Yes, let's touch on the Holy Grail of adventure gaming...what didn't you like about KQ6?
I'll say one thing: Alexander. The second worst protagonist in the series next to his mother. I don't like the island hopping back and forth between the islands. It gets a little repetitive after a while. Hearing 'Alexander pulls out his magic map' every five minutes gets grating. The dialogue is abit overlong and pedantic in many instances, which I find is also a hallmark of the GK games. I think some of it comes ff a little corny. The tone is kind of inconsistent, it keeps veering between KQ and a darker game.
Wait... KQ6? I thought the topic title said KQ7.
Fixed the title.
And nothing. I love KQ6. And I'd much rather listen to the magic map line all day than Cedric's god-awful whining!
Hmm... well, in that case...
I can only think of one thing, from the bad ending path, that I didn't like. Those two guard dogs, Wolf and Bay, who keep getting each other's names mixed up. And yes, that magic map line is a bit annoying, but... you do realize that you can easily just click again to skip it, right? Nobody ever said you HAD to listen to it.
Okay, how about this: that stupid pop song, Girl in the Tower that plays over the end credits. That song gets stuck in my head almost as much as Land Beyond Dreams does from KQ7 and I can't stand either of them.
If you like the song, more power to you, but it's the only thing I dislike about KQ6.
I believe I've made my opinion on how much Alexander blows clear by now. Honestly Rosella is more masculine than he is. KQ7 Rosella, mind you. I also hate the terribly-written, melodramatic dialogue and narration, the Isle of Wonder is beyond annoying, the acting is sub-par, the Beauty and the Beast subplot was a massive waste of time, the interface and graphics were somehow much worse than they were in KQ5, and of course, that awful copy protection.
So, all in all, KQ6 is hardly the Holy Grail it is held up to be. In fact, to me, it's just another video game, and nothing more than that.
QuoteHonestly Rosella is more masculine than he is.
That is sort of the point of both Rosella and Alexander.
Rosella takes after her father and wants to go on adventures. She isn't afraid to get herself dirty and she will break herself out of danger if she needs to.
Alexander takes after his mother and is more poetic and soft spoken, liking to speak in an elaborate way.
Alexander isn't meant to be manly at all (which is why I like him as a protagonist) and Rosella is clearly made to be "More Manly" (ignoring that I don't attribute that to gender) then any ordinary person.
Heck Rosella is probably MORE adventurous then Graham...
Hence my dislike towards both Alexander and Valanice--they're just bad protagonists for this kind of a story. Of course, Valanice might have worked as a protagonist if they had let you play as her in her younger days...in fact, KQ4 Rosella was actually a pretty good female player character, so it can be done. However, we got stuck with crone!Valanice in KQ7, who obviously has no idea what she's doing in this environment that everyone else in her family already has experience with.
Where's all the hate for Alexander coming from all of a sudden?! Yeesh...
Anti-Alexander sentiment isn't exactly a recent occurrence. I know for sure that absolutely nobody at Infamous Quests likes him. In fact, you'd be hard-pressed to find any Alexander fans outside of this forum. I, for one, am never going to like him--at least not the KQ6 representation of him, and what little we see of him in KQ5 doesn't do him any favors either--but if you see something in him that you can connect to, then more power to you.
In fact, my favorite version of Alexander is probably in IA's KQ3 remake. Which is kind of funny, because in my opinion, that remake got pretty much everything else wrong. He sounds more like a normal person in that game. In KQ3 Redux he doesn't emote enough. In TSL, he emotes too much. Why is this guy so difficult to portray in a manner that everyone's fine with? I don't see many people complaining about Graham, who arguably has less of a personality than Alexander does.
I'm sure there are more Alexander fans out there than just here in this forum. If he was that widely reviled, I don't think KQ6 would be generally regarded as the best of the KQ games, or at least one of the best two along with KQ5.
I don't think Alexander being a less-common kind of male protagonist makes him a bad one. But then, you & I obviously differ completely in our opinions of him, Numbers.
Nothing.
King's Quest 6 is perfection as far as it goes for videogames in my book.
If I had to pick one thing is that you can get stuck in the Minotaur Caves if you don't bring all the necessary items with you. But that's just a nitpick when compared to KQ5, really.
I actually like unlikely heroes in my point and clicks... and honestly it is why I liked Valanece in 7 and made me sympathize with her more and was all the more happy when she had a success.
Heck by the end of 7 I sort of realized that Valanece was the real hero of 7.
Alexander though is someone I wouldn't call unlikely, but he is certainly one of the more well studied and soft-spoken protagonists I have ever seen. In fact I cannot think of a more soft-spoken protagonist.
Quote from: KatieHal on January 08, 2014, 09:14:21 PM
You & I obviously differ completely in our opinions of him, Numbers.
Speaking of which, can I change my username to Numbers? I'm tired of my name being a nondescript bunch of digits, and I'm sure everyone else is too.
Also, I know that Alexander has his fans, and I'm perfectly willing to acknowledge that the most reviled King's Quest protagonist is Connor, for obvious reasons. I'm not sure how well any other KQ protagonist would have fared in that role, either. Imagine if Rosella was the protagonist in MoE...she would've been turned into a Xena-type Amazon for the role. Imagine seeing THAT coming off the heels of KQ7.
