If anyone tells me 'It's not a '94 game because it came out December 31st 1993' - I am legally allowed to execute you, I checked with a lawyer and everything.

@weissendrachen

Жыл бұрын

I think you should stop trying the "if this gets x amount of likes I'll do y." This channel is good. You clearly put a lot of effort into all of your content and I enjoy every one of your videos. At this point it's just waiting for the algorithm to promote you more lol. Hopefully it'll pick up with the recent increase in DnD's popularity.

@vernonator1935

Жыл бұрын

Execute your viewers, this can only result in a positive growth for your channel

@NA-ib6og

Жыл бұрын

It's not a '94 game because it came out December 31st 1993...... try me

@WilliamSRD

Жыл бұрын

Ah, so you have chosen death 🔪

@Dr-Weird

Жыл бұрын

@@WilliamSRD would sir like his dueling swords assembled?

Fun tidbit: the reason a lot of these old D&D video games let you just adjust your stats however you want was so you could plug your tabletop D&D characters (well... starting level versions of them) directly into the game, to see if your tabletop party could survive. ; )

@WilliamSRD

Жыл бұрын

That's actually such a neat detail!

@ProjectRedfoot

Жыл бұрын

Makes sense

@GeomancerHT

Жыл бұрын

Tabletop players would usually import the entire party and then they will control the characters individually, the 4 of them in a single keyboard. It was more painful on real time games, but many also played the same way on the turn based games.

I can give the voice acting ONE compliment.... it evokes the feeling of that one friend who wants to immerse their friends, but also definitely doesn't have the range to immerse them THAT well

@JM-mh1pp

Жыл бұрын

Honestly made me feel like I am playing tabletop

@ericconnor8419

Жыл бұрын

His main problem is that he is American, and everybody knows you can't be a proper scary villain unless you have a British or East European accent. Ideally a British person doing a German accent like Hans Gruber.

Oh man. I remember when PC games started to have voiced narration and characters like this. My newly adolescent self truly felt "Gaming cannot get any better than this!"

@drarenthiralas1683

Жыл бұрын

Your newly adolescent self was mostly correct, unfortunately.

@RocketRoosterFilms

Жыл бұрын

I felt the same way when I first played StarFox 64.

@awordabout...3061

Жыл бұрын

@@RocketRoosterFilms I mean you show me a modern game that lets you do a barrel roll Checkmate, athiests

@Lucifronz

Жыл бұрын

@@tryingtotryistrying I think people like Kevin Sorbo found a new god to worship, as vomit-inducing as it is.

@Lucifronz

Жыл бұрын

@@drarenthiralas1683 Unfortunately. But hey, as horrid as modern gaming has gotten, we have so many old gems to play that cannot be ruined by them. But with all the crappy remakes that come out, I suppose they'll keep trying.

37:20 it's a fairly well known fact that the cover of the first Castlevania game used Strahd's likeness for Dracula. Now it seems Strahd is the one copying Castlevania; borrowing Dracula's moveset of teleporting around while shooting fireballs

@diegojose4173

Жыл бұрын

It was actually Castlevania II: Simon's quest.

You've found a real gem here. An old style adventure game with janky interfaces that isn't an unplayable mess? I didn't know any actually existed. Bravo.

@WilliamSRD

Жыл бұрын

I'm as surprised as anyone!

@Bobby3OOO

Жыл бұрын

Finding these and reporting back has become my favorite KZread genre XD

@neoqwerty

Жыл бұрын

The best part is, these games have a "sibling": Menzoberranzan. And Menzoberranzan is H U G E.

@Digitaaliklosetti

Жыл бұрын

That's all of them if you're not a coward

@quarreneverett4767

Жыл бұрын

I like the daggerfall unity

Adventurers getting paid in 'exposure' is the first item required for murder hoboing

"so yeah I'm not gonna tell you too much cause I don't want to spoil my dnd campaign" very reassuring thanks, I was worried precisely about that

@WilliamSRD

Жыл бұрын

I got u fam 👍

Whenever I think "evil noble vampire" the voice that comes to my mind is ALWAYS Simon Templeman, aka; Kain from the Legacy of Kain series.

