Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness - Enhanced Edition (PC) - Magus Awekens

 

Feed Me Seymore!

Well, went out with the fourth and furthest game I've played in the series. I got the Enhanced Edition for this as well. It added another hour of narration from John Rhys-Davies as the narrator and added in the 9th wraith from the Bargov Crypt that was dummied out of the game, probably due to time (said enemy only have 1 HP so is a bit of a pushover and you don't get anything so it doesn't add much). As usual for these play throughs it was trying to go only on information I knew, but solving the Squid stone I think the only information you get is from Davy after you been put under a geas to get the rituals meaning the final three days of the game. At least the game acknowledge different routes. For example the Leshy's riddles, being a magic user I could bypass the whole rhyming scheme and talk to Bonehead to learn that it is Baba Yaga, but the Leshy tries to shame me for not validating the fact.

Quod Erat Demonstrandum... I have no shame.

Still, a great game to play through with the voices and such. The add-libs or what ever from the three townspeople are a joy to listen too, and actually a bit more funny than the text as written. John Rhys-Davies is great as the narrator. Some blemishes like Magda that have two voices or when John Rhys-Davies have to step in for some reason like with Funny Bones in one scene. And that Igor's fate is spoiled by the voice over by the three locals in their introduction. But overall a great voice cast, I can still mimic parts of Boris speech pattern.

Now, last time I had a bit of problems with bugs and whatnot. In ScummVM I couldn't get past the Squid Stone on my way out of the Dark Ones Cave for the first time so I used DosBox to get it working. This time ScummVM actually runs really great. No problems with the Chernoevoy in Swamp or such things. I encountered another crash though when I left the Rusalka one time, but that seemed to have been a coincidence. There was another more fatal problem though, each time I entered a screen with a Wraith Mound the game crashed instantly. And that is a problem since I was running out on funds. Looking around for a solution on the internet I found out that you can get money from a lantern in Erana's Garden for free so I got that which forced me to avoid meeting the wraiths in the forest. Now, before the wizard seemed to be have been the most bugged out class of them all, but now it was to my advantage, since I tried it with fighter and couldn't get past the wraith either. And to get the final Ritual you have to find it in a Wraith mound, except for the Wizard who has to get Erana's staff and fight the fairies for it. Praise be the wizards. 

I tried playing the vanilla version instead of Enhanced Edition and it still crashes for me there, both with wizard, fighter and thief. But, the Floppy DOS-version works... don't no why since it's the same files, but it works. A pity the save files aren't shared between version so I can't play it with voices, change over to DOS-version to fight the Wraiths and then turn it back. Cause if I continue with the replaying as the other classes during this summer, I probably have play the DOS-version from the beginning. It might also be that the latest update of ScummVM broke something and will be fixed in the future (maybe I have to even make a complaint myself since I see no one else do it and it is listed as excellent on their compability chart). 

Well, did some digging and the fact is that the Floppy version wasn't the same files, it was something I got from another source, which made me think a bit. Was it the GOG files I've had on my computer, or was it files from somewhere else? Well it turned out to be from somewhere else. I got the GOG version installed and checked, that worked so I grabbed those files and put them in the map for ScummVM and after some back and forth I finally got it all to work, Enhanced Edition and normal version both. Sadly my Magus files where corrupted, but the save for V was saved I hoped.

Still a great game, but I hate the combat, which also makes a remark I saw someone make that 1 & 2 you max out your stats, 3 you do the best you can and 4 you just do whatever. I can really see it. Max Mana, Magic and Intelligence and the only spell that maxed out was flame dart. Ended the game also with 5 points missing. Have no clue what that could have been, or if I rushed the dreams of Erana or readings from Magda. Hopefully I can get 5 working so we finally can see something new. And what do you know, it doesn't work. Well I be... time to look for some launchers or patches that can get it working.

Quest for Glory III: Wages of War (PC) - Enhanced Edition - Magus Awakening

 

The Sacrifice for the Gaming Gods!

