Celtic Tales



"Hear me Kings of Eire! Cowering on your thrones! Hear me Queens of Eire! Cringing in your rooms! Hera me Champions of Eire! Crying in your drink! The mere sound of my name strikes fear into all! Bone Crusher! Battle Master! Blade Breaker! The Balor of the Evil Eye! The island of Eire is mine now! There is nothing - no one who can stop me! Defiance means death!"

- Fomor Chief Balor, game intro.

A long time ago, the proud people of the island of Eire lived peacefully under the watchful eyes of goddess Danu.

But one day, Eire was invaded by fomors, conquering the island, scattering the tribes, razing everything in their way, all under the evil eye of their leader, Balor.

By Goddess Danu's request, your task is to unite the tribes, become their High Ruler and free Eire by killing Balor and banishing his fomor devils back to the underworld from which they came from.

Made in 1995 by Koei as part of their Imagination series, Celtic Tales: Balor of the Evil Eye is a Turn-Based Strategy with RPG Elements set on Ireland during the times of Celtic Mythology.

Available on Abandonia, though some of the sound files are missing.

Trope №.XX ordering...

 * Alternative Calendar: Has an extra winter month.
 * Badass Boast: A lot of these are thrown around.
 * Badass Normal: High level Warriors.
 * Barbarian Tribe: The Fomors.
 * Blow You Away: A Bard combat spell, which has a chance of moving the enemy around the map.
 * Celtic Mythology/Mabinogion
 * The Clan
 * Combat by Champion
 * Druid/Spoony Bard: The casters.
 * Elemental Magic: Bards use Air and Fire while Druids use Earth and Water, though in most cases the elements act more like a fuel to spells instead of direct manifestations.
 * Evil Eye: Balor's evil eye, which can dish out serious damage in combat and reduce the whole provinces into wasteland in the cutscenes.
 * Final Battle: After uniting Eire and pushing back the initial Fomor invasion, you then get to fight on Balor's turf, the Tory Island.
 * Final Death: There is a small, but present chance that upon defeating the champion, instead of capturing, he/she will die.
 * Fireball: The Orb of Lava spell.
 * Fog of War: A weather effect which obscures all units expect the currently selected one and the ones sorrounding him/her.
 * Functional Magic: A mix Device Magic (Runes) and Force Magic (Mana).
 * Geo Effects: Terrain and Weather during combat.
 * God in Human Form: The Player's rulers.
 * I Shall Taunt You
 * Isometric Projection
 * Kill It with Fire: Various fire related spells
 * Kill It with Water: A Flood spell, which creates a localized block of water to drown the enemy.
 * Lady of War
 * Magic Knight: One spells alows the caster to fight like a warrior.
 * Rape, Pillage and Burn: The Fomor raids.
 * Set a Mook to Kill a Mook: The Druid can cast a spell that makes the soldiers under the enemy champion's command to fight each other. The druid has to be right next to them though.
 * Status Buff: Various spells.
 * Thunderbolts and Lightning: A Druid combat spell.
 * Vancian Magic: The Runes are the variant of this, as they can break and won't be replaced until a month later.
 * When Trees Attack: A Druid spell that immobilize the enemy that passes through the forest.

May Danu bless us all...