The Good and the Bad - Quest for Glory Edition.

[Tawmis]

Every game has something good and something bad about it...

So what would you say is good AND bad about the following...

Hero's Quest -
Quest for Glory 1 EGA -
Quest for Glory 1 VGA -
Quest for Glory 2 -
Quest for Glory 3 -
Quest for Glory 4 -
Quest for Glory 5 -

[Rath Darkblade]

Hero's Quest and Quest for Glory 1 EGA are the same thing, so I'm not doing them separately.

Quest for Glory 1 EGA -
Best: terrific idea, great characters, good story, no ticking clock (except when getting the root for Baba Yaga)
Worst: training your lockpicking skill enough to make money as a thief

Quest for Glory 1 VGA -
Best: same, except better graphics (except when you come into the garden scene)
Worst: combat screens are worse

Quest for Glory 2 -
Best: terrific ideas, love the Arabic setting (yes, even Keapon Laffin ... and even the maze-o-streets)
Worst: having nothing to do in Raseir until night falls ... so you walk around the fountain. Around ... and around ... and around ...

Quest for Glory 3 -
Best: great setting, love the liontaurs and leopardmen village
Worst: training up your skills, various crash-to-DOS errors (and this was solved in the Steam/GOG release, which shows how old I am ), and ... ugh ... "Why did you come here, Friend of Rakeesh?" draining your honour score, which sucks if you're a paladin

Quest for Glory 4 -
Best: LOVE LOVE LOVE the setting, terrific music and music, wonderful voice-acting
Worst: the infamous Error 52 (and this was solved in the Steam/GOG release, which shows how old I am)

Quest for Glory 5 -
Best: terrific music and setting, meeting all your old pals again (yay, Rakeesh!) and seeing what they've done while you've been away
Worst: the story is kind of meh; QuickTime error means you can't finish the game (and this was solved in the Steam/GOG release, which shows how old I am)

[Tawmis]

Hero's Quest and Quest for Glory 1 EGA are the same thing, so I'm not doing them separately.

Title screen tells me otherwise.

Quest for Glory 1 EGA -
Best: terrific idea, great characters, good story, no ticking clock (except when getting the root for Baba Yaga)
Worst: training your lockpicking skill enough to make money as a thief

I look forward to cycling back through QFG for my channel to play the Thief and the Mage.

Quest for Glory 2 -
Best: terrific ideas, love the Arabic setting (yes, even Keapon Laffin ... and even the maze-o-streets)
Worst: having nothing to do in Raseir until night falls ... so you walk around the fountain. Around ... and around ... and around ...

The maze was a bane. Any maze is a bane.

Quest for Glory 3 -
Best: great setting, love the liontaurs and leopardmen village
Worst: training up your skills, various crash-to-DOS errors (and this was solved in the Steam/GOG release, which shows how old I am ), and ... ugh ... "Why did you come here, Friend of Rakeesh?" draining your honour score, which sucks if you're a paladin

Worse part for me was the damn Paladin bug.

Quest for Glory 4 -
Best: LOVE LOVE LOVE the setting, terrific music and music, wonderful voice-acting
Worst: the infamous Error 52 (and this was solved in the Steam/GOG release, which shows how old I am)

Agreed - I'd forgotten how much I loved QFGIV. By far, the best, story wise in the series.

Quest for Glory 5 -
Best: terrific music and setting, meeting all your old pals again (yay, Rakeesh!) and seeing what they've done while you've been away
Worst: the story is kind of meh; QuickTime error means you can't finish the game (and this was solved in the Steam/GOG release, which shows how old I am)

One day I may try to go back to this... the 3D graphics and combat were horrid.

[notbobsmith]

QFG1 original:
I'm not even sure if I've played this. Maybe once. I usually go with the remake. In terms of "Bad", I guess getting all of the dialog options in the remake is a lot easier with the dialog tree rather than going through each word to find the relevant ones.

QFG1 remake:
GOOD: This applies to the whole series, but I've always liked the RPG-lite feel: the settings are based on folklore, it doesn't take itself too seriously.
BAD: Combat was never really its strong suit. And going after a stronger (troll, cheetaur) enemy before you are ready is a death sentence, which you won't know until you try.

QFG2:
GOOD: This one is my favorite. All the characters that are introduced feel are interesting and well fleshed out. I like that the elementals are treated as puzzles rather than combat challenges. And instead of wandering around the map looking for things to do, they are brought out on a timer. I kind of liked the linearity of that.
BAD: Shapeir is a maze at first. And it took me a while to realize that the streets are outside. I always got the impression they were enclosed.

QFG3:
GOOD: I always liked the setting. The Liontaurs are cool.
BAD: A lackluster villain. He only shows up at the end without any build up, unlike Ad Avis.

