|
|
Post by hynreck on Nov 22, 2013 20:07:27 GMT
Sorry I've been busy for awhile, but I've now pull through and since today is especially quiet, I'm going to do this one. If it keep that quiet, I might even be able to do Demonstealer... (well one day, need to finish writing it up first and some elements from it are fading away with time, oh well, what's new?)
Anyway, thanks to Mudworm as usual. This review of mine seems abnormaly short. Let's see.
Another new book for me (Just about nearly 90% of the Fighting Fantasy range was new to me back then, so this became my usual way of starting a review. Not clever, but I hope, sincere). Funny enough, I can't recall for the life of me ever seeing it on shelves when I was young... the french version anyway. Maybe the cover and title were vastly different, enough to fool me, so when I get a chance I'll look into it, maybe it will bring back some memories (well I had a chance since then. L'Empire des Hommes-Lézard which translates literally to Empire of the Lizard Men. So, different title, yes, but the same cover otherwise, so as a last resort I'll blame the store for not keeping proper stock...) (oh, and it didn't bring back any memories, obviously, sorry).
I wasn't too impressed by the cover, mostly due to the choice of colours that look too childish for my taste. Inside illos are fine, though: good work by Alan Langford, striking a nostalgic chord since I've owned Island of the Lizard King since forever, but some of them did feel rushed to me. Maybe it's not the case, but all in all I found them quite pleasing.
Gameplay wise, this one seemed much fairer than the last adventure, Chasms of Malice, thank you very much. Far less insane, I might add (and now I might add as well that just about every FF gamebooks this side of Sky Lord seem and are fairer and sanier. I will not go as far as to claim that it is so for every gamebooks out there, as I have not experienced them all, yet). Story is pretty much classic stuff all over the place, but still well done and entertaining. It even felt at time like a Lone Wolf story, which isn't a bad thing at all. I mean, you've got a city besieged? Check. You've got a lone hero on which the fate of the world (his world, anyway) rest on his shoulders? Check. You've got a long trek to do to go to a special place (mine was the jungle setting)? Check. You must enter said special place - catacombs, dungeons, forsaken sunken city - to retrieve the macguffin that's going to save your people? Check. You even got some backstabbing! What more is there to ask for? (well except for a good massage, I like it when my massotherapist backstab me, wait, no, I don't like that part, I'm confused, it's friday and the sudden lack of work and nosebleed is making me delirious)
And there you go. I'm aware I missed some particularly interesting Orc funeral, but hey, it's going to be for another time. Conclusion: not my favorite book, but far from being my worst experience either. An enjoyable readthrough.
And there you go. Once more, not that profound but what can I do? Oh yes I could stop hallucinating and go home, I guess.
On the other hand, I bet none of you can find what was inserted today in that old text of mine. Right? Right!
|
|
|
|
Post by thealmightymudworm on Nov 24, 2013 5:41:36 GMT
This book was one of the first three FF adventures I encountered - indefinite borrowings from a friend - alongside Starship Traveller and City of Thieves. Needless to say this gets the silver medal out of those three but in general it doesn't really deserve any medals - it's not awful but it's a bit mediocre. I don't have the book to hand, but just running through things in my memory all of it seems a bit join-the-dots. I've slagged off the title in another thread as being generic (Empire of the Lizard Men would have been a bit better). The cover is fine in that it's not ugly or laughable (unlike Starship Traveller) but it surely can't make many people's top 10 - it's not striking, scary or cool. It compares badly to the lizardly effort for the IotLK cover. The background does a reasonable job of setting the tone, but the main plot is a bit meh: there are some evil lizard-men so you have to go and get a special sword. Who would have thought of that? Everyone. There are no particularly interesting gameplay mechanics (unless railroading counts) or puzzles and few of the the characters you meet are at all memorable. Lecarte maybe? Not Laskar, certainly, and if you remember Katya it will only be for her desperate need to watch some educational film. In short, BW is a potboiler. I did notice that Greenspine posted a fairly scathing review-as-playthrough in the Playing the Books in Order thread on TUFFF. As little of that thread was salvageable shall I post it here? |
|
|
|
Post by a moderator on Nov 24, 2013 15:01:34 GMT
Allow me.
