Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness: Wizard Edition

Well, that looks fun!

So the dark magic teleports me from Tarna to a dark mysterious cave. All your equipment is lost so Magus starts looking around. Find some crowns and kopeks and what this games currency, a dagger and a flint. There is an altar with torches and any normal person would use the flint, but I'm Magus the Archmage of Spielburg, Shapeir, Rasier and Tarna. I just flame dart one torch and light the other one to show me the way out. There's some sort of door which I pry open with the dagger and find myself in another chamber with 4 other doors and some sort of stone sculpture in the middle of the room. Another dead body with some money and a cloth. Magus leave the chamber and enters a cave. Somehow I need to cross a pit either on the rope that is already in place, but I'm a magician so I hold the cloth up as sail and use the wind to push my levitated character across. And at this moment the game tells us that it is a bit creepier since out of the pit long slimy tentacles emerges. Really, the cover says it all. Still, I'm out of the cave... and it's night time and some cloaked shadowy figure meets me at an arch outside what can only be described as a mouth.

Well hello there, who have we here? Nice accent!

This is Katrina and she tells me that I'm in Mordavia and that I just escaped the Dark One's cave and that there is a town just north of here. She bid me farewell until we meet again and she is gone. I leave and tries walk down a slippery slope when the game crashes. Get used to that since this game is notorious for bugs and crashes. In actuality I already crashed crossing the pit in ScummVM so I finally tried the DosBox I got for the mac and it actually worked. Until this moment that is. I restored a save and walked down. Now, later I found out I could just have Triggered the obelisk, but I forgot to use Detect Magic. I enter a swamp and see some Will O' Wisps and starts to head north. I cross a stream and suddenly I'm attacked by a Wyvern and boy this combat system. GOD! A 2D screen where I have to walk forward to and click the monster to strike at it, but if I click just at the wrong spot it interprets it to walk forward. The spell system I don't quite learn until I figured out the hot keys (z, x, c, v, b) and not even then cause it isn't instant so you need to hold a bit compared to the instant attack from the older games. And don't get me started on creatures flying or to small to be hit by a magic attack. The vampires bat I just put on auto and full aggression since I couldn't get the hang of high attacks. Yeah, forgot to mention that this game has an auto function where you slide 4 different sliders to adjust the way you attack or what you use. But that gets boring and when I got the hang of the magic system it was fine. Finally I reach town.

Well... they seem... friendly?

Since this is based on slavic folklore and such everyone speaks with an eastern european accent.  And I mean speak, the whole game is voice acted and they are really famous voice actors as well. The narrator is even John-Rhys Davies. Of course they all fear me since the road out of the valley is blocked by the swamp so how I got here is mysterious and mentioning the Dark One's cave makes them even more sceptical. Let's run down the cast. First is the burgomeister (mayor and sheriff), then we have the three amigos (which I just love due to the dialogue and the voice actors), there's the shop keeper who knits and gossip, the innkeeper and his wife who are sadden by their daughter's disapearance  years ago. Nikolai who wanders the town looking for his lost wife for 15 years, Igor the gravedigger and Dr Cranium who is the only one that's actually friendly towards me. Of course he's a mad scientist. That's the town people and they don't like me at all. Outside it isn't much better. There's bush who wants to kill me, killer rabbits roaming the countryside, shapeshifting wolf gypsies, a beautiful but drowning Rusalka in the lake and an old friend in Baba Yaga and the skull from the first game. And that's only during the day. At night we have murderous fairies, wraith, revenants, necrotaurs and ghosts walking the land. This place really needs a hero.

The Rusalka is friendly... but she kills me if I go near her... well worth it!

The first day is just exploring and train your skills. And one day Igor disappear. The towns people blame a gypsy they caught outside the town and are gonna burn him at the stake. So it's my job to save him. Of course the obvious place for the gravedigger would be the local cemetery so let's pay a visit.

Maybe I should go somewhere else?

Igor is of course trapped in a grave so you help him out and suddenly the people are getting more friendly. I even get to speak to the innkeeper's wife. I try to get in the gypsies camp, but they won't let me. Now this is a small problem. I'm forced to go through certain scenes to progress the plot. In this case I believe I had to enter town and speak to the Burgomiester and then wait until nightfall and enter the inn so they could thank me for finding Igor and then I had to leave town and the gypsy would invite me to their camp. This is important for the gypsies introduces me to Magda, their matriarch and fortune teller. Here I found another bug. When she tries to read my fortune the game cuts of the audio and rushes the text. An apparent speed problem. I try to lower the cycles, but nothing work. Best thing I found was turning the audio of and just read the text. And after that turn the audio on again. Annoying, but what are gonna do. So I'm just helping these people, but what's the story? Mordavia is the place where Erana died fighting of a cult trying so summon the Dark One. She sacrificed herself to banish him from this world. If you sleep in her garden or near her staff in town you will see visions that Erana sends you from the other side. The fortune telling also shows bad omen as one card always turns up at the end, The Void. In town there is an old monastery belonging to the cult members. Using an emblem you found just outside of the Dark One's cave you can force it's guardian to let you in and after some searching you find an secret passageway to a dungeon. 

I get a bad feeling about this!

Here Magus finds a dairy telling the tale of the cult and about 6 rituals in order to summon the Dark One, Avoozl! That's an interesting name since it both sound silly, but also somewhat scary. The rituals are hidden all across the valley, but there is clues for them all and the simplest one is just to drink from the keg in this very room. Of course it puts you to sleep and experience the coming of Avoozl.

I got a REALLY bad feeling about this!

In the meantime you meet Katrina outside at night and she wants you to help her by finding these rituals as well. Also, the there's a gnome at the inn that has lost his jokes due to a run in with Baba Yaga. . So your all set. Your second ritual is in the swamp. By using the glide spell Dr Cranium gave me (since he don't believe in magic and it's completely worthless to him) I traverse the foul swamp searching for the Chernovies guarding the tomb.

