Betrayal in Antara
A role-playing game set in the original world of Ramar.
Betrayal in Antara is a role-playing video game for Windows 3.1, developed and published by Sierra On-Line in 1997. It uses an updated version of the engine from Sierra's earlier RPG Betrayal at Krondor, but is set in the original game world of Ramar because Sierra had lost the rights to the Riftwar Cycle.
Quick Facts
- Developer
- Sierra On-Line
- Producer
- Steven Lee Miles
- Designer
- Peter Sarrett
- Programmer
- Rikki Cleland-Hura; Emmanuel Schilling
- Artist
- Jimmy Kowalski
- Writer
- Susan Frischer; Peter Sarrett
- Composer
- David Henry
- Released
- June 30, 1997
Facts from the source article.
Plot
The story starts on the ship Fair Current, which is traveling from Januli to Pianda when pirates attack. The vessel catches fire, forcing the crew and two passengers to flee. William Escobar ends up in a lifeboat with a joyman named Gregor. After reaching the shore, a magical griffin attacks them, and Gregor is fatally wounded. Aren Cordelaine, who is fishing nearby, sees William fighting the creature and accidentally kills it with a magic blast. Before dying, Gregor hands William a medallion and says the Imperial Consort is in danger. William asks Aren to come home with him so that Aren can learn to control his powers from the Escobars' court mage, Finch. Aren agrees, and they head for Panizo. In a forest close to town, they rescue a woman named Kaelyn Usher from bandits, and she decides to join them. Once in Panizo, William tells his father about Aren's help and Gregor's warning. When he learns that Prince Farril is going to Antara to marry Princess Aurora, William resolves to travel to Ticoro to warn him. William, Aren, and Kaelyn slip out of Panizo early the next morning and go to Midova, where Aren begins his magical training with Finch. They reach Ticoro during the spring festival and find out that Prince Farril is in the city, though his exact location is a secret. They meet Kaelyn's friends, Raal and Fellich Marr, who leads the church of Henne. They locate where Prince Farril is staying and try to warn him, but Lord Caverton and the guards dismiss them. Later that night, Caverton's guards wake them and say Farril has been kidnapped. Because they knew about the danger beforehand, William, Aren, and Kaelyn are arrested as suspects. Raal helps them escape from prison and tells Kaelyn that wraiths are attacking people in the Ridgewood and that her father Garvin has vanished. Kaelyn leaves with Raal to find her father, promising to reunite with the others later. William and Aren suspect the Shepherds are behind the kidnapping and follow their trail through Ticor and Chuno, eventually discovering their secret headquarters. Meanwhile, Kaelyn and Raal go to her home in the Ridgewood. Following a note from her father, they find Garvin's magical workshop inside a cave. Garvin explains that wraiths are possessing humans and animals, driving them mad. With his help, Kaelyn and Raal locate and destroy all the wraiths.
Development
After the floppy disk version of Betrayal at Krondor sold poorly in 1994, Dynamix abandoned plans for a sequel and returned the Riftwar rights to Raymond Feist. However, the game's CD-ROM re-release performed far better, prompting the company to revisit the idea of a follow-up. Unable to use the original setting, Dynamix aimed to replicate the same atmosphere in a new world. To craft the backgrounds, developers photographed real landscapes and enhanced them with 3D software to achieve a painted look. Just weeks after Betrayal in Antara was announced, 7th Level revealed its own fully licensed sequel, Return to Krondor.
Reception
Between January 1998 and July 1998, Betrayal in Antara sold 52,309 copies and earned $674,058 in the United States. Next Generation rated the game three stars out of five, stating that Krondor was an excellent game and Antara succeeds it in the fashion of Doom II, with not too much added but a great game not needing many new features. GameSpot gave the game a score of 6.6 out of 10, commenting that despite being one of the first RPGs to use high-resolution SVGA graphics, the graphics were as ugly as an orc. They said the story was well-developed but judged the game perhaps one of the most linear RPGs ever made, with gameplay more than a little frustrating. However, they praised the interface and skill systems as topnotch.
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