Opinions on King's Quest II?

[Sir Perceval of Daventry]

Continuing my series of retrospective reviews and opinions on each KQ game, how do you feel about King's Quest II: Romancing the Throne? The original game by Sierra, not the remake.

[Rosella]

I may be one of very few, but I really liked this game. It was kind of simple, but it seemed to have a lot more humor than the first game.

In particular, I remember I was playing the game with my boyfriend at the time. I noticed that the mermaid didn't have anything covering her top half and was somewhat offended at her gall (given that my boyfriend was right there), and proceeded to call her a rather unsavory name. That's just sort of what I called her as the game progressed and I was trying to figure out what to do to get underwater. Eventually, I figured out to give the flowers to her and typed "give flowers to" and then aforementioned unsavory name, not purposefully, but just because that's what I'd been referring to her as, and the game accepted it.

Most unexpected from a Sierra game, but highly hilarious. Just a lot of the easter eggs in that game (Batman comes to mind) were very amusing. I think it's underrated.

[Lambonius]

It was a great little game.  For those smitten with the original KQ back in the 80s, this game was the bee's knees.  More of the same great King's Questing.  From a hindsight standpoint, the game has its flaws, but it's still pretty classic Sierra.  It's basically the perfect continuation of the first game.  The first time I played it, it took me FOREVER to figure out that you had to type HOME to end the game.

[Numbers]

I grew up playing the SCI KQ1 and KQ4, playing the rest later on.  Understandably, I'm not too fond of the AGI games, given that I had games like KQ 4-6 to compare them to.  While I don't hate KQ2, I never go back and play it.  I prefer the VGA remake, despite its non-canonical status, since the puzzles in it make more sense.  I remember being taken aback by some of the original puzzles, particularly the whole snake/bridle debacle (although it was nothing compared to guessing the name of that gnome in the original).

Overall, it feels very much like a continuation of the first KQ, just a little leaner, story-wise.

Incidentally, I remember seeing some poll somewhere on what the best King's Quest game was.  It was years ago, and there's no way I could find a link to it now.  But I recall being surprised that the lowest-rated game on the list was KQ2.  Second place was KQ1 (AGI version, the SCI version was much higher on the list).  That's right, the poll results stated that the last two games--which are generally hated--were superior to the first two, which are generally remembered fondly.

[crayauchtin]

I liiiiiiike King's Quest II.... that said, I think even with the technology of the time it could have been tweaked to be a better story. So, no, not my favorite.... but not my least favorite.

[MangoMercury]

I like KQII okay, but I honestly couldn't say that it particularly stands out to me in any way.  All of the others in the series have something that really make them stand out:

I is the first in the series.
III has the controversy of Gwydion and learning his identity
IV has the day/night thing going on and the move to SCI
V has higher quality graphics and the move to voice acting
VI improves on KQV's revolutions and really works on making something phenomenal (although technically by my logic, KQVI could be seen as not really "standing out", I guess)
VII goes in a different direction without being an entirely different genre and ruining an established series (hi, MoE)

I could probably do with playing it through again.  There were some cool bits, like the area with the surreal landscape and the fish, but it just didn't really "wow" me.