King's Quest: The Complete Collection (Xbox One - 1st completion)
A well beloved series that has lay dormant for almost two decades, King's Quest (2015) has come back as an extended love letter to the series by both re-imagining past adventures and perhaps, saying goodbye to the Royal Daventry Family to make way for a new generation to take the torch and go on their own adventures. After we got our first family computer with CD-ROM in mid-December of 1991, my brother picked up the CD-ROM version of King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder sometime in 1992. This was our first introduction to the series and in Christmas of 1993, my mom got us King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow which is arguably the best game in the series. Years later, I downloaded the first 4 games and beat them. Sometime in 1994 I got a copy of the 3rd edition of the King's Quest Companion by Peter Spear. Besides giving you all the answers on beating the first 6 games, it helped expand the game's universe and lore plus there were short novelizations of each game to flesh things out. Finally, I would get a used copy of King's Quest VII: The Princeless Bride over 15 years ago. I never played the eighth and final King's Quest game, 1998's King's Quest: Mask of Eternity as it required a 3D card plus I was turned off by how different it was from the previous games. After Sierra was bought out and folded (which led to founders Ken and Roberta Williams into retirement), there have been fan attempts to make a 9th game in the series. There were a lot of legality to deal with but little came of substance. In 2014, a developer called The Odd Gentlemen announced they were making a new game as Activision had revived the Sierra brand. The game would be released chapter by chapter so in July of 2015 King's Quest Chapter I: A Knight to Remember was released. It all came to an end in October 2016 with the release of the fifth chapter. I'm not sure when The Complete Collection was released -probably in late 2016- as there is a small Epilogue chapter that is exclusive to the collection. I beat the entire collection in about 13 hours of gametime with every Xbox Achievement gained. I think this might be my first Xbox game in which I got every achievement. There were no GameFAQs walkthroughs to help so I found this one here on True Achievements.
In King's Quest, King Graham shares his previous adventures with his curious granddaughter, Gwendolyn. It is through these tales that Gwendolyn learns about the life led by her grandfather. Along with new stories, the series re-imagines certain events, elements and backstories from previous games. Some of Graham's backstory even differs from that given in Sierra's previous material. Rather than having grown up in Daventry, he is now an outsider that has recently come to the land. The main tale of Chapter I: A Knight to Remember, according to Graham, is from the time when he was but a lad, before he was a knight, and before he came to Daventry for the first time from Llewdor. He has only read about Daventry from travel guides he used to read as a child, and could not wait to see its famous landmarks for himself (the kingdom is reimagined as a bustling walled city surrounding Castle Daventry, where as in the original game the castle was a lonely keep, surrounded by mostly wilderness). Classic games as well as The King's Quest Companion are reused for references and reimagined events including places from the expanded universe. Chapter 1's prologue reimagines events from King's Quest I: Quest for the Crown and focuses on the Mirror of the three treasures as the main treasure Edward sent Graham on to become king of Daventry (as it had been the only treasure stolen from him), the events of the dragon's lair from the King's Quest I are completely reimagined as an action sequence involving being chased by the dragon, and having to make a final choice on how to distract the dragon to escape back up the well to the surface. Later chapters put further focus on the mirror, and point out that he went on separate adventures throughout his life for other treasures as well (including the Shield and Chest), and wants to go on adventures to find even more lost treasures of Daventry even in his old age to save his legacy. A Knight to Remember is about Graham coming to the kingdom to take part in a Knight Tournament to become a Knight of Daventry, and the winner will also be in the running to become the next king. The story involves Graham having to defeat each of the other knights at various challenges. He befriends one of the knights Achaka, who teaches him how to properly use his bow, but witnesses his death to the dragon (Achaka is often seen to be his 'best' and lost friend throughout the series, even as much as seeing his ghost in the final chapter). Ultimately he defeats the last knight Manny at a game of Wits, and banishes the evil knight from the kingdom.
To see the entire first chapter, go here or below:
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Graphics/Art-8
+ Colourful graphics and lush environments. Character models are excellent and animate very well.
- The environments feel too linear compared to the openness of the past games.
Sound/Music-9
+ The soundtrack is quite lovely and a few throwbacks to past themes.
+ Excellent voice acting with some good talent including: Christopher Lloyd (plays old King Graham), Wallace Shawn (Vizzini in The Princess Bride), Zelda Williams (daughter of the late-Robin Williams), Josh Keaton, etc.
Control-9
+ Controls are very easy regardless if you're playing with a controller or mouse.
+ The game's controls focuses on "one-button context". As a result, the game does not have any complicated interfaces or controls
Gameplay-8
+ Unlike the classic King's Quest video games, this new King's Quest is not a point-and-click adventure. Instead, it is an adventure game that tasks players to control Graham, who ventures to different places to become a knight. Throughout the game, you can interact with different objects in the environment. For instance, you can pick up, gather, and inspect different scenery items. You can switch to first-person perspective when inspecting them.
+ The game is narrated by the elderly King Graham and his granddaughter Gwendolyn. Your actions in the game change the narrative. For instance, performing certain actions unlocks additional dialogue. When you make a wrong decisions and die, Graham replies with phrases such as "That's what would have happened if I did that", before you re-spawn. You also make decisions throughout the game that are divided into three different approaches, bravery, wisdom, and compassion. Actions performed by players have consequences and impact the game's story, and as a result, change the game's overall experience. Most of these choices are game play-based. All the choices made by Graham are heroic, and there is no way for you to build a "bad" Graham.
+ The first section of the game is linear, i.e., levels open sequentially. You are free to explore levels, and the game does not feature any prescribed or predetermined paths. You can also use a variety of methods to complete your objectives, and are tasked to solve various puzzles in the game, even though there are no fixed solutions to these puzzles. You can also have conversations with anyone in the game. The game features branching dialogue. In addition, the game features some action sequences, quick-time events, and on-rail platform elements.
+ The game has a good checkpoint system that doesn't punish you harshly if you die or fail something.
Fun/Story/Misc-7
+ The game is fun and the production values are quite good. There is definite fan-service and easter eggs to look for.
+ While it is nice to go on these new adventures, I personally would have loved to have replayed abridged versions of the past games while adding in some new story elements.
- I should warn that only fans of the series will get the most out of the game, while those who have never played any of the past games may not understand the references and backgrounds of the characters. I recommend newcomers play the first 7 games (I never played the 8th game, The Mask of Eternity, but that game is never referenced in this one) of the series or watch them on YouTube.
- While re-imagining the stories of the past games can be interesting, I'm not a fan of changing things around to reflect modern sensibilities, especially injecting modern feminism (it's not heavy or anything but it feels forced), and downplaying the evilness of the major villains, making them more sympathetic. I just don't like that many things in the series needed explanations for or linking. It ends up weakening the world that series creator Roberta Williams made for it. For whatever reason, the game centers a lot on Princess Gwendolyn and her relationship with King Graham compared to anyone else.
- Rosella was downplayed in this game with pretty much no references to her own adventures in The Perils of Rosella and The Princeless Bride. She barely gets private time with her father. Why? Plus changing Alexander's experiences from The Heir is Human and making him this millennial-type teenager was bizarre and irritating. By the end of it, long-time fans of the series may be put off by the writing of this re-imagining, which I view as someone's fan-fiction coming to life, when they could have just kept to Graham's adventures being retold in an abridged way, but with little tidbits thrown in.
Total: 41/50 (Grade Level: B)
The official King's Quest (2015) website is here but doesn't have much. The Wikipedia article is here.
Next Game: Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii)
Currently playing: Bravely Default (DS)