Found you!

The chernovies begin casting spells at you which you counter with a reversal spell, they in turn darken the whole screen so you cast juggling lights and they are in close combat position and... the game usually crashes. This is when I was forced to search for every single patch I could find, reinstall the game with them, copy over the save files, drag the cycles down to best which apparently was around 7000. Lower detail and I probably should have disabled sound as well, but I didn't have to. Then  you can enter close combat. Now stupid me couldn't figure out how to open the tomb the first time so I left the swamp and come back some time later and they were back and the game crashed again. This time I had to do some other tinkering with the controls to get it work, but I did it again and finally turned the dial correctly (apparently it was just moving it in order). I finally get out of the swamp with the bone ritual. Never again... until my paladin Roland comes around whenever that is. Next one is just beside the swamp, the obelisk just outside the Dark One's cave. Juggling Lights reveal something on the obelisk, but you need to capture the Will O' Wisps that are in the swamp at night, just Fetch them and store them in an empty flask. Show it for the obelisk and spell out Avoozl with the dark one's sign. Release the wisps and begin hunting wraiths since my funds are getting low. Get treasure, money and a new armour. Go to Baba Yaga who isn't pleased to see you, but will let you live if you bake a pie for her. Get some goo, a pie plate, some grinded bones and elderberries from the attacking bush. Cook it in the laser eyes of a guarding skull and voila. Also bring some goo or bone flour and you can get the gnomes humour back, a spell and another ritual that used to lie in the hangman tree. The gnome rewards you with the ultimate joke and I'm just two rituals away from finding them all. Oh yeah, and I burnt the monastery down. So what do I do now? Well, near Erana's garden at night some fairies hang out and they want Erana's staff. The staff is trapped in the stone in town and will only be released when a sacrifice of love have happened and they command me to make it happen. Really, the only place left is the castle, but I can't enter since the gatekeeper won't let me and at night it's crawling with necrotaurs. Doesn't matter that I can slay necrotaurs very easily with my spells. There must be another way. And of course there is. The castle used to belong to the Bargov family, the Boyars of Mordavia and their crypt is in the cemetery. Now, you can get from several people that there is a secret passage in the crypt to the castle. Several different ways depending on class or rather what the class is supposed to do. The one I can think of is a book in Nikolais home, perfect for a thief, but I got in there as mage first by telling him that his wife was dead and roamed the forest as a ghost so he pretty much went out and died... I feel awful for that. Then I just levitated up at night and searched his house. No ones there so I don't think I actually took a honour hit for that. Still, you also get a key for saving Igor, but as a wizard I just Open long before I'm supposed to go there. It leads to the crypt and a special crest in the floor with different colours. At first I thought I would have to find the answer, but in actuality I already knew it. I just didn't get it until I looked at the crypt door and it spelled out BORGOV and instantly it hit me. Blue, Orange, Red, Green, Orange and Violet. I feel damn smart for that. So I end up in the castle. In the top tower I find a monster called Toby and a little vampire girl... Tanya, the innkeepers daughter.

What sort of name is Toby for a monster anyway?

So she run away when her parents took a doll Toby gave her since they didn't know where it come from so Toby took care of her together with aunt 'trina. So if you get the doll she will tell you she misses her parents, but she can't go back due to how she is now. So you tell her of Erana's staff and that it can give life to her. Toby protest and wonders what it also does. And you tell him about sacrifice. Tanya doesn't understand, but Toby does. You bring them to the town square. You cast the spell of release the fairies gave you and it begins to speak. It outlines the rules that binds it and ask if Toby willingly and out of love will sacrifice himself for Tanya. He says yes and the staff takes his life force to give to her. This really gets me. It's the saddest part of the game. Even if Toby is a jerk throwing the door at my face all the time it feels sad. Tanya's cries and then when you take her home and the joy of her parents. GOD, I almost cries. 

TOBY NOOOO!!!

Then I take the staff to the fairies in the evening, but since the staff is bound to me now they try to pry it from my dead corpse. They underestimated the archmage Magus. Using the staff I throw Frostbite at the fairy queen Titania until she submits and disappear leaving behind another ritual. Now this also one of the buggy fights and I took of audio causing it to work properly. I hate the bugs. Still, it was a MAGIC DUEL. Sadly they tell you about your newest spell after the battle when you needed it. The Resistance spell which is good against spell casters, like the fairies and it only shows up when using the staff. Thanks for that game. Still, I return to the inn and get a message on my chest when I walk up from Katrina who wants to see me at the castle gate in the evening. On my way there after dark I'm intercepted by Ad Avis, the vizir I slayed in Trials by Fire and I saw at the end credits of Wages of War. He's alive... well, technically he isn't alive, rather undead actually, but you get what I mean. He set some necrotaurs on me and bring me to the castle dungeon and will leave me to finish me of tomorrow night. He puts me to sleep, but I awake some time later and it's still day. I unlock my bonds with the Open spell (feels like when I escaped the Rasierian prison) and takes the hammer and stake laying just beside me. Hmm, why would he give me the means of his destruction. I try to leave at the door, but it's locked and outside their is two goons standing guard. Don't want to mess with them. I take a look at the Iron Maiden and reveals a secret passage. I enter a chamber with a coffin in the end and inside is... Katrina?

