If there’s one thing an old-school game like Might And Magic 1 does well is making you suffer for your mistakes. It’s almost to the point of being somewhat cruel. It’s however now a lesson learned the hard way. Granted games are also supposed to be fun I guess this one just requires taking things a lot slower than one might expect.
The mistakes I’ve made since getting to this new town have only worsened. I suppose while I was more than needing to get out of the first town I should have stayed and enjoyed things being “easy.” This place has been anything but that.
One of the hardest things to get over so far is just how massive the packs of creatures I’m now running into are. To say it’s silly is an understatement. I can only hope and pray that the mix of creatures I do find is not something that I can’t defeat.
One thing I had yet to work out well is when I should attempt to flee. Now there are situations like the one above where I have “surprised” the group I ran into and therefore the game is giving me a chance to run away.
The group above is a group I should have attempted to escape from. Even once you are in a fight you can attempt to escape. Needless to say, some of those attempts worked and others did not but it would been death regardless.
The group above with as many as there ended up being something I’d try and escape from. Not because of the amount of creatures in that pack. It ended up being over just one type of creature that is mixed in with the rest. All those blasted Sprites. They curse reducing my hit chance and after a few curses not a single non-magic character in my party will be doing anything but missing.
Another large mistake I’ve made is not leveling up higher before taking the one-way trip to the next city and its surrounding area. While I would not be shocked if there was not too far of a way to get back to where I was. I have no idea where to even go and there is a good chance I’d not survive the trip and end back up at my current inn anyways.
My sorcerer is still quite worthless and that should been my first hint that I was not ready to come here just yet. It turns out his next set of spells is quite insane and would make a lot of encounters easier. However for now he’s almost better off attempting melee damage if anything is in range than doing 2 to 5 spell damage. While there are a couple of other spells they usually fail or only last a turn or two in combat.
I also have discovered even if you survive an encounter it’s not always worth wanting to move on from that point. It might even sound crazy there have been instances where I’ll kill off a pack and close out the game and not run back to the inn to save.
Now that might sound crazy but hear me out. I don’t have a lot of gold at this time. I need any gold I can keep for paying for leveling up on training and further item upgrades. It just so happens some encounters leave the condition of my characters in a manner that is not resolved by simply resting.
Now my cleric can cure a couple of different things that my characters could be suffering from. However, after looking into things it turns out I’m a good two levels away from some rather clutch cures spells for the areas I want to hunt in.
At this stage of the game going to the healer and paying 100 gold per character to resolve issues is just far too much. That would be 600 gold every time my group takes poison. This has happened enough times I’ve decided I just can’t afford it.
There is thankfully a way to try and reduce my risk of this happening. First I decide to flee if possible after I have learned what creatures in an area cast things I can’t cure on my own. The second is casting protections which don’t last long since I’m always having to rest and therefore am losing those buffs. Spending my limited mana to do so is however far better than trying to come up with enough gold otherwise.
You also have the fact that I sometimes get way too greedy. I just want to sit in a zone for half an hour or whatever grinding away. I don’t want to be making lots of trips even more so the further I go out back to the inn to save.
That also means however when I get killed I’m losing a decent chunk of time played. It’s become a rather annoying struggle trying to find a balance trying to grind as much as I can and always running back to save.
You would think I’d get to a point where I’d just murder anything that looked at me. Even when that happens I’ve learned it’s far too easy to become overconfident of an area to be put into the ground by the next pack of creatures I ran into losing a lot of time.
There are also mistakes I have no idea yet how to avoid. During one trip to the temple to cure a single party member who got poisoned, I noticed they had a pay 1,500 gold to un-curse items option. Even worse I had gone to save before going over to the temple to discover this.
What happened is I looted a new shield that had +1 on it and it was an upgrade for that character. So I swap it out for the old one. At the time I swore that character did not gain any armor for wearing a better item. I however just assumed I must have been mistaken.
It turns out I was not mistaken and made a grave mistake that would cost me 1,500 gold one day to resolve. The item in question despite me not being able to tell is cursed. My character gets no extra stats from it.
The worst part of it all? I can’t remove the shield and I already saved it at the inn. So if I want to get the blasted item off that character I need to pay 1,500 gold. Now that is quite a cruel and usual thing to do to the player. That is a massive sum of gold at my level of play.
That character is going to be stuck with that item for quite some time. I have far too many other important things to be spending gold on at the time. From the best I can tell there is no way to check myself or remove the curse myself. I just have to put items on and go over to the temple hoping for the best They don’t inform me I have something cursed on.
Final Thoughts
You have to give it to these old-school games for kicking you in the backside, tripping you down a flight of stairs, and calling you names. Meanwhile not giving an inch or any credit. At least I learned quite a few things more about this game and I can only hope I don’t have as rough days as this one ended up turning out to be.
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Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about Might And Magic 1.
