Copyright: Version 1.5 - © 2003-05 Michael Hoffmann


Info

Heroine Iysayana

Trilogy

Version 1.5

© 2003-05 Michael Hoffmann

This program is freeware. It is copyrighted, but the latest version of the program may be distributed and copied for free as long as it remains unchanged.


Story

In some multiverse there is a disk-like world called Byteria. It is home to many different people and bizarre creatures.

Our story takes place in Súramir, a large continent where many different creatures use to live and give each other good thrashings. According to elven chronology, it’s the year 9992 Lyr. Somewhere near the northeastern shore lies a town called Ashford, capital of a small kingdom of the same name.

Our title character is Iysayana, the only elf in Ashford. For her, life is nothing but a great party. She really doesn’t think about anything else than bashes, boys and booze. Until now, as she has to save the country from an unknown menace...


Controls

Most people use the keyboard to play, but you can also use a joystick or a joypad. You don’t need to configure anything, as long it works under Windows, it will also work in the game. You don’t need to set your input device either, the game always responds to both keyboard and joystick input.

Use the cursor keys (or the control pad) to move your party around and to move the cursor in menus.

You can perform special actions by pressing the space bar or the second fire button. The action depends upon the current situation, e. g. you can talk to other people this way, but make sure that Iysayana (or whoever is leading the party) is standing right next to the other person and facing him or her. Other possible actions include reading signs, opening chests or selecting a menu entry – it depends upon the situation, so if you want to examine something, just go to it and press the button.

However, standard actions, such as casting a spell or saving the game are performed using the menu, which can be opened up by pressing the escape key or the first fire button. This only applies when you are not in a battle, as those are entirely controlled by a special menu.


Non-Combat Menu

Open this menu by pressing the escape key.

Item

This allows you to use a potion or other items. If the list of possible items spans multiple pages then you can browse by pressing left or right. Items disappear when used, and most of them affect only a single hero, which must be selected first.

Magic

Use this to make a character cast a spell. The available spells depend upon his or her experience level. Note that casting a spell always requires a certain amount of MP, and that many spells only work in combat.

Equipment

Got new equipment? Then select this to put it on. Note that most equipment can only be used by certain characters, e. g. sorcerers cannot equip axes.

Status

Lists several character statistics and his or her equipment.

Exchange

If your party consists of multiple characters, you can use this option to change their order. This becomes important later in the game, when your party consists of five or more characters, because only four can participate in battle.

System

This allows you to save, load or end the game. You can also switch to windowed mode (and back to full-screen).


Combat Menu

Fight

Use this to do a physical attack on a single enemy.

Magic

Use this to make a character cast a spell. The available spells depend upon his or her experience level. Note that casting a spell always requires a certain amount of MP.

Item

This allows you to use a potion or other items. If the list of possible items spans multiple pages then you can browse by pressing left or right. Items disappear when used, and most of them affect only a single target, which must be selected first.

Escape

You can try to flee from the battle, but this won’t always work out well. If a single hero succeeds then the whole party will retreat, but won’t gain any experience or money.

Auto Battle

Choose this and the computer will take over your characters’ actions. However, I suggest this only if you are an absolute beginner, since an experienced player usually fights better by himself. You can get control back by pressing escape or the first joystick button.


Gameplay

Most of the time the game will be played in a 2-D perspective. This is where you let Iysayana walk around and explore the land. You can talk to people, visit shops, explore dungeons and search for treasures.

However, you will often encounter monsters you have to fight. Then the game will change to a special combat screen. During travels in the overworld, encounters are random and can’t be avoided, but in caves and dungeons you can see the monsters before you run into them. A battle usually lasts until all of your enemies have been defeated or run away, and then your heroes will gain experience and money. Of course, your own characters might be defeated, too, which you should avoid, and it’s a good idea to save your game often.

At first Iysayana is on her own, but during the adventure other heroes will join your party. The different characters have different abilities, e. g. one may be a healer and another one a warrior, so make best use of them.

When you win battles, your characters will gain experience. They must obtain a certain number of experience points to reach the next experience level, so their attributes will increase and they will learn new magic. Normally you should fight as many battles as possible to make your heroes grow strong. For this reason defeated monsters will eventually respawn.

