Greetings and welcome I'm Ash and today I would like to give you my thoughts on Sorcery!
Part 4 - Crown of Kings!
When it comes to RPGs, I am a simple man.
All I want is a well written story, some unique and interesting characters that can't be described
in a single cliche, a world that consistently follows its own rules, and most importantly,
the ability to make a personal impact on the story.
Now that I've written all of that down it sure doesn't seem very simple, but there are
some games out there that easily fulfill all of these demands.
As you can probably guess from the title alone, the Sorcery!
series belongs among that rather esteemed company, especially Sorcery!
Part 4 - Crown of Kings as it represents the final evolution of everything the series has
put forth so far.
The stakes are higher, the atmosphere is much more intense, and the entirety of the experience
is far more immersive than ever before.
While all of these are most certainly positive things, they do bring with them one restriction
- unlike the previous three episodes, Crown of Kings is just not meant to be played as
a standalone game.
You can try, nobody will actually prevent you from doing so, but you will be missing
some of the amazing equipment only found in the previous episodes, as well as all of the
knowledge about the world and its inhabitants.
However, if you're a veteran of the series but have someone managed to lose your save
file, there is no need to worry.
The difference can be overcome through the use of critical thinking and the tricks you've
uncovered throughout your journey so far.
As long as you know the basics of how spells and counterspells work, or at least how to
make the best use out of your sword, you'll be perfectly fine.
And I speak from experience on this one given that I've managed to rather stupidly delete
all of my save files.
Even though I might be a bit of a fool, I am glad to say that Crown of Kings does not
treat its players as such.
You will be presented with some hard choices, choices that don't have any easy solutions,
and it is going to be up to you and you alone to figure out the best course of action.
Don't get me wrong, the entirety of the Sorcery!
series has always put a heavy emphasis on the player's ability to choose their destiny,
but Crown of Kings takes thing a couple of steps further.
Unlike the previous three episodes, Crown of Kings does not feature the ability to rewind
time at any point.
In other words, whatever decision you end up going with, you're going to have to stick
with it!
This sounds like a small feature, especially since you still have the ability to rewind
time if you end up dead (for obvious reasons), but in reality it adds a whole new layer of
intrigue to the story as everything is suddenly much more serious.
Playing the 'little goody two-shoes' is no longer an easy thing to do because no matter
how careful you are, you will eventually mess up!
Let's say you're sneaking through a barracks with the intent of stealing a guard's uniform,
but due to factors outside of your control a loud noise wakes up one of the guards.
Will you try and knock him out, buying yourself the precious few minutes you need to escape?
Or will you try to greet him and pass yourself as one of the guard, back from a late night
shift?
Or will you perhaps go for the guaranteed, albeit quite evil option of simply vaporizing
the guard into a few specs of dust?
Decisions, decisions...
No matter which option you end choosing there will be consequences in the future, some better
than others.
For example, if a guard recognizes you and you let him run away, you can almost guarantee
that some event later on will be much more difficult because your presence is now well
known to the city guard.
It is little details like this that make an imaginary world feel truly alive, and it is
also one of the biggest reasons why I enjoy the Sorcery!
series so much, especially Crown of Kings and its rather...
hardcore approach to problem solving.
The threat of future consequences isn't the only thing keeping players from going on an
all-out murder spree, however, the writing has a far bigger role when it comes to that.
Unlike the majority of games out there, and this includes a fair few RPGs as well, the
creatures that inhabit the world of Sorcery!
are not intrinsically evil.
They are simply trying to live their lives as best they can in the circumstances they're
stuck in, which in the case of Crown of Kings means under the tyrannical rule of the power
hungry Archmage.
There are some races like the Goblins that are heavily predisposed towards tribal violence,
but even they prefer not to fight for no reason at all, so you will always have the option
to get out of sticky situations purely through your wit alone.
What all of this results in is a world that feels strangely realistic, even though you're
being chased down by magical dragons.
No matter where you are, no matter who you are talking to, a friendly smile and a simple
greeting will get you much further than bursting in with your sword raised high.
You wouldn't think this would be a feature worth praising, but its something I so rarely
see in RPGs I feel obligated to give Sorcery!
a shout-out.
Not only does it expand the amount of choices you have laid before you, it also makes the
inhabitants of whatever imaginary world you're in that much more believable, and at the end
of the day immersion is what makes or breaks a story focused RPG.
Continuing on with the theme of sword wielding maniacs its time to talk about the combat
in Sorcery!
