Heroes of the Lance

a.k.a. Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes of the Lance / AD&D ヒーローズ オブ ランス

published by Pony Canyon / FCI in 1991-01, developed by Natsume, running on Nintendo Entertainment System
type: action/reflex, role-play
genre: Fantasy
series: Heroes of Dragonlance, Dungeons & Dragons
setting: Medieval, Dragonlance
perspective: side view push-scroll
player options: single player
languages: eng jpn
1.8/5
GFXSFXPresent.MusicStoryObjectiveAtmos.A.I.

Personal review

This is an side scrolling RPG with action elements. Slow, action elements, such as running and jumping and sword fighting. This is a conversion, and I don't know the development history, so I will not venture to guess why's and hows of this game's creation. I will say there somewhere in the process, at least this version of the game was not handled well.
First off, the characters are in a 3D environment represented by 2D side scrolling. This is not usual, as most 2D side scrollers take place in a 2D world despite the occasional 3D effect or shifting planes. Characters travel through a series of hallways that either point north-south or east-west. This alone can be confusing, but this game complicates the problem by having inconsistent connection between the hallways. You can turn a corner into a new hallway but when to arrive there is a door, archway, or bridge behind you instead of a corner. To further complicate things, the layout of the hallways and interconnections have inconsistent topography. 'Parallel' hallways can be joined together by two or three perpendicular hallways of differing lengths. I made some maps and realized that hallways would have to bend and stretch to fit together and not all hallways would strictly line up with the 4 cardinal directions. Also, the viewing direction is sometimes reversed. So you are usually seeing the 'right' wall as a background but occasionally you see the 'left' without indication of the 'camera swap'. Adding insult is the nearly black and white environment. There's no excuse for an NES game published in 1990 to have such a poor color environment. Developers could have added shades of brown, and other dark colors, or at the very least a few more shades of grey like the computer version had. Rather than communicating a 3D world, the game ends up feeling like navigating a series of tubes. The developers tried to reproduce a 3D world with a side scrolling interface, but it fails IMO. Except for the 3D attempt, I get the impression that the developers set out to do the bare minimum to make this game. There are no noticeable subtle details.
SoundFX are not any better than you would expect from an Atari 7800 and there are few of them. The best when you character yells while falling, which isn't that impressive. The music is passable.
The game devotes a total of 19 words to the story or 29 if you get the good ending. This is only before and after the game, there is basically no in-game story. This is doubly bad because the characters have rich histories and are stars in the DragonLance setting and books. Apparently computer versions of this game included short descriptions of each character's history but they were cut from this conversion. This is triplex bad since RPGs are generally expected to come with more text than other games types. This one has less text than your average action/adventure games. Lost-in-translation to English doesn't apply here since the game was originally in English and was published in North America before the Japanese version (I'm tempted to count that as an innovation). Fortunately the in-game story has a surprise that allows a conclusion without the player succeeding.
There is a teleport trap on the Disks of Mishakal. If you hesitate to quickly approach and take the disks, you will be teleported outside and the sealed dungeon.
Even though is it cruel to the player, its a great plot element. Well actually, most players will be enraged by this alternate surprise ending, but I like it. But, that's all you are gonna get for story unless you count 4 of the characters' unexplained refusal to share or drop their personal weapons (each weapon has its own history too, also absent from this version of the game). Not only is there no character development, they do not even benefit from stats improvement. The somewhat known D&D experience system (which many developers have adapted for thier own games) is here reduced to a system of scoring points.
The player is free to explore the current dungeon floor but cannot go back to a previous floor. Exploring is not that enjoyable because of the inconstant 2D/3D layout. But there are rewards of special weapons and items waiting in nooks and crannies. However, obtaining and using these items has very little effect on the difficulty of beating the game.
Stumbling through the game to learn it is the point here. So its frustrating. No in-game clues to explain where to go, what to look for, what each item does, or who to fight when. No in-game mapping of any kind. Making you own maps is problematic because of the 2D/3D inconstancies.
If you want to make complicated maps and learn everything by trial and error, then this game offers a good challenge. At least you have a save slot. This is also where this single player game gets its sole social aspect. That is in the sharing of information about the game. This game, more than most, begs for it if only to reduce player frustration.
The level of violence is mild. Especial compared to most games where the point is to kill enemies. Very few lives are required to be taken in order to progress and beat the game. Both endings require killing only the boss. This is particularly abnormal for a D&D game. Its actually faster and easier to avoid killing most minions. However, the young dragons are difficult to get past unless the player kills them. And the player can choose to direct the killing of minions indefinitely to accumulate score. Players are also awarded points for collecting items and treasures, of which there are a limited number. There are no other ways to score experience points, which is not in keeping with many other D&D games; and especially not paper D&D. Violent strikes are shown as tiny explosions which is comically absurd. When enemies die, their tissues vanish leaving their standing bones to turn to dust and dissipate. A odd phenomenon that is left unexplained. There is no bad language, no sexual themes, no gambling, and no addictive substances. Goldmoon wears a loincloth under her robes that provides antiquate coverage (she is a member of a barbarian tribe). The best ending attributes the character's success to "THE GODS" (the bad ending blames the player).
And finally, the only strategy the enemies in the game demonstrate is backing up when the player gets too close to them. The enemies in Kung Fu are smarter.
In conclusion, if you liked Faxanadu but considered it's level design to be too easy to understand, the overall design to be to complex, to fast, having too much action, too many smart enemies, and too many colors, then Heroes of the Lance might appeal to you. This game is unlikely to appeal to fans of RPG games, action games, platformers or D&D games.


(Zerothis) - # 2009-05-26 05:46:06

Official description

At last! You can play the first Official ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS action game made for the Nintendo Entertainment System! HEROES OF THE LANCE is based on the Dragons of Despair DRAGONLANCE module, placing you in control of eight fantasy characters. Guide your brave companions through their adventures as they encounter dragons and dwarves... magic and monsters, in their quest for the precious Disks of Mishakal. The fate of the world of Krynn is in your hands! Vanquish the ancient black dragon Khisanth or you are doomed to failure!
Action-packed animated graphics. Eight characters, each with different attributes and skills. Fight giant spiders, Gully Dwarves, dragons and monstrous Draconians. Defend yourself with magic and an arsenal of weapons!

# 2019-10-16 16:51:10 - official description

Technical specs

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External review - average: 40%

review sourceissuedatescore
VideoGames & Computer Entertainmentus171990-064/1040%
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