King's Quest (2015 video game)

King's Quest is an episodic video game series developed by The Odd Gentlemen and published by Activision under the Sierra Entertainment brand name for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One. It is a re-imagining of the long-running King's Quest adventure game series. The interface is not fully point-and-click, and the Windows version only uses point-and-click for the dialogue and first person scenes.

The game is one of several attempts at resurrecting or rebooting the King's Quest franchise since 1998, and its first chapter was released about 32 years after King's Quest I. The new chapters are seen as neither a remake nor necessarily a sequel but a "re-imagining". The original games are considered to be part of the canon of the new series, as each chapter will take place between those games; however, previous games may be reinterpreted in completely new ways.

Gameplay

Unlike some of the classic King's Quest video games, the new King's Quest is not a point-and-click adventure. Instead, it is an adventure game that tasks players to control Graham, who ventures to different places to become a knight. The movement of Graham can be completely controlled by players. According to Matt Korba, the game's creative director, the game's controls focuses on "one-button context". As a result, the game does not have any complicated interfaces or controls. Player interaction includes picking up, gathering, and inspecting scenery items. They can switch to first-person perspective when inspecting them.

The game is narrated by the elderly King Graham and his granddaughter Gwendolyn. Players' actions in the game change the narrative. For instance, performing certain actions unlocks additional dialogue. When players make wrong decisions and die, Graham replies with phrases such as "That's what would have happened if I did that", before players re-spawn. Players also make decisions throughout the game that are divided into three different approaches, bravery, wisdom, and compassion. Actions performed by players have consequences and impact the game's story, and as a result, change the game's overall experience. Most of these choices are game play-based. According to Korba, all the choices made by Graham are heroic, and there is no way for players to build a "bad" Graham.

The first section is linear, where levels open sequentially. Players are free to explore levels, and have no prescribed or predetermined paths. Players can use a variety of methods to complete their objectives, and are tasked to solve various puzzles, with no fixed solutions. Players can also have conversations with anyone in the game. The game features branching dialogue, action sequences, quick-time events, and on-rail platform elements.

Story

Setting and Characters

The story of King's Quest is both based on but also considerably alters certain events from the original King's Quest series.  The story is still nevertheless set in the kingdom of Daventry during the realm of a now aged King Graham (voiced and narrated by Christopher Lloyd) as he recounts his adventures to his grand-daughter Gwendolin, from his earlier days before he was even knighted in Daventry, his early days as king following King Edward's passing, his actual encounter with his future spouse, Queen Valanice, his reunion with his lost son Alexander and picking up to his actual days on his one last adventure.

While events are still altered, original locations such as Kolyma (King's Quest II) and Llewdor (King's Quest III) still exist as do original characters such as Hagatha (the antagonist from King's Quest II) as well as Mannanan (the antagonist from King's Quest III).  However, King's Quest also adds new characters such as Amaya, the town's local blacksmith, Whisper, who is a dashing yet helplessly narcissistic knight, and Olfie, one of the kingdom's local bridge trolls who's also participating in a strike.

Plot

This covers the overall plot of King's Quest.  Several details, choices and events that are chosen by the player are omitted for simplification.

Graham tardily arrives at Daventry to participate at the Knight Hopeful's tournament, hoping to make a name for himself, squaring off against the strongest Acorn, the fastest Whisper, the tiny but clever Manny and the foreign pragmatic Achaka.  In spite of not being considered by either Acorn or Whisper, Achaka and Manny see potential in Graham due to his way of thinking.  However, in the trial to acquire the eye of a ferocious beast (the dragon who'd later guard the Magic Mirror), Graham accidentally causes Achaka's death, shaking him deeply.  Convinced by Manny to persist on the tournament to honor Achaka's sacrifice, Graham bests both Acorn and Whisper in their respective duels (Strength and Speed) and squares off against Manny in a Duel of Wits game, luckily outsmarting him.  Frustrated at his defeat, Manny fruitlessly tries fighting Graham and then flees.