|
|
|
|
Post by deadshadowrunner on Nov 24, 2013 15:06:50 GMT
Nice.Love the Katya part!
|
|
|
|
Post by hynreck on Nov 25, 2013 13:28:00 GMT
The background does a reasonable job of setting the tone, but the main plot is a bit meh: there are some evil lizard-men so you have to go and get a special sword. Who would have thought of that? Everyone. That made me laugh. Reminded me of that joke in the Simpsons in the parody of Ocean's 11, when Lisa states at the end that she had the idea of switching the key from every movies she ever saw. Sorry I can't be more precise! |
|
|
|
Post by thealmightymudworm on Nov 27, 2013 1:17:26 GMT
The background does a reasonable job of setting the tone, but the main plot is a bit meh: there are some evil lizard-men so you have to go and get a special sword. Who would have thought of that? Everyone. That made me laugh. Reminded me of that joke in the Simpsons in the parody of Ocean's 11, when Lisa states at the end that she had the idea of switching the key from every movies she ever saw. Sorry I can't be more precise! I love the Simpsons. Not sure that I've seen this episode though... we're a few series out of date in the UK (except for people who pay extra for Sky channels). I do know they've also covered evil flying lizards though - at least as convincingly as the BW cover. |
|
|
|
Post by hynreck on Nov 27, 2013 13:44:53 GMT
I catch them whenever I can, which is not that often. So I'm also not up to date. But you know how it is: you get a chance once in a blue moon to watch an episode; it's bound to be one you've seen before even though there's perhaps hundreds you haven't seen!
|
|
|
|
Post by moderndaymoriarty on Jan 10, 2014 0:11:32 GMT
I wasn't wild about this one either. The battle and/or sneaking through the siege at the start is pretty exciting, but beyond that the plot goes nowhere really. The encounter with the Snakemen riders in the desert is an intense and disturbing highlight, but mostly the encounters in this book are utterly forgettable. The bit where some Lizardmen riders are chasing after you is pretty good too, as you and a companion try to drive them off. The search for the sword and gems is really dull though - the dungeon lacks any real standout encounters, and the Big Bad (if you can even call him that) is laughable. It also feels really lame that the sword conjures some magic army to go beat the evil ol' Lizardmen.
There is no characterization or development for the Lizardmen - they're just 'the baddies'. Neither is there any real suggestion as to why they care so much about taking your city. Its taken years and thousands and thousands of lives - is it really that important to them to take this place? Why?!
It just feels like such a workmanlike effort, rarely ever capturing any particular spark that would make you really care about any of what is happening. Lacking interesting encounters, squandering the few decent NPCs it has by killing them off or moving on from them too soon, and with no special mechanics of any note to spice things up, this one is thoroughly mediocre. And in many ways, that is actually worse than a book which is actively bad at least you have something to talk about in those cases! (Say what you like about Chasms of Malice, but if you're screaming with outrage at how unfair it is, that is at least more interesting than this book usually manages - and the imagery is far cooler in CoM anyway, with the whole idea of The Malice being more fascinating than anything presented here).
No atmosphere, no real plot worth speaking of, banal gameplay... just a bit of a wash all round really. And considering that it was followed by Slaves of the Abyss, which is one of the best FF books IMO, this book has never received much love from me.
|
|
|
|
Post by oakdweller on Mar 25, 2015 16:50:12 GMT
The Almighty Mudworm has returned from yet another expedition to unearth some of my old treasures. (Or ‘junk’, depending on how your opinion stands). Unfortunately, just like excavations of Roman sites, there will be urns that are dug up that have only survived as worn shards and the original will never be back to its original state. The review for Battleblade Warrior was not only incomplete, but also in a complicated jumble. To help it flow into a cohesive piece I’ve edited the odd line, including adding a little extra material. He thinks that he’s found some Phantoms of Fear fragments too, so hopefully there will be a re-post of that review online soon too.
***MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD***
I haven't been looking forward to reviewing this one. It's not that I hate it, but rather that I don't have strong feelings about it one way or the other. That always makes it much harder to review things. My memory of it involved little more than lots of lizard men running around on an extensive but dreary battlefield.