Continued directly with the next game. This time I played the Enhanced Edition (which means a fan made patch was applied to try to fix things that wasn't working and bringing back things that was left on the cutting floor). Now, I'm not that familiar with this game since I've only played through it once before so I can't really say what is different other than a scene with Uhura in the Simbani village after the failed Peace Conference and that the meerbat you can get the glowing eye from is gone for mages and thieves since they are supposed to get it from the statue in the Lost City. And you actually can train magic in your room in Tarna, but if you do your honor takes a real hit so be prepared to spend a lot of commons on the drummer in the market.

Overall the game felt better paced than last time I played and I can't say if it was due to me actually following the story or that the patch fixed the order a bit. I somehow was able to max out Strength and magic as the only major attributes. Magic I was able to get flame dart and force bolt to max. This time the game didn't majorly bug out on me, don't know if luck or that the patch and ScummVM have ironed them out, but leaving the giant tree I noticed I just walked across the screen. Same thing happened back at the Inn, and I actually got stuck in a loop where I tried to leave but Magus went back into the Inn. I was able to get out by going through the other door. 

Replaying it... I feel this is probably the weakest of the four I've played. Very much walking back and forth and the game feels a bit empty. I gathered 20 dino horns, but they where totally worthless for me. I could at least have sold them to someone? As I said last time, Tarna felt very small and it just shows again since it only took me one day too play through it. I can see that it was made in haste to cover a stopgap between Trails by Fire and Shadows of Darkness, that once again is teased at the end of the game. 

Quest for Glory 2: Trails By Fire (EGA) - The Grind of Magus

 

Dawn of yet another adventure!

Continued onward with the second game, also playing the EGA-version. Gotta say, the map for Shapier I had printed out looked awful so I had to write the names beside the printed names to know what the streets was called. And I have a terrible hand-writing. Anyway, I can safely say that when the first game is a matter of preference between VGA and EGA, the VGA-version of the second game is obviously better. I expected stuff I thought was part of the original game like the acrobat or finding the Poet in a plaza and returning his purse, but I guess it was only the VGA-version (I've later checked and no, they are in the game, the acrobat you need acrobatics and the poet in the plaza I just missed). And since it can allow you to use both parser and point-and-click the grinding for future wizards should go faster. It allows it to be more stuff to do and train your skills a bit easier. But I gotta assume it's easier to become a paladin in the EGA-version since I did become it without reaching max score and using the X-ray glasses while helping... hrm, maybe I should keep quiet about that.

Well, I maxed out magic and enhanced it with a wish up to 250 so I'm prepared for the next adventure. Dodge, Weapon skill, Intelligence and Agility was maxed out for 200 and I used the second wish to get Strength to around 195 so I can get the stamina and health high enough. Magic skills was harder. I probably began grinding them to late and should have bought more mana pills earlier, but I maxed Flame Dart, Force Bolt and Open. Fetch something around 179 and Detect Magic around 187. Most other spells around 100 (from the last game) and the new spell Reversal was around 63 while Levitate around 44. Had problems finding a place to cast the spells, but when I realized I could stand in the streets it went better. Wish I had thought of standing outside Aziza from the beginning instead of W.I.T. 

The parser makes the game immersive as the first game, but due to the need to "greet", "thank" and "Say goodbye" to grind on the communication and honor skills it was a bit irritating since I didn't always knew if I did it correctly. Much easier in the VGA-version since you have options. Also since they expected you to tell things I was a bit more lost and I didn't realize I could ask about rumors or news until a week in the game. It's obviously better than the original, but makes it harder for me. And sitting and typing out the wishes for the ring djinn was absolut hell since "wish transport" or "wish iblis" didn't work and I swear I wrote "wish for transport to iblis", but it didn't take the first time and it made it hard to understand what I was doing wrong. 

