A proportion of the gold is spent on research of new units, which could be allocated at the player's will. The most important is probably the use of Shrines, the FG equivalent of the RPG's "treasure chest," which could heighten morale, give a new item, recruit a new unit, summon enemy units, or even change the game mechanic temporarily (such as allowing passage through woods or lava at minimal cost, or decreasing enemy morale). Also, this fantasy theme lends itself to naturally borrow ideas from the fantasy RPG genre, creating unique hero units and magical items that different units may wield. Mordra, probably the hardest hero to play with, summons two random units for each battle and has access to beast units. Krell, for example, can cast a spell per turn, somewhat like Heroes of Might and Magic and has access to magical units. Unlike PG, FG has four heroes in the long single-player campaign, all of whom must be played differently. Thinking in this direction, it is imperative that the single-player campaign be a strong game, especially given that multiplayer was not as important or convenient then as they are now (also, turn-based games just don't do that well multiplayer). So how is FG different from its predecessors? The key is selling the fantasy motif and maximizing value from it. However, without becoming unnecessarily complex, something which turns away many people from the "deeper" tabletop wargames, PG managed to bridge the link and open up the market for the turn-based wargame into the popular gaming crowd. These are two very different markets: the average PC gamer was younger and more impatient than the tabletop player, a situation which is probably still the case today (I'll probably talk sociology at a later post). This brilliant series managed to port the very niche tabletop wargame genre to the PC. On a higher level, the success of FG is of course an extension of the success of Panzer General (PG). Finishing it tonight, I was not surprised. ![]() ![]() Some players of SSI's series find this to be the best game in the collection. SSI's Fantasy General (FG) does this perfectly. Game design is no exception - the designer's quest is to add enough detail to creath depth which makes the player enjoy the game, but not so much as to inundate the player with numbers and figures that he would run away.
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