Silvern Castle: Won! (with Summary and Rating)
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Title : Silvern Castle: Won! (with Summary and Rating)
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I was just witnessing yet another unproductive dialogue on Reddit about Fallout: New Vegas vs. Fallout 4. It's an argument that I both understand and fail to understand. Yes, New Vegas has perhaps more dialogue options, quest choice, role-playing, and faction immersion, but 4 is far from having none of those things. (Even while disdaining the argument, I feel compelled to note that 4 has no level caps and lets you call in artillery salvos on enemy fortifications.) Frankly, both games have more content than a sane person should deliberately experience. It feels like someone arguing that the Pacific Ocean is better than the Atlantic Ocean because it has more water.
You are now reading the articlel Silvern Castle: Won! (with Summary and Rating) with link address https://reviewgameupdate.blogspot.com/2018/05/silvern-castle-won-with-summary-and.html
Title : Silvern Castle: Won! (with Summary and Rating)
link : Silvern Castle: Won! (with Summary and Rating)
Silvern Castle: Won! (with Summary and Rating)
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| Ha! Beat 468,038! |
Silvern Castle
United States
Independently developed and published
Finished in 1988 but unreleased until 1999 for Apple II
Date Started: 4 April 2018
Date Ended: 6 May 2018
Total Hours: 35
Difficulty: Moderate (3/5)
Final Rating: 39
Ranking at time of posting: 232/290 (80%)
I was just witnessing yet another unproductive dialogue on Reddit about Fallout: New Vegas vs. Fallout 4. It's an argument that I both understand and fail to understand. Yes, New Vegas has perhaps more dialogue options, quest choice, role-playing, and faction immersion, but 4 is far from having none of those things. (Even while disdaining the argument, I feel compelled to note that 4 has no level caps and lets you call in artillery salvos on enemy fortifications.) Frankly, both games have more content than a sane person should deliberately experience. It feels like someone arguing that the Pacific Ocean is better than the Atlantic Ocean because it has more water.
Then again, my perspective is a bit different. I'm nearly 300 games into this project, and I can still count on one hand the number that have offered any meaningful "choices." When you start with the wireframes of Wizardry and the bare icons of Ultima, the differences between the last two Fallout games are so trivial as to be nearly nonexistent. Haul these modern game boys back to 1988 and put them down in front of Silvern Castle and see if they even recognize it as the same genre. I'm sure they wouldn't. Half of them begin their arguments with, "Well, the first thing I look for in a role-playing game is that it lets you play a role," a statement that at once betrays both their lack of originality and their lack of awareness of the history of the very genre they claim to enjoy.
It's hard to imagine that they wouldn't run screaming from a game like Silvern Castle, which in some ways feels like a throwback even for its year. It took me almost as long to win it as it took me to win Wizardry, permadeath and all. It has only the barest story and no sense of purposeful design in its overly-large dungeon. And yet in many ways, it never stopped delivering.
I came to regard the character class system as mildly brilliant. At any time, you can change classes or restart in your current class, returning your experience points to 0 but not resetting your hit points. By the time you're strong enough to explore Level 9 or 10 of the dungeon, a single expedition can get you from character level 1 to 9. Thus, there's a huge temptation to constantly restart levels to build skills in new classes and increase hit points. However, one of the most important determinators of success in combat is initiative, which after you max your agility only increases with levels. You also don't get certain abilities or spells until very high levels.
The equipment system is also pretty awesome. Practically every battle delivers an upgrade, a spell you need, or a useful magic item. With the right selection of items, every character is capable of mass-damage "spells." Part of what I love is how inventory subverts the game's usual rules. Priests can't use edged weapons--unless they find a rare "Holy Sword." Mages can't use most armor, but they have a special set of equipment--mage's caps, mage's cloaks, and mage's shields--unique only to them.
Perhaps most important, for one of less than five times in my gaming chronology, the economy never loses relevance. I reached the endgame still without earning enough gold to buy the most expensive items in the shop, let alone pay for enchantments. To avoid over-encumbrance, I had to create a dummy character called "Mule" who just sits in the guild all day and watches over the party's stash.
