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My reaction

Started by balderdasher, July 16, 2010, 02:48:46 PM

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balderdasher

So I finished playing after a couple hours last night -- it mostly took that long because the game initially crashed a few times.

First, an obvious kudos for working so hard on re-creating this game. It's certainly a far cry from being completely amateur. Still, while I realize this game is a fan creation, I think there are a number of negatives I think are worth pointing out. I'd like to start off echoing some of the other feedback I've seen.

1. Narration. I get no personal emotional response listening to the narrator. I also decided it's not really bothersome that her explanations are long-winded. It actually does remind me of the style of King's Quest. What annoys me is that she has an explanation for freaking everything. I click on the wall, she has something to say. I click on the pillar, she has something to say; the painting, the plants, the tree, everything. And really, it's not that what she has to say is all that bad, it's just completely unnecessary. "The pillars are sturdy," really? Oh, and the rug! That, too, needs an explanation.

2. Navigation. It's been literally 18 years (a whole adult was formed) since KQ6, which this game seems to be modeled after. Maybe I could use my keyboard to move a character? Or a joystick? Furthermore, while the narrator has a response for every object, she pretty much decides when my character doesn't want to go somewhere. In fact I do have interest in going to the basement and seeing the tattered reception area. Maybe you could just say "the door is locked" or something. Also, there's actually a glitch worth noting -- when I walked to the right side out in front of the castle, my character literally fell through some little graphic hole. It wasn't intended... he didn't die or anything, but I couldn't get him out.

3. Lack of consistency with original. Since you're re-creating the land of Green Isles -- you're missing that house and garden that Prince Daventry used to pass outside town, with the beast lady or whoever living in it. You're also missing the backside of the castle. Also, don't you have creative license to say, fill in some of the old game's plot gaps? Another gem the narrator told me was "no one ever figured out what that building (on the left in town) was for" ... which first of all sounds like a total lie. But you could actually make that building useful instead. Oh! And the Isle of the Sacred Mountain had footholds you had to climb up, not a grand staircase. I also love how you get the choice to sail to whatever island you want to, unless it's not the one the game wants you to go to. It seems like the map was just a nifty feature creators wanted to incorporate, but didn't plan out.

4. "Pithy" comments. "Tick tock tick tock, are you done trying to do crazy things?" Why, thank you for calling me stupid over and over. I thought I was supposed to click on stuff, not be berated for doing it. And no "cosmic force, like game makers" stopped anything from being in that box, unless that cosmic force was laziness, in which case you could've just said "there's nothing in it."

5. Music. I think the music is really good, but I keep wondering if it will unfold somehow into the game. The piano playing is really dominant in the castle scenes to the point where I wonder if Graham is going to open a door and find someone playing the piano.

6. Puzzles! Seriously, could there be some in the next episode? ***SPOILER.[spoiler] I pretty much took a coin to a ferry guy and the game was over. Also, did he only just appear after I picked up that cloak? Maybe you should think of some alternate endings, where the Oracle could talk about the "dark force" without Graham holding the cloak, so the game looks more like an adventure and less like a click-through cartoon.[/spoiler]

Onto some positives...

I do (seriously) think the game is a pretty spectacular rip-off of KQ6, and doing a decent job of doing KQ6 justice, so I'll be interested in playing further episodes. I also think that the dialog (outside the narrator, who can kiss my ass for the most part) is very King's Questian, and it doesn't bother me as much as I anticipated, especially because I can click through it. And as I said, I love the music. Some of the video direction is pretty great, too. And I like that there's at least ONE way to die in this episode (albeit the most obvious choice) and that it's not quite as Sierra-esque in that I can just push a "retry" button if it happens instead of an "oh crap, I forgot to save" moment.

The Hero

#1
Quotethat she has an explanation for freaking everything. I click on the wall, she has something to say. I click on the pillar, she has something to say; the painting, the plants, the tree, everything.
haha have you played a adventure game before
its a point and click npt keyboard and joystick adventure
and it is not a rip off you clarly don't know tsl or adventure games

Lambonius

A thought-out constructive critique once again is slapped in the face by inane flaming.  Grow up.  The topic creator is well within his rights to say so and makes some decent points.  

The Hero

 but he doesn't even know the basic story and is nitpicking

koko_99_2001

But the team is looking at the "nitpicking" and taking it into consideration. We don't really need sarcastic remarks made just because someone didn't jump up and down and say this is the best game ever.

