Hey everyone, PushingUpRoses here, and I made a startling discovery a couple weeks ago.
I somehow convinced myself that I had covered all of the King’s Quest games with the exception
of Mask of Eternity, only to realize I completely skipped over King’s Quest II: Romancing
the Throne.
So I am fixing this issue immediately.
This does not mean I will also be talking about Mask of Eternity so don’t get any
weird ideas.
Upon first glance you’ll notice that this looks very similar to the first King’s Quest;
it is played with the parser command, you’re still playing as Graham, now King Graham of
Daventry, and the graphics are very similar, but in many ways, Romancing the Throne is
far superior and there were a lot of changes made to this title that separates it from
the first game.
In case you don’t remember, the original King’s Quest was about the main character’s
journey to become King; after doing a series of tasks, we are able to take the throne.
THIS game is about finding a queen to assist you in ruling over Daventry.
Unlike the first game, this one has an introduction animation where you are told the story of
how King Graham is lonely and longs for a wife.
The magic mirror flickers and he sees the vision of a beautiful woman, trapped in a
crystal tower.
It was love at first reflection, and Graham takes off to the land of Kolyma to find and
save her.
Other differences include a linear story progression, and changes in the world that happen as you
explore.
This makes the puzzle design a little easier to follow because certain characters only
occur after you complete a certain task, and places open up when it is time to explore
them.
I always have a better time playing this over the first King’s Quest because visuals are
stronger, the screens are less sparse, and I think because the story IS pretty direct
and the puzzles are sequential, it’s a little more memorable.
There are still, of course, a million ways to die.
But the game seems to give you better guidance when it comes to figuring out what to do.
There are also more music clips, including a couple bars of Thriller by Michael Jackson.
The music was composed by Al Lowe.
Yes, that Al Lowe.
In between designing raunchy, sex theme adventure games, Lowe played in jazz bands and is a
fairly talented musician.
Now, the story, though better than the first game, is pretty basic.
Because King’s Quest games were heavily inspired by fairy tales, and they didn’t
seem to want to adapt the more morbid stories for some reason, we end up getting the more
cliched damsel in distress trope, complete with a jealous, evil witch who sticks the
fair maiden in a tower in another land.
It is not the most exciting plot, but there IS a novelization included in the King’s
Quest companion which makes the story much more exciting by adding dialogue between King
Graham and the characters he runs across, and more description of the land of Kolyma.
It’s not that the early King’s Quest games don’t have ANY story to work with, it’s
that the emphasis was on the abnormally difficult puzzles and the exploration of a beautiful
world, to make you feel like you are on a journey.
And to these game’s credits, they do look fantastic, straight out of a fairy tale, and
growing up I loved playing them because it did have this Cozy Cottage feeling to it.
I assigned it this description because whenever I visited my Aunt’s house growing up, I
always noticed this interesting piece of art on the wall of her basement; it was made out
of colored pebbles, and together it formed a cozy looking cottage with a cobblestone
road, and it always reminded me of the King’s Quest games, even more so because her house
was where I had first played them.
So whenever I get that sense of comfort or whimsy from an adventure game, that means
it has that Cozy Cottage phenomenon goin’ on.
Because a lot of the attention is focused on atmosphere, these early titles really lack
character development and...well...any characters at all.
I’d say the first four King’s Quest games feel rather lonely because the lands are never
populated.
Where IS everyone?
Every now and then you run into an impoverished family living in a little cabin, or a mythical
being, but we didn’t see a lot of character interaction until King’s Quest V.
Now this game does have some characters hanging about but there isn’t a lot of dialogue
happening; Hagatha has nothing to say to you considering she would rather cook you in her
stew, Grandma is too sick to talk, Red riding hood just wants her basket of goodies, and
the lady at the antique store is just concerned about her wares; it’s too bad these characters
don’t have more to say.
They went through the trouble of putting King Neptune in this game and all he has to say
is GLUB GLUB GLUB.
Though I will say that even though the story isn’t really woven into these early games,
you can get extra information from external resources and truth-be-told, the King’s
Quest series does have a very interesting lore.
The manual for this game in specific has an expanded introduction, explaining that the
spirit of King Edward, previous King of Daventry, told Graham he must find a wife or he’ll
suffer a lonely fate.
A feast is held and many maidens from other lands are invited, but Graham isn’t interested
in any of them.
That’s when the magic mirror activates and alerts him about Valanice.
The King’s Quest companion also brings a lot of this to life because it includes a
novelization of this game, as well as the other games in the series, and it includes
extra dialogue from the characters.
Also, Graham himself has a lot more to say about the situations he’s finds himself
in.
So it’s not that this game lacks a story, it’s just that it’s not very apparent
during the playthrough; Out of the first three King’s Quest games, I’d say this one has
the best puzzle design and some of the more iconic scenery; Grandma’s house always stood
out to me, as does the antique shop and the eastern part of Kolyma with it’s fantasy
colored waterfalls and...huge...fish.
