Description
This is the first part of a computer trilogy of a German P&P-RPG
Das Schwarze Auge. You can create a party of six characters to explore a world called Aventurien. Each player is represented by a skill and attribute system.
In the first part of the trilogy, it is your task to stop Orkish hordes from plundering human settlements in the borderlands of Aventurien. Therefore you´ll have to recover a mysterious sword forged by cyclops, called "Die Schicksalsklinge (=Blade of Destiny)". Little is known about this sword and it will take a while to discover it and its secrets.
Alternate Titles
- "天命之劍" -- Chinese title (traditional)
- "DSA 1" -- Common German abbreviation
- "Das Schwarze Auge: Die Schicksalsklinge" -- German title
- "Das Schwarze Auge: Die Nordland-Trilogie Teil I - Die Schicksalsklinge" -- German CD-ROM release title
Part of the Following Groups
User Reviews
The Press Says
| Amiga Format |
Amiga |
Sep, 1993 |
91 out of 100 |
91 |
| Amiga Joker |
Amiga |
May, 1992 |
90 out of 100 |
90 |
| PC Joker |
DOS |
Mar, 1992 |
90 out of 100 |
90 |
| CU Amiga |
Amiga |
Aug, 1993 |
86 out of 100 |
86 |
| Pixel-Heroes.de |
Amiga |
Mar, 2004 |
8 out of 10 |
80 |
| Power Play |
DOS |
Jul, 1992 |
78 out of 100 |
78 |
| The One |
Amiga |
Sep, 1993 |
73 out of 100 |
73 |
| Datormagazin |
Amiga |
Aug, 1993 |
69 out of 100 |
69 |
| PC Player (Germany) |
DOS |
May, 1994 |
48 out of 100 |
48 |
| Games Master |
Amiga |
Sep, 1993 |
32 out of 100 |
32 |
Forums
Trivia
Bugs
The first release of the game was bug-pestered. They didn't even get the copy protection right. Included was an annoying doc check from the manual and a large color map ("what town is north/south/east/west of that town"), but the manual was misprinted so some questions had the wrong answers. They included a correction sheet which made the protection even more stupid. In some cases, even correct answers to the map questions were accounted as wrong.
Guido the Druid
One of the pre-made characters, which are stored in the temple, is a druid called Guido. In an interview with
Guido Henkel on crystals-dsa-foren.de in September 2007, he commented on the subject:
That's a relict, I believe. Of course we had all kinds of standard and test parties during the development and the testing phase of the game. Looks like the one or other character wasn't removed correctly.
Intro
It's an interesting fact that the Orcs in DSA are generally black instead of the usual green as seen in nearly every other fantasy product. But during the intro sequence they are shown also as standard orcs with green skin. That is due to the fact that the intro has been drawn by external graphic artists, who weren't familiar with the DSA world. And because changes would have been too expensive and too complex at that time, Attic used the already drawn intro.
Origin
The three founders of Attic Entertainment
Hans-Jürgen Brändle,
Jochen Hamma and Guido Henkel used to play the original P&P DSA years before they developed
Blade of Destiny. However, only the later director of Attic Entertainment Brändle was a hardcore player in his youth and played in several groups.
Save Function
Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny featured an unusual save function. Anytime the player saved the game outside a temple, all characters lost one experience point (which is not much, but still noticeable in the
Schwarzes Auge RPG system). Saving a lot would weaken their characters considerably. That was implemented by the developers on purpose to prevent people from using the save-mode as a cheating device and to immerse the player more into the game's world.
Information also contributed by
phlux and
SimonG.
![Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny DOS [English Version] Combat on board of the Ship of Death.](/images/shots/t/45721-realms-of-arkania-blade-of-destiny-dos-screenshot-english-version.jpeg){kind=small}