We're looking at Trial by Fire today. I hope you like MAPS. Consider Supporting me on Patreon: / pushinguproses Social Media: Twitter: / pushinuproses Facebook: / pushinguproses Instagram: / pushinuproses
Can't believe you stopped doing these, they are so wonderfully produced! Not to mention these games are amazing, I basically grew up and learnt English stumbling through all the text😊
Pro tip, when you start this game, immediately go into the dessert and stick to the mountains (ie go left or right) until you encounter either a scorpion or a rogue, fight them and kill them. If it's a rogue then take his money, if it's a scorpion then take it's tail. Then go back to the merchant there in the first courtyard and either sell the tail to buy a map or just buy a map. This makes navigating that maze a hell of a lot easier, though you still have to find the money changer.
Yep 4 and 1 always felt like the best. 4 had a great environment, characters, and story. I think 2 was my next favorite although it had its issues, especially with the maze, but the story was top notch. 3 was ok, but it felt like it could of been much better as it felt just too short. 5.... well I think the biggest issue was the engine. I would of been fine with using the same engine as 4 but expanding the environment. It also felt like a big letdown after 4. There are some good things in 5, but it was really brought down by the bad things.
@@smithgdwg When I first played 2, I wasn't sure what to make of it. But I liked it, too, especially the fights against the elementals and the wizard trials.
Just FYI: Yes, I am familiar with the AGDI remake; I seem to be getting a lot of questions on that even though I addressed it a couple times in the comments. This series won't touch on any fan remakes, it focuses on the official Quest for Glory games specifically by Sierra. But I do support the ADGI games and think they are great homages and expansions to some of the Sierra titles. Also discovered: Apparently if there is an enemy on screen and your saurus runs, you DO need to defeat that enemy. I ran away because I play the thief class, and don't feel confident in my strength or fighting skills to do a lot of combat. So if you do pick up this game, and you lose your saurus, kick the shit out of the enemy that scared and it you should be good to go. Hopefully.
I thought a thief could get through the game without any direct combat if the player wants. Course they do need some strength if he wants to move that anvil.
I'm certain - possible bugs not withstanding - you just have to find the screen where he threw you off once the monster is no longer chasing - which can be harder after running multiple screens. If Roget's altogether lost, then you can walk back to Shapier on foot and the guard will reassure you that Saurus can find their way home on their own (as he does soon thereafter) - easy enough assuming you know if you're generally east or west of the city, and can make sure your not facing the south mountains instead of the north. :) It sucks getting really lost but that extra danger and disorientation and dehydration adds a little spice to the game IMO. I miss having the (dis)ability to loose my way in Spielburg and Mordavia, back before repeated playing branded the maps to my brain.
It's weird, because I tried so hard to get back to Shapeir (going as north as I could then hugging the mountains) and I just could not find it. At that point I was just too turned around though, I had no idea where the fuck I was. I ended up restoring, regretting the amount of time I spent hoping it would wrap around.
I never liked the whole wrap around of some early Quest Games; at first it gives a sense of wide open space but once I caught on it felt immersion bending - I assume they did it so they didn't have to design realistic barriers. It worked when they wrote some magical reason for it, like Glastonbury hill in Conquests of Camelot, or maybe before king's quest became an expansive world/series, Daventry could be this abstract fairy tale world all to itself. Quest for Glory always felt much more real from the start to me, the Hero had traveled from another land in the north, somehow it never occurred to me the desert might wrap around, despite playing a lot of Black Cauldron and KQ3. I remember being amazed that the desert seemed to go on forever though, and thought: surely there must be a barrier or something if I kept going...nope it's essentially endless I guess, but somehow keeps track of how far out you are. Still pretty cool to me, I wonder if it was a challenge to program.
I think the maze was supposed to act as a form of soft copy protection, as without the real life paper map it was almost impossible to find your way to the money changer.
Yeah, I hesitated to call it an official or hard form of copy protection because you technically CAN find her if you keep looking; it's not something that locks you out of the game if you didn't have the printed map, but it definitely made it significantly harder and would likely make you give up if you didn't have one. Like you said, maybe soft copy protection. Though, I could still see some dedicated adventurers writing out their own map as they went along and successfully finding places.
The other problem with this is that the game was re-released many times but, as best as I can recall, never included the map. Or if they did, it would have been as a PDF that would be almost impossible for someone in the 90s to make use of while also playing the game.
