First off, mad props guys, mad props. You're taking far too much slack for what is truly a great achievement. Yes it has its flaws, but what doesn't? Apart from King's Quest VI, I mean.
I think I've found it so easy to look past any shortcomings that so many critics are obsessed with because I've realised the obvious: this isn't King's Quest IX. It's a new take on it: "KQIX... with feelings" if you will. You've dumped King Graham, the loveable little yellow guy from 16 colours, into a realistic world. That's where the dark tone has come from, and - like it or not - it's an interesting experiment that might just turn up some interesting results. They do it with comic books all the time - can fairy tales be psychologically realistic?
The other thing to bare in mind is: this is FANfiction - you need to get your head around that to enjoy it. The game relies on the audience's pre-familiarity with its source material - the new detail in the narrations, the revisited locations, few new characters but many old favourites... all much more enjoyable to returning adventurers than to new fans. But let's face it - the target audience ARE fans! Who here would've even found this site if they hadn't fallen off the cliffs of logic a few hundred times back in the day?
Let's look back at the originals, which for the point of my argument, I'd consider to be 1 through 6. Now I'm a big fan. Really big - particularly of the VGAs (V and VI). But I'm also of the opinion that - save for KQVI - none are masterpieces. KQI and II are prototypes - not rich in plot or emotional complexity - III is fiendishly difficult and V (while stunning) is hindered by poor voice acting and some really ridiculous puzzles (cheese generator anyone?). Throw in some ludicrous copy protection and the occasional parser and you've got yourselves something pretty inaccessible by today's standby.
Now before anyone throws a chair at me, hear me out! If I played King's Quest VI today, having never done so before, I would still be in awe of its storytelling, of the way it draws me in, of EVERYTHING. And I think I'd feel similar about most of the others. I mean, you ARE the wizard's slave boy trying to escape, the princess desperate to save her father, the King on an epic journey to return his castle... it's the beautiful fairy tale simplicity that I fell in love with, not Harry Potter plot complexities or Tarantino dialogue. And while TSL's taken on King Graham's existential angst at the tragedy that befalls him is intriguing... there's a step missing.
You need to restore the Kingdom/find a wife/escape the wizard/save your father/rescue your family/find the princess... everything looks bleak, but you find yourself (often magically) in an exciting new Kingdom, be it Daventry/Kolyma/Llewdor/Tamir/Serenia/the Green Isles... you meet colourful characters - be they Genestas or Saladins or Crispins - and suddenly things don't seem so bad. It's an adventure. You visit shops and meet more people. You die a few times. Everybody laughs.
The plots were connected, somewhat. But only loosely. Manannan and Mordack, Cassima at Mordack's and Edgar, popping up to creepily proposition Rosella whenver we stepped into her sassy shoes. We did have the 'Society of the Black Cloak' but if Season 6 of Lost has taught us anything it's that tantalising glimpses will always be far sexier than what's on the other side of the hole-in-the-wall. Yeah, I need another King's Quest, to tell me that everybody lives happilly ever after. We need to know who will take the throne of Daventry after Graham's death. We need to know if Alexander and Rosella go on to live happy lives in other kingdoms. We need to see Cedric disembowled by the Minotaur. But do we need something connecting all the games up? Yet another mystical prophecy? Mythology arcs suit Lost and Harry Potter, but do they suit our beloved simplistic King's Quest?
If we base it off previous games, King's Quest IX would star the good King Graham (you'd hope). He'd wake up one morning in Daventry and find - oh maybe that his children had been cursed or some such superfluous plot point - and then he'd be away. To a new kingdom he'd never been to before, filled with new characters. At most, the other members of the Royal Family would feature in the introduction or the ending... they don't tend to crop up at any other point. Graham immediately forgets his troubles and settles in to a world full of androgynous tailors and wolves that sound like yoda.
Maybe that sounds rubbish? Well at the end of the day, that's what King's Quest is. King's Quest VI aside, it was never cutting edge in terms of story, was it? The technology yes, was astounding; even the AGI graphics had more love in them than most polygons nowadays and 5 and 6 are still gorgeous in a way that early 3ds really aren't. But then again, save the Green Isles, the lands themselves were never politically realistic wonderlands individually and meticulously detailed... no, that's far more Quest for Glory. Characters lived randomly on different screens. How did Granny get food in Kolyma - did she eat antiques? Llewdor and Serenia had towns at least but Tamir just let every individual freak shack up and terrorise everyone in a two screen radius. There wasn't even a community centre where they could meet to discuss cupid peeing in that swimming pool.
So that's that. King's Quest VI was a one-off instead of a peak. We've returned to the Green Isles in TSL, which is good for nostalgia but still not very King's Quest. Save the odd return to Daventry, it was always about the new place to explore - the stranger in a strange land. It's amazing to see the Chief Druid and the Winged Ones again but it's nothing like meeting them for the first time. That was what King's Quest was about - exploration. Never knowing what you'd find on the next screen, being able to wander round aimlessly, all over Tamir or the Green Isles or whatnot. The ultra linear 'go to this island NOW' certainly doesn't suit. If Episode One is the intro, fair play. If the rest of the game is like that... maybe not.
My honest opinion? TSL will be like the remakes. You can take it or leave it. I plan to take it, but in my mind, King's Quest should've ended with a better attempt at King's Quest VIII:
Daventry's heirs gone, Connor MacLyrr (minus d****** pseudo-medieval accent) could've stepped up to the plate following a catastrophe (the mask can stay, if it must) - a more cheerful, less depressing journey to another magical world, one as inspired, well-thought out and as beautifully cinematic as the Green Isles (successes it owes to a clear identity - the Arabian Isle of the Crown, Greco-Roman Sacred Mountain etc - this new land would've needed an equally clear influence). He solves puzzles, meets new characters (preferably well voice acted) and gets immersed in that world. Finally, he returns to Daventry and having solved the crisis and - following the death of our beloved Graham - is crowned King of Daventry.
It's suitable. The message: great deeds mean more than noble birth. No combat or any newfangled rubbish, just a great story. It's cyclical, with a bittersweet but definite ending that would probably make us all cry. And we'd all have closure. Thinking about it, if Roberta Williams had thought to make THAT game 12 years ago, none of us would even be here.
How about that?