Welcome to Might & Magic: World Of Xeen.
Originally I wanted to start this from Might & Magic I: Secret Of The Inner Sanctum. Unfortunately that game is so dated as to be unplayable, and although I’d still like to go back to it, I don’t have the patience right now, or any of the nostalgia for the game to really be willing to do it.
So instead I’m going to play World of Xeen, which is a combination of Might & Magic 4: Clouds of Xeen, and 5: Darkside of Xeen. You can probably already tell that the two are pretty direct sequels. I also attempted a LP of this before, and I am determined to finish this game this time.
See, the setting of Xeen, is, well. It’s a flat world out in space. Each game took place on one side. You can actually do the 5 stuff before 4, but given how goddamn brutal 5 can be (and hell, even 4 at some parts), I don’t recommend it. I actually had at one point an original boxed copy of Darkside of Xeen, though being a dumb kid I think I wrecked it. Which is a shame, because that game came in a really nice box.
The thing to remember about the Might & Magic games (up to at least 7, as far as I know) is that they’re technically fantasy, but also kind of not. Basically they’re supposed to be colony worlds from some ancient civilization which have descended into barbarism. Up until 7 or so, there’s always a point when you meet a robot. Or a cyborg. Or go on a crashed spaceship and use laser guns to fight space demons. I think one of the principal villains of Darkside is an evil robot and the end of the game involves you awakening another robot to fight him. Yeah, seriously.
That’s part of the reason why I love these games so much – I always get into them to the point where I forget about the weird sci-fi elements so when they hit me my reaction is always “Oh shit, yeah!” Plus there’s also the fact that they’re pretty good games in their own right.
To be honest, I’ve never really paid much attention to the plots of these games. They always seemed ancillary to the sword-and-sorcery “I am going to this town to solve your problems and then I am going to go to another town and solve their problems and then I’ll probably save the world.” way I played them. Basically how I play Elder Scrolls games except I’ve actually finished one of these.
Anyway, enough rambling about my nostalgia. On to the game.
Part 1- WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF XEEN
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So, there’s about all the plot we get right now. There’s an evil guy called Lord Xeen and he’s imprisoned Crodo and we need to defeat Xeen… somehow.
Side note: One thing I really miss is in the CD release of World of Xeen they added voice work to every character in the game. Terrible, terrible voice work. I have the disc somewhere so I’m going to try and extract the audio files for it, which will be easy since they’re literally just an audio track after the data portion of the CD. The difficulty is that each track is probably about 20 minutes long and the dialogue is literally just accessing a time stamp for the dialogue, so playing it all at once (which I have actually done) is more confusing than anything else. Still… It might be worthwhile, because people really do need to hear how ridiculous the VA is.
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Okay, so, here we are. Apologies for wonky color, I’ll try and get that fixed for the next update.
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So, this is basically a difficulty selection. Warrior mode is a bit more difficult, so I went with adventurer mode.
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And here we are in beautiful Vertigo! Let me quickly explain the interface, which I kinda love despite it being cluttered and dated as fuuuck. Hey, the game’s like 20 years old.
1 – If you have the Clarivoyance spell active, when you reach something that gives you an option, these heads will either nod or shake their heads to give you the correct course of action. Want to drink out of that weird barrel? The heads will tell you!
2 – This gargoyle’s wings will flap if you have Levitate active. Useful considering this game has a single plane, and it’s kinda hard to remember how many steps some of the spells last.
3 – This little gecko waves his hand if you’re in front of a secret door and have a skill active. Detect secrets, maybe? It might even be a spell.
4 – This bat will be opening and closing its mouth if one of your party has the danger sense skill and an enemy is near. More useful than it seems.
5 – This is where the map appears if you have a character with the cartography skill. Also weirdly even though I do have someone with that, you still have to click it to activate the map. Dunno what’s up with that.
