Favorite to least? And what did you like (or dislike?) about each of them?

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Wish list - Include original files:
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/site/for_dos_games_if_theyre_scumvm_also_include_original_files

My Favorite: Quest for Glory 3 (which I guarantee is not an opinion most other people will share) - while the game had its problems, it follows Rakeesh and Uhura, my favorite characters from 2, and expands their world. It is also the first opportunity the player has to actually play as a Paladin. The setting, the various quests (though Thief got the short end of the stick), the mythology, and just in general the whole deal (which is rarely seen - while Egypt is the most over-represented part of Africa in media, the rest of Africa rarely ever sees any attention of this depth). Also I love the music, especially the Heart of the World.

That being said, I would still agree with most criticisms of the game.

The rest of the list:

Quest for Glory 4: An amazing adventure, with plenty to do, the Paladin having more of an identity separate from Fighter, amazing music even on Soundblaster. Eldritch horrors and lore, and yet despite this game being considerably darker in tone and appearance, it still maintains that jovial sense of humor the Sierra game devs had maintained. And the puns, can't forget the love of puns.

It's lower on the list than 3 because when I first played it, I literally couldn't beat it due to game-ending errors, and I don't just mean Error 52 - often I was lucky just to leave the Swamp, even with programs that slowed my CPU down (this was before DOSBox). I had to use a game-included save just to see the ending.

In addition, the combat system is actually my second least favorite of the whole series, though thankfully combat itself isn't all that important.

Quest for Glory 1 VGA: This was my first game in the series. Literally everything about this game reminds me of when I was a young kid. I have the pixels for Erana's Peace burned permanently into my mind's eye, especially the way the fruit shimmered.
I had no idea there was an EGA version at the time, I wouldn't discover that until years later when I was a teenager.
Honestly the whole game still feels like it has a mythology I've yet to tap into. Secrets undiscovered. And I've discovered new things about it as recently as a year ago or so.
Fun fact - for awhile after getting the game, we had to use keyboard controls for the game due to our mouse being incompatible somehow? Or was it that we didn't have a mouse? I don't remember, but I do remember that the game is literally impossible to beat because there are certain things you need to click on and the cursor will skip over them.

1 EGA: Putting this just below the VGA version on the list because of the memories. It's still a solid game, and if this had been my first QFG game, it would be higher on the list.

Quest for Glory 2: The only reason this game is so low on the list is because of the pacing. The game itself is great - in fact I loved it so much as a kid that I never noticed that it had worse graphics or anything than 1 VGA, I was just used to sequels being radically different from first installments due to being an NES kid.
My favorite moments are still joining WIT, visiting the Astrologer, and the tightrope sequence.
The VGA remake was amazing as well, and mostly better in almost every way, though I still find the original to be the most charming of the two.

And now for my least favorite, Quest for Glory 5: I feel bad putting this at the bottom simply because it almost never happened, and without it happening, the series would have ended on a cliffhanger. But no, as impressive as this game was for the time, there are many problems I have with it. In addition, I was a VERY late adopter to the game, so I never had the opportunity to establish an emotional connection with it as a child - I was, in fact, on the cusp of adulthood when I finally got to play this game.

The voice acting is an improvement over 4's, and is the one case where I would say I love it. The various voice actors do quite well at voicing characters, though the lack of Jennifer Hale for Katrina is a bit sad (though understandable).

Graphically... I find this game a lot harder to visually understand compared to any other previous installment. It's not even the 3D models for all the characters, but the often blurry pre-rendered backgrounds that happened a lot around this era. It's a pity because there's some amazingly beautiful environments, but they're hard to appreciate in part due to the fixed camera or the panoramic camera.

Combat-wise, this game is probably the worst out of all of them. Not that combat was ever complicated to begin with, but the combat feels... unfinished and unpolished in this game. Your character has to turn with tank controls to face whatever enemy you're attacking, and if you're using a throwing weapon? Good luck hitting, all the enemy has to do is step an inch in literally any direction as you're throwing, and your projectile weapon will thunk on the ground. Even if they're right in front of you, because the Hero insists on arcing everything he throws.

