Lands of Lore - CRPG History Abridged I

Classic Westwood Studios game, very accessible, good for CRPG beginners with a fantastic pixel art.

Would be nice to see more videos in this CRPG history series, Felipe!
 
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Video is stuttering though. So some advanced video editing should be done.

But I completely agree. Westwood managed to do graphics and sounds which are more or less timeless and still look well today. Also I would probably call Lands of Lore the first RPG for more or less casual players. And I don't mean that in a negative way.
Lots of RPGs before that had a couple of riddles here and there which could completely block your walkthrough. Also Lands of Lore comes with an automap which helps a lot.

Lands of Lore 1 and Stonekeep are still my favorite Dungeon Crawlers.
 
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I have great memories about LoL. While most dungeons were all about mechanics and very little story, LoL tried to be epic story-driven game. The art and animations were stunning at the time. I still remember when I saw that bees flying fluently right from your inventory/interface (!) towards enemy for the first time. I was stunned.
 
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Was there any Dungeoncrawler before Lands of Lore which was as limited to "Dungeoncrawling" but which contained more story?

Can't think of any, but I can't judge Bard's Tale and other pre 90s games.
 
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The Dark Heart Of Uukrul, the Bard's Tales, Amberstar, Star Trail,...
 
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Hrm...wouldn't call Star Trail a Dungeon Crawler though. Even though it had elements. Haven't played the other ones.
 
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I have bad memories of Lands of Lore ... but only good memories of the original game, it was LOL2 which taught me a lesson about looking too forward to something only to be very disappointed. Maybe that's why I'm so jaded nowadays??

The original game was very fun.
 
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Loved this but never finished. For some reason I started it multiple times and burnedbout halfway each time.
 
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Loved this to bits as a kid, but can't stand the real-time fights back and forth nowadays. For the life of me, I couldn't get into Legend of Grimrock because of this and didn't even try the second one.
 
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Loved Lands of Lore - but I also think that the sequel is criminally underrated. Sure, it went in a bad direction in terms of gameplay, but the story was great and it had some of the most expansive dungeons I've ever seen.
 
Wonderful game and as rightly pointed out, very accessible indeed. Even my little sister managed to beat it back in the day. :) I borrowed it from a friend before buying it myself (white box label version) in around '96-97.

I've completed it with all of the lead characters. From memory, the hardest section was always the White Tower and those brutal ghost fights. The game had some neat puzzles too.

I never could suffer 2 or 3 for very long despite owning both in "big box" form for years. The FMV cheese and streamlined action feel always eventually scared me away.
One day I'll get back and beat 'em properly though, as I did nab the collection off GOG when they were last on sale. :)
https://www.gog.com/game/lands_of_lore_1_2
https://www.gog.com/game/lands_of_lore_3
 
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