Rings of Power

"An interesting game not for the impatient"

Rings of Power will go down in history as one of the only isometric genesis games and the programming prowess should be of note. Incidentally, it's also an RPG with quite a few original features, but overall not to die for. Those who don't like linearity will be served with RoP. Quite like, say, in the old Ultimas, you can pretty much wonder everywhere in the world looking for the occasionnal clue. You do quests and all, being in an RPG, and typically you'll be conducting around 5 or 6 at a time. That's nice, because if you're blocked somewhere, you can just go on with another quest. Unfortunately, being blocked will happen quite often due to the sheer evil nature of the game designers. Indeed, RoP is no RPG for the meek.

The battle system is interesting as it is entirely spell-based. Then again, there is little diversity in the opponents you face. There is basically 6 kinds of magic-users and pretty much everyone in the game is one of the six. Anyway, it's quite a good RPG and a nice alternative to the Phantasy Star domination of this machine

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 11/01/99