Rings of Zilfin

Thank you for your in-depth review Lord Bucket!

SUMMARY:
Genuinely one of the best PC games of its era, but presents poorly. If you want a great old school game and are willing to put up with horrible graphics, give Rings of Zilfin a try. Read the cons below, play it on easy difficulty, suffer through the first 20 minutes of learning curve and then enjoy the rest of the game without consulting a guide. You will need to map the world by hand, but it's not difficult to do. Play with windows paintbrush open.

PROS:
A unique presentation with distinct character. You won't ever feel like you're playing a clone of another game playing Rings of Zilfin.
Large world to explore, clues and puzzles that can be reasonably figured out from regular gameplay without consulting guides. No moon logic puzzles.
Game mechanics and zones that require you to figure them out, and are added to over the course of play. Not everything is handed to you all at once.
Good sense of progression and "becoming more powerful" gradually but steadily throughout the game.
Minimal stat grinding required. The health thing is a bit of a nuisance, but there are ways around it, and in general your power will rise from gameplay without needing to go kill a thousand whatever to "grind levels."

CONS:
Suffers from a horrific 3-colors-at-a-time limited graphical palette and 1980s pre-soundcard audio. You know the beeps when you first turn your computer one before it boots? That's the audio for this game.
Suffers from a steep difficulty curve. If you choose anything other than easy mode, you're unlikely to survive past the first 5 minutes of play. Play the game on easy mode. It only affects your starting stats. Even on easy mode, to survive past the first 15 minutes you'll need to find a viable trade route. In the very, very first part of the game there is ONLY ONE trade route that
Archery speeds up when you fire on modern machines. You'll either need to run moslo under dosbox to smooth it out, or simply suffer through a lot of slow walking due to sleepless night due being unable to hit the dragon birds.

If you can deal with the cons, Rings of Zilfin is fantastic, much better than the early entries in the Ultima series or other games of the era that are far more well known.