Sagard the Barbarian

RANKINGS

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1. The Ice Dragon - Score = 5.2    Tier = OK

Attempts to beat: 1

I'm always excited to start a new series and was really hoping to like this being a fan of the Conan the Barbarian stories, but found this first entry a bit on the boring side. The setting itself is immersive enough and I thought the descriptions of the icy tundra you are travelling across to be well done. The initial setup whereby you set out to collect trophies to pass your tribe's test and become a warrior starts off on the right foot too, but unfortunately there really wasn't much else to the story other than kill just about everything you come across in a string of very brief encounters to collect said trophies.

The combat here is pretty tedious to say the least. I found some of the battles dragging on and on because either myself or my opponent (or both) would do no damage on our respective turns. This got a little better once you acquire a very useful sword from the Valkyrie but I quickly found myself dreading battles with high hit-point adversaries, not because I was worried about death (far from it) but because of the length of these fights.

This book is also incredibly easy which you might know from my other reviews is really a big strike against it for me.  Maybe this was by design being the first book in the series but I mean really, ONE attempt to beat it? Gimme a break. I need some sort of challenge. The amount of hit points you recover along your journey borders on the ludicrous. I felt like I was pumped back up to my maximum after almost every battle.

Totaling up your trophies at the end with each trophy being worth a certain amount of points was a pretty good idea and could have made the book an enjoyable exercise in trial and error mapping out the locations of the trophies and their values.  Unfortunately, likely due to the small number of sections in the book, you basically come across everything that can give you a trophy anyways. Also, while having different levels which might increase the chances of them damaging you, the enemies have no modifiers to speak of which make every fight seem incredibly similar.

However, I did find an interesting moral dilemma at the end of the book.  When you make it to the lair of the Ice Dragon you are actually given the option of just going home without fighting it if you feel you already have enough trophies to pass your tribe's test (which you probably will). Normally I know a barbarian would just attack in this situation but we are told Sagard has a sense of honor and a code. At this point I realized the Ice Dragon wasn't hurting anyone and I didn't want to be the one responsible for ridding the world of this magnificent creature. Although, dreading what was sure to be another long dice rolling combat with another opponent with a large amount of hit points definitely played into this decision as well! As such, it seemed pretty unique that you can beat this adventure without even fighting (or meeting for that matter) the titular creature of the book.


Ranking: Well, I can honestly say this is the best of the Sagard series so far! I really hope the series gets better than this. This gamebook is the easiest from any series I have ever played to date. Combined with the drawn out combats and lack of much of a story, it's really not very good. It's certainly playable and most of the writing is quite well done though so it's at least passable.
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2. The Green Hydra - Score = 5.8    Tier = OK

Attempts to beat: 1

If this keeps up, I'm going to finish this whole series in less than half the time one average Fighting Fantasy book takes me.  Although admittedly it is a bit tougher than the first book in the series, this one is still too easy. Once again I made it through on my first attempt although it did take me using all my health items this time.

The story here is definitely a step up from the first book though and I have to say I enjoyed it quite a bit. The book is basically divided into 3 areas. You begin in the marshland area, move on to the city area of Suthorp, then end in the tomb on the Isle of Slith. I found each of these areas to be varied enough with enough interesting encounters to make them quite enjoyable. I really felt as though I went from just wanting to sell my tribe's wares to being dragged along on a quest to rid the land of the evil Slith (which reminded me of the Sleestak from Land of the Lost for some reason) out of not only a sense of honor, but because I had the hots for a beautiful girl (and if that's not accurate and relatable I don't know what is!).  This is the first time I can recall encountering this motivation in a gamebook and it's really quite realistic if you think about it. Especially considering Sagard is presumably still a teenager at this point.

Where the book starts to drag a bit though is once again the combat system. Maybe it's the presentation but the combats seem very dry to me. Because there are no insta-deaths (that I have come across yet anyway), the only way you are going to lose is if you die in combat. This in itself isn't a problem and indeed may be a welcome design choice for some. However, 95% of the combats just don't seem very hard. The few combats that are somewhat hard you will likely have a plethora of healing items and/or special weapons that you have spent the adventure squirreling away because you just haven't needed them which only serve to make these encounters not very difficult either. There is one special item in particular that automatically sets your hit points back to maximum if you die in battle. Combine this with a 10 hit-point jerkin you can acquire and that is an extra 30 hit points right there. This doesn't even count all the times your health is increased (sometimes to maximum) through the course of the story.

