My thoughts on King's Quest 3: Redux *Spoilers Ahead!!*

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El Ravager
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My thoughts on King's Quest 3: Redux *Spoilers Ahead!!*

#1 Post by El Ravager » Tue Mar 01, 2011 9:40 pm

Ok, I finally finished redux! It took longer than it should've, since I had to carve out small periods of playtime in the midst of a busy schedule. Since a few of these post-playthrough reviews are popping up on here, I thought I'd post mine as well before they become too plentiful to read. :P

To avoid too much incoherent rambling, I'll break my thoughts down into categories as others have done.

Graphics
This is by far AGDI's most professional-looking release. The backgrounds are absolutely beautiful, the dialogue portraits are your best yet, and the special effects (smoke, fire, lightning) are very impressive, especially for a 320 * 200 VGA adventure game. Visually, this is the best that AGDI releases get, and that's saying quite a bit! You guys have obviously come a long way from the first build of your KQ1 remake. The new enhanced editions of KQ 1-2 really improve on what was already a nice visual treat, and QfG2 is visually beautiful as well. But that being said, I still think KQ3: Redux is by far the pinnacle of your visual work. Very well-done.

Sound
Again, this game constitutes the cream of AGDI's proverbial crop. The sound effects are very good, and the music is incredible. MI, you've done a fantastic job with this soundtrack. You obviously poured a great deal of time and love into this project, and it shows. As a musician and a composer, I have a great deal of respect for what you've accomplished, as it's no small feat.

Voice Acting
Overall, extremely impressive production. Robert Adamson's performance as Gwydion is top-notch (Was he emulating Robby Benson from KQ6? Surely sounded like it, and he pulled it off convincingly). I appreciated the obligatory "Zounds!" in a couple of the in-game conversations. John Bell again turned in a great performance as the narrator (his narrator voice reminds me of Art Lewicki from KQ5), and his Manannan was spot-on. Most of the other performances were also superb - the three Behrs (hilarious!), the animal voices, Smaude, the bandits, the pirates, the townspeople...virtually everyone. There were only three performances that didn't really do it for me. The first is Valanice. It's not that I think the actor did a bad job; I just think the voice was too young for Valanice at this point in her life. The second is Rosella. Again, the performance itself was excellently done; I just found it a bit irksome that her voice here is so different from her voice in KQ7. Now granted, there's some internal discontinuity in the series itself (Rosella in KQ6 doesn't sound like Rosella in KQ7), but basically the "voice of Rosella" as we know it is that of Maureen McVerry in KQ7, and Redux's Rosella sounds nothing like that. Now granted, maybe this is an unreasonable complaint since most fangames are unable to conscript the original voice actors (this is one thing that bothers me about TSL - why do Oberon, Archdruid, Ali, et al., suddenly all have different voices?). Nevertheless, since Robert's Alexander sounds so much like Robby's, it just would have been really kewl if Sara's had sounded a lot more like Maureen's. The third is the Father. Now this one is completely subjective, but I've just never been thrilled with your choice of the Father's voice. Again, I don't think the voice actor did poorly; I just don't think that the voice fits the character very well. But even given those three minor quibbles, I'm still blown away by the quality of the voice acting in KQ3: Redux, especially given the fact that it's a fangame.

Gameplay
Redux seriously improves the gameplay of KQ3 AGI. The virtual elimination of dead-end scenarios is much appreciated. It no longer takes ten minutes to get down Manannan's mountain; yay! The expanded storyline and puzzles is a huge improvement over what was already a pretty solid gaming experience. There were only two puzzles that seemed notably counterintuitive to me. The first is the spoonful of mud. It took me a very long time to crack this nut since I initially thought I needed to click the hand icon on the muddy embankment rather than the spoon. Maybe I'm misremembering things, but with the exception of the cup of seawater, weren't all of the other spell components (even those with a specific measurement quantity) gathered with the hand rather than the cup/spoon/etc.? The second is the priorities puzzle on Treasure Island. This one just made absolutely no sense to me, even after I solved it. Essentially, I just had to try out random orders until I beat the challenge. Would anyone care to explain to me why the correct order is the correct order?

