perhaps the shortest in the game. This is a very strange chapter and barely feels like an RPG but more like a condensed session of Street Fighter. You play as a martial arts fighter battling to be the world’s best. To do this you must face and defeat five of the world’s best fighters, one of which is a blatant Hulk Hogan rip-off, right down to the “brother” catchphrase. There is no experience to gain in this scenario. The main goal is to let the opponents use their special moves on you which you then learn and can use on other opponents, It kind of reminds me of Mega Man and stealing boss weapons which other bosses are weak against. I found the majority of fights to be extremely easy and it was more of a chore waiting for them to use a special move on you that you can learn before you accidentally defeat them too early. It’s an interesting idea and they nailed the Street Fighter feel but it’s a little boring and repetitive. You can defeat this chapter in well under an hour. After all the fighters are defeated and you are proven the best you face a final challenger. The last battle was far more challenging than the others but I still managed to defeat him on my first go. The scenario ends with the realization that you’re going to be hounded the rest of your life by new challengers hoping to tear your title away and become the new best of the best.

The near future scenario is the one I tackled next and it plays out much more like a “typical” RPG, at least compared to the two previous scenarios. This scenario has a strong Japanese mecha anime feel to it and it revolves around trying to stop an evil corporation by reviving a huge robot named the “Steel Titan”. This chapter takes place in “near future” Japan where you play a character that has the ability to read minds. It’s an interesting mechanic to speak to an NPC and then read their mind and see what they are really thinking, as a matter of fact, this is crucial to advancing. The chapter features leveling and an overworld map and takes noticeably longer to complete than the previous two chapters. The final part of the chapter has you piloting the fabled “Steel Titan” through a city as you’re are attacked by the military. It concludes with a battle against a bird god statue who was brought to life via liquified human consciousness, it’s strange.

The final scenario I tackled was the far future chapter. This is a strange one as again, there is no leveling and very little combat outside of a gamer within the game you can play. The chapter takes place on a spaceship transporting a dangerous creature when things onboard suddenly go deadly wrong. You play as a small defenseless robot and the game mostly plays out as you simply observe events and flee from trouble. The chapter plays out like a strange mix of an Alien movie and a murder mystery. It’s an interesting change of pace but to be honest it could get kind of boring just running back and forth looking for the next room to enter or character to talk to in order to trigger a cut-screen and move the plot forward. Long story short, a lot of drama takes place between crew members, people die, the coms are cut off and the beast inevitably escapes. In the end, we learn the ship’s AI went rogue and was behind it all, a pretty predictable concussion that ended with a boss battle against said AI.

With all the initial chapters completed a secret new chapter taking place in the Middle Ages became available. I have to say, this chapter ties in with the other chapters and also introduces one of the most justifiable villain transformations I have ever seen in an RPG. This chapter plays out almost as a homage to classic JRPGs. You have a classic medieval setting, random encounters, and a princess captured by a “Lord of Darkness”. The princess also happens to be your newlywed wife. As with any classic RPG the king sends you off on your quest and you are quickly joined by your magician friend/rival. After finding and convincing the kingdom’s prior heroes to join you the group confronts the dark lord only to lose the legendary hero and your friend in the battle. It’s also revealed the dark lord was just an imposter. This is where things get interesting as you end up being framed for the murder of the king turning everyone except the priest Uranus, who also dies, against you. When you go back to battle the dark lord and save the princess you learn it was your friend who faked his death and was behind everything. He framed you for the murder because he was jealous of you and was also in love with the princess. After slaying him in battle what you expect is a heartwarming reunion with the princess and the clearing of your name. Instead, the princess, your wife, scolds you for not saving her fast enough and then, if that wasn’t bad enough proclaims you the bad guy for killing your former friend, the same guy that framed you, and claims he was really the one loved her. She then pulls a Juliet and stabs herself in the gut ending her life and any chance of clearing your name…..Now I’m a little unsure if she always loved the other guy but the flashbacks indicate this isn’t the case and she just came down with the largest case of Stockholm syndrome to ever exist. Our hero, understandably is a bit upset after losing everything and everyone and thus, takes up the mantle of the dark lord.

Now we encounter the final act. The final act works to bring all of the storylines together as after choosing any of the previous heroes you are transported to the medieval world we just played through except this time everyone is seemingly dead and there are no NPCs outside of the other main heroes. The goal of this area, other than defeating the dark lord is to find the other heroes hidden around the world and convince them to join your party. You can only have four of the heroes travel with you so choose your favorites. Another thing you can do is defeat optional bosses and acquire eatch hero’s ultimate weapon. Some of the heroes are quite easy to discover whereas some are harder to find and require certain actions done in a certain order.

This is a sold and interesting hidden gem of an RPG overall. Some of the chapters are better than others though and whereas some players may enjoy the style of one story they may hate the style of another and this can bring the experience down. In my own opinion, chapters like Edo Japan were excellent while others like the street fighter themed modern era was very ho-hum. I really didn’t see the end coming though with the Middle Ages chapter and I actually felt really bad for the protagonist of that chapter after he lost everything and decided to become the dark lord. Overall a sold enjoyable game overall.

Grade: B