Poll review and next games coming up!?

The last poll showed that almost half of the voters would like to see any part of the Ishar series revisited, while Amberstar/Ambermoon was a clear second. It was no concidence these games showed up in the list. I have my personal experience with each and everyone of them and have had all of them in mind for a future revisit. Note the careful word revisit. This blog is not about completing each game I undertake, although that happens from time to time when the game is good enough. It is more about reviewing the games and show their strengths and weaknesses.

Might and Magic IX is game I still own a copy of but it was a huge let down when I bought it almost 10 years ago. I never finished it but somehow I have either forgotten how bad it was or I was just giving up on it when other good games arrived. I have had that game in my thought to be a potential game to be revisited. Is it as bad as the reviews says ? Is it really the worst possible end of a successful lines of titles that now gets its name dragged into the mud ?

Amberstar/Ambermoon seems to be considered as uncarved jewels. They are by many considered classics but they where either hard to get by and/or did not sell in enough numbers to be spread enough. I surely missed them when I owned my Amiga at the time. I have understood they are quite huge for its times and will take considerable time to play. I did made a try in 2011 to play Amberstar with WinUAE, but even though the music is really great, I found the interface clumsy and the game very slowpaced. I gave up after a few hours. I do, however, feel there is something deep down there to get if you have the patience and time it requires. It reminds me of the dedicated time you have to put into Wizardry VII. I might be willing though to give it another try at some time.

The Ishar series is an RPG adventure suit that I never really got into, despite owning one of them for my beloved Amiga 1200 in an AGA version. I probably got stuck very early on. I do know that these games as well has an appreciated group of followers. I remember that the music in Ishar 2 is very good and still listen to it from time to time. Here is an excerpt. I did not appreciate them very much at the time but is there still good gameplay value buried into them for a revisit ?

My all time favourite is Legend of Faerghail. I think I spent hundreds of hours with it on my Amiga. The graphics as well as music was top notch and the atmosphere, party buildning and number of spells available quite staggering. I think this will be the game I first will revisit. I do fear, though, that I will be just as disappointed with it as when I revisited Bard´s Tale III last autumn. I do hope that will not be the case, since I hate to have my illusions and fond memories crushed.

After completing my current task of conquering Abandoned Places II any of these games above might come up as the next revisit. No promises though :-)