KQ7 Rosella:
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_4C1ZwEub0Po/TT-YLfocgTI/AAAAAAAACzE/u1-GKVrfyW8/s1600/ibmpc_kq7_rosella_sings.jpg)
MoE Rosella:
(http://www.forwardedge.com/83454.jpg)
Heyyyy...I think I like where this is going.
Though we rarely do username changes, I am willing to approve this one since, yes, your username is otherwise a nondescript bunch of digits. I'll get that changed now; check your email for the reset info.
Fair enough--none of the existing characters would've fit. I think the issue came down to the style of the game more than anything else--it was just SO different. Having a non-royal family member as the main character was a big jump enough, but on top of everything else that didn't mesh with the previous games, it was just one more thing at that point.
Also, LOL, on the images. :)
Quote from: KatieHal on January 10, 2014, 08:42:29 PM
Though we rarely do username changes, I am willing to approve this one since, yes, your username is otherwise a nondescript bunch of digits. I'll get that changed now; check your email for the reset info.
Yesss...profile changes are effective immediately.
Quote from: Cez on January 09, 2014, 05:42:11 PM
If I had to pick one thing is that you can get stuck in the Minotaur Caves if you don't bring all the necessary items with you. But that's just a nitpick when compared to KQ5, really.
Actually, IIRC, Alexander won't even go into the labyrinth if he doesn't have all of the necessary items. It's perfectly possible to go through that section without finding the coins, though.
QuoteActually, IIRC, Alexander won't even go into the labyrinth if he doesn't have all of the necessary items.
Yes, he will. Just not immediately. He'll get sent down to the shore and the guards will wait by the entrance, for him to return. They don't care if he's well prepared, only the Queen does.
Ah. I never bothered to mess around and specifically look for all the dead ends.
That particular one got me a number of times. I would get to the top of the Steps, be taken to Azure and Ariel, and they'd say I could have time to prepare (since I didn't have the tinderbox). I had NO IDEA what I was supposed to do then so I kept ending up in the catacombs because I didn't have that item, and then, of course, dying.
Huh. I knew about that, but I'm not sure how it could work. Maybe I've been spoiled by the Let's Play phenomena, but I don't see why you would go in there without having everything you need beforehand.
I always missed getting the brick, and you can't get through the catacombs without it, but if you come before the Winged Ones twice, they toss you into the catacombs, ready or not.
There's no reason to suppose that you would need a brick before going into catacombs that have brick (or stone) walls. You can try to use the skull from the catacombs in the machine, but it just breaks and the machine still kills you, so I suppose that would be your clue to get something stronger. (Just hope that you saved before getting tossed into the catacombs.)
At least after you successfully pass through the catacombs, you can still go back inside if you forgot the coins. I imagine that you could also make it all the way to the Land of the Dead without the teacup with swamp ooze in it or without the coins for Charon.
It's been a while since I've played KQ6, but I recall that it's possible to break the spoiled egg before you're supposed to use it, and the game immediately reprimands you for being such an idiot. God help you if you save after the game tells you that you just messed up.
Also, wasn't this kind of thing there since the beginning? I remember it being possible to eat the magic beans in KQ1, and the game will ask you what the hell you think you're doing. Maybe it's just the AGDI remake I'm remembering and not the original.
Quote from: Numbers on January 11, 2014, 06:13:46 PM
Ah. I never bothered to mess around and specifically look for all the dead ends.
It is a rare mesh of gaming eras where there were no qualms about having a dead end, but they try to warn you about it.
Quote from: Cathenah19 on January 12, 2014, 04:38:42 PM
I always missed getting the brick, and you can't get through the catacombs without it, but if you come before the Winged Ones twice, they toss you into the catacombs, ready or not.
Ridiculous! You are told on your first meeting with the winged ones that you are nor ready for the catacombs--that you do not have evrything you need. Any player of adventure games knows to save BEFORE encountering the winged ones again. You are given every clue to do so. Once you have the brick and the skull and everything you need, the winged ones announce that you have everything you need before you are tossed into the catacombs. Or they will announce that you are not ready and toss you in anyway--which is your clue to resore your previous game
In short: if you found this puzzle a dead-end, you are not very observant
Because before going in, there's nothing that tells you what you're going to need. The tinderbox makes sense once you know that's what you need, but nothing really hints specifically at that. And if you return to the top of the cliffs at all, you're immediately shown into the catacombs.
(http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2013/027/c/5/kq6___alexander_vs_an_iceberg_by_keyshakitty-d5svojs.jpg)
Is it just me, or does Alexander look disturbingly similar to Loki here?
Quite honestly, I really can't think of much I didn't like about KQ6. However, I will agree with Sir Perceval of Daventry and say that Alexander's dialogue can be a bit pedantic.
Quote from: KatieHal on January 13, 2014, 02:28:36 PM
Because before going in, there's nothing that tells you what you're going to need. The tinderbox makes sense once you know that's what you need, but nothing really hints specifically at that. And if you return to the top of the cliffs at all, you're immediately shown into the catacombs.
Well not to mention that them just saying you aren't ready and throwing you into a dungeon to have to find a way out...
is a very typical game thing to do.