The background section is more extensive than usual, managing to colour-in some of your character's history, such as the fate of your father and the rapid transformation that you've made into becoming a skilled warrior. However, with virtually no insight into life in Vymorna before the siege, the crumbling towers, injured children and mounting dead don't have the tragic impact that Marc Gascoigne was obviously aiming for here. On the other side of the city walls, the Lizard Men are given little substantial material either. There is no mention of their motivation for attacking Vymorna. With nothing else to go on, I've just assumed that the siege is part of a wider plan that the Lizard Men have to expand their influence and resources. (Since my original review was posted, I notice that Modern Day Moriarty has made a similar complaint about this, suggesting that they’re just presented to us as ‘the baddies’. So true).
Battleblade Warrior is also far too easy - in fact I think that I've only ever died twice in the twenty-odd years that I've owned it. As long as your SKILL is reasonable (10 or higher should be easy enough - 8 or 9 might just make it through with lucky dice rolls) there aren't too many mistakes to be made or nasty routes to be stumbled upon. Of the three games I played this month I won two of them and I managed to find the gems need for the finalé by taking completely separate routes. I noticed that other gem types were mentioned, so perhaps I was just fortunate that I just happened to go the right ways on both occasions, but I do think that the winning gems could have been better hidden and/or guarded. The book overall isn't a failure, just a bit dull.
Alan Langford's artwork is not as gorgeous as it was for Creature of Havoc, but most of it is quite acceptable. The stand-outs here are the panther-god temple (151), the alarmingly angled ruined buildings (190) and virtually all of the Lizard Men illustrations, but especially the uncharacteristically calm guard on the quayside (203).
|
|
|
|
Post by vastariner on Apr 22, 2015 7:07:28 GMT
This was the biggest missed opportunity in FF. It should have been a second Sorcery. The Siege of Vymonrna was talked up in Titan! as being some sort of major gamechanger in Allansia. Something impenetrable for ten years. Yet the character can escape from the city in about four references. WTF?
There could have been an entire book on the city escape alone - different approaches, such as trying to get up a distant teleportation spell, perhaps destroying a Lizardman thing that was blocking magic, or trying to sneak through the lines. So many possibilities. Then a jungle trek, then a sort of WOTT attempt to persuade allies that this was not a trick to lure the armies of Good into a trap between lizardmen and Caarth. Before the return and mass battles. Or some other approach. Doesn't hugely matter; this could have been an epic rather than a single book...
|
|
vagsancho
Knight
Posts: 809 
Favourite Gamebook Series: CRYPT OF THE SORCERER
|
Post by vagsancho on Jul 23, 2015 14:35:01 GMT
I am not a big fan of this book. I can not feel it.
|
|
|
|
Post by hynreck on Jul 23, 2015 14:49:43 GMT
For once I don't have much to say, it's an okay book, no more no less.
|
|
kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,458
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
|
Post by kieran on Jul 24, 2015 11:23:09 GMT
Kinda have to agree. There's just something underwhelming about Battleblade Warrior yet it has many moments I really like (the orc funeral, the breakout from Vymorna, the final dungeon, Lecarte, plus I love the cover and internal illos). The whole is less than the sum of its parts I guess.
|
|
|
|
Post by hynreck on Jul 24, 2015 14:05:14 GMT
Yeah, it doesn't necessarily rub me the wrong way, just that when I ponder which FF books I'd like to play again one day, BW never pops into my mind.
|
|
kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,458
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
|
Post by kieran on Aug 1, 2019 11:44:36 GMT
Further on, I discover that there is a Triceratops up ahead. I know that they're herbivores, but that doesn't mean Gasco won't have it go for me, intending to devour (or rub on) great chunks of my sweet-tasting flesh. The text notes the unlikelihood of being able to sneak past it, and offers the choice of trying anyway (which almost certainly means getting into a fight with the dinosaur) or trying to detour around it on a ridge (which almost certainly means falling in and having to fight while wounded). Might as well get it over with, and try the more direct option. Yup, it's a fight. Skill 12? As in 4 more than an Orb Triceratops, and 3 more than the nastier Thalos Triceratops? This is just punishment for not letting your rotten Caarth stake me out to die, isn't it, Gazter? Sorry to quote a very old post, but was reading Battleblade Warrior last night and also stumbled across the triceratops encounter. To Marc's credit, detouring round the ridge does not lead to fighting the triceratops - you end up bumping into a t-rex which you can then lure into taking care of the triceratops, letting you slip by forgotten by both creatures. EDIT: And I just read your later playthrough on your blog where you do just that so never mind! It's interesting how Portal of Evil a few books later made dinosaurs out to be foreign to Titan but they're everywhere here (with a few in island of the Lizard King too and mention of them in Out of the Pit). |
|
MacZidane
Squire
Posts: 5
Favourite Gamebook Series: House of Hell
|
Post by MacZidane on Apr 18, 2022 14:03:11 GMT
My copy of BW doesn't have the gamebook number (31) on the spine, every other puffin book I have does have. Was this a common thing for this book? Or have I got a rare one on my hands?
