K Lite Mega Codec v9 0 2 Portable
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| This looks like it could be a scene from Beauty and the Beast. |
The achievements of the Magic Candle series are well-summarized in the subtitle of the second major installment. The backstory to the first game described how the demon Dreax was imprisoned in the titular magic candle in the fortress of Berbezza, where 44 mages continually guarded over it. Shortly prior to the events of the game, the 44 guardians vanished. Although the party solves the games main quest and re-seals Dreax in the candle, neither the reason for the disappearance of the guardians nor their ultimate fate is ever determined.
This unresolved question seems too obvious, and the number of guardians too specific, to be anything but deliberate. It was meant to be left open for the second game. This suggests that the Magic Candle series is plotted in a way that we havent seen so far in my RPG chronology. Even the ancillary titles--The Keys to Maramon (1990), Siege (1992), and Ambush at Sorinor (1993)--plus the prequel, Bloodstone (1993), fit into this overall narrative as if they were intended from the outset. This is in contrast to, say, the Ultima series, where no title shows any prescience of the next installment, and the side-games contradict and confuse, rather than supplement, the main games.
The continuity of the player character is also handled very well in The Magic Candle II. You can import your victorious character from either The Magic Candle or The Keys to Maramon, or--and this must be a first in CRPG history--both. If you choose to import both, as I did, your Magic Candle character becomes the lead and the Maramon character is joinable at a nearby inn. These characters come with their hard-won items from their titles, such as the swords Brennix and Brightsword and the pearl plate.
This unresolved question seems too obvious, and the number of guardians too specific, to be anything but deliberate. It was meant to be left open for the second game. This suggests that the Magic Candle series is plotted in a way that we havent seen so far in my RPG chronology. Even the ancillary titles--The Keys to Maramon (1990), Siege (1992), and Ambush at Sorinor (1993)--plus the prequel, Bloodstone (1993), fit into this overall narrative as if they were intended from the outset. This is in contrast to, say, the Ultima series, where no title shows any prescience of the next installment, and the side-games contradict and confuse, rather than supplement, the main games.
The continuity of the player character is also handled very well in The Magic Candle II. You can import your victorious character from either The Magic Candle or The Keys to Maramon, or--and this must be a first in CRPG history--both. If you choose to import both, as I did, your Magic Candle character becomes the lead and the Maramon character is joinable at a nearby inn. These characters come with their hard-won items from their titles, such as the swords Brennix and Brightsword and the pearl plate.
The backstory to both games assumes your character is named Lukas, but as with the first title, you have the option to reveal Lukass "real name" and thus rename him. At the beginning of The Four and Forty, you also have the option to reveal that the Lukas (or, in my case, Giauz) of The Magic Candle is actually a woman who had been posing as a man. Not feeling particularly warm towards Giauz, who has commented all of 5 words in the last year, I decided to have him whip off his breast bindings and reveal herself as "Gia."
Players creating a new party leader for The Magic Candle II choose from among five pre-made configurations of attributes and equipment, including woodsman, huntress, warrior, swordswoman, and minstrel. Imported characters arrive with some diminished version of what they had in the last game. I found that the attributes of my imported character--bravery, strength, dexterity, endurance, agility, loyalty, charm, intelligence, and resistance--were only 1 or 2 points higher than a newly-created character. Her skills, on the other hand--sword, axe, archery, magic, fist, swimming, trading, stealth, researching, soulreading, lockpicking, tracking, and musical--were between 5 and 25 points higher, and she started with almost double the hit points. Shes also much better equipped with "methreal" and a magic sword rather than plain ring mail and a longsword.
Set 10 years after The Magic Candle, the sequel takes place across the Sea of Oshmar, in the land of Gurtex from which the demon Dreax originated. After the events of the first game, King Rebnard of Deruvia decided to take the fight to the enemy, first establishing a foothold on Oshcrun Island (recounted in The Keys to Maramon), then moving forward to confront the Forces of Darkness on their home turf.
The protagonist, though probably destined for something greater, is only ancillary to Rebnards plans. The manual has her hanging out in Port Avur, chatting with a famous sea captain, Garlin the Blue, about the mysterious fate of the "four and forty." On a whim, she decides to hop aboard Garlins voyage to Oshcrun and pursue this little side quest in the midst of Rebnards larger invasion. The opening series of screens shows the melancholy Rebnard invigorated by news of Gias arrival, but he clearly wasnt planning on it.