@AedanTheGrey

2 ай бұрын

Hel yes, Templeman is such a great VA

@CzechAvailabilitie

Ай бұрын

Not Bela Lugosi?

Ok i have to say this who ever was drawing the books on the female characters really went above and beyond

@gargamellenoir8460

Жыл бұрын

Yeah, each page is so detailed it's impressive!

@ComicGladiator

Жыл бұрын

With such massive tomes, they better have strong spines.

@manarayofhope2374

Жыл бұрын

@@ComicGladiator I see what you did there

@jic1

Жыл бұрын

Those books sound great, do they have lots of pictures of their boobs?

@manarayofhope2374

Жыл бұрын

@@jic1 just go on r34 my dude

This game is NOT forgotten

@D--FENS

Жыл бұрын

Torment is incredible.

@KS-PNW

Жыл бұрын

I hope he covers them at some point

GOG does a really good job on making sure these old games are playable. The 2nd Ravenloft game was also quite enjoyable. If you have not done so you may also enjoy the Eye of the Beholder games.

@quarreneverett4767

Жыл бұрын

From my experiiences with gog they just use fan patches when they are reselling the abandonware games. Regardless of my opinions on that

The Keypad works as you direction pad on the screen so you can move and clik6to attack. These old school First Person Dungeon games have it setup like that.

"My sister is dead" "My condolences. Here, this pile of dust should help"

The only way to remove a character from the party is to recruit a new one when the party is full. When you do, you'll be asked to pick one of your current members to send away. After they leave, most of them have a location they go to wait in case you decide to recruit them again. Also, you can only remove either of your starting characters from your party if they are dead. And if you do remove a dead character from the party, that character is permanently removed from the game.

@Santiago-Farrell

Жыл бұрын

You can kick party members, there is an option to do so. You cannot kick the two that you created

@ShinChara

Жыл бұрын

@@Santiago-Farrell I just tested it, and yes, you can kick one of your created characters if they're dead and you recruit another character while your party is full. Also, I can find no other way to remove a character from your party other than recruiting another one while your party is full, and I've been playing this game for decades. Can you tell me how it's done?

I LOVED this game! I played Stone Prophet too. Menzobarrenzen for me unfortunately had the final boss in the wall bug, which required a phone call and a disk fix mailed to me snailmail. It also required a complete replay of the game, which I didn't want to slog through.

I played through this back in 98, after having completed Menzo. I loved them.

It's bonkers that I've only just found this channel, great quality work! Looking forward to watching the older content and seeing new stuff as it comes!

One of my absolute favorite D&D memories is the moments I was able to play as Strahd von Zarovich when running Curse of Strahd. Such a fun villain.

16:50 Hireing dedicated voice actors wasn't even really a thing in the industry at this time, or at least extreamly uncommon. I struggle to come up with any 1994 game using professional voice actors. It was pretty much industry standard at the time to use wathever people were already working at the game for voices, like programmers and stuff.

@marcst3199

Жыл бұрын

Lands of Lore did it 93, but I think they also advertised with it.

@RW77777777

Жыл бұрын

lots of Sega CD games did; Sewer Shark is my most memorable with their 'Robocop' commercials Prize Fighter another classic

@thecappeningchannel515

Жыл бұрын

Lands of Lore did it. Used Patrick Steward. But the style was ment to be stilted speech since sound was played off thru those tiny 5watt pc speakers. It 'had to be' that way. Just like radio speech from 1930 was nasal since that was easier to hear through the radio technology at the time.