It took forever to get my mages to Level 15 and then convert to wizards. That wasn't as groundbreaking as I expected. Wizards only have two spells that no other classes do: "Striking" and "Deathray." Of the two, I only found one scroll with the former and none with the latter. Converting my cleric to a druid brought a lot more functionality as it enabled her to learn the "Cureall" spell, which restores all hit points to a character.
I messed around in the "proving grounds" long enough to get everyone's agility to 21, but I never got every ability to 21, which is necessary for conversion to "Mystic." This is only possible with attribute boosts that come with fountains and wishing wells, which occur at random locations as you enter the dungeon each time. I hardly ever found them.
Combat also remained well-balanced to the end. There were plenty of parties I could decimate with a first-round barrage of "Coma," "Lightning Bolt," and "Acid Fog," but enough enemies have immunities that you can't rely exclusively on the most powerful damage spells. Some are vulnerable to low-level spells when high-level ones don't work. Others--like the maze demons that dog you on Level 10--seem to be immune to just about everything, and hard to hit besides. There were many late-game combats in which I had to take extra care, round after round, healing, de-stoning, and waking characters while attempting to whittle down enemy hit points.
I don't mean to suggest that the game is great. The story remained threadbare until the end. Except for one level, the dungeons never got interesting. It lasts way too long despite the constant character development. Identifying, distributing, and disseminating equipment after combat became very tedious even when the equipment was useful. But on the balance, I had more fun than not.
Progressing through the game was largely a process of finding a series of keys. First, you need gold, silver, and "magic" keys to open even regular doors on the lower levels. Eventually, on Level 10, you find a "skeleton key" on the body of a priest. This is necessary to open any of several doors on the first 9 levels, all of which have the same thing behind them: a lithium power crystal.
Back on Level 1, some monks take the lithium power crystal and give you a talisman necessary to enter the evil wizard Drachma's inner sanctum. To find that, the monks add, you have to find a hidden underwater entrance. There are several suggestions that you'll eventually explore underwater, including the existence of an "Air" spell and several objects that replicate it.
Level 10 starts you off with an alarm and a battle with a very difficult party, including a group of "maze demons." These demons continue to dog you through the level, always heralded by an alarm. You can duck into rooms to avoid them sometimes.
The southwest area of Level 10 closes itself off when you walk on a trap square--you have to find another way into the area. I had to look up a hint to figure out how to get to the underwater area. It turns out that you can only find it by casting "Teleport" and then teleporting to an invalid place, like Level 11. This dumps the party in the castle moat, where you have only one round to cast an "Air" spell before drowning.
The moat is swarming with creatures, and it was a great place to grind. They don't deliver as much experience as their Level 9/10 colleagues, but they deliver a lot more than their difficulty would suggest, and they don't leave any treasures, so there's no post-combat clean-up. I spent a lot of time here when I was trying to level-up party members after changing classes.
The moat seems to be the only hand-constructed map in the game. Most of it is completely open, but to get through it, you have to navigate past invisible "mines" that show up on the automap. (They just return you to a central square; they don't blow you up.) The correct path leads to a doorway and a set of corridors in the southern part of the map.
To continue at one point, you have to enter a pass code found behind a secret door. Later, you have to answer a very easy riddle from a sphinx:
Passageways lead up to the inaccessible area of Level 10, and in one of those rooms, you find Drachma and his minions. He attacks with a few demons and four dragons, and everyone has 10 times more hit points than their comparable colleagues on the regular levels. I had no chance of winning the first time I encountered him. I had to go through several class changes, a lot of grinding, and much higher hit point totals before I could win, and even then it was with a lot of save-scumming.
The dragons meant that someone has to cast "Breath Shield" every round. Healers are busy with "Cure All" and "Cure Stone," but with luck you can get some castings of "Stun," "Striking," or "Deathray" every couple of rounds. Magic items that anyone can use really help here.
Defeating Drachma produces this set of messages:
You get the orb and bring it back to the surface. As you try to enter the town, you're asked if you will "give up" the orb. If you say no, you get into a fight with a group of high-level ranges, thieves, druids, and wizards.
