onsdag 4 oktober 2017

King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow

I must have made a wrong turn somewhere

King's Quest VI, said to be the best of the series and I gotta agree. It is the most polished of the old Sierra games (one might argue the animated style of VII is better, but that's debatable), the voice acting is the most superb with people like Tony Jay behind it and the story is lovely and the music... is a damn masterpiece. But we don't begin there, instead to the end of the last game. As shown in there prince Alexander of Daventry tried to get it of with princess Casima that helped Graham defeat Mordak. Casima is taken back home to the Green Isles and Alexander waits... and waits. Until a horrendous cutscene with computer generated graphics where the queen comforts her son and suddenly the magical mirror shows Alexander Casima trapped in a tower with a star lit sky behind her. With the stars burnt into his mind he sets out navigating the seas with a loyal crew until they hit a storm and the ship sinks (the game goes out it's way telling the player that every crew member survived in the life boats). Alexander awakes on the shore and sets out to save Casima.

Great, at least not the beaches of Normandy.

That's the set up, and the story is that the lands of the Green Isles are in turmoil. Each island blames the other for some stolen artefacts and the king and queen died before Casima arrived home so the Vizir is ruling for the moment. Of course he is evil and the one that sent Casima to Mordak as well as murder the king and queen. As well as taking the artefacts and blaming the islands so to ensure no one tries to oppose his rule. Since Casima come back the plan have changed, especially with Alexander following, and he gotta marry her in order to keep the throne. And Alexander is about to stop him. First order is to get of the island by getting your hands on a magic map and survive the traps on the different islands, some natural and some imposed by the viziers genie that you recognise by the glowing eyes. The main island of the Crown is middle eastern 1001 Night-style, the island of the beast is basically a Beauty and the Beast island (even more fun that the voice of Alexander played the beast in the Disney animated movie).

Best movie ev... wait, that's the wrong one!

Much better!

There's an Alice in Wonderland-island and an island mainly based on greek mythology with angels and a labyrinth with a minotaur. The last island is the land of the druids which you can't access until later in the game. So you basically goes around and collecting items to solve different puzzles. Most important is getting a spell book and later finding a nightingale that sends message between Alexander and Casima to deepen their love for each other. As the vizier gets desperate he is gonna force a marriage between himself and Casima and then kill her to get the throne so in order to stop this Alexander travels to the lands of the dead where he find Casima's parents and the truth of their deaths. The vizier murdered them... the shocker, I know. He continues down to the underworld and challenge the lord of death to a duel and by showing the magical mirror to the lords face it forces the demon to shed one single tear as he faces his own horrors. It's a fantastic scene. You bring Casima's parents back and as they start a rebellion Alexander infiltrates the castle with the help of the castles clown and finds the artefacts and, like a good story interrupts the wedding and chasing the vizier up the tower where a duel of swords follows. As Casima throws a dagger in the Viziers back Alexander knocks him out with his sword. Alexander and Casima wed each other and the best cheesy love song plays.

Can't stop crying/laughing at the awesomeness!

It is the best King's Quest game by far. No dead ends and a couple of different endings. As stated a beautiful looking and sounding game. I came a long way without a guide until I falled for french manual that stopped most of the King's Quest-games I played, and that was to climb the Cliffs of Logic to find the angels and fight the minotaur. The horrors of the copy-protection. I probably wouldn't have finished the labyrinth since the terror of knowing the monster is out there would have scared me enough.

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