The book also, in my opinion, does a very poor job of explaining some of the rules of the encounters. For example at one point you can get in a battle against 5 enemies at once and are told that one on one they would be no match for you. But they then proceed to attack you....one at a time? It's like a kung fu movie where each bad guy waits off to the side until it's his turn to get his ass kicked.

The final area of the book which takes place in the tomb as you hunt for the Green Hydra should have been the high point of the adventure and was set up to be so. You are provided a map for this area and that took away a lot of the fun for me as I greatly enjoy mapping out dungeons myself and is one of the things I look forward to most in a gamebook. Also, I found the rules regarding the map and some of the design in this area pretty lazy and sometimes confusing. How many fire arrows are you supposed to have? 6 or 7? Beats me because the book tells you two different things. You are also told if you cross an area you have already been to (ie. backtrack) then you need to go to a certain section where you fight some guards. These guards aren't very difficult though (what else is new) if you use some poison or fire darts you likely acquired earlier in the book. After you beat these guards once, you can apparently now backtrack to your hearts content.

Also, the final battle with the Green Hydra itself was hugely disappointing. You attack it by using the fire arrows you pick up on your way through the temple and this allowed me to take it out with ease. Not just because of the fire arrows but because even if you run out of them before killing all its heads you are still allowed to use the aforementioned fire darts. Provided you saved some fire darts like I did, this battle is a cakewalk and extremely anti-climactic. The final escape from the tomb attempts to drain your hit points away by having enemies shoot arrows at you but you will likely have enough to make it out anyway.


Ranking: Better than the first book in every way, but still held back by the boring combat and ease of difficulty. The story here I felt was pretty good though. It's a shame it's not in a better gamebook. I would love to see this one expanded out to more sections with greater thought put into the final tomb section. This also may have actually worked better as a novel.
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3. The Crimson Sea - Score = 6.5    Tier = OK

Attempts to beat: 7

Well, thats more like it. From a difficulty standpoint I wouldn't call it hard by any means but it was still much more of a challenge than the previous books. As with The Green Hyrda, the story here again is pretty good. The design here is also an improvement on what we have seen so far. There are some pretty cool ideas in the offing here if not always implemented in the greatest of ways.

The beginning of the book is where you lose your girlfriend, Ketza Kota, and acquire a pirate ship and crew so that you can rescue her. You can take a couple of paths here which either give you a crew of pirates or a crew of freed slaves. The freed slaves path contains one of the mass battle sections of the book whereby you can have your group of freed slaves get in a battle with guards. This involves you rolling continuously, once each for every slave and guard.  This is pretty cool for the first time you do it but when have close to 30 members on your team and you roll for each one this can get tedious quickly and it definitely drags on.

The middle part of the adventure, and the majority of the book, is taken up by the exploration and sailing of the Crimson Sea itself. This is the book's strongest section but it's not without some problems. You can visit various islands to find items that you are looking for or just treasure in general. This in itself is a fantastic idea which should lead to a lot of great exploration and experimentation. Unfortunately, you eventually discover it isn't really required (although there is a VERY powerful piece of armour to be found on one of the islands) as I found you could just make a beeline for your destination on the far side of the map without much in the way of consequences.

Not only that, but the sailing itself, while a very cool idea in theory, can be very frustrating. You choose which hexagon on the map you want to aim for and have a 50/50 chance of making it there. Failure means veering off to the left or right. This really makes you feel like the most horribly inept captain that ever sailed the seas as you can literally find yourself going around in circles. I get that being a barbarian who has never seen the sea before, maybe that's supposed to be the point. Still, who would actually follow this guy who clearly has no idea what he is doing? This is especially true if your crew is made up of pirates instead of freed slaves.

The map of the sea is also laid out in such a way that you can avoid just about all encounters if you so choose. There are just enough open areas that if you always aim for a hexagon that has nothing on either side of it, you will eventually progress across the map with ease. Miss what you are aiming for and are now next to a lettered hexagon (likely to be bad news especially in the open waters)? No problem. Just back up to the previous hexagon and try again rather than press your luck on a 50/50 roll. Rinse and repeat until you arrive in the desired hexagon. Ideally I would have liked a more accurate way to sail and then have no choice but to enter a certain number of hexagons which would involve some trial and error as to which letter on the map represents what.

