What's your ideal KQ9?
 

What sort of story, who would be the protagonist, settings, etc?

While it doesn't necessarily have to have Rosella or Alexander, I'd love to revisit the Land of the Green Isles or the Eldritch Realm. However, I'd be just as happy having a story that looks at what King Graham was up to during the 6th and 7th games, too.

And we've only gotten to play as Valanice once, so being able to play as her again might be fun. There's also the option of playing as the child of Alexander or Rosella... or maybe even a stranger to Daventry (or perhaps an everyday citizen).

As for the story, I dunno. I kinda like to be pleasantly surprised most of the time. Overall the stories in the 3rd-7th games didn't really disappoint (1 and 2 didn't have much story), but this will be done by entirely new people. It'll be hard to truly see it as an official continuation or expanded universe within the series and not fan-material. At least for some people, and myself included.. but I've had no real issues with Telltale's games for the most part and have greatly enjoyed Sam & Max, Strong Bad, and Monkey Island.

As long as the story is engaging, the characters well written, and the puzzles hit that sweet spot of not-too-hard or not-too-easy, I'll probably be happy.

What I want is:
Tone: A mix of KQ5 & KQ6. Somewhere in between the two.
Story: Something simple, but epic. Think what KQ8 could've been if it had had no action, focused more on the story, and was done in VGA with one of the Royal Family. The epicness of KQ8, but simple.
Main Character: King Graham or Rosella. Or perhaps a side character who hasn't been the protagonist yet.
Setting: Somewhere exotic. A mix of lands: One that is like Medieval Germany perhaps, another that is like the Middle East (think QFG2); Another that is perhaps more city-like. Basically the scope that KQ5 has. Something like the lands in QFG or the Conquests series.

The problem I always encountered with KQ8 was that I couldn't finish it due to bugs and glitches. I recently purchased it as part of the packs GOG was selling, but haven't gotten to it yet. I don't recall if the bugs were addressed, but I know people said they were able to complete, so I'm hopeful.

King's Quest games should never revisit a previous land, other than Daventry. That is the format used in the earlier games...

It should always involve a new land, for the main portion of the game.

Shadrack, should be a villain at some point during an official KQ game (not necessarily in the next one). But he should not be tied into every single plot line in the series... Like Alhazred, or Mordack, his story and his villainy should be limited to the game they appear physically in.

He might mention Mordack, and Alhazred, but references like in previous games should be used sparingly. Much like how the Vizier is a limited name toss in KQ5, and Shadrack is a limited name toss in KQ6, and Mordack is only mentioned briefly in KQ6.

The purpose of this is that KQ should be largely stand alone... It is not "Lost", it is not about conspiracy theories, mysteries and long story arcs...

The same could be said for Hagatha... in the official KQ2, the manual made her out to be an important villain, but there is nothing that can be done with her in the main game... Last we know she was left in Kolyma (attending the wedding of all things)... But this means she is still a viable future villain... But only if her return concerns that game alone. So the possiblity of her being defeated finally is still possible. Just as long as the game isn't a return to Kolyma...

Also Manannan is always out there, as a possible returning villain, he has returned once already... Always a chance he could return again... Also leading to closure for the character.

Yes, even Lolotte threatened she would take revenge on Rosella... Although that seems less likely considering the situation she was left in at the end of the story... I doubt there are very many who would be willing to resurrect her... Unless she still had a few loyal goons left... But I suppose that's always a possible story route as well... Just as long the game isn't a return to Tamir....

Many of the bugs still exist, but there are ways to avoid/get around them. Just make sure you are playing with Zeckenseck's glide wrapper to get the best visuals designed for the game.


What you describe, wouldn't really have been KQ8 with those changes... It would have been something completely different...

I dunno, I feel that forcing it to always be somewhere/place new excludes the possibility of fleshing out previously touched upon material. I like learning new things about places I've been to before, or seeing how people have gotten in since the last time I visited.

I'm not sure where you got the Lost and conspiracy theory stuff, though. Unless this is something to do with TSL, which I've not played. I know people like "originality" but there's nothing wrong with treading old ground. I find that just as limiting.

That's not what King's Quest was about... That's what the fan games do...

You seriously must play through the original series in order, and you'll see that they never took things that deeply... Each game was fairly stand alone... Really only KQ3, KQ5, and KQ6 link to each other somewhat. Only through a couple of returning characters, Manannan and Cassima (also Vizier is mentioned in both KQ5 and appears in KQ6)... and KQ4 and KQ7 link somewhat (Edgar returns)...

KQ3 has a returning character from KQ1, but he's not used that deeply (Rumplestiltskin)... Rumpy reappears in KQ5, his personality is different...

KQ2 is pretty much a direct continuation off of KQ1 but they aren't really all that directly linked... the same can be said of KQ3 to KQ4... Directly linked, but don't really tie into each other that much...

If you wanted to learn a little more about the lands, that's what the King's Quest Companion was for...

Also consider whenever Roberta recycled Daventry the geography and scenery was never consistent! It was modified every time! I really don't want to see that happen to other places we have visited already...

Retreading back over the same areas of the lands seen in a previous game could get boring and would be unoriginal. This is probably one of the reasons I find many of the telltale games to be somewhat boring, as they are more insular and keep you in a small confined area/s, instead of expanding out to new areas... Tales of Monkey Island at least expanded out of that model somewhat...

Part of KQ universe is learning about the nations of the universe, outside of Daventry. So that each game has an original land to discover. Not only is it a discovery for the character in the game, its a discovery for the player themselves...


