Each new village brings the group together with another race, whose traits should sound more than familiar. Jak is accompanied by his lady friend (and obvious love interest) Shella, as well as a spritely elf sage named Davio, a stumpy dwarf named Brendel and a troll named Telsek. The game hews closely to those themes, and thus it never wanders from the established fantasy tropes. When Brooks first published The Sword of Shannara in 1977, he was heavily criticized for blatantly ripping off J.R.R.

It’s easy to jump into the story if you’re unfamiliar with the series, because while there are numerous references to The Sword of Shannara, it’s never completely reliant on it. Your quest is doubly important, because Jak’s life is inadvertently pledged to Brona during a summoning ceremony, dooming his eternal soul unless the nefarious lord can be stopped. Only by venturing through the land can Jak and his companions reassemble the sword and defeat Brona once again.

He can only be defeated with the Sword of Shannara, which has, as luck would have it, been broken and rendered unusable. In the game, you play as Jak Ohmsford, son of Shea Ohmsford and hero of the first novel, who learns of the return of the Warlock Lord Brona, commander of the undead. It’s technically an original story, although it functions as a sequel to The Sword of Shannara, the very first book, a copy of which was bundled along with the packaging. Legend Entertainment, fond of creating graphic adventures based on books, developed their own entry into the series, simply dubbed Shannara. Terry Brooks’ Shannara series is one of the most prolific of modern fantasy novels, consisting of over twenty entries over the course of nearly thirty years.

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