Incline Quest For Glory

[Great Deceiver]

"Old big box PC game manuals are great, they remind me of special features in a DVD"

Fucking millenials.

 

[Boleskine]

New QfG4 fan patch is available!

https://af.gog.com/forum/quest_for_...u5A6LT1-dn134FzCBPNMQZzEp0DiTjI&as=1649904300

QFG4 Enhanced 1.1

~Happy Halloween!!~

It's the long-awaited Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness Enhanced!

Features tons of bugfixes and improvements, including but not limited to:

- Over an hour of lost audio by the narrator, John Rhys-Davies can now be heard as intended. Death and inventory screens are now narrated (as much as possible!) and many, many unique descriptions now play in almost every single room.
- Removing all dead ends in the game.
- Fixing several annoying bugs: bone cage, paladin honor shield, climbing book, thunder and necrotaurs roaring, etc.
- Fixing missing icons.
- Improving animations and consistency in some areas, such as with climbing and the Levitate spell.
- Improving the sound during the cave endgame and during the final battle in the essence chamber.
- Restoring cut encounters.
- Restoring deaths.
- Restoring lost dialogue such as the final dream sequence.

This patch is fully compatible with DosBox and ScummVM, since it just uses Sierra's own patch file system to override existing game resources. All scripts are based on resource files that were installed from my 1997 Collection CD using the SHP installer. NRS's speed fixes are already included and the wraith barrow script (53.scr) is superseded by my own version, so there is no more lockup.

 

[BruceVC]

New QfG4 fan patch is available!

https://af.gog.com/forum/quest_for_...u5A6LT1-dn134FzCBPNMQZzEp0DiTjI&as=1649904300

QFG4 Enhanced 1.1

~Happy Halloween!!~

It's the long-awaited Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness Enhanced!

Features tons of bugfixes and improvements, including but not limited to:

- Over an hour of lost audio by the narrator, John Rhys-Davies can now be heard as intended. Death and inventory screens are now narrated (as much as possible!) and many, many unique descriptions now play in almost every single room.
- Removing all dead ends in the game.
- Fixing several annoying bugs: bone cage, paladin honor shield, climbing book, thunder and necrotaurs roaring, etc.
- Fixing missing icons.
- Improving animations and consistency in some areas, such as with climbing and the Levitate spell.
- Improving the sound during the cave endgame and during the final battle in the essence chamber.
- Restoring cut encounters.
- Restoring deaths.
- Restoring lost dialogue such as the final dream sequence.

This patch is fully compatible with DosBox and ScummVM, since it just uses Sierra's own patch file system to override existing game resources. All scripts are based on resource files that were installed from my 1997 Collection CD using the SHP installer. NRS's speed fixes are already included and the wraith barrow script (53.scr) is superseded by my own version, so there is no more lockup.

Great post and very appropriate for me because I started playing the older version of QFG4 about 2 weeks ago and I am about 25 hours in and at the end

I wish I had known about this enhanced version but I have enjoyed the old version and its important because I want to start playing older RPG like Ultima and Wizardry which I never played on release and you cant play these games if you expecting a " modern, graphic experience "

 

[Gastrick]

Never saw this thread, should be in a better board. One for rpgs.

 

[BruceVC]

Never saw this thread, should be in a better board. One for rpgs.

I am busy with QFG5 and these games are definitely hybrid games of RPG\adventure. But I think many gamers love adventure games and keeping them on a adventure game section shouldn't be seen as a bad thing but I agree it could be in the RPG thread

 

[Boleskine]

I've always considered the QfG to be adventures first with RPG elements which mainly provide different pathways and solutions to puzzles. In other words the RPG components serve and function within the greater construct of an adventure game, not the other way around.

QfG5 is structured and designed as more of an action RPG with point-and-click mechanics, though.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

On a related note: QfG5 is shit.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

I invite Boleskine and Fronzel Neekburm to defend QfG5 here.

 

[BruceVC]

On a related note: QfG5 is shit.

Im playing it now and even though its not as good as QFG4 its still entertaining, what didnt you like about it ?

For me the humor and writing isnt as good as QFG4 and the overall narrative isnt as compelling?

 

[Tweed]

On a related note: QfG5 is shit.

It's nowhere near as good as the others, but it isn't horrible.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

On a related note: QfG5 is shit.

It's nowhere near as good as the others, but it isn't horrible.

