Game Club 199X: King's Quest V (DOS, NES)

[Vokkan]

Is the town really just consisting of a single screen (wagon guy+3 houses) or am I missing something? I feel like there's nothing to do but walk out the desert.

[Bobinator]

Hey, adventure dudes! I found a thing you guys might want to know about.

GUEMap is a program made for making maps for text adventure games. Still, it would more than likely work for point and click games like this, so if you're having trouble getting around, you might want to make a map.

I can put up my own map once I start filling it out, if that's kosher.

So far, the game has... I dunno. It's mostly the writing, or lack thereof, that bothers me so far. Later Sierra games, although cheesy, had a ton of great dialogue, both from the characters and the responses you'd get for screwing with everything. But when every character might as well tell you 'HELLO I AM A PUZZLE' and trying anything will just give you a red X... bah. Makes me miss Freddy Pharkas.

[kal]

Don't just walk into the Desert >__< there is stuff that needs to be done in the town.

[evilakito]

I was trying out the NES version and it's a total pain in the ass to play. The part where you have to save the mouse took me about 10 tries because the cursor controls are so awful. Part of me wants to keep pushing forward though, just to see if I can make it.

[annoyedgrunt]

I can't wait for this podcast. This was the game that ended my Dad's brief foray in to adventure gaming. We managed to get through Police Quest 4 and he loved Full Throttle. He even bought a bunch of text adventures. Then came King's Quest 5 and it's dead ends and crazy puzzles. I remember him being especially pissed off about a honeycomb you have to squeeze on a random spot on the ground. He never played another one again, though he did laugh at Murray in Monkey Island 3 when he watched me play.

[Super Orbus]

He should have been playing Monkey Island to begin with. Lucasarts games were much more forgiving.

[Bobinator]

So here's all the locations I've visited so far. The game world, so far, seems a lot smaller than I'd originally thought. Then again, considering how obtuse this game is, is really, really nice.

Also, man, this game is nothing but a fancy collection of fetch quests. No puzzles, nothing, just 'Hey Graham, you want this thing? Go grab me a thing'. You think he could use a little bit of his authority or something. Then again, so far, he hasn't even MENTIONED he's actually royalty to anybody so far.

[evilakito]

I personally think the game gets much better after you get past the snake.

[Vokkan]

I'm tiring of this game already. After restarting a few times I've noticed that just the order you visit places on the map Bobinator posted can change encounters. I never saw a friggin' bear in my first playthrough for example.

*I believe you have to get the fish before visiting the bees.
*You must talk to the crying man the first time you see him or he'll disappear.

[Discoalucard]

Mar 4, 2012 21:06:33 GMT -5 evilakito said:

I personally think the game gets much better after you get past the snake.

Ehhh, then it becomes bullshit again once you get to Mordack's castle.

The boat death is the most hilarious in the entire game. I'm not going to name any specifics about that one because everyone should experience it for how ridiculous it is. It was referenced in that pawn shop in KQ6 though, so that MIGHT spoil it a bit (along with the stupid bridge from KQ2 and the whale tongue climbing bit from KQ4.)

[Deleted]

In retrospect a lot of the puzzles in the series were horseshit. This one seemed kind of like a "best of" compilation of bullshit puzzles, though. In some cases it makes sense, but in others the logic's all fucked up, like the part annoyedgrunt mentioned...it's like it makes sense in retrospect but even then through a layer of gauze and the use of some hallucinogens. And then there's puzzles like the boat Kurt mentioned - you don't even know you're fucked until after the fact. Yay realism?

I'm looking forward to the podcast because I imagine it's going to be really difficult to discuss this game without Sotenga having to use compound f-words at least as many times as in your average Sam Kinison album. Lord knows I couldn't manage it.

BTW, evilakito, if you think the NES version plays bad wait till you get to a part where you need to single out small objects in a short period of time (thinking of the thieves' den in particular). It's kind of cool that they were able to get the game on NES in any form, but even more than Nightshade it shows how lousy of a mouse the NES controller is ;p.

[Weasel]

Predicting the podcast to consist of 50% swear words, 20% of them directed at Cedric, and at least 25% of them containing the letter F. I predict that 60% of said swear words will be uttered by Sotenga.

Over or under, place your bets, ladies and gentlemen.

[muteKi]

I started mapping out the desert region. Note that the skeleton has a boot that you need for a puzzle that occurs later on, so you'll need to visit it.

Here's the link for it.

The scorpion at least seems to exist mainly to prevent people from travelling too far south and trying to go to areas below the river on the edge of the explorable area. So it's likely that any area south of where the scorpion is marked is also where the scorpion is.

[NamelessFragger]

What is it with video games and owls, anyway? If it's not Cedric that makes people rage, it's Kaepora Gaebora.

Anyway, here's my current inventory list:

-custard pie (I have to save this for a long while, that much I do know.)
-honeycomb (I'm not sure what to do with this.)
-wand (The starting item that I don't even know what it does...)
-a golden needle that can be traded for:
--a visit to the gypsy, who in turn provides a protective magical amulet (that you have to make sure to put on first!)
--a fine cloak from the tailor

Entering the Dark Forest with the amulet protects you from the witch's initial attack, but you can't get back out and you end up dying anyway, either due to vines or spiders. In other words, save before you enter that place, just in case you need an item beforehand.

[muteKi]

Having done the gypsy originally, and having realized that the tailor is the one who rightfully owns the damn needle, I am almost completely certain the game is unwinnable if you do the first thing.

My hunch is that you need the cloak to conceal/disguise yourself either at the campsite or by the temple.

Wrong, and I remember now it's used much later in the game. Still, I'm almost completely sure that choice is the correct one.