Okay, it's actually called Das Schwarze Auge: Drakensang (The Dark Eye) but all of the international releases have been dubbed Realms of Arkania. 



Anyways, the latest Dark Eye game came out last month.  It's based on a popular German table top RPG and it takes place within the same continuity as the Northland Trilogy which, for you RPG savvy, know as Blade of Destiny, Stair Trail, and Shadows over Riva.


(can't be an rpg without a fishan village)


(not enough games in general let you fight fuckan dina-sores)

I played the demo, which is in German, and I have no idea what the fuck I'm doing so I'll keep this brief.  First off, the graphics are really pretty despite being built on what looks like a pretty old engine.  It looks slightly better than Neverwinter Nights 2 but thankfully without the horrendous technical issues.  There's like 20 or something classes to choose from but sadly (maybe it's a demo limitation) you can't customize your character AT ALL beyond the default model.  There's rumors of an international English release in January 2009 (there's also rumors of an October release but I've heard nothing on the game period) which I'm inclined to believe because every piece of text is contained in a single, easily edited file in the game folder.



Here's to a good budget sleeper hit if it's ever translated!

Haha I know ONE videogamer that is going to shit a brick when he sees this...........

Haha I know ONE videogamer that is going to shit a brick when he sees this...........

and i'm waiting for it...

Man Marcus, fuck off!! Because of you, I just got hooked on The Witcher!

This looks incredible... You're going to kill me.


Seriously, the world looks really vibrant and beautiful. I'd love to play this.

Haha I know ONE videogamer that is going to shit a brick when he sees this...........

ACTUALLY dude, I've been half-following this on and off for like 2 or 3 years and it doesn't really look that good at all, or at least it doesn't have the same appeal that the other Realms of Arkania games had. This looks pretty much like an updated Neverwinter Nights, which I thought was really awful and unfun. The world in this looks pretty generic and I don't know, maybe that's the way it is in the tabletop Das Schwarze Auge game, but the other three Realms of Arkania games had really neat, vaguely-teutonic worlds that were fun to explore.

So yeah, maybe I'll download this but I'm really just not that excited. It's not even like I'm disappointed or anything, I just don't care. I've also heard it's pretty buggy and awkward, but it's European so that's kind of a given 

Also apparently there was this other Realms of Arkania game that was supposed to come out in 2001 but never did. I have no idea what the gameplay was supposed to be like but the graphics are super good.

Sorry I didn't flip out Rowain...

Also double post because it's sort of related (shitty fantasy game from Germany) - there's a Gothic 3 expansion coming out sometime this quarter and Gothic 4 is going to come out sometime in '09. I'm not sure why I care because Gothic 3 was horrible and the publisher has fired the old Gothic developer and hired a new one so it doesn't have anyone who has worked on a previous Gothic game on the team. I've seen some pictures and the graphics are pretty nuts, but it will probably suck!!!

I like shitty games!!!

Damn Germans and their leet RPG Making skills

this looks freakin awesome.

yeah dancing on the ogre's corpse was fantastic.  more games need to allow these things

I've seen some pictures and the graphics are pretty nuts, but it will probably suck!!!

I just read it's going to be a console/pc release which means that yeah it will probably suck.  This is like the bane of RPGs.  Make the game for the target system first then port it later fffuck (BioWare was planning on doing this with a ps1 and dreamcast release of baldur's gate and a ps2 release of baldur's gate 2 which actually looked pretty cash but they were canceled at the last minute)

i don't know dude, in terms of controls gothic is pretty much the most console pc game ever. it probably would have been easier to play if it had been for a console. i think it's one of the only pc rpgs that would have been better on a console.

I'm not talking about controls but the limitation of the system.  There's no "proof" behind the whole "consolization" myth but every hardcore pc gamer swears to their life that multiconsole releases ruin a game (i'm sure you've seen the rage coming from deus ex fanboys over deus ex 2 and oblivion gets a lot of flak from long time bethesda fans).  Gothics control scheme was pretty horrible on the mouse and keyboard but I just couldn't imagine it on the Xbox (ugh has it really been 8 years since Gothic 1??).

console gamers are children, pc gamers are manchildren. same thing man.

This looks pretty decent!

which I'm inclined to believe because every piece of text is contained in a single, easily edited file in the game folder.

Babelfish!!

Sorry I didn't flip out Rowain...