I agree with that. I was drinking wine and indulging in hyperbole.
It is by far the worst QfG game though, and it’s also aged much more poorly than the others due to ugly graphics. I last replayed it around 5 or 6 years ago, so it’s not terribly fresh in my mind, but I recall struggling to finish it and loathing the clunky combat even more than that of previous titles. My memory is also that there was significantly less interaction possibilities for hybridized heroes, but perhaps I’m misremembering.

 

[Tweed]

I agree with that. I was drinking wine and indulging in hyperbole.
It is by far the worst QfG game though, and it’s also aged much more poorly than the others due to ugly graphics. I last replayed it around 5 or 6 years ago, so it’s not terribly fresh in my mind, but I recall struggling to finish it and loathing the clunky combat even more than that of previous titles. My memory is also that there was significantly less interaction possibilities for hybridized heroes, but perhaps I’m misremembering.

That I can agree with. I played it about a year or so ago and that was actually the first time I beat it since it was harder to get into due to said differences. I think it still has a lot of the same style as the previous games, but just not on the same level. Plus, combat is pathetically easy to cheese if you play a hybrid, which I did since being a magic using thief is awesome. And yeah, there's a lot less interaction, magic was mostly useful for combat instead of assisting me in my thievery.

 

[BruceVC]

Okay so I was 25 hours into QFG5 and I got back from Hades and I just wasn't enjoying it so I stopped and wont go back

It was overall okay but definitely not as enjoyable as QFG4 in several ways that include the writing and main quest, it wasn't funny and the combat was really dull. And then the puzzles werent fun like Science Island

But I am glad I can now say I did play it which was my original intention

 

[Great Deceiver]

I'm pretty sure I'm in the minority, but although I'm a fan of QFG in general (since playing the very first one in my 8086 XT in glorious EGA grayscale in 1990), I'm not crazy about QFG4.

I think the writing is dull and tries too hard with the puns, jokes are frequently off and although poking fun at the horror tropes is fun for a few minutes, it grows a little stale.

My fav is still the first game after all these years. 2 was great too, but I thought it was too hard at the time and never finished it.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

2 is probably my personal favorite, but I can recognize that it’s a clusterfuck of everything stupid about Sierra’s general design philosophy. I think 4 is objectively the best, but I can see the argument for 1. It’s a very “comfy” game. Just low-stakes silly fantasy done well.

 

[mediocrepoet]

I would be hard pressed to decide between 1 and 4 as my favourite, and have answered the question differently depending on my thoughts and mood at the time. 1 is great for traditional fantasy, exploration, and for setting up the framework of the entire series. 4 is great for the setting primarily and I really enjoyed the pun takes and the Transylvania-Cthulhu mashup and many of the elements those bring in: e.g. vampires, werewolves, elder gods, spirits, and the creepy town. 4 gets hurt a little because of the change in the combat system to make it more action oriented. At the time, there were interviews that had talked about the redesign in 4 was inspired by arcade fighting games like Street Fighter 2. Fortunately, combat isn't really the main draw of these games.

2 is definitely the next best though. It also had a cool setting and a variety of ways to approach different things. I also really liked how they expanded the thief's areas and ability to more stealthily address most of the game's major issues. The main thing 2 gets hurt by is pacing. It's maybe a little slow the first time you play it, but it's generous in case you need to spin your wheels a bit to figure out how to approach different challenges. On replays though, I usually end up grinding everything to 200, resolve all the challenges as soon as they come up and then basically sleep at the inn repeatedly to pass time - where that's not possible, I set the time passing to max and then wander around the streets until I can go back to bed.

3 is cool with its lost temples and African savannah and jungle and the cross between African and Egyptian style motifs. I would rank this game a lot higher except for two things. First is that in the overland map before hitting the combat screen, you can spam the crap out of spells or throwing, resulting in monsters being machine gunned to death before they ever reach you (nice for grinding though). The second is that although it's awesome with the overland map exploration style, it feels a bit light on content - so a bit more empty than the other titles in the series, especially if you're a thief. What's there is all great though.

5 is my least favourite due to the even greater emphasis on action combat (compared to 4), the grossness of early 3D, and the fact that it was rushed and almost didn't happen. It's a shame because there's so much fan service and tying up of NPCs and themes in the game and it really does mark an epic and heroic finale for your hero's journey.

tl;dr I'm an unabashed QfG fanboy and love all of them.

 

[Sordid MCA/Prosper Hybryd]

http://www.indieretronews.com/2021/11/quest-for-glory-iv-shadows-of-darkness.html

Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness - One of the best Adventure/RPG's gets a must download enhancement!






