Legends of Amberland III: The Crimson Tower (B23909203)

Light, fairy tale, epic, heroic, slightly humorous adventure. Using the classic first-person perspective, over grid movement, turn-based system to travel in an open world with fast travel options and a quick combat. You lead a party of 7 adventurers, manually assembled or pre-made, on an epic adventure to fight the evil which lurks in Amberland. It’s light, fairy tale, epic, heroic and slightly humorous. It does not take tons of hours to complete or require an endless grind to progress. Basically, it’s a love letter from the 90s, the golden era of RPGs.

If you’ve played either of the first two Legends of Amberland games, this is more of the same: a short, easy dungeon crawler focused on filling in the automap while systematically killing everything in sight. That’s not a bad thing—if it ain’t broke, and all that—but the series is starting to feel like it could use something more. Improvements since #2 are incremental: two new classes and some quality-of-life changes, most notably buffs now being timed instead of expiring at midnight. The overall gameplay experience, however, has barely changed. The story is fairly simple. A visit to a man at a tavern leads to the king, then the chancellor.

Along the way, various side quests are completed while dungeons are cleared for gear and experience. Enemies don’t respawn, so Legends of Amberland III: The Crimson Tower is rarely challenging. It’s always possible to retreat, heal, and return, and difficult encounters can be bypassed through save scumming. Overall, it’s a good, short RPG for players looking to decompress between longer, 100-hour epics, and it succeeds at exactly that. Compared to the previous two games, it’s more of the same in both the good and repetitive ways. Balancing feels better, with wizards remaining competitive alongside warriors for longer, and long-term buffs are handled more effectively.

The loot system is improved, while dungeons make better use of secret doors, traps, and similar mechanics. Combat is mostly engaging, though there’s a noticeable difficulty spike around three-quarters of the way through Legends of Amberland III: The Crimson Tower. It’s also easy to miss clearing a few areas on Hard mode. The story remains fairly one-note, although it occasionally delivers some unexpected humor. Overall, Legends of Amberland III: The Crimson Tower us still an enjoyable experience, even if there’s no obvious “big change” from the player’s perspective.