+Jason I suppose they would need to print it out, or alt tab into it if they didn't boot to DOS - but I doubt the re-release bothered to advise either action. I first found Dinarzad by asking Ali Chica for directions, he spells it out "plainly" with a string of rights and lefts and go straights and take the second left and left again - would have been more helpful if I wrote it down (or remembered about the included map in the game box) but It got me there after a few attempts. Then all you need do is _simply_ reverse that - or stumble around till you find a plaza before too long. Once you've bought Chica's map, it's a lot easier to reference where you are.
I really hope you're going to continue this retrospective. I love classic adventure games and RPGs, and I really appreciate such retrospectives. Keep up your great work!
Randomly started looking for Quest for Glory videos, since I loved those games (other than this one) as a kid, and found this! Really good video that helped me reveal in my nostalgia a bit. I'm sad that you never got around to 3, since it really seemed like you wanted to talk about that one. Even more sad that there isn't one on 4, as that is by far my favorite one in the series!
I love your videos. I completely missed out on the adventure game genre even though I am certain I would have loved it had I known it existed. It's great finding out about all these for the first time.
The desert does loop around, but it's literally 1000 screens long. Someone mentioned you can go to Raseir on foot, but the guards just don't let you in because you don't have the visa.
I can not stop laughing, chuckling, guffawing, and giggling at the fact that he is named Roget The Saurus. Awesome video, Roses. The Quest for Glory series is the one I'm probably the least familiar with, so I've been REALLY loving this retrospective on the series. Can't wait for the next one.
I actually love this game, I found it underneath the Christmas tree one year DAYS after Christmas. It got buried under some stuff and was still wrapped from Santa. I like AGD remake of it as well. The remake makes it so the whole series can be played point and click but also has an option for the parser I think. The next time you do a series playthrough, since you don't like 2 try the remake. You can still import your hero into and out of the game. The thing I really dislike is having to just kill time in Rasier resting for the first 3 days to get to the plot stuff at night. I always went for the Paladin route but would have enough Magic to do the WIT trial. For some reason I've also always really liked the music right at the end when you start to break into the palace. One of my favorite video game songs of all time. It's the music you have playing at 10:34. It just fits the urgency of what's going on and I was young so it just made it all "epic". (Edit: ah you touched on that musical piece right at the end of the video too). I hope you review Heroines Quest after QFG5 since it's pretty much QFG6. It's on steam and easily as good as QFG4. It's Norse mythology and it could have been released in 1994 with the Sierra label and you'd never know the difference. The Coles have endorsed it as well. Thanks for all the stuff on your channel it's brought me many hours of entertainment throughout the years. I was actually binge watching videos I've already seen from you earlier this week.
Man, I used to go yardsaling with my uncle in the late '90s/early '00s to find retro games and basically just bought anything that looked old or cool... ended up getting Quest For Glory 1-3 for a few bucks and had a ton of fun playing through them. My uncle was who got me into RPGs when I was in grade school, and we used to love picking up old games and playing them together on our trips. Hard to believe that was like twenty years ago, when I was in high school. He passed away about five years ago from cancer. There are a lot of games I play that remind me of him, but watching these videos has reminded me of our weekends spent together scavenging for games to play or sell on eBay. I remember we played these together for what seemed like eons trying to figure out solutions to puzzles and what-not. Thanks for rekindling awesome memories. I just discovered your channel yesterday from your Hey Dude retrospective being recommended for me, and I'm glad I checked out your other stuff. Keep up the awesome work! :)
I'm surprised you didn't talk about the food. Maybe it's a remake thing. On man, the descriptions of the meals always made my mouth water! Great review!
This retrospective series is making me want to do a full replay from beginning to end... Its bringing back so many good memories from my childhood, no game series captured my imagination quite like the QFG series did back in the day. Thanks for making these videos.
Daniel Lau give heroines quest on steam a shot. You'll love it and it will be a brand new experience. It's basically QFG6. It's got an 87% score from 1000 reviews and it's free. store.steampowered.com/app/283880/Heroines_Quest_The_Herald_of_Ragnarok/
Wow dude, you weren't kidding. The screenshots make it look like the vga graphics sequel we never got. Installed! I am definitely doing a full replay now, saving Heroine's Quest for last.