|
|
|
|
Post by CharlesX on Apr 18, 2022 14:22:21 GMT
I owned a copy of BW, and borrowed one sometimes from the school library, from memory one had the number and one didn't.
I'm afraid I can't remember either way whether the same was true of other FFs.
|
|
|
|
Post by thealmightymudworm on Apr 18, 2022 14:31:32 GMT
My BW doesn't have a number either – the only one of my FF books not to have one.
|
|
|
|
Post by bloodbeasthandler on Apr 18, 2022 16:54:42 GMT
My Battleblade Warrior is probably a first edition (1988 and I remember looking to buy it as soon as it came out) and does have the number on the spine.
Ones that don't have the number in my collection:
Portal of Evil (a 1989 printing but i don't know if it's a first edition)
Fangs of Fury (same as above - 1989..)
When was the BW without the number? 1989?
|
|
|
|
Post by The Editor (Alex B) on Apr 18, 2022 19:30:16 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by CharlesX on Apr 18, 2022 20:30:02 GMT
One of those links seems to suggest Battleblade Warrior has a numbered edition, yet we've got more than two witnesses who've seen BW in editions with no number, therefore BW must have had different editions.
Frankly I think it's borderline ironic BW should be in the rarer group of FF with no number, given Gascoigne's FF has such a generic feel (imho aside from the rules on provisions and fighting multiple opponents at the same time, the descriptions, gameplay and world-building are definitely nothing to write home about). Even though the gamebook content has nothing to do with the decision to publish it that way.
|
|
|
|
Post by a moderator on Apr 18, 2022 21:08:27 GMT
Knights of Doom, Magehunter and Revenge of the Vampire all had at least two print runs. Odds are that every FF book that came before them did likewise. Reprints sometimes came with changes - correcting errors, updating the list of other titles in the series, modifying the cover to fit in with current design policy...
My copy of Battleblade Warrior is a first edition, and has a numbered spine. In fact, all my Puffin FF books from Scorpion Swamp onwards have numbers on their spines (and the books that came before them are all pre-sawtooth editions, which weren't numbered on the spines).
If your copy of a book still has the page with the copyright details, you might be able to find out what printing it was. Look where it says 'First published'. If there's a row of numbers just under that line, the lowest of those numbers indicates the print run. My copy of Portal of Evil says
so it's from the third printing.
|
|
|
|
Post by The Editor (Alex B) on Apr 19, 2022 1:09:42 GMT
One of those links seems to suggest Battleblade Warrior has a numbered edition, yet we've got more than two witnesses who've seen BW in editions with no number, therefore BW must have had different editions. Frankly I think it's borderline ironic BW should be in the rarer group of FF with no number, given Gascoigne's FF has such a generic feel (imho aside from the rules on provisions and fighting multiple opponents at the same time, the descriptions, gameplay and world-building are definitely nothing to write home about). Even though the gamebook content has nothing to do with the decision to publish it that way. The links I posted pointed out that there were multiple editions - nobody is denying that at all. All titles up to 39 had a numberless edition (I have 13 out of the 39 in my collection). Just how many copies were in the print run remains unknown. I have 2 copies of BW. 1 with number on cover & spine and 1 with the number just on the spine with the gold foil on the cover. Don’t have the completely numberless edition or the one with the black lettering on the cover & number on the spine. My collection is here: fightingfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/User:Gallicus |
|
MacZidane
Squire
Posts: 5
Favourite Gamebook Series: House of Hell
|
Post by MacZidane on Apr 19, 2022 18:59:58 GMT
Knights of Doom, Magehunter and Revenge of the Vampire all had at least two print runs. Odds are that every FF book that came before them did likewise. Reprints sometimes came with changes - correcting errors, updating the list of other titles in the series, modifying the cover to fit in with current design policy... My copy of Battleblade Warrior is a first edition, and has a numbered spine. In fact, all my Puffin FF books from Scorpion Swamp onwards have numbers on their spines (and the books that came before them are all pre-sawtooth editions, which weren't numbered on the spines). If your copy of a book still has the page with the copyright details, you might be able to find out what printing it was. Look where it says 'First published'. If there's a row of numbers just under that line, the lowest of those numbers indicates the print run. My copy of Portal of Evil says so it's from the third printing. My copy of BW is from 1988 with the code... 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 - Suggesting a 3rd print also. If so, would that not mean your copy of POE should have no number on the spine? |
|
|
|
Post by a moderator on Apr 19, 2022 19:37:43 GMT
Portal and Battleblade were published around a year apart, so it's likely that their subsequent print runs also happened at different times.