I am a huge fan of 2nd and 3rd D&D Ravenloft edition and i wish those two versions had more recognition. I was always struggling to find a team in my country to play tabletop Ravenloft with because everyone wanted to play Forgotten Realms because of the popularity of the Baldur's Gate series. Nevertheless back then Ravenloft was a whole immense setting not just a module, it was full of references to gothic literature and moves. Pure amazing, by far the best D&D setting of all time. BTW, there also is a sequel of the PC game called Ravenloft: Stone Prophet

@KS-PNW

Жыл бұрын

Yeah I don't know where he got the idea that Curse of Strahd is somehow deeper than OG Barovia...

This game was almost a direct copy of the original 1983 PnP RPG, at least as much as the Tech of the time would allow. That was only to the game's benefit. It COULD be a really fantastic experience to see a modern remake, not of this game, but of that original D&D Module. It's just filled with memorable characters, bursting with Gothic Mood, and tons of challenges of all kinds.

The only SSI game I've actually played start to finish! In 1995, even, so it wasn't even old at the time. I replayed it again 2 years ago and while it wasn't as good as I remembered (obviously!), it was still a good time.

This game brings back sssooo many memories. It was one of the first D&D games I played on PC. D&D was a lot harder then. A level 1 thief could be one shot by a rodent!

Fighter/Mage/Thief is actually one of the most OP character class combos because with touch attack spells from the mage class, you can backstab with the thief class for x3 damage for much more than the 1-6 damage of a dagger, which lets you one shot things most creatures.

An excellent review, most creative, thorough review of this game I’ve ever encountered. Thank you.

Like most SSI games of the era, this one had a great D&D 'feel' if you could get past all the rough edges. Although it's maybe not optimal, I always play with a full party of four. I find it more fun that way and it helps a lot with inventory management.

Dear god was this entertaining, and it was so cool to finally watch a really in depth video on a game I wish I could have played back when I had the patience to deal with its bs. Thanks so much for making this!

Back in the 80's I played a lot of the SSI games. Bitter and sweet times for SSI. Thanks a bunch for reviewing this treasure!

These dives into classic D&D video games are real enjoyable. I remember playing the dark sun gold box games back in the day. Never to completion, but I sure enjoyed them

This game has so many memorable things. The "whooouushh" of the magic missile, the "ga-HUH!!" Sound the skeletons make, and the music... I remember the first time I heard the song that plays when you talk to the bard woman, I found myself mesmerized by it. It was so uplifting and regal. This game had a great mood, mixing horror and the occult with a feeling of misery and hopelessness. I'm actually playing a DnD campaign for the first time of curse of Strahd and since I'm incredibly familiar with this game, I'm seeing how close the two are in plotlines and such. Great video mate.

@deathstinger13

10 күн бұрын

having never played the game, this one is now incapable of not making the skeletons sound like Banjo of Banjo Kazooie in its head

The game lets you move around with the keyboard, if you have a full keyboard. On the number pad: 7 turns to the left, 9 turns to the right, 8 is forward, 4 and 6 strafe, etc..

I enjoy this trilogy a great deal, and it does indeed appear during this mid-90s dark age where no-one seems to talk about it. I know that you did Stone Prophet, but please also do a video about Menzoberranzan. Some of the voice acting in that is... memorable.

Strahd fight an underwhelming cakewalk? Oh cool, just like in I6 and Curse of Strahd.

@KS-PNW

Жыл бұрын

Yeah.. at least in the original version Strahd was more than a match for anything short of a top tier level party. 20th level fighter/ 16th level magic user AND a vampire, dude could wreck shop!

@Motavian

Жыл бұрын

@@KS-PNW That's true! Maybe our DM just gave out too many magic items. It's been awhile since I've even looked at I6, but IIRC the sunsword BALANCED the scales of that fight rather than pushed them on behalf of the players.

Really like these videos of old games that I, not only didn't know exist, also won't play even knowing they exist.

5:13 Thanks a bunch, now I can't ever see being pulled into the Demiplane of Dread as anything else but the Dark Powers sending a truck from out of thin air to hit the chosen candidate...

