Written with the disclaimer that I’ve never actually touched the game with my own hands, just absorbed dozens of YouTube playthroughs on it. I’ve seen how different decisions play out and the whole she-bang.
I don’t like to write negative reviews much. I just don’t think I have many interesting things to say about something bad. I find it so much more compelling to find a weird, forgotten game and polish off the dirt to find out what does work in it. Even beyond that, I’ve just always felt uncomfortable bandying about my negative opinion as fact. Sometimes I’ll just not mention problems I had with a game because I’m riding so high on the positives. I rewrote this review several times, adding or removing various “in my opinions” or “no disrespects” and so on, just to buttress my ranting with some “not that you shouldn’t like it!” cowarding out.
But it’s just… this just doesn’t work. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s one of the most ambitious storytelling ideas of all time. The creative team revealed that their goal with the game was to create the “real” King’s Quest story, with the main games being fairy tales based off of true events. Through this vein, King Graham retells the story of his life, from his application to knighthood, to a revamped version of the events of KQ2, to filling in gaps to the timeline, to more. Coupled with this, the game takes several, tragic creative risks with its story in its final chapter. As Graham winds down the story, his mind starts fading. Recurring characters vanish mid-narration as Graham forgets about them. The land of Daventry gets more sparse, and the frustration and panic he feels trying to figure out what he’s forgetting is… crushing. It’s an astoundingly ambitious way to use a character that’s supposed to be the Mario of adventure games. And I do respect how that story is delivered. This is for sure a buttress paragraph (as previously stated), but I do genuinely think the “King Graham Vs Getting Old” plot is well done.
But the writing… the writing falls apart. In its efforts to endear audiences to this version of Graham, he becomes a hyperactive weenie who loves to have silly victory dances. There’s worse places to write from, but it quickly becomes grating and never quite goes away over the game’s five chapters.
This is followed by Queen Valanice. How does one adapt the character of Valanice, who’s had so many different interpretations and conflicting characterizations across the KQ franchise, into someone consistent? Well, the solution KQ 2015 comes up with is that Valanice is actually twins. A fun-loving, creative one and a smart, serious one. Choose the one you want to marry, the other gets tossed off a cliff. No need to write a complex character here, just choose the archetype you like and shove the other into the abyss! And since they’re twins, we don’t actually have to write a lot of different dialogues or make new character models or pay different voice actors for the modern day, Old Queen. It’s almost like your choice didn’t matter at all.
But I think what ultimately grates on me is Alexander. One of the most tragic characters of KQ lore. King’s Quest 3 is one of the most ingenious video games ever made. Oppressively hard, aggressively harrowing, and a stunning depiction of living in an abusive environment. I would go as far to say it’s a masterful achievement of gaming. Even the fan remake, for all its minor improvements to the experienced, refuses to offer any relief in the oppressive, constricting, bleak tone of the game. The impact of this game is reflected in the wider franchise and in Alexander’s character. The expanded universe notes that Alexander never manages to see himself as more than a slave, viewing “Prince Alexander” as a mask for the real him. He doesn’t get a perfect happy ending. He just soldiers on, trying to be the person other people want him to be. There’s so much fertile ground with this character, from his relationship with Graham, his mother, his sister… The entire complicated web around Alexander is a rich tapestry waiting to be explored. And so is Rosella! While she’s the protagonist of a few games, she deserves a greater dig into her psychology just as much as Alexander.
Instead, Alexander’s an emo teen embarrassed by his goofy father. He says “whatever” a lot, he whines, he’s sarcastic… he’s nothing. And the game wants to get into the complexity of that relationship and untangle the strain between them. But it just doesn’t know how. Maybe this is a ridiculous way to react to a character changing in a reboot. Maybe I’m overblowing the issue. But to me, having Alexander rolling his eyes and muttering “Sure thing, Pops” is just a fundamental misunderstanding of the source material AND of how abuse works. Alexander was raised by a monster, so he’s sassy and kinda mean instead of kind and goofy.
But hey, this is the “real” version of the King’s Quest timeline, so clearly I’m just full of shit.
I don’t like to phrase writing in this way, I don’t like to think about a story in terms of failures, I always try to approach a story through the idea that all choices are intentional and with some kind of merit. But KQ 2015 just absolutely doesn’t have the writing talent to carefully approach the abusive history of Alexander with nuance or care. It doesn’t have the talent to write complex female characters for Valanice or Rosella. It doesn’t have the talent to make Graham compelling. It just doesn’t.
The expensive voice acting from Christopher Lloyd and Wallace Shawn is well-done. The ideas behind the game are ambitious and I do admire what it’s going for. But… when you arrogantly call your reboot the “real” version of a franchise, I’m sorry, you need to be able to back that up. And this just doesn’t.
