Part 69: Homecoming

There was a strong showing for wizards in the last vote, even managing to overtake the paladin at one point, but eventually the latter pulled well ahead, with 31 votes to the wizard’s 17 (plus a couple “not paladin” votes that gave the thief its only 2).

And if having to develop a new character out of a couple alternate dimension snatches weren’t enough, I have decided to add a certain…twist to the plotline of Quest for Glory 4. I have thought about it well in advance, and I believe I can insert it without altering the storyline significantly. It will be obvious to those of you who have played the game before, and I think even those who haven’t will be able to spot it, so be sure and mention what you think about it.



But let me get going about the game itself. Quest for Glory 4: Shadows of Darkness, in spite of having the most redundant title of the bunch, is fairly objectively a high-water mark for the series. Even the game’s designer, Lori Ann Cole, calls it her favorite. The only reason I wouldn’t rate it higher than 3 is because of how much time I spent on the latter (nostalgia goes a long way). 4 is the first QfG game with full voice acting, acting that is actually quite good, with a few C-list stars (and even more over-the-top imitations) on the bill. Even the narrator is voiced, with every description and character action described by this guy:


Or was it this guy?


No wait, I think it was this guy:


That’s right, it was definitely this guy:

John Rhys-Davies, who proves just how much work you can get with a cool accent in a deep baritone.

Quest for Glory 4 takes us back to the original setup used in Quest for Glory 1: the hero is trapped in a valley and has to solve everyone’s problems before he can leave. However, there are a few differences this time around. First of all, just about everyone has something they need fixed, whether they’re aware of the problem or not. Perhaps more importantly, almost everyone has different dialogue depending on what’s going on around town, making the characters far more interesting than the one-off dialogues could have provided you in QfG1. QfG4 also completely revamps the combat system (2’s remake notwithstanding), making it far more complex yet intuitive at the same time—well, you’ll see a little later what I mean. Well, that’s enough from me; we should get started.

Quest for Glory 4: Shadows of Darkness

Chapter 1: Homecoming


Some people mentioned having a little trouble getting the CD version to work, but it’s not that hard to make it work with the proper instructions. The text on the command line is what I’m using to make the CD voice work for my copy.


And here is an example of what Sierra started trying to do when they were getting away from their adventure game roots. Quest for Glory 4 would be one of the last 2D adventure games they ever did.


Intro and Title Screen

If you click on the music link, you will discover that the new composer has decided that the soundtrack should now be powered by rock . It’s quite strange when you’re not expecting it, but still not that bad.



Something of special note is that, through some forgetfulness on the developers’ part, Quest for Glory 4 .sav files can be re-imported back into QfG4. I won’t be doing it for the main file, but one of the others may end up…supercharged, if only because I never really tried using one before. You’ll also note that the points available pool is up to 100, reflecting the larger numbers used by this point. Also, trying to get a new skill requires that you dump the full 100 into it, since it would otherwise be underpowered. With that in mind, I dumped the full 100 into Magic.


Inside the Caves

You awaken from nightmares of flying and falling. You find yourself in this strange place, the only illumination an eerie green glow. You’ve lost your weapons and the contents of your backpack somewhere during the journey. All you have are the clothes and armor on your back [At this point, thieves and wizards revert to leather armor, even if they had bought chainmail way back in QfG1]. This leaves you with four burning questions: Where are you? How did you get here? Who brought you here? And how in blazes can you get out of here?


No, make that FIVE burning questions: What city did your luggage end up in this time?

And why are my pants blue? Oh, my head. What the hell just happened? I was getting congratulated by all my friends, then I…it felt like I was…dancing. Weird. Not quite as weird as this bone cavern, though. Maybe there’s stuff I can use in the little bodies.

The interface remains the same for this game, but some things have changed between 3 and 4. Aside from the text background (which is now tombstone granite) they have conveniently moved the health, stamina, and mana bars to the top of the screen, and the use icons have also been localized:





You search the desiccated body. The only still-usable item is a dagger, which you pick up. However, lying around the bones are some coins—5 golden coins each have a crown stamped onto them, and 13 small copper ones are each stamped “1 Kopek.”

Kopeks, huh? I must be back in the north. That’s good, at least.


A brief search reveals a piece of hard, gray rock, which you take, and some coins—3 crowns and 13 kopeks.


You find 30 assorted copper and gold coins on the body.

Holy crap, I might not even have to kill something to get a decent meal this time. This is more money than I entered Spielburg with.


What horrible thing are you? Even the Leopardmen village looked friendlier than you. Doesn’t look like anyone’s been by in a long time though. I hope it doesn’t mind if I borrow a torch.


Yoink. I hope this rock is flint, because I really need a light.


(It is)

Dear GOD you’re ugly. Maybe now I can find a way out of this freaky pit.


Huh, this looks like a…oh ew. Ew! And I think I have to pry it open…I hope I can do it with my eyes closed.