You look... well... charming

Great, the cute woman is a vampire too. Really, all beautiful women in this valley always have a catch to them. She awakes and chain me up accusing me to kill her and stealing her child away. I try to pin it at Ad Avis, but she's still pissed. Although she still needs me and give me 3 nights to find the rituals and bring them to the castle. Had she just checked my backpack she would have found them all (she has the 6th ritual). I'm returned to the valley and since I'm pretty much finished I talk to the gypsies and Magda tells me her last fortune and I start to practice my magic. In the end the only maxed out spell is zap. The closest is Flame Dart, Force Bolt and Frostbite who are all above 300 while most of the others is somewhere around 250. Magic and Intelligence is maxed though so that means mana for 400 points. Third night approaches so I head out to the castle. Katrina congratulates me and take me to the Dark One's cave which I enter. The pit is now inhabited by a grotesque monster which apparently is the last Boyar who was the cult leader during the final battle. Before him lies a book which have a 7th ritual. I Calm the abomination and Fetch the book. Now, I can't let a monster like that live so I Frostbite to death. Didn't lose honour point. Apparently those are only affected if its humanoid. Magus Levitate down and then up to the top and enters the heart of the Dark One. You enters each chamber and have to reach each alter and perform each ritual and escape the traps unleashed by the Dark One awakening bit by bit. Last is the heart which opens up a chamber above it where I Levitate up and are joined by Ad Avis and Katrina. They force me to perform the last ritual to awaken Avoozl and just before I'm finished Ad Avis puts his diabolical plan in motions. First he attacks me forcing Katrina to attack him and due to that he can attack her freely. They are evenly matched but Ad Avis knows Katrina's weakness and prepares to attack me again. Katrina jumps between me and the spell and gets eaten by the Dark One who was attracted by the spell itself. Magus climbs up and prepares to finish Ad Avis once and for all. And here we are railroaded. Every class is supposed to use the Ultimate joke to distract Ad Avis. Then you use the staff. The wizard Summons it and throws an attack spell of choice which in my case was Force Bolt and it makes the Dark One swallow Ad Avis, just as it did Katrina. Why couldn't been a magic duel? I know it was a bit cheap in Trial by Fire just knocking out the fire so he fall of the tower, but come on. The demons where better done since it was unique for the wizard. I Summon Staff, catch the demon's attention with a Flame Dart and then the demon stole my staff and I used Trigger on it. It felt so smart. It was magic overload and almost a wizard 101 course, and the demon failed it. Here everyone makes Ad Avis laugh. It felt unfulfilling. Doesn't help that after this the most evil bug appears. As a wizard you have to Summon the Staff since you need it to free Erana's spirit so she can finish of Avoozl. Now, if you don't adjust something in the game you can't cast the spell since you are to busy. So you reach the end, have one action left to finish the game and the game won't let you. How did I solve this, by throwing a Force Bolt at the edge of the screen which often triggers shutdown, or if I'm lucky enables to get the staff so I can end the game. GOD!

I wonder if Erana's really worth it

Anyway, 3 weeks later everyone celebrates my deeds and some conclusions to the different stories, but who comes along if not Erasmus and Fenris shows up to get me to Silmaria since it's in need of a hero. Magus the Archmage wanders on. This game... it's both the best in the series so far as well as the worst. The story's great, the puzzles are great, the voice acting superb, the map fun to explore compared to the Savannah and there is actually something in it compared the Desert. And the music, atmospherical... but the bugs GOOD GOD! Game breaking bugs from start to finish, and the ending battle with Ad Avis was a bit anticlimactic as described above. Funny enough apparently the reason why few try the wizard through all games is due to this game where most bugs happen uniquely for the wizard. Even though I like these graphics it seems the jump from the old engine in the original 1 and 2 to the one used in 3 and 4 (as well as the remake of 1) caused more trouble, but I guess it was more due to not enough time to test and make sure these things wouldn't happen. I'm glad I played it the first time now with the internet and unofficial patches to take away some problems together with dos emulators making it possible to simulate slower cpu cycles. And I'm not even a technical wiz kid and I still got it to work thank god. Unfortunately I've heard that Quest for Glory 5: Dragon's Fire is a completely different beast to get working so let's see if I can get it running.

Quest for Glory III: Wages of War: Wizard Edition

I HAVE THE POWER!!!

We left Magus after ridding the world of Ad Avis by making him fall down the balcony and as a reward Magus was appointed prince of Shapier.  After a couple of months Aziza the enchantress summons you and Rakeesh since the land of Tarna is in dire need of Rakeesh due to a peace mission failed and the  diplomats were ambushed and killed by what is assumed to be one of the parties, the leopardmen. The one leading the peace mission was Rakeesh daughter. Rakeesh's wife creates a portal for you, Uhura and Rakeesh to make a trip over 1000 miles south to the Savannah. There you get aquatinted with the locals. And here a big problem with being a wizard appears. You can't use magic in the villages since both the people of Tarna and Simbani fears magic. Only the Leopardmen use it and they are nobodies friend.... Great!

Feels like I'm back in Rasier

Interestingly there's not much to do in the city of Tarna. I can wander the bazaar and pretty much stop a theft, change my money and pretty much buy up everything I need with the money I already got. There's no magic to buy and the only new three spells are acquired by reading the paper of a present I was given in the intro cutscene, giving some magic wood to Rakeesh's wife and talking to a Leopardman... or in this case Leopardwoman. You meet a hippie in the Apothecary and tell him about Julinar to resolve that thread and are given yet another quest for dispel potions. And no healing pills until you found a feather from a honey bird. In the Inn you can find the only survivor of the peace mission and he can only tell you that he survived only thanks to Rakeesh's daughter keeping the attackers at bay. Only description he gives is red eyes in the dark and claws clawing after him. This is actually a creepy scene as the dialog clearly states how this man is on the brink of insanity. Sadly by talking to him he dies the very next day. And it's also setting up a really good who did it story since the description points at the Leopardmen with the claws and all that. A pity Rakeesh spoils everything with his talk of demons as the obvious culprit.

It's as if the game think I couldn't have figured it out without being smacked on the head with the answer.