Once you cross the sea you complete the final section, which takes place in the city that Ketza Kota has been abducted to where you assault the palace of the Sultoon (why not just call him a Sultan? jeesh). This final section is where the book loses some steam. It's basically a straight shot to the palace from here (unless you make a choice only a maniac would) with the option of ditching your girlfriend and ending the adventure much like the final option in The Ice Dragon. This time however I decided to see my quest through to the end. I mean, rescuing your girlfriend was the whole point of the adventure whereby in the first book the goal was merely the acquiring of trophies which I already had enough of by that point.

Instead of fighting the Sultoon himself though, you battle his Genie who could have been a great opponent. Unfortunately this fight just seems to come down to whether you can roll a 4 twice in a row or not. If you still have some healing items from an earlier book (which I did not) or some other special weapons I could see you beating him straight up though. I lost in my first fight against him, then in my second attempt I rolled two 4's right at the very start of the battle and won. That was a bit anticlimactic. The battle against the Slith Assassin right after this seemed a bit tacked on but is still a pretty decent fight which would have been more tense had the Genie taken my hit points down a bit before I defeated him. The Slith Assassin sure locates you in a strange place though, right on top of the palace dome!


The adventure also ends on a somewhat strange beat as you are told by an ally that Ketza Kota has been whisked away somewhere else and it will be years before you see her again! This doesn't even seem to bother Sagard all that much. He just robs said ally blind on his way out the door and immediately meets another character to start a new adventure. Easy come, easy go in love I guess!

Ranking: The series is on an upward trajectory for sure as while still not what I would call good, each book has gotten better as I go along. This one was shaping up to have an even higher score until I realized that the best part of the book, the exploring of the islands, wasn't even required. If some of the good ideas, such as the mass battle system and the sailing had been handled better this could have easily been the in the Good tier. As it is, it's solidly OK.
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4. The Fire Demon - Score = 2.5    Tier = Bad

Attempts to beat: 1

Wow is this book ever a piece of garbage. Here I thought with each book getting successively better this final book was set up to maybe finally get one in the Good tier. How wrong I was! What the heck happened? Each of the previous two books had some interesting ideas (if not always great implementation) with the lair of the Hydra and then the sailing of the Crimson Sea and I was looking forward to see what new game mechanic this book would come up with. The answer apparently is nothing as there isn't anything that even tries to be unique here. In fact, this book is just a boring slog from encounter to encounter.

There are some mass battles here again such as in the previous book but these have become tedious by this point. The solo battles are once again far too easy, especially with the items you have carried over from the previous books. I suspect the authors know this as you are forced to lose your overpowered armour at about the halfway point of the book. Even after this happens, the combats are still too easy, until you get to the final two fights at least.

You spend the first part of the book feeling like it's a money management simulator as you acquire the needed gold to hire enough hands to help you travel into the jungle. The second part of the book has you arriving into said jungle and while this is slightly better, hardly anything happens here either. I had only a couple of encounters, including one with a group of apes, before I stumbled upon the villain of the book, Ushad-I, and engaged him in combat. This battle was ok I guess with the added intervention of the Fire Demon, but I didn't feel like I had too much trouble defeating him (thanks in part to some throwing stars acquired earlier in the book) and before I knew it he was dead. There is an extra battle against the Fire Demon itself after you think you've beaten the book but this battle seemed very similar to me to the battle against the Genie from the previous book as it came down to whether I could roll a 4, then either a 3 or 4 after that. Managed to do that fairly quickly on my first fight with it and that was game over.

While the design of the book is very weak, it's really not all that much worse than the first book, The Ice Dragon. However being the first book in the series, from a design standpoint we can expect that book to be a bit more straightforward. This book however has taken several steps backward from where the series was going.

Even as weak as the design is, where the book really suffers is the story. It's just really bad. So I guess we've just all but forgotten about Ketza Kota now? This adventure introduces a new love interest but because its already played that card I didn't really care nor find any attachment to this character. Sagard's motivation for seeking out the lost city in the jungle doesn't make much sense either. He is told about this city and the villain by an old man he thinks is crazy, and despite having no interest in riches he decides to go anyway.

The writing itself is actually so much poorer than the previous entries that this whole thing just screams rush job. There is a point near the end of the book where ghosts merge with zombies and Sagard decides to dub them...Ghozombies! Good grief. I almost just put the book down and walked away for good at that point.


Ranking: In the span of one book I went from getting increasing enjoyment from the series to just being glad it's over. This is far and away the worst of the series and it's small wonder why this was the last book. It's just terrible.