You force the sphincter open with your dagger, and pass through.



You’ve made it into a large chamber. Stone valves like the one you just passed through apparently block three other passageways. There is a huge stone altar in the center of the room and an exit to the south.


Understandably, the weapons aren’t here for the other two classes.

Oh thank you dear lord, a sword and shield. Not even close as awesome as my old stuff, but a lot better than a dagger. This sword seems like it could break any minute, though.


Bat-things!


Battle of the Batters

Welcome to the completely new combat screen. Everything is based on clicking either on the screen or on the icons below it. Different things happen depending on where you click, which is why I went and divided it into sections. Basically, something happens if you left or right click in each section, including ducking, parrying, jumping, jump attacking, slashing, and stepping forward and back. Spells can be cast by clicking on the correct spell icon, or charged by holding the button down. You can also throw daggers by right clicking on an empty spot next to the spells, and you get a special Acrobatic attack (if you have Acrobatics, that is) by clicking on the hero and dragging to the opponent.

Batters here can be easily killed by waiting for one to swoop down, then attacking when it’s about to strike.

They weren’t that tough. But wait…I feel different again somehow.


Holy crap!

That’s right, so long as you have any magic skill, they just give you all the spells you should have learned by now, even Juggling Lights and Lightning Ball (but since the wizard blew up his staff, not even he gets to Summon it). I wish I knew why they did this, but I’m certainly glad they did.


You may have noticed the bright green health bar at the top. This means the hero is poisoned; luckily, batters don’t have much poison, so that’s going to wear off fairly soon.


Something deadly lies in wait nearby.

So I just cross the rope to get out? I think I can do that.


Something else that’s new is the interaction menu. Now if you click the USE icon on anything with more than one use, you can choose from a menu what to do. As you can see, wizards will get across with Levitate and a sheet he uses as a sail, while the thief will easily tightrope walk across. The unfortunate paladin must pass hand-over-hand to get over.


Unfortunate because something with long tentacles wants to grab at his feet.


I need to get the hell out of this cave as soon as I can. I hope that passage is the way out of here. But first I need to catch my breath.


Yet another change is that the hero can now rest for as long as he wants, wherever he wants. As an added bonus, this cave has no sense of time, and time spent resting here doesn’t count against how much time you have when the day starts outside.



Outside the Caves/The Swamp


You slip through the mouth of the cave just in time to avoid being crushed by its closing “jaws.” Whew! As the cave mouth closes behind you, you feel a strange warning tingle. There is danger here, although its source is not immediately clear.



There are also full screen portraits of all the characters you talk to. It makes it harder to make the little thumbnails I use, but not impossible.

Who are you?
I’m Ni—
How did you get here?
I don’t—
There are so many questions I want to ask you, but I have to get home quickly. It’s so dangerous out at night around here. The town is due north of here. Be careful, there are many bad things wandering around. Good luck!
Wait, I don’t even know your name!
What? Oh, I’m sorry. My name is Katrina. I hope we meet again sometime. Farewell.


That was kind of strange. I wonder if I’ll ever see her again? And what are these freaky marks on the arch? It looks like I can take the bottom one here—

The six-pointed symbol seems to pulse with energy and comes loose in your hand when you touch it. You have the feeling that you may need this “sign,” so you carefully store it in your pack.


This screen is basically the insurance that you don’t come back to the cave mouth until much, much later in the game. You just end up sliding down the—


Wait, what the hell?

Meet the first game-breaking bug of Quest for Glory 4. There are three in particular, and all of them are caused by having a system running too fast by 1993 standards. Thankfully, DOSBox allows you to set your CPU cycles, keeping the system down to a manageable level. Or you could do what the readme suggests:


I included the border in this screenshot so you know what cycles I was running when I got it to work. 4000 or less is definitely enough to pull it off successfully.

I guess I’m not going back up that way. …You know, I could be curious about the spider-squid monolith-thing, or I could leave and never look back. I think I’m going to leave.


Your “Danger Sense” tingles. You sense deadly danger from the swamp.


It might have something to do with the grasping, disembodied arms.

Aw man, I hope the whole place isn’t like this.



Oh, thank goodness. I’m finally back in a real forest, with real pines and real reds and oranges. Is it fall already?


Real hawks, too. Man, this place is making me all nostalgic.


…No.


No. No way. This can’t be it.


The Staff

Fuck, it is. I don’t know who else would have a staff like this.


Mordavia



Not now, Dmitri. There’s someone else I have to see first.


This general store is cheery and well-lit, thanks to the warm hearth. The first thing you notice are the cats—they seem to be everywhere! Then you see the shopkeeper, sitting on her rocking chair as she knits. She’s a very, well, sturdy-looking woman.

Ilya Nike Stovich! When did you get back?
Hi, Mama. It’s been a while.