Daniel Lau I mean it def differs a little bit and has a cold and hunger meter than can be a pain at the start but they can be turned off if causing too much trouble. They also have a game called A Tale of Two Kingdoms which is more like Kings Quest. Both games are great and while vary a little bit have come closest to recreating that magic I felt as I kid playing the original Sierra Quest games.
Scotty St Cloud Heroines Quest really is a great game. This just reminded me about this retro and where the 3rd part is lol. QFG3 was always my least fav one so not surprising if Roses pushed it to the backburner when there are so many great old and new games.
This one always used to be my favorite. I feel like the tighter schedule gave it more of a sense of reality, whereas in Spielburg everything stays exactly as it is forever unless you poke it. Here, people got agendas! Also got to take issue with the idea that the thief has nothing to do here since the thief never gets it this good again! You've got break-in houses, the whole blackbird plot and your own unique way of reaching to the final battle that's totally different than how the other classes get there.
Hey PUR, I just wanted to let you know how much I love your channel. I grew up on almost every game you've reviewed. Your perspective takes me back and I look forward to your content. Thanks!
Love your videos; in fact, I loved them so much I got back into playing adventure games and I am now 51 Years old. I played all the Old Sierra games as well as Lucas Arts and now I am replaying them because of you. Thank you so much and keep it up
Huh, I must have blocked the memory of the mazelike streets, I just remembered the fast travel. I do remember the desert being frustrating though. And getting stuck at the end because I had to ask about some wizard who had only been mentioned once but I didn’t remember his name at all. Awesome video :)
Not counting Zelda 1 and Zelda 2, this game was my first experience in any kind of role playing game, either computer or paper. I was wild about it when I discovered how much this imitated a character’s life and adventure as the game, even down to knowledge gathering, skill building, food, water, and sleeping! When I started paper RPGs a few years later, I always made sure I announced that I was carrying 5 rocks in my inventory, just in case I had to throw them at anything as an attack, distraction, chasm depth check, etc. 🗡😎
This was my favorite 16-color game that Sierra ever, ever made!! The parser was the most advanced they ever did. Want to sneak? Just type it! Want to save the game? Just type it! Want to bargain the price of saurus jerky snacks? Just type it! Josh Mandel recently said that going to a mouse-icon interface took away all the imaginativeness of playing adventure games, and I say it's obvious that no series suffered for that more that QFG. Example: Does the hand icon on the tree mean hug tree, pick fruit, pick leaves, get bark, push, pull, push over, uproot, pull off a branch, search, or climb? Not counting Zelda 1 and Zelda 2 for the NES, QFG2 was my first RPG game ever. I only discovered paper RPGs a few years later, and when I began playing them, playing QFG2 reminded me to always carry 5 small rocks with me at all times, in case I needed to use them as hammers, counterweights, throwing weapons, distraction noisemakers, or chasm depth checkers! I have a big love of desert settings for stories. It may have started with Star Wars Episode IV, but I think it really started with this game, QFG2. Whether it's Tatooine, Jakku, Arrakis, Shapeir, Raseir, the desert in KQ5, Calormen in the Narnia books, or the desert in "The Blue Sword," I love thinking of driving to the nearest real-life sand dunes and pretending all of it.--Arrakis. Dune. Desert planet. Oh, and watch out for those Fremen when you're grinding in the Shapeir desert. Uh, I mean, bandits.
Preach that Parser Profundity brotha! :^D At least AGDI's remake let's you keep the parser so far as conversations go, which I found to be the best accomplishment of Sierra's parser system, but it's still going to simplify situations like you described with the tree - even if many of those responses weren't recognized, at least you got to try it and individualize your play-style. Verbs: I want them all.
Yesssss!!! So glad you did Quest for Glory! You’ve become the Sierra Girl with your love of the company playing all the Quest games. This game was wonderful- I know it’s wayyy more frustrating then Quest for Glory I in Spielberg but this was a whole new level of difficulty.
Loved your reviews back in the Channel Awesome days, and I’m glad to see you’re still at it. This was one of the Sierra games I never got around to playing, but I loved playing them on my 286.
I had never thought about the graphics like that before. It does explain why a lot of the game *feels scarce* But yes, the time mechanic is tedious, and makes replaying it a bit of a chore, despite the fact I love this franchise so dearly
I replayed all of the Quest for Glory games a couple of months ago and QfG2 is still my favorite game in the series. I love the setting, the style, the story, and the characters. You make a lot of really good points (as usual) but for me the good outweigh the bad.