Besides those two puzzles, though, I was absolutely thrilled with the gameplay of Redux. The retooling of the timer system was especially impressive. One suggestion for further versions of Redux: What about including a ToolTips function to explain to the player how the "Slave Survival Rules" work? I make this suggestion mainly because so many gamers don't read through the entire manual before playing the game. It might be kinda neat to have two or three texts boxes (speech isn't necessary; text-only would work) pop up at the appropriate points explaining how the timer system works, what forbidden items are, how the bed works, etc. Just a thought.

Story
Redux retains the original KQ3 storyline with all its strengths (and its weaknesses - Manannan raised his slaves from infancy?? Isn't that an awful lot of work without much payoff? And why again is Gwydion literate?), and it also expands upon that. The expansion is very good; I like the continuation of the Father mythology into this game. AGDI struck a good balance, with the expanded mythology not displacing the established KQ3 storyline or taking over center stage, but enhancing what was already there. Again, one minor quibble. I liked the concept of the healing orb, but the execution fell a little flat. While the animation of the healing process was technically very well-done, I didn't really care for the effect itself (which some have unkindly referred to as a "pinball" effect). I think I would've preferred to see the orb rise into the sky, emit a bright emerald light that permeates the countryside, and then see that light do the healing. The orb bouncing around from tree to plant just looks a little comical IMO, and it's hard to take seriously.

In short, this game is absolutely superb. There were a few minor elements that I didn't care for all that much, but overall my opinion of KQ3: Redux is extremely positive. I just can't praise this game enough. It's definitely the version of KQ3 that I'll be exposing my children to. I'm just blown away by the quality of this remake as well as the fun that I had playing it. There's a lot more replay value to this game than there is to most other point & click graphical adventure games, too. Kudos, AGDI; it's been a heck of a ride. Now what can we do to twist your arms and Activision's into creating/allowing an AGDI version of KQ4? :)

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Re: My thoughts on King's Quest 3: Redux *Spoilers Ahead!!*

#2 Post by Erpy » Tue Mar 01, 2011 10:52 pm

Thanks for the kind words. A few comments:

About Rosella: since KQ3 Redux was modelled after the KQ5/KQ6 style, we took KQ6's Rosella as a reference rather than KQ7's. Yeah, limited reference, since she only appeared at the end, but as you said the multiple Rosella's don't resemble each other's voice...I don't think the idea was ever to mimic KQ7 Rosella's more cartoony performance.

About the timer...I didn't really expect everyone to read the manual...in fact, most probably don't, but I was kinda hoping the system was logical enough for the stuff in the manual to be semi-optional. Most people probably don't equate red letters with exclamation marks to "the coast is clear". I often find in-game tutorials somewhat intrusive after the first playthrough.

About the Seran's puzzle, there's an entire thread dedicated to it. :) The logic was basically the order of importance of the various items. From the moment we were still living in caves, food was crucial to survival, hence it was to be picked first. Tools were invented later to make chores easier and build shelter, but didn't trump food regarding survival needs, so it came second. Academic knowledge (the book) came third and allowed people to develop themselves, but it and literacy remained a luxury good until last century unlike food and tools/instruments. Last came wealth, it can be used to obtain more food, tools and academic knowledge, but if all four are already available, the jewel's value is limited. That was kind of the gist of the puzzle. As seen in the other thread, not everybody agrees with the logic behind it...all I can say is that there IS a certain logic to it.

Glad you enjoyed the game.

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Xandarius
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Re: My thoughts on King's Quest 3: Redux *Spoilers Ahead!!*

#3 Post by Xandarius » Wed Mar 02, 2011 2:54 am

Regarding the spoonful of mud, in the original KQ3, you only had to type 'GET MUD', and then, if you had the spoon in your possession, you would then have a spoonful of mud. If you didn't have the spoon, you couldn't get it. So it's implied that the spoon was used.

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Re: My thoughts on King's Quest 3: Redux *Spoilers Ahead!!*

#4 Post by Gronagor » Wed Mar 02, 2011 7:20 am

I've been curious about something. Looking at how fast some players found most of the easter eggs, should there be more easter eggs in a game like this, or would it spoil the experience of the main game?

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