Dollarone's let's play QfG! (spoilers)

[dollarone]

#627

Hello, I’m dos game club user dollarone, and I wanted to try a “let’s play” of QfG. This will be a text-based “let’s play”, and I will include lots of spoilers as I go (play) along, so be warned.

I’ve never played this game before, although I played loads of Sierra games before, including (judging by screenshots) QfG 3 and 4.

I’ve decided to play the EGA version for that real super-retro feeling – I remember trying one of the earliest Space Quest games long before I even understood english with very limited success (a mate suggested “get key” – I remember I had no idea what “key” meant 🙂 )

This will be an experiment. I thought perhaps it might be fun for people who know the game pretty well to see what my thought processes and experiences playing the game for the first game will be.

Without further ado, let’s play!

[dollarone]

#628

Right, we start in a town, infront of a lazy Sheriff and and ogre with a… yo-yo?

also his name is “Otto van Goon”. Right.

I explore the town. At some point I find a shop that sells cupcakes. I try to order one. The game tells me “you will not need to use the word cupcake in this game”. Well, why did you include it then!!!

I throw some silver at a beggar in an alley which means I don’t have enough to drink the infamous Dragon’s Breath death-drink that the manual suggest you try (it does suggest to save before tho).

I buy some carrots, and consider the toaster in the magic shop. They also have spells for sale, ooh! As a Magic User I go straight for “Flame Dart” but it is too expensive, so I buy “Open” instead. Atleast I can open locks like a thief now, right?

I find the guild hall and register myself as an adventurer, woohoo! There’s a(nother) sleeping person here, (the game seems to put people to sleep to avoid having too many discussions) and you can wake this one up! Alas he soon falls asleep again.

There’s a bunch of quests on the board like a true D&D-game, and I note them all down.

I venture outside and decide to try my look in the forest. Wait, do I have a weapon? Ah yes I have a dagger, standard mage-style.

Soon my path is cut off by an avalanche! Ooh interesting! I try to look closer at it but the game fobs me off with “Nothing interesting here”.

I gain access to the healer’s hut and learn about her wares. I also ask about the quests that were mentioned in the Guild Hall. I feel like I’m a very successful adventurer so far. I exit and continue exploring.

Soon after I get attacked by an effing dinosaur who promptly eats me alive. How do you attack? I try “attack” and “fight” which gets the response “go ahead”.

By random keyboard-mashing it turns out its the up-key. OK. Reload.

I run around the whole forest, elaborately creating a map as I go along. I set a fox free from a trap, I run away from an ogre, I see a white walker who just blocks my way, and I find an “Antwerp” who I still don’t know anything about. Is it an enemy? A person? Perhaps a small dutch town personified?

I get some more quests from talking trees and skulls, head back to the inn, get another quest, and go to sleep after a nice dinner.

Next time I’ll try to actually do a quest…

[Tijn]

#630

Sounds like a very successful first day!

[dollarone]

#631

my super map (2nd attempt after my pencil-drawn map became a mess of interleaving town- and overworld- squares)

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[Tijn]

#633

Wow, is that Excel? 😀

[Tijn]

#634

Also, congrats for getting the entire world mapped!

[toasty]

#635

Yeesh it didn’t take you long to map out the entire place! Mine is very small and insignificant by comparison… :/

[dollarone]

#636

That is in fact LibreOffice (FOSS forever etc). toasty, I did say spoilers 🙂

[dollarone]

#641

We go again!

Full disclosure: it took me a couple of days to map out the whole forest. So this is not day 2, just “2nd play session”. Also I did find the castle in my mapping, although I didn’t mention it.

Alright. I wanted to do a quest. I found some magic mushrooms earlier, and I know the healer wanted some. Having given them to her, I get a whole 1 gp back! I see an opportunity here; I’ll just grind a bit till I’m the richest man in town!

Ah, boo. Turns out she just wants 3 deliveries of magic mushroom, so my sidequest as a drug dealer is short-lived.