Following his coronation and unable to initially handle the overwhelming bureaucracy of the realm, Graham tries going out for a walk in town only to be kidnapped by goblins along with the town dwellers.  Forced to handle chores while at the same time looking after the villagers' health, Graham manages to break from his prison and infiltrate the Goblin King's court, where he discovers the goblins' obsession with fairy tales and how Manny used it to orchestrate Graham's kidnapping.  Graham would also eventually discover Manny himself is also a goblin, whom sought to be crowned to elevate the goblins to a higher standing in Daventry.  Graham overpowers the Goblin King and rescues the town folk.

Years later, though he is successful is restoring Daventry, Graham feels lonely and, following the directions of the Magic Mirror, departs to Kolyma to rescue and marry his destined betrothed, Queen Valanice.  However, he discovers there are two trapped princesses instead, named Vee and Neese, held hostage by the witch Hagatha, later revealed to have been a former princess as well whom was trapped by her parents due to her magical powers.  With the help of either princess he comes closer with, Graham helps redeem Hagatha and rescue both princesses, with the beloved one revealing herself to be Valanice, but the other, ignored one, is accidentally cursed by Hagatha's time freezing spell meant to forever trap them.

Graham and Valanice marry and sire their children, Alexander and Rosella, the former whom is kidnapped by Mannanan (revealed to be a transformed Manny) and trained along with Manny's switched-at-birth brother Mordon to usurp Daventry's throne.  After nearly two decades of Graham's fruitless search, however, Alexander manages to escape from Mannanan's grasp and reunites with his family.  Graham attempts reconnecting with Alexander by planning a family vacation, but upon arrival they discover that the realm was frozen solid by Queen Icebella - revealed to be the princess accidentally cursed and brainwashed by Mannanan, whom had returned taking the form of a sphinx.  Besting Mannanan's complex puzzles across his labyrinth in spite of the initial rift between both, Alexander and Graham break free along with Valanice and Rosella, and Valanice briefly manages to get Icebella to remember her former identity before Mannanan kills her, predicting she'd betray him.  Alexander, with the leftovers of the cat-transforming cookie he once used, turns Mannanan into a cat once again and the Royal Family returns back to Daventry.

Fast forwarding to later days, Graham, now totally too old to attempt adventures, tries to find a new adventure himself, but he finds the realm set ablaze and discovers Mannanan called upon Graham for a final challenge.  While Graham does his best to keep his failing mental condition and meets Manannan on the final duel and honestly passes through the trials, Mannanan reveals a rigged game to strike the realm with a destructive poison.  Graham, however, takes the poison himself to save Daventry, and as Manannan tries torturing him to death, a repentant Mordon, whom changes his name to Mordack and recalling how Graham saved him from abuse at one point, intervenes and destroys the crystal maintaining Manannan's form, ultimately destroying the wizard and saving the king.

Bedridden from the poison, Graham tells the tales of his adventures to Gwendolin across the game while making an alteration to a critical rule of Daventry in order to allow her to inherit the throne.  Before he passes away the night following his final story, he leaves a letter to Gwendolin inspiring her to follow her own adventures.  In the epilogue, on her own adventure, she comes across Achaka's granddaughter Taskia and both find a dragon Taskia is supposed to slay to avenge Achaka's death.  However, upon discovering the dragon is an infant, they befriend the dragon and return to the castle.

Development

There were multiple attempts to reboot the franchise following 1998's ', none of which passed the announcement or concept stages. In August 2014, Activision revived the Sierra brand and had passed development responsibilities for a new game to The Odd Gentlemen. The lengthy game was split into multiple chapters with a staggered release schedule. The script for the first chapter alone is 640 pages long, including branching paths, Easter eggs, narration, object use and interaction, and dialogue trees. Each chapter of the series was longer and more complex than some similar episodic series, such as those made by Telltale Games. Voice actors include Christopher Lloyd, Wallace Shawn, Tom Kenny, Josh Keaton, Maggie Elizabeth Jones, and Zelda Williams.