This game is so niche, there's no proper guide or walkthrough.

[sidneyc1990]

I've only recently started playing Arx after watching online reviews and being generally a fan of Looking Glass and Arkane. I held off from playing originally due to problems with rune recognition. After installing the latest Arx LIbertatis, the game became playable.

Actually playing through itself is a shot in the dark most of the time. The RPGdot guide was helpful, but it felt like it was missing key details or alternatives. Another walkthrough (based on the Xbox version) was also helpful, but there were some strange instructions like having to reload a save to cancel the Levitate spell (cancelling is done by pressing 4 on the keyboard, but the Xbox version might have had a more obscure button combination). It also doesn't help that the game came out at a time when you had to rely on the game manual before playing, rather than learning it in-game. There was also a bit about combining the 2 golden snakes (instead of discerning which is real or fake), though it could be something that was exclusive to the Xbox version.

I just reached the Dwarven mines, and it's all based on the RPGdot guide (with maps from the online Ebook). However, I feel that there's also a lot more obscure secrets or sequence changes that I might have missed from experiencing. For example, the Dragon is apparently able to offer sagely advice to Am Shegar depending on your current progress on the story if you're lost. You are able to apparently find the dragon as early as when you unlock the path to it. I found out about this through googling keywords.

I also could not get much information on how to get rid of gold to be exactly 4815 - not being able to drop gold on the floor, and needing to sell, re-buy and re-sell at the market just to get gold down to a specific amount. The guides basically hand-waved this bit, so it's back to trial and error on the player's end.

Maybe that's pretty much how it was back then in the early 2000s when people had to discover things on their own, and perhaps that adds to the charm and mystery. The guides I've seen so far also feel like they've been written as the players discover them.

What other insights has anyone discovered about the game that perhaps the only 2 walkthroughs in the universe did not cover?

[Bandy]

Originally posted by sidneyc1990:

This game is so niche, there's no proper guide or walkthrough.

TLDR...

Search better, and before you say the link doesn't work, it does: https://web.archive.org/web/20030402200553/arx.rpgdot.com/index.php?hsaction=10062&game=arx&l1=Files&infoID=124

RPGDot's unofficial Guide to Arx Fatalis
All the content from the html guides in one pdf guide on more than 80 pages. All stats, tables, complete walkthrough, all maps etc! The pdf weighs in at 4 MB!

[sidneyc1990]

Originally posted by Bandy:

Originally posted by sidneyc1990:

This game is so niche, there's no proper guide or walkthrough.

TLDR...

Search better, and before you say the link doesn't work, it does: https://web.archive.org/web/20030402200553/arx.rpgdot.com/index.php?hsaction=10062&game=arx&l1=Files&infoID=124

RPGDot's unofficial Guide to Arx Fatalis
All the content from the html guides in one pdf guide on more than 80 pages. All stats, tables, complete walkthrough, all maps etc! The pdf weighs in at 4 MB!

Thank you, but as I had mentioned in my post, I used rpgdot as a guide. I also used the backed up ebook with the maps from an alternative link. Despite the comprehensive details, it's still not the complete picture especially on alternate paths. Even the final boss portion had no strategy given, just "you've reached the final boss. Defeat him and you win". Finding out more details about this game is like a treasure hunt. Sometimes it's also nice to see very old posts when people were still discovering parts of the game.

[Bandy]

Then I guess "proper guide" is a subjective opinion.
I get what you say, I have not finished Arx either, and have not resorted to using the linked guide (yet), maybe someday.

Good luck! This old game is quite a challenge, no hand-holding.

[sidneyc1990]

Good luck to you too in finishing it! Do consider referring to them, including the xbox version guide. The guides didn't diminish my sense of discovery, it just trimmed some of the fat. I'm also a fan of point and click adventure games, and this game carries a lot of that DNA that a walkthrough is still very necessary.

I just beat the final boss yesterday. There's a clear difference between what spells they thought the boss used back in 2004 and in 2011 and more recently.

I beat him with Negate Magic, mana potions, and meteor sworded him to death.

[[U1] Masquerade]

All this discussion gives me good ideas on what to add to my guide. I'll do it in my spare time.

[Rat]

It kind of brings a smile to my face when hearing how older games are too hard or are near impossible without a walkthrough. Most of these older games require lots of reading and problem solving and have lots of little hidden easter eggs for players to discover. In the past, people used to hop onto forums and share their discoveries with others. I think most of the discoveries have already been made for this game. You can find quite a few guides on these boards. As for the last boss thing, it was very common back then to either make the last boss a gimmick *cough cough Final Fantasy* or just have extremely annoying mechanics, and let the player figure out what works ( this game). It is the last boss after all, and is meant to be challenging.

[Bandy]

Originally posted by Rat:

It kind of brings a smile to my face when hearing how older games are too hard or are near impossible without a walkthrough. Most of these older games require lots of reading and problem solving and have lots of little hidden easter eggs for players to discover. In the past, people used to hop onto forums and share their discoveries with others. ...

Agree, but the style and pace of gaming has also changed dramatically, for better and for worse. Sometimes you just want to mow things down and of course Arx is not that kind of game :D

I put Arx down for a while because (I think) my next step was to go talk to the prisoner, but didn't have the key for that door. Spent a long time looking, must go back and look some more.

BUT in the back of my mind is the question whether that door is just bugged in my playthrough??? I've seen similar bugs in other games that are specific only to that save game, these bugs are 'created' when the new game is started, meaning, start another game and the bug is not present. And not that I haven't enjoyed my Arx time but I would not want to restart...

[sidneyc1990]

Originally posted by Bandy:

Originally posted by Rat:

It kind of brings a smile to my face when hearing how older games are too hard or are near impossible without a walkthrough. Most of these older games require lots of reading and problem solving and have lots of little hidden easter eggs for players to discover. In the past, people used to hop onto forums and share their discoveries with others. ...

Agree, but the style and pace of gaming has also changed dramatically, for better and for worse. Sometimes you just want to mow things down and of course Arx is not that kind of game :D

I put Arx down for a while because (I think) my next step was to go talk to the prisoner, but didn't have the key for that door. Spent a long time looking, must go back and look some more.

BUT in the back of my mind is the question whether that door is just bugged in my playthrough??? I've seen similar bugs in other games that are specific only to that save game, these bugs are 'created' when the new game is started, meaning, start another game and the bug is not present. And not that I haven't enjoyed my Arx time but I would not want to restart...

What Prisoner? The troll, the castle dungeon, Kultar, the goblin? Some of them are straightforward or has a nearby switch. Some need you to kill an npc, some aren't supposed to be opened. Your game probably isn't bugged. Just very difficult to figure out without a walkthrough lol.

[Bandy]

Yeah, no not Kultar, LOL... It was the Castle dungeon. I'll open the game later and see more details.

[sidneyc1990]

Originally posted by Bandy:

Yeah, no not Kultar, LOL... It was the Castle dungeon. I'll open the game later and see more details.

The door leading down to the jail is opened by a lever next to it. Also the prisoner cannot be freed.