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Times of Lore Reviews

Overall 8.8 Graphics 4 Sound 7 Addictive 5 Story 5 Depth 7 Difficulty 4

6.5

Times of Lore: NES's version review. SystemOfLies
Times of Lore:

In a world of turmoil the people scream out for a Champion. Hordes of savage orcs roam the country side unchecked and out of control. The dead rise up again to challenge those of the living. Giant spiders swarm the hillsides and forests. Devious cut throats and rogues take advantage of the chaos of the missing king for their own benefits. Serfs are forced to shut themselves in at night as the guard cannot hold back the vile trespassers as they swarm the towns streets at night for a chance to catch their next prey. You have run into the likes of the formerly mentioned many a time on your long journey as you find yourself in an inn where you're approached and asked to start down this long and arduous quest to become the champion the world cries out for and needs. Welcome to Times of Lore: the NES review. I'm probably at guilt for making this game sound better than it actually is, but hear me out. If you're into fantasy themed games on the NES you just might like this game. It's sort of an RPG in that there is story driven elements and all that but you don't gain experience and you never level up. So I don't know maybe it's not an RPG either. Perhaps action adventure? Meh. Titles aren't really that important anyhow. You start out in an inn and you have three characters to choose from. An armor clad Knight who is a safe balance between strong and swift. A Valkyrie who is not as strong as the Knight but is the fastest character in the game and last but not least the powerhouse of the choices, the Barbarian! So who will you be?

Graphics: Well the graphics could definitely use some tweaking but they get the job done pretty easily. You're met with a fairly decent detailed title screen which sets the mood rather nicely. The character sprites are all semi on par. I always thought the barbarian reminded me of the warrior from the gauntlet games. (red warrior need food) There are a few different types of enemies such as the giant spiders, orcs, rogues and skeletons. You will find that these are about the only types of monsters you find for the most part. There is also other color palette swaps of these monsters to represent tougher forms of them such as the blue orcs. Unfortunately the houses all look the same inside and out. The map of the world is pretty much the same as well with subtle variations such as wild flower patches and trees and roads. It's very easy to get lost in the world. Speaking of the outside or area map that you play on the most there is also a variation between night day and dusk, each with their own color palette change. There isn't much of a difference other than at night monsters infest the towns as well. To be frank the graphics are rather bland and lack luster. I give the graphics a 4 out of 10 throwing daggers.

Sound: The sound is really nice in Times of Lore in some places and really generic in others. Yet it's still one of the stronger suits this game offers. The music in the outside world is never changing and isn't bad. It has a definite fantasy flavor to it and puts you in the mood for the adventure. The music changes for the inns and houses you enter and it's still a great tune for the NES. The combat sounds are pretty much non existent though and the sound that the game makes when you enter a house is just ridiculous. Of course the worst part for me is in the title screen when the title is being etched out by a chisel you have to listen to that annoying sound or skip it. There isn't much else to really go on about here. If they would have spent more time on the sounds other than the music I would definitely rank this higher, but seeing as that's not the case I give the sound 7 giant spiders out of 10

Addictive: Times of Lore is VERY addictive for me.. But that's just me and lets be fair here. Most people are going to spend a few minutes on the game and throw it aside because it's not visually enticing enough. I don't know what it is really. I just love this game. Every time I read a fantasy book like Conan or The Hobbit or something like that, or when I watch a movie in the fantasy genre it always brings me back to this game. To me, having the open map that allows you to fully explore it and kill countless orcs, rogues, and giant spiders is awesome. I always use the Barbarian and simply love the game play. Give it a try and see just how long you can survive exploring the land and defending yourself from it's inhabitants with out actually doing any questing. It's fun in and of it's self. But that's just me I guess. And if I were to look at this from an outside point I'd most likely vote the cons excessively out weighing the pros. So I'm sort of stuck with giving this a divided answer. For myself it's definitely a 8/10 but for the sake of being unbiased I give the addictive game play 5 out of 10 shambling skeletons.

Story: This game has story in the bucket loads.. That is if you know how to go about it and can find it. It's actually a compelling story and keeps you driven to finish the game. The world was prosperous and well before the king suddenly vanished. Now the world has sunken into a perilous trap of savage beasts and deviant thieves out to kill you. You're approached by a prior who asks you to retrieve an urn from a band of orcs who have set up camp a bit off the beaten trail. Once this has been accomplished you're sent to the regent of the land to find out what happened to start you on the path of the game. But as I've said before the story really wasn't that big of a deal for me though. I much preferred to make up my own story of the character and role play it out. But I can see where others might want to just stick to the story of the game. The only problem with that is if you're new to the game and don't use some sort of walk through or guide.. Well.. Good luck with that Lol. It's pretty confusing and you're sure to get lost and probably give up. That's why I don't care much about following the story path that much after beating it once I've only played half through it one other time. So I give the story 5 Barbarian axes out of 10.

Depth:There is quite a lot of depth in this game. You're going to have to chit chat around with a ton of NPC's to advance the story of the game. There is a plethora of items to acquire from either fallen foes like blue and green potions, red and blue scrolls and bags of gold. There are also items you can find via merchants in inns and houses that can boost your characters attacks and speed. There are also some encounters where you can find items like this as well. Two things I would advise all players to get is the boots and the ring of power. The boots make you run faster and the ring makes your attacks stronger. There really is just so much to do in the game it's quite an epic adventure. I give the depth 7 savage orcs out of 10.

Difficulty:Times of Lore isn't really all that difficult at all. The enemies are pretty simple and quite easy to deal with as long as you can constantly out maneuver the enemies to either hit them first or just avoid them as there is no experience gain at all. The only difficulty to mention which I have a couple of times is the fact that the game just expects you to either know the where about of the places you need to go and the things you need to do. That and of course if you find yourself short on gold or food or if you're out of potions to heal yourself and can't make it to an inn you run the risk of dying via enemies or starvation. I give the difficulty 4 Serfs out of 10.

Overall:Overall I really enjoyed this game and still do to this day. I can sit for hours playing the game in my own little world of exploring the map and having fun. The mechanics are simple enough and it's an easy game to get used to. The sound is great on the music but shabby on the sound effects. I would love to know what other people think about the game as well. Outside of my brother and I, I don't know anyone else who has ever played it before. Another thing which I absolutely loved about the game is that the combat is in real time, none of that turn based combat. I don't know why I just never warmed up to the turned base style in games. It works and it's great for some games but I just don't really care for it. The world is an open made and the towns are built into the open map with out any of that nonsense of making them represented by a small square or design that's the same size of your sprite. I reckon that's something I should have touched more upon in graphics lol. Well I hope you've enjoyed this review and if you have any questions about the game or anything else or just wanna comment and let me know what you think about the game please do so! I personally give the game an overall rating of 6.5
Graphics 4 Sound 7 Addictive 5 Story 5 Depth 7 Difficulty 4
Review Rating: 3/5 Submitted: 10-23-13 Review Replies: 1