How do you...

[Aldrian]

Okay, this might be in the wrong place. Or it just might be considered Spam. If it is either of these things. Mods, please move/delete as necessary.

So this is probably a popular question, but how do you solve some of the puzzles in these games? Is it trial and error? Good use of the 'look' feature? Just intuition?

Seriously, I doubt way back when if I'd ever have been able to solve some of the puzzles in these games without some form of a guide.

While KQ6 was pretty fair with few exceptions. (The fourth puzzle on the Cliffs of Logic, knowing all the items necessary for the Catacombs, using the gauntlet on the lord of the dead is yeah, and the flute-playing for the sun flowers... wow.) KQ5 was absolutely impossible at points, the cheese and the wands at the end being a majour point. The catacombs were tough, but that desert was about a 1000x more challenging.

[Vildern]

Hello.


Some of Sierra's adventure games are solved in the way of trial and error (Ken once said it was due to bad designing).

Like KQ5 and all those other games with chokepoints/deadends/catch 22s.

But most adventure games don't require the method of trial and error, one reason is the utter absence of those deadeneds.

However... you can get fairly stuck in a game, even though there are no deadends. One main reason for this are the infamous "pixel hunts" when you carefully (very carefully) need to search a certain screen for a tiny object.... that's annoying. But once found, it fills you with great satisfaction

The catacombs were tough, but that desert was about a 1000x more challenging.

That's another good examle of trial and error. Although a good save before entering the desert will save you from a *dead end* (dying in the desert just because you take a screen wrong...), there is nothing to guide you in the desert, so it's basically just trying all possible desert screens, until you find the right path. That's no fun. What's this? It's not adventure, just an unfair mean to make the game harder, instead of more good puzzles.

So, in the end, yeah, sometimes it's just trial and error... and an excessive use of the "look" feature (to avoid pixel hunts)

I still say though that guides are bad. It's better to boil your nerves and mind and time to beat a game than to turn to a guide. That latter just takes the fun out of it.

[Quest For Glory Fan]

use gridpaper and make mapof the desert for KQV. use the three village screens you can enter the desert from in the top right and every empty screen us an X oasis' are O and the bandit camp was a star. it worked out for me and I did it when I was 7

[Aldrian]

Er, I've solved all those things already. I'm asking an opinion question.  I was just wondering how other forum-goers played these kindof games and solved some of these seemingly impossible puzzles.

Unfortunately, I have a very good memory for video games. So now when I play through them I remember every solution to ever puzzle. Bah. Makes me feel like I'd never have beaten it without a walkthrough.

[Jenkins Loo]

I liked the desert in KQ5, there was many places to visit. BTW, in all KQ, you're never allowed to explore beyond the endless desert. I remembered when I found a well in the desert that wasn't in a walkthrough. I understand your point, sometime, it is strange to find a sudden water source without seeing any signs ( "you see small grass almost dying in the west ) or randomly tracking the brigands, too bad you couldn't track back the trail of the horses.

[Vroomfondel]

I found most of the puzzles in adventure games pretty easy, but adventure games were the first computer games I ever played, and I started around age 5. These days, the only new adventure games I play are ones I've downloaded  :p  , so I usually use walkthroughs. I try to play through using walkthroughs as little as possible, though. The only ones that I find require the use of a walkthrough all the way through is the Police Quest series becasue of the police procedures.