Winning this battle just kicks you back to the dungeon. You're asked if you will give up the orb the next time you try to enter town. So I guess there's no way to keep it. Giving it up produces another series of messages:
Oddly, the game somehow decided that my assassin, Obetyne, was the king. (I guess maybe he was carrying the orb.) Everyone else gets titled "baron" or "baroness."
The further scenarios do not whisk you to a different dungeon. They actually make some use of existing maps. To start the second scenario, you have to enter the moat again and explore a previously-inaccessible area to the southeast. This gets you a code that allows to pass a door and so forth. I assume eventually I'll find something that will allow me to pass through the pentagram on Level 2. "Returning" from the other scenarios always takes you back to the same city hub. I'd try them but I've already spent too much time with the game. I'd love to hear from others' experiences, however.
In a GIMLET, I give Silvern Castle:
That gives us a final score of 39, almost exactly what I gave to Wizardry. Wizardry was much more ground-breaking and influential, of course, but Silvern Castle is a rare clone that manages to equal the original in most areas and even exceed it in a few. It's not the highest score I've ever given to a shareware game, but it's close.
Creator Jeff Fink continues to release periodic updates of the game (the last was in 2014), so future readers might want to keep an eye on his web site for the latest.
Winning this brings us closer to the end of 1998, with only three more games to go. Before we pick up Talisman, though, it's time to wrap up Quest for Glory III.
It's hard to imagine that they wouldn't run screaming from a game like Silvern Castle, which in some ways feels like a throwback even for its year. It took me almost as long to win it as it took me to win Wizardry, permadeath and all. It has only the barest story and no sense of purposeful design in its overly-large dungeon. And yet in many ways, it never stopped delivering.
I came to regard the character class system as mildly brilliant. At any time, you can change classes or restart in your current class, returning your experience points to 0 but not resetting your hit points. By the time you're strong enough to explore Level 9 or 10 of the dungeon, a single expedition can get you from character level 1 to 9. Thus, there's a huge temptation to constantly restart levels to build skills in new classes and increase hit points. However, one of the most important determinators of success in combat is initiative, which after you max your agility only increases with levels. You also don't get certain abilities or spells until very high levels.
 |
| "Lightning Bolt" is one of several all-enemy damage spells. |
The equipment system is also pretty awesome. Practically every battle delivers an upgrade, a spell you need, or a useful magic item. With the right selection of items, every character is capable of mass-damage "spells." Part of what I love is how inventory subverts the game's usual rules. Priests can't use edged weapons--unless they find a rare "Holy Sword." Mages can't use most armor, but they have a special set of equipment--mage's caps, mage's cloaks, and mage's shields--unique only to them.
Perhaps most important, for one of less than five times in my gaming chronology, the economy never loses relevance. I reached the endgame still without earning enough gold to buy the most expensive items in the shop, let alone pay for enchantments. To avoid over-encumbrance, I had to create a dummy character called "Mule" who just sits in the guild all day and watches over the party's stash.
 |
| Late in the game, I'm still buying advanced spells. |
It took forever to get my mages to Level 15 and then convert to wizards. That wasn't as groundbreaking as I expected. Wizards only have two spells that no other classes do: "Striking" and "Deathray." Of the two, I only found one scroll with the former and none with the latter. Converting my cleric to a druid brought a lot more functionality as it enabled her to learn the "Cureall" spell, which restores all hit points to a character.
 |
| Rapuna can finally become a wizard--as well as just about every other class in the game. |
I messed around in the "proving grounds" long enough to get everyone's agility to 21, but I never got every ability to 21, which is necessary for conversion to "Mystic." This is only possible with attribute boosts that come with fountains and wishing wells, which occur at random locations as you enter the dungeon each time. I hardly ever found them.
 |
| Editing agility to 21. |
Combat also remained well-balanced to the end. There were plenty of parties I could decimate with a first-round barrage of "Coma," "Lightning Bolt," and "Acid Fog," but enough enemies have immunities that you can't rely exclusively on the most powerful damage spells. Some are vulnerable to low-level spells when high-level ones don't work. Others--like the maze demons that dog you on Level 10--seem to be immune to just about everything, and hard to hit besides. There were many late-game combats in which I had to take extra care, round after round, healing, de-stoning, and waking characters while attempting to whittle down enemy hit points.
