I remember, back in the 90s, i was a big fan of the old RPG Series "Might and Magic", and even enjoyed its turn-based tactical spin-off "Heroes of Might and Magic"..


any other fans of this classic franchise?



my favorite had to have been "Might and Magic VIII: Day of the Destroyer".. I know it was not received as well as some of the other games in the franchise, but I enjoyed the fact that Instead of creating your entire team at the start, you only created your main character, and found other characters to join you throughout the game, who you could swap as needed... having Dragons in your group was an interesting addition as well....


I was quite unhappy when Ubisoft took over the franchise, they trashed all of the great lore the series had, and in-turn made it just another generic fantasy franchise..
I mean, the "original Universe" was unique among Fantasy Franchises... I mean, behind the scenes we have "the Ancients", who are space-traveling people, creating all the worlds featured in the various games (Enroth, XEEN, Varn, Terra, CRON, Axeoth) using the combined power of the elemental plains and their rivalry Against the Kreegans... and how many of the games referenced each other (such as how Roland Ironfist is mentioned in many of the games after he won the Succession wars).
In relation i find the "Ubisoft Universe" to just be.. a generic fantasy game...

Might and Magic VI is my favorite, played that one lots and lots. And http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO5TCsYKlgw is one of my favorite game tracks of all time.

Can't say I was sad when they went under, they had mishandled things for some time and IX was overall a horrible game (and didn't care much for VIII either) and their spin-off Crusaders of Might and Magic was pretty bad too. I enjoyed the Dark Messiah spin-off published by Ubisoft a lot more, which is also the only M&M universe game published by Ubisoft I've played.

Ubisoft is apparently releasing "Might and magic X" this september, although they claim it will be going "back to the roots of the franchise", I don't have high hopes.. simply because it still takes place in Ashan... I would much perfer they would return to the Original Universe and go back to Enroth or even XEEN...

7 was my favorite/spent the most time on, probably because it was the first one I played. 8 was decent, mostly for the reason the op mentions (being able to switch out chrs) but I liked its exploration and quests less for some reason...and 6 would be third. I haven't tried any since 8, and they didn't look appealing.

I didn't get into/like the strategy game series, either.

Another thing i liked about some of the later games was the Arcomage mini-game...

I wish they would release that for Android and IOS devices...

Yes, but the HoMM series was too much of a time vampire. One of the worst cases of "one more turn" syndrome I've ever had.

I have HoMM 3&4 but never really fell for them. Enjoyed http://www.gog.com/game/master_of_magic lots and lots though, and still do!

Yup. Many good memories were had with Might and Magic 6-7 and HoMM 3.

I have 1-9, and 6 & 7 are my favorites. The special edition 6- included 1-5- was my first purchase outside the AD&D Forgotten Realms DOS games, where I started. I could never get into Heroes.

No love for World of Xeen (Clouds of Xeen & Dark Side of Xeen)?

ohh i know the feeling

"well, i've gotta hit the road in about 2 hours.. ohh just one more turn... errr, maybe just one more week....... ehh, I'll capture that city and call it quits..." *looks at clock* "ohh my god, I should have left an hour ago!"

I started with 6 and went through 9, then found Morrowind. By then, my XP machine didn't like most of my MM games. I've since bought the 1-6 set from GOG, so I'll get to them some day.

Never played the Might and Magic series itself, but I did buy all the games in a huge bundle on gog getting the games for just a few cents each. Will be playing them eventually after I finish playing just about every single D&D game I can get my hands on. As for Heroes of Might and Magic I greatly enjoyed the 3rd and 4th game, never tested 1st and 2nd game but I also bought them in a bundle and will get to them eventually. Ubisoft really did a number on Heroes of Might and Magic, I'm not that versed in the lore, but it just shows in the gameplay that Ubisoft has no idea how to make a proper strategy game (hint: don't have so much RNG and tug-o-war maps) and I just gave up on trying to play their games.

Heroes of Might and Magic 3 is commonly considered the best of the Heroes games (better use of artifacts, more spells and city types), but i liked 2 just because of the Campaigns story "The Succession Wars" where you could side with either Roland or Archibald, and even change sides half way through the campaign if you wish... while the Archibald Campaign was more enjoyable, i only play Rolands now as future M&M and H:M&M games clearly shopw his victory to be canon.

and of course Ubisoft did a number on the heroes franchise, as soon as Ubisoft got the IP they threw all the lore out the window inplace of their own..


summary on New Worlds Computing M&M Lore:

an Ancient race simply know as "the Ancients" traveled the universe, seeding many worlds. by combining the power of the four elemental plains (the Plain of Water, Plain of Fire, Plain of Earth, and Plain of Air), created the planets the various games take place in (Xeen, Enroth, Axeoth, etc.). the planets they created were similar, but Unique. their enemy were the Kreegans (often depicted in the games as Devils and demons. the "demon city" in Heroes 3, they were Kreegans). the Kreegans eventually defeated the Ancients before any of the games actually took place (an event know as "the silencing")..
if you look at M&M 8, the antagonist "Escaton" (the one who created the Crystal and caused the Cataclysm) was actually a "robot" for lack of a better term, who came to destroy Enroth when he heard Kreegans had invaded, even though Roland had purged Enroth of them years before.

the Ubisoft took over the franchise and said: "Okay, Ancients, yeah they never existed... Kreegans, nope don't exist, just standard demon instead.. other Planets? nope, only one planet exists, "Ashan"... the Elemental Plains being required for creation? nahh, Elementals will just be another common creature, like bunny rabbits!".


under NWC, M&M was an fantastic, Interesting Universe, both high-fantasy, but with sci-fi like history if you look toward how the world was created, not to mention every world had its own history to learn about and take part in, In some Worlds Trolls were respected members of society, while in others they were hostile barbarians....
under Ubisoft.. just another generic Fantasy franchise...



When it comes to the planets featured in the Original Universe, I like Enroth the best just because we see and learn more about it then all the rest...