FRUA: Neverwinter Nights and Forgotten World: Rankings

The box cover of oNWN. Like many of today's games, you had the choice to buy a physical copy, or to download it painfully slowly on your dial-up. Source.

FRUA: Neverwinter Nights
2012 based on a 1991 game
Forgotten World
1998 based on a 1991 game

I'm not sure exactly when Forgotten World first went live, but its development is listed as starting in 1998, which was the year after AOL cancelled Neverwinter Nights.

I was pretty determined to make it through F:NWN, I really was, but after putting in about 100 hours on the two games combined, I'm not seeing enough that it is worth continuing. The original game itself was probably pretty cool in its day, I'll give it that. Forgotten World suffers from not having an active community anymore. As far as the other, the mechanics of the original didn't transfer too well to FRUA, and the port also suffers from numerous bugs. In the interest of wrapping them up and moving on down my list, here are their rankings.

The credits for oNWN. It is credited to Stormfront Studios, and has the same core design team as Gateway to the Savage Frontier. The FRUA port was done by the appropriately named GoldBoxFan. Source.

The startup screen for FW. We can see it was developed by Electronic Concepts; beyond that the designers don't seem to care to toot their horns too much.

Both games, as you probably already know, are meant to be resurrections of the first MMORPG, AOL's Neverwinter Nights. It was a wildly popular online game using the AD&D rules and SSI's Gold Box engine. The game launched in 1991, and lasted until 1997. It's reasons for being cancelled still seem to be a bit of a mystery, as the game was very popular, perhaps the busiest it had ever been, at the time of it's cancellation. This sudden end set a community adrift who wanted something to fill the void left behind.

The Forgotten World website was created as a place for this community to stay connected, and plans seemingly started immediately to recreate the game. The updated game, utilizing name changes to avoid lawsuits, launched in the early to mid 2000's. My understanding is that it was also very popular! Unfortunately, with so many more online-game opportunities available these days, the hype had died down to almost non-existent when I discovered Forgotten World in 2014. After playing for 40 or more hours, I had only encountered other players online twice.

Forgotten World: All are welcome!

The difficulty of the encounters seems to assume that most of the time you will have traveling companions to help you out. Enter FRUA; what seems like a perfect answer to the lack of players. The FRUA port allows the player to create a full party of six characters and experience the same encounters the online game had to offer! It turned out to be an imperfect solution however, as an important dynamic in the original is that if you wander into an area that is too difficult, when you are defeated, you awaken closer to the safe-haven of Neverwinter. In FRUA, you can get stuck in an area that is too tough to get out of (Like I did... where beholders were guarding an exit, and I didn't have a chance against them.)

Toast... toast...

In addition, the port, because of the design constraints of FRUA, also leaves out the element of random treasure, which was probably why I constantly seemed short of magic items and coins. Lastly, it's swimming with bugs. This isn't uncommon for fan made modules. In this case, it's pretty frustrating though, as most of the things I encountered would have been obvious on a SINGLE playthrough. All the author had to do was check their work, and most of these things would have been fixed. If you're going to put in hours and hours to port this massive game, why not put in the time to make sure it works?

I'm not talking about this type of bug.

These games by their nature don't stand to do too well in my rankings. I'm sure the original online NWN was a hoot, and if FW ever get's it's player base back, it will probably be a great experience as well. For now, they are not so much. 

That being said, while the straight port to FRUA didn't work, I feel it does have the potential for a good re-make. If it was overhauled with the single player experience in mind, as opposed to directly recreating the online one, I think it could be pretty cool.

Mechanics - Although at its heart it is the same engine that Gateway had, it's implementation is not quite as great here. I won't get into the minutiae; the interface isn't as smooth is all. FRUA is a bit of struggle-bus trying to recreate certain elements of the online game.

4. Gateway to the Savage Frontier

5. Final Fantasy 13-2

6. Final Fantasy 13

7. Forgotten World

8. FRUA: Neverwinter Nights

This moment is still satisfying in any of these games.

Storyline - Since quests needed to be repeatable, and have an open world, by nature there isn't an overarching storyline. Well, I guess the invasion of the Luskans is sort of a story, but not like you'd get in a single player game. There are little individual stories for quests that can be charming. FW ranks higher because content was added to the original.

4. Final Fantasy 10-2

5. Final Fantasy 13

6. Final Fantasy 13-2

7. Forgotten World

8. FRUA: Neverwinter Nights

Atmosphere - There were some decent attempts at atmosphere with phrases like "You feel the presence of old magic," and, "You smell fire in the distance." Luskan had even been built up so much that I was nervous as I entered and saw it's strange skies; almost like there was a volcano in the distance or something. I was soon let down by yet another hack-n-slash dungeon slog though.

4. Final Fantasy 13-2

5. Gateway to the Savage Frontier

6. Final Fantasy 10-2

7. Forgotten World

8. FRUA: Neverwinter Nights

They had me for a second.

End Game - Not applicable here, as I both didn't finish the games, and they probably don't have an end game!

Difficulty - Now here's a category these two can sink their teeth into. These games are hard, no bones about it. Forgotten World is a little easier because of the aforementioned mechanic of transporting your hero closer to safety upon their death.

1. FRUA: Neverwinter Nights

2. Forgotten World

3. Final Fantasy 13

4. Final Fantasy 10-2

5. Gateway to the Savage Frontier

Balance - These two are the anti-champions in the balance category. One second you're fighting wild boars, and then next square it's dracoliches. I really don't know what they were going for with how the encounters were set up. Surprise? Horror? Killing the will to live? Forgotten World has the distinction of being at the bottom because of its addition of randomized enemy hit points.