Oh, and balderdasher, no worries. There are going to be some great puzzles in Episode 2. I'm working through it right now :)
<3 Happily married to FataliOmega since July 11, 2009 <3

The Unofficial The Silver Lining Official Sarcasm Cleaner Upper :cat:

Catherine DaCosta

B'rrr

Hey Balder, you make some intresting points.

Quote from: balderdasher on July 16, 2010, 02:48:46 PM
1. Narration. I get no personal emotional response listening to the narrator. I also decided it's not really bothersome that her explanations are long-winded. It actually does remind me of the style of King's Quest. What annoys me is that she has an explanation for freaking everything. I click on the wall, she has something to say. I click on the pillar, she has something to say; the painting, the plants, the tree, everything. And really, it's not that what she has to say is all that bad, it's just completely unnecessary. "The pillars are sturdy," really? Oh, and the rug! That, too, needs an explanation.
I actually was thinking about this last night when I was playing KQ5 a bit, lots of objects there that are of no use just don't have a description. in TSL about everything has. I don't mind either really, I kind of think it has a nice touch to it but I can see why people don't like it, especially if they are quite lengthy for every object.


Quote from: balderdasher on July 16, 2010, 02:48:46 PM
2. Navigation. It's been literally 18 years (a whole adult was formed) since KQ6, which this game seems to be modeled after. Maybe I could use my keyboard to move a character? Or a joystick? Furthermore, while the narrator has a response for every object, she pretty much decides when my character doesn't want to go somewhere. In fact I do have interest in going to the basement and seeing the tattered reception area. Maybe you could just say "the door is locked" or something. Also, there's actually a glitch worth noting -- when I walked to the right side out in front of the castle, my character literally fell through some little graphic hole. It wasn't intended... he didn't die or anything, but I couldn't get him out.
I read that the team is concidering keyboard navigation besides the point and click walking thingy that is already in the game. I agree with the other point though, I wanted to see what was in the basement aswell!  ;)

Quote from: balderdasher on July 16, 2010, 02:48:46 PM
3. Lack of consistency with original. Since you're re-creating the land of Green Isles -- you're missing that house and garden that Prince Daventry used to pass outside town, with the beast lady or whoever living in it. You're also missing the backside of the castle. Also, don't you have creative license to say, fill in some of the old game's plot gaps? Another gem the narrator told me was "no one ever figured out what that building (on the left in town) was for" ... which first of all sounds like a total lie. But you could actually make that building useful instead. Oh! And the Isle of the Sacred Mountain had footholds you had to climb up, not a grand staircase. I also love how you get the choice to sail to whatever island you want to, unless it's not the one the game wants you to go to. It seems like the map was just a nifty feature creators wanted to incorporate, but didn't plan out.

for the lack of screens they left out the screens that you are not using in the game itself, it did strike me as weird aswell since you expect them to be there, but I suppose it is no different then what in other Kings Quest is used when you sometimes see a building in a distance but won't be able to go there since there is no use for it. Only difference here is that it is used in KQ6.

As for the staircase, it has been cut out after KQ6 at the location where the cliffs used to be, as you can read in game. I was beeing told that we would get a four winds articale about that.
~Mary Jane supporter~
~Legend~

Ebenezer

Quote from: balderdasher on July 16, 2010, 02:48:46 PM
So I finished playing after a couple hours last night

You obviously played the wrong game.  This one doesn't last an hour, let alone a couple.

koko_99_2001

Quote from: Ebenezer on July 16, 2010, 10:32:12 PM
Quote from: balderdasher on July 16, 2010, 02:48:46 PM
So I finished playing after a couple hours last night

You obviously played the wrong game.  This one doesn't last an hour, let alone a couple.