And unfortunately, unlike 4, combat is a *lot* more important in 5 - the final conflict is resolved entirely through combat and one very simple puzzle. After that, it's literally just a matter of dealing enough damage before the game decides "okay, time to game over."

Again, I feel bad because I know how much this game means to the fanbase (which I, unfortunately, never managed to join until LONG after it had since faded away, partially due to not looking) and how much it means to the developers in just managing to finish in spite of the executive meddling, but I do have to be honest in that it is my least favorite for the reasons listed.

I'm glad some of us can appreciate the third game. I agree that while the gameplay might be lacking, it more than makes up for it with its engrossing story arc, memorable characters, and excellent music. I'd almost contrast it with the first game, where the gameplay was fully fleshed-out but the story was a bit rudimentary.

I've never thought long and hard enough about which game would be my least favorite. At least for me, QFG is one of those series where even the worst game can still be held in high regard. So while the fourth game might be my favorite, I can't decide which one ends up at the bottom of the pile. I guess my finding significant positives in each game prevents me from being overly critical towards any of them. And yes, despite its clunkiness, the fifth game made me nerd out so much when I played through it.

For me it's 4 > 2 = 5 > 1 > 3

Of these, 4, 2, 5 are excellent, 1 is good, 3 is garbage.

1st place: Shadows of Darkness

This was the darkest and most serious of them all. Less in-your-face with the goofy jokes, more room to actually feel something. I sincerely cared about things playing this game more than in the others, except maybe also the last one.

It feels like the only game - outside maybe QFG 5 - where the saving Rusalka quest is possible, without some dumb joke thrown in after you do the most disagreeable part of it.

And the stakes are so much higher. The big evil enemy from the first game shows up - and this time she's barely on the radar, compared to what you're really up against.

The chemistry with Katrina, the mysterious dreams, the excellent foreshadowing tool that was the Tarot, the Tanya/Toby arc, the Paladin questline... just... so many things worked well here about the characters and the story.

The music is good, the combat system I found interesting (I like the strategic feel of playing on auto and controlling things with the sliders).

And of course the voice acting, with some real talent behind it, including the inimitable Jennifer Hale. Truth be told, John Rhys-Davies as the narrator would have sold it all by himself. The improvisation done by the three taverngoes over their written lines was also brilliant. (Though I felt in love with this game first playing the unvoiced, diskette version.)

2nd or 3rd place: Trial by Fire, specifically the remake (not available on GoG, available for free and legally elsewhere on the Internet.)

The best combat system of all the games. By FAR. This is pretty much the strongest reason I rate it this high. It's just fun to get into fights, whereas in other games it's mostly a chore on the way to more important things.

Also, loved being groomed for Paladinhood under Rakeesh.

Not a bad story, sympathetic characters (your Katta hosts, especially), some of the better music in the series. Very fun.

3rd or 2nd place: Dragon Fire

Another one with voice acting, and again, it's (mostly) good voice acting. Listening to the food salesman made my mouth water back in the day, hehe.

The music is perhaps the best in the series.

I mainly love it for, well, providing closure, a satisfying ending that does justice to everything that happened so far. The story treats you as a realized, powerful adventurer, as it should. People address you as "Prince of Shapeir" and take you seriously, both for your own sake and because of your friendship with important people like Rakeesh. Your story gets closure, Rakeesh gets to retire, Erasmus and Fenrus play their parts, Julanar and whatsisface make it here as well...

And you get to meet certain other past character that had been mentioned only by name and deeds, that had me giddy with excitement. You know who I mean.

At the end the story feels complete and satisfying. No unrealized sequel hooks, no important loose ends.