I've always been an Adventure gamer on both my Amiga and PC, and have such fond memories of games such as The Secret of Monkey Island, Simon the Sorcerer, Fable, Kings Quest and even the Quest for Glory series. In fact one such game I remember and always recommend as one of the top 10 Adventure games to play is the early 90's game Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness! So why am I mentioning this fabulous game on IRN? Well here's some great news for you all, as AshLancer has released the long-awaited Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness Enhanced Edition!


Yes indeed welcome to QFG4 Enhanced 1.1; A new update to the game which features tons of bugfixes and improvements, including but not limited to, over an hour of lost audio by the narrator, John Rhys-Davies which can now be heard as intended including death screens, all dead ends removed, annoying bugs fixed including bone cage and the paladin honor shield, improved sounds, cut encounters restored, death sequences restored, and much much you'll just have to play to experience for yourselves!

This patch is fully compatible with DosBox, GOG and ScummVM, since it just uses Sierra's own patch file system to override existing game resources. All scripts are based on resource files that were installed from the creators 1997 Collection CD using the SHP installer. NRS's speed fixes are already included and the wraith barrow script (53.scr) is superseded by my own version, so there is no more lockup.

Edit: Ok, sorry! I didn't notice that it was already posted here.

 

[BruceVC]

I would be hard pressed to decide between 1 and 4 as my favourite, and have answered the question differently depending on my thoughts and mood at the time. 1 is great for traditional fantasy, exploration, and for setting up the framework of the entire series. 4 is great for the setting primarily and I really enjoyed the pun takes and the Transylvania-Cthulhu mashup and many of the elements those bring in: e.g. vampires, werewolves, elder gods, spirits, and the creepy town. 4 gets hurt a little because of the change in the combat system to make it more action oriented. At the time, there were interviews that had talked about the redesign in 4 was inspired by arcade fighting games like Street Fighter 2. Fortunately, combat isn't really the main draw of these games.

2 is definitely the next best though. It also had a cool setting and a variety of ways to approach different things. I also really liked how they expanded the thief's areas and ability to more stealthily address most of the game's major issues. The main thing 2 gets hurt by is pacing. It's maybe a little slow the first time you play it, but it's generous in case you need to spin your wheels a bit to figure out how to approach different challenges. On replays though, I usually end up grinding everything to 200, resolve all the challenges as soon as they come up and then basically sleep at the inn repeatedly to pass time - where that's not possible, I set the time passing to max and then wander around the streets until I can go back to bed.

3 is cool with its lost temples and African savannah and jungle and the cross between African and Egyptian style motifs. I would rank this game a lot higher except for two things. First is that in the overland map before hitting the combat screen, you can spam the crap out of spells or throwing, resulting in monsters being machine gunned to death before they ever reach you (nice for grinding though). The second is that although it's awesome with the overland map exploration style, it feels a bit light on content - so a bit more empty than the other titles in the series, especially if you're a thief. What's there is all great though.

5 is my least favourite due to the even greater emphasis on action combat (compared to 4), the grossness of early 3D, and the fact that it was rushed and almost didn't happen. It's a shame because there's so much fan service and tying up of NPCs and themes in the game and it really does mark an epic and heroic finale for your hero's journey.

tl;dr I'm an unabashed QfG fanboy and love all of them.

Great post and very informative, I played all the QFG now but I dont remember all the details of the older games but I do remember some things like " hut of brown, now sit down " .....and I played QFG1 over 25 years ago but somethings you never forget

Overall a worthwhile adventure series, I am going to play the latest KQ games as I have never played them. I can play RPG and adventure games at the same time so it wont distract me from Operencia which I am currently playing

 

[Fictive Cunt]

I am replaying this series because I never finished Dragon Fire and wanted to try the patched versions of qfg 3 & 4. It has been at least 15 years since I played those two, as I used to get burned out in part 2. I actually was a member of the old Sierra boards and 'helped encourage' Sierra to make Dragon Fire so I feel a little guilty I never really gave it a fair shake, since it's so damn ugly. Plus the demo at the time didn't really provide much to look forward to, except multiplayer, which was wisely removed. (Sidenote I'm kind of freaking out that was almost 30 years ago.)

Replayed part 1 remake with mage + thieving. Best way to make a shit-ton of money. The remake is beautiful and though you lose the parser, it makes up with immersive art and animation. Plus I feel the original is the ugliest of the Ega SCI games. Actually levelled up Flame Dart to 100 and it is very satisfying to fry a brigand before they can even enter combat. Just a nice, open-ended time to be had.

