Item - The Port of Peril

I haven’t reviewed any FF books in a while and I have some on deck, but the ease of playing some of these books from my iPhone with Tin Man Games allows me to get one finished on occasion. Here we have The Port of Peril.

The Port of Peril is a sequel of sorts to the popular City of Thieves and it does capture much of the atmosphere of that book if you’re looking for a nostalgia trip through memory lane. Your journey begins as a would-be treasure hunter, down on your luck, not much to your name, but with a drive to go out seeking adventure and fortune. Not an uncommon scenario in these books! You stumble upon a treasure map early on, but soon your adventure evolves into something much bigger once you learn that Zanbar Bone is working his way out of the demon realm to return again.

There are countless ’member-berries, as they’re called, which you often see in movie franchises where the lack of originality manifests itself in constant references to previous entries in the series that are much more highly regarded. There are tons of items you can collect and most of are of no use at all. None of the enemies are particularly hard, especially if you begin with a high skill score, as there are also countless additional items that will pump up your skill score. My skill was at 16 for much of the book. I know that seems high, but I’m at the mercy of the Tin Man Games app so I assume that’s the rules and they want me to be the most badazz adventurer Allansia has ever seen. No one could beat me, or even hit me save rarely. There are many places to accumulate gold and you will need a lot of that gold to get items that you’ll need.

You will be joined by many allies in your adventure where you ultimately work together to beat the bad guy. This is actually what makes this book enjoyable. Ian’s writing is good with a lot of detail and he seems focused on weaving a nice adventure thread sprinkled with many people along the way who help you to your goal. It’s very simple in its structure and although it wants the feel of a grand open adventure, you’re never able to stray too far from a set path the book forces you through. I guess it’s a paint-by-numbers FF Ian adventure, but at least it’s a fun ride.

More reviews by JDMorgan

Odd.

I've always had a strange relationship with this book. When I first bought it, I was pleased to get a new FF book after 5 years (after the poorer quality Blood of the Zombies). However, even then I had problems. As noted elsewhere, you get told to restore 1 Stamina point in reference 1, even though you are at your initial Stamina already. Unless we are generously being allowed to exceed the maximum already, there's an error already and we've barely started the adventure.

The rest of the adventure is quite good, and I like the references to previous FF books, including ones that Scholastic had not republished at the time of writing. It's very interesting how Captain Barnock from Armies of Death behaves here! It also appears that this adventure takes place after City of Thieves but before Island of the Lizard King judging from the characters who appear here.

At the time, I liked it simply because it was a new FF book after a long time. Now, I still like it for expanding Allansia and raising questions about the future (including firearms). One thing though, the artwork is sub-par compared to other FF books.

More reviews by R-Alex-J