I haven't blogged very much about games this year for two very good reasons. The first is that I've been working on a novel since February or so, which is incredibly, tantalizingly close to being done. It's at the formatter now, and once I've put it in the hands of my test readers, it should be ready to be sold on the Internet for all the monies. That's pretty crazy, but it's an experience I want to write about in a future blog once this thing is actually real - not that I am going to advertise it on here, but I think the process of actually getting a working draft to publication would be a good topic for some of the aspiring writers here on GB.
The second, more unfortunate reason is that I just haven't played all that much that's grabbed my attention. Ratchet and Clank was great, but it's very much Ratchet and Clank - there's no real need to blog or write about it at length. Go buy it if you want to have fun. That's pretty much it. Trackmania Turbo is a ton of fun in theory, but the multiplayer playlist execution is needlessly convoluted and Ubisoft's immediate "we don't want to fix it" attitude post launch made me pretty much give up on that game from a writing perspective.
Coming into the third episode of the modern version of King's Quest, I didn't expect much. I thought it would be like the previous two episodes - mostly pleasant and dull by-the-numbers adventuring. I was kind of shocked and surprised to find myself not just having fun with it, but kind of moved by the episode's heartfelt enthusiasm for the little story it told. It's not without its problems, but it was good enough I thought it deserved a quick blog. Let's jump in.
The Story Thus Far
Obviously, spoilers ahead.
The entirety of this King's Quest is essentially a series of flashbacks, told by an aging, apparently dying King Graham (voiced by Doc Brown in a bit of absolutely fantastic casting) to his granddaughter. Each story he tells jumps around in time, and makes mention of the various original games' events while telling original tales within King Graham's life. It's a fun way to move the series forward into a new age of adventuring while still rewarding those of us who played the originals with surprisingly smartly placed fan-service.
The first episode details how a young Graham came to be a knight, taking on and befriending a cast of weird side characters that never quite feel as fleshed out or as fun as Graham himself. It's mostly a way to set up the events and characters for the series to come. It was also the most problematic of the episodes to date, simply because the landscape was huge and required a ton of backtracking. That unnecessary padding got in the way of the story and puzzles, and dragged the whole thing down.
The second episode showed more promise. Now the freshly minted king, Graham and his townspeople are kidnapped by goblins and imprisoned. There's a fascinating cycle in this episode that sees Graham trying to free his people while keeping their hunger at bay. Each day you have to make hard decisions about who gets food, and it's terrifically hard to keep everyone alive unless you know the precise order of things. I didn't, and wound up accidentally starving everyone save Graham - which actually led to a fantastic third chapter in the series, because the various responses of NPCs throughout the third episode reflect how much you screw over the people in prison while also commending you on the good deeds you've done to that point.
Through it all, the series is setting up a larger plot wherein the elder King Graham is trying to teach his granddaughter all the life lessons he's learned while largely ignoring her cousin. It's not quite clear if this conflict is leading to something - I suspect it will for the fifth episode in particular, but given the brevity of these episodes, I'm not sure what kind of story they have the time to tell at this point.
As You Wish
More spoilers ahead, though I'll try to keep them as large and non-specific as possible.
The third episode finds my particular version of Graham buff and in need of a girlfriend, badly. He's sitting alone in an empty castle, which I assume would be full with the other townsfolk if I hadn't accidentally starved them into hating me. In any case, after a quick bit of puzzle solving and an annoying traversal bit, Graham winds up at the top of a tower, trapped with no one but two princesses and a bitter Baba Yaga-esque witch to keep him company. There, he tries to woo one of the two princesses to be his future bride while figuring out how to escape the tower.
By and large, it's a narrative driven episode, and again, it's wildly different than the previous two episodes, something I've come to really like about this series. You're really very limited to about six or seven screens, with a few other brief moments outside the tower thrown in for good measure. That's it. It's short, there's a minimal amount of puzzle solving, and it feels more like a long scene than an actual adventure game.
So why do I like it so much? Why did it stick with me?
By and large, the answer to that is relatively simple - this is a short, sweet love story. Games have love in them, to be sure, but how often do we get a solid two hours or so of courtship and bad jokes between couples and a little bit of harmless third-wheel sadness? It's not a great story - it's not even particularly good - but the individual moments of King Graham's assuredness faltering and turning into real affection for not just the princesses but the witch feel genuine and heartfelt in a way that the series desperately needed.
It doesn't hurt too that the larger picture stuff in this one takes a backseat to the queen's birthday, leading to a remarkably touching, understated scene between the three main family members. The conclusion to the past-Graham storyline feels a bit confused and rushed, leading me to wonder if there weren't more scenes and puzzles that ended up on the cutting room floor, but as it stands, the length is fine, if a little underwhelming given the price of this game.
Does that episode make up for the rest of the series' problems? No. Not really. But it does shift me from thinking this is just a mediocre entry to really getting my attention. I want to see where the series goes. I want to find out what the next project is from this team, if there is one. I'm invested again into a beloved Sierra franchise, something I haven't been able to say since Quest for Glory IV some twenty some odd years ago. That's bananas. That's awesome. Well done to the Odd Gentlemen. I really can't wait to see what you do next.
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