Dungeons & Dragons: Warriors of the Eternal Sun

Dungeons and Dragons: Warriors of the Eternal Sun was on of the many games released due to the success of the Dungeon and Dragons RPG, the game was designed by Westwood Associates (the people who did the original Times of Lore) and was released on the Sega Genesis/Megadrive.

The game starts with an introductory scene which explains the events immediately before the start of the game. This short description explains that the Goblins and Men (although this includes elves dwarves and halflings too) were at war and the Golbin armies were making a final push in the Duke Hector Barrik's castle. The Duke believes that this is the final night in the war, that the goblins will overrun the defences and his people will we be wiped out. However, before the golbins attack begins, the ground begins to shake and the sky rips open and both Men and Goblins are sucked into the void. The screen then moves to a shot of a valley with towering walls and a brilliant red sun over head, a description of what can be seen scroll up the page, similar to how a setting would be described by a DM in the RPG. It reads.

The castle has been transported to a valley with impossibly high cliffs. A red sun flares, circled by floating continents. The horizon appears as the bottom of a basin.

The menu then appears where you have a choice of: Use Default Party, Create New Party or Load Game. The Use Default Party option takes you straight into the game and you are given a little speech by the duke he says:

"We are in a strange new world. There is a new enemy here. Our people need allies to survive but the guards must defend he castle. You have been chosen to expose our new home. The gods have given us another chance. Serve me well and bring us allies."

You are then brought to the start of the game where you are given control of a party of four adventurers consisting of a Fighter a Cleric a Magic User and a Thief.

If you choose the Create new party option you are taken to a new screen where you may choose your own party. The "classes" are split into two groups Human and Demi Human, in human you have Cleric, Fighter, Magic-User and Thief. In Demi Human you have Dwarf, Elf and Halfling. For each one you can select Male or Female and a color (red, blue, green or yellow to distinguish them on the screen) when you choose one you can the access the option to "Roll Again" which allows you to generate a new set of stats for the character including Strength, Dexterity, Wisdom, Hit Points and even their starting gold, there is no limit on this and you cna do it as many times as you wish. Once you are happy with the characters stats you are asked to give him/her a name. After you have chosen your party the same intro from the duke plays as described above and your party appears in the dukes castle.

The gameplay is very straightforward and easy to get to grips with, it has three modes, Outside Adventure, Outside Combat and Dungeon. in both outside modes you are looking top down on your characters and have a good view of your immediate surroundings. In the Adventure mode you are free to explore as you wish and can take as much or as little time as you see fit. In the Battle mode the system becomes turn based, and a white box will appear around one of your characters, the box indicates who's turn it is and the characters can now be moved individually. Characters can only move a certain distance and attacks are made using the A and B buttons. Characters can purchase or acquire ranged weaponry which can allow you to engage an enemy first by pressing the weapons attack button while in the Adventure mode. At the end of combat the characters are awarded experience and sometimes treasure. The Dungeon mode is different to the other two modes, in this mode you see through the eyes of the character. Encounters become real-time events in the dungeons so be aware that if you leave the game in a dungeon an enemy my stumble on the party and attack, however while in Dungeons the enemies cannot assign attacks to any characters they are not in contact with, as most enemy attack from the front this means only the characters at the front of the party can receive damage.

Characters in the Cleric, Magic-User or Elf classes can cast spells once they learn them, Magic-users begin the game with the Magic Missile spell and elves begin with the Sleep spell. Clerics do not receive spells until they reach second level. As the character progress, they gain access to new spells and also an increased amount of spells they already have, up to a maximum of three per spell level. The Thief class is also capable of casting spells from scrolls found while adventuring once the character reaches 10th level although they will never learn spells of their own.