After a while you leave Tarna with Rakeesh and travels the Savannah to the Simbani village where they tell you the problem. Apparently their Spear of Death have been stolen, but they acquired the Drum of Magic from the Leopardmen. I'm just guessing here, but it seems the vice versa happened for the Leopardmen. That is the origin of the conflict. So you travel the jungle and savannah trying to find certain location like the Pool of Water, the Great Tree etc. And here we come to another problem with the game, some locations are randomly generated. The Honey bird area? Randomly generated. The blue orchid, which you need to find to get magic wood and is a requirement to get the summon staff spell and trigger the next part of the game, also randomly generated. Also, their is no clear indication in the map for obvious points on the map. I would greatly have preferred a circle with an image which I could click and there I was. This also means that there is random encounters closer to an normal rpg game and it is a bit annoying to travel on the vast map when you are interrupted constantly. Ah well, getting the spell triggers the capture of a Leopardman and you must get him to reveal where their village is. Which is what you need the dispel potion for... and I just realised what I might have needed 3 for when I only used 1 in the whole game, bad on me I guess. Sill, you use it on the Leopardman and...

He is a woman?

Ok, alright. Suddenly this turns into woo the bride and I gotta do it before the rest of the tribe tries. Why they would marry one of their ancient enemies I don't know. Now, had you been a fighter/paladin you would have to be initiated as a warrior of the tribe, now I'm just a wizard so I can just buy her for 1 spear, 5 zebra skins and 1 fine robe. Of course, this doesn't sit well with modern standard so I have to woo her the old ways. Buying her stuff. A carving, some beads and my fine dagger. Now I gotta release her, but her I stumbled a bit, Uhura wouldn't let me. Apparently I had to wait until night when another guard watched. Since he didn't speak my languish I pretty much ignored him. I followed Johari into the desert and called out to her and she pretty much berated me for being stupid and what not. I assured her I just wanted to be friends. So in practicality I just friend zoned her. After some tries she teach me another spell and take me to her village. We wait for nightfall and in the meantime make out... great friend zone I say. You watch the shape-shifting ceremony and enters the village and are more or less forced to enter a magic duel against the village shaman.

Another magic duel, I love these!

The whole duel is to counter the spells of the shaman without reusing the same spells so one use only. Of course, wouldn't reversal work for the whole duel? Anyway, you win and suddenly the shaman summons a demon and gets possessed and I killed him... now I assume I could have used a dispel potion on him to avoid killing the village shaman. Still... magic battle to the death. Since you have proven yourself worthy as a magic user you are allowed to make the exchange of the spear and drum and the leader of the tribes are brought to Tarna to seek an understanding. 

Peace in our time!

Now, one of the demons possessed the leader of the Leopardmen and killed the leader of the Simbani. The Liontaures are pissed so you escape the capital and rushes toward the Lost City in the east to confront the demons as Rakeesh did 15 years ago. You are led there by a monkey you saved in the jungle and are brought to the ape village where you pursued him to show you the way to the Lost City. Traversing a waterfall you enter the City crawling with Apemen, the courage of the talking monkey falters and he stays behind. Magus Fetch a crystal eye and open a secret passage that leads him behind some jailer demons. The obvious solution is to Calm them, walk past them and Open the prison door. Inside you find Rakeesh's daughter still alive, but a demon possess her and here is where I probably should have used the third and last dispel potion. Instead it was a MAGIC BATTLE TO DEATH! Sadness, despair as the young liontaur falls to the ground. Suddenly an Ankh appears before me and out steps Uhura, Johari... the thief I talked to in Tarna... a Simbani warrior I hardly interacted with and Rakeesh. Rakeesh saves his daughter. All my "friends" have come to put an end to the demons... except the thief who chickens out and instead the monkey returns and takes his place. We enter another room while Rakeesh and Uhura stays behind with the thief to stop the demons from interrupting us. We enter a hall of mirrors and you know what that means.

Evil Doppelgängers

Everyone starts to fight, but it would take to long to defeat these mirrored versions and in the last minuet the thief backstabs my shadow and hands me some pills and tells me to go onward. I'm now confronting the demon summoner who tries to bring all demons through the portal with the use of a magic crystal. I summon my staff and fires a Bolt in his back. He Fetch my staff, but I remember what Rakeesh's wife told me when I created the staff, don't Trigger it since it would unleash all the magic within it. So that's exactly what I do and the the staff explodes in his hand and he is unmade. AWESOME! But the portal is still up and I need to destroy it. And here is where the game seems to glitch out on me. I tried to throw a Lightning Bolt on the crystal, but it got sucked up. At that point it wouldn't allow me doing anything else and my cursor was stuck as a scarab. So I had to reload. I guess it was supposed to show the failure screen, but somehow it didn't work. Not the first time it craps out. Several times when exiting an area the hero turns back to the previous screen without me doing anything and when I returned to Tarna the sun just wouldn't set even though it was in the middle of the night. Lastly when I "bought" Johari the tribal chief seemed to get a stroke cause he constantly wondered what I was doing in his hut and the game wouldn't let me leave. I might not have cared so much if the last game didn't play so well, but is not actually fair since that game was made in the 2000's and not released until they were happy with it while this game probably had a deadline. Anyway, I destroy the crystal with a Flame Dart since that one was maxed out and I return to my friends who all survived the ordeal. They all celebrate when dark magic suddenly envelops me and we are shown a screen of Ad Avis with fangs and what must be his dark master. To Be Continued!

Well, they look happy to see me

It was a fun game. I probably knew the least about this game and probably helped by the randomness of several events. Also this appears to be the game where they really differentiated between the classes compared to before where the skills you possessed determined what you could do. I feel though I hardly had to grind. I didn't max out magic or intelligence on this one and the only spell I recall getting 300 was Flame Dart (maybe Force Bolt as well) and still there never was any problem finishing the task with my magic. Still. hated I couldn't train my magic in the cities and when I did it at the Savannah like in the Pool of Water or the Great Tree it didn't seemed to affect anything. I used the spells, but my mana never drained and my skill points never went up. No time limit so I probably could have trained my skills if I wanted to, but there was really no point. Most important skills to train as wizard is magic and intelligence to get more mana and at this point it hardly matters since I got enough mana for most things and sleeping replenish it all thank god. Also some have complained that the demon plot was kinda bad, but I liked it and the only problem as stated is that it should have been more subtle and not until the Leopardmen village would blame have been shifted to the demons. But no, Rakeesh says it at once, the demons are at work. Could have been done better. Let's see if I can get Shadow of Darkness to work.