I don't mean to suggest that the game is great. The story remained threadbare until the end. Except for one level, the dungeons never got interesting. It lasts way too long despite the constant character development. Identifying, distributing, and disseminating equipment after combat became very tedious even when the equipment was useful. But on the balance, I had more fun than not.
Progressing through the game was largely a process of finding a series of keys. First, you need gold, silver, and "magic" keys to open even regular doors on the lower levels. Eventually, on Level 10, you find a "skeleton key" on the body of a priest. This is necessary to open any of several doors on the first 9 levels, all of which have the same thing behind them: a lithium power crystal.
Back on Level 1, some monks take the lithium power crystal and give you a talisman necessary to enter the evil wizard Drachma's inner sanctum. To find that, the monks add, you have to find a hidden underwater entrance. There are several suggestions that you'll eventually explore underwater, including the existence of an "Air" spell and several objects that replicate it.
 |
| The monk is making an Apple II. |
Level 10 starts you off with an alarm and a battle with a very difficult party, including a group of "maze demons." These demons continue to dog you through the level, always heralded by an alarm. You can duck into rooms to avoid them sometimes.
 |
| Arriving on Level 10. |
The southwest area of Level 10 closes itself off when you walk on a trap square--you have to find another way into the area. I had to look up a hint to figure out how to get to the underwater area. It turns out that you can only find it by casting "Teleport" and then teleporting to an invalid place, like Level 11. This dumps the party in the castle moat, where you have only one round to cast an "Air" spell before drowning.
The moat is swarming with creatures, and it was a great place to grind. They don't deliver as much experience as their Level 9/10 colleagues, but they deliver a lot more than their difficulty would suggest, and they don't leave any treasures, so there's no post-combat clean-up. I spent a lot of time here when I was trying to level-up party members after changing classes.
 |
| I don't think this graphic was copied from Wizardry. |
The moat seems to be the only hand-constructed map in the game. Most of it is completely open, but to get through it, you have to navigate past invisible "mines" that show up on the automap. (They just return you to a central square; they don't blow you up.) The correct path leads to a doorway and a set of corridors in the southern part of the map.
 |
| Part of the "moat" map with the "mines." |
To continue at one point, you have to enter a pass code found behind a secret door. Later, you have to answer a very easy riddle from a sphinx:
 |
| In addition to the obvious answer, the sphinx also accepts "this really weird goat I found." |
Passageways lead up to the inaccessible area of Level 10, and in one of those rooms, you find Drachma and his minions. He attacks with a few demons and four dragons, and everyone has 10 times more hit points than their comparable colleagues on the regular levels. I had no chance of winning the first time I encountered him. I had to go through several class changes, a lot of grinding, and much higher hit point totals before I could win, and even then it was with a lot of save-scumming.
The dragons meant that someone has to cast "Breath Shield" every round. Healers are busy with "Cure All" and "Cure Stone," but with luck you can get some castings of "Stun," "Striking," or "Deathray" every couple of rounds. Magic items that anyone can use really help here.
 |
| A few "Breath Shield" rings and "Healing" rings scattered throughout the party means the druid doesn't have to handle everything. |
Defeating Drachma produces this set of messages:
After a tough fight, the party is victorious over the evil wizard Drachma and his minions! Suddenly, a flash of light erupts from an object on the floor. The remains of Drachma and his cohorts have vanished! Upon a brilliant white dais is a crystal ball. The image of Drachma appears within the globe, caught in miniature suspended animation! Suddenly, you realize you are seeing a mirrored image of the Crystal Orb. Drachma and his evil guardians are trapped inside!
 |
| Winning also produced the highest experience reward in the game. |
You get the orb and bring it back to the surface. As you try to enter the town, you're asked if you will "give up" the orb. If you say no, you get into a fight with a group of high-level ranges, thieves, druids, and wizards.
 |
| This is a good grinding opportunity, too. |
Winning this battle just kicks you back to the dungeon. You're asked if you will give up the orb the next time you try to enter town. So I guess there's no way to keep it. Giving it up produces another series of messages:
A hearty congratulations! You have accomplished something very few adventurers have lived to tell about: Reaching the well-guarded lab and defeating its occupant, the evil wizard Drachma. You are crowned the sovereign of Silvern Castle during an enormous celebration.