I go to town and try talking to more people. I learn about the Centaurs Pferdefedern and finally learn the first name of the Baron, which means I can finally answer the questions needed to go visit the wizard! Once there, he wants to play the Wizard’s game mentioned in the manual – I lie and pretend I know more spells than I do (which is allowed – cool!) and we play a game I can’t win due to being a lying wizard. Nice.

I need more spells. I go back to my previous tactic and re-read the quest list for potential grind-targets. Ah! Flowers from the fruit tree place! Woop. Again there is a limit but atleast this gives me enough money to buy the “Fetch” spell.

I quickly remember the blinking thing in the bird’s nest, and go out to try my new spell. YES, it works! I am a WIZARD, Harry!

I give the ring to the healer and get rich, woop! I quickly spend all my money on the last available spell: Flame Dart, which I imagine is a massive fireball that will kill anything in its path.

I still need the trigger spell to beat the Wizard’s game, but where can I learn it? Hmm, let’s get back to that later.

I finish the dryad’s fetch-quest, which leads me to another fetch-quest of sorts, and I manage to try/fail myself to all the ingredients. Progress!

I have some problems collecting the fairy dust because my bottle is not empty and apparently there is NO EFFING WAY TO EMPTY IT. Grrr. I re-load a previous game, buy ANOTHER bottle, then re-do the bits leading up to getting the dust. I really hope I just missed something obvious, surely you can empty your bottle, right? RIGHT?

There’s a period of time where I do little, I try to get the goblin’s treasure, but once I kill one or two the rest just flee… I try to take the root in the graveyard but it disappears. I try to figure out WTF the Antwerp is and find he is guarding a keyhole.

In the end (I’m not ashamed to admit) I get a hint from the internet and go to random NPC and give him the random item that he didn’t mention at all so I can progress again.

I meet the game’s villain, get turned into a frog and almost boiled – but say the right things and get to perform another fetch-quest instead.

So. I’m pretty sure I know whodunnit. I’ve no idea where they have been hidden. I have the counterpotion. I can’t seem to find the goblin’s treasure, and I can’t seem to get anywhere with the brigands. The Ogre kills me while I barely scratch his face, and I need another spell to beat the Wizard’s game. So, now what? I think it’s time for a break!

[Tijn]

#650

Awesome progress, dude!

By the way: you can empty a bottle that’s filled with potion by typing “drink [type] potion”. But I don’t think you can drink the water, weirdly.

I think focusing on the wizard’s game first is a good idea. There are actually two places where you can get the trigger spell. If you want a hint, let me know, I don’t want to spoil it for you. It’s not very hard once you know it, but that’s always the case isn’t it 😀

As for the quests… I think it’s probably best to focus on the ogre first? It’s really mainly a matter of leveling up your skills and you’ll be able to make more progress with him. Although there is an alternative to attacking him, which requires yet another spell you don’t have at this point. It’s not for sale, but you can find it somewhere in the forest. I would advise you to check out the important areas and do some searching around, I’m sure you can find it 🙂

[dollarone]

#654

hey, thanks for that, perfectly balanced tips without giving too much away! 🙂

[dollarone]

#664

Rightio. I decide to find my missing trigger spell so I can take Tijn’s advice and focus on the wizard’s game.

But! I suddenly realise the Antwerp was guarding a keyhole – and I have an open spell! I run down and cast it, only to be told my magic is not strong enough. I decide to grind it to the necessary level, but there’s a limit, probably based on my magic level.

So I cast some spells. Sleep. Do it again. Boring, and slow.

I explore a bit more, I go to the meeps and cast calm etc. I ask them about magic, what! turns out they have a scroll for me! could it be…? No. It’s just “detect magic”.

I go on a magic detection spree. I detect little, but I do find some magic by the waterfall. I climb up to the door, which I can open with magic, but I get knocked down by the door even when I’m CLEARLY a whole meter away.