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| Importing my victorious character. |
Players creating a new party leader for The Magic Candle II choose from among five pre-made configurations of attributes and equipment, including woodsman, huntress, warrior, swordswoman, and minstrel. Imported characters arrive with some diminished version of what they had in the last game. I found that the attributes of my imported character--bravery, strength, dexterity, endurance, agility, loyalty, charm, intelligence, and resistance--were only 1 or 2 points higher than a newly-created character. Her skills, on the other hand--sword, axe, archery, magic, fist, swimming, trading, stealth, researching, soulreading, lockpicking, tracking, and musical--were between 5 and 25 points higher, and she started with almost double the hit points. Shes also much better equipped with "methreal" and a magic sword rather than plain ring mail and a longsword.
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| My victorious Magic Candle character comes over with some good attributes and skills. |
Set 10 years after The Magic Candle, the sequel takes place across the Sea of Oshmar, in the land of Gurtex from which the demon Dreax originated. After the events of the first game, King Rebnard of Deruvia decided to take the fight to the enemy, first establishing a foothold on Oshcrun Island (recounted in The Keys to Maramon), then moving forward to confront the Forces of Darkness on their home turf.
The protagonist, though probably destined for something greater, is only ancillary to Rebnards plans. The manual has her hanging out in Port Avur, chatting with a famous sea captain, Garlin the Blue, about the mysterious fate of the "four and forty." On a whim, she decides to hop aboard Garlins voyage to Oshcrun and pursue this little side quest in the midst of Rebnards larger invasion. The opening series of screens shows the melancholy Rebnard invigorated by news of Gias arrival, but he clearly wasnt planning on it.
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| Rebnard hears of the heros arrival. |
Action begins on the docks of the city of Telermain, on Oshcrun island, off the coast of Gurtex. I had a lot of trouble getting into it. Telermain is huge, with dozens of NPCs, and like the first game, different NPCs appear in different locations at different times of day. You can circle the large map several times and still feel like you missed some. Some of them are in houses at certain times of day, and you can only speak to them by knocking on the door and giving the correct NPC name. The same is also true of the first Magic Candle, and the Ultima series, of course, and while I generally enjoy the dynamic of talking to NPCs and taking notes, you have to be in a particular mood for it. In the case of this game, you could easily fill up 10 pages of notes over 8 hours before even leaving the opening area to fight your first combat. It felt a little imbalanced, but it might have just been my mood.
The interface looks so much like Ultima V that its jarring when you cant do certain things, like search barrels and chests or interact with objects in the environment. Like its predecessor, the screen shows most of the available commands at any given time, although it leaves out that you have to press "0" to see each characters attributes and inventory--a command that I cant seem to remember for the life of me. (Maybe having just written it there will help.)
The party-splitting options of The Magic Candle have been slightly dumbed-down here. In the original, you could operate multiple parties as independent entities, each capable of movement, combat, exploration, dialogue, and so forth. Here, you can "assign" your party members to particular tasks, including training and working odd jobs, but theyre otherwise inert until they return to the main party. A new feature, on the other hand, is the ability to dismiss party members wherever you want, sending them to particular strongholds to await the partys return. In The Magic Candle, you could only change party configurations in the special castle rooms.
Formation is still an issue. Once you have more than a couple of companions, youre always having to adjust their positioning so you can walk down certain hallways to talk to certain NPCs.
The game also makes a distinction between regular NPCs and hirelings, the latter of which expect money and generally start with better statistics. I cant imagine using them unless the combats prove unusually difficult.
A final new interface feature is worth commenting on: a notepad that records all of the NPC dialogue and messages in the game window. It can store up to 61,440 characters, but you can save it at any time and start a new one; I filled up 2 files in my time in the opening areas. The notepads save as external files that you can open in Notepad or whatever text editor you have handy.
On one hand, this feature saves you from having to meticulously record all the text of every conversation. On the other, it encourages laziness on the part of the player. I ended up breezing through too many conversations, knowing I could always consult the notepad later. And, of course, you cant really use the notepad as a quest log or list of leads to follow up on. I found myself having more fun when I pretended the notepad didnt exist and forced myself to take my own notes, even though it greatly lengthened my time in the opening areas.
Telermain is a large city with a couple of taverns, an inn, various shops, a city park, a gambling hall, a library, training halls, and private residences. Quickly after landing, I had Gia grab Eneri from a nearby tavern. Setting into a counter-clockwise pattern of exploration, the pair first visited a gambling hall, where the only game involved a roll of two dice. The player wins with a roll of 2 or with any roll higher than the house (i.e., the house takes ties). I calculated the odds of each roll at 52.86% favoring the house. I played a few rolls with a handful of gold pieces each and, ultimately, walked out 50 gold pieces poorer.
