Dungeons & Dragons: Warriors of the Eternal Sun

Dungeons & Dragons: Warriors of the Eternal Sun
Dungeons & Dragons: Warriors of the Eternal Sun box art
Developer(s)	Westwood Associates
Publisher(s)	Sega of America Inc.
Distributor(s)	Sega of America Inc.
Designer(s)	Louis Castle (game designer) Mark Lindstrom, E. Ettore Annunziata (additional game design) Paul Mudra, Frank Klepacki, Dwight Okahara (composers)
Platform(s)	Sega Mega Drive
Release date(s)	NA 1992[1] EU 1992[1]
Genre(s)	Role-playing game
Mode(s)	Single-player
Media/distribution	ROM cartridge (Physical)

Dungeons & Dragons: Warriors of the Eternal Sun is a console role-playing game developed for the Sega Mega Drive by Westwood Associates in 1992. It is based on the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) game rules, and uses the D&D Hollow World campaign setting.^[2]

Gameplay

The player controls a party of four player characters (PCs). There are three distinct styles of gameplay: outside adventure mode, outside combat mode, and dungeon mode.^[3]

In the two outside modes, the player has an isometric view on their characters as they travel around the locations on the world map, including open fields, forests, jungles, cities, and swamps. The party is controlled as one, and each member will follow the lead character's movements.

In the outside adventure mode, the movements of the party are in real-time. When the party encounters random battles or set events (such as a Beastman camp or an ambush on a bridge), the game will switch into outside combat mode.

The outside combat mode is turn-based. A PC is highlighted with a white box when it is that PCs turn. This selected character can move a short distance, attack, or both as the player chooses. The combat system is based on an automated version of the D&D rules, so each character and enemy has hit points and an armor class rating. If the enemies are killed or flee, the party is awarded experience points and occasionally treasure. If the PCs are killed in battle, their tombstones will be displayed, and the game will end. The player can attempt to flee the battle by moving the characters away from the enemies.

The dungeon mode differs from the other modes, as it uses a first person view. The game switches to this mode when the party enters a cave or building. The screen displays what the party can see in the dungeon, along with a compass and textual information describing the surroundings. Encounters with enemies become real-time events in dungeon mode, moving the focus away from slow and strategic combat of the outside mode to a faster-paced style. In addition, weapons and spells can have different effects in this mode; for example, the lightning bolt spell will bounce off the dungeon walls and possibly backfire on the party. The party also needs to be cautious of traps and hidden doors while exploring the dungeons.

In all game modes, the party's portraits, weapons and hit points will be displayed on the right hand side of the screen, along with any status effects they may have (such as being poisoned or under the affect of a sleep spell). Pressing the "Start" button calls up the camping menu. From here, the player can manage the party's inventory, command them to rest and heal, save and load games, transfer items between characters, view the world map, and configure game options.^[3]

The game has save game slots, which allow up to four games to be saved.

Plot

Setting

Warriors of the Eternal Sun is set in the Hollow World campaign setting. Creatures and enemies from this world appear in the game, including the Blacklore elves, the war-mongering Azcans, beastmen, lizardmen, and dinosaurs.^[2]

Story

The human army (composed of humans, elves, dwarves, and halflings) and the goblin army are at war. The goblins are making a final push into Duke Barrik's castle, and the Duke believes that they will overrun his defenses and kill all of his people. However, before the goblin attack begins, the ground begins to shake, the sky tears open, and both armies are sucked into a void.^[3]

Duke Barrik's castle is transported to a valley enclosed with impossibly tall cliffs and a brilliant red sun overhead (the "Eternal Sun" of the title). The goblins are nowhere to be seen, and the humans appear to be stranded in this new world.^[3]

The Duke requests that the four player characters explore this strange environment in order to find allies.^[3] During the party's quest, they will explore dungeons, volcanoes, and ancient cities, and discover new enemies. While they are adventuring, an unseen force is slowly turning the Duke's people against them. They grow increasingly insane and eventually hostile throughout the course of the adventure. The player characters must unravel the mysteries of this new world and locate the creature known as the Burrower in order to survive.

Characters

The party of PCs can be made up of any combination of the following character types: cleric, fighter, magic-User, thief, dwarf, elf, and halfling. The player can decide the name and gender of their characters and choose between red, blue, green, or yellow clothing. These are cosmetic details that do not have any effect on actual gameplay.^[3] The abilities of the different character classes are based on the rules of the original Dungeons & Dragons game.

The characters' ability scores—strength, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, wisdom, and charisma—are determined during the character creation process via simulated dice rolls. The maximum ability score at the start of the game is eighteen. The ability scores affect gameplay. For example, characters with a high strength score can cause more damage in combat, and characters with a high constitution will receive more hit points.^[3]

Fighters are the most skilled in battle and generally have the highest strength. They can use all weapons. Dwarves are as strong as fighters and are also accomplished warriors.^[3]

Characters in the magic-user and elf classes can cast spells. Magic-users begin the game with the magic missile spell, and elves begin with the sleep spell. As the characters progress through the game, they gain access to more powerful magic and an increased number of spells per spell level, up to a maximum of four lower level spells, but less for higher level spells.^[3] These new spells can be learned from magic scrolls found during the adventure. Magic-users can learn more magic than elves, while elves are stronger fighters than magic-users. Magic-users are physically weak and can use few weapons, although they have the most magic items available to them.

Clerics can also cast spells and have access to their own type of magic, which is focused on healing and controlling enemies. They do not receive spells until they reach their second level. They can learn reversed versions of many of their spells, producing opposite effects to the original spell. This reversal can make healing spells cause damage, cause the light spell to create darkness, and so on. Clerics are stronger than all classes besides fighters and dwarves in physical combat.

Thieves can hide in the shadows (which allows them to make sneak attacks on enemies) and also search for and disarm traps in the dungeon mode. When they reach the tenth level, thieves are capable of casting spells from scrolls found while adventuring.^[3] They cannot memorize these spells like magic-users, and the spell can only be used once, after which it disappears from the scroll.

Halflings are similar to thieves: they can hide in shadows and are capable, but not impressive, in battle.

Reception

GameRankings has an aggregate ranking of 62.50% for Warriors of the Eternal Sun, based on two reviews.^[4] The game is rated as 'Average' on allgame.^[5]

In a 2008 retrospective on Dungeons & Dragons video games, IGN.com called Warriors of the Eternal Sun a "mixed bag", complimenting the battle system and graphical style, but calling it a "crib sheet" effort which was not preferable to other RPGs available at the time.^[6]

See also

• Order of the Griffon

References

1. ^ ^{a b} http://www.gamefaqs.com/genesis/586590-warriors-of-the-eternal-sun/data Release date information at GameFAQs
2. ^ ^{a b} Aaron Allston (1990). Hollow World Campaign Set. TSR Inc. 
3. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j} Westwood Associates (1992). Warriors of the Eternal Sun Instruction Booklet. Sega. 
4. ^ http://www.gamerankings.com/genesis/586590-warriors-of-the-eternal-sun/index.html GameRankings page
5. ^ http://www.allgame.com/game.php?id=12025&tab=review allgame review
6. ^ http://uk.retro.ign.com/articles/857/857143p2.html

External links

• Dungeons & Dragons: Warriors of the Eternal Sun at MobyGames