Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny

Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny is the first chapter of the series of fantasy RPGs Realms of Arkania. It was based on the German pen & paper roleplaying rules "Das Schwarze Auge" (The Dark Eye).

Developed by attic Entertainment, the game was first released in German only in 1992. Thanks to its success, it was translated and released internationally for PC and Amiga by Sir-tech and US Gold in 1993.

Strangely enough, the title "The Dark Eye" was not used for this series, it was adopted only later (e.g. The Dark Eye: Drakensang, released in 2008).

Blade of Destiny allows you to control a party of 6 characters, plus an NPC, from a first-person pseudo-3d view of the world. Apparently, it's quite similar to Eye of the Beholder or Dungeon Master but when the first combat starts, you immediately notice the difference. The first person view is used only for exploration, during combat the game switches to an isometric view and turn-based gameplay. A feature appreciated by many and hated by others. The party can move between cities using a 2D map with a top-down view of the world.

Blade of Destiny compensates for the not-so-advanced 3D implementation with several other features, such as auto-mapping, complex character generation, many stats, and party management that requires attention to food and rest; otherwise, your heroes will get sick.

The game received excellent reviews and was followed by two sequels, the first of which was Realms of Arkania: Star Trail.