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It's too bad that MM8 wasn't MM6. It was certainly the easiest of the 6-8 series and would make a good introduction to the series. As it was, with so many of the tricks learned, it was just too simple. I completed the game three times, essentially without using any spoilers found on the web. (I did use a list of trainers and a travel schedule).

My first party consisted of a Dark Elf leader and the 4 characters found on Dagger Wound Island for the great majority of the game. We finished in a little over a year and 3 months without any major difficulties. For my second run through, I used Derf's MM8 Party Maker to put together a party of Knight, Troll, Necromancer, Cleric and Dragon. We finished in a little under a year at level 34. In both cases we could have trained to about level 70 but did not find it necessary and didn't want to take the time.

For my third (and last!) try, I decided to use Derf's MM8 Party Maker to play solo as Flame the Dragon. This proved to be a challenge! The Dragon is a powerful but slow fighter. In my second party, my Knight (GM Armsmaster +21) got about 3 attacks for every 1 of the Dragon's. Starting was quite difficult. The Dragon has no Heal spell of course and potions are no substitute. Other limitations are the lack of Torch Light and Wizard Eye. Torch light is more a convenience than a necessity but Wizard Eye is difficult to get along without. Later, not having Town Portal was inconvenient (especially since I needed to run back to a healer so frequently) but didn't really make play any more difficult. There are not many scrolls to make up for the lack of magic. It would be nice if there were an Engraving ability that allowed you to make scrolls the way you can make potions. No trap disarming was a pain for a while, especially with no healing, but a GM in Perception makes disarming unnecessary. Storage space is limited playing solo. A good thing the Dragon doesn't need to carry armor and weapons.

I had worried about the Crystal Dragons in Escaton's Crystal through much of the game. They turned out not to be too difficult. However, I had a lot of trouble with the Regnan Dungeons (the Archmages in particular) and actually had to fight real time. Having four thumbs on each hand, I'm not good at real time combat but there was no alternative. Two Archmages would always kill me (about level 35) before I could eliminate one of them in turn based mode. I also had trouble with the mouselike monsters in the Eep Temples. The Dragon weapon always misses them so I had to use his Bad Breath spell to damage them. If they were close up, I took as much damage as they did. The Water Lord's Prison was also tough since I couldn't make effective use of real time without burning up (no levitate) and it was a LONG way back to the healer in Ravenshore. A lot of the fun is missed by not being able to use all of the neat stuff that you find, only rings and amulets can be equipped and most of those are pretty useless to a Dragon.

While there are severe limitations to playing a single character, playing with only one character pushes levels up very rapidly. Flame finished at level 92 and could have trained to level 126. At level 126 with all those skill points put into Dragon ability he was an awesome fighter with 1500 HP&SP, AC 436 and 60-510 attack that never misses.

I enjoyed playing MM8. In some ways having it easy made it a bit more fun, more like the Xeen and earlier M&M games. My great complaint with MM6 was that there was so much combat that it wasn't any fun. MM8 had some interesting dungeons. The Troll Crypt with it multiple levels. The Eep Temple where you had to jump from place to place. Balthazar's Lair, a neat puzzle (good thing they gave the solution!). But, the dungeons were all tiny. Heck, the Heart of Water wasn't even in a dungeon. The pyramid in MM6 was too big but a few large dungeons that took several hours (days?) to clear would have helped MM8. Generally you were in and out of dungeons so quickly that you never got much of a feel for their atmosphere.

Definitely under the category of a couple of last miscellaneous observations: Escaton wasn't really a bad guy. Just doing his job for the Masters. After all, he did give us the keys to the Elemental Lords' Prisons. I felt bad seeing him get it in the end. There were not enough character portraits. This caused me a problem at one point when I tried to pick up Dyson Leyland and got Maylander instead. Wow! There were lots of neat artifacts. The graphics were a little old but I only had one crash during 100+ hours of play. That is wonderful. Contrary to what Fellmoon said, the crates in the storeroom are wiped out by respawning of Ravenshore. I guess, giving stuff to characters at the Adventurers Inn is safe but didn't try it.

Well, I did go on and play a solo Knight. In some ways this was easier than the solo Dragon. I managed to find a Vampric spear in the Raised Library and that took care of all of the trips back to the healer. Not being able to fly makes clearing some areas difficult but at high enough level you can just run around and kill everything. (BTW, the Knight cannot fly, even with a scroll because he has no SP. Some areas appear to only be accessible by flying.) A Prevent Drowning ring made travel across water easy. I had Poison and Stoning resisting objects but none for Paralysis. This made the crystal creatures deadly since as soon as they paralyzed my Knight he was dead. No chance for a Cure Paralysis scroll or potion. As was the case with the Dragon, the Water Lord's Prison was difficult because of having to walk on the fire without effective healing. In combat, the Knight needed a lot less finesse than the Dragon. He got about three 160 point or so attacks/round. With the Drain Hit Points weapon he could just hack away almost regardless of the number of attackers. The exception was the entrance to the Fire Plane where he couldn't handle 20 Fire Elementals and the Fear/Nightmare monsters in the Plane/Planes which are immune to physical attack.