The Worst Part of Each King's Quest Game

[sXeth]

@Dalisclock: Wait, so when eating the turkey leg, did you specifically need to enter EAT HALF TURKEY LEG into the text parser? Or did you only eat half of it by default when you tried to eat the turkey leg the first time? If it's the first one, that is pure evil, though I'm willing to believe anything of these games at this point.

It's a point and click game, so using the turkey leg once eats half the turkey leg. Using the turkey leg again eats the rest of it. So it wasn't horrible but if you decided "I need to eat the other half to be safe, since Graham is apparently starving" then you screwed yourself.

Also, IIRC, you had to steal the turkey leg while escaping from the mob controlled inn, after you escape from the basement. If you leave without grabbing the turkey leg, you can't come back to get it later.

To my vague recollection, you could also mess up something in the whole food eating chain that made the final castle impossible, unless I'm remembering wrong.

 

[Dalisclock]

@Dalisclock: Wait, so when eating the turkey leg, did you specifically need to enter EAT HALF TURKEY LEG into the text parser? Or did you only eat half of it by default when you tried to eat the turkey leg the first time? If it's the first one, that is pure evil, though I'm willing to believe anything of these games at this point.

It's a point and click game, so using the turkey leg once eats half the turkey leg. Using the turkey leg again eats the rest of it. So it wasn't horrible but if you decided "I need to eat the other half to be safe, since Graham is apparently starving" then you screwed yourself.

Also, IIRC, you had to steal the turkey leg while escaping from the mob controlled inn, after you escape from the basement. If you leave without grabbing the turkey leg, you can't come back to get it later.

To my vague recollection, you could also mess up something in the whole food eating chain that made the final castle impossible, unless I'm remembering wrong.

You might be thinking of the fact that there's a couple monsters running around the final castle. There are ways to escape from/capture all of them, but one you have to let capture you once. When you land in the dungeon, you need to have picked up a fishhook from a beach several scenes before(and you can't get back there once you enter the castle) and use that fishhook on a rathole that's really hard to see to pull out a piece of moldy cheese.

Because the moldy cheese is a key ingrediant in using a magical machine in the castle that allows you to fix the magic wand you got at the beginning of the game and fight a wizards duel with the big bad(even though the PC isn't a wizard). Does the game tell you need any of this? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! KQ was pretty much a test of how masochistic you were.

 

[sXeth]

You might be thinking of the fact that there's a couple monsters running around the final castle. There are ways to escape from/capture all of them, but one you have to let capture you once. When you land in the dungeon, you need to have picked up a fishhook from a beach several scenes before(and you can't get back there once you enter the castle) and use that fishhook on a rathole that's really hard to see to pull out a piece of moldy cheese.

Because the moldy cheese is a key ingrediant in using a magical machine in the castle that allows you to fix the magic wand you got at the beginning of the game and fight a wizards duel with the big bad(even though the PC isn't a wizard). Does the game tell you need any of this? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! KQ was pretty much a test of how masochistic you were.

Sounds about right. Needless to say, I got screwed in the final dungeon, and when I went back to the game a month or two later, was just rigidly using the stupid little hint book that came in the box that you needed the red cellophane glasses to read.

That being very boring, I kind of ditched adventure games for RPGs and RTS mostly. My mom kept playing the Sierra stuff and eventually got me to help her out with Quest for Glory (cause real time combat) which got me into that series.

 

[CrystalShadow]

Kings Quest 7... I rather liked. But it is very disney princess level story stuff.

It's also the first kings quest in their entire history that doesn't have 'you forgot the important item you could only get before you cross the invisible, irreversible checkpoint, so now you have to start over' BS.

Kings Quest 6 gives you advance warning of crossing the line, but it still has that moment.

Kings Quest 7 is without it.

Unfortunately, the single most BS puzzle in the entire game is the one you need to get out of the desert, the first of 6 areas.

It's actually got some decent moments. Though I find Rosella's parts far more interesting than Valenice's...

Though I admit the mocking bird is fun. Completely pointless except for a single puzzle, but the sheer variety of stupid insults it has...
It takes forever before it starts to repeat itself...

 

[Dalisclock]

That being very boring, I kind of ditched adventure games for RPGs and RTS mostly. My mom kept playing the Sierra stuff and eventually got me to help her out with Quest for Glory (cause real time combat) which got me into that series.

I never gave up on Adventure games but for quite a long time there the genre was pretty much dead. I'm glad to see revived with TellTale, Wadeyejet and Deadalic putting out quality adventures on a regular basis.

And while Kings Quest wasn't great, the Gabriel Knight Series consistently good. Too bad the Demise of sierra killed the series.

 

[baba44713]

I actually remember liking Mask of Eternity.

But that's probably because I pretty much ended up hating each Sierra adventure in turn. I loved adventure games, so I played practically all of the Sierra ones at certain point, but I finished precious few because each and every one screwed me over. Mask of Eternity was at least a straightforward Lara Croft clone with adventure (and RPG) elements... which played fair. It was also fairly enjoyable for what it was.

Btw does anyone remember a Sierra spy adventure which called you a "cheater" and destroyed your save game if you dared to reload after losing at a (completely random) game of dice? Even though losing at it effectively forbid you to progress further?

 

[GrumbleGrump]

There's an inn being run by villainous types (i.e. people with facial hair) and if you dare to go inside out of pure explorative curiosity then you get tied up and thrown in the basement. Where you will rot forever if you didn't throw a shoe at a cat earlier during the single opportunity you had to do so. Hope you didn't save after that!

Holy fucking crying jesus. HOW THE FUCK

Rest assured it does get better. Later on in the game you have to defeat a yeti by throwing a custard pie in his face.

Of course, that's only if you didn't eat the pie. Because what kind of maniac would think eating is a reasonable thing to do with a pie?

Can I just say that fuck these games? I haven't even played them and I hate them already.

 

[nitrium oxide]

I remember getting got KQ 3 for my birthday, and I was so super excited.... until I played it.

 

[gold5]

Nowadays all you would have to do is go online to see what the answers to these parts were. Back then unless you had a friend who had played farther than you there were no answers. They had a toll 1-800 hint line and they sold these hint booklets with the whole walkthroughs of the game. They had those yellow and pink highlighter markers and they would put the question of each puzzle at the top of a blank box. To see the answer you would have to use the marker over the box and the invisible writing would show up. This was to prevent spoilers. But after a few days the ink would fade again and if you ever replayed the game, maybe because you had to go back to the start and pick up a fishhook, and forgot what the trick for that annoying part was then you wouldnt be able to reread the hint book box anymore. Using the highlighter a second time didnt work either. They charged $15 dollars of Reagan/Iran Contra-backed 1980s cash-money for these plus shipping! What this meant is that hardly anyone ever finished any of these stupid games!