I won't say it was a bad idea playing the original version, it's still a great game, but I might go forward with only the VGA-remake from now on (unless I want a fighter-paladin on the first try compared to the VGA:s near-impossible list. It's also fun to look at the ending when they hype Quest for Glory III: Shadows of Darkness which is the fourth game in the series. Especially since that version getting added to ScummVM making it so easy just let the saves lie in the same place and no care in the world. 

Overall, if I'm gonna compare the first two games, the game has at least more instances of music, but the time limit is a bit annoying at times. Nothing obviously bad, but still. Still, the endgame feels more epic than storming the brigands fortress. Stopping the summoning of Iblis feels threatening and the much better music drives it home.

Quest for Glory 1: So You Want To Be A Hero? (EGA) (Computer) - Return of Magus

 

You again?

So, I finally got my hand on Quest for Glory V, but now I lost the save so what do I do? Well, it's been a couple of years... wow, 9 years? Really? So better start over and technically, my characters wasn't named Magus at the time, so let's fix that. How do I make it new? I play the original EGA-version, meaning I gotta type everything,,, how fun!

Same game so there's noting to comment there. I would say I think grinding with the magic user goes faster in this version sine type "cast #spell name" and then enter and bring up the spell again with space bar. Emptying the mana pool goes in seconds. So I actually maxed out all statistics beside strength that ended at 99... which I think also effected Health to stay at 99. 

So, the difference between EGA and VGA, besides the graphics and how you play the game. The EGA version forces you to interact with it on more levels. In the VGA all dialog is in a dialog tree which you have access to from start to finish, I can ask the Sheriff most of the things to get all points from dialog options. The EGA version on the other hand forced me to write down namnes and interesting things on paper beside me. I also kept a paper for writing what I got score for, enabling me to backtrack if I died without saving and writing a map (which I probably should do for all games anyway from Sierra). I also have all manuals in a binder together with other Sierra things like copy protection things so I might make the summer 2025 like a Sierra-summer.

I haven't played games like this since I played through Myst something like 20-25 years ago, pen and paper heightens it all. Could I have finished this as a kid? Probably not, I would probably have been afraid to enter the forest. It was kinda fun putting up a small TV-screen, connect it to the computer and keyboard and mouse. The mouse for this version is kinda pointless, the only thing I used it for was Mage's Maze (which I won on the first try... after restarting and reading the instructions on how it worked... it counts!). And another thing, the battles look better in the EGA-version, maybe doesn't play better, but getting the monsters and enemies front first in detail looks amazing. They are basically spam attack or flame dart until I decided to grind out certain spells like Zap and Dazzle. Also, music is very sparsely used, only having it at the intro, Erana's Peace, Kobold's Cave, Baba Yaga's place, the whole Brigands hideout and all battle scenes. Not much sound either, but checking on the VGA-version the instant you start there is a theme in the town and sounds from Otto's yo-yo. Music was more impactful  in EGA, especially when I accidentally pushed Ctrl-U and disabled all music and it took me a minute to get it back on.

Took me a weekend from Friday evening to Sunday evening. Helped that I knew what to do. I tried to play is straight, but I jumped finding the Baronet and went to overhear  the meeting between Brutus and Bruno since I didn't recall how to know about it until it just popped up that there was a supposed to be a note in the tavern, but as the magic user I don't really have a reason to be there than to drink ale or being robbed or killed. Nothing points me there and when I recalled it, it was to late. Probably the thing that missed me the last 8 points before hitting 500. Overall, games still fun and imaginative. Some things doesn't add up, like the Kobold fight. Apparently the optimal thing to do for the magic user is kill it with magic before it can do the same, but getting the key dismisses the kobold and you can get it as a magic user by using Fetch if your skill is high enough. Normally, using the non-killing solution usually give more points in Sierra's games, but not here funny enough. Instead MAGIC DUEL TO THE DEATH! OH YEAH! I forgot it was here. How fun.

