Octurbo: Dungeon Master: Theron's Quest

I Always Thought Dungeon Master Could've Used More Anime Cutscenes

We open on this idyllic scene. Winter has passed and with it comes a glorious new Spring of possibilities. I've already forgotten all the generic fantasy names for this world, so we'll just say this is Wales.As what happens in every Welsh springtime, the people praise the powers that be with a festival filled with dancing and merriment.A statue of the revered Welsh deity, Catherine Zeta-Jones, is paraded through the town square by all the young men who have come of age. Yes, Wales has Matsuri parades and costumes. Don't question it. You ever been to Wales? I have, so be quiet.Poor old Theron had to miss out on his coming of age ceremony, however, because he was too busy saving a lamb from a swamp. No, literally.See? Also I should've just presented this image without context because it's sort of amazing.One day the Gray Wizard of Wales, Sir Anthony Hopkins, descends on this tiny village to find a volunteer to help assemble the mystical Armor of Taza, which was dismantled by seven evil beings and the pieces spirited away to their lairs.Theron decides he needs to prove himself after the whole sorry sheep/swamp affair, and nobly volunteers for a task that has killed everyone who has so far set out to complete it. Don't worry, he has the power of androgyny on his side."This isn't Quest Difficult, Mr. Theron, this is Quest Impossible."Welcome to Theron's Quest! It's a game about winning the Oscar for "Monster". Nah, I wish.So immediately I'm confused and infuriated. Multiple dungeons? What is this? These are some cool names at least.It turns out that they broke up the game into seven smaller dungeons, mixing in a few areas from the expansion pack Chaos Strikes Back for good measure. Ak-Tu-Ba is the tutorial dungeon, I'm assuming, because it was the only one I was allowed to pick.Yeah, that's great and all, but how am I supposed to get up there?So now the game begins and everything starts to look cosy and familiar again. Well, as cosy as a bunch of cold, gray walls can be, anyway.Theron is your default first champion and the only character who retains his skill levels from dungeon to dungeon, I've read. He's actually quite capable, fortunately.You can resurrect three champions (prior heroes who died performing this quest) to join you. They're all absurdly powerful too, for what's supposed to be the first area of the game. Unlike Theron, they won't get any stronger, because they're all technically dead. (Wait, Pentai?)Holy crap, this guy is a Lo Master ninja and priest (Lo, that arrow symbol, is the lowest power for spells -- each level afterwards is one symbol higher). To put things in perspective, you can beat Dungeon Master handily without ever reaching any of the Master experience levels. The far more difficult Chaos Strikes Back does require a bit more effort, though.Anyway, I have three overpowered champions to help me beat a bunch of first-floor monsters. My goal is to fetch the first piece of the armor set, the Shield Defiant, and return it to this Vi Altar. Vi Altars in the original game were purely for resurrecting dead heroes (there is in fact another Vi Altar just next to this one for that very purpose).What's so weird is that this is the tutorial, so I'm being taught all the basics despite the fact I'm walking around with world destroyers. Even Theron, who has no experience outside of ovine observation, is the game's equivalent of level 3 in all four disciplines. You'd be lucky to find a hero that powerful when starting Dungeon Master. Since I'm finding clothes all over the place, the first thing I'm doing is giving the barbarian a damn shirt. This isn't a Boris Vallejo painting, Fabio.This is a Screamer Fungus. It's the weakest monster in the game, and an early source of food in the original Dungeon Master. I'm about to fireball it, simply because I can. I'd turn it inside out if I could remember the spell runes.I don't imagine this first dungeon will be all that challenging.Mummies are still as creepy as ever, but given Hakar can kill them in one hit, I'm not sure how terrified I'm meant to be. I am thoroughly perplexed at having this much firepower, but I'm starting to glean that the game wants to trick you into depending on these fixed-level heroes as a crutch. From this point onwards, I'm going to make sure Theron does everything because he's the only one that retains experience. The other three can be hideously powerful meatshields.The usual Dungeon Master customs still apply. Find a hidden switch......Find some hidden treasure. Chests are filled with goodies, and can be used as more inventory space (though the chest itself weighs a lot, so it's best to fill it with smaller items).I'm not sure I ever showed off how Priest skills work last time. Any magic that requires a bottle, like this Vi Potion spell, is Priest magic. It lets you create health potions (and other potions, once you get better at it and learn more recipes) if you have an empty flask in one hand. Best part is that almost anyone can create a basic health potion as long as they have enough mana. You can even create poison/fireball grenades, though that wastes the flask.Oh jeez, now there's two of them. Let's have Mara, who is high enough level to eviscerate demons with a thought, cast another low-level fireball.One mummy died and the other is so badly hurt that I finished it off by dropping this portcullis on its head. I certainly don't feel obliged to make their deaths dignified.Ful, which looks like a reverse N (though the game never tells you this; it's one of those 'read the manual' scenarios), is a simple lighting spell. In Dungeon Master, it was an invaluable utility spell and the best way to attain those first few difficult wizard class levels. For heroes like Mara, it'd be quicker to blow a giant hole through the ceiling to let the sunlight in.Ah, I should probably stop already. It's clearly fairly similar to Dungeon Master, which I've played elsewhere on the site, just with a whole heaping of inexplicable design decisions.

I do kinda want to keep playing though, just to see what else has been changed. There's no denying that it's going to be easy street if all I'm fighting is low-level goons with a party that could trounce the final boss of the original game though, so there's little point in screen-capping all that. I'd have to assume that later dungeons give you weaker champions and stronger monsters to contend with, especially if it's going to be drawing from the extremely challenging Chaos Strikes Back, so maybe Theron's Quest just has a particularly weird difficulty curve.