@liqmat - by all means, keep sharing. That does sound like an awesome game and it is now on my wishlist, waiting for a discount. 😉
Realms of Arkania: Shadows over Riva
I just finished this game. It took just under 58 hours to complete over the course of 47 days. It was a nice conclusion to the trilogy, but the best of the three by far was Star Trail (which I finished in 62 hours back in 2019).
The penultimate battle was actually the toughest, until I figured out the trick. The final boss battle was a breeze due to my magic users' high levels. I beat the boss on the first try in just a few minutes, by throwing max level Fulminictus (lightning) and Ignifaxus (fire) spells at her. My two melee fighters didn't even get a chance to swing a weapon.
Back to the penultimate battle. Your party faces mirror images of themselves. If they aren't defeated after a certain time, they duplicate, so you have to face two copies of yourselves. Normal combat will not work here because the battle is a stalemate until the 2nd copies come in, at which point, you will lose. The trick is to disable them as quickly as possible with spells. I used a combination of Paralyze, Ball and Chain, Bambaladam (makes opponent friendly to you, which ceases all combat from them), and Dance (opponent dances uncontrollably til exhaustion hits).
Probably the hardest and most frustrating part of the game was just before the mirror battle. You have to traverse a massive maze that I just ended up finding a solution to because otherwise it would've taken hours.
The most unique aspect of this series is the use of the German role-playing system Das Schwarze Auge. It is quite different than most conventional RPG systems. One cool feature is the magic system. Basically, all magic user classes can potentially learn any spell, depending on how much they invest in said spells at each level up. Certain classes have certain affinities, so their starting spell attributes will make it easier or harder to learn a spell. The way a spell is learned is the player's value for that spell must be at least -5. So for example, a level one character whose class gives them an affinity for spell A, but not for spell B, will have a starting value of -9 for spell A and -18 for spell B. At each level-up, you can choose to put a certain amount of spell points into whatever spell you want. It will take twice as long for this magic user to develop spell B to at least -5 than spell A. At -5, the spell will still fail often, so you actually want to develop spells to zero(0) or higher. A spell value of +8 will almost never fail.
Characters have hunger and thirst bars that must be kept in check. I personally think it is done well and not annoying, but the developers did throw in a couple of magical items (magic water skin and magic bread bag) that eliminate the need to carry rations and feed characters once in your inventory. I found the water skin in Star Trail and the bread bag in Riva.
Weapons must be maintained with a whetstone and a player who develops the skill to maintain weapons. Otherwise, they will break. You can carry spare weapons, but inventory slots are limited (as is party carrying capacity). You could fill all your slots with light items and still not be able to carry more, or have just a few heavy items and be similarly affected. But when your weight limit is exceeded, you can still move around normally outside of combat, but you lose action points in combat. Attacking typically takes 3 action points. Casting a spell costs 5 action points. Each space moved on the combat grid costs 1 action point. Combat is turn-based. Melee combat cannot occur on diagonal squares. Likewise, ranged combat (bows, throwing axe, etc) must have at least one square of separation. Spells and ranged attacks can occur diagonally so long there is a clear line of sight. Some spells can be ranged, others you must be next to the target.
Level ups can be done automatically, but for the best results, should be handled manually. It can take 20 minutes to level up a single character because there are many choices that must be made: which positive attribute to develop, which negative attribute to reduce, and which skills and spells to develop. Leveling up was my favorite part of the game. Grab a drink, take your time, and develop your character exactly how you want! They don't happen often, though (my imported characters only leveled up twice each in the whole game because they came in at level 7-9). By the end game, they were levels 9-11.
All in all, it was an enjoyable series. Nowhere near as good as Wizardry 6-8. I'd probably rank these games about on par with something like Anvil of Dawn, Lands of Lore, and Might & Magic IV in terms of quality and fun. They are much different RPGs from each other, but all about as entertaining in my book.
edit: forgot to add my endgame screenshot