Ok speaking of orc related things I NEED TO TALK ABOUT ORCS AND ELVES FOR NINTENDO DS for just a sec because no shit I've never heard a single person talk about it but I have VIVID memories of this game and it's impacts on me as a kid, useless thread time baby!!

How I got this was probably the part that stuck with me most, I was in 4th grade, and it had been left in my DS case by some kid who borrowed one of my games on a field trip during the last week of the year, and because I had NO CLUE who it was, I was unable to ever return it

HOWEVER, my parents would have LOST IT over 10 year old me having a Teen rated game that was essentially STOLEN so I only ever played really late at night when I knew they wouldn't catch me with it, which omg HUGE MISTAKE I HAD SO MANY NIGHTMARES but still played it a ton.

I've literally replayed the enhanced DS game into oblivion and tbh I'd fucking speedrun it if I could, it was a turn-based RPG made in the Doom Engine originally released for mobile but I don't know if the mobile game is even available anymore considering it came out in 2006??

And like, I've been thinking of buying a loose cart of the DS port if I can find it since it seems to go for like $15 or so bucks? It was definitely not like a top tier game by any means but it holds a VERY special place in my heart for being the first fantasy game I got into.

fucking massive stretch but literally I'd cry if someone was willing to trade me a copy of this game for some art or something because I've literally done art inspired by this game I love it so damn much (this is from a while ago and is still a fave of mine)

Ngl it wasn't the orcs in this game that gave me nightmares, I actually thought they were by and large the best enemies in the game, but the damn wraiths were FUCKING PANTSHITTINGLY TERRIFYING to me and the bug nest level is just N O P E.

***SPOILERS FOR THE END GAME AFTER THIS TWEET IF YOU'VE NEVER PLAYED BUT ITS OBSCURE AS HELL AND NEARLY 15 YEARS OLD SO JUST SKIP TO THE END OF THE THREAD FOR FINAL THOUGHTS IF YA DON'T WANT SPOILERS***

So real shit, MAD AS HELL that Bruul, the main orc dude who lead the storming of the dwarf mountain kingdom, was NOT the final boss because his fight is SO FREAKING GOOOD and it literally makes me cry that they decided to pull a 180 plot twist on us at the very end and make the

Main villain some dumb dark elf bimbo who was actually controlling the orcs, and mind you, she literally doesn't even get brought up until after you defeat Bruul, which has a HUGE buildup where you gotta retrieve the dead dwarf king's Warhammer to even stand a chance of beating

Him and it just really fucking sucks because the final level, while it does have a cool color pallet/aesthetic, feels just really unsatisfactory and not a great cap to is objectively one of my fave games ever. It could have totally ended with beating Bruul, giving the gem he had

Taken from the dwarf king back to the dragon of the mountain for safekeeping, and calling it a fucking day but NOPE. Bruul had the spotlight yanked from him and that is SIMPLY UNCOOL. He deserved so much better like tbh had the PC not been sent a letter, Bruul would have

100% just absolutely taken the whole damn mountain uncontested, save for maybe Gaya but I'll get back to her. The game literally takes place AFTER the orcs killed basically everyone and all the dwarf NPCs the player interacts with are GHOSTS. Like holy shit this game was MORBID.

And GAYA. ONE OF MY FIRST FICTIONAL CRUSHES. IS LITERALLY A FUCKING DRAGON. It's made pretty clear by the in game map that the dragon's lair isn't connected to the mountain kingdom proper because the only time you even see an orc in her lair is during a side quest where one gets

Trapped in a sheep pen with a wererat and once he gets out is immediately killed by Gaya and that leads into an DS only optional side quest featuring The Bug Nest From Hell level I talked about earlier. Worth it for the xp/gold boost since you can get the vorpral sword sooner.

But back to the point, Gaya kinda just, got her own shit to deal with between wererats trying to steal her eggs and just general being a dragon shit but she doesn't really seem to care too beyond you getting her gems back. The orcs never try and challenge her and she doesn't

Try and level them for getting rid of the dwarves, so I'm willing to wager the orcs can't figure out/are unable to use the teleporters to her and it's probably a well fortified enough place that its just not worth the hassle to try for now considering they literally just took a

WHOLE ASS UNDERGROUND CASTLE FOR THEMSELVES. Anyway if you made it this far, congrats. I wasted your time but I hope the adventure was worth it. I really wanna play this game again and hopefully someday soon.

ALSO apparently it has a sequel on mobile but I've never played it and info is super scarce on it so no opinions there. I don't really feel it needed one with how the game ended tbh. I'll make some Bruul fanart as part of Orctober because he was done SO DIRTY by this game rip.

Also shout-out to Sarbok for being the only valid dwarf ever. Sarbok literally refuses to help you unless you drink his ale be brewed. This happens SEVERAL TIMES in game and his grave has a ring you equip to become permanently drunk for the rest of the game lmaoooo.

Ok end of thread, hope everyone had fun and maybe wants to try this game for themselves, if I can find a rom dump or something I would absolutely post a link to it.