The times, they are medieval good sirs and ladies. And your adventure is beginning in a land where the dragons of legend might very well exist. This minecraft adventure map uses a lot of the solid RPG tropes, like having to satisfy grumpy guards who want you to go into ruins to find swords for them. I was rather reminded of FF8 at the outset, of the dungeon where one fights the Brothers. If only minecraft had a way to program your very own villains right into the game – to breathe speech onto mobs. But I digress.
The map makes good use of the emerald currency, encouraging you to gain currency and obtain items through trade, rather than through punching the landscape into submission. The quests are simple and quite sweet at times, but don’t let that give you the impression that they’re not fun. The simplicity of many of the tasks set creates quite a believable sense of immersion in this medieval world, where you learn what and who you are through interacting with invisible NPCs who communicate almost entirely through signs. One gets the impression that this map was devised before writable books were added, or that the map maker is a traditionalist who eschews such modern fiddle-faddle.
The builds are quite impressive, the creation of a medieval village for instance, is perhaps a little flashy, but I liked that. And the story? The story unfolds as you play through the map – which I suppose all stories do, but this map really gave me the sense of progressing the tale as I completed the little challenges set for me by the sign NPCs. I also had the strong feeling that my medieval comrade was Patrick Swayze in that one surfer movie, which was totally fun.
For a medieval adventure, this is a minecraft map worth playing. There are a lot of unintentionally hilarious moments and little quirks that you’ll find quite amusing. Some map makers, for instance, have their trader villagers safely confined in a shop. In this map the traders have all taken the day off and are taking a swim in the local watering hole. Trading with them is a little like trying to herd cats. Oh and be careful with accidental left clicking. The iron golem gets angry if you push them into the water!