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Is King's Quest 7 a bad game?

Started by KatieHal, March 08, 2013, 09:50:54 AM

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KatieHal

True--KQ does very much have its share of damsels. While the scales are tipped in favor of female damsels, though, it does have a good portion of male ones at least: Edgar (twice...or at least 1.5 times), Graham, King Otar, and Alex is one along with the rest of the family in KQ5.

I don't think we need spoiler tags for GK, really :) I agree--Grace is at one point a damsel, but only after spending much of the game actively helping Gabriel, and she's not the only reason he goes into the hounfour, either. And then she's a full-on equal partner in the sequels.

Katie Hallahan
~Designer, PR Director~

"Change is the constant, the signal for rebirth, the egg of the phoenix." Christina Baldwin

I have a blog!

darthkiwi

QuoteHeck, even in Leisure Suit Larry, probably the most misogynistic game ever, you get to play as Passionate Patty sometimes.

I'm not sure LSL (the first game, anyway) was misogynistic: it was so ironic, and portrayed Larry as such a loser, that I think players naturally distance themselves from the game. The game-world is intensely misogynistic but it was designed that way to be laughed at.
Prince of the Aquitaine. Duke of York.

Knight errant and consort to Her Grace the Empress Deloria of the Holy Roman Empire, Queene of all Albion and Princess Palatine.

Rosella

The game is far more offensive to Larry than the girls. :P
I'm a princess even if my kingdom is pixelated.

Official Comfort Counselor of the TSL Asylum © ;D

It's funny how you find you enjoy your life when you're happy to be alive.

GrahamRocks!

When did Graham need to be rescued?

KatieHal

KQ4--Rosella saves him from dying of his heart attack.

KQ8--Connor saves him, along with the rest of Daventry & the world. Less so here, it's not JUST him by a long stretch, but a point is made to illustrate that Graham is the king of Connor's home kingdom.

Katie Hallahan
~Designer, PR Director~

"Change is the constant, the signal for rebirth, the egg of the phoenix." Christina Baldwin

I have a blog!

GrahamRocks!

Ohhhh! I was thinking literally, like he'd been captured and had to be rescued type of rescue.

darthkiwi

Quote from: KatieHal on March 08, 2013, 12:16:18 PM
KQ8--Connor saves him, along with the rest of Daventry & the world. Less so here, it's not JUST him by a long stretch, but a point is made to illustrate that Graham is the king of Connor's home kingdom.

In that sense, Graham represents all of Daventry in that cinematic, I guess.
Prince of the Aquitaine. Duke of York.

Knight errant and consort to Her Grace the Empress Deloria of the Holy Roman Empire, Queene of all Albion and Princess Palatine.

Bludshot

Quote from: KatieHal on March 08, 2013, 09:50:54 AM
True--KQ does very much have its share of damsels. While the scales are tipped in favor of female damsels, though, it does have a good portion of male ones at least: Edgar (twice...or at least 1.5 times), Graham, King Otar, and Alex is one along with the rest of the family in KQ5.

I don't think we need spoiler tags for GK, really :) I agree--Grace is at one point a damsel, but only after spending much of the game actively helping Gabriel, and she's not the only reason he goes into the hounfour, either. And then she's a full-on equal partner in the sequels.
Better safe than sorry concerning the spoiler tags, I wouldn't want to spoil a game I consider one my top favorites.  Not sure I agree on King Otar and 2/3rds of Edgar, since they aren't really objectified in the same way, but I agree KQ generally did better than its contemporaries on this particular trope. :P
Deep Thoughts with Connor Mac Lyrr
"Alack! The heads do not die!"

Neonivek

Edgar certainly the heck does count

"Edgar my bland and disinteresting but totally into me boyfriend! or how do they say it, Shallow love interest!"

Bludshot

He is an odd case, I sort of agree, hence the fractions.  You save him, but it feels pretty incidental, it certainly wasn't a goal of Rosella's in either example. 
Deep Thoughts with Connor Mac Lyrr
"Alack! The heads do not die!"

Neonivek

Quote from: Bludshot on March 08, 2013, 11:10:21 PM
He is an odd case, I sort of agree, hence the fractions.  You save him, but it feels pretty incidental, it certainly wasn't a goal of Rosella's in either example.

True in the first case you don't even save him... he is saved indirrectly through your actions. (In fact Edgar would technically be a villain in the first game, as he constantly harasses and kills you)

In the second game you save him but insidently as you didn't know who he was and just chose not to turn him into a bug.

darthkiwi

I also like how, at the end of kq4, Rosella

[spoiler]turns down the now-handsome prince in favour of doing her own thing.[/spoiler]
Prince of the Aquitaine. Duke of York.

Knight errant and consort to Her Grace the Empress Deloria of the Holy Roman Empire, Queene of all Albion and Princess Palatine.

Deloria

Technically he never kills you in KQ4. :P I wouldn't even call that harassment; he tells his mother he's in love with you so you can prove yourself/not die in a dungeon, then he gives you the key to your room so you can escape even though this sabotages his own wishes and then he makes sure the castle is safe for you after you kill Lolotte. That isn't harassment. It's help.

In KQ7, you actually can't turn him into a bug. The F and T settings are for faerie and troll respectively. By clicking the wand on him, you turn him into a faerie, his true form. By clicking the wand on the other guy, you turn him (the real King Otar) into a bug. You can't kill Edgar here, but you can keep King Otar from being able to deactivate the volcano and thus lose the game. In fact, in KQ7 you can save him through your own actions by using the extra life on his lifeless body. That's an action. :P
 
Holy Roman Empress
Queen of *all* Albion
Précieuse and salonnière! :D
"In cases of doubt about language, it is ordinarily best to consult women."-Vaugelas
Space! :D Extraterrestrium! :D Espace! :D

Neonivek

Yeah but there are quite a few deaths where Edgar steals a kiss from you... which makes Rosella wretch to death.

GrahamRocks!

I don't remember that. Unless you're talking about the ending where she and Edgar are wed, in which case she just faints.

Neonivek

Quote from: GrahamRocks! on March 09, 2013, 01:42:02 PM
I don't remember that. Unless you're talking about the ending where she and Edgar are wed, in which case she just faints.

I am pretty sure she is dead.

Rosella

No, she just faints. And Edgar has the decency to act very uncomfortable and embarrassed by it. :P
I'm a princess even if my kingdom is pixelated.

Official Comfort Counselor of the TSL Asylum © ;D

It's funny how you find you enjoy your life when you're happy to be alive.

Lambonius


Rosella

And I love it, so I guess we cancel each other out. :P
I'm a princess even if my kingdom is pixelated.

Official Comfort Counselor of the TSL Asylum © ;D

It's funny how you find you enjoy your life when you're happy to be alive.

Neonivek

Quote from: Rosella on March 09, 2013, 01:49:28 PM
No, she just faints. And Edgar has the decency to act very uncomfortable and embarrassed by it. :P

Then it is a stupid death.

Really Rosella you are letting one wedding stop you?