By the way, you can also move with the numpad. Arrows for going forward/backwards and strafing left/right. And 7+9 for turning left and right. It's actually quite WASD for its time. And in that sense, controls better than Ultima Underworld.

Ayyy! I had this and the Menzoberranzan one in a pack, and Stone Prophet. I seem to remember beating Strahd, or getting really far, but super little details of it; I absolutely remember beating Stone Prophet and feeling super accomplished about it, hahah.

i would just like to point out that the sound and voice acting is actual really good for a game like this that this old.

Ravenloft as isekai? Hmmm. So would truck-kun be a monster that chucks you into another plane after killing you in combat, or is it tied to a cursed magic item? "Ring of Vehicular Manslaughter" or somesuch?

@justnoob8141

Жыл бұрын

It’s Silent Hill entrance, if you see a fog in the place that shouldn’t be there, you’re isekai’ed. Other option is getting punch in the face with Plane Shift spell

My respect to developers! Even though one can see, that you can avoid all of the Ravenloft lore and specifically Strahd's backstory, I do appreciate all of the tips and clues of his backstory through out this game. Those who know the lore can appreciate the references, and those who dive deep, can figure out the story themselves. Overall wonderful video and I am glad that it got into my recommendations!

@KS-PNW

Жыл бұрын

I've never played curse of strahd personally but my understanding is that it's only barely related to the original domain. Unfortunately Wizards seems intent on reducing Ravenloft to a series of one shot fun houses instead of it being a real campaign setting.

@mariakutsy2178

Жыл бұрын

@@KS-PNW They did a decent job with cos, the problem is that one should read extra material to really get things. About ravenloft in general. Yeah, they tried to give a lot of ravenloft inspiration in VGTR, but most of it is based of materials from the previous editions. It's not as good, but it's better than nothing

Ive played DarkSun I dont know how many times when i was a kid. once recently too :D

I was eleven when this came out, I remember playing it with my older cousin. I still have the original game in box. Good review, I shall subscribe!

I went and played this game after watching your review. This was a great RPG, such amazing atmosphere

That was awesome! A pleasant nostalgic trip. :)

There was also Menzobarranzan (1994), also made by SSI on the same engine. Another great DnD game.

That castle in Barovia looks like a hand coming out of the earth to give the city below it a giant finger! (2:11)

Great editing & comedic timing

I decided to play this game because of how much I liked its soundtrack. Took a break almost right before the Strahd battle and ended up spilling a whole glass of water on my laptop before finishing the game. lmao

Wow that was entertaining! I love your style of video

"Welcome back to Elturel! Now we'll laugh and savor our victory for years to come!" top 10 moments before disaster

More like this, youre very good at what you do sir and the getting paid joke was laid out progressively/brilliantly. Also, Glorianna is major offt.

I was there, buying a lot of these off the shelves, fun to see them in the present :)

AD&D 2E had so many cool settings. Ravenloft, Planescape, Dark Sun, the Forgotten Realms Underdark, etc.

"Think of the exposure!" Loved it! 🤣

ravenloft was like the high end of the SSI games

fucking classic. I had first played the non CD rom version of Strahd's Possession which lacked voice etc. I always loved the SSI series that allowed you to import your characters from one to another. Jumping into Stone Prophet with your party from Strahd was great (though Stone Prophet wasnt as good)

This channel makes my life better!

The SSI series of DnD games was actually quite good. It was only that the company basically re-released the game every year or so with minor system upgrades and a new story and characters. Still the 'new' game was compelling enough to later spawn one of the first MMORPG with Neverwinter, which existed briefly during the dial up internet times in the mid 90s but is now almost completely forgotten, Ultima Online took what brief fame it had.. It is not to be confused with Biowares Neverwinter Nights which came much later.

Ahh, level drain. Remember when monsters in D&D could scare players?