4. Final Fantasy 10-2

5. Final Fantasy 13-2

6. Final Fantasy 13

7. FRUA: Neverwinter Nights

8. Forgotten World

At my level? Not a chance!

Music - Like most Gold Box games NWN has only one piece of music, and since FW has none, it's between NWN and Gateway. Gateway's tune has a mysterious quality I like, but Neverwinter's overtakes it with sheer epicness. Yes, I take this very seriously.

3. Final Fantasy 10-2

4. Final Fantasy 10

5. Lightning Returns: FF13

6. FRUA: Neverwinter Nights

7. Gateway to the Savage Frontier

Art - Both games have functional artwork. Forgotten World's has been retouched in higher resolution and with more colors.

3. Final Fantasy 10

4. Final Fantasy 13-2

5. Gateway to the Savage Frontier

6. Final Fantasy 10-2

7. Forgotten World

8. FRUA: Neverwinter Nights

Best Villain - I had yet to encounter many, if any, characters that could qualify as villains, so I'm reaching here. In F:NWN I encountered an evil wizard who had captured Willow Clovyr, the North's most skilled metal worker. I think I liked him just because he looked a little ridiculous. It's a unique look, he stands out.

This is all it takes to get best villain here at This Bard's Tales. Is that a turtleneck?

I really hadn't encountered any true villains in FW, so I'm going with a classic, the kobold! Kobolds are my favorite D&D monster. The only thing better than beating up on kobolds is when they surprise you with their cunning (ala Pool of Radiance). Kobolds are awesome; I'll try not to be biased here.

4. Gilgamesh (FF13-2)
5. Shuyin (FF10-2)
6. Broadhand (GttSF)
7. Evil Necromancer (F:NWN)
8. Kobold (FW)

Oh Kobold, you stole my heart... and my cat.

Worst Villain - In Forgotten World, there was some added content that was not in the original game. There was what, to me, appeared to be a Thieve's Guild you could enter with the right password. A man starts to say it, "Dra...", then is cut off by a dagger to the throat. I tried about thirty different words starting with dra, including doing them backwards because it was written on a mirror. No success; bummer.

In Luskan, I ran into this awesome curmudgeon of a pirate who just goes on a rant about how it aint like the ol' days anymore. I loved it.

4. Vaalgamon (GttSF)
5. Jihl Nabaat (FF13)
6. Caius Ballad (LR:FF13)
7. Angry Old Pirate (F:NWN)
8. Thieve's Guild Guard (FW)

"You kids don't understand what it's like to make a good, honest, living; killing and robbin' others!"

Best Ally - This one is easy for Forgotten World. The centaur who joins you in a fight is very majestic looking, and helps you out with tips as well. He's not so majestic in F:NWN. The sailor who was slowly being turned to stone, and perished dramatically, made an impression on me in that game.

4. Rikku (FF10-2)
5. Krevish (GttSF)
6. The Angel of Valhalla (LR:FF13)
7. Centaur (FW)
8. Stoned Guy (F:NWN)

Centaur: A Side by Side Comparison, FRUA: Neverwinter Nights.

Centaur: A Side by Side Comparison, Forgotten World.

Worst Ally - The worst ally winners are the men who you are likely to meet first in each game, the City's respective leaders; Lord Nasher and Father Bartholomew. Supposedly they offer quests, of which I didn't receive any. The rewards they offer of a few hundred coins or a couple gems are a pittance compared to the dangers you will have faced to recover such items as the're looking for.

4. Chocolina (FF13-2)
5. "Hope Estheim" (LR:FF13)
6. Jagaerda (GttSF)
7. Father Bartholomew (FW)
8. Lord Nasher (F:NWN)

Bart is ranked higher, because he actually gets a portrait in-game.

Best Enemy - There is a sheep shearing shop in both games. Upon entering, you are attacked by a wolf! I sort of fell in love with this guy. To keep things interesting, I'm going with the crocodiles in F: NWN. They were scary one-on-one, but funny with a party.

4. Angra Mainyu (FF10-2)
5. Jihl Nabaat (FF13-2)
6. Wolf in Sheep's Shop (FW)
7. Zhentil Fighter (GttSF)
8. Crocodile (F:NWN)

Worst Enemy - In F:NWN I dreaded fighting mammoths of all things. In the other Gold Box games I've encountered them, they weren't that threatening (Secret of the Silver Blades), but man did they beat the crap out of me in this one. If it was one, I would be okay, but they kept on coming! In larger numbers!

In Forgotten World, I'm giving the nod to the tree man. The're not all that threatening; more so annoying. They have a load of attacks from their branches and can grab on to you. They were so annoying because I fought a particular random battle with trees and thieves probably a hundred times or more.

4. Meonekton (LR:FF13)
5. Mammoth (F:NWN)
6. Guado (FF10)
7. Claret Dragon (FF10-2)
8. Tree Man (FW)

Just seeing a picture of this battle gets me on edge.

I really don't think I saw enough of these games to place them in the categories of mini-games and side quests, so I'm leaving those N/A for now.

Overall - Neither of these games is a hot prospect right now. Forgotten World just needs players, so it rates higher. F:NWN needs a complete bug check, and maybe more.

4. Final Fantasy 10-2
5. Final Fantasy 13-2
6. FInal Fantasy 13
7. Forgotten World
8. FRUA: Neverwinter Nights

I felt like I'd been hit by a feeblemind more than once while playing these games.

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