Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

Die Prüfung starts with a nicely focused fantasy-RPG hook: you are not assembling a party or saving a kingdom straight away, but guiding one magician apprentice through a final examination divided into five challenges. That single-character structure gives the game a more exposed feel than its Bard’s Tale inspiration. There is no row of companions to cover a weak build; your strength, mental ability, constitution, dexterity, and spell list all belong to one vulnerable hero.

The core loop is stubbornly old-school in the best and worst senses. You travel the overworld, enter dungeons, meet monsters, and settle encounters through turn-based combat. Successful fights earn experience, levels improve your statistics, and solved sub-tests teach new spells. That progression is the main reward: each finished task does more than tick off part of the exam, because it expands what your magician can do on the next stretch of the journey.

Spell categories give the adventure a useful range beyond combat alone. Light, compass, healing, combat, and distance magic suggest a character who must survive and navigate as well as attack. The catch is that the interface makes you work through a lot of information at once: current situation, character data, commands, and a large lower panel for dialogue, enemy status, or the automap. If you enjoy pausing to read the state of a dungeon crawl and making deliberate choices, that density starts to click. If you want quick, frictionless exploration, it can feel like homework.

The single-hero format is what makes Die Prüfung worth trying. Its systems are familiar, but the journey has a clear ladder of advancement: confront a test, earn the result, learn another spell, and press onward. Go in ready to map, manage a growing spellbook, and accept a measured pace rather than expecting a breezy action RPG.

Graphics

The Commodore 64 screen is divided into practical windows rather than built around one large playfield. A small picture area changes with the situation, showing monsters, the overworld, conversation partners, or a 3D dungeon view, while the character information and command list remain close by. In dungeons, that compact first-person view sits alongside a much larger text-and-information area, including the automap when needed.

Story

The story is simple but appropriately tied to play: a magician apprentice is undertaking his final test. Instead of treating the plot as separate decoration, Die Prüfung turns the exam itself into the structure of the adventure. The five smaller challenges give the trek a destination beyond grinding battles.

Do not expect the premise to carry the game through elaborate character drama. The useful narrative question is practical: what must this apprentice overcome next, and what new ability will completing it unlock? Conversations can appear in the interface, but the emphasis remains on moving through the examination and surviving the places it sends you.

That modest framing suits the era and format. The game gives your dungeon delving a role-playing purpose without distracting from exploration and progression. If this corner of the series interests you, the related Dragon Hunters: Die Drachenjäger – Die Prüfung is worth a look as well.

Overall Experience

Die Prüfung is a compact, demanding slice of computer RPG tradition. Its strongest idea is also its simplest: take the familiar dungeon-crawling framework and make one apprentice responsible for everything. Victories, level-ups, and newly learned magic land with more weight because there is no party to dilute them.

Frustration is likely to set in for anyone who dislikes densely partitioned C64 interfaces or the deliberate cadence of turn-based dungeon exploration. You will spend time checking information, navigating through commands, and dealing with the careful pace inherent to this style of RPG. That is not a flaw for its intended audience, but it is a real barrier to immediate enjoyment.

For a patient retro RPG fan, the payoff is a focused quest with clear advancement and a pleasing spell-learning rhythm. Give it a chance if you like mapping dungeons, building a lone character over time, and earning each step toward a final goal. Everyone else may admire its structure more than they enjoy its pace.

Retro Replay Score

6.8/10