圣剑之魂
Spirit of Excalibur

Synergistic Software, 1990
MS-DOS, Amiga, Apple IIGS, Atari ST 和 Mac

Synergistic Software, 1990
MS-DOS, Amiga, Apple IIGS, Atari ST and Mac

在 《圣剑之魂(Spirit of Excalibur)》中,你将扮演传说中的圆桌骑士,拯救在亚瑟王(Arthur)死后便处于动荡的王国。

回到开发人员经常混搭和配套不同的游戏类型的时代,那个时候的游戏通常混合了大量不同元素,如探索、策略、冒险和 RPG 元素。你可以用简单的策略操纵军队,把你的骑士团派到大地图上去进行搜索,以寻找你所需要的线索、任务、物品。这途中你会遇到许多能够互动的角色并与他们进行交易,同时也要获取信息、帮助民众、建立联盟并吸纳新的骑士。

所有的这一切都在剧情中完成,剧情分为数个部分,每部分有一个主线,地图上会出现新的军团与 NPC,还有你可以选择参与或不参与的支线任务。

In Spirit of Excalibur you play as the mythical Knights of the Round Table, in a time after Arthur's death where the realm is in turmoil and needs saving.

Harking back to a time where developers often mixed and matched genres, the game contains a bit of everything – exploration, strategy, adventure and RPG elements. You control armies in (simple) tactical battles, direct your multiple parties of knights around the campaign map in search of clues, quests and items you need to overcome obstacles. On the way you will meet many colourful characters to interact with, trading with some, getting information from others, helping the local populace and working to create alliances and get new knights to join.

All this is done within a narrative divided into several episodes, with each containing an overarching objective, new NPCs and armies on the map and several side-quests you can choose to engage in or not.

1989 年,Synergistic Software 公司发布了 J.R.R.托尔金的《中土之战》,这是一款与《圣剑之魂》非常相似的游戏,但背景是中土世界,侧重于大规模战斗。

In 1989 Synergistic Software released J.R.R. Tolkien's War in Middle Earth, a very similar game to Spirit of Excalibur, but set in Middle-Earth and focused on large-scale battles.

你可以派遣多个队伍探索世界,并选择如何应对发生的挑战。

You can send multiple parties to explore the world and choose how to react to the various events and challenges they come across.

起初,骑士们可以被指派到地图去拯救少女抑或是击败巨龙,不过他们人数有限。随着游戏推进你将征服更多的领土并完成更多的任务。越来越多的骑士将加入你的麾下,愈发壮大的势力将带领您向着征服天下的目标前进。

有的骑士之间有宿怨,他们应该保持距离;有的骑士的道德品质有问题,可能叛变投敌,大多数情况下你只会依靠几个关键的骑士、法师与教士。地图上会有 NPC 所属的军团,你需要在地图上指挥自己的麾下与撒克逊军团或土匪作战。你麾下的骑士将以 RPG 形式被你雇佣,每次战斗你都会派出一个骑士作战,同时使用法术、魔药或其他资源支援他。

《圣剑之魂》有五个章节,每个章节都在对应的地图上为玩家提供新的挑战——通常是迅速的叛乱。想要以最有效的方式应对当前的挑战需要大量的游戏经验,也就是需要进行多次游戏。这也是游戏魅力的一部分——挫折感;你将为得到一个完美的结局而不断努力,一旦你获得成功,你就会感到颇有成就。

战斗的数量相对较少,而且很多都可以避免。另一个很棒的系统是你可以混搭并建立多个队伍,并按意愿将队伍派往多个地点,同时抵抗不同地方的敌军,或让较快的侦察兵前往前线从当地人手中获取情报,而你的最强队伍则注重主线任务。

我记得这个游戏最初被归为“冒险”游戏的原因是游戏中具有多种发展性数据以及多种完成任务的方法。从本质上讲,该游戏更侧重探索、解密,以及时间与试错。最困难的就是有时间限制的情况下做出正确的抉择。

The amount of knights you can move out into the world, saving damsels and slaying dragons, is limited at first but as you conquer territory and solve quests, more and more knights and parts of Britain join you, giving you more manpower and leading to your ultimate goal of reuniting the land.

Some knights have old rivalries and should be kept apart, others are of questionable moral fibre and may join the enemy, but mostly you'll come to rely on only a few key knights, sorcerers and monks. Some will have an army under their command, which you'll need to counter Saxon armies and robbers on the campaign map, but most knights you'll employ in RPG fashion, facing opponents in single combat, supported by magic, potions and other helpful items.

Spirit of Excalibur is divided into five parts, each containing a challenge to the realm that must be dealt with – in many cases swiftly and under severe opposition. Navigating through this in the most effective manner requires a lot of experimentation and a lot of restarts for each chapter. This is both part of the charm and the frustration of the game – it will make you work for its perfect ending and you will feel quite some accomplishment if you ever get it.

Battles are relatively few in number, and many can be avoided. A nice touch is that you can mix and match multiple parties, directing each of them around the map as you please, completing multiple objectives such as countering enemy armies in several places at once or having quicker knights scout ahead, buying things from peddlers and gathering information, while your best party focuses on the storyline.

I remember originally filing the game under “adventure”, because while it has progressing stats and several ways to solve (some) situations, at its heart, the game is about exploration, puzzle-solving and above all, even for its time, trial and error. In its hardest parts you be under time constraints and need to do everything just right.

GameDB 相关游戏: 圣剑之魂 复仇圣剑

《电脑 RPG 游戏史(The CRPG Book Project)》原书信息

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这本书历时四年,由 119 名志愿者共同完成。

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