Also double post because it's sort of related (shitty fantasy game from Germany) - there's a Gothic 3 expansion coming out sometime this quarter and Gothic 4 is going to come out sometime in '09. I'm not sure why I care because Gothic 3 was horrible and the publisher has fired the old Gothic developer and hired a new one so it doesn't have anyone who has worked on a previous Gothic game on the team. I've seen some pictures and the graphics are pretty nuts, but it will probably suck!!!

I like shitty games!!!

I wasn't talking about you.......god your self centered..........

this game came out a few days ago.  I'll probably pick it up today with my copy of ys book 1+2

from the german version i played, it's pretty much a stable neverwinter nights 2.  unlike nwn2, the world is HUGE so the exploration part of the RoA series is kept intact.  my only gripe from the previews i've seen is the character creation is really dull (you can customize your characters stats and stuff, but their appearance is fixed) and magic is pretty useless until late game when it suddenly becomes necessary.

i just beat realms of arkania: shadows over riva with a party imported from star trail and blade of destiny (i'd never beaten star trail before) and since i'm mr. realms of arkania and shitty german rpgs i think i'm sort of obligated to buy this. it really doesn't look that good though.

it's also 29.99 ducats and apparently it did so well in germany that it's getting a sequel due next year

I've been playing this game for four hours and nothing story related has happened at all.  I can't tell if that's a good thing, yet.  From what I've heard, the opening area is basically a 6 hour tutorial and it pretty much shows.

First off THE GAMEPLAY: I've never played The Dark Eye tabletop but if this definitely feels like playing a table top game.  It's more complicated to new people than Temple of Elemental Evil and I don't remember Realms of Arkania being this in depth.  It's simple once you learn all the abbreviations, but to a new comer you're bombarded with dozens of acronyms that make no sense.  Get a hold of the manual if you pirate/buy the digital copy because it has a 5 page glossary of terms all relevant to the game world (names of gods and mythical figures) as well as what the acronyms stand for. 

The mechanics are simple; you kills shit/do quests and you get ADVENTURE POINTS which you spend on talents (skills), attributes, and magic and shit.  You can also talk to trainers and pay them to train you in talents you don't have but it all costs ducats and AP.  Combat takes place in rounds, you can choose to pause the game each round for a turn based feel, and the game is actually pretty tough.  Unlike DnD, you have "wounds" where if you take too much damage in one hit you'll get a penalty to your stats.  Magic and special skills are required to get through even the simplest fights because enemies love to gang up on you and can kill you in two to three hits.  My only gripe regarding combat is that your health regenerates outside of combat waaaaay too quickly so you can literally beat up on a tough enemy then wait 60 seconds to fully heal.  Wounds only go away by praying at a shrine or successfully healing them using a heal check and the more wounds you have + the longer you wait to heal them then the harder they are to heal.

As for other combat options, you can build equipment (alchemy, weapons/armor, bows) which is actually pretty in depth (every piece of equipment in the game has a formula to it).  You can also build traps, scavenge for plants, and gut animals for their innards.  Traps and status affecting spells are pretty important because they lower the ability of your enemy in combat.  Combat actually takes a bit of time to resolve (shortest fight for me was like 30 seconds) so the more fuck up your opponent, the greater chance your tanks and meatshields have to survive.  Enemies will actively pursue spell casters so you're constantly switching between your fighters and casters to keep the enemy occupied.  There's no "attack of opportunity" here and you can only parry 1 attack with a weapon (unless you're skilled with shields) so if someone starts casting a healing spell then EVERY enemy will stop attacking whoever and gang up on them.

As for the story... uh....  haven't gotten that far yet!  The world is broken up into several "zones" (think Baldur's Gate where it's a huge world map and you can click on smaller areas) and they're laaaaaarge.  Thankfully only the important NPC's have dialog trees while the random joes have a small little text box (I hate saying the same damn thing to random NPC's that don't matter). So far, skills influence dialog options nicely and there's an entire talent section devoted to social talents but I haven't noticed any "good vs. evil" choices or plot altering quests yet but I'm still in the first REALLY LARGE area.

Graphics are great and the engine runs real smooth.  Transitioning between areas takes a long time to load but moving from one area to the next isn't frequent at all so it's not like you're staring at the loading screen.  The music is kind of... meh.  It's not memorable, it's not ear splitting bad, it's just meh. 

For 30 bux it's a pretty bomb game.  It's fun, not entirely buggy and stupid like 99% of European RPGs, and it's keeping the dying tradition of table top PC games alive.  NWN2 was pretty disappointing but this is everything that game isn't.

i looked for it yesterday but couldn't find it. it's probably just as well because i know it will suck. i know deep down that it's... it's no realms of arkania.

that's why they called it drakensang