These older adventure games are so much fun to watch! I watched Game Grumps play Kings Quest/Space Quest. These games have a nice way of being descriptive through text which opens up possibility to use your imagination. I miss imagination.... IMAGINATION!!!!
this was my fave. played them in order of 3-2-1-4-5, 5 like 20 years later. i did each class, but most fun was thief you gave magic skills to, as you got to be a member to 2 of the 3 guilds !
The trick is to go into the desert first and kill something so you have money to buy the map without having to blindly wander the streets looking for the money changer. When I am doing a QFG 1-4 (screw 5) playthrough I use all the spare time in QFG2 to work on skills, especially combat skills with Uhura.
Just: your videos are great. I never experienced any of the games you cover but it's wonderful to get a glimpse into this world. Also, your on-camera style is to die for, and I am mad jealous.
I just started watching this series and was looking forward to watching it through to the end as I'm enjoy your videos. Hopefully you get to complete the series.
One of my favourite games as a kid, but I hadn't played the original so this was my entry to the series. I still plan to go through each of these games in the series with a character. Found an MT-32 emulator too, so that audio option you could never choose is suddenly available. I was going to scoff a little about the start of the game comments and finding things, but then I remembered how many times I'd restarted because I hadn't found the necessary locations in time. One of my favourite moments was finding the residential house you can break into as a thief with magic. This meant he was inept at both skills. I was making so much noise trying to sneak, so I decided to use "fetch" to retrieve the dinner service. I was promptly skewered to the wall by flying cutlery.
The AGDI version is great and addresses a lot of the issues. I probably won't do a full review, at least not for this series. This will be focusing on the original five Quest for Glory games by Sierra.
Ah! Can't wait any longer for number 3, then. The best of the lot, sayeth meine meinung... And then the "Conquests" Diptych, hopefully! That one Sierra game that wooed me. And the three widow's stooges have nothing to do with it... NB: With all due respect for your work, Number 3 has nothing to do with Egypt, really, it's more about Summerian mythology and all. It makes a lot of sense. And Zigguraths! And centaur lions!
As a professor of Religious Studies...nah. Wages of War is mainly about West/Central African mythology. Sumerian stuff doesn't really feature, and the Egypt bit is TINY. But I agree -- my two favorite entries were Wages of War & Shadows of Darkness.
Awakeandalive1 Tiny? Sekmet and Anubis rock your world pretty hard. Maybe Sekmet would be more violent? The Flavor is there, if not anyway near as deep as Egyptology. I'm curious what negatives Roses has to say about it though.
Yep as a kid I absolutely loved the first Quest for Glory and it's still maybe my favorite adventure game from that time next to Monkey Island 2. But with Trial by Fire, yea, the maze kills it for me. Every time. Strange to make the sequel into what amounts to a mazey type game. That wasn't Quest for Glory to me. And for that matter, there never was a sequel I liked as much as that first game.
Trial By Fire on the Amiga was my introduction to the QFG series, and it remains my favorite. I can easily see why one might feel differently, but to me, it was the game world in which I got the most immersed. I think the NPC schedules and daily routine helped a lot with this. Navigating the maze was not a problem, as I had the hardcopy map which came with the game, and downtime between timed events I just filled with exploration, conversation or combat. Perhaps I am somewhat biased due to the impact the game made when I first played it. At the time, this was the first game I had played which offered this mix of RPG and Sierra-style adventure. It was also the first adventure game I played where puzzles had more than one solution. Thank you for these videos, I enjoy watching them, especially as you are playing the thief character, which I didn't play myself. I was actually unaware of the bird statue thing, but now I understand the reference to the "Raven" in the Cole's new game, Hero-U. Did you figure out where you could use the X-Ray glasses?
I'm gonna be real, I never played QfG growing up, but started 1 last year (whoops). Even though I'm learning about the storylines through your retrospectives i don't care--- i MUST watch your videos!!! Despite its flaws, I think your retrospective here for 2 made me kind of excited to try it? You have an awesome way of keeping balance between salt and... sugar? lol. also, seeing that seibert and braymen did the ost makes me doubly excited to play it (big fan of their work with leisure suit larry, even though it is most definitely a trashy series like you said haahahaha) the maze does seem like a hassle though, ugh... who thought that was a good idea, seriously?! i legit lol'd at "(grimacing) egyptian themes, yay... those are always so respectful...." bahahhasfhsdhdfh
That is totally understandable! I still think it's a frustrating game to really dive into, but I wouldn't try to convince someone not to play it. I still think it's worth a shot.
