The third installment of the roleplaying series, with a multi-faceted plot full of twists and turns. Ease of use was central to the gameplay and interface, and the plot included piles of new twists and turns. Lead a party of adventurers to rendezvous with the legendary wizard Corak. From dark moldy dungeons, through corridors of hewn stone and timber, and onward to the lofty frozen peaks of Terra you will uncover the mysteries that surround the exotic islands in the Great Sea.
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Another significant step forward but still a ways to go from greatness. The visual fidelity got cranked up dramatically but the actual art is pretty garish, so it takes some getting used to. Same with the interface, which is, on paper, quite a bit more useful than the archaic stuff from the first two installments, but is confusing and awkward in its own new ways. You still wish things were a lot easier to navigate.
One unqualified success is the new approach to the world map - much more open and concerned with reflecting a believable place rather than having every grid be a puzzle labyrinth full of traps, even if you were just walking through a field or whatever. Rewarding and organic exploration in this one - lots to discover and map out, if that's your thing. And it's a cool world!
The questing, the loot, and the character options remain pretty overwhelming, and despite some light quest tracking this time, it is very easy to get lost in the sauce and lose interest. You still gotta be a real head to have much success let alone get through this thing, but I like the direction the series is headed in, for sure. If gear and spells specifically were easier to see/manage, and if the quests were just a liiiiiiittle bit more directed/designed, I feel like I could get super deep into these games.
One unqualified success is the new approach to the world map - much more open and concerned with reflecting a believable place rather than having every grid be a puzzle labyrinth full of traps, even if you were just walking through a field or whatever. Rewarding and organic exploration in this one - lots to discover and map out, if that's your thing. And it's a cool world!
The questing, the loot, and the character options remain pretty overwhelming, and despite some light quest tracking this time, it is very easy to get lost in the sauce and lose interest. You still gotta be a real head to have much success let alone get through this thing, but I like the direction the series is headed in, for sure. If gear and spells specifically were easier to see/manage, and if the quests were just a liiiiiiittle bit more directed/designed, I feel like I could get super deep into these games.
One of the quite important games both for the RPG genre and the Might and Magic series in general. This game did a lot of things: moved from complex encounter-based combat to in-world battles. The primary platform became IBM PC with VGA cars, giving a huge step up from the previous base platform (Apple II). Music becomes a major part of the environment, the same as mouse-driven almost fully graphical-driven GUI.
Move to in-world combat where monsters move inside the world map, without any separation of combat-exploration modes, in the style of dungeon crawlers like Dungeon Master, same as the fact that this is a fully hand-made open world without restrictions where all monsters (except spawners) placed manually marked for me most major change in how CRPGs decided to approach their presentation afterward. JRPGs have not moved to this for decades to come.
Because of all of that, this game is much more acceptable than the first two titles for modern players and not the worst point to start exploring the series. Of course, later on, the same engine were built Xeen games, which are, arguably better in all ways - art, music, animation, game design of the world, and content, but MM3 still has its charm and its minor features worth to discover. For example, the game still has some of this MM2 cheese DNA with sometimes brutal monster effects, timed to specific day quests, more funny and goofy presentation of the world.
This game is hard to call perfect or give it a high score, but same time, I want to acknowledge what it is and what it tried to achieve (mostly, successfully). Can't recommend the Amiga port, it is a PC version cramped into ECS machines. SNES port supports a mouse, and, besides some censorship, despite lower graphical specs, very nicely re-drawn by artists who knew how to do their work. The Sega CD version has original portraits re-drawn in anime style and has added an intro inspired by the lore inside the original manual.
Move to in-world combat where monsters move inside the world map, without any separation of combat-exploration modes, in the style of dungeon crawlers like Dungeon Master, same as the fact that this is a fully hand-made open world without restrictions where all monsters (except spawners) placed manually marked for me most major change in how CRPGs decided to approach their presentation afterward. JRPGs have not moved to this for decades to come.
Because of all of that, this game is much more acceptable than the first two titles for modern players and not the worst point to start exploring the series. Of course, later on, the same engine were built Xeen games, which are, arguably better in all ways - art, music, animation, game design of the world, and content, but MM3 still has its charm and its minor features worth to discover. For example, the game still has some of this MM2 cheese DNA with sometimes brutal monster effects, timed to specific day quests, more funny and goofy presentation of the world.
This game is hard to call perfect or give it a high score, but same time, I want to acknowledge what it is and what it tried to achieve (mostly, successfully). Can't recommend the Amiga port, it is a PC version cramped into ECS machines. SNES port supports a mouse, and, besides some censorship, despite lower graphical specs, very nicely re-drawn by artists who knew how to do their work. The Sega CD version has original portraits re-drawn in anime style and has added an intro inspired by the lore inside the original manual.
First of this series that I've played. The dungeon maps are a little straightforwardly underwhelming and it ends abruptly but overall I enjoyed this quite a bit. Some of the appeal here is in how stupidly overpowered you get and the fact that enemies don't respawn means you get a nice sense of progress cleaning out maps as you go. The number bloat in this game is absolutely comical (positive).
Abandoned the (emulated) SNES version: the snails pace movement and gamepad controls come together to make an incredibly tedious experience. I will give the PC version a shot at some point.
Manual needed. Also there's a misc manual that covers everything.
Pretty fun open-world old game.
PS: Be careful if you activate the crystals in the pyramids.
Pretty fun open-world old game.
PS: Be careful if you activate the crystals in the pyramids.