Any chance of Alexander or Rosella getting more complex stories in the KQ franchise was shuttered for good by this game. I’m not really gonna be able to let that go.
I don’t like to write negative reviews much. I just don’t think I have many interesting things to say about something bad. I find it so much more compelling to find a weird, forgotten game and polish off the dirt to find out what does work in it. Even beyond that, I’ve just always felt uncomfortable bandying about my negative opinion as fact. Sometimes I’ll just not mention problems I had with a game because I’m riding so high on the positives. I rewrote this review several times, adding or removing various “in my opinions” or “no disrespects” and so on, just to buttress my ranting with some “not that you shouldn’t like it!” cowarding out.
But it’s just… this just doesn’t work. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s one of the most ambitious storytelling ideas of all time. The creative team revealed that their goal with the game was to create the “real” King’s Quest story, with the main games being fairy tales based off of true events. Through this vein, King Graham retells the story of his life, from his application to knighthood, to a revamped version of the events of KQ2, to filling in gaps to the timeline, to more. Coupled with this, the game takes several, tragic creative risks with its story in its final chapter. As Graham winds down the story, his mind starts fading. Recurring characters vanish mid-narration as Graham forgets about them. The land of Daventry gets more sparse, and the frustration and panic he feels trying to figure out what he’s forgetting is… crushing. It’s an astoundingly ambitious way to use a character that’s supposed to be the Mario of adventure games. And I do respect how that story is delivered. This is for sure a buttress paragraph (as previously stated), but I do genuinely think the “King Graham Vs Getting Old” plot is well done.
But the writing… the writing falls apart. In its efforts to endear audiences to this version of Graham, he becomes a hyperactive weenie who loves to have silly victory dances. There’s worse places to write from, but it quickly becomes grating and never quite goes away over the game’s five chapters.
This is followed by Queen Valanice. How does one adapt the character of Valanice, who’s had so many different interpretations and conflicting characterizations across the KQ franchise, into someone consistent? Well, the solution KQ 2015 comes up with is that Valanice is actually twins. A fun-loving, creative one and a smart, serious one. Choose the one you want to marry, the other gets tossed off a cliff. No need to write a complex character here, just choose the archetype you like and shove the other into the abyss! And since they’re twins, we don’t actually have to write a lot of different dialogues or make new character models or pay different voice actors for the modern day, Old Queen. It’s almost like your choice didn’t matter at all.
But I think what ultimately grates on me is Alexander. One of the most tragic characters of KQ lore. King’s Quest 3 is one of the most ingenious video games ever made. Oppressively hard, aggressively harrowing, and a stunning depiction of living in an abusive environment. I would go as far to say it’s a masterful achievement of gaming. Even the fan remake, for all its minor improvements to the experienced, refuses to offer any relief in the oppressive, constricting, bleak tone of the game. The impact of this game is reflected in the wider franchise and in Alexander’s character. The expanded universe notes that Alexander never manages to see himself as more than a slave, viewing “Prince Alexander” as a mask for the real him. He doesn’t get a perfect happy ending. He just soldiers on, trying to be the person other people want him to be. There’s so much fertile ground with this character, from his relationship with Graham, his mother, his sister… The entire complicated web around Alexander is a rich tapestry waiting to be explored. And so is Rosella! While she’s the protagonist of a few games, she deserves a greater dig into her psychology just as much as Alexander.
Instead, Alexander’s an emo teen embarrassed by his goofy father. He says “whatever” a lot, he whines, he’s sarcastic… he’s nothing. And the game wants to get into the complexity of that relationship and untangle the strain between them. But it just doesn’t know how. Maybe this is a ridiculous way to react to a character changing in a reboot. Maybe I’m overblowing the issue. But to me, having Alexander rolling his eyes and muttering “Sure thing, Pops” is just a fundamental misunderstanding of the source material AND of how abuse works. Alexander was raised by a monster, so he’s sassy and kinda mean instead of kind and goofy.
But hey, this is the “real” version of the King’s Quest timeline, so clearly I’m just full of shit.
I don’t like to phrase writing in this way, I don’t like to think about a story in terms of failures, I always try to approach a story through the idea that all choices are intentional and with some kind of merit. But KQ 2015 just absolutely doesn’t have the writing talent to carefully approach the abusive history of Alexander with nuance or care. It doesn’t have the talent to write complex female characters for Valanice or Rosella. It doesn’t have the talent to make Graham compelling. It just doesn’t.
The expensive voice acting from Christopher Lloyd and Wallace Shawn is well-done. The ideas behind the game are ambitious and I do admire what it’s going for. But… when you arrogantly call your reboot the “real” version of a franchise, I’m sorry, you need to be able to back that up. And this just doesn’t.
Any chance of Alexander or Rosella getting more complex stories in the KQ franchise was shuttered for good by this game. I’m not really gonna be able to let that go.