The exception was Daventry, it was the center of the universe ;). It needed to be incorporated into each game somehow. Also technically KQ5 was a sequel to Wizard and the Princess... At least as far as visiting the same land (although again geography isn't very consistent)... King's Questions was sorta of a sequel to KQ6 (in story, not gameplay), and briefly touched the Land of the Green Isles (after the events of the game)...

AGDI and TSL... Both take it that route...

Longest Journey/Dreamfall too... King's Quest isn't TLJ/Dreamfall...

King's Quest didn't spend much time in the past. It was always progressing. Which is great. It makes each game feel fresh and new.

The only other series that is nearly close to KQ as far as how lands are presented to the player... The idea of new lands to discover, is Quest for Glory series...

Even it didn't directly retread on older realms...

Although it relied on more foreshadowing of future realms the Hero would go on to visit, and characters from past games informing the player on what was going on in the lands the Hero had already left.

As a series it relied alot more on reoccuring characters (or characters who know characters from previous games), and continuity arcs between those characters... Which was certainly beyond the scope of KQ style...

QFG has the feel of a story planned out in advance, with an eventual conclusion...

King's Quest has the feel of a story being discovered as it went along... A Never Ending Story....

QFG was very much planned out. There was only supposed to be 4 games, actually. Wages of War was never supposed to be made; It was supposed to be the first and second game, with the third game being Shadows of Darkness and the fourth and final game being Dragon Fire...They had the story and it's end planned out from the beginning. However, the Coles felt that such a sudden big jump--to the dark tone of Shadows of Darkness--wouldn't go over well with fans and so Wages of War was made, despite them never intending it. It was the only game which was not planned and made on the fly.

Whereas with KQ, each game was what Roberta wanted the series to be at the moment; As she said, each KQ game was an expression of whatever her mood was at the time. Hence the series going boomeranging from lighter stories, to dark stories, back to lighter stories; From Disney inspired to JRR Tolkien inspired.

Off note but--If traditional adventure games had continued to have mainstream popularity into the late 1990s, I wonder what KQ8 would've been like.

Right, I know the history! I have QFG omnipedia, where we have gone into that in great detail! I'm just comparing the differences here though a somewhat more vaguer manner ;). I didn't want to turn it into an essay!

Actually the jump was, that they didn't think that the "Hero" would be powerful enough to take on forces such as Vampires at the point just after teh second game. From a story and challenge stand point they wanted the character to 'grow' some more.

Well, we still know the whole idea she wanted 3D she was talking about as early as 1994... She was talking about possible action concepts (based on stuff she saw on pcs and consoles, super mario 64/doom) as early as 1995 (she had a Japanese prototype of the "ULtra 64" before most people ever saw pictures in the US)...

So I don't think she really ever had a plan to make it anything different... She was just really impressed with the real time action, and fully explorable 3D worlds...

The real question is what would it have been like if Doom and Nintendo 64 hadn't been in development at that time (to inspire her in that direction)?!

I don't think you start seeing the whole "industry is dieing' mantra pop out of them until 1996... Earlier I think it was like 'ooh cool new tools, new bells and whistles, I can do new things in my adventures, yippee!!!' Like a child in a candy store...

So another good question is if the appeal of adventure games had lasted (realizing that KQ8 is basically what she had intended KQ8 to be from the start anyways, she looked at action, and designed action, before she even started on puzzles), what would she have done with KQ9... Would it have gone back to being more traditional? Or would she have pushed things further the direction she was taking things?

Careful, Anakin. Epic Sierra fandom pedantry is Baggins' territory. He might snap.

I don't know Anakin could probably give you the profit margins for many specific game when the first came out, or relative success of individual products...... :p...

He's way more into the general Sierra history as it relates to company management...

I'm more interested in history of development for individual games...

I wouldn't mind seeing a game that forced you to visit all of the previous lands. It would be interesting to have to go between the lands to rally it's people to a unified cause. Each location could be changed due to events that have taken place since you last visited. So while a bit familiar, they would also be very different.

Unless Roberta was involved I'm not sure I'd care to see a new land. And I'll be damned if that is "what king's quest is about" or not.

A time traveling tale where you go between the old games and see yourself actually working through the old puzzles, but can't be seen by yourself would be interesting. Somehwat similar to SQ4's sequence of game jumping.

Point being, there are many ways to revisit familiar places without treading the exact same ground.

Then you might as well be playing The Silver Lining, because what you describe is nearly what the Four Winds magazine and what the game does... "rallying characters from many of thr games together from previous lands" and a return to the Green Isles...


Seriously one the reasons creating a new land and a stand alone story (as Roberta did it originally) is that doesn't tie every single game in the series together in a complicated mess, is because a story in a new land avoids creating continuity/canon breaking issues and mischaracterizations as everything is 90% original...

If you want time travel go play Wizard and the Princesss and the follow up with its sequel, Adventure in Serenia!

Snickers...

Brilliant marketing strategy! Marketing the same game (with only a few minor differances graphically) as its own sequel through a time travel story gimmick!

I'm thinking I might prefer an interquel. Is that heresy?

Graham between KQ1 and 2 maybe. Second choice Rosella, somewhere between KQ4 and 6.

I definitely want a new land, but starting with some exploration of Daventry would be good, too.

Some speculate that KQ7 might take place between KQ4 and KQ6.

Starting or ending up in an area in Daventry is always a good idea... It worked in KQ3 and KQ8. Most games started in Daventry in some fashion.

One possiblity is Graham is visiting another land at the start of the game, or has been captured by an army and taken to another land. His kingdom invaded. In both cases he has to solve puzzles in the new land, and work his way back to Daventry to save it!

I'm not sure I want a game that is fully set in Daventry again... We had that back in KQ1. I want to explore new areas of the world, new kingdoms... As long as I get a bit of both some Daventry, and primarily a new kingdom. That would be cool.