Quest for Glory...VI???
So I couldn't get Quest for Glory V: Dragon's Fire to work due to some file issues and I have to fix it someday, but I still had this craving for a similar styled game so I had this free game to try out. You can find it on the company Crystal Shard's website. Of course it only works on Windows, but throw it inside a wine wrapper and it works flawlessly on the Mac. Back to the game it works pretty much like the Quest for Glory games, with just some other skills like herbalism and a completely different spell list. Also they introduced other effects like frostbite... no not the spell from Quest for Glory IV, but the actual condition frostbite. In this game shown as a snow flake which drains your stamina if you stay out in the snow to long so basically don't wander out for to long if you can't stop it. Luckily I'm a sorceress supreme which with Flame Aura can banish the cold from my body... which I didn't figure out until chapter 3. You achieve that effect by using it on yourself. Wished I knew that in chapter 1 as I was running round in circles to find a fire to warm myself beside.
Well, that's one alternative
So you start the game as usual, name your character, choose your class between warrior, sorceress and rouge, assign points and send her away. Yes, in this game you are a woman and nothing wrong with that. You are travelling the world of Midgar and during an avalanche caused by the two-headed troll Thrivaldi you are knocked out and taken to the city (or town... or village) Fornsigtuna where you wake up. The land is caught in the Fimbulvinter, the great winter that forbodes Ragnarök, the twilight of the gods. If you haven't guessed it by all the names already the game draws inspiration from norse mythology. Anyway, so it's in the middle of an overly long winter meaning food is scarce so my Sorceress Sasha has to walk out in the city gates to find food all the time watching the stamina bar and avoiding the local enemies and monsters. I think it took somewhere around 10 deaths before I mapped out the starting area and finally found some roots to gnaw on (hint for new players, they are 1 screen south from the gate, geez). Now, used to the Glory-series the character usually eats automatically when need arises and you have rations on you. Here I have to do it manually. It took me until evening to figure it out since your character won't go to sleep if hungry so after clicking everything I finally grasped the food system.
The standard classes
Finally I can sleep and the next morning I meet the Jarl that gives me a magic map (this is probably the best improvement this game does on this formula since it maps out where I've been and also show important landmarks in the different squares making it getting lost impossible... wish I could turn of the "here is the story figures") and some rations. So they let you out to stop the Fimbulvinter. You meet the three Norns that tell you of the eminent Ragnarok in the hands of Egther, the last frost giant in Midgard and the likely cause of this winter. Basically he's imprisoned in a fort in this area and needs the two Eyes of Thiassi to release him (or making it possible for a human to kill him). The eyes are guarded by the leaders of the two townes in the area and this is kicked of as you rescue the leader of the other city from dying in the snow after a fight with Thrivaldi. Meanwhile Thrivaldi kidnapps the smiths boy and they take him to Svartalfheim and you have to save him as well. Doing so opens up the city of the Svartalfs and to get the eyes you have to get the people in the first two cities to vouch for you. Mostly by doing them a favour like finding their cat, rescuing them from jail or work as a matchmaker. You do the good deeds and get the eyes and heads toward the keep where you are ambushed by Thrivaldi. Since the troll(s?) believed himself the smartest he would prove this by... tying me up at a rock infused with the Aesir's (the norse gods) blessing rune. First a wolf comes by, but apparently it only wants honey... must have missed that part in the mythology class. Then it's just releasing yourself with a blessing on the rock and you are free and dawn approaches and as we all know trolls don't stand the sun that well.
Beware THE DOOM SQUIRREL!
You enter the keep and Egther literary throws you to the wolves, in the shape of Fenrir, the wolf that will devour the moon. Of course 2 lightning bolts slays the beast that bit Tyr's hand... which lies right beside me actually. Blink out and we are faced with a paradox puzzle from Escape from Monkey Island. You see yourselves, she does some action and say some phrases and hands you an mystical item. You enters a portal which shows you the destruction of Fornsigtuna by the hands of the Jotun where you have to take a bag with a seed from one of Idunn's apples and a ice key that hanged in the Jarl's throne room. You then ends up at the magical garden as it is created. Plant the seed to get the apple in the present to save the sick guild master (which you already done). And don't take anything cause it will cause a paradox so severe it boots you to the title screen instead of the restart/restore/quit screen. And lastly you return to the present where you now must redo the exact sequence when you found your doppelgänger and pass by to the door of Egther. Save outside is recommended since the endgame battle is impossible to save between and it's time to start the epic MAGIC DUEL TO DEATH!!!
