Redux is superb. It’s a wonderful game. It’s also a testament to how much you’ve grown as a team. I thought your remake of KQ1 was a monumental achievement when you released it back in the early odds, but the amount of improvement you’ve shown between then and now is beyond words. I just can’t compliment you enough.
The art and music are of such quality, the game can proudly sit beside KQ5 and KQ6. You’ve done an incredible job bringing Llewdor to life. It’s an amazing accomplishment given the low resolution, limited palette, and beep-boop sound effects of the original. High accolades go to the town and the wizard’s house. The mountains look terrific as well; it must have taken a lot of effort to duplicate the look of the mountains in KQ5, and the quality shines through. My highest praise goes to the island, a scenic marvel to rival the Isle of the Beast, and the eagle screen. I already commented on it in an earlier thread, but the animation of the eagle swooping down on the meat is the smoothest and most beautiful I’ve ever seen in a game of this type, and the music that accompanies this scene might be my favorite in the game.
Spellmaking was always a unique gameplay feature of KQ3, and you’ve improved it a hundredfold in Redux. It’s fun, interesting, and intuitive. I also have to compliment you on your treatment of Medusa, and while I’m on the subject, let me give you extra props for having Manannan mention her in dialogue, shedding light on how she came to be there. Throwing the minstrel into the mix was another brilliant stroke. What a hilarious cameo.
I’ve got very few complaints about the puzzles in the early part of the game, but the one that sticks out in my mind is the previous Gwydion’s journal in the library. I searched the wizard’s house for hours looking for a solution to the lever puzzle. It never crossed my mind that the answer would be anywhere else. Even now, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to me how Gwydion #9781’s journal came to be there. It makes even less sense considering some of the other information gained along the course of the game. The narrator suggests the journal was left there within the last twenty years, but the barmaid states that the Gwydion of twenty years ago was a jovial guy who enjoyed playing lute, and the stories just don’t gel. I think there was another time when I overheard a bird say the library had been boarded shut for the last fifty years, which begs the question of how the book ever got in there in the first place. It left me scratching my head.
The voicework was good, and may I say it was a huge step up over KQ2 to not have to hear Possum’s lispy gremlin voice this time around. At first I thought I was going to hate the way Gwydion sounded, but the voice actor’s performance grew on me the more I played. His quiet, subdued tone seems appropriate given the abusive environment the character grew up in. Actually, I found myself musing how bizarre it was that Alexander didn’t express any severe psychological disorders in KQ6. Given what a traumatic upbringing he had, it’s a wonder he didn’t suffer from paranoia, or at the very least, low self-esteem.
Manannan’s voice was great too. Kudos for throwing in so many opportunities for dinner table chats with him. That was some really great writing.
The writing in this game... is something I really have a love/hate relationship with. There’s some really great stuff, like the minstrel, the yeti, and Manannan. Then there’s stuff that’s so bad, it’s cringe-worthy. It stands out in the dialogue, and I think it mostly comes down to the characters’ inability to utter contractions. Why is it that nobody will say a word with an apostrophe in it? You know, ‘can’t’ ‘won’t,’ ‘he’ll,’ ‘isn’t,’ ‘I’ll’… It seems like a curious choice given the conversational tone of KQ5 and KQ6. I think the bar girl was my favorite character in the whole game, if only because her language wasn’t obsessively prim and proper. Even the pirate captain spoke like a robot, which struck me as very strange. I was expecting a lot more “arrs†and “shiver me timbers.â€
The pirate section of the game was certainly a lot more enjoyable this time around. That forty-five minute wait with nothing to do was definitely the low part of the original KQ3. I did think it strange how there only seemed to be two pirates on the ship—the captain and green bandana—which is a step down from the original game. More crew members would have been a welcome addition. I think it would have been more effective if, for example, during the segment where Gwydion is doing chores on the ship, green bandana sends him up to sweep the kitchen floor; then the cook, also in the kitchen, sends him to deliver something to the quartermaster; then the boatswain, standing next to the quartermaster, orders him to scrub the deck; then the rigger shows up and orders him to adjust the lines; then green bandana appears and orders him below deck to dust the captain’s quarters… it would have cut down on a lot of the back-and-forth between decks and really emphasized Gwydion’s low station and lack of freedom on the ship.
The island was a joy. The only thing I have to complain about is the Item! I overlooked it my first time around, yet I still managed to finish the game with full points. If I hadn’t come to this forum, I would never have realized I missed a critical part of the storyline! While I’m on the subject, let me say that I think the overarching story of KQ2 VGA and KQ3 Redux is really, really good—but I think it would have benefited a lot if it so much of it weren’t hidden in optional library books, stashed beneath piles of gold, taped to the bottom of bird cages, and filed away in drawers you have to click on five times to access.
Even after I discovered the Item, I was still confused—I played KQ2 VGA a dozen times beta testing it, and I always thought the crown was the Item that the Father coveted. Come to find out it was just a compass!The yeti was great. “I’m going back to Serenia.†What a laugh!
Unfortunately, the endgame felt a bit hollow. The second act of the story builds up to the three-headed dragon, such that killing it is clearly the climax. Having to run an obstacle course of hairbrained traps is pointless and annoying, and the game would have been stronger if this part had been left out.
The biggest weakness at the end was, once again, the dialogue. I was disappointed in Rosella, whose experience runs the gamut from facing imminent death, to improbable salvation, to finding out her rescuer is her long lost brother… yet whose emotional range never strays far from coy. It could have been so much better with a little emotion! Let her scream and cry and beg for her life! Let her break down sobbing at Alexander’s feet! Let us hear the stress in her voice, the shock, the fear, the glee, and the adoration! In short, let her behave like a real person would. I know Rosella’s a strong woman, but she isn’t impervious these things—she broke down at the beginning of KQ4 under similarly stressful circumstances.
Then there’s Graham. The guy sees his kingdom magically restored before his eyes and is reunited with his marked-for-death daughter and long-lost son. I guess he’s a little better for Rosella though, because at least he has enough time for a brief hug and a few measly words before going into “Let us adjourn to the throne room!†mode… I wasn’t crazy about the writing at this point in IA’s KQ3 remake either, but this game definitely could have used a few scenes along the lines of Graham and Alexander bonding over discussions on dragon slaying.
That pretty much brings me to the end of my critique. Once again, let me compliment you on a job well done! Redux was a wonderful game. I actually didn’t even find out it was in the works until mid-February, so it was a wonderful surprise, too! Best of luck to you guys in all your future commercial endeavors. And if you decide to do another remake, I’ll look forward to that too!
