Gandalf winter, they crossed "under" the mountains through the Mines of Moria, though only Gimli the Dwarf was enthusiastic about that route. In Moria, they discovered that the Dwarf colony established there earlier had been overrun by orcs. The Fellowship fought with the orcs and trolls of Moria and escaped them. At the Bridge of Khazad-dûm, they encountered "Durin's Bane", a fearsome Balrog from ancient times. Gandalf faced the Balrog to enable the others to escape. After a brief exchange of blows, Gandalf broke the bridge beneath the Balrog with his staff. As the Balrog fell, it wrapped its whip around
The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age of 2003, with the release of "The Return of the King". Executive producer, Steve Gray, who had worked on "Final Fantasy VII" and directed "Parasite Eve" for Squaresoft, explained he had wanted to make a "Lord of the Rings" RPG since the 1990s, but had never gotten the chance, until EA acquired the rights to the film trilogy. As the game was under development, various ideas were rejected as the team settled on an approach. For example, initially, the developers planned to have an Active Time Battle combat system, before going with the Conditional Time Battle system. Another rejected idea