King’s Quest II – Day 1

So the story this time around is that Graham has been the prosperous ruler of Daventry for a year, but he’s getting lonely. He knows it’s time to find a wife, and create an heir for his kingdom, so it doesn’t end up like it was before he took over for the last guy. He holds tryouts, but none of the women/girls in his kingdom are good enough for him, and so he talks to his magic mirror. The mirror shows him the beautiful Princess Valanice, from the kingdom of Kolyma, imprisoned by the evil witch, blah blah blah. Graham tosses on his adventuring cap, instead of the crown and shows up on the beach ready to find her and make her his. How romantic.

Getting a tan on the beach is always a good place to start, soI took a stroll down the beach. A lot of nice new touches this time around. The little waves crash up against the rocks, to add a nice sense of immersion. As usual, wandering down the beach nets me a nice bracelet that looks expensive, and a sweet trident. Who’s the king of the sea now?!


Wandering into the interior, I hope to discover a few interesting locals, but run into Little Red Riding Hood. King’s Quest has the nice way of blending in a few fairy tales into their own mythology to make the odd worlds a bit easier to take, and probably it saved having to come up with a few new ideas along the way for puzzles. Red picked a bunch of flowers for her sick grandma, but lost the treat basket she was brining Granny along the way. “Please find it for me!”

Nice of her to put the basket in her Granny’s mail box just one screen over. Of course she isn’t around when I come back to give it to her so I wandered on to see what else awaited me. You can tell immediately that this game is a huge graphical boost to the previous one. Better looking scenery, and a ton of different little houses with some great details:

The Tree House

The Cave

The Mission (Complete with monk who gives you a silver cross when you pray with him)

The Antique Shop (which was closed)

Castle with an acid filled moat (always need that!)

All this wandering brought me eventually a magical door that held an inscription. Telling me what I needed to find was under the water or the sea or something like that. My true love awaits. I must find a way to open the door. Back to the coast we go.

Along the way I pick up a ton of great adventure game like things, like a bracelet stuck in a hole by one of the many many ponds, a wooden stake, a bowl of hot soup, and a pretty pair of earrings. It seems Kolyma has it’s own fairy that blesses you to protect you from evil things wandering about. I managed to be safe from an evil wizard that attacked and a little gnome that was hell bent on stealing something from me. I found Red on my way back to the coast and gave her the goodies basket, and was so overjoyed she gave me me bunch of flowers she picked for her grandma instead. Um, thanks.

Reaching the coast, I found that I had run into a flirty mermaid. Seems her voice was taken from her since she wasn’t to talkative. I gave her the flowers I’d just gotten as I didn’t really need them (I figure if I’ll probably have to woo the princess with gifts at the end of the game to make her like me, I may as well give jewelry. Though maybe if I just mention the fact that I’ve got a magic treasure chest that is always full of gold, that will help.) She accepted them and called in a gigantic seahorse for me, and swam off with still no word.

Under the sea. Under the sea. Cue the Disney soundtrack.

King Neptune looks at me with a evil eye, and I don’t speak fish very well. Probably didn’t like me hitting on his daughter, Ariel. I give him back the Trident, and he’s all smiles, and opens up a huge clam next to him and reveals a gigantic golden key. Thank you very much.

I trek back all the way across the land to get to the door and finally see my new lady, but alas, there is a second smaller blue door behind the first, with an inscription that tells me to “take to the skies”. Time to accumulate frequent flier miles it seems.

With no clue what to do next I wandered for a bit until I realized that the Antique Shop was now open for business. Nice little old lady inside will give me some old lamp if I give her two pieces of jewelry or get her bird back from an evil witch. I think I’ll take path number two.

I found the witches cave, and lucked into one of the “easter eggs” in the game, where she cruses out of her cave in a batmobile. With her gone out enjoying the weather in the convertible, I sneak into the cave and recover the bird, and return it to it’s previous owner. Overjoyed she gives me the lamp and a bottle with some cloth in it and kicks me out of her shop promptly. Thanks.

And with that I end day one of playing.
Total Score: 72 of 185
Deaths: 2 (falling into a chasm twice)
Total Time: 50 minutes