Item - The Temple of Flame

A confession first: I did not manage to finish this book in the regular way. Some fights are extremely hard, and you'll die repeatedly even if you manage to find a healing potion and use it to full effect. Several times, you'll die because of bad luck. Most times however, you'll die because you didn't follow the optimal path, which is hard enough to find.

I did play about ten times overall. In my last playthrough, right before the finale, I faced an almost impossible dice roll because I didn't have a certain artifact. Well, I had had that artifact on my second to last attempt ... Enough is enough, I said to myself, and fudged that roll as well as the next two.

So obviously, to me, the book did slightly overstay its welcome. It's not just hard to beat, I also find it a tad verbose and overwritten. An occasional hint of irony might have lighted things up. Skimming those long paragraphs on repeated playthrough is no fun. For this kind of item hunt and monster-killing adventure, I personally prefer the short descriptions of the much-maligned Ian Livingstone.

And yet, unlike Fighting Fantasy's generic dungeons, the pseudo-Incan scenario in The Temple of Flame provides a sense of place. You're given a quirky animal companion, and despite the rudimentary combat system, some opponents feel genuinely unique, fighting with special weapons in their own style. Your nemesis, an evil wizard that you'll encounter more than once, even shows traces of character.

The Temple of Flame must have appeared as a book by a promising author back in 1984. I missed out on it then, partly because it was never translated into German. Playing only now, in 2020, I enjoyed it as a historical exhibit, if you will, and I praise Dave Morris' efforts in keeping his early work available at a low price point. Nevertheless, I don't think story and game blend particularly well in The Temple of Flame.

More reviews by Florik

This is historically an important book, as it marks the beginning of the collaboration between Dave Morris and Oliver Johnson, who would later author the famous Dragon Warriors RPG. It's also the second gamebook set on Legend, presumably on the continent of Mungoda (though that name is never explicitly used). Regardless of these facts, it's a very high-quality gamebook, surpassing Crypt of the Vampire in practically every respect: the writing is excellent overall, much better than the average gamebook. Furthermore, the plot line involving the player's archrival is well- developed, and the villain is both well-characterized and a deadly foe. The adventure's setting is amazing: the book begins with a rather short jungle trek infested with danger, but the majority of it takes place inside a Mesoamerican-like pyramid. The authors do a very good job of blending the trappings of the fantasy adventure with the historical elements so that neither of them becomes dominant, and so the book conveys an eerie and enigmatic atmosphere that most other gamebooks I've read do not easily achieve.

The book is very challenging overall. Many opponents are very tough (more than the average in Crypt of the Vampire), not to mention the many instances in which you have to fight three or even four strong enemies simultaneously. There are many possible wrong turns and traps for the careless, so there are several chances for the player character to be maimed or just killed outright. A successful path through the adventure will also demand tough skill checks. However, for some reason the book does not feel that frustrating; it could be that the monsters are creatively designed and portrayed (some of them having some interesting attack forms). Another reason could be that encounters are creatively devised, and thus experimenting with weird items or tactics contributes a good deal to the fun.

Yet another reason why I liked the adventure so much is that there are many possible paths which lead to the final goal, yet one is much easier than the others, so that the player soon realizes the real challenge of the adventure is finding that particular path. Despite the fact that a successful journey through the pyramid feels satisfying enough, none of the paths through it are very long, so starting over doesn't feel like a chore. The traps are often conceived in such a fiendishly clever way that even instant deaths do not feel that frustrating. On the negative side, the 'true path' (to use an Ian Livingstone euphemism) is rather convoluted and counter-intuitive, and this is the aspect most likely to cause frustration in a first-time player.

Come to think of it, my only gripe with the book is that the design is a little weak in places – in addition to what I already mentioned, it could also be pointed out that the jungle section of the adventure contains a lot of unnecessary danger, and perhaps could have been better designed. However, these flaws can be forgiven if one takes into account that, despite some rough edges, the adventure's general design is quite good.

Overall, I consider this the best book in the series, and one of the best gamebooks ever written. Definitely a winner.

