Curse of Enchantia – A Fair & Balanced Retrospective

0 Comments

Features by Adventure Game Hotspot staff
Published:

Time in Enchantia moves slower than it does in our world. Perhaps that helps explain why the Space Quest Historian's video retrospective of Core Design's Curse of Enchantia was recorded in 2020 and only being released now. (It actually doesn't, but that would make about as much sense as the game's own story.)

But wait, let's back up. Core Design? The TOMB RAIDER people?!! Yep, it's true. Back in 1992, before Lara Croft was a household name, the British developer dabbled in many different genres. Curse of Enchantia was their first adventure game, and let's just say it shows. The pixel art looks great and the sound is good for its time, but otherwise it comes off as an obtuse "puzzle game masquerading as an adventure."

Perhaps a story could have helped shine some light on it all, but there pretty much isn't one. At least, not one you can discern from the gameplay itself. As SQH describes the game, it's a "fantasy comic strip sort of comedy thing" that for reasons unknown decided to forego ALL dialogue. (Well, except for saying "hi" and screaming "help!" at will.) The only snippets of understanding to be gleaned are from the instruction manual: something about an evil witch (all the women in this game are) somethingsomething eternal youth somethingsomething portal to our world somethingsomething male child sacrifice somethingsomething Brad, the protagonist. There, all caught up – now go forth and something!

Not that the narrative really amounts to much in a game clearly inspired by the Gobliiins series but without nearly enough skill to pull it off. It's largely a bunch of "puzzle arenas" with an "absolutely bewildering interface" to manage, featuring over a dozen different action icons to continually balance, an undersized inventory, and the occasional "tedious slog" sequence to get through or die trying. (Hope you saved recently in one of the measly eight slots!)

Curse of Enchantia was intended to have a sequel, but it's clear even the designers felt major changes were in order. Core Design's second (and last) adventure did follow a year later, but Universe was no longer a sequel and a much different experience. Better? Worse? We'll have to wait to find out later from the Space Quest Historian, but for now enjoy him (mostly) ripping into this game and its many missteps, including a misguided "dudebro" (ladbro, to Brits?) vibe.

The Space Quest Historian is part of the Adventure Game Hotspot Network, a collective of talented, dedicated content producers who work entirely independently but have joined forces to promote each other’s efforts. All opinions expressed belong solely to the original creators.