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Originally Posted by NemelChelovek
EDIT: By the way, Filmman, the things that led to QFG5 were mainly A) QFG4's ending was extremely abrupt and left the game without a sense of closure and B) Dragon Fire had always been a planned entry in the series, while Wages of War (QFG3) had not.
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I challenge.
Spoiler space for two games which are respectively twelve and seven years old... which is sad.
Spoiler:The ending of QFG4 is not abrupt. The QFG3 ending, on the other hand, is very abrupt (probably because this was Sierra in the early nineties and they knew they could get away with doing cliffhangers). The same basic thing happens to the hero at the end of both games, only it's done it two very different ways. The ending of 4 is a long, protracted, triumphant sequence of every character talking about how much they love you and what you did for them. That's just not closure, that's arbitrary closure. That's more than you get from most games. Admittedly, that sequence is only closure for that particular game. But then the QFG series was always pretty episodic, just with recurring characters. But even with QFG4, you get some payoff to some series-long subplots; like Ad Avis coming back. More importantly, Erana, who up to that point had been in the very background of every other game finally gets brought up in a major way and there's some serious payoff there. The only part of the ending which can possibly be called abrupt is the hero getting teleported out at the end. And that's not abrupt; at least not in the same way as QFG3. Throughout the game you have the dreams in which you overhear Erasmus and Fenrus talking about pulling you out of there. It's not sprung at you at the last second, it's built up to. It doesn't come as a shock; again, it's a payoff. And unlike the QFG3 cliffhanger, you know exactly where you're going, who's taking you and why you're going to Silmaria. But even then none of that matters. There's no real suspense; the point of the ending isn't the set-up for QFG5, it's - and I think there's dialogue at the end saying exactly this - that a hero's work is never done. You're a hero and you go on having adventures because that's what you're supposed to do. That's your series finale. It wraps up everything and doesn't force the plot into some arbitrary final conclusion but rather lets it end naturally and logically.
Which is why QFG5 was such a huge disappointment to me. Because it's basically fan fiction. Instead of the QFG4 ending, which I think is rather clever, and even moreso as a series finale (the same applies to GK3, really), this one goes seriously out of it's way to tell you this is the last game ever, we're done, really, that's it, go home. The End. You get married and you save the world and now you're the king and you live happily ever after. That's it, no more games, no more adventures, you're done. And it also feels like fan fiction because it's the Quest for Glory cast reunion. Pretty much every important character comes back and it doesn't work. It seriously strains credibility. But it's done because it's the last game and it is pretty clearly designed exclusively for the fans. And another thing, the Katrina/Erana ressurrection? That completely undermines QFG4 and it doesn't happen for any other reason than 'oh, you liked that character? Sorry we killed her! Here she is, she's back! You can marry her, even!'. QFG5 isn't written to be a good story. It's written to be fan service, and consequently it ends up wholly unsatisfying.
It wasn't really my intention to aim all this at you, more at the 'QFG4 is abrupt and inconclusive' which irritates me, partly because I never ever see the other side of that argument.
this is a little off-topic, isn't it?