As the badge of your noble rank, the Crystal Orb is entrusted to your care, for as long as the sovereign carries the orb, Drachma's return is sealed!
However, your peaceful rule is broken soon after by dreadful news of an ancient enemy from another time that is intent on seeking revenge on the good people of Silvern Castle. Adventurers have reported seeing the image of this evil force trying to escape from an archaic pentagram on level 2, but fortunately that portal is sealed permanently. Reportedly, an activation device exists which will allow passage to the realm of this ancient enemy. The royal seers believe the key to locating this portal may be found in the old catacombs, which sank into an underwater chasm during an earthquake centuries ago. Only the rightful heir has the power to carry out this quest. Do not fail!
Oddly, the game somehow decided that my assassin, Obetyne, was the king. (I guess maybe he was carrying the orb.) Everyone else gets titled "baron" or "baroness."
 |
| "King" Obetyne with his crystal orb. I like to think he shakes it up every once in a while. |
The further scenarios do not whisk you to a different dungeon. They actually make some use of existing maps. To start the second scenario, you have to enter the moat again and explore a previously-inaccessible area to the southeast. This gets you a code that allows to pass a door and so forth. I assume eventually I'll find something that will allow me to pass through the pentagram on Level 2. "Returning" from the other scenarios always takes you back to the same city hub. I'd try them but I've already spent too much time with the game. I'd love to hear from others' experiences, however.
 |
| Exploring a bit of the next scenario. |
In a GIMLET, I give Silvern Castle:
- 2 points for the game world. There's a basic story, but it's not much.
- 6 points for character creation and development. Great system mechanically. The classes and races aren't used enough in-game for a much higher score, though.
- 1 point for NPC Interaction. There are a couple of encounters. One point is generous.
- 4 points for encounters and foes. The enemies have a nice variety of strengths and weaknesses, but they're not very original. A few non-combat encounters and light puzzles aren't worth much, but I gave an extra point for the randomized "lair" encounters.
 |
| A dragon lair can be found on Level 9, but it changes locations and I only found it once. |
- 5 points for magic and combat. It's an excellent Wizardry variant in which spells are well-balanced and copious items give even more tactical options. Even though I didn't use it very often, I particularly love how you can throw broken items for an almost-sure hit.
- 6 points for equipment. Awesome variety of stuff, and you have the ability to add your own enchantments.
- 6 points for economy. It's one of the few games where the economy remains relevant to the end. It only lacks a certain complexity that I like to see for higher scores.
- 2 points for a main quest with no side quests and no branches.
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| After the evil wizard Drachma fell, a new villain named Euro rose to take his place. |
- 3 points for graphics, sound, and interface--all for the easy keyboard interface, of course. The automap is particularly well done. Keep in mind that I played it with the AppleWin CPU speed cranked, however. On era-accurate speeds, I think this category might score in the negatives.
- 4 points for gameplay. It's a bit too linear and a bit too long, but it offers a nice moderate challenge and some limited replayability with the different character classes.
That gives us a final score of 39, almost exactly what I gave to Wizardry. Wizardry was much more ground-breaking and influential, of course, but Silvern Castle is a rare clone that manages to equal the original in most areas and even exceed it in a few. It's not the highest score I've ever given to a shareware game, but it's close.
 |
| The "Silvern Hall of Fame" gives a few game credits. |
Creator Jeff Fink continues to release periodic updates of the game (the last was in 2014), so future readers might want to keep an eye on his web site for the latest.
Winning this brings us closer to the end of 1998, with only three more games to go. Before we pick up Talisman, though, it's time to wrap up Quest for Glory III.
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