In a rare case of inspiration I try to climb up the wall while the door is being opened, but no, it doesn’t work. I try just knocking..and..yes! it works! I talk to the hermit, who… wait for it …. offers me the TRIGGER SPELL! woop! Tijn tells me the other way to get this spell is to just admit you don’t know it when the wizard asks – which is excellent!:)

I quickly run up to the wizard and beat him at his own random game. I get ANOTHER spell, I truly am a wizard now!

I grind a bit more until I can open the Antwerp’s door, and get instakilled. OK. Better train some combat skills. I grind again, this time focussing on the flame dart.

Out of nowhere, I remember the Ogre in front of a cave and decide to go visit him again, and get killed. I try some spells. Turns out calm actually freezes him so I can run past – but I want blood and type furiously “cast flame” until he falls to the floor!

Inside the same trick (calm) can be used again (wtf, atleast put some other trick in between) and then I face a fellow magic-user who kills me a couple of times before I figure out how to beat him. One of the times, I type “drink healing potion” when I’m close to death and the game throws mud in my face by rejecting it with a “you will not need the word ‘drink’ in this game” followed by a headshot from the kobold. FFFFFUUUUU

anyway, he dies eventually, I even steal his shrooms and disarm his shitty treasure. I finish one of he main quests and I AM RICH!:D And a wizard!

I call it a good day’s work – I’m on 296 points out of 500.

[dollarone]

#665

But this guy, WHAT DOES HE DO? WHY IS HE EVEN THERE? And why does he keep stopping whenever I pass by, as if he’s got something to tell me?

LVP for sure.

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[dollarone]

#667

also encountered a cool death/bug

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[Tijn]

#669

Man, you are making some *excellent* progress! I think you’ve got all the spells there are in the game now. And you beat one of the main quests! Way to go! You’re rich 😀

So… any idea what’s next? I advise you to visit the bar in the town and have a good look near the stool. That might trigger a sequence of events that will bring you further along 🙂

Also, I have no idea about that centaur. Completely useless if you ask me, haha.

[dollarone]

#672

Alright! Let’s do this!

I got a little hint about looking around in the bar from Tijn, and in doing so I found a little paper note. Ooh, secrets! I follow the instructions which leads me to find a key to the cave I just spent ages grinding my “open” spell for. Oh well. Atleast there’s a secret word to avoid being instakilled.

So I return to said cave, traverse the dungeon, gets instakilled anyway, but re-load with so much anger that I manage to flame-dart the bastard to death before he can instakill me again. Wow, I pack some power now.

I continue out of the cave, and easily pass the next challenge (seriously, again?).

Then there’s a weird part with different kind of challenges – first it’s a “find the right path” thing followed by “do exact things in exact order in time”. Then there’s a “figure out the weird path” type challenge. I actually like that the game throws something different at you, even though some of these are pretty … strange and possibly infuriating.

I finally find the princess who stabs me. Re-load. Not sure how you are really supposed to work that one out without re-trying. Perhaps the “oh the daughter will be around your age” hint?

I get the hint from the jester but actually leave prematurely while trying to find the secret exit. So I watch the whole ending just to go back and do it again for the best ending. But: I do like that there are different “levels” of endings! Even tho it feels a bit “well I didn’t SAY I wanted to end” at first.

Anyway, grab the required tools and beat the witch at her own game. Woo! I am hero.

Love the segue into QfG2 🙂 You can even export your character! Yeey!

If I’ll play QfG2 at some point, which I’ll probably do, I’ll definitely import my character, how cool is that!

And at some point I’ll go back and play QfG1 VGA as a thief; there are so many houses in town I haven’t seen yet 😉

All in all, a lot of frustration, a lot of grind, but also a lot of fun.

GG

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[Tijn]

#674

Wow, I’m impressed with how quickly you managed to beat it!

Congrats, you’re a hero now 😀