I remember this game my roommate in college got where for the life of us we could not figure why we couldn't simply leave the starting town without our entire party coming down with a series of ailments and diseases. We read the manual. We tried making sure the party was properly dressed and tried to see if maybe we just needed to treat the diseases as we moved through the game. This was 1994-5's internet so I'm not even sure the first search engines were around or well known by us if they were. I always wondered what the heck we were missing there.

I'll answer myself. No it is not. The game I played was 2D. I still can't remember what it was called. I'm not sure I can get into Krondor. I tried Starflight for the first time (embarrassing since I've been gaming since the Atari 800) and the old-school-factor and the graphics didn't hurt me there but yikes... I don't think I would have liked this at the time.

The early 3D graphics and actors in bad costumes make the game look quite ugly, but it's actually an enjoyable game. It's set in the world of Raymond E. Feist's Riftwar novels and it tries to emulate the feeling of a fantasy novel, and actually pulls it off most of the time. This gives it a very different feel than most RPGs... both playable characters and NPCs have more personality, and there's tons of flavor text that gives depth to the world. Players who haven't read Feist's novels will likely not enjoy it as much, though. And to be honest, the novels aren't that great, but coupled with the game they both get more interesting.

Still, as an unusual game it's not going to be for everyone.

You are probably thinking of Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny.