Quest for Glory III: Questions of Honor

My inventory sure loaded up after the first session.

          

The first couple hours of Quest for Glory III play like an extended prologue. You have a little freedom, but most of the events are timed and scripted and don't allow you to screw up and miss them the way you can in Trial by Fire. This isn't good or bad by itself, but there was one particularly long segment (transitioning this and the next entry) in which the character was just shoved from one place to the next, and I was glad when it was over.

Alex over at The Adventure Gamer got so far in his second entry that I'm going to have to split this one into two; look for the second on Monday.

           

To a new player, it's also not clear that these "cut scene" screens allow you to click around and speak.

         

I have so much to cover because I started the game over after my first entry, following the revelation that using the mouth on the character--which produces a joke in the remake of So You Want to Be a Hero--opens up lines of dialogue not possible by clicking on the NPC, including the ability to "Greet" and "Say Good-bye" before and after every conversation. You also often get "Tell About" options, which is how I was able to tell the shop owner about Julanar. He vowed to leave and find her "on the next caravan" to Shapeir, which I hope is after the conclusion of this game.

              

I really think she could do better.

               

The option also allowed me to do more in the Temple of Sekhmet. When I greeted the priestess who tried to throw me out, the statue of Sekhmet came to life. He chastised the priestess for saying that the presence of a human defiled the temple ("you will speak only MY words--not your own"; I briefly considered how cool it would be if this happened every Sunday morning). He called me "Doer, Changer of Worlds, Releaser of Darkness" and demanded that I return with the Gem of the Guardian to be "weighed and judged."

              

I get enough weighing and judging at my annual physical.

          

Since I already knew the layout of the land, I was able to re-explore most of the city on my first day. The first priority was changing money in the bazaar. I followed NPC instructions and went to the north end, but before I could approach the money-changer, I witnessed a keffiyeh-clad thief sprint away as the money-changer yelled "stop thief!" I fumbled around trying to figure out what spell might do the trick, then realized I'm not supposed to cast spells on the streets of Tarna. By then, the thief was off the screen, so I all I could do was chase him.

           

Well, that was anti-climactic.

         

There, the thief was arrested by some liontaur guards, who demanded that as a witness I accompany them to the Hall of Judgement. The liontaur judge named the thief "Harami," which was nice foreshadowing on the part of his parents, since it means "sinner" in Arabic. When asked if he wanted to say anything before he was "named honorless," he answered, "hey, big deal." The council designated him honorless and evicted him from the hall.

           

I'm not sure this is the basis for a sustainable criminal justice system.

          

After thanking me for helping to capture the thief--honestly, all I did was walk from one screen to another--the head lioness said that King Rajah--whose parents also had a gift of foresight--wanted to see me. 

Rajah was a bit of a jerk, lounging on his throne, tended by lioness guards. He expressed doubt that a human could do anything to help with the present situation, particularly since the city already has a powerful mage. (This dialogue, of course, must be class-specific.) He insulted his brother, Rakeesh, for needing a human's help and called him "cowardly" for wanting to make peace with the Leopardmen instead of taking revenge for the death of Reeshaka (Rakeesh and Kreesha's daughter).

           

A true "role-playing" game would allow me to kill him right now.

           

Rakeesh stood up for himself, noting that "revenge for the sake of revenge is pointless" and "mindless revenge is pure stupidity," at which point Rajah threw me out so he could speak to his brother alone. There were a couple of times during the conversation where I had to click on myself for dialogue, and I suppose the dialogue could have gone other ways if I'd asked things of the king instead of "talking about honor" or whatever I chose.

               

Rakeesh is the only data-driven liontaur.

          

Back outside, I was free to explore the city. I spent the rest of the day in the bazaar, starting with changing money. I had enough to obtain 180 royals. At first, I thought this was a huge advantage for an imported character, but it turns out new characters also start with as much money. This meant that I had to make almost no tough choices at all as I explored the rest of the bazaar. I bought anything and everything, hardly ever bothering to "bargain," and still had over 100 royals to spare. Of course, I didn't have to buy any pills, thanks to the stock I brought with me.

           

I think I had more than that at the end of Trial by Fire.

        

They moneychanger offered some interesting foreshadowing, saying that there is tremendous inflation in Silmaria and that since no one can travel in and out of Mordavia, the exchange rate for their coins has bottomed out. These are the locations of Quest for Glory V and IV, respectively. If we didn't know from Corey Cole's comments how much of this series was planned years in advance, this bit of dialogue would provide some insight.

             

Now, if he'd mentioned Sardonia, we'd be really blown away.

           

The rest of the bazaar offered a variety of colorful figures selling items of both obvious and questionable utility. In the order that I met them:

• Two "junk dealers" clearly based off Sanford and Son, a reference that was already 15 years old. The Redd Foxx character, wearing a fez, called himself "An Forda" and referred to his son, appropriately, as a "dummy." The developers lacked the rights to the real theme song but played a suitably similar tune. They had some amusing dialogue but ultimately only had a tinder box to sell.
  
  (As Alex points out in his entry, you can use the tinderbox to light a water bong in Salim's place, which causes you to become a drug addict, which causes you to die in an alley years later. I don't know what amuses me more: that the Coles, who I'm guessing have lit more than one water bong in their lives, offered such a conservative warning, or that Alex immediately thought to give it a try.) [Edit: Speculating on someone else's drug history, even in humor, is rarely a good idea. And in this case it seems to be incorrect. I apologize.]

              

Breaking the fourth wall? Or did some variant of World War I happen in this universe? Are the games set in Earth's future rather than the past?

            

• A weapon-seller. He convinced me to buy a "fine dagger," but it turned out to be the same as the one I already had. I also bought a throwing dagger and a spear. I assume other classes get other options here.

• A merchant selling both water skins and zebra skins. I bought one of each.

• A merchant selling fruit. I bought some, but I have a bunch of rations already.

• An oil seller.

           

He was somewhat mission-driven.

          

• A guy selling honey. I think I'll need this to lure a honeybird later and capture his feather while he's happy, a quest given to me by the pill-seller.

• A woman selling pretty beads. I bought a couple of sets.

• A rope-seller. (Alex didn't buy the beads or the rope. I wonder if this will come back to haunt him.)

• A katta selling wooden carvings. This was the one for whom Shema had given me a note. I guess if I'd given him the note first, I could have gotten a carving of a leopard for free, but I screwed up the order and ended up paying for it.

           

Katta has wares if you have coin.

            

• An Anubis-looking dog selling meat. He acted like a dog, too--desperate to please a human master. My purchase of a few rations sent him into an ecstasy of adoration. It was a little creepy.

           

This is why it's a good thing that dogs can't talk.

            

• A woman selling clothing. For no reason except that I was buying everything, I bought a robe.

• A huckster selling protective amulets. The game wouldn't even let me get conned into buying one.

               

I mean, it's not like amulets of protection don't exist in this world. Why am I suspicious?

            

At the end, I had a pretty full inventory. This would be a good place to note that the game offers fairly detailed descriptions of each item when you click on it with the "eye" icon. Very few games are doing this in this era.

           

Or maybe few games ever did it, and I just fooled myself into thinking Might and Magic VI-VIII and the Infinity Engine games were the norm.

            

From Alex's entry, I see that I missed the ability to donate some coins to a drummer in the lower bazaar. I saw the drummer but missed his collection plate. I'll have to return later, although I'm not sure if the resulting "honor points" are important to my mage.

Back at Kreesha's place, we had a long conversation. There were a couple of cute reversals of common themes in the "real" world: the Council of Judgement consists solely of female liontaurs because "males are too emotional to make rational decisions," and it turns out that the liontaurs have a saying that "curiosity haunts a human." I suppose being "haunted" is better than being killed.

She had quite a bit to say about Rakeesh. He's apparently the only ruler in Tarna's history to voluntarily step down, and the only liontaur to become a paladin. She believes that the Demon Wizard that Rakeesh previously defeated is behind the recent troubles. Rakeesh intends to "pledge his honor" to bring peace, which means that if he fails, he can no longer enter Tarna. That not only seems a little strict but also reckless on Rakeesh's part, since he doesn't yet know anything about what's happening. What if the Leopardmen really are the aggressors?

             

And what if the troubles are caused by demons? Won't we need to fight the demons?

         

Kreesha also gave me a mage-specific quest: the creation of a mage's staff, "both a container and an amplifier of the magic user's spells." But before we can do that ritual, I have to return with some "magic wood."

            

She didn't mean go to the tavern and see Janna, but that's what I did.

           

In the tavern that night, the ability to click on myself gave me some new dialogue options with the hostess, including "flirt." At first this seemed to go well:

            

Oh, much more. "Communication" wasn't even a skill until the last game.

              

And then even better:

          

The Coles skirt an "MA" rating.

           

But the bottom dropped out when I tried to give her one of the strings of beads:

            

You couldn't have mentioned him an hour ago?

           

I was happy to see that Alex liked the inn as much as I did. There's something enormously evocative about the image, candles flickering on the table as the light dims outside, people comfortably resting on cushions in a huge, open room with cool, clean floors. It's one of the only video game images I've seen so far in my chronology that made me want to visit in-person--my enthusiasm only dampened slightly by the suspicion that they don't serve cocktails here.

Alex also reminded me that there's no adventurer's guild in Tarna--just a bulletin board in the inn with a bunch of random messages, none of them quest-worthy. That's an element of the previous two games that I miss.

    

The next day, I didn't have much to do. I interrupted Rakeesh and Kreesha in flagrante, which must have been great fun for the artist to draw. Rakeesh explained more about the thief's punishment from the previous day: as one designated "honorless," he'll be totally ignored. No one will sell anything to him, give him a place to stay, or give him food. Since there are no caravans on which he can leave, he's in for a difficult time. (Rakeesh didn't mention what happens if the guy simply steals food.) The whole story gave me a flashback to an episode of The Outer Limits or something where a guy gets branded on his forehead and no one is allowed to talk with him. At first, he thinks this is awesome because he can do whatever he wants, but later he nearly dies of loneliness. Anyone know which one I'm talking about?

             

This still doesn't make any sense. I understand why you had to kill the Demon Wizard, but why did you have to give up the throne to do that?

         

It also occurred to me that I haven't seen any signs of a thieves' guild within Tarna--no one who would provide succor to someone like Harami. Maybe the amulet-seller in the bazaar? I guess when I try the game as a thief, I'll make the sign to him first.

For the rest of the day, I spent some time practicing spells. I wandered out onto the savanna only briefly--I'll have more to say about that tomorrow. I tried to find Khatib Mukar'ram, the survivor of the Leopardmen ambush, but he was never in the tavern when I arrived. I went to bed early and was summoned automatically to the Hall of Judgement the next day.

           

"Levitation" isn't the most masculine-looking spell.

           

The head of the council summarized the plot so far, in case I hadn't been paying attention:

             

Two months ago, the Simbani requested that we aid them in their war against the Leopardmen. It was the decision of this Council to send emissaries to the Leopardmen to determine their grievances. The peace mission was ambushed at night by creatures or beings unknown. Evidence and the account of the sole survivor of the ambush, Khatib Mukar'ram, indicate the Leopardmen. A warrior of Tarna, Reeshaka Dar Kreesha, was discovered missing from the bodies of the emissaries. Signs and scent indicate some sort of struggle, and then all trace of Reeshaka was lost.

         

Neville Chamberlain over here.

              

The various council members then debated what to do. One wanted to seek revenge for Reeshaka; another said that liontaurs should not get involved in affairs of humans. A third pointed out that humans are a part of Tarna. Rakeesh then stepped up, stated his opinions about demonic involvement, and pledged his honor to bring peace.

           

But what about war with demons? I'm so confused.

         

The head lioness emphasized the consequences if he fails and asked if I also "pledge my honor." I'm curious about the consequences of saying "no." For this character, I figured that Rakeesh is the only reason I'm here, so I might as well stand by him. If I'm exiled from Tarna, the worst that happens is I go back to Shapeir and continue being a prince.

I see from Alex's entry that saying "no" is the only way that a fighter character can remain a fighter; otherwise, he inevitably becomes a paladin. That suggests that "yes" is the "honorable" path. But to me, it's the path of "I really don't know much about this situation and I'm not going to commit myself to a life-altering course of action until I do."

           

I'm curious how the low-honor thief deals with this.

         

The council gave us time to fulfill our oaths. Afterwards, we had another audience with Rajah, who continued to berate Rakeesh and to show support for the hawkish faction.

             

Well, that's a good attitude.

         

He said he'd give us time, but warned us not to take too long. Shortly after that, Rakeesh and I walked out the front gates and on to the open savanna.

            

More about this map next time.

         

Miscellaneous notes:

• The inability to reliably walk off-screen is a huge interface issue. I might be missing entire explorable areas because the game fails to transition from screen to screen when you get close to the edge. I end up having to walk to the edge and then use the keypad to keep nudging my character until the transition takes over.

• I like the music less in this game than previous ones. This comes from my own personal quirk of not liking background music in general. I feel like the first two games played cute leitmotifs as you entered certain areas and encountered certain characters, but then stopped. This one has more constant, unrelenting background music.

• On the other hand, as several people--including Alex--have pointed out, the graphics are beautiful. Definitely some of the best that we've seen by this era.

• I've been checking my character sheet, but my adventures so far have mostly earned me only "communications" points.

• This comment threw me because I forgot at first that The Mummy (1999) is actually a remake of a 1932 film. But I'm still confused because in neither film is the mummy called "Amenhotep."

           

And how would a character in this game have seen a movie anyway?

          

This is the sort of game where the content-per-minute is so high that I could easily post a full entry per hour. That will probably shrink in the middle stages, but for now I need an entire second entry before I can leapfrog Alex. More soon.

Time so far: 3 hours