This was an adventure that almost did not happen. I knew at some point I would be running into some kind of issues getting one of these older Might and Magic games to work. Thankfully there was a solution and it was time to get off the starting island.

I had a funny feeling about this one when I went to launch the game and I did not start right away. I ended up having to press the start button about five times to get some kind of window to launch.

Then I realized this was going to be different from Might and Magic Worl of Xeen in a huge way. Up till now all of the games I had played were being run in an emulator. The emulator window did not pop up for this one.

I went to the window out of the game and when I went back in the graphics were all funky-looking in size and colors. Even worse I could not get any screenshots of the game.

There is no internal screenshot button. Usually, ShareX solves everything even if it cannot get a screenshot. What did work? Pressing Print Screen and having to window out, save the past it into the paint. That however would have sucked. As I'd have to save and restart the game every time. It takes up to a dozen attempts to reset the game to get it to work.

I even went into the setting's external settings menu. Any option I selected seemed to not do anything. It seemed this issue was starting to get even more annoying.

So, I started to look around for fixes. One I did not try was setting my monitor color and resolution to what the game originally launched as. I recall back in the day of tube monitors had such a color setting. Not only could I not lower the resolution lower enough I could not limit the colors either.

The other option was installing a mod. I had hoped I'd never need to mod any of these games outside of what GoG has done to them. It seems the mod itself would also cause some issues of its own.

It however forced the game into window mode. From there ShareX could still not take a screenshot while I was in the game. I could now however mouse over and force ShareX to screenshot the last active window which was the game. A setting I'd have to custom set up each time. While still annoying I could now at least get the screenshots in a manner I was willing to put up with.

Might and Magic 7 also have a bit of a strange start. This time I'm trapped on an island and I have to win a contest that is going on to get off the island. The other people who are working to win the contest appear to have been killed by a dragon. It was now up to me to not only win the contest but to find out what happened to everyone else.

The game also started me with a hiring. She even gives out helpful tips. At first, I kind of found it nice that she had some rather nice details about who was in what building and where to find things. After a while I got a bit bored of her help so I told her not to give me a tour as she just kept hitting the same retriggers and displaying information, she already had given me.

As far as my group goes. I ended up just going with the default group. In past Might and Magics I feel they give you everything needed to at least be successful. Making your custom party tends to require a bit of game-knowledge knowledge which I had from some former Might and Magic. I however never played Might and Magic 7 and I wanted to be on the safe side.

I quickly started to see why so many players always talked about how similar-looking Might and Magic 6 and 7 are. I am jumping from 5 to 7 as I've played 6 a lot when I was younger and wanted new experiences. It feels quite similar in some ways.

There would also be other ways it would not be. As the mod, I installed upgrades to some texture models and made some UI changes as well.

It was now time to get started kind of. As with any Might and Magic game since I took the pre-made group it came with some gear to equip that would end up helping out a lot. Though not as much as I would have liked as shortly later, I'd end up getting brutally killed.

I then went into more detail about my characters. In Might and Magic 6 and 7 you have to train for different kinds of things like magic, weapons, and armor types. While there are still restrictions on who can train for what. It’s quite different than Might and Magic World of Xeen. As when you level up you have to decide as well where to spend points to further increase skills.

So, I came up with a little plan for who I wanted to train and when they could. It also turns out that unlike Might and Magic 6 a lot more of the basics can be trained in general locations like shops.

I ended up discovering the weapon shop had an option to train for bows. I kind of know from Might and Magic 6 that having ranged damage early on is OP. So, I sunk any scraps of gold I could come up with into getting the bow skill unlocked for all my characters as quickly as possible.

I then went around the town getting a little tour guide of what everything was. I at least wanted to know where I could get things like repairs, healing, and training for leveling up done.

There was also the quest to get off the island. That I looked into further. I needed to collect a tile from a temple, get a bow, and some other stuff as well. It turns out this island has two dungeons on it for me to explore rather quickly.

Final Thoughts

While not the most exciting start to any adventure. Sometimes with these older games, half the battle is just working out how to get them to start in a way that works for you. This is also the kind of game where spending time right away learning a few different things ends up paying off hugely in the future.

While it can be fun to just charge head-first into battle. In this game that is a sure way to get killed. Getting killed you lose all the gold you have on you. On the first island, I'd be no stranger to death. It ended up being a little more challenging than I was expecting the starting island to be.

At the very least in this Might and Magic areas reset after a while. I’m hoping it goes under the Might and Magic 5 rules. Outdoor areas tend to take about six months to reset. While dungeons can be a bit different.

This means I get to re-clear areas as needed. Allowing me to farm gold, items, and experience to help conquer the later parts of the game. I know in Might and Magic 6 I had my favorite dungeons I'd just love running over and over again. I can only hope to find some favorites in this game as well.

Information

Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about Might And Magic IV And V World of Xeen.