Qfg2 I finally tried the fan remake. (Playing in scummvm.) Disappointed that instead of reimagining Shapeir in vga, they merely slapped a multi-colored coat of paint on the exact same art. Things have, contradictorily, too many and not enough colors; places like the desert just look sloppy. Portraits are pretty lousy/cartoony and icons/animation are used from qfg 3 instead of qfg1vga so I was sad. The new combat was interesting but very challenging. It finally got fun once stats are high and you can kick ass but still quite dangerous if you're not good. There were severe slowdowns in the Jackalmen battles which sucked. That never happened in a SCI game. Combination dialogue tree + parser was nice but probably not necessary. If I were to replay this game to coincide with the other vga games I'd go without parser. But more likely stick to the original.

Qfg3 is nice starting out but I do wish there were more dialogue options, and hypocritically wish this one had the parser choice! Still on day 1. Not sure what the fan patch fixes but hopefully I won't even notice and just enjoy. First thing I recognized was real VGA palette compared to AGD's qfg2. It looks so much better. The art, music, scenario etc is very engaging. Dialogue very well written. You would never know this wasn't the originally planned qfg3 (which was supposed to be Shadows of Darkness which ended up as qfg 4.) Lack of guilds surely is a bummer though. The game always had the best new music while maintaining musical continuity, which qfg4 tossed for some forgettable techno-rock. Can't decide on mt-32 or sc-55 because neither sound right, and realize this is because the "official" soundtrack from Quest Studios (RIP) uses a combination of the two.

Looking forward to my time in Tarna and Mordavia hopefully with fewer bugs and more immersive with the fan patches. But I have a lot of trepidation about going to Silmaria...

Is anyone else playing this series these days?

 

[BruceVC]

I am replaying this series because I never finished Dragon Fire and wanted to try the patched versions of qfg 3 & 4. It has been at least 15 years since I played those two, as I used to get burned out in part 2. I actually was a member of the old Sierra boards and 'helped encourage' Sierra to make Dragon Fire so I feel a little guilty I never really gave it a fair shake, since it's so damn ugly. Plus the demo at the time didn't really provide much to look forward to, except multiplayer, which was wisely removed. (Sidenote I'm kind of freaking out that was almost 30 years ago.)

Replayed part 1 remake with mage + thieving. Best way to make a shit-ton of money. The remake is beautiful and though you lose the parser, it makes up with immersive art and animation. Plus I feel the original is the ugliest of the Ega SCI games. Actually levelled up Flame Dart to 100 and it is very satisfying to fry a brigand before they can even enter combat. Just a nice, open-ended time to be had.

Qfg2 I finally tried the fan remake. (Playing in scummvm.) Disappointed that instead of reimagining Shapeir in vga, they merely slapped a multi-colored coat of paint on the exact same art. Things have, contradictorily, too many and not enough colors; places like the desert just look sloppy. Portraits are pretty lousy/cartoony and icons/animation are used from qfg 3 instead of qfg1vga so I was sad. The new combat was interesting but very challenging. It finally got fun once stats are high and you can kick ass but still quite dangerous if you're not good. There were severe slowdowns in the Jackalmen battles which sucked. That never happened in a SCI game. Combination dialogue tree + parser was nice but probably not necessary. If I were to replay this game to coincide with the other vga games I'd go without parser. But more likely stick to the original.

Qfg3 is nice starting out but I do wish there were more dialogue options, and hypocritically wish this one had the parser choice! Still on day 1. Not sure what the fan patch fixes but hopefully I won't even notice and just enjoy. First thing I recognized was real VGA palette compared to AGD's qfg2. It looks so much better. The art, music, scenario etc is very engaging. Dialogue very well written. You would never know this wasn't the originally planned qfg3 (which was supposed to be Shadows of Darkness which ended up as qfg 4.) Lack of guilds surely is a bummer though. The game always had the best new music while maintaining musical continuity, which qfg4 tossed for some forgettable techno-rock. Can't decide on mt-32 or sc-55 because neither sound right, and realize this is because the "official" soundtrack from Quest Studios (RIP) uses a combination of the two.

Looking forward to my time in Tarna and Mordavia hopefully with fewer bugs and more immersive with the fan patches. But I have a lot of trepidation about going to Silmaria...

Is anyone else playing this series these days?

People still replay these classics

I played the whole QfG series again 3 years ago and it was a great nostalgic experience

 

[Fictive Cunt]

nostalgic experience

I agree but also:

There is a combination between well written dialogue, classic plots, mysterious magic shit, thorough scripting, and autistic stat-building that makes these games scratch an itch you didn't know was there. Plus puzzles are so very pragmatic compared to King's Quest games if we are going back time.