There must have been a period in 1988 and/or 1989 when Puffin dropped the spine numbers, during which they did the third printing of Battleblade and whichever print run produced bloodbeasthandler's copy of Portal. Then the 'unnumbered spines' policy was abandoned before Portal had sold enough copies to merit its third printing.
|
|
|
|
Post by bloodbeasthandler on Apr 19, 2022 20:07:07 GMT
My portal of Evil copy [no number on spine] has First Published 1989 [there are no numbers 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 or the like]
By contrast Vault of the Vampire is numbered [38] and on the inside First Published 1989 5 7 9 10 8 6 4
Fangs of Fury [no number on spine] has First Published Puffin Books 1989 [and like Portal of Evil has no other numbers]
|
|
|
|
Post by The Editor (Alex B) on Apr 19, 2022 20:25:22 GMT
If so, would that not mean your copy of POE should have no number on the spine? If you read the database link you’ll see Puffin used to print the year a tile was reprinted, eg: ‘reprinted 1984’ At the end of the 80s they switched, so while you know what print run your copy is (eg: ‘5’) you can’t know when that print run happened. The older a book (eg ‘Warlock’) the more print runs it was likely to have had, although popularity would have an effect too. ie. a less popular title would sell less copies and thus gaps between print runs would be longer. So my numberless Starship Traveller is from that books 17th print run, but my Phantoms of Fear numberless is from its 2nd print run. Interestingly this suggests Phantoms didn’t sell as well as books on either side of it. My numberless Star Strider is from the 6th print run and my numberless Chasms is from its 3rd print run. (Remembering that the numberless period was less than a year - Dead of Night at the end of 1989 brought back the numbers.) *Note: we’ve made the assumption that all books got a new print run when changes were made (cover formats, foil, numbers etc.) but we don’t have any concrete evidence of this as yet. (The database is an attempt to collate info from many fans collections to try and corroborate this and other ideas.) Some books might have had significant stock lying around and thus not got a print run in a minor format change like being numberless. |
|
|
|
Post by CharlesX on Apr 19, 2022 21:17:27 GMT
So, does anyone know of any special reason Puffin chose to make some FF numberless? After all, it's a bit of a big deal from the pov of collectors. My impression, mainly gleaned from You Are The Hero, is Puffin had a low view of FF in spite of its high sales and so if it was in their hands I suspect absolutely no attention was paid to things like continuity consistency and the series' following. While I think the nmberless books are unique they look ragged and even ugly compared to standard numbered editions.
|
|
|
|
Post by The Editor (Alex B) on Apr 19, 2022 21:28:30 GMT
I recall, can’t tell you where or when, that mention was made that there was thought of the idea of customer resistance from new potential readers that at coming into a book series at book 38 (for example) was off-putting and that if they weren’t numbered then new readers would happily buy the latest book.
|
|
|
|
Post by slloyd14 on Jul 9, 2022 11:04:32 GMT
Nice book, nice flavour, some great set pieces (orc funeral, battle with LeCarte and his sabre toothed tiger against lizardfolk).
Impossible to beat with a skill 7-8 due to two unskippable SKILL 10 opponents (swamp mutant SK10/ST16 and Warrior SK10/ST10). Easily doable with a skill of 10-11.
Not much else to say about it.
|
|