6 – Ranged attack! It’s a good tactic to give all your party ranged weapons so you can attack enemies from afar, even if there’s a low chance of hitting them. Plus it looks really funny to see six arrows hurtling toward a guy.
7 – Cast a spell!
8 – Make camp.
9 – Bash through a door or secret door. Usually not recommended if you can help it as it does cause damage, though I do like the idea of the stubborn barbarian just smashing his face into a wall that he is convinced hides a secret door.
10 – Dismiss a party member. You can also do this in inns, and I’m not really sure why it exists as an interface button.
11 – Quest log and notes. Interestingly enough this game does take automatic notes of useful stuff – what colors correspond to what stat boosts (and there are a LOT of stat boosts in this game).
12 – Map. Useful for finding out where the fuck you are and the minimap doesn’t help.
13 – Time and date info. I’m not sure exactly why this exists, but I think there’s some ingame use for it.
14 – Quick reference. Just gives you an overview of your party and how they’re doing.
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Anyway, enough of the interface! Let’s get rid of these default chumpos and bring in some real folks.
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Slimes in the inn?!? This town is messed up!
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It’s worth noting that every table in the tavern can be interacted with, which sometimes leads to useful information.
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Sometimes it’s not so useful.
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And sometimes it’s not useful at all.
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Though most of the time the stuff is town-specific, occasionally they’ll let you know about other towns and other things happening in the world.
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Gross. Grosssss.
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In every ‘service’ in the town, you access them by clicking on this mysterious marble obelisk.
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Well hellloooooooooo innkeeper lady.
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When you choose to make new characters, the screen gets folded up like a scroll and then unfolded. I’m not sure if that’s to mask a load or if they just thought that it looked way cool (It does look kinda cool).
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So we remove all those precreated nerdos from our party, and…
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And start making our own. I stuck with the basic classes (Knight, Paladin, Cleric, Sorceror, Robber, and Archer). There are more unique classes like Druid (Sort of a cleric/sorcerer), Ninja (fighter/robber), Barbarian (more powerful attack but can’t use as much armor), but I like the basics. Whatever.
After a lot of rerolling we have our party:
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I… might have been hungry when I made these characters.
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So after making our fancy new party we go and talk to the mayor. Basically any questgiver is holed up in some tent or something. I don’t know, it’s weird.
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So, that explains the slimes, at least.
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Anyway, after getting the quest we decide to buy some shit. Bad thing about using your own characters is that you start with nothing but gold and gems. And gems are primarily used for spells.
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See those display cases on either side of the room? They’re not just for display.
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It’s worth noting that ONLY ROBBERS CAN STEAL. You’d think this is obvious but if you attempt it with ANY other character (except maybe a ninja?) then you’ll just get caught and get put in jail for an ingame year.
![028.png]()
We got some nice stuff from there. This rod of insect repellent is pretty handy for fighting the various bugs that infest Vertigo.
![029.png]()
And then after robbing the poor blacksmith we just go ahead and buy some stuff from him too. Nothing spectacular, just some weapons and armor for everyone. I couldn’t afford them for the sorcerer and cleric, but they have magic as their weapons.
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There is a super-handy skill in the game that automatically maps an area you’re in. I can’t wait to get it, but I think it’s a late-game thing.
![031.png]()
These things are weird, but useful. Enter the name of any town in the game and it’ll teleport you there. Useful when you’re powerful enough to maybe deal with some stuff, but not just yet. Interestingly you can use it to get to Shangri-La (a ‘secret’ town that I think was added in World of Xeen, it has basically everything you could possibly need), but there’s actually no mirror out. And the traditional exits are populated by absurdly powerful monsters, so… Best not to do it right now.
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Hmm… What was that the person in the bar said earlier?
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Well I’ll be damned.
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Throughout the game you’ll find people willing to teach you new skills. But since I already have a dude what knows Cartography this is pretty useless.
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Oh hey, let’s go play a visit to Joe. Maybe he’s just overworked?
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Maybe those are just his pets?