QFG4:
GOOD: I feel like you do the most good here. In QFG1, the stakes were pretty low. In QFG2 and 3, you have to stop an oncoming threat. Here, the whole region is in despair and the Hero fixes a lot of problems both big and small.
BAD: The lack of restoration and mana potions can make grinding your stats, well, a grind.

QFG5:
GOOD: A generally satisfying conclusion to the adventures of our Hero with visits from almost every side character.
BAD: Revealing the villain in the intro cutscene.

[Rath Darkblade]

QFG4:
GOOD: I feel like you do the most good here. In QFG1, the stakes were pretty low. In QFG2 and 3, you have to stop an oncoming threat. Here, the whole region is in despair and the Hero fixes a lot of problems both big and small.
BAD: The lack of restoration and mana potions can make grinding your stats, well, a grind.

Wait, what?

- Health and poison cure potions are available from Dr. Cranium.
- To heal your stamina, just rest a bit.
- There are no mana potions, true, but there's another way to heal your mana. Poke about in Erana's Peace for a bit. You'll need one of your old spells. (I won't say any more or I'll spoil it).

[goatmeal]

Quest for Glory 3 -
Best: great setting, love the liontaurs and leopardmen village
Worst: training up your skills, various crash-to-DOS errors (and this was solved in the Steam/GOG release, which shows how old I am ), and ... ugh ... "Why did you come here, Friend of Rakeesh?" draining your honour score, which sucks if you're a paladin

Worse part for me was the damn Paladin bug.

When I played QFG3 back in the day as all three/four classes, I seem to recall a pretty big bug for the Magic Fight with the Shaman in the Leopardman village towards the end of the game, where you couldn't use the specific spell you needed to at a specific moment...

Don't remember if it was a crash or what, and I don't remember how I progressed as the Magic User on to QFG4 & QFG5... I guess it must have gotten patched out at some point ?

[goatmeal]

QFG5:
...
BAD: Revealing the villain in the intro cutscene.

Yes, YES, YES !!! This !!! So much this !!!

For all the good things about QFG5 -- especially the music! -- this STILL drives me absolutely crazy after almost 26 years later !

[notbobsmith]

QFG4:
GOOD: I feel like you do the most good here. In QFG1, the stakes were pretty low. In QFG2 and 3, you have to stop an oncoming threat. Here, the whole region is in despair and the Hero fixes a lot of problems both big and small.
BAD: The lack of restoration and mana potions can make grinding your stats, well, a grind.

Wait, what?

- Health and poison cure potions are available from Dr. Cranium.
- To heal your stamina, just rest a bit.
- There are no mana potions, true, but there's another way to heal your mana. Poke about in Erana's Peace for a bit. You'll need one of your old spells. (I won't say any more or I'll spoil it).

It's been a while, but I think you can only get 1 healing potion and 1 mana fruit (I think) per day. Meaning if you want to raise your spell stats, it takes a long time in game. I think resting restores mana, but it takes a lot of in game time. Once you get enough money in the other games, you can buy all the potions you need. The same goes with combat. Keep fighting monsters until you are at Death's door to raise your stats, and you only have the one potion per day to rely on.

[Rath Darkblade]

QFG5:
...
BAD: Revealing the villain in the intro cutscene.

Yes, YES, YES !!! This !!! So much this !!!

For all the good things about QFG5 -- especially the music! -- this STILL drives me absolutely crazy after almost 26 years later !

Mind you, you could always pretend that you don't know who the villain is, so it comes as a surprise. After all, the clothes he wears and his general appearance in the intro video don't match his clothes/appearance later.

I remember that when I played QfG5 for the first time, I had no idea that the villain was redacted.

QFG4:
GOOD: I feel like you do the most good here. In QFG1, the stakes were pretty low. In QFG2 and 3, you have to stop an oncoming threat. Here, the whole region is in despair and the Hero fixes a lot of problems both big and small.
BAD: The lack of restoration and mana potions can make grinding your stats, well, a grind.

Wait, what?

- Health and poison cure potions are available from Dr. Cranium.
- To heal your stamina, just rest a bit.
- There are no mana potions, true, but there's another way to heal your mana. Poke about in Erana's Peace for a bit. You'll need one of your old spells. (I won't say any more or I'll spoil it).

It's been a while, but I think you can only get 1 healing potion and 1 mana fruit (I think) per day. Meaning if you want to raise your spell stats, it takes a long time in game. I think resting restores mana, but it takes a lot of in game time. Once you get enough money in the other games, you can buy all the potions you need. The same goes with combat. Keep fighting monsters until you are at Death's door to raise your stats, and you only have the one potion per day to rely on.

Hmm, that's true. Then again, if your stats at the end of QfG3 are close to 300, you don't need to be at 400 to beat this game. (I never tried to raise my stats to 400, but only enough so I could beat the game).

And yes, if you rest, your mana will go up ... just not much ... which, I agree, defeats the whole purpose of trying to practice your magic. This is why it's vital to get as many mana fruit as you can. I think they heal your mana completely?