Dungeons & Dragons: Warriors of the Eternal Sun – Sunglasses Required

How about some 16-bit Mega Drive (Genesis in US) D&D? Dungeons & Dragons: Warriors of the Eternal Sun might not be a masterpiece, but it sure has charm! It was a very fascinating experience playing it, because I had no idea they even made D&D RPGs for the Mega Drive, and above all, not the blobber kind, with top-down turn-based combat and exploration (think Ultima 6). 

The disappearing castle
The story is cool, even if it’s rather limited in dialogue and presentation. The castle you are connected to, in the midst of a huge goblin war, is suddenly transported to a mysterious valley with an eternal sun. Meaning, this new place has no day and night cycle, and this drives people utterly mad. With the addition of some other, as yet unknown, mysterious influence. So the king with the greatest urgency orders your team of four to scout the nearby area, and if possible, find a way home or allies to help you. 

I very much enjoyed this setup, as I have always loved the doomed expedition/settlement theme. For a game with very few words, and fewer characters that say plot related stuff, the tone and level of distress are conveyed splendidly. Especially after you have completed an objective, as things seem to get more and more unhinged in the castle – the king included! He even cussed me out once, when I expected a reward! On to gameplay.

Budget D&D
I hope you have time, because controlling your party with a controller makes it slow and awkward to play. Every single action takes time as the UI is sluggish, and the somewhat restricted D&D rules give the impression of “we got blobber at home”. Why play this when you can play, let’s say, Eye of the Beholder instead? Which is a much better choice on PC since it has deeper D&D rules. However…

It feels pretty unfair to judge it by those standards now, since I played it on an emulator. Back then, the gameplay would probably come through as being fairly advanced, especially for the 16-bit gaming stations. And if that was all you had to play D&D!

So, reframing it from that perspective, it really is impressive, mechanically, and visually. You have the top-down view when outside exploring, with turn-based combat for encounters. It actually works pretty well too, albeit slow, with positioning and other tactics like that mattering in the outcome. Then you have the first person view when you go into dungeons, which is in real-time.

Not a cake walk
I thought the game would be easy, considering the streamlining, but no, Warriors of the Eternal Sun is brutal right from the get-go. It has a minimum of hand-holding, and monsters hit viciously hard. Yet, with streamlining comes free resurrections – thankfully, I say. It lessens the frustration by a degree, because you will die a lot!

The top-down combat I found manageable, as most combat scenarios are small skirmishes with plenty of resting opportunities. But the dungeons! The issue is not the difficulty per se, which still is a part of it – it’s that you can’t save or rest when inside. When you enter a dungeon, you have to be sure to finish it, or it’s all for naught. Think you can play it smart, and kill things to then run out and take a nap? Forget about it, all monsters respawn on entering the dungeon. It’s a harsh world!

Rapid fire slingshots
Clever as I am (at least my mother thinks so), I found a simple solution to avoid the permanency of eternal slumber. Just equip everyone with slingshots, or better ranged weapons, and shoot everything from a distance. You see, you have infinite ammo, and you send a shot almost as fast as you can press the buttons. That’s not all, the projectiles, stone or arrow, never drop. They will keep sailing into the dark and hit whatever is lurking in the shadows. I ended up machine-gunning every gloomy corner with my crew of slingshot experts – leaving none alive, monsters or humanoids alike. 

We are probably in exploit territory here, but doing the dungeons in a legit way was too cruel for my taste (and heart). Also, I can’t help finding low level D&D machine-gunning slingshotters amusing. Annoying dragon pestering the town? No problem. Forget hiring the veteran warrior in full plate. Going budget with four idiots with unlimited stones in their pockets is enough and the economical choice!

Other than that, you will still have to level up, find better loot and make sure that AC is low enough for those deadly confrontations – just like any other D&D game, but as said, slightly reduced and simplified in parts. 

Looking sweet
Being on the Mega Drive, it comes as no surprise the graphics will be a bit muted. I think they did a good job with what they had, though. The colors pop, and the visual space of the indoor areas are pretty detailed, and not that far behind the brothers on PC, considering. I also enjoyed how easy it was to differentiate the characters from each other, being made in such a low amount of pixels. Truly a small wonder for the eyes.

The sound is very basic, but it works. Warriors of the Eternal Sun got a few standout songs, though, which means someone took real passion in their work. Looking at you Klepacki. Just listen to the title song:

Conclusion
As mentioned in the beginning of the article, Warriors of the Eternal Sun is not a classic, but from a curiosity viewpoint, it sure is a fascinating piece of gaming history. I would recommend giving it a go just because of that. Yet, from a pure gameplay perspective, it is unfortunately lacking comparable to its PC & Amiga brothers. The main problem is that it exists in a sea of many deeper games in the genre. Games that probably have a better payoff versus the time investment. However, it’s absolutely not without merit. The fascination of playing an obscure title can be a reward in itself, which I think fits for this title. I only wished I played it as a kid, because I know little kid Thomas would be all over it!

Thanks for reading.

/Thomas