![037.png]()
Joe, I’ma be honest. I think you’re full of shit.
Originally I wanted to start this from Might & Magic I: Secret Of The Inner Sanctum. Unfortunately that game is so dated as to be unplayable, and although I’d still like to go back to it, I don’t have the patience right now, or any of the nostalgia for the game to really be willing to do it.
So instead I’m going to play World of Xeen, which is a combination of Might & Magic 4: Clouds of Xeen, and 5: Darkside of Xeen. You can probably already tell that the two are pretty direct sequels. I also attempted a LP of this before, and I am determined to finish this game this time.
See, the setting of Xeen, is, well. It’s a flat world out in space. Each game took place on one side. You can actually do the 5 stuff before 4, but given how goddamn brutal 5 can be (and hell, even 4 at some parts), I don’t recommend it. I actually had at one point an original boxed copy of Darkside of Xeen, though being a dumb kid I think I wrecked it. Which is a shame, because that game came in a really nice box.
The thing to remember about the Might & Magic games (up to at least 7, as far as I know) is that they’re technically fantasy, but also kind of not. Basically they’re supposed to be colony worlds from some ancient civilization which have descended into barbarism. Up until 7 or so, there’s always a point when you meet a robot. Or a cyborg. Or go on a crashed spaceship and use laser guns to fight space demons. I think one of the principal villains of Darkside is an evil robot and the end of the game involves you awakening another robot to fight him. Yeah, seriously.
That’s part of the reason why I love these games so much – I always get into them to the point where I forget about the weird sci-fi elements so when they hit me my reaction is always “Oh shit, yeah!” Plus there’s also the fact that they’re pretty good games in their own right.
To be honest, I’ve never really paid much attention to the plots of these games. They always seemed ancillary to the sword-and-sorcery “I am going to this town to solve your problems and then I am going to go to another town and solve their problems and then I’ll probably save the world.” way I played them. Basically how I play Elder Scrolls games except I’ve actually finished one of these.
Anyway, enough rambling about my nostalgia. On to the game.
Part 1- WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF XEEN
Spoiler:
So, there’s about all the plot we get right now. There’s an evil guy called Lord Xeen and he’s imprisoned Crodo and we need to defeat Xeen… somehow.
Side note: One thing I really miss is in the CD release of World of Xeen they added voice work to every character in the game. Terrible, terrible voice work. I have the disc somewhere so I’m going to try and extract the audio files for it, which will be easy since they’re literally just an audio track after the data portion of the CD. The difficulty is that each track is probably about 20 minutes long and the dialogue is literally just accessing a time stamp for the dialogue, so playing it all at once (which I have actually done) is more confusing than anything else. Still… It might be worthwhile, because people really do need to hear how ridiculous the VA is.
Okay, so, here we are. Apologies for wonky color, I’ll try and get that fixed for the next update.
So, this is basically a difficulty selection. Warrior mode is a bit more difficult, so I went with adventurer mode.
And here we are in beautiful Vertigo! Let me quickly explain the interface, which I kinda love despite it being cluttered and dated as fuuuck. Hey, the game’s like 20 years old.
1 – If you have the Clarivoyance spell active, when you reach something that gives you an option, these heads will either nod or shake their heads to give you the correct course of action. Want to drink out of that weird barrel? The heads will tell you!
2 – This gargoyle’s wings will flap if you have Levitate active. Useful considering this game has a single plane, and it’s kinda hard to remember how many steps some of the spells last.
3 – This little gecko waves his hand if you’re in front of a secret door and have a skill active. Detect secrets, maybe? It might even be a spell.
4 – This bat will be opening and closing its mouth if one of your party has the danger sense skill and an enemy is near. More useful than it seems.
5 – This is where the map appears if you have a character with the cartography skill. Also weirdly even though I do have someone with that, you still have to click it to activate the map. Dunno what’s up with that.