Hero-U: Rouge to Redemption (Switch)

 

Is this gonna be a Harry Potter rip-off?

So why not continue with a game which is set in the same world as Quest for Glory? Made by the same developers? And Josh Mandel, the voice of King Graham, being one of the writers? Enter Hero-U. You play the newbie thief Shawn O'Conner who doesn't want anything else then become a thief. And after getting caught at his first break in is sent over to Hero-U, the university for heroes and is enrolled in the disbarred Bards class (aka the rouge class) to learn something. So you get to learn about the different classmates and personal at the university and unravel the mysterious encounter at the school. There's your teachers, rouge teacher herr Gerhard von Urwald, magic instructor Silvia, Paladin instructor Moira and the alchemist Emmet Braun... alright, I get a Back to the Future shout out when I see it. The salesrat Gregor that got the best deals, the receptionist Sophia, the chef and Twerk, the antagonist for most of the game and head administrator... and the librarian that just sits in the library. The students are Katie the pirates daughter, Sosi the aristocrat that is the second antagonist of the game, Thomas, smart guy, Esme, the rover girl and black market kid Joel. 

So you attend classes to learn about being a rouge, then you use the skills to uncover the secrets of the castle, earn money and get better so that you will pass the exams and avoid getting kicked out. Help in the kitchen to get money and get tales of the dead, and help Gregor killing drats and insects to get money to afford all the things you need. Study at the library, the training grounds and recreation room to hone your skills. Read all about different heroes in plaques all over the castle and uncover the history of the Illuminar castle and the evil that hides beneath it... which I didn't do I think, but I got to be the rouge of the year. And the puns, I see Josh Mandel been busy writing them.

Basically works like any Quest for glory game, training makes perfect and you got tool use, defence, attack, magic, smart... moxie (?), fitness, agility, climbing, charm, throwing, games and luck. Equip items to help in certain parts. Which caused a bit of problems when I found them a bit late. There was this ring in the wine cellar with the drats I found at the end of the game that enhances your intelligence (smart) which I already maxed out. And then it was the time I missed the entrance to the Sea of Caves missing out on several events and treasures. My fault since I forgot the key hole I found with my sense magic in the dark corridor. Same thing with the torture dungeon to find the drat queen when I didn't get that you could switch the lever around... mostly because the game told me I couldn't, until after I used it once first. So I blame the game for that.

Other than that I actually solved the puzzles myself and followed the flow of the game, proudest moment when I got into the secret corridor by solving the puzzle in rooms of heroes. With that in mind the game feels like encouraging several play throughs... which I might do since I didn't get how the traps worked until roughly the last 10 days of the game. Magic was optional since you have the possibility to choose between magic, healing, alchemy and nothing and I guess magic only if you choose it as a trait in the beginning of the game. Magic gives you several runes to use to trap ghost and deal damage to them making the catacombs easier. 

I really enjoyed the game. Had a bit of problem with the character art since they look weird, especially the main hero. He looks rather ugly, especially when he grins. Also, the school schedule was rather tight meaning very small window for exploring and training, notably since you tried to avoid the tired status..., but apparently tired is so minor that you can actually just ignore that and power through or get a nap for an hour. One thing I do find irritating though was that there needed to be some way too fast travel. Mostly since I don't want to remember every single maze and run away from the enemies to get through... which of course with my later knowledge of traps and such maybe wouldn't have been a problem. Still irritating to get to the minotaur to play chess every single time. At least Quest for Infamy gave you the skip travel option.

What I missed is the real final enemy that is the darkness sleeping beneath the castle that was sealed by the Illuminar knights and that every tapestry and relief told you about. The ghosts told you about it, but it never turned up in my playthrough... well, as of writing summer is closing in, maybe time for summer school. Still. It only took me a weekend to go through a playthrough. I think it was talk about several instalments in the series, one for every class (fighter, magic user and Paladin), but the school setting I could do without. There is something special with wandering around without getting punished by missing scenes and such. 

