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Are you ready for remakes of these hardcore RPGs? You’re in the right place, then! Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny and Realms of Arkania: Star Trail with their Digital Deluxe Content and Digital Deluxe Edition are now out on GOG! That’s not all though – you can now get all these titles with a -80% launch discount until January 4th, 2 PM UTC!

In Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny you’ll return to Thorwal, one of the oldest cities of Aventuria. Make sure your wits are sharpened before walking down the small alleys of Thorwal and Prem, and prepare to stop the Orcisch threat while creating a mighty alliance between nations. Featuring a complete visual reimagining along with a comprehensive overhaul of every aspect of the gameplay, Realms of Arkania – Blade of Destiny is set to captivate a 21st century audience of new and old fans alike.

In Realms of Arkania: Star Trail on the other hand, the united orc tribes attempted to invade the region of Thorwal, but a group of valiant adventurers thwarted their plans during their previous quest. Now the orcs have regrouped and attacked other, more vulnerable areas – Lowangen is occupied and half the Svellt Valley lies in ashes. An elf ambassador summons the party to the city of Kvirasim. To unite the races of the elves and the dwarves in the struggle against a common enemy, they must recover an artifact known as the Salamander Stone.

Now on GOG!
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RPGler: Thanks. These games are not good but I hope GOG receives more Dark Eye Games in the future. Especially River of Time and Wolves on the Westwind.
And make the former available in ALL regions
I remember there was a ps4 version released. Is gamepad supported by the pc version as well?
Huh. Reminds me that I got the original trilogy way back on GOG giveaways (for doing a survey and a bandwidth test) and was interested in the system after playing Drakensang.... Maybe someday I'll give them a go, but... May be too old-school now. Ah well...
The system still struck me as darn interesting though. Could do way better with customized systems of course, but for a ready-made one, can do a lot for games.
I would rather see gog courting some developers with a little more zest.

Games like:

Star Valor and Cosmoteer, are good examples.
Thanks for those, GOG.

I was hoping for Philleasons Secret though...
Post edited December 29, 2023 by Tarhiel
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Tarhiel: Thanks for those, GOG.

I was hoping for Philleasons Secret though...
Now that's a true german masterpiece!
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Woodwine22: I remember there was a ps4 version released. Is gamepad supported by the pc version as well?
I am sorry, it is not. The developers somewhere stated, they were going to throw it in, but then were surprised how much interference they'd have to handle, if gamepad and keyboard are used at the same time.

Also note that there is a native (DRM-free) Linux version of the games on steam.

The games are very true to the originals. Moddability shall be the best selling point.
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dadiddy: The games are very true to the originals. Moddability shall be the best selling point.
I have the games on multiple platforms...

... but...

... had never looked into mods or modding the games! Yes, that is a positive.

Again, I think there was a lot of work that needed to be done, but Star Trail was an improvement over Blade of Destiny and...

... it's a shame that Crafty Studios couldn't have finished the trilogy with a Shadows over Riva release.

But it's hard to remake a trilogy that had some of the most beautiful and expressive pixel art in games of that generation.

Still, buying the series again! Stordyr's walkthrough sold me on them years back. ;)
Post edited December 29, 2023 by kai2
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dadiddy: The games are very true to the originals.
Are they mechanically faithful to the originals? For example, if a character with X stats and Y items attacks Z enemy, are the chance to hit and damage on a successful hit independent of whether it's the remake?

Or is it like the Bard's Tale trilogy remaster, which made some changes, a few of which are strategically significant?
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Woodwine22: I remember there was a ps4 version released. Is gamepad supported by the pc version as well?
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dadiddy: I am sorry, it is not. The developers somewhere stated, they were going to throw it in, but then were surprised how much interference they'd have to handle, if gamepad and keyboard are used at the same time.

Also note that there is a native (DRM-free) Linux version of the games on steam.

The games are very true to the originals. Moddability shall be the best selling point.
Thanks for the info! That's a pity, would have been nice to play it this way.
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Breja: I still hope there's something impressive up GOG's sleeve for New Year, because so far Christmas and the Winter Sale have been, let's be honest, rather lame.
I doubt it will happen. This was a disappointing Winter sale. Even tho I bought a bunch of games during the sale. I wish we got something like Alien Dark descent or Company of heroes.
Post edited December 29, 2023 by Syphon72
Hmmm, I bought them and Realms of Arkania: Star Trail is showing up as an unknown game, after installing it, I found out that it's in German, curious. Uninstalled, and will restart galaxy and try again.
Post edited December 29, 2023 by DNMR2K5
Seemed interesting, and cheap enough to buy. I bought Riva first (on CD; never even heard of 1+2) and that is the only game of the series I've finished. I did play 1+2 a lot, but got tired of various flaws with the game (e.g. having to keep my own maps and other extensive notes; that's what the computer should be for). I figured these remakes might be better. They're not. They are awful from the get go (the starting animation in 1 with its tiny text in German, which I can read but not at that font size). Maybe I'm missing something, but the UI is terrible (and even worse if scaling is turned on, causing parts to be cropped apparently randomly), and it doesn't seem possible to create a character in "advanced" mode. Rather than large "add/remove to party" buttons, the way to do this is hidden behind nearly invisible UI elements. Moving outside is slow and cumbersome. The minimap is virtually invisible (and, due to scaling, some of its buttons are cropped). This entire game doesn't seem worth my time. I'll call it a loss and stick with the DOS games if I can ever motivate myself to play them again.

Upon reading the thread, I am also disappointed there isn't a Linux version here, although I've become accustomed to being a third class citizen by now. At least I had no difficulty getting it to work in wine. I suppose the "German" part may have been because I missed some command line paramrter. Easy enough to switch to English in the game prefs, though. No amount of prefs will change the fact that there was broken English in the introductory help text in 2. Maybe I should play in German to refresh myself after 30+ years, but I probably never will again unless I move back. I guess that since the dev team broke up, this game will never get fixed. It's really no wonder the game did poorly, given that it's worse than the original.
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DNMR2K5: Hmmm, I bought them and Realms of Arkania: Star Trail is showing up as an unknown game, after installing it, I found out that it's in German, curious. Uninstalled, and will restart galaxy and try again.
Just a heads up, i installed without using galaxy and the game does boot with German as default language, but you can change the language in the game's settings
First off, I want to throw in a link, with a good mod overview (for RoA 1) . Unfortunately it is in German.
https://forum.schicksalsklinge.com/viewtopic.php?t=11647

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dadiddy: The games are very true to the originals.
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dtgreene: Are they mechanically faithful to the originals?
Yes and No (: I do not know the Bard's Tale Remake, but with RoA you have the same rule set (both are 3rd Edition, current edition is 5. (fyi, Drakensang uses Edition 4, btw.)) but many parameters were changed, like monster's health. The Remake should be easier.

The biggest QoL enhancement is that every spell has an explanation in game. In the original you were expected to read the rule book. (Hand book was not enough, either)!
Post edited December 29, 2023 by dadiddy