The Dink Network

Quest for Arithia 1: The Ninth Lock

May 6th, 2022
v1.00
Score : 4.7 tolerable
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RangerLord
Peasant He/Him Hungary bloop
The nation above all 
Where to start with this one?
The good aspects first: It's story is a clear, not bad attempt to start the series. The new ground tiles are nice. The music is good. And if you are looking for a short hack and slash experience, it might be for you.
The bad? The story itsef, while a good start, it's exactly that, a start. It's good for a beginning, but not for an entire D-Mod. And now we come to my biggest problem: the length and gameplay. It's a very short experience, lasting 10-15 minutes at maximum. The gameplay itself is little more then fighting a few goblins and activating the "locks", which are sort of like beacons. One of them is in a secret location. The mapping itself is kind of bland and boring. The music is a single track. That, or the D-Mod is was too short for the other tracks to play.
My conclusion: It's not a bad D-Mod, but it's so short that I'd only recommend it if you want to flesh out the simple premise of the series, or if you want to play something very short.
August 27th, 2006
v1.00
Score : 4.5 tolerable
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DrFraud
Peasant She/Her
 
Storyline: A typical save-the-maiden-in-distress plot, with not much else going on. Being so short that it felt more like half a romp didn't help much either.

Graphics: Trees, more trees and even more bloody trees. Ditto goblins. Whoopee.

Gameplay: Hack-and-slash with minimal puzzle-solving and *way* too many goblins on *every smegging screen*.

I wouldn't recommend this little snoozerama unless you're (a) a hack-and-slash fan, (b) a completist or (c) intent on playing QfA 2 & 3.
December 23rd, 2004
v1.00
Score : 7.0 good
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Though short, this dmod is good. It looks nice, (and has some nice new graphics too) and other than about it's length and the lack of conversation I have no bad things to say.
December 4th, 2004
v1.00
Score : 6.9 fair
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Glennglenn
Peasant He/Him Norway
GlennGlenn doesn't want a custom title. 
Plot: You have to disable the 9 locks. The ninth lock is supposed to be a litle bit hidden.

Graphics:The ninth lock graphics were kinda good

Midis:They were quite good

Gameplay:Kinda boring

Overall: A good D-Mod, but it is boring
August 25th, 2004
v1.00
Score : 6.8 fair
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matrice
Peasant They/Them
 
Storyline: good ! Nice use of the scrolls / posters which give body to the story and make you want more (which you don't get in this dmod, but it does motivate to start playing part 2).

Gameplay: bit boring with all the screens full of goblins, however you can run through those screens which don't contain locks if you get bored of fighting them.

One thing which I particularly noticed about this game is that you can't deactivate the locks until you've killed all the goblins on the screens. Quite often in dmods you can do what you came for without fighting, but a screenlock will force you to fight anyway. The way used in this dmod felt much more "friendly" if you can call it that.

Overall: well worked out (i.e. seemingly bugfree with nice graphics and fitting music) dmod, but a tad boring.
August 21st, 2003
v1.00
Score : 7.0 good
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SimonK
Peasant He/Him Australia
 
Short, but still for its time, well done.

This was one of the early DMODs, made before the epics appeared.

Some new graphics with the locking stone things which was nice. I guess this was one of the first dmods to use such a device... it then got done to death.

Goblins could be hard to kill.

Overall a short, but generally enjoyable DMOD
December 18th, 2002
v1.00
Score : 4.5 tolerable
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Binirit
Peasant She/Her
 
Storyline: The land Arithia has been invaded by goblins and now the once so green earth is dying. The ruler of Arithia has named his land after his daughter, Arithia, and it from her that Dink receives a plea for help. So he sets out to find her, accompanied by his best friend Ash.

Map and graphics: The map is small, but decorated nicely. The locks are new.

Music: Mediocre.

Good: The reason why Ash will not go with Dink to seek for Arithia is quite funny.

Not so good: There is only one savebot and that is not in the goblin area. There is no way to heal and there are way too much goblins. The only thing to do is cheat. And because you are forced to do so, the game gets real easy and looses its attraction.

Overall: As an intro to Arithia part 2 and 3 it is al right. As a stand-alone D-mod it is boring.

Fit for: Play this one only if you intend to play the other parts too.