| King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Sierra Entertainment |
| Publisher(s) | Sierra Entertainment |
| Engine | SCI1.1 |
| Platform(s) | MS-DOS, Windows, Macintosh, Amiga |
| Release date(s) | September 30, 1992 |
| Genre(s) | Adventure game |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow is the sixth installment in the King's Quest series of adventure games produced by Sierra Entertainment. Written by Roberta Williams and Jane Jensen, KQVI is widely recognized as the high point in the series for its in-depth plot, landmark 3D graphic introduction movie (created by Kronos Digital Entertainment), and professional voice acting (Hollywood actor Robby Benson provided the voice for Prince Alexander, the game's protagonist). KQVI was programmed in Sierra's Creative Interpreter and was the last King's Quest game to be released on floppy disk. A CD-ROM version of the game was released in 1993, including more character voices, a slightly different opening movie and more detailed artwork and animation.
The name of this sequel is a pun on the common phrase "here today, gone tomorrow". This pun is related to the sudden disappearance of Prince Alexander, who is the heir of King Graham. King's Quest III: To Heir Is Human also contained the word "heir" in its title and also featured Prince Alexander (then known as the slave Gwydion) as the main character.
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Prince Alexander is haunted and tormented by his memories of the beautiful Princess Cassima. They met at the end of King's Quest V when Alexander's father King Graham freed his family and the kidnapped princess from the wizard Mordack, but have not seen each other since. Alexander can't even find someone who's heard of the Green Isles let alone knows where it is. The magic mirror sends Alexander a vision of Cassima at her home in the far-off Land of the Green Isles, calling out for Alexander. Alexander sets sail for the Green Isles using the stars shown in the vision, but is shipwrecked in a storm. Alexander washes up onshore alone with nothing but the clothes on his back and some ship wreckage.
He soon learns that Cassima is being held prisoner in her castle by Abdul Alhazred, (named after the author of the fictional Necronomicon in the stories of H. P. Lovecraft) the evil Vizier of the Green Isles. Abdul has murdered the King and Queen and plans to force Cassima to marry him so that he can rule the Land of the Green Isles himself. Alexander must expose the Vizier's plot, stop the wedding, and free Cassima. Alexander also discovers that the islands of the kingdom are on the verge of war. Precious artifacts from each island have been stolen, and the different leaders all blame each other. Can he solve the mystery and restore peace to the kingdom? Among his travels Alexander can travel to the Realm of the Dead and resurrect the King and Queen as well as cast a few spells which he must gather ingredients for. In the end, Alexander and Cassima defeat the Vizier and get married.
Depending on what the player has done there are two possible endings: the genie is destroyed, the King and Queen aren't resurrected and Alexander and Cassima have a small wedding where Jollo the Clown speaks for Cassima and Captain Saladin speaks for Alexander on behalf of the people of the Land of the Green Isles and Saladin asks Alexander and Cassima to rule which they accept. In that ending they have much work to do including figuring out what Alhazarad did to start the feud, repair the ferry and bring peace back to the islands.
In the other ending (the best possible one), Alexander travels to the Land of the Dead and revives the King and Queen. The genie has been turned to good by Alexander's capture of him during the last battle and he repairs the ferry allowing travel between the islands again. Peace is restored as Alexander located the stolen island treasures which Alhazared took and blamed it on the various other islands creating a major feud. Alexander gets married with the leaders of all the islands there including his parents and sister, apparently brought there by the genie and the resurrected King and Queen. After the two get married the King and Queen ask them to rule as they feel that they cannot rule again and Cassima is loved by the people and Alexander gained the respect of everyone during his quest to save Cassima. King Graham and Queen Valanice support Alexander's decision and give him their blessings and he plans to use the genie's powers to visit often. It's also revealed that the crew of his ship somehow survived and made their way back to Daventry. Both endings end with everyone in attendance cheering the new King and Queen led by Captain Saladin who supported Alexander towards the end of his quest and married the two. There is also a third ending that occurs if you destroy the genie instead of turning him good again when you have that choice: its mostly the same as the best possible ending except there are fewer people as the genie never repaired the ferry and also couldn't bring Alexander's family.
Early in KQVI, Alexander discovers that the ferry between the islands of the kingdom is no longer running. To progress in the game, the player must obtain a magic map. This map allows Alexander to teleport instantly between the major islands: The Isle of the Crown (with an Arabian Nights theme), The Isle of Wonder (reminiscent of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland), The Isle of the Beast (Beauty and the Beast-themed), and The Isle of the Sacred Mountain (Classical mythology-themed). Later in the game Alexander will discover information that allows him to travel to one or two other hidden areas, including the mysterious Isle of Mists (Celtic mythology-themed) and the Realm of the Dead (themed after Greco-Roman underworlds), which is only accessible using a spell that needs various ingredients to work including one on the Isle of the Mists, which, unlike the other lands, is only accessible by teleportation after completing the catacombs while the other four islands are also accessible by sea.
