Dungeons & Dragons: Warriors of the Eternal Sun

Dungeons and Dragons: Warrriors of the Eternal Sun was one of the many games released due to the success of the Dungeons & Dragons RPGs. The game was designed by Westwood Associates (known for the Lands of Lore series), published by Sega, and released on the Sega Genesis.

The game starts with an introductory scene which explains the events immediately before the start of the game. This short description explains that the Goblins and Men (although this includes elves, dwarves, and halflings too) are at war and the Golbin armies are making a final push into Duke Hector Barrik's castle. The Duke believes that this is the final night in the war, that the goblins will overrun the defenses and his people will be wiped out. However, before the goblins' attack begins, the ground begins to shake, the sky rips open, and both Men and Goblins are sucked into the void. The screen then moves to a shot of a valley with towering walls and a brilliant, red sun overhead. A description of what can be seen scrolls up the page, similar to how a setting would be described by a Dungeon Master in the RPG. It reads:


 * The castle has been transported to a valley with impossibly high cliffs. A red sun flares, circled by flaoting continents. The horizon appears as the bottom of a basin.

The menu then appears where you have a choice of Use Default Party, Create New Party, or Load Game. The Use Default Party option takes you straight into the game with a party of four adventurers consisting of a Fighter, a Cleric, a Magic-User, and a Thief.

If you choose the Create New Party option, you are taken to a new screen where you may choose your own party. The "classes" are split into two groups: Human and Demi-Human. In Human, you have Cleric, Fighter, Magic-User, and Thief. In Demi-Human, you have Dwarf, Elf and Halfling. For each class, you can select Male or Female and a color (red, blue, green, or yellow) to distinguish them on the screen. When you've chosen a class, gender, and color, you can then access the option to "Roll Again" which allows you to generate a new set of stats for the character, including Strength, Dexterity, Wisdom, Hit Points, and even their starting gold. There is no limit on this, so you can roll as many times as you wish. Once you are happy with the character's stats, you are asked to give him/her a name.

After you've chosen all the characters for your party or have picked the Use Default Party option from the main menu, you are given a little speech by the Duke, in which he says:


 * "We are in a strange new world. There is a new enemy here. Our people need allies to survive but the guards must defend he castle. You have been chosen to explore our new home. The gods have given us another chance. Serve me well and bring us allies."

Your party then appears in the Duke's castle where you can take control and begin the game.

Gameplay
The gameplay is very straightforward and easy to learn. It has three modes: Outside Adventure, Outside Combat, and Dungeon. In both Outside modes, you are looking top-down on your characters and have a good view of your immediate surroundings. In the Adventure mode, you are free to explore as you wish and can take as much or as little time as you see fit. In the Battle mode, the system becomes turn-based, and a white box will appear around one of your characters. This box indicates whose turn it is and the characters can now be moved individually. Characters can only move a certain distance and attacks are made using the A and B buttons. Characters can purchase or acquire ranged weaponry which can allow you to engage an enemy first by pressing the weapons attack button while in the Adventure mode. At the end of combat, the characters are awarded experience points and sometimes treasure.

The Dungeon mode is different from the other two modes in that you see through the eyes of the character, also known as a first-person view. Encounters become real-time events in the dungeons, so be aware that if you leave the game while in a dungeon, an enemy my stumble on the party and attack; however, while in Dungeons, the enemies cannot assign attacks to any characters they are not in contact with. This means only the characters at the front of the party can receive damage since most enemies attack from the front.

Spells
Characters in the Cleric, Magic-User or Elf classes can cast spells once they learn them. Magic-users begin the game with the Magic Missile spell and elves begin with the Sleep spell. Clerics do not receive spells until they reach their 2nd level. As the character progresses, they gain access to new spells and an increased amount of spells they already have, up to a maximum of three per spell level. The Thief class is also capable of casting spells from scrolls found while adventuring once the character reaches their 10th level, but they will never learn spells of their own.