The way it works is that you have an energy bar that partially regenerates between rounds,
and in order to deal damage to the enemy you need to invest a certain amount of energy
to launch an attack.
If your invested energy is greater than the opponent's you will deal damage to them, with
the power difference between your attacks dictating how much damage they will take.
Since you won't always have enough energy to launch a strong attack, especially if your
previous one used up nearly all of your reserves, you can also block the opponent's attack and
guarantee you only take one damage from it.
All of this might seem extremely simple, and to a certain extent it is, but there is a
good degree of strategy that you can employ in order to really bring down the hurt onto
your opponent.
Timing your blocks to counter the enemy's strong attacks, using your weakest attacks
to essentially waste their blocks, and overpowering their blows with your own are all important
skills you would need to learn... if the combat system wasn't so easily exploitable!
This was an issue in the previous Sorcery!
games as well, and unfortunately Crown of Kings does very little new in this regard.
The problem lies in the fact that every single enemy has a pattern they follow, a pattern
that can easily be learned and then exploited with devastating results.
Since you can always restart a fight, whether you win or lose, even the most unobservant
players will eventually figure out a way to brute force their way through a tough boss.
For a game that otherwise challenges you to think up creative solutions to problems, the
presence of easy combat is a massive shame as it always gives you guaranteed way out.
Why bother bluffing your way through a Troll cave if you know for certain that you will
be able to beat the everliving daylight out of every single one of them, and practically
leave the cave unscathed?
While the combat system ended up being a bit of a disappointment, I'm glad to say that
the magic system is the best it has ever been.
Not only do you have more spells to work with than in the previous Sorcery!
games, you also have a much greater degree of freedom when it comes to using them to
creatively solve problems.
And when I say creatively, I really do mean creatively because I still can't believe some
of these interactions were actually planned for.
To give you a simple example, Crown of Kings has a massive chain of branching decisions
that all revolve around you accidentally trapping a sleeping guard into a conjured patch of
quicksand.
This isn't something that happens as a part of the story, this is just a situation I ended
up creating by casting the wrong spell at the wrong time!
Best of all, this was completely meaningless in the grand scheme of things, so to think
that Crown of Kings actually has such a detailed resolution for such a ridiculous problem is
quite impressive indeed.
This doesn't just apply to the quicksand spell, however, this applies to nearly all of them!
No matter how obscure or bizarre the spell is, you can always make some use out of it,
provided you think carefully about what such a thing will accomplish.
It is here that the brilliance of Sorcery!
shines the brightest as I have yet to find a spell that didn't do exactly as I planned,
even if the desired result wasn't the best due to my lack of foresight.
Pro tip: don't try to burn down a door with the fireball spell if you're standing on easily
flammable material.
Let's just say it doesn't end well for you and leave it at that.
The final topic I wanted to talk about was the map size, which to my surprise ended up
being a lot smaller than in the previous Sorcery!
games.
While this is usually a very bad thing, Crown of Kings has a good reason for such a small
playable area - the world is filled to the brim with places to explore and people to
meet.
You can't walk two in-game meters without bumping into something of interest, or at
the very least a bit of scenery to admire... purely through text, but admire nonetheless.
What this means in terms of gameplay is that you always have plenty of choices when it
comes to moving forward.
Sometimes even too many choices!
When you're sitting at a crossroads and you see five diverging paths in front of you,
its a bit overwhelming to just choose one, but that is half the fun of the Sorcery!
series.
You're not meant to see all of it in one playthrough.
You're meant to return to it later on and experience a somewhat different adventure,
complete with brand new characters and events you may have completely missed the first time
around.
When it comes to storytelling and exploration Sorcery! is one of the finest RPGs I've had
the pleasure of playing, and Part 4 - Crown of Kings is definitely the crowning jewel
of the entire series.
While it doesn't feature many improvements to the core mechanics, Crown of Kings brings
with it a gripping story, some spectacular characters, and a world that is incredibly
easy to get lost in... and I mean that in the best of ways.
If you've enjoyed the previous Sorcery!
games, or if you're a fan of well written adventures that don't treat you like a clueless
fool, you'll most likely find Crown of Kings to your liking.
If you do decide to play it, I would heartily recommend going through all four of the Sorcery!
games in order as there are quite a few reoccurring characters, themes, and items that will further
help flesh out the story and create a more personalized adventure.
Thank you guys for watching, and if you enjoyed this, or even if you didn't, please do let
me know.
And if you would like to see more, feel free to subscribe here or check out the website
linked down below, that one tends to get updated more often.
With all of that said, I hope you have a nice day and I will see you soon.