The Eternal Dagger

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The Eternal Dagger

Developer(s)	Strategic Simulations
Publisher(s)	Strategic Simulations
Designer(s)	Paul Murray, Victor Penman
Platform(s)	Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Commodore 64
Release date	1987
Genre(s)	Adventure, Role-Playing, Strategy
Mode(s)	Single player

The Eternal Dagger is a 1987 top-down computer role-playing game published by Strategic Simulations, Inc. (SSI). Its prequel is Wizard's Crown, which was released in 1985. Players can transfer their characters over from Wizard's Crown, minus whatever magical items they had on them.

The story behind the game is that demons from another dimension are invading the world, and the only item that can seal the portal is the titular dagger.

Computer Gaming World described the gameplay as very similar to that of its predecessor, with a few changed spells and in-battle options. The use of a single character to represent the party was praised, as it eliminated the frustration of party members getting lost or stuck behind walls that was present in Wizard's Crown. Dungeon combat was described as having worsened, however, due to the time spent maneuvering party members into a position where they can attack before they can do so. The review also felt the game did not have the same balance as the previous, with magic being a much more effective option overall. CGW also considered combat to be more difficult in general, with wide discrepancies between the "quick combat" option and tactical combat, and monsters that generally take much longer to kill. The new fatigue, which decreases weapon skill as party members go without rest, was also criticized as lengthening travel time and slowing down the game. Ultimately, the review stated The Eternal Dagger was not of the same quality as its prequel, and recommended a lot of patience when playing the game.^[1]