If I didn't play them as a kid I may not play them now. That being said I did play them then and am still enjoying them. I am a lifelong fan of adventure games and Quest for Glory in particular, but I don't think nostalgia is the right word. The first qfg game at least is pretty much perfect.

 

[BruceVC]

nostalgic experience

I agree but also:

There is a combination between well written dialogue, classic plots, mysterious magic shit, thorough scripting, and autistic stat-building that makes these games scratch an itch you didn't know was there. Plus puzzles are so very pragmatic compared to King's Quest games if we are going back time.

If I didn't play them as a kid I may not play them now. That being said I did play them then and am still enjoying them. I am a lifelong fan of adventure games and Quest for Glory in particular, but I don't think nostalgia is the right word. The first qfg game at least is pretty much perfect.

I agree, I also played the original Heroes Quest game as a kid and thats a big reason why I played them again ( to be honest I never plated QfG 4-5 until 3 years ago )
If you like adventure games have you played all the Fighting Fantasy PC adaptions?

There are remakes and then the originals, the best one is the Sorcery series remake and the Warlock of Firetop Mountain . It really brought back memories


https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/9568/The_Adventure_Gamebook_Collection/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/856880/Fighting_Fantasy_Classics/

 

[Tweed]

I am replaying this series because I never finished Dragon Fire and wanted to try the patched versions of qfg 3 & 4. It has been at least 15 years since I played those two, as I used to get burned out in part 2. I actually was a member of the old Sierra boards and 'helped encourage' Sierra to make Dragon Fire so I feel a little guilty I never really gave it a fair shake, since it's so damn ugly. Plus the demo at the time didn't really provide much to look forward to, except multiplayer, which was wisely removed. (Sidenote I'm kind of freaking out that was almost 30 years ago.)

Replayed part 1 remake with mage + thieving. Best way to make a shit-ton of money. The remake is beautiful and though you lose the parser, it makes up with immersive art and animation. Plus I feel the original is the ugliest of the Ega SCI games. Actually levelled up Flame Dart to 100 and it is very satisfying to fry a brigand before they can even enter combat. Just a nice, open-ended time to be had.

Qfg2 I finally tried the fan remake. (Playing in scummvm.) Disappointed that instead of reimagining Shapeir in vga, they merely slapped a multi-colored coat of paint on the exact same art. Things have, contradictorily, too many and not enough colors; places like the desert just look sloppy. Portraits are pretty lousy/cartoony and icons/animation are used from qfg 3 instead of qfg1vga so I was sad. The new combat was interesting but very challenging. It finally got fun once stats are high and you can kick ass but still quite dangerous if you're not good. There were severe slowdowns in the Jackalmen battles which sucked. That never happened in a SCI game. Combination dialogue tree + parser was nice but probably not necessary. If I were to replay this game to coincide with the other vga games I'd go without parser. But more likely stick to the original.

Qfg3 is nice starting out but I do wish there were more dialogue options, and hypocritically wish this one had the parser choice! Still on day 1. Not sure what the fan patch fixes but hopefully I won't even notice and just enjoy. First thing I recognized was real VGA palette compared to AGD's qfg2. It looks so much better. The art, music, scenario etc is very engaging. Dialogue very well written. You would never know this wasn't the originally planned qfg3 (which was supposed to be Shadows of Darkness which ended up as qfg 4.) Lack of guilds surely is a bummer though. The game always had the best new music while maintaining musical continuity, which qfg4 tossed for some forgettable techno-rock. Can't decide on mt-32 or sc-55 because neither sound right, and realize this is because the "official" soundtrack from Quest Studios (RIP) uses a combination of the two.

Looking forward to my time in Tarna and Mordavia hopefully with fewer bugs and more immersive with the fan patches. But I have a lot of trepidation about going to Silmaria...

Is anyone else playing this series these days?

Played a few years ago as a thief magic hybrid. I didn't like the QfG 2 fan remake at all, neither the visuals or the changes to combat. The EGA is superior and not all that difficult to deal with on the whole. QfG 3 has always been the weakest of the bunch, but then as I recall it's kind of meant as filler in the first place considering what they wanted to do with the fourth game.

I was put off initially by QfG 5 as well, it's not the same as the others in the end I thought it was okay. You'll have a much easier time getting through Dragon Fire as a hybrid than you ever would as a pure thief. Magic makes it really easy to mow most enemies down before they can ever get close.

EDIT: Looks like I said as much a few years ago.