From an apothecary, I bought some Loka root to cure poison. From the adventuring shop, I picked up a shovel, some lockpicks, and a couple of blankets. A gemcutter, a carpenter, and a metalsmith were looking for help, but neither Gia nor Eneri had the requisite skills. I put off purchasing any more weapons, armor, clothing, mushrooms, or musical instruments for later.
When I was done with Telermain, I left the city and walked a few steps overland to Castle Oschrun and explored its three levels. The castle had an armory where I was able to "borrow" weapons and armor for free.
Most of my time in both Telermain and Oshcrun was spent talking with NPCs. The game follows the Ultima tradition by allowing you to speak some standard keywords ("News" and "Weather," usually; sometimes "advice") to NPCs, or to type your own keywords, usually suggested in the same conversation or by other NPCs.
NPCs keep schedules, only appearing outdoors during certain hours. Some of them can be found in their houses or chambers in the off periods, but you have to knock on the door and then know the name of the person youre looking for.
Occasionally, NPC dialogue is too much for the game window, and you have to read paragraphs in an accompanying book.
Finally, NPCs often suggest keywords to research in the libraries. Both the city of Telermain and the castle had libraries, each with different keywords to research.
A lot of familiar names crop up. The halfling Min, a potential companion in the first game, is running a clothing store in Telermain. Rabbonkar, a sage from Soldain who taught the party dwarvish, has a house in Telermain and offers advice on gods. Rimfiztrik, a mage who occupied Rebnards castle in Deruvia and taught the party about teleportals, has followed Rebnard to Oshcrun and will join the party. Subia the Explorer, the kings cousin, who made the map in the first games manual, is one of his advisors here and a joinable NPC. The kings cook, Nuri, also accompanied him across the sea, as did his advisors Banas and Bhardagast. The orc Buzbazgut, found in the Port Avur jail in The Magic Candle, was caught stowed away on a ship and is now in the Oshcrun jail.
From the NPCs, I gather that King Rebnard isnt doing so well. Hes full of anxieties, and his advisors arent doing a good job. (Banas is rumored to be untrustworthy and Bhardagast is going insane.) Eventually, I talked to Rebnard in his throne room. He was happy to see me but clearly anxious; he expressed a wish to go adventuring on his own rather than deal with the pressures of ruling.
I assembled quite a bit of information about Gurtex and some of its areas. There are reportedly towns of monsters like trolls, orcs, and ogres, where you can trade and talk like any human town. The lands ruler is said to be the demon Zakhad, a lieutenant of Dreax before Dreax left to try to conquer Deruvia. Zakhad rules from Castle Katarra on Mount Mandarg, and nobody knows how to get to the castle. There are 8 temples to forgotten gods on the continent and several sanctuaries established by the eldens. There used to be a race of elvish people called Altesens on Gurtex, who worshipped a goddess named Senvara and strove for balance between dark and light. They were driven into the seas when dark forces invaded the continent.
Some clues were obtained from a zorlim named Nkh imprisoned in the castles dungeon. At first, he didnt want to talk with me, but his tongue loosened when I gave him some medicine for some food poisoning. Though still insulting, he offered information on jails that Zakhad maintains in Shann, on the island of Mariz, and Dorak, a former dwarven village.
Lady Subia had a long paragraph in the book and an interesting perspective. She is concerned that there are outposts of good people on Gurtex, and that theyll be destroyed if Rebnard simply invades the island with "indiscriminate havoc." She begged me to join her in an expedition to the Demonspine Mountains, where an ancient elven village of Llendora is rumored to still be populated.
Bhardagast, on the top floor of the castle, had the most to say about the titular quest. It turns out the term "four and forty" isnt just a fancy way of saying "44," but rather a recognition that Dreaxs guardians were composed of 4 eldens and 40 other guardians. It appears that the 4 eldens were taken prisoner and transported to Gurtex along with the remains of the slaughtered 40. Bhardagast has already sent a party led by someone named Ben to the Demonspine mountains to "follow the signs." A ghost in the basement of Oshcrun might be one of the guardians.
Castle Oshcrun had at least 6 joinable NPCs, including Orbonn, a human monk; Rimfiztrik, a mage who comes with three spellbooks; Grolf and Gustron, both human warriors; Lady Subia; and the orc Buzbazgut. I decided to keep Subia for now for her high charm score and her special quest, Rimfiztrik for his spells, and Buzbazgut just because its cool to have an orc in the party.