6 – Ranged attack! It’s a good tactic to give all your party ranged weapons so you can attack enemies from afar, even if there’s a low chance of hitting them. Plus it looks really funny to see six arrows hurtling toward a guy.
7 – Cast a spell!
8 – Make camp.
9 – Bash through a door or secret door. Usually not recommended if you can help it as it does cause damage, though I do like the idea of the stubborn barbarian just smashing his face into a wall that he is convinced hides a secret door.
10 – Dismiss a party member. You can also do this in inns, and I’m not really sure why it exists as an interface button.
11 – Quest log and notes. Interestingly enough this game does take automatic notes of useful stuff – what colors correspond to what stat boosts (and there are a LOT of stat boosts in this game).
12 – Map. Useful for finding out where the fuck you are and the minimap doesn’t help.
13 – Time and date info. I’m not sure exactly why this exists, but I think there’s some ingame use for it.
14 – Quick reference. Just gives you an overview of your party and how they’re doing.
Anyway, enough of the interface! Let’s get rid of these default chumpos and bring in some real folks.
Slimes in the inn?!? This town is messed up!
It’s worth noting that every table in the tavern can be interacted with, which sometimes leads to useful information.
Sometimes it’s not so useful.
And sometimes it’s not useful at all.
Though most of the time the stuff is town-specific, occasionally they’ll let you know about other towns and other things happening in the world.
Gross. Grosssss.
In every ‘service’ in the town, you access them by clicking on this mysterious marble obelisk.
Well hellloooooooooo innkeeper lady.
When you choose to make new characters, the screen gets folded up like a scroll and then unfolded. I’m not sure if that’s to mask a load or if they just thought that it looked way cool (It does look kinda cool).
So we remove all those precreated nerdos from our party, and…
And start making our own. I stuck with the basic classes (Knight, Paladin, Cleric, Sorceror, Robber, and Archer). There are more unique classes like Druid (Sort of a cleric/sorcerer), Ninja (fighter/robber), Barbarian (more powerful attack but can’t use as much armor), but I like the basics. Whatever.
After a lot of rerolling we have our party:
I… might have been hungry when I made these characters.
So after making our fancy new party we go and talk to the mayor. Basically any questgiver is holed up in some tent or something. I don’t know, it’s weird.
So, that explains the slimes, at least.
Anyway, after getting the quest we decide to buy some shit. Bad thing about using your own characters is that you start with nothing but gold and gems. And gems are primarily used for spells.
See those display cases on either side of the room? They’re not just for display.
It’s worth noting that ONLY ROBBERS CAN STEAL. You’d think this is obvious but if you attempt it with ANY other character (except maybe a ninja?) then you’ll just get caught and get put in jail for an ingame year.
We got some nice stuff from there. This rod of insect repellent is pretty handy for fighting the various bugs that infest Vertigo.
And then after robbing the poor blacksmith we just go ahead and buy some stuff from him too. Nothing spectacular, just some weapons and armor for everyone. I couldn’t afford them for the sorcerer and cleric, but they have magic as their weapons.
There is a super-handy skill in the game that automatically maps an area you’re in. I can’t wait to get it, but I think it’s a late-game thing.
These things are weird, but useful. Enter the name of any town in the game and it’ll teleport you there. Useful when you’re powerful enough to maybe deal with some stuff, but not just yet. Interestingly you can use it to get to Shangri-La (a ‘secret’ town that I think was added in World of Xeen, it has basically everything you could possibly need), but there’s actually no mirror out. And the traditional exits are populated by absurdly powerful monsters, so… Best not to do it right now.
Hmm… What was that the person in the bar said earlier?
Well I’ll be damned.
Throughout the game you’ll find people willing to teach you new skills. But since I already have a dude what knows Cartography this is pretty useless.
Oh hey, let’s go play a visit to Joe. Maybe he’s just overworked?
Maybe those are just his pets?
Joe, I’ma be honest. I think you’re full of shit.