@tomfoolery5680

4 ай бұрын

I played a little ADnD and a LOT of 2nd edition. I'm about 10 sessions into a 5e campaign and it is insane how coddled players are in 5e. I've talked them all into playing a campaign I'm goin to DM..... In Dark Sun. They have only played 5e. They have no idea.

9:48- that song sounds like someone decided to play the Jaws theme on a xylophone.

I figured Curse of Strahd was a reintroduction since they have been reintroducing a lot into 5e, but I didn't realize it was so old or had a game. Fun

@WilliamSRD

Жыл бұрын

The game specifically is INCREDIBLY forgotten. I only knew about it because I stumbled across it in a list. I've asked a few older players about it and none of them knew it existed!

@MythicMoonlight

Жыл бұрын

@@WilliamSRD Oh wow, guess it ended up just buried to time

@lusalma5404

Жыл бұрын

quite a bit of the stuff they have done is a remake :) Eberron was almost word for word the same as the 3rd ed :(

@ComicGladiator

Жыл бұрын

Yes, sweet summer child, we have had many winters.

@KS-PNW

Жыл бұрын

@@MythicMoonlight this isn't curse of strahd based really, it's the classic Barovia.

SSI was an amazing game making company. I remember playing the heck out of their Stronghold game.

Stone Prophet took all the good things about this game and took um up 10 notches.. and a few of the bad things too.. but I loved it.

My favorite of the classic DD from SSI was Dark Sun Shattered Lands

Here I thought I was done buying old retro games that I'll play maybe once, but damn did you sell it well! Got it installed on my Steam Deck for handheld retro goodness, combats a blast.

As a strahd -fucker- enjoyer I'm surprised I'm just now seeing this video! I've been subbed for awhile, where I was 6 months ago to have missed this?!

Really enjoyed this. Thank you.

Really fun video, and a cool game to boot.

More old DnD game reviews please!

35:50 Aww, come on man. It's okay to embrace the low-hanging fruit sometimes! "Accosted by more unsolicited wood than a woman on tinder" was _right there_ and you could have even had bonus Halloween points if you pulled up some old art of a witch burning or something. For real though I love this video and definitely have to sub now.

@WilliamSRD

Жыл бұрын

I legitimately had an existential crisis deciding on my level of maturity when I scripted that part!

@PhyreI3ird

Жыл бұрын

@@WilliamSRD Oh, fair enough lol. I understand it could be hard deciding on what kind of audience you'd want to appeal to when trying to commit to a KZread channel.

that was one of my favorite games...man that brings back memories

Ravenloft: The Quest to Get Paid

Great video 👍

5:15 Damn you, Truck-kun!

Ooo, I gotta break out that monologue when I run CoS next

Pre-internet, I was stuck for *YEARS* on Menzo because of a hidden door that I never found. Then I peeked at a strategy guide at an electronics shop, found out what the problem was, and finished the game that same day.

Just a little constructive criticism... What I like about your videos is the in-depth coverage of old D&D games. The moment you said you weren't going in-depth on aspects of this one (the primary villain at that) I tuned out instantly. Deep dives are supposed to go deep, especially on very important elements like villains and settings. I get why you didn't want to do it, but it doesn't make for a compelling reason to watch the video. "I'm going to play this one, but I'm not going to give you the content I do in every other video of this type I've done."

The Domains of Dread is one of my favourite settings.

9:47 It sounds like the Jaws theme bring played on an empty water jug

If I recall there's a few parts to the original Ravenloft that aren't in the main campaign book like The secret of Bone Hill, which had it's own module. As someone who hasn't played the 5e version yet I can't remember if they were included in Curse of Strad to make Baroviva more complete without extra splat books. Also, that woman you passed on in the green, her brother is a Lupe Garuo. She's quite good too.

Something I probably often forget, not playing when frustrated. Sometimes I probably tackled the challange till it let me past it and ended it there.