Quest for Glory: The Song of Roland: part 1

He's our Hero!

So before continuing with the third game I thought on replay it quickly with a fighter and set up a paladin game through just for the fun of it. It goes fine until I start the endless grinding to reach 100 in strength and such to beat the sword master. Doing so led me to a bug and since I thought I only needed one save I overwrote my one and only save. It was playable, but I couldn't see my stats which meant I couldn't grind since I couldn't tell how high level I had so I thought I could skip to the end by finishing the game. F***ing bandits killed me in an instant. So I gave up on that project and restarted and used a little cheat. By putting 6 points in magic and then just diminish it I gave myself enough points to boost all skills to hundred (the main fighter skills that is). Magic was like -400 and I've even had minus magic points. If the game breaks I cheat. Anyway back to my new character. I named him Roland after one of Charlemagne's paladins. Fitting since the characters main goal is to become a paladin. So in the first game biggest difference is that you are pushed to defeat the enemies head on. Also since you can't climb you relay more on throwing stones on objects, to call on attention and so on. Also the fight with the kobold is just laughable as you walk back and forth in the cave while stabbing him.

Blond-haired Fighter tour de force!

After that it isn't until the attack on the brigands fortress it matters as a fighter since you should have enough strength and vitality to run past their arrows and jump over the barricade fighting of the brigands behind that followed by the Minoutar after that. The rest of the game pretty much works the same. So after saving Spielburg I exported the character and Imported him to the next game, although  honestly I was a bit worried due to my negative skill numbers, but it worked out. The only side effect is that my magic skill somehow ended up at 36 meaning I could use magic if I wanted to, but an honourable paladin doesn't use the arcane arts against non-magic users. So in Shapeir it's basically the same deal as any other character. The differences comes in that you are supposed to show who's boss when it comes to Issur. No sneaking around and stealing the bellows, here you beat him in arm wrestling and are given the thing. Before using it in the element of wind I went to the oasis and was able to catch a little blue frog.

Be vevy very quiet, I'm hunting fvogs

The thing is that the blue frog enables a debug mode if you finish the game with full points and then start a new or important character where you can mix and match around with inventory, skills and such. So basically cheat. Still, I return to the city and continue the story. I also took the time playing a side quest in finding Sweeping Sir James, a brigand who graffitied the walls of Shapeir with his whereabouts and if you find him you get to fight him. At this point I've already maxed out all of my base skills so I crank the fighting difficulty up to max and here is where the new game shines and especially with a fighter character. It's fun fighting enemies and executing the different combo attacks. Of course this isn't recommended when walking the desert to get money since the fights take to long and drain your stamina all to fast. But special fights like this one and Uhura is rather fun. Blocking, parry, dodging and executing combos. Anyway, repeating the actions to find Sweeping Sir James and defeating him 4 times net you the warriors journal where you record every battle and the different attacks the different enemies does. Nothing differs from the last playthrough until the Earth Elemental shows up. Now last time I threw Flame Darts until he exploded, here I can't do that  (even though I have Flame Dart due to the special import/export procedure). Talking to Rakeesh you are able to wield his sword Soulforge, a sword on fire. Time for some Earth hunting!

I HAVE THE POWER!

Searching the streets and then entering close combat on the elemental is real fun. A pity that even though he telegraphs his move I had a hard time escaping them so it's usually a fist of earth right in the face throwing me up in the air. But when you get the battle on and he erupts in flames is rather satisfying. After that nothing happens until day 12/13 when mysterious notes begins appearing at the Adventure Guild. It culminates the night before the last day when you are directed to a back ally door and are knocked down and chained to the wall. A swordsman appears and you tries to release yourself from the bonds. You break the bonds, dodge the first attack and run past him toward a sword on the other side and the fight is on. Suddenly a new mechanic is thrown at you as you lock swords and pushing the right commands you can punch your opponent. After a hard fight voices are heard that congratulates you and ask for you to kill the swordsman.Now I did the honourable thing and said no. Issur and a couple of other people appear and bemoans you not following orders, but you still get in Eternal Order of Fighters (EOF) for a 5 dinar price and you all party until morning comes around on the last day in Shapeir. The special thing for today is that you can challenge Rakeesh on a one-on-one fight. Truly you can test your mettle and even get a glimpse on how a paladin fights. This ends the Shapeir portion and it's on to Rasier. To break out of prison the recommended action is to force open the door. Then in the forbidden city you apply force to the wind tunnel or something like that. Also, jump down from the ledge and then get to the ring. This also differs a lot (and probably might do the other classes as well) since depending on which skills to give a boost to I was able to achieve varied combos to my attacks. That was neat actually. So back in Rasier and the storming of the palace. First just straight up attack the guards at the door. And this time we have an advanced 3 side battle. Afterwards throw a dagger at the patrolling eunuch and break down the door. Jump down from the balcony and start the fight with Khaveen.

En Guarde!