It depends on how you play. If you click on everything, listen to everything, etc, then yes, it can very well last a couple hours :)
<3 Happily married to FataliOmega since July 11, 2009 <3

The Unofficial The Silver Lining Official Sarcasm Cleaner Upper :cat:

Catherine DaCosta

wilco64256

If you're deliberately trying to make it go buggy or break something then you can easily spend three hours at a time fooling around.
Weldon Hathaway

The Hero

 im not saying its the best game ever im just trying to point out that he isnt familiar with genre and i wasn't being sarcastic i was accualy asking if he had  
like for me i love amys descriptions and humor and i kinda got ticked at the "rip of" remark and besides that not all locations are the same because a certain amount of time has passed beatiys house is not there because shes not a slave to her step mother anymore so they left

second why would graham go to the back of the castle anyway that's like asking jim walls why the PD changed in every Police Quest
 the thing that bugged me is the walk cycle anyone think he walks like he has a full diaper

Lambonius

I just wanted to say that despite my rather vocal critiques in other threads, I'm still really looking forward to Episode 2.  I can't wait to see what kind of puzzles a group of hardcore KQ and adventure game fans came up with for us.  ;)

Baggins

The narrator reminds me of of Space Quest style narration in that the Graham and the Narrator break the fourth wall in acknowleding each other directly. I don't think that happened too often in earlier King's Quest games, and when it happened it usually was a death scene (being smote by god for attempting to kill the Monk in KQ2 for example).

Which would be fine if it was Space Quest, but this is King's Quest... I prefer the more serious narration in KQ5 and KQ6.
Well, ya, King's Quest is on Earth. Daventry is very old city from a long time ago. It's in ruins now and people aren't quite sure exactly where it used to be. There are some archaeologists searching through the ruins, they think they know its Daventry. But its somewhere on Earth."-Roberta Williams http://kingsquest.wikia.com/wiki/File:Daventryisearth.ogg

crayauchtin

I like the fact that everything has a description. In KQ5 and KQ7, there there were things I perhaps wanted to look at or interact with and it simply would not allow me to. That, to me, was beyond frustrating. No, the things weren't necessary (clearly) but it would have helped me to be immersed if it was explained what the eff the things were. It also seemed somewhat lazy -- that because they didn't want to bother with a description, they simply weren't going to allow you to click on it at all. I am quite pleased that TSL did not follow that example.
"If your translation is correct, that was 'May a sleepy hippopotamus lie down on your house keys,' but you're not sure. Unfortunately, your fluency in griffin-speak is too low."

We're roleplaying in the King's Quest world: come join in the fun!

Baggins

KQ5 had areas that would be marked with a big ol X if there wasn't any narrative.

KQ6 had narrative for nearly everything, or general narrative that would activate anywhere in the screen.

I missed the narrator in KQ7 and 8...

I preferred KQ6 style.
Well, ya, King's Quest is on Earth. Daventry is very old city from a long time ago. It's in ruins now and people aren't quite sure exactly where it used to be. There are some archaeologists searching through the ruins, they think they know its Daventry. But its somewhere on Earth."-Roberta Williams http://kingsquest.wikia.com/wiki/File:Daventryisearth.ogg

Goldenfoxx

QuoteWhich would be fine if it was Space Quest, but this is King's Quest... I prefer the more serious narration in KQ5 and KQ6.

Yeah, well, at least we don't have to deal with Cedric here.  

kindofdoon

Quote from: balderdasher on July 16, 2010, 02:48:46 PM
4. "Pithy" comments. "Tick tock tick tock, are you done trying to do crazy things?" Why, thank you for calling me stupid over and over. I thought I was supposed to click on stuff, not be berated for doing it. And no "cosmic force, like game makers" stopped anything from being in that box, unless that cosmic force was laziness, in which case you could've just said "there's nothing in it."

I agree strongly. :yes:

Daniel Dichter, Production/PR
daniel.dichter@postudios.com

Baggins

I actually like Cedric, but he is either a character you either love or you hate. There is little middle ground.
Well, ya, King's Quest is on Earth. Daventry is very old city from a long time ago. It's in ruins now and people aren't quite sure exactly where it used to be. There are some archaeologists searching through the ruins, they think they know its Daventry. But its somewhere on Earth."-Roberta Williams http://kingsquest.wikia.com/wiki/File:Daventryisearth.ogg

crayauchtin

I liked the concept of Cedric, but he proved to be generally annoying rather than helpful. "Watch out, it's dangerous!" warnings... well, no duh. I'd have much preferred if he was brave enough to be on an adventure as opposed to just shoved in there without any real purpose.
"If your translation is correct, that was 'May a sleepy hippopotamus lie down on your house keys,' but you're not sure. Unfortunately, your fluency in griffin-speak is too low."

We're roleplaying in the King's Quest world: come join in the fun!