Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

Ishar: Legend of the Fortress shifts the series into a fully real-time, first-person dungeon crawler, delivering an immediate and immersive combat experience. You lead a party of up to six adventurers—yourself plus five companions—through the winding corridors of Ishar, engaging monsters and solving environmental puzzles on the fly. This marks a departure from the turn-based combat of Crystals of Arborea, demanding quick decision-making and constant attention to your party’s positioning and health.

Your companions are not mere cannon fodder; each comes with a distinct class, skill set, and temperament. Balancing fighters, mages, and rogues in your party composition is crucial, as certain foes are vulnerable to spells while others require brute force. You can swap characters at inns, fine-tune equipment, and allocate experience points to develop specialized builds, fostering a strong sense of ownership over your team’s progression.

The dungeon design cleverly intertwines combat with environmental challenges. Locked doors, hidden switches, and rotating rooms often force you to think beyond swinging swords or casting spells. Mapping your progress—either on paper or with the in-game automap—becomes an essential task. While the early levels ease you in, deeper sections of the fortress present escalating difficulty spikes, rewarding careful preparation and exploration.

Graphics

For a 1993 release, Ishar: Legend of the Fortress boasts impressively crisp VGA visuals. The first-person view is enhanced by richly detailed textures on stone walls, flickering torches, and ominous banners draped in blood-red hues. Creatures ranging from skeletal warriors to giant spiders are rendered with enough variety to keep encounters visually engaging, rather than feeling like endless palette swaps.

Character portraits for party members and NPCs help break up the monotony of corridor traversal, giving faces to the voices you encounter. While animations can feel a bit stiff by modern standards, attacks and spell effects—lightning bolts, fireballs, and healing auras—still carry a visceral punch. Subtle sound design, including dripping water and distant screeches, heightens the atmosphere, making Ishar’s depths feel genuinely foreboding.

Despite the visual strengths, some repetitive tile sets can lead to occasional monotony in extended play sessions. Certain areas look remarkably similar, and without consistent landmarks, it’s easy to lose your sense of direction. Still, the overall aesthetic—dark, medieval, and oppressive—perfectly suits the game’s high-fantasy horror themes, keeping the mood tense throughout your journey.

Story

The narrative in Ishar picks up where Crystals of Arborea left off, plunging you into the aftermath of Morgoth and Morgula’s demise. Their son, Krogh, reigns in the eponymous fortress, intent on subjugating Kendoria’s populace. As a mysterious traveler called upon by the elven council, you’re tasked with assembling a band of heroes to infiltrate Ishar and end Krogh’s reign of terror.

Story beats unfold through interactions with NPCs scattered across towns and outposts. From a grizzled elven ranger seeking vengeance to a repentant cultist hiding in the shadows, each character adds color and motivation to your quest. Dialogue is functional rather than ornate, but it’s peppered with lore—ancient prophecies, elven etymology (like the meaning of “Ishar,” or “unknown”), and the lingering machinations of chaos magic.

While the overarching plot is straightforward—find Krogh, vanquish him, and liberate Kendoria—the game sprinkles optional quests and side objectives that flesh out the world. Uncovering hidden journals or rescuing imprisoned villagers may not be mandatory, but these detours enhance your understanding of the fortress’s grim history and reward you with unique gear or allies.

Overall Experience

Ishar: Legend of the Fortress strikes a compelling balance between strategic party management and adrenaline-filled real-time combat. The switch to a first-person viewpoint catapults players into the action, making every trap and ambush feel personal. Preparing your party—choosing skills, distributing loot, and deciding which companions to bring—imbues the exploration with meaningful choices.

Despite occasional repetitive environments and stiff animations, the game’s immersive soundscape, atmospheric graphics, and solid dungeon design make for a memorable adventure. The blend of combat, puzzle elements, and light RPG customization offers considerable replay value, especially for fans of classic dungeon crawlers who appreciate mapping and resource management.

Ultimately, Ishar is an engaging sequel that refines and expands upon its predecessor’s foundations while forging its own identity. It beckons to both nostalgic adventurers seeking old-school challenge and newcomers curious about retro RPG design. If you relish meticulous exploration, strategic real-time battles, and a dark fantasy setting brimming with lore, stepping into Ishar’s fortress will prove a richly rewarding experience.

Retro Replay Score

7.6/10