You can use the spells your heroes have already learnt to attack monsters, but also to heal or strengthen your characters. But note that your magic energy is limited and must be refilled from time to time.

Talk to the people in the towns to gather more or less useful information. Take a rest in Iysayana’s home or an inn to restore your characters’ health. There are stores where you can buy and sell items. Money is gained by defeating monsters, but you can also find some in treasure chests.

You can also equip your characters with various items to make them stronger in battle. Try to use the best weapons and armors you can find. Other items like potions can be used to heal the heroes when there is no inn nearby.


Character Statistics

Level

The experience level of your character. It will increase when you gain more and more combat experience - the higher the better. Depending on the level the character’s attributes will increase and she or he may learn a new spell.

Status

This means a special condition a character might be in. For example, she or he could be poisoned by the attack of some monsters, or be unconscious because life energy has dropped to 0. Try to use certain spells or items or rest in certain inns for a cure.

Hit Points

These represent the life energy of your characters, or how long they can hold out in combat. When you get wounded you lose some HP, but you can regenerate them by casting healing spells or drinking potions. When you have lost all of your HP, you are unconscious. Try to avoid this, because unconscious characters can only be cured by certain spells or herbs. Irrespective of this, your whole party is healed when you rest in an inn.

The current number of HP cannot exceed the maximum number of HP, which is determined by the strength of the character. So when you reach higher experience levels, your HP should increase.

Magic Points

These represent the magic energy of your characters, or how many spells they can cast. Whenever you cast a spell a certain number of MP is used up, but you can regenerate them by drinking potions or resting in inns.

The current number of MP cannot exceed the maximum number of MP, which is determined by the intelligence of the character. So when you reach higher experience levels, your MP should increase.

Experience Points

These represent the experience of your characters and are gained by winning battles. Stronger monsters usually give you more points than weaker ones. The more experience points you accumulate, the higher your experience level will be, and the more points you will need to gain the next level-up.

Power

The higher your power, the more damage will you do when attacking enemies. It will increase according to your experience level.

Strength

Determines your maximum HP. It will increase according to your experience level.

Intelligence

Determines your maximum MP. It will increase according to your experience level.

Speed

A high speed rating allows you to act earlier in combat, and it helps you dodge enemy attacks. It will increase according to your experience level.

Luck

This has a hidden effect on certain game situations. It will increase according to your experience level.

Attack Power

Affects the strength of your attacks. It is determined by the power ratings of you and your weapon.

Defense Power

The higher your defense power, the less damage will you take when attacked by enemies. It is determined by your strength and your armor, helmet and shield.

Lewonces

The currency used in many countries of Súramir is the Lewonce. In other words, it’s your cash. Note that your money (as well as other items) belongs to the whole party and not to a single character, so what is displayed on the statistics screen of a single hero is your whole money.


Battle

During your adventure, you will keep fighting various enemies. Not all encounters can be avoided, and thus it pays if you fight as many battles as possible, so you will have the experience when you need it.

Battles are turn-based. Each character can perform one action per round, such as attacking an enemy or casting a spell. You select the actions of your heroes at the beginning of a round, but the order in which they are executed depends upon the statistics of your heroes and the enemies and upon chance.

Combat can be simple: You can just attack until all monsters are gone. But you must also watch your heroes’ energy and use magic or items to heal them when necessary. When you’ve learned some offensive spells you can also try them to find out if they ease defeating certain enemies.

Combat lasts until all characters of one side are beaten or have escaped – let's hope it’s the monsters. In this case, you will gain some experience points and Lewonces and sometimes an item for each defeated foe. When a character has received enough points he will immediately be promoted to the next level, and the game will inform you about his raised statistics and possible new spells. However, you won’t be rewarded for enemies that have escaped.

Your party is able to retreat from regular battles, too, but they won’t always succeed in this, and you cannot flee from certain important fights at all. If one hero manages to escape, then the others will follow and the combat will immediately be over. But you won’t get any reward when running away, even though if you’ve defeated some of the monsters before.

Note that only four heroes can participate in battle. Later in the game, when you have five or more characters you can use the Exchange command to select your fighters. Inactive characters gain only half the experience points, and it is not possible to substitute them during a battle.