It's rather similar to the duel with the Shaman in Quest for Glory III especially when Egther opens a hole right under me where I have to blink out which compares to the use of the Leviate spell. Basically trial and error until you get it, but more and more irritating the further you get since you can't save scum the answer so you start over and over again. I also got stuck when Egther summons a blizzard. First thought Arctic Wind to dispel it, but no, I'm frozen solid. So maybe Flame Aura? No, frozen solid. I couldn't think on what to do so I checked it up and the answer was Sixth Sense. Which I actually used before in another blizzard while saving the child. Good foreshadowing, a pity I couldn't remember it. That's basically most problem I have had with the puzzles. I can't remember how my spells works. Or I just don't know. The blessing spell gives me extra luck and I need it to get a fish while fishing in a ice hole. This is also the point when I realise I could use spells on myself and get bonuses like Flame Aura and Blessing. Well, that's just a side note so let's return to the Egther battle. So how do you defeat a Frost Giant when your only flame spell is Flame Aura that don't do hardly anything beside blinds Egther in battle? Well, you fool him to use his own flame spell and then you use Arctic Wind to suck him into it and destroy himself. A rather decent battle and pretty much better than the end magic duel in Quest for Glory IV. The keep crumbles and you run out to meet the local wizard that takes you back to town. Spring finally returns and the people congratulates you and you fly away on the flying ship the Jarl owned in search of adventures in other lands. And after the credits you are told of how your character is killed in battle and how Brunhild arrives with the Bifrost to take you to Valhalla. Now it might sound like a bad ending, but since the game is based on nordic mythology this actually makes sense and is the highest honour for a warrior in a Viking society, to die in battle and be chosen to enter Valhalla.
She was a magic... woman
Now, this was a fun game that easily satisfies the Quest for Glory craving. A pity there won't be a continuation with my character since that would be fun, but what would that be? It's basically set in a mythology world which, even if it has 9 realms are clearly defined and using the same setting would cause it to feel like repeats. But then again, it's just the earth so one could possible travel to distant lands like Asia and the Americas (settings which the Glory-series never touched). Now the game has voice acting (even for the heroine) and for being a completely non-profit it's rather good voices (although I don't always know if the pronunciation of the norse words are that good all the time). Bug wise I had no problem until after I stoned Thrivaldi and I just wanted to test what would happen if I blessed him and using the magic button caused the game to crash. Lucky for me I just saved and it wasn't any problem. Music is fine, two recognisable tunes are Hall of the Mountain King by Edvard Grieg for the norwegian drama Peer Gynt and Richard Wagner's Ride of the Valkyrie. The norse inspired locals and monsters is rather fun to play though, but I must admit I had a hard time remembering certain myths and I think people who never read anything around this could be stumped. For example some of the Svartalfer has challenges and one is three tests. First is to run faster than your opponents thought. If you don't get that it's his thoughts how would you know that a solution is make him drunk, since you think slower? The other one is a bit easier since you can actually get that it's a flame you are fighting in an eating contest so using an ice flower works well. In the myth I believe it actually was to drink the ocean and the last was to lift earth itself, but it was a long time ago since I actually read any or watched a summary of those stories. Still wished I knew what the animated (well... maybe more like still pictures) series telling about the myths was called. Most I remember was that the ending sequence showed the world tree Yggdrasil in a circle or whatever while the credits rolled. If anyone knows please tell me so I could get a nostalgia kick. Wonder what I should play now?
Update 2023-11-25: Well, Ifound the series, apparently called something like "Gods, Wizards and Monsters" and Ican actually see it on the public channel. How nice!
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