As this session came to an end, I wandered into the cellars and had my first taste of combat. Some advances since The Magic Candle include a tune that plays when an ability increases and the ability to attack anywhere in the battlefield within range, instead of just in defined columns. In my first fight, I forgot the importance of mushrooms and the "Shield" spell, and I forgot that you have to have arrows to use bows. I lost a couple of characters. In a reload, I did better, although for some reason Buzbazgut fled.
In general, Ill have to cover combat, spells, mushrooms, and equipment at a future date. For now, I have to decide whether to finish exploring the basement or finish exploring the outdoor parts of Oshcrun Island (including the village of Ketrop). I also have to return to Telermain with Subia and talk to those NPCs who require a "charm" attribute of 6.
I love the lore and world-building of the series. This game just seems to have taken forever to actually start.
Time so far: 6 hours
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| Gia steps off the boat into a big city. |
The interface looks so much like Ultima V that its jarring when you cant do certain things, like search barrels and chests or interact with objects in the environment. Like its predecessor, the screen shows most of the available commands at any given time, although it leaves out that you have to press "0" to see each characters attributes and inventory--a command that I cant seem to remember for the life of me. (Maybe having just written it there will help.)
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| I can neither play nor pick up any of these instruments. |
The party-splitting options of The Magic Candle have been slightly dumbed-down here. In the original, you could operate multiple parties as independent entities, each capable of movement, combat, exploration, dialogue, and so forth. Here, you can "assign" your party members to particular tasks, including training and working odd jobs, but theyre otherwise inert until they return to the main party. A new feature, on the other hand, is the ability to dismiss party members wherever you want, sending them to particular strongholds to await the partys return. In The Magic Candle, you could only change party configurations in the special castle rooms.
Formation is still an issue. Once you have more than a couple of companions, youre always having to adjust their positioning so you can walk down certain hallways to talk to certain NPCs.
The game also makes a distinction between regular NPCs and hirelings, the latter of which expect money and generally start with better statistics. I cant imagine using them unless the combats prove unusually difficult.
A final new interface feature is worth commenting on: a notepad that records all of the NPC dialogue and messages in the game window. It can store up to 61,440 characters, but you can save it at any time and start a new one; I filled up 2 files in my time in the opening areas. The notepads save as external files that you can open in Notepad or whatever text editor you have handy.
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| Reviewing some material obtained from the library in the notepad. |
On one hand, this feature saves you from having to meticulously record all the text of every conversation. On the other, it encourages laziness on the part of the player. I ended up breezing through too many conversations, knowing I could always consult the notepad later. And, of course, you cant really use the notepad as a quest log or list of leads to follow up on. I found myself having more fun when I pretended the notepad didnt exist and forced myself to take my own notes, even though it greatly lengthened my time in the opening areas.
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| Crossing from Telermain to Castle Oshcrun. |
Telermain is a large city with a couple of taverns, an inn, various shops, a city park, a gambling hall, a library, training halls, and private residences. Quickly after landing, I had Gia grab Eneri from a nearby tavern. Setting into a counter-clockwise pattern of exploration, the pair first visited a gambling hall, where the only game involved a roll of two dice. The player wins with a roll of 2 or with any roll higher than the house (i.e., the house takes ties). I calculated the odds of each roll at 52.86% favoring the house. I played a few rolls with a handful of gold pieces each and, ultimately, walked out 50 gold pieces poorer.
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| Preparing to gamble. |
From an apothecary, I bought some Loka root to cure poison. From the adventuring shop, I picked up a shovel, some lockpicks, and a couple of blankets. A gemcutter, a carpenter, and a metalsmith were looking for help, but neither Gia nor Eneri had the requisite skills. I put off purchasing any more weapons, armor, clothing, mushrooms, or musical instruments for later.
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| I know music plays a role in the game, but I havent really had a chance to explore it yet. |
When I was done with Telermain, I left the city and walked a few steps overland to Castle Oschrun and explored its three levels. The castle had an armory where I was able to "borrow" weapons and armor for free.
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| "Borrow"....right. |
Most of my time in both Telermain and Oshcrun was spent talking with NPCs. The game follows the Ultima tradition by allowing you to speak some standard keywords ("News" and "Weather," usually; sometimes "advice") to NPCs, or to type your own keywords, usually suggested in the same conversation or by other NPCs.
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| An NPC suggests a keyword for further conversation. |
NPCs keep schedules, only appearing outdoors during certain hours. Some of them can be found in their houses or chambers in the off periods, but you have to knock on the door and then know the name of the person youre looking for.
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| Fortunately, another NPC told me who lived here. |
Occasionally, NPC dialogue is too much for the game window, and you have to read paragraphs in an accompanying book.
