Download Excelsior Phase One: Lysandia

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Excelsior Phase One: Lysandia

DOS - 1993

Year 1993
Platform DOS
Released in United States (1993)
United States (1994)
Genre Role-Playing (RPG)
Publisher 11th Dimension Entertainment
Developer 11th Dimension Entertainment
Perspective Top-Down
4.25 / 5 - 13 votes

Description of Excelsior Phase One: Lysandia

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Two of the best shareware RPGs being sold today, Excelsior Phase One and Excelsior Phase Two are flashbacks to the RPGs in mid-1980s - the good old days when creativity and gameplay were much more important than the bells and whistles.

Anyone who has played Ultima IV or similar games will be familiar with Excelsior Phase One's game screen: with the world in one window, a status screen in another, and a command screen in the last. Excelsior Phase Two improves upon the original with better VGA graphics (isometric view reminiscent of Ultima VI, hundreds more NPCs to talk to, and a more intricate plot.

Your goal is in Excelsior Phase One is to discover the source of evil in the land of Lysandia and extinguish it. Excelsior Phase Two takes place in Errondor, where you continue in the role of a Fixer, a minor demi-deity under the employ of the Grand Council of World Watchers. Your task here is to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a Fixer who was sent to resolve a minor mix-up in the type of wine to be served at a banquet - a banquet where a peace treaty between two warring nations is to be signed.

Exploring the world, chatting with various characters, and using your head are all mandatory for successful completion of both games. The storylines are high-quality, well-written, and interesting with many twists and turns along the way. The range of commands is quite extensive, but nothing that will take Ultima fans by surprise. Talking to people tends to either elicit a response or not; there are rarely instances where saying the right thing is necessary. Fighting depends more on luck and statistics rather than strategy.

This is perhaps the weakest aspect of the games: it is difficult to survive early in the game unless you happen to choose your initial attributes to favor strength and dexterity. This prevents flexibility in choosing initial attributes. Clerics will find it difficult to survive the early fights, so if you want a challenge, you know what class to choose.

Both Excelsior games are extremely refreshing RPGs especially in the days of high-budget-but-hollow-gameplay action games thinly disguised as RPGs. The interface and graphics are simple, yet the games themselves fascinating. Nostalgic gamers are encouraged to download the shareware version of games and evaluate them (you have 10 days to play the full games). The games, in my humble opinion, are well worth the price. You may very well be surprised at how the designers manage to capture not only the look, but more importantly the heart of what makes early Ultima games so addictive. Two thumbs up, way up.

Review By HOTUD

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Captures and Snapshots

  • DOS

Comments and reviews

Joshua Broccoli 2021-07-07 2 points

Could this be one of the greatest games of all time? I don't know what the critics will tell you, but my nostalgia says "yes".

Lysander 2019-11-18 -5 points

This is a terrible game. At the beginning you will get attacked by hordes of monsters and die repeatedly and you can't do anything against it. The monster spawn rate is way to high.

Everytime I try to explore the map 5 or more monsters spawn and you cant run away so you have to fight and their damage is so high they can kill you in 3 or 4 combat rounds. Armor does not lower the damge as far as I can see. At least I cant see I get less damaged by enemy attacks. So with ranged weapons you may be able to get to the next town but I never managed to get back because of the high monster spawn rate.

The manual isnt helpful at all. And the walkthrough on gamefaqs is the only one on the internet and it explains nothing. So you dont know how much damage the weapons do or why certain armor is differently colored.

Maybe some people know this game so well they know exactly which spell they have to learn so they can mass slaughter enemies just from the start. But for the average rpg player this game is totally unplayable and I will not spend 10 or 20 hours for just grinding monsters in the starting area. I tried it for 8 hours and I can't see that I got stronger in any way.

For me this game is just garbage.

ssfsx17 2014-11-24 6 points DOS version

Tips for this game:
- Don't level up until you need to go into dungeons
- Don't bother learning the Music skill unless you want a challenge

Otherwise - this is a pretty well-documented game with more detailed walkthroughs available.

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DOS Version

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