13:27 That bard is definitely thumbnail material 😏

the soundtrack of both this game and stone prophet are amazing and i have used both in my years long epic curse of strahd campaign

The art is so damn beautiful

This channel needs more subscribers, seriously one of the best gaming channels on the internet.

Damn, that is super solid voice acting for that era. Like shockingly good. Can't believe you trashed it.

@junibug6790

Жыл бұрын

"I wish they could've gotten a prestigious voice actor to play the part of the Big Bad Guy" doesn't qualifying as "trashing" the voice acting, really.

Both ravenloft games are my favourite SSI games. Love the athmosphere and the world. Thank you for praising the music: I always tell people how good and forgoten the music ofbthis game was. By the way, I play this one more than 10 times and I NEVER think in using only two characters. Thats insane. Only for powergaming obsesive people.

@WilliamSRD

Жыл бұрын

I'm so glad you've loved this game! And yeah, having now played through the first one, I FULLY agree about taking a full 4 person party. I let power gamers in the forums scare me into thinking thee game was much harder than it was!

@GodzillasaurusJr

Жыл бұрын

Besides the music, young teenage me (in 1995) playing this alone in a dark room, creeping around Barovia, enjoying the spooky atmosphere... and suddenly that cat noise! Jumped out of my skin, and more than once.

@craigstege6376

Жыл бұрын

I mean they don't even power game that optimally. Fighter/cleric and fighter/mage is probably the better way. Both characters wind up spellcasting killing machines. I usually do dwarf fighter/cleric and elf fighter mage then imagine them both constantly bickering the whole time.

Man i played all those d&d games on my good old c64 :)

Can confirm that the printing of the map worked fine back in the day!

The twist at the end is that you end up in Elturel and therefore die horribly only a short while later. Yay!

my favourite DnD video game is actually "Pools of Darkness", that was awesome really.

33:13 "Yeah, you just use 'Turn Undead' on them and they break!" You use Turn Undead... on a construct... and it works? Good lord, who programmed this game?

The music reminds me of Vagrant Story in places

Holy crap! The artwork is exceptional! Better than any game of its type.

@erikhawkke4861

Жыл бұрын

Go play Stone Phophet

"Isekai"? Geez, how old are you? Still, well done for beating this game. I love that you go beyond the game and explain more about these realms. I subscribed just from your video on Wake of the Ravager. From what little I understand, there are other realms besides Barovia and Har'Akir. I'm curious to know more about these other realms of horror. What more could there be? I certainly lack the imagination of the campaign creators. Even though the settings are works of fiction, I still like learning about these, the Sword Coast (where I've ventured in Neverwinder Nights and Eye of the Beholder), and Dark Sun (where I've never been). I've beat this game a few times trying to get optimal characters for Stone Prophet, a game I've never beat. Stone Prophet, unless you bring mages, there isn't a mage companion. I really hated the section in the graveyard and more, the wights beneath. I played this with a Cleric and Mage.

This video kicks ass!

@WilliamSRD

Жыл бұрын

Thank you so much, thanks for watching!

I’ve been watching the unexpectables play raven loft and no matter what ravenloft I see even if straid isn’t in it you always fell his reach

@KS-PNW

Жыл бұрын

If your in Barovia that's certainly true. There were lots of other domains beyond Barovia though. Beyond the other core domains (the Core was the main "continent" of Ravenloft) you had a bunch of "Islands of terror" (smaller domains scattered throughout the various seas of the coast of the core) along with "Clusters" (which were similarly themed domains that bordered each other in groups of 2-5). It never got fleshed out but they teased the possibility of other cores waiting to be discovered in the Mists 😁

aye curse of Strahd, ran 3 different group thru that one, was very different for every group, save for old bonegrinder.

@WilliamSRD

Жыл бұрын

I know nothing of this bonegrinder, but I presume I have some nightmares in store for me in the coming sessions.

Nice Strahdegy!