A booklet titled "Guidebook to the Land of the Green Isles" (written by Jane Jensen) is included in the KQVI package. Aside from providing additional background to the game's setting, this booklet serves as part of the game's copy-protection. The player will not be able to pass the puzzles on the Cliffs of Logic that guard the Isle of the Sacred Mountain without information from the booklet. The booklet also includes a poem encoding the solution to one of the puzzles in the labyrinth on the Isle of the Sacred Mountain. In the re-released edition, the guide is part of the manual released on the game CD.
KQVI was designed with replayability in mind. The last portion of the game splits into two separate branches, leading to two different major endings. The "short branch" is easier to complete, but the more difficult "long branch" includes puzzles, locations, characters, and information that cannot be found in the short branch. In order to win full points and reach the best possible ending the player must take the long branch, but it is possible to defeat Abdul Alhazred and rescue Cassima at the end of both branches. There are minor variations on the endings of each branch, depending upon which optional tasks the player performs.
This is the first of the games to introduce the magic map as a way of travel to new areas. In KQIII, Gwydion can use it only to return to previously visited screens. In Mask of Eternity, Connor is given a magic map by a good wizard, but while it maps out the area the player is in, they can't teleport unless they've found a teleport circle in at least two lands. This feature is mostly only good for going back to re-visit a land, but there is one point in the game that the player can only reach the next land through teleporting and part of their mission is to trick the map so you can teleport there.
King's Quest VI was a collaboration between veteran designer and King's Quest creator Roberta Williams and industry newcomer Jane Jensen, who would go on to write the critically acclaimed Gabriel Knight games.
Some of the packaging for the game contained an audio CD featuring a song called "Girl in the Tower", which was written and recorded for the game. There was also a pamphlet encouraging players to call a variety of radio stations and urge them to play the single; this campaign was unsuccessful, as many radio stations threatened to sue Sierra. At least one CD version of the game includes this track on the game CD (rather than as a separate CD single) and plays it accompanying the closing credits.
The package containing the original version of the game exists in four versions, varying based on the country and release[1] : black, white, red and blue.
KQVI was initially released for MS-DOS in 1992, on a then-staggering twelve floppy disks with dialogue and narration presented in text only (with the exception of the intro sequence, which was fully voiced). In 1993, an MPC version on CD-ROM was released for Windows and MS-DOS. The Windows version contained higher-resolution character portraits seen when a character was speaking. This version also featured full voice-acting and a retouched interface (the icon bar and items were increased in detail and the text boxes were re-colored from yellow to brown). The game was also ported to the Commodore Amiga (released 1994) and Apple Macintosh.
Each version of the game had different versions of the intro video. The disk version panned around Daventry's entire throne room between conversations. The ship was in 2-d. The CD version had more cuts and fades showing less of the throne room. The ship was fully rendered in 3-D. Some of the other versions only show stills subtitles or text with no images.
The second King's Quest Collection had a number of editions in which the CD with King's Quest VI did not include the "Girl in the Tower" theme song audio CD track, so the Windows version simply crashed during the credits and the DOS version played the credits with no music. http://www.sierrahelp.com/Games/KingsQuest/KQ6Help.html
The King's Quest Collection release by Vivendi in 2006 includes the Windows version of the game, but is set up to run the MS-DOS version with text and speech in DOSBox.
The Amiga version contains a slightly different plot than the PC versions, with a different ending. The final sequence is a combination of the short path and parts of the long path.
This game has two different quests and endings.
For the short quest, Alexander must sneak into the castle disguised as a serving girl with the clothes he receives from Beauty. However, he cannot leave the castle, and thus cannot visit any more islands. He will also be unable to discover where the sacred items are hidden.
For the long quest, every world must be traversed and all puzzles must be solved.
The good ending results in all puzzles being solved throughout every land, the stolen items being discovered, and the genie being captured. This results in the genie bringing everyone to the wedding ceremony, and peace being restored throughout the kingdom.
This results either as a result of the short ending or simply by killing the genie with the mint leaf. This results in the inability to transport everyone in the kingdom to the ceremony, as well as the inability to repair the ferry.
The disk version does not have voice acting (except in the introduction), and pans around the castle more than in the CD version.
The game was reviewed in 1993 in Dragon #192 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 5 out of 5 stars.[2] PC Format magazine was less kind in giving the game a score of 72%, praising the lushly drawn graphics and pleasing sound, but faulting the game for overuse of sudden death and being too limiting.[3]
King's Quest VI was inducted into GameSpot's Greatest Games of All Time (http://www.gamespot.com/features/6144989/index.html).
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