Quest for Infamy (Switch)

 

Seems someone been looking at Frazetta paintings

So back in 2016 I was on a Quest for Glory binge playing through 1-4, Heroines Quest and the demo for Quest for Infamy. I couldn't get the original since it was only on PC and since I only got a Mac that was kinda hard getting around. And lo and behold, 6 years later we got Quest for Infamy on the Switch so that I finally can play the game. So, first a correction, I thought I did the rouge mission in the demo, but apparently it was the brigand, which is basically the fighter class. And instead of that class I went with the magic user aka Sorcerer (gotta bring Magus legacy back somehow). 

So the difference from the demo part of the game is that I got to choose a mentor and chose the sorcerer Prospero. So he gives you missions to find the different ingredients for the spells so that you can use them and a specific mission to find and kill a necromancer hiding in a dwarven cave. And I assume Sorcerer is sort of a easy mode since fights is mostly avoided by the Fear Spell that drives all living creatures away, and in the end you have healing magic and a Plauge spell that takes away most problems, especially after finding the protection of speed that hastens your spell casting. Mostly since you don't have mana that limits your uses of magic it's just fire away. Unfortunately they have limited the use of certain spells by having fighting magic and environment magic, so no fire spell to burn things other than enemies and no healing outside of combat (which by the walkthrough I looked trough hinted at a point actually worked). 

So, during your travels across the valley you learn that there is a cult named Morai harassing people that worship some lovecraftian god. And there is a noble family that destroyed themselves years ago as the patriarch brought with him the Eye of Jaagar that turned him insane that he stole from the Centai, some druid like people of the north. The sheriff of Volksville is a bastard that locks up people for the most trumped up crimes and one of the Morai is Kayleena that works for the Centai and need Roehms help in finding the eye so that the Morai don't get it. So fist gather the pieces of a seal and a key in order to enter the tomb of the Killgrove family and get the Eye. Act 1 ends when the Sheriff arrives and arrests you in the tomb.

Act 2 is doing some missions for the sheriff until he sends you too the Moroi fortress where you get arrested and it turns out that the sheriff set you up since the sheriff, cult leader and the Mayor of Tyr is attempting to take over the valley. So you beat the cult leader in a duel, act 3 starts and you head back to Volksville and talk the deputy to help you and release all the prisoners that the sheriff captured which included a Paladin, a barbarian and a cleric. Then Prospero gets you in to Tyr where the battle rages on. You rescue the town guards and the council and fights of the sheriff at the top of the lighthouse. Roehm is turned into a baron and heads toward the Kings Castle in the north. Game ends and the final scene is someone talking on a tower with appears to be another of the three eyes the Centai was guarding. 

First act was the best, sadly there is a lot of bugs that screwed me over a bit. I did a couple of things out of order that screwed up the story a bit (for example getting the Moiroi in Tyr before being told to go there by Kayleena which seems to trigger a conversation with Prospero about the conversation you didn't have. And then Kayleena talk never happened and she stood motionless outside the Pub until I found my way to the appointed location she appeared in. Which was the biggest problem I had, since I was told to meet where the trees had eyes, and I never found it. I had to look it up and was a bit hidden at the mansion portion of the forrest since you had to click a specific spot on the screen to get there. Otherwise I hadn't that much trouble. Problem finding the key for the unlock spell. 

Overall a fine game. Heroine Quest and Quest for Glory had more varied RPG statistics (spells leveled and there was more statistics like life and mana that gave a reason for more grinding). Humour is alright, but it's crude some times and, I just liked Quest for Glory and Heroins quest heroes better since a hero is a hero. Also the clashing styles of clothing of people like modern banker and red necks doesn't get the medieval style of the other characters. Voice acting is fine and music works well. You can play it several times as different characters and it wasn't impossible. But I still would play the epic saga of Quest for Glory before this again. Although it was talk of a sequel and prequel and I would be down for that. 