First part is scripted in that you loose your sword and he demands you to yield which you refuse three times and as he is about to strike you down you leap forward and grab your sword. The fight continues and you get the upper hand and Khaveen drops his sword. Since he is a filthy coward without honour you don't even ask him to yield, but to pick up his sword to continue the fight. And then the real fight starts. He knows pretty much the same tactics as you and the same skill. And again, thanks to the very good battle system, if you max the difficulty you feel well rewarded by defeating him. It feels like a good fantasy action movie. Break through the door (either throwing rocks or knifes to trigger the trap or just man up and take the explosion head on) and it's the final confrontation with Ad Avis. And I gotta say, compared to the magicians path it feels rather anticlimactic. Just rush past a candle to make it break the spell and go near Ad Avis and a circle of flame surrounds him. With enough health it's just walking past it and go forward to push Ad Avis down the balcony. The wizard dual was way cooler, but I'm guessing the fighter centric path was more rewarding for the fight with Khaveen. Anyway the games finished and with a total score of... 497? You mean to tell me I missed 3 points? WHAT DID I MISS? GOD DAMMIT and that means carrying the blue frog around the whole game was pointless. Do I have to play it again? No, I saved the paladin run, but screw that. I will finish the third game first. Maybe then play as a thief to get the damn frog again. If that doesn't succeed I have to play as a damn wizard again since I apparently could get maxed out there. Lucky I still got the save from Quest for Glory 1. Damn points.

Doin' the Omoralisk Schlagerfestival '16 (4)

It's over for this time. I pretty much skipped the second chance and re-listening to all the finalist there is pretty much 2-3 songs that I remember was memorable, but forgot the moment the show ended. And still wrong song won. I don't understand the appeal of the winning song. First, the very stage show is so boring they constantly cuts to crowd area footage. I mean, he just stands there in pretty much ordinary cloths. He has some screen with figures and words flowing back and forth. Then the song itself is also boring, I can't still remember that one. And don't get me started on the number 2 song. A damn country song, the one with the best stage show I admit, but the song was pretty bad. Not until number 3 was the one I actually liked, both song and show. And obviously the international jury awarded that song the highest points (admittedly by 1 point over the winner), but the people has no taste. The hell? And I can't hardly suspect voting fraud even if SVT probably would like to send a bad song as to not win again, but for some reason that song has topped Spotify listenings so apparently that was the song people liked to listen to. I say it again, the Swedish people has no taste, it's a wonder we won anything since 2003 Eurovision showed we clearly didn't understand that Belgium's song was the best song that year compared to Turkey's.

Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire: Wizard Edition

Original game, I played the remake

So finishing of the the last game you are able to import your character into the next, stats and part of your inventory. You start pretty much right after arriving in Shapeir. There you found out that it's sister city Raseir have fallen into darkness as the old emir have been overthrown and the Katta was driven away. So that is why the Kattas in Speilburg searched for a hero and it's you who answered the call. Also I changed my name since Niklas isn't much of a wizard name so now I'm known as Magus.

Well, he has the red cape

So how do you get to Raseir? There's a caravan in 16 days so you go around and do whatever you want until then. But first you need a map of the city, unfortunately your money isn't worth a cent since it's the wrong currency so you need to find the moneychanger. That resides in the city... which you need a map to find your way in. Obviously there was originally a map in the manual and apparently many missed asking for directions meaning many thought this was a copy protection measure. After a quick change you have enough money to buy everything you need. So mostly you explore the city and the desert. Desert... I hate those since I played King's Quest. Lucky there is really only 4 locations in the desert within a 11 x 8 grid (although the desert is infinite to the west and east... or at least it feels like it) and if you wanders of track or lose your bearings the saurus you are riding can bring you back to town in an instant. The city is more interesting. Filled with Katta merchants who sell you useful things or just decorations for your room at the inn. At the Adventure's Guild you can meet Rakeesh a Liontaur (yes that is a half man - half lion) and the Simbani warrior Uhura and her son Simba. You can train with Uhura to max out your fighting skills... which I was almost able to do during the course of the game. There's the blacksmith Issur who mostly is an ass. The magic shop owner Kaepon Laffin. The Apothecary owner Harik Attar. The Astrologer Abu al-Njun and finally the Enchantress Aziza. There's also the beggar and poet Omar and his companion, but they don't have fixed location. And of course the Saurus repair shop, but that is for the remake only and don't have any purpose at all.

Well, that is interesting... I guess

The desert as mentioned only have 4 locations. The oasis with the Dervish, a hermit. The griffin's nest  with a sleeping griffin. A humanoid shaped withered tree and lastly a caged animal (this one I figured doesn't appear until a certain point in the story). So those are all locations and people of Shaper... what do you do? Basically you actually wait for the caravan so train with Uluru, fight monsters in the desert to get components to sell to Harik or just get some money from Jackalmen or Brigands. If you are a wizard like me you can play some magical games with Keapon Laffin or search for WIT that you were told exist in the city in the last game. Playing the game is rather important though since it's probably the best way to train some of your magical skills to max as well regaining your mana cause after 3 successful wins every win leads to Keapon restoring your mana and since there is no Erana's peace to use in this game that is the best option. Then WIT (Wizard's Institute of Technocery). If you look at the map you might guess where it is, but there is also another way of doing it, just cast Detect Magic in the streets and a magic arrow will appear and show you the way. You will end up at a dead end and using it again will reveal a door which you cast Open on and reveal a portal to WIT.

Merlin? And Hudini?

