Straturdays: Casual Heroes Chronicles| Masters of the Elements Chapter 3, Months 1 & 2
3Full playlist: • Straturdays: Casual Heroes Chronicles| Con...
Lead by Jon Van Canegham of New World Computing, and published by The 3DO Company, Heroes of Might and Magic 3 became a common name in PC gaming at the cusp of the millennium. A turn based strategy title that combined RPG mechanics with 4X games; controlling heroes who lead armies of creatures from myth, legend, and history across an overworld map to claim resource structures and conquer cities, gaining experience to level up and then acquire or improve upon skills that directly improve their army or aid in more adjacent ways, like economic boosts or greater spellcasting abilities.
This series isn't going to focus on HoMM3. As mentioned, it's a commonplace name. You're more likely to find someone who knows about it than not in the gaming space. I will instead be journeying through an offshoot tale set in the HoMM3 engine. We'll be controlling the hero Tarnum, as we learn of his rise from a simple man to the ruthless barbarian king.
Masters of the Elements sees Tarnum; barbarian hero, tyrant-king, knight errant; adopt a new hat. A large, pointy one. A pointy hat that reminds him of every agony that drove him to his own gruesome violence. In this chapter of his story, Tarnum must reconcile with his trauma from living as a slave under Wizard rule, lest the capricious Elemental Lords split the world into its constituent elements, tearing it asunder.
Masters of the Elements is the only other Heroes Chronicles title my family owned in my youth. I never truly paid close attention to the story as a boy, but there's something internally harrowing about thinking about becoming something that personally caused you so much agony and literally changed the course of your life because it was so horrendous, under threat of the annihilation of everything.