Might & Magic series

The venerable Might & Magic series. I'm inclined to say it's in the same league as Ultima and Wizardry but with its own unqiue blend of science-fiction, fantasy and humour. The first MM I played was MM2. That was one phenomenal game. Granted it was extremely challenging, and I could never complete that silly puzzle at the end (urgh), it had a very rich story and tons and tons and tons of things to do. I don't think I've ever played a game with the kind of depth and scope as MM2. You could buy your own castle. You could visit the elemental planes. You had to go off and rescue princesses in distress. And, of course, you had to save the world. Although some gamers have never liked the sci-fi elements in any of the MM games, I thought they were very well done in MM2 and subsequent MMs I had the chance to play. And you can't forget humorous elements like fighting a mega dragon that looked like a T-Rex. And did I mention that the plot was very good?

I skipped MM3 and went straight into MM4 and MM5. MM4 and 5 were very good looking 2D games for their time. Both had a very distinctive and rich look, full of bright and pleasing colours. What was more memorable were the humourous looking monster designs. And the character portraits. I always liked how the monsters and characters looked silly when they got attacked. Despite that, MM4 and MM5 had very intriguing, intertwined storylines. While not as grandiose as MM2's it was very compelling and serious. The ending cut-scene for MM5 was nothing short of spectacular.

The last MM I played was MM7. While not quite as good an experience as the previous MMs I played, it was still pretty polished. My main gripe was how the game looked a bit more gloomy than the previous MMs. The trademark goofball character portaits were nice, as with the zany character voices ("Pick Me~~~!!!"). Some of the monsters and native denizens also looked quite funny. While there were gameplay improvements over the older MMs, MM7 didn't quite have the kind of scope I had come to expect. But it was still a very good adventure and added a nice twist to the MM series around mid-game or so. The plot also helped to tie up all the previous MM games very, very nicely.

Unfortunately, I've heard nothing but bad things about the MM games from MM9 and beyond. I had the chance to try out MM9 and kind of felt the series took a serious nose-dive from there. I have some misgivings about the direction of the newly announced Dark Messiah of Might & Magic action game but maybe it's what MM needs to revitalize itself and reclaim its former glory.

EDIT: Actually, the MM series has more RPGs to its credit, and the majority of the discussion thus far has been on the RPGs and not the turn-based strategy nor action spin-offs, so I'm a bit surprised the topic was shifted to PC gaming... Has MM really fallen from grace as an RPG series? *sigh*

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Yes, it is possible to vanquish the Mega Dragon. And I don't remember it being too difficult to defeat. In fact, the Mega Dragon wasn't even the biggest challenge of the game, although the game made it appear to be godlike and everything. :P If your level was too high, the difficulty of the monsters you randomly encountered in battle could easily exceed the power of the Mega Dragon. There was once I encountered something like 10 Time Lords with a horde of rather irritating monsters behind. Considering how even one Time Lord is hard enough to dispose of, 10 is overkill. Same goes for Ancient Dragons, which I think may even pop up in the final dungeon if you're unlucky.

I love Acromage, too! It was almost like a streamlined Magic: The Gathering. Definitely more fun than those card games from say the FF series.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I can't remember if beating the Mega Dragon yielded significantly big rewards. Personal satisfaction probably was the main thing going for it. But considering that it was one dragon versus eight heroes, it wasn't that bad. It just took a long time to beat. Then again, I might have beefed up my characters' hp with the Dragon Cave sidequest and/or upped their stats with prizes from the annual carnival, so...

I usually ended up going to the Monster Ranch to train. The monsters are easier to kill and you still get a lot of experience after oblitering hundreds upon hundreds of monsters with the Star Burst spell (that damages ALL monsters). It still amazes me to this day to have a party face off with something like 600+ monsters at one go. Fortunately, there was limit to the number of monsters that could actively engage your party at any time, with the rest queuing up behind awaiting my party's righteous wrath.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Hoho, looting dead dragon corpses again and again was how I got tons of insanely powerful artefacts (and gold) in MM7. It made subsequent dragon slaying much more manageable. But I only discovered the bug later with a dragon in some cave that had a lake. I remember running around the lake and shooting the dragon with cheap bow and spell tricks. :P Good times.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?