Here you are asked to chose a sponsor that can support your acceptance into a wizard. The only one willing is Erasmus... you shall not feel that confident. First you must prove your abilities to Erasmus by solving his magic riddle with the spells you have. Then you must solve the four elemental wizards challenges to be accepted. They are not that hard... especially since my skills was maxed out from the last game and that is pretty sufficient for this test. After that you are appointed as wizard and given the choice to further your training by locking yourself away at WIT and giving up being a hero. The answer is rather obvious cause if you can't make a difference, what's the point of having powers? The others are perplexed you said no while Erasmus congratulations you on this wise decision. You return back to Shapeir and can now play another game with Aziza. And you make all this in one day... it's gonna be a long time until the 16th day. Lucky for us, already at day 6 something happens. A fire elemental is attacking the city so it's up to you to stop it. Aziz tells you in short you need to best the elemental with a contrary element and capture it with a suitable "prison". So this is fire... a lamp. And Harik gives you some incense to make it leave the open space and there you douse it in water and captures it. A pity I don't have some water spells, then it could have been a battle for the ages. A couple of days later there is the wind element. Throw dirt at it, but how to capture it? Issur have a  bellow above his shop so you ask. The prick challenge you to a arm wrestling contest. I'm a wizard and the town is in peril and you want me to wrestle for it? Forget that! At night I'm back, Levitate and steal the bellow for the cities greater good. So suck it air elemental. Next up is earth who walks the streets harassing the innocent. It's weak to fire so I pick up a sack and goes to hunt elementals. I corner him in an ally and begins hurling Flame Darts at him and before he can reach me he's turned to rubble so I pick him up. Now we can also finishing of some side quests. The caged beast is now in place and you find out that is really a man enchanted so you must break the spell by creating a dispel potion. Harik has all but two ingredients. A griffin feather and a fruit of compassion. The griffin is just take from the nest while the fruit needs a little more. First is finding the tree in the desert. Aziz tells you that this is Juliana, a healer that tried to escape brigands and a djinn turned her into a tree. So you must restore her spirit so you have to care for her, giving her water, give her a sense of purpose by telling your own journey to become a hero and help people and reminding her why she become a healer and then use the earth elemental to nourish her and give her back her name. The tree will be restored and as thanks she gives you the fruit of compassion. The thing is, you can't restore her human form, that can only someone who truly loves her. That is pretty good story telling in that you can do much as a hero, but not everything.

So suddenly I'm a tree hugger

With the fruit Harik creates the dispel potion and you administer it to the beast and we find out he was an apprentice to Ad Avis... who was one of the portraits at WIT. Seems we have the name of our antagonist. Anyway, there is one elemental left, water. Which is weak to wind so just blows it away from the fountain into a water sack (this one Aziza actually tells you when first mentioning capturing the elementals). That's done and we finally reach day 16. Pack your things and out unto the desert with the caravan as all the Kattas wish you luck and thanks you for saving them from the elementals. You're of, led by a centaur without name or face. But suddenly a brigand appears on the top of a cliff and hundreds of brigands attack you in the pass. The dust swirls everywhere and when the dust settles...

He was a Magic Man, holy fighter in an ancient war, a light in the darkness shining forever more!

Awesome! We arrive in Raseir, a dictatorial Orwellian nightmare where guards patrol the streets and if you have water or no visa they will imprison you without pardon... or if you break any of the rules that are constantly shown around the city. At the Blue Parrot you are introduced to Signor Ferrari, the mafia underground leader and Ugarte the informant and water smuggler. Apparently Ad Avis knew you were coming and you are being watched so better be careful. Next day while walking down the fountain Ugarte is captured by the guard and dragged away shouting for you to save him, but with blades right at the throat you can only watch in horror as he is dragged away. Walking back you are called into an ally by a woman (kids, be very careful in real life if that happens). She takes you to meet the deposed Emir's niece (and incidentally the current figurehead Emirs daughter) that want to escape the city to avoid getting married to the captain of the guard that has been harassing you from the start and took Ugarte away. So you give her your spare clothes and your visa so she can catch up with the caravan.

Wish I got the X-ray glasses now

You head back to the Blue Parrot, but Ferrari is sensing the noose around his neck so he sells you out and the next day leaving the inn leads to instant capture and you are thrown into the dungeons with a Katta. This is your friends cousin who leads the underground resistance, but he was caught when someone betrayed him. You gain his trust by showing him a pin you were given by the jeweller in Shapeir that only friends can see. Now, the guards is really stupid since they took my things, but I'm a  wizard with 200 skill points in the Open spell so take that. The Katta shows you a secret door and you are back in the city so you split up as he is preparing the resistance to launch an attack on the palace. You try to stay hidden, but as you leave the ally you are cornered by Ad Avis that hypnotise you into doing your bidding. He takes you to the Forbidden City where Suleiman fought Iblis and entombed him. This feels like it was inspired by Disney's Aladdin... if the movie didn't come out two years later. Really, you are sent in to retrieve Iblis by solving some puzzles and don't touch any treasures cause greed will lead to your fall... into a pit you can't escape. Making your way through the four trails you enters the final chamber and tries to grab Iblis, but Ad Avis teleports in and takes it before you can touch it, he destroys the door and teleports out. I guess he needed me to pinpoint where Iblis was, but still, why couldn't he done this himself? I know I know, the prophecy told him it would be me, but still. Anyway, I'm stuck and wanders around for some time until I see a ring gleaming in the darkness... or reflecting the light my magic lamp emits. The ring of course contains a genie (same as in the actual Aladdin) and he gives me 3 wishes. So two status boost and a teleportation back to Raseir where Ad Avis is preparing the ritual. The resistance is soon ready and I rush toward the palace. I Dazzle the guards and Levitate up to the balcony and rush inside. Before Ad Avis I see the captain of the guard and I put a Calm spell over him so he leaves while I Levitate down and Triggers a trap by the door and then opens it and rushes inside.

The stage is set, you're going down Ad Avis!

The stone gargoyle lungs at me, but a Trigger spell makes him collapse, I cast Reverse on myself and Fetch one of the candles to break the ritual. Ad Avis ends up turning the captain of the guard into a snake. While preparing a final deadly spell I sneak toward the side and throws a Force Bolt at the fire stand which makes Ad Avis catch on fire and fall to his death. Hero of Spielburg is now also Hero of Shapeir... and Raseir I guess. I'm brought back to Shapeir by my Katta friends and taken to the sultan who was Omar the Poet. My great deeds are recounted and as thanks I'm made prince of Shapeir and Rakeesh even gives me the option to become a Paladin... which I decline since I'm a wizard. The Wizard Magus.