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| Approaching Rebnard in his throne room... |
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| ...and his accompanying entry in the book. |
Finally, NPCs often suggest keywords to research in the libraries. Both the city of Telermain and the castle had libraries, each with different keywords to research.
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| Gia researches a keyword in the library. Mindstones allow you to talk to NPCs at great distances. Later, Rebnard gave me 3 of them. |
A lot of familiar names crop up. The halfling Min, a potential companion in the first game, is running a clothing store in Telermain. Rabbonkar, a sage from Soldain who taught the party dwarvish, has a house in Telermain and offers advice on gods. Rimfiztrik, a mage who occupied Rebnards castle in Deruvia and taught the party about teleportals, has followed Rebnard to Oshcrun and will join the party. Subia the Explorer, the kings cousin, who made the map in the first games manual, is one of his advisors here and a joinable NPC. The kings cook, Nuri, also accompanied him across the sea, as did his advisors Banas and Bhardagast. The orc Buzbazgut, found in the Port Avur jail in The Magic Candle, was caught stowed away on a ship and is now in the Oshcrun jail.
From the NPCs, I gather that King Rebnard isnt doing so well. Hes full of anxieties, and his advisors arent doing a good job. (Banas is rumored to be untrustworthy and Bhardagast is going insane.) Eventually, I talked to Rebnard in his throne room. He was happy to see me but clearly anxious; he expressed a wish to go adventuring on his own rather than deal with the pressures of ruling.
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| A map of Gurtex. Already, Ive started hearing about its various regions. |
I assembled quite a bit of information about Gurtex and some of its areas. There are reportedly towns of monsters like trolls, orcs, and ogres, where you can trade and talk like any human town. The lands ruler is said to be the demon Zakhad, a lieutenant of Dreax before Dreax left to try to conquer Deruvia. Zakhad rules from Castle Katarra on Mount Mandarg, and nobody knows how to get to the castle. There are 8 temples to forgotten gods on the continent and several sanctuaries established by the eldens. There used to be a race of elvish people called Altesens on Gurtex, who worshipped a goddess named Senvara and strove for balance between dark and light. They were driven into the seas when dark forces invaded the continent.
Some clues were obtained from a zorlim named Nkh imprisoned in the castles dungeon. At first, he didnt want to talk with me, but his tongue loosened when I gave him some medicine for some food poisoning. Though still insulting, he offered information on jails that Zakhad maintains in Shann, on the island of Mariz, and Dorak, a former dwarven village.
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| The Zorlim warms up to me. |
Lady Subia had a long paragraph in the book and an interesting perspective. She is concerned that there are outposts of good people on Gurtex, and that theyll be destroyed if Rebnard simply invades the island with "indiscriminate havoc." She begged me to join her in an expedition to the Demonspine Mountains, where an ancient elven village of Llendora is rumored to still be populated.
Bhardagast, on the top floor of the castle, had the most to say about the titular quest. It turns out the term "four and forty" isnt just a fancy way of saying "44," but rather a recognition that Dreaxs guardians were composed of 4 eldens and 40 other guardians. It appears that the 4 eldens were taken prisoner and transported to Gurtex along with the remains of the slaughtered 40. Bhardagast has already sent a party led by someone named Ben to the Demonspine mountains to "follow the signs." A ghost in the basement of Oshcrun might be one of the guardians.
Castle Oshcrun had at least 6 joinable NPCs, including Orbonn, a human monk; Rimfiztrik, a mage who comes with three spellbooks; Grolf and Gustron, both human warriors; Lady Subia; and the orc Buzbazgut. I decided to keep Subia for now for her high charm score and her special quest, Rimfiztrik for his spells, and Buzbazgut just because its cool to have an orc in the party.
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| The party was already full, but I had to take this NPC. |
As this session came to an end, I wandered into the cellars and had my first taste of combat. Some advances since The Magic Candle include a tune that plays when an ability increases and the ability to attack anywhere in the battlefield within range, instead of just in defined columns. In my first fight, I forgot the importance of mushrooms and the "Shield" spell, and I forgot that you have to have arrows to use bows. I lost a couple of characters. In a reload, I did better, although for some reason Buzbazgut fled.
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| In the thick of battle. |
In general, Ill have to cover combat, spells, mushrooms, and equipment at a future date. For now, I have to decide whether to finish exploring the basement or finish exploring the outdoor parts of Oshcrun Island (including the village of Ketrop). I also have to return to Telermain with Subia and talk to those NPCs who require a "charm" attribute of 6.
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| The party wins its second combat. |
I love the lore and world-building of the series. This game just seems to have taken forever to actually start.
Time so far: 6 hours