Beedwise Gamgee if you finish the first game, make sure to check out AGDs remake of 2. You might find that more to your liking. It's the VGA version of the game like how the first game had a remake to VGA and point and click. This series is def worth checking out just so you can get to the 4th game with an imported hero so try to stick with it :).
These first two videos are so good! Looks like you stopped after 2, but if you even decide to look at the rest of the games in this series, I'll definitely be watching!
I played and replayed Trial By Fire many, many times while waiting for Wages of War to come out. I am only just now learning the "home" trick with the saurus!!
Quest for Glory 2 VGA (AGD Remake) was my first QFG game. I really did enjoy it, I didn't really have the problems or critique points you had. However I really like your reviews, and I respect your opinion on the original. Looking forward to QFG 3's review. :)
Roses, if you get a chance, take a look at this free download remake. The combat is very much improved and there are tons of additional extras. It doesn't take away the timer for the first half, but it adds a lot.
Djiril922 I agree with you, it is breathtakingly beautiful, and the combat system was a bit hard to get used to but when I got the hang of it, it was awesome and fun.
Grant Wagner She has played the remake before, she is reviewing this one because it is the original and she is using the originals for her retrospective.
Oh, I completely agree with you. I played this as a kid after the first game and got lost and frustrated and never played it all the way through despite beating the first one many, many times.
Really good review. I also played the thief, but always maxed out the magician stats and did those quests as well. I was really young but I vaguely remember being able to quasi cheat by putting a weight on one of the keys with a "cast" command until I ran out of manna and then repeating.
You have some valid points about why this game isn't as good as the first which I do mostly agree with. Some of the issues were addressed in the fan remake by AGD Interactive like navigation is a little easier & the graphics are better, thats the version I would recommend over the original SCI version.
Yes, the fan remake addresses the issues I am talking about, especially the navigation. I typically do not discuss fan remakes and this series intentionally focuses on the original Sierra games, but I do think AGD Interactive does very good work, especially with story expansion and art.
Also just want to add I had asked Corey Cole once why was Trial by fire done with EGA graphics & w/ text parser for a game coming out in the fall of '90, the same time as KQ5 and 2 other VGA Sierra games, he had told me that Ken had basically said if any one wants to make a game for the '90 holiday season let me know but its gonna be EGA and I guess they grabbed at the chance. So I don't know if maybe their development time was more rushed than usual given the opportunity? didn't think to ask him that
Even with the rough spots, I still like this one, as I like every single QFG. The maze was never a problem once the map is available, so it never bothered me much. The elemental puzzle was a fun one to figure out, the class-based sidequests (while a bit lacking) still had some great variety at least, and it was always a fun one to replay through. Based on the stories you told, I can see why there were many shortcomings and some lack of content with this one, and why Wages of War was made to try and make up for it.
QG2 was my introduction to Quest for Glory, and is hands down my favorite Sierra Game of all time, largely due to nostalgia from a time when it was one of the only games we had and so I played it into the GROUND. The maze could get irritating, to be sure, but that just felt like a representation of the city... like, this isn't a small town, it's a metropolis, and if you just walk off without a plan, you can totally get lost. I was bummed to see you haven't continued the series, I hope you get back on it!
This is my favourite in the series... and honestly, its not like anything you said is untrue and that's part of the beauty of the series, really - different experiences for everyone. And honestly it wasn't my favourite at first, but it's my favourite after going through everything in the series dozens of times when i know everything in every game like the back of my hand so it's really easy for me to overlook your complaints. Love your videos, thank you for showing off my favourite PC game.
PushingUpRoses Yeah! From the Shapier overlook, go straight south until you hit the southern cliffs. From there, go west several hundred screens. Eventually, you reach the Raseir overlook. It helps to crank up the animation speed so that you walk faster than monsters can spawn or you get thirsty.
I heard the guards turn you away at the gate though don't they? It must be a little disappointing - while cool they established all that space in _sand._
Loved this video! My buddy's been telling me sarcastically to play QfG2 and how fantastic the maze is. Guess now I know why! Can't wait for your third one.