Compared to the first game, I actually never finished it. I came as far as the earth or water elemental, but since I missed to pick up Omar's purse and give it back, which would have cost me the Paladin hood, I never finished it, until now that is. On the other hand I've watched PawDugan's LP on this game, but he played as a Thief and that is one of the reasons I choose magician since that doesn't seem as the most common class. And it's fun throwing Force Bolts and Flame Darts that eat up more than half the enemies HP. A pity the combat seems to favour the fighter since the monsters are constantly at your throat and you need room to cast a spell. Of course just put the difficulty slider way down and it becomes manageable. Improvements from last game (this might be unfair since this is a remake from the 2000's , but still applies) is the talk tree. Not until you actually have a reason to ask it a subject appears. For example the elementals. Either until you yourself see it or are told about can you ask the various important NPC's about them. Otherwise you could probably get most story points in one day. Speaking of days, that is probably one of the complaints I have about the game and that is that it takes to long to get to day 16, but that's probably my play style. You can sleep through most of the days, but if you don't train you will be defeated rather quickly. But still. In one day I was able to max out my dodge skill that was in it 40's when I imported the character and ending the game the lowest skill was agility with 160 or something like that. Of course the genie actually allowed you to have 2 skills at 250, but I only got one over 200 and that was strength since that is a skill that easily falls behind and still is important due to how much you can carry, max health and stamina. And leveling up the spells are chore. You don't have an instant mana refill unless you finish the magic games, but you need around 75-100 mana for a match. Lucky those games still exist though since they take care of 7 of the 10 spells in the game. At least I'm ready to level them up next game with 39 mana pills to bring over. The thing is, the 16 days is probably more for those starting from scratch to even have a chance to succeed these trails. Maybe I should bring over a fighter and a thief before starting Quest for Glory III: Wages of War? Just to see the other perspectives.

Quest for Glory I: So You want to be a Wizard?

The original game... I played the VGA remake

Quest for Glory, the series that tells the tale of a hero traversing the world and saving people wherever he goes. First game and I played this game once before when I 100 % all stats with a wizard hybrid (since he alone had a spell that no one else had). Due to my external hard drive failure I lost the save I used then so I started again and I was gonna play as a fighter hybrid since I wanted to be a Paladin... but my first try ended when I was forced to throw the save away due to a very bad kitty where I saved just when he was about to catch me.

Oh nice kitty... NO YOU ARE RUINING MY SAVE

So I started over, but after playing up to that point and saving the Baronet I didn't feel it so I restarted again. This time as the magic user Niklas maxed out in magic and bringing fear to all monsters of Spielburg. Catch is no other skills than the original. No mass grinding either so only skill maxed out in the end is Magic. And so enjoyable the game is when I'm forced to use only magic (a pity the spell points drain so fast). The sound of flame darts as it hits its target is really satisfying. 

Our magician enters the town of Spielburg

So the story is that the Hero is coming to Spielburg right after the snow blocks the path (creating a closed environment... in story as well). The neighbourhood is run over by monster and brigands while the Baron suffers from a curse and the loss of his two children. So it's your job to expel the evils in the valley. You finds the baronet transformed into a bear in a kobolds cave and after an epic duel of arcane arts you free him from the shackles turning him into his usual self. The daughter is harder to find so you turn your attention to the brigands harassing tourist, merchants and the citizens. Eavesdropping on local thug Bruno you learn that he works with a brigand so you kill the brigand with a flame dart and steals the key to the brigands fortress secret entrance... why I did that I don't know since my magic spell open should handle it.

Open? No? Mellon? No? Open Sesame? No? Please?

So after a while I enter and walks the dark passage and find me confronted by a minotaur... or more his back. One calm spell and then open on the gate and I'm inside the fortress. Traversing traps and fighting of some brigands and an insane warlock I stand face to face with the brigands leader. In my hand I have a dispel potion the healer brew for me after a dryad gave me a recipe. It's Elsa. She and the jester that protected her as a warlock escaped while I take a magic mirror and some potions and head out to fight the one starting all these problems. The ogress Baba-Yaga. Armed with dagger and magic I enter her hut and are promptly turned into a frog. To save my life I had to pick up a mandrake root from the graveyard at midnight... when it's filled with ghost and zombies. Avoiding death with help from the healers potions I returned triumphant to Baba-Yagas hut... and are promptly turned into a frog again. She get the root and cast me out as thanks. A bit displeased I return, turn my magic mirror at her and her frog spell backfires and turn her into frog so she fly away in her hut with me left in Spielburg. I'm titled Hero of Spielburg and flies of to Shapeir with my friends from the inn.

Hero of Spielburg

So how do you play it? Well, the skills increase with use so start throwing those firedarts or zap spells so they end up comfortably above 50. That's the pity with the spells in that they need separate training. Which probably makes the wizard the hardest to level up. The thief easiest with the fighter medium. Really, there's eight spells that all need to be used individually. If that wasn't enough you never have enough mana to really get it going. Not until the end that is when you have above 80 mana points due to maxed out magic skill and decently high intelligence. And you need a lot of gold to to buy mana potions to level that up, meaning you need to get good in killing enemies, sadly the wizard sucks at it due to low strength which means I'm relaying on magic... which I never have enough of. Maybe I will grind more for the end as you can transfer the save to the next game in the series... I might do that. Damn magic. Some bad things about the game is that the music is almost non-existent, especially during the end sequence so I'm guessing there's a fault in my configuration of the game. Also even though I like the simplified chose what to ask I can be a bit bummed that I know subjects before I'm told of it. Also, why can't I sell all items at once instead of having to click again and again to sell components and flasks to the healer? Why can't I sell back potions I don't know either? Small annoying things. Things worth mentioning is also the characters of Erasmus and Erana. Erasmus is a local wizard who is on the more weird side together with his rat familiar Fenrir. They don't do much other than tell me about the magic mirror, let me play a game and how to be initiated as a wizard. Setting up future plot development more or less. Erana is another story. She's hinted as being this strong spell caster that protected the world by setting up areas of peace. In this game the town and a clearing is under her protection, but she disappeared long ago. I need to replay it some more later on with the other characters.