Why are all the sea creatures so HUGE?
To save the maiden in the tower, you need to get past three locked doors, each one requiring
Graham to solve a riddle to progress.
The first door’s inscription gives you a pretty big hint, implying that you should
maybe check out the ocean, and when you do, a mermaid appears!
She was not there before you read the inscription, so this is what I meant when I said the world
changes as you go.
The first part of this game is pretty easy, consisting of finding random treasures in
logs and trees and rocks, I seriously found a diamond necklace in a log, I NEED to get
myself to Kolyma.
But the 2nd and 3rd door riddles ramp quite up a bit.
You may be familiar with the snake and bridle puzzle, and it’s been criticised for being
ridiculous and a part of Roberta Williams’s Moon Logic Agenda.
At one point you come across a (POISONOUS SNAKE), and while it might be tempting to
just slay it, the right answer is to toss the leather bridle onto the snake.
It turns him into a beautiful winged horse, he thanks you with a sugar cube that protects
from poison, then leaves to go live his life.
There’s a Pegasus in Quest for Glory V, maybe he lived out the rest of his days in
Similara.
This all sounds kind of nutty, how would you know to do this?
Well, you could read the novelization and figure it out right quick, or you might have
caught the reference to greek mythological figure Bellerophon, who used a magic bridle
to tame and mount a Pegasus.
I realize that is kind of stretching and most people are just going to roll their eyes at
this puzzle, but at least there’s somewhat of an explanation.
We still don’t have one for the moldy cheese powering the wander power generator, so compared
to that, this puzzle makes sense.
The third and final part of the game involves visiting Dracula, which seems somewhat out
of place in this high fantasy story, but it’s a high point for me because it’s SpoooooOOoOOoooky.
Did you know that Dracula likes to eat ham for dinner?
Huh!
This castle mostly consists of stairs; I know the art in this game is very impressive for
the time but could no one be bothered to put some knick knacks on these shelves?
Why is there just a huge bookshelf with nothing on it right in the foyar?
Did Dracula not own a single book?
Come on.
After you unlock all three doors, you are allowed into a different part of Kolyma; this
always intrigued me when I was young, which is honestly not saying too much because I
was fascinated by pretty much anything.
I probably saw the purple waterfall and ocean and thought, “OH GOLLY THAT’S SO COOL
BECAUSE WATERFALLS AREN’T REALLY PURPLE, HYUCK.”
The novelty of the setting has waned a bit over time, but I still appreciate the attempt
at making this new section of the land look magical and exotic.
Once you find the tower you can traverse the absurd number of stairs, defeat the Lion in
the form of bribing it with food, and meet the love of your...last...few hours or so.
You could have a stimulating dialogue with her, but honestly who needs words when you
can just make out.
Those Daventry boys really like that girl in the tower trope, don’t they?
This gets revisited in King’s Quest VI, and even has a song dedicated to being stuck
in a tower.
We’ve hit peak romance.
Clearly saving a woman from a tower despite not knowing them for more than 5 minutes,
is the foundation for every great relationship.
Using a magic amulet, that really just seems thrown into the world quite randomly, you
and your new bride-to-be escape the tower and marry almost immediately.
For some reason, all of your enemies show up for your wedding.
Though people like to rag on Sierra games, it’s important to note that these games
were very well received when they were released; our tastes may have changed in terms of what
we want out of adventure games, but I don’t think it’s ALL nostalgia goggles.
At one point this game was considered innovative and fun; one magazine even makes the claim
that Romancing the Throne is good for novice players.
Not sure I quite buy that statement completely, but it is a bit more mercicial than its predecessor.
Because the official SCI version of King’s Quest I bombed, plans for a remake of this
game fell through; which is too bad because I personally liked that initial remake.
But several years ago a team of developers called AGDInteractive remade a few of the
King’s Quest games, including this one.
I think they were really well done; they are fully voiced and they add a lot of story and
extra scenes to the game.
The role of King Graham was even reprised by Josh Mandel, who first voiced the character
in King’s Quest V. King’s Quest 2015, developed by The Odd Gentlemen, also revisits
the story of Valanice and her captor, Hagatha, and they also do a decent job at broadening
the lore and developing the characters further without completely going off the rails.
Like I said, these early parser adventure games can feel like they are lacking unless
you dive into those external sources, so I’m pretty open to the idea of remakes.
If you don’t have any nostalgia or memories attached to King’s Quest II, I could see
it being a rather boring experience, but I do recommend it because it is so beautiful
for the time, and there’s some neat elements that make it worthwhile, but if you want something
more accessible and modern, then also check out that remake.
I will have links in the description below, and as always...save early, save often.
Hey everyone thanks for watching my video on King’s Quest II: Romancing the Throne.
Feel free to talk about your favorite parser command games in the comments, or contact
me on social media.
If you want to support my adventure game obsession in a monetary way, do consider becoming a
patron, and as always, I’ll see you guys in the next one.