Let’s Play Quest for Glory 5!
I’m guaranteed to get a bit wistful talking about the final installment of arguably my favorite video game franchise of all time. There is no better balance of everything a video game should be to me than the Quest for Glory games and I have wonderful memories of experiencing them in full as a kid.
That said, Quest For Glory 5 is sort of the odd man out of the QFG series because they completely changed so many fundamental things which made the series great. Of course they kept a lot of what made it great, as well.
So really, I definitely fell into the positive evolution camp when this game came out. I saw the changes they made as a way to keep the series fresh, and they all worked for me. That in part is why, on some days, I’ll cite this as my favorite (gasps).
Let’s Play Quest For Glory 5:
It was certainly prettier than any game which preceded it, though we all have a soft spot for those VGA and even EGA renderings.
It was the gameplay which changed the most. No longer was there the cycle-through four or five basic actions. They simplified it in a way as all you had now was “look” or “interact with”.
The combat system aspect of the gameplay is likely what put most people off as they ditched the locked in psuedo turn based RPG fighting in favor of a real-time, open combat. Enemies would move freely about the screen like you could. If you wanted to run, then you’d just literally run away rather than breaking away from a combat screen.
Ultimately this made the combat cruder as it was basically impossible to dodge or evade attacks unless everything was lined up perfectly. Instead it was more of a street fight where you’d just trade jabs and stabs until the loser was dead.
The story was arguably the best in this game, and made for a wonderful end to the story of your hero you’d played as for four games. A kingdom was under siege by multiple threats in an assasin and a dragon, and there were a number of camps all vying to become the next ruler.
There was a lot going on on the side, as well, as you fought through the Rites of Rulership. Many things to occupy all character types. Thieves had the guild and thief work, mages had their usual barage of spells, Paladins always had their work cut out for them, fighters and anyone else interested had the colleseum. Plus there were love interests for every hero.
This game had the best soundtrack, as well. Sierra even included the original soundtrack on the same CD as the game. I used to jog on the treadmill to, you guessed it, the same music the hero jogged on the treadmill to!
I could go on and on about this game, but my praise and enthusiasm for it shines through in the let’s play itself. Thank you for watching this one everyone; it’s one of the reasons I began the channel in the first place.