Curse of the Azure Bonds

Did You Know?

• The novel Azure Bonds is the first book of the Finder's Stone trilogy, followed by The Wyvern's Spur and Song of the Saurials.
• The novel's protagonist Alias awakens with amnesia and magical blue sigils on her arm, aided by a lizard-creature named Dragonbait.

Gameplay

A party of up to six player characters and two non-player characters is required to complete the quests. Characters from Pool of Radiance or Hillsfar can be transferred, but playing the earlier games is not necessary. New character classes introduced are the paladin and ranger. Players can generate new characters from six races, nine alignments, two genders, and six classes; multi-class options exist for half-elf, elf, dwarf, halfling, and gnome. New characters start with 25,000 experience points, placing single-class characters at level 5; multi-class characters divide the total equally, typically starting at level 4. Statistics can be adjusted before beginning. The main adventuring view uses a first-person perspective with a top-left window for location and movement, a status panel on the right, and command options along the bottom. During combat, the screen shifts to an overhead view on the left and status on the right; spells and ranged weapons require lining up targets.

Plot

The adventure begins in the city of Tilverton, where the player characters wake from a magic sleep in an inn, their possessions stolen and memory of the past month gone. Each character bears five azure-colored markings called bonds on one arm. The party was ambushed on the road to Tilverton and cursed with these bonds, which represent five evil factions that can control the characters' actions. The sage Filani provides information about the bonds. The first bond forces the party to attack a royal carriage, leading to a fight with guards. After defeating the Fire Knives assassins and removing the first bond, the characters are banished from Tilverton for attempting to kill the king. They may then journey to Shadowdale or Ashabenford. Other locations include the Elven Forest, Zhentil Keep, the temple at Yulash (under siege by marauders, with dangers from crumbling walls and sinkholes), and the citadel at Hap; these are accessed via a menu rather than free exploration. The player decides where to go next to remove another bond.

Development

The game includes a manual and an Adventurer's Journal with contextual paragraphs to be read at specific points. A 2-ply code wheel featuring runes was used for piracy protection; during play, the player must enter a letter from the wheel to continue. Curse of the Azure Bonds was the first of three sequels to Pool of Radiance, followed by Secret of the Silver Blades and Pools of Darkness. Characters from this game can be used in Secret of the Silver Blades. It was released on Apple II, Commodore 64, and DOS in 1989, on Amiga and Macintosh in 1990, and on Atari ST in 1991. A planned SNES version was abandoned. The game is linked to both an AD&D adventure module and a novel of the same name; the module is based on the computer game.

Reception

Curse of the Azure Bonds sold 179,795 copies, with over a third on the Commodore 64. By 1996, the Pool of Radiance series had combined global sales above 800,000. In August 1989, Tony Dillon of CU Amiga-64 gave the game 89%, noting the graphics were similar to Pool of Radiance and the first-person perspective resembled The Bard's Tale, with an overhead view like Gauntlet. Paul Rigby of The Games Machine previewed the game in issue 21, expressing hope that new classes and spells would address his criticisms of Pool of Radiance; in the following issue he gave Curse of the Azure Bonds 90%, calling it an improvement with better storylines and an improved combat engine. Scorpia of Computer Gaming World reviewed the PC version in September 1989, criticizing the slow speed, disappointing ending, and emphasis on hack-and-slash over puzzle-solving, but calling it a standard follow-up better than Pool of Radiance in some ways. In a 1993 retrospective, she described it as a sequel with a bit more plot, mainly hack-and-slash leading to a kill-the-villain ending.