More reviews by Guillermo

[Rating: 1/10]
[Recommended? NO]

With neither the glitter of gold nor the ferocity of a dragon, the Golden Dragon Fantasy Gamebooks aim for and deliver a decidedly mixed story within the scope of "The Temple of Flame". Released during what I refer to as the golden age of both fantasy literature and interactive storytelling in general (the 1970s and 1980s; only in Japan do these still have the chance to continue blossoming), as with other titles in the series there are numerous lows that keep the enjoyment from ever taking full effect. All the hallmarks of the series are in full swing, alas - the game design system is as derivative as the narrative borrows from other works, the frustrating difficulty level which is annoying mostly due to the unforgiving ignorance of embedding opportunities to heal and/or preserve health, and, to my surprise and disappointment, an overall absence of unexpectedness or innovation. Something was especially disappointing about the mundaneness and probability-based experience in this title; it turns out to be one of the all-around weaker works in the series because of its heavier use of chance. I would also like to call attention to how, when comparing the initial releases to the reprintings, the quality of the cover art sharply declines; the illustrious, evocative cover paintings on the original covers are inexplicably replaced with ugly, minimalistic garbage (not to mention how the text itself is carried over with loads of errors and zero attention to detail)... and I cannot help but wonder why the one thing that truly worked in the first editions of these gamebooks would be taken away and destroyed.

Ultimately overstaying its welcome for its polarizing difficulty/probability levels, mismatched narrative-and-style combination and lack of everlasting substance, I cannot help but suggest that readers avoid this gamebook title (and the series in general). Don't let yourself be fooled: while there is much to love in these stories - at least in how they were originally presented - readers would not be wrong to pass on these gamebooks and keep searching for more valuable quests. ^^

(Mysteriously disappears into the shadows.)

More reviews by Shadeheart

This is an excellent gamebook with a few shortcomings.

In it, you play a Noble Knight of Palados, off to explore an ancient temple. The reasons for you doing so are never fully explained... are you there to plunder it? Are you there for achaelogical reasons? Regardless, you discover that your old enemy, Damontir the Mad (which ironicially was his name while you were previously adventuring with him... hmm... should have been a hint?) has discovered its location first, which gives you an incentive (revenge) to beat him to the punch. What is odd is that at the end of the adventure, you refuse to loot the temple or disturb an ancient idol because that wouldn't be appropriate for a Knight of Palados... umm... then why are you here in the first place?

As well, in the American copy, you are forced to ignore the fact that you are portrayed as a child on the cover, yet are clearly a battle-hardened adult throughout the text.

However, that aside, the adventure and backstory are excellent. The flavor of an isolated jungle and lost temple within it are communicated brilliantly, and the writing is truly top notch for a gamebook. There are many items to find, almost all of which prove to be handy or essential at crucial points in your quest. But there are so many items to find that it obviously becomes difficult for the authors to allow you to bring all appropriate items to bear in certain situations. For instance, you can take a spear you find along the way. Toward the end of the book, when standing in front of the idol and facing Damontir in battle, you discover that being in close proximity to the idol renders you immune to Damontir's magic. But are you given an option to stay within this protective radius and hurl your found spear at him? No, you are forced to charge him from your protective perch, opening yourself up to far more danger.

There are so many different paths to take and so many different areas to explore that the replayability factor of his book is incredibly high. What's more, it holds your attention almost the entire time. I was rapt through most of the book. The authors also do an excellent job of letting you backtrack and choose choices you had previously dismissed.

However, there are a LOT of ways to die in this book. The battles can be incredibly tough. I think the battle concept in this book is ingenious, but quarrel with the execution. For instance, if battling a single opponent, you roll 2 dice. On a roll of 1-6, you lose 3 vigour. On 7-12, your opponent does. If facing multiple opponents, you may need to roll at 8 to even hit one for 3 points max vigour lost. I would have liked some roll outcomes where both you and your opponent lose various pts of vigour and some outcomes where you could do more than 3 points of damage to your opponent as well.

Healing is hard to come by. If you didn't stumble upon the one healing chalice I found, I'm not sure how you would heal at all. However, even with this chalice, the adventure is next to impossible to complete without dying. There are multiple tests of agility and psi. Some of these are next to impossible. For instance, the highest agility or psi you can have is 9, and a more realistic score is 6 or 7. For some tests you need to roll LOWER than your agility or psi on 3 dice rolls in order to succeed!

In sum, this is an excellent story, superbly written, and a great adventure, with wonderful encounters and characters. It is sullied only somewhat by the immense difficulty of the battles and agility and psi tests. Still, it gets a big thumbs up from me.

Rating 1-10: 8.5

More reviews by utfanatic