History of The Third Age :: "Your tale has hardly begun"

The User Interface (UI), or the screen where everything pertaining to your character, the game's options and other such important things is controlled, is an integral part of any RPG. On The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age, this screen is easy to navigate, control and change. If you're looking for anything in particular, here is probably the place to start.

The game's UI focuses on most of the stuff that you pick up on the world map, as well as the skills you learn through battle. The UI consists of eight different options: Stats, Equip, Use Item, Skills, Quests, Scenes, Options and Co-Op. When you choose an option, you can toggle through each with the L2 and R2 buttons, or return to the Menu and choose an option there.

Stats

Berethor's Stat Menu

Every character in the game has specific stats that determine how strong they are physically and with skills, how often they will hit, how high their defense is, etc. This game sports 10 different stats for your character: Experience Points (EXP), Level, Hit Points (HP), Action Points (AP), Armor Rating (ARM), Strength (STR), Spirit (SPRT), Constitution (CONST), Speed (SPD) and Dexterity (DEX).

Once you level up, your character gets the chance to upgrade some of his or her stats. Although there are 10 stats, only 5 of them (STR, SPRT, CONST, SPD and DEX) can be upgraded, however. On the brighter side, upgrading some stats also upgrades things like HP, AP, and armor rating. For example, upgrading Constitution upgrades some HP, while upgrading Spirit brings your max AP up a little bit. Of course, leveling up also adds to HP and AP slightly.

Here is a run-down of all of the stats:

EXP: The amount of experience points you currently have. You gain EXP by defeating enemies or finishing quests.
Level: Your character's level. You level up each time you gain a certain amount of EXP.
HP: The amount of health your character has. Upgraded by leveling or by increasing Constitution.
AP: The amount of skill points you have. Upgraded by leveling or by increasing Spirit.
STR: Your character's Strength. Upgrade by adding points to Strength.
SPRT: Your character's Skill strength. Upgrade by adding points to Spirit. Increasing this adds to max AP.
CONST: Your character's HP modifier and defense against Spirit Attack modifier. Upgrade by adding points to Constutition. Increasing this adds to max HP.at
SPD: Modifier for your character's initiative, melee and ranged defense, and time between attacks. Upgrade by adding points to Speed.
DEX: Increases chance that your character will hit the enemy with melee and ranged weapons. Upgrade by adding points to Dexterity.

Equip

As with any Roleplaying game, as you travel through each area you'll find quite a few pieces of equipment that allow you to up your stats, make your character look much snazzier, or just be stronger. The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age comes complete with over 100 unique items for each character, which means that you've got a lot of variety.

This section of the User Interface allows you to, simply put, equip those items that you find on the road. The great thing about this game, though, is that it's not like any other RPG where you equip an item and your character looks exactly the same as they did before you equipped it. Instead, when you equip an item, your character actually shows it.

Adding new equipment or changing equipment on your character is simple. Once you gain new equipment, the first thing that will appear once you select "equip" will be "New Equipment". Choose that option and select any given item and press confirm it. It will then take you to the specific area that the item relates to (helmets, for example), and you can equip it.

Use Item

Every item that you have in your inventory can be used either in battle or out of battle, either for one character or for several characters. As you travel through the game, you will find many items that change a character in some way or another. Some heal characters' health, some heal characters' AP, some heal characters' health AND mana, some add resistance to some element to some character, etc.

Items that you find won't be "Elixirs" and "Potions" for your characters. Rather, you will find medicinal herbs and other such items that will allow you to heal/control your character's stats. Using this menu is simple. Just select any character, select an item and press the confirm button. Items that Affect the whole party will not tell you that it has affected the whole party, but rest assured that it has.

Skills

Skills are abilities unique to each character that allow your character to perform attacks other than attack and perfect mode. Each of your characters have quite a few ailities, each depending on who they are. For example, Berethor has abilities that depend on his sword techniques, because he is best at swordcraft, while Idrial has abilities that depend on Spirit Powers, because she is proficient in Elven abilities.

Idrial's Skill Tree

When you choose this selection, a screen will pop up with 7 different options: The character's craft (sword craft, dual-axe craft...), their special abilities, passive skills, perfect mode, light craft, shadow craft and craft item. When you click on any given section (assuming it's not white), you will be given all of the abilities that you can have in that area. Skills that you have learned already or are in the process of learning are colored, while skills you have yet to learn are dark and faded out. In the upper-right corner, you will see an "X / Y", which roughly translates to "Number of AP you have for this skill so far / Number needed to learn it". Select any lit up skill to learn it next in battle.

The final three options, lightcraft, shadowcraft and craft item, do not become available to your characters until they gain specific elfstones. Elfstones are items that you pick up along your road that allow you to up specific stats or learn new abilities (in these three areas). These three ability sections can only be used if you have equipped the specific elfstone. Once you have them equipped, you can use them in battle.

Click here to view all character abilities

[Side] Quests

Your journeys through Middle-Earth are not limited to the road that you must follow to the next area. As you travel through each area, you can walk off the beaten path and try your hand at some Quests, which in other games are called Side Quests. Most areas have several quests that you can take part in, some of which you must complete to get to the next area, some of which you can just do for fun.

This screen shows you all of the areas that you've visited so far, and upon choosing an area, all of the quests that you have either started or completed. Selecting any quest will show a short description in the box at the top of the screen. On the areas screen, it will show you the percentage that you have completed it, while in the screen immediately after choosing an area, any quests that you have started but not finished will show a "Started" on the right, while quests that you have completed will show "Completed".

Click here to view all of the side quests for each area in the game

Scenes

Walking around the world, completing events, finding items, watching something happen and learning new things will cause "Scenes from Middle-Earth" to happen. In these scenes, Gandalf talks to you "through your mind", telling you of all of the adventures of his Fellowship and how what they do relates to you in one way or another. Sometimes it's not Gandalf, but rather some other major or minor character, but the scenes always relate to you and why you should continue your quest to save the world of Man.