Quest for Infamy: Demo

Quest for Glory VII: The Dark and Edgy Sequel

So after several weeks of Quest for Glory playing back and forth together with a love letter (to those kind of games that is) I had my hands on this demo for an anti-hero character. Compared to every other game this character is named. Mister William Roehm, a person wandering from town to town, leaving before things get to ugly for his taste. His latest adventure led him to escape a fair nobel ladies room before getting caught and getting into the town of Volksville. On the day of an execution no less of a thief named Markus van Houten (I assume it's a Simpson reference) voiced by non other than Paw Dugan, the person that introduced me to the Quest for Glory-series. How neat.

Boy, you don't look well Sneakyfeet

So if you break the law your dead. Gotcha! So in the meantime I've conversed with the local populace and some people at the pub have a proposition for me. They want me to find a monster just outside town, kill it and take its silver teeth's and melt them down. Now problem is I probably would have been better of as a brigand (the fighter option) or even the sorcerers option (since that is what I've preferred so far) instead of the rouge they gave me, but since this is a demo I can't complain. They lift me over the gate and I wanders the forest and what have we here? Something that looks like the behemoth from the Heroes of Might and Magic-games. And now I get my ass kicked. On what really can be described as the first enemy of the game. Maybe that one monster I met crossing a bridge should best have been avoided. So in 3 tries the best strategy was... just slash. I got lucky, with 9 hp left my enemy was down on 5 hp and tried escape giving me the final blow. 

Your an ugly mother******!

And now the most irritating moment in the game. So as per usual playing a rouge the best option is always be in stealth mode to level it up. Thing is as this is a demo it doesn't register. This gave me the impression I'm set, the skills are set. So how do I get back in town? Turns out the climbing skill isn't, it goes to 20 which is the max required skill to enter town again. So train and train until you get in. So what do I do with the teeth's? Well obviously you need to melt them and there is a smith that happens to be open at night. But he doesn't want to take them since there's something fishy about them. Now, I might not be a smith, but it's monster teeth? Who would care? That argument goes back to the... whatever they are in the pub. Since this is part adventure game it of course have some irritating puzzles. So how do I melt the teeth? Well, I'm not prepared for this so go back to the forest and get a helmet in a stump near a dead guy which I missed due to the stump disappearing into the background and I thought it just was the falling head of the dead guy that was important. Then put the teeth in the helmet. Get back to the smith. When he looks away, untie the horse and then smack it so it runs away and he follows, pick up his tongs, use them on the helmet and then melt them in the forge, put back the tongs and pick up the silver medal you made. I thought I was an anti-hero. Of course, they point out the smith would kill me in one hit, but still. You give the rouges(?) in the pub the medal and the demo is over. A small teaser cutscene tells me that the monster has some important owner, and they don't like the events unfolding before them so they will let a "friend" take care of me.

So that was the demo. Hard to say if I actually like this one. On one hand the mature nature of the game sets it a bit apart from the other games I've played, but since I only played an intro I can't say if I like it or not. Quality wise, I think Heroine's Quest was better with better mouth animation and the voices overall better (again, only played the intro). Maybe the designs of the character portraits looks better, but that is a small detail. Gameplay wise I can only see one difference between the different games and that is Infamy have a influence meter and since that one haven't come into play I can't say if it brings anything new to the table. I was thinking of getting it right away, especially since steam had a sale on it, but you know how it is. Windows only. And apparently version 2.0 is on the way so I guess I wait a bit longer. Of course you can get it directly from the developers website and you can actually get it on Mac as well, but full price and you know I might be a bit burnt out on the same type of games. Maybe should take a break and play some console games again. And yes, I know, I'm leaving two games hanging with Quest for Glory V and the full version of this game, but I might have an idea for fixing Dragon Fire. But we shall see.

Heroine's Quest: The Herald of Ragnarok

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!!!

Stormbringer's coming, Thunder and Lightning heading your way

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!

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.