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.