This version of Might and Magic: Book One - Secret of the Inner Sanctum differs from all the others in several significant aspects.
The most important difference is the player’s inability to create his/her own party of adventurers. Instead, the player controls a party of six pre-set characters, which cannot be changed. These character have names, portraits, assigned character classes and even alignments; however, only one of them is given some story-related background, which is shown in the intro created specifically for this version.
Supposedly the “main character” of the game, a paladin named Amuru, is traveling on a ship, when an evil centaur fires a magic bolt and destroys it. Amuru is saved by an elderly cleric; afterwards, the game switches into the familiar Might and Magic free-roaming exploration, with the main story taking a backseat, and the motivations of other characters that join the party unexplained.
Many encounters and new quests were added to the game, presumably in an effort to make it more similar to Japanese RPGs; however, the main gameplay mechanics remain decidedly Western, with an open world free for exploration instead of emphasis on the story line. Basic combat mechanics remain the same, but many enemies are different; also, enemies might appear in very large groups, sometimes over ten at once.
While the game still retains the graphically sparse, vast game world which is viewed entirely from first-person perspective, many areas are different, and all the character graphics - for heroes, enemies, NPCs, etc. - have been redone from scratch, having a much more distinct anime edge.