Later in the game you will have to battle tougher and tougher enemies, so be sure that your heroes grow stronger, too. But note that you will gain more combat experience when you fight stronger enemies. And again, it’s good to save often, so it’s not that bad if you lose a battle.


Magic

You don’t need to use magic to solve the game, but without it your adventure will be much harder. Use the menu to cast a spell.

Heroes learn new magic when they reach certain experience levels. Each character gets different spells, and you can expect that knights can use much less spells than sorcerers.

Many spells are used to attack one or multiple enemies, and thus can only be cast in combat. Other spells will cure your characters. Magic can also be used to change your characters’ statistics, but only temporarily. Enemies may be able to use magic, too.

Each spell requires a certain amount of MP, which is used up when you cast it. This means that sooner or later your magic energy will run out and then the character cannot cast any more spells. But of course you can restore your MP by resting in an inn or using certain potions. The maximum number of MP will increase when your character gains more experience.

Items work similar to magic, but they must be found or bought and disappear when you use them. Most useable items heal your characters and can be helpful if you're out of MP. Note that this doesn’t apply to equippable items – those must be equipped to help you, of course.


Equipment

These items can be bought at various stores.

Name	Power	Can be equipped by
		I	O	E	V	D	K	A	C
Club	10	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
Short Sword	15	X			X	X		X
Short Spear	19	X				X	X	X
Knife	20	X		X	X	X	X	X
Axe	20	X				X	X
Iron Claw	20	X	X					X
Short Bow	22	X	X					X
Flail	23	X	X			X		X
Long Sword	25	X				X		X
Crossbow	27	X						X
Iron Knuckle	30	X	X
Long Spear	30	X				X	X	X
Magic Wand	32		X	X	X		X	X	X
Long Bow	33	X	X					X
Broad Sword	33	X				X		X
Battle Axe	38	X				X
Bastard Sword	40	X				X
Great Axe	40	X				X
Wizard Sword	42		X	X	X		X
Morning Star	45	X				X		X
Arcanium Wand	48		X	X	X		X	X	X
Katana	55	X				X
Robe	5	X	X	X	X		X	X	X
Padded Armor	7	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
Leather Armor	10	X	X	X	X	X		X	X
Scale Mail	13	X	X			X	X	X
Ring Mail	17	X			X	X
Wizard Robe	18	X	X	X	X		X	X	X
Chain Mail	20	X				X		X
Splint Mail	24	X	X		X	X	X	X
Plate Mail	25	X				X	X
Plate Armor	27	X				X
Buckler	5	X	X	X	X	X	X
Small Shield	8	X	X	X		X	X	X
Hard Buckler	12	X	X	X	X	X	X		X
Large Shield	12	X				X		X
Mage Shield	15		X	X	X		X		X
Kite Shield	15	X				X		X
Gothic Shield	16	X				X		X
Tower Shield	18	X				X
Bandanna	6	X	X				X	X	X
Hairband	8	X		X			X		X
Cap	10	X	X		X	X		X
Tiara	12	X	X	X	X		X	X	X
Open Helm	13	X			X	X	X	X
Full Helm	16	X				X		X
Great Crown	16		X	X	X		X	X
Great Helm	18	X				X
Ring	5	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
Cross	9	X	X	X		X	X	X	X


Troubleshooting

The game doesn’t run, it gives an error message about DSOUND.dll or DDRAW.dll.

You need Direct X 2.0 or higher. You should find it at Microsoft’s web site.

The game doesn’t run, it gives an error message about user32.dll.

This problem may occur with old versions of Windows. In this case the gameold.exe file in the game directory may work for you. It is an older version of the runtime environment, however it might contain other bugs.

The game crashes under Windows NT.

I don’t know if the game runs properly under older NT versions. If it doesn’t, then I can’t help you either, sorry. However, it worked fine for me on two different Windows XP systems. If it doesn’t work on yours, try the compatibility patch from Microsoft Update or XP's compatibility mode.


Revisions

Version 1.5 - 08/04/05

- all three parts in one package


About Us

Interested in more freeware games? Then come and visit our website:

http://www.skullbyte.com/

You can send your questions, suggestions and songs of praise to the author via e-mail:

mh@skullbyte.de

If you’re having trouble with the game, then bother our support guy:

support@skullbyte.de

Have fun!