The game gets flak for the change from the usual style to crappy 3D, plus more combat and fewer goofy puzzles. True, but I didn't care. I enjoyed the hell out of this game, including the combat. I was tempted to rate it higher than Trial by Fire.

4th place: Quest for Glory 1

The start of the story. Silly and fun. A tutorial, if you will, and it works well enough. Combat is "okay". Music is "okay".

The humor is extremely derivative, though.

5th place: Wages of War

It's not that it doesn't have any good sides. It does. The conflict underlying the story is good, and if you are a paladin, it feels satisfying to get a continued mentor-apprentice relationship with Rakeesh for a while. The welcome woman at the inn was amusing to flirt with.

It's just that hardly anything else works.

The music is the worst of the 5. Annoying and not fun. I listened to all 5 soundtracks on youtube a few days ago and I couln'd stand this one for very long. I honestly am confused to read that people liked the music in this one. I dreaded the opening sounds every time I entered the jungle/travel screen.

Speaking of travel, it's boring, yet you're supposed travel back to the city several times, which I originally didn't even realize, to get puzzle points for reporting between progressing the story in the Simbani village.

And the mechanics of the game fail in many annoying ways, including how stealth doesn't seem to work, or how it's impossible for most classes to get max puzzle points.

The combat is a rehash of the simplistic QFG 1 combat, except somehow it manages to be worse.

It's just... nothing works very well in this game. The ideas are there, but the way it works out in practice isn't very enjoyable.

I'm partial to 2 and 4 being my favorites, with 1 in the middle of the pack, and 5 and 3 at the bottom.

Never grind your character to his highest potential. It makes the end game too easy and it's a chore. Just let your character evolve naturally.

QFG1: You're a noob adventurer. It' can be the shortest one in terms of playing, as you can zip thru the game pretty quickly once you've completed it once. I also feel that this had the most humor in it.

QFG2: Best combat system out of the series. There's small things all over the city depending on when you visit the areas and you're class. I feel as though this one had the most side quests to offer for each class. The time limit could be a little harsh if you wanted to see everything. That's what replays are for though.

QFG3: This one never felt to me like a game in the series, more like an after thought. Too large of a map, with not enough individual areas to explore. The game also felt that it was designed for a paladin (mostly) or a wizard class.

QFG4: Loved the horror theme for this game, and the music was excellent. The sacrifice at the end actually made my jaw drop when it first happened. For a split-second, I wanted VENGEANCE. Then I realized it happened during one of my favorite songs, so I replayed that section a few more times.

QFG5: Combat system took longer for me to get efficient in than the other games. I did like the idea of the rites, and having to figure out how to get to places. The addition of different weapons being included was a nice touch, though it did seem odd that all of a sudden your character could use something other than a sword or dagger. There's just something off about it to me. Most likely it's because I grew up with the older engine.

There's a light hammer in my house that I have had ever since I received a kids' tool kit as a child. Its head is exactly the size of a keyboard key. Weighing down a key so I can do something else while my QFG character practices a skill is the sole purpose that has been earning this hammer's place in my house for these several decades now.

2, 4, 1, 3, 5.

I admire the second game for its combat elegance, charm, and wonderful story, the fourth for its emotional connections and voice acting (especially the ad-libbing), and the first for how utterly amazing it was when first released. All great games, difficult to relatively rank, but I had to pick. (Oh, and the music was wonderful, even given the limitations of computer sound technology. Aubrey Hodges has released the soundtrack to 4 with real instruments, and the Erana's Staff theme still brings tears to my eyes.)

The third wasn't as solidly developed, thematically - it was added in to provide more development between 2 and what was ultimately 4, and it shows. And 5 simply wasn't done well, with many poor choices - combat is poorly implemented, and it takes so long to simply cross some screens (both in-world and realtime) that you spend much of your time waiting in frustration for something to happen.

The endgames aren't stat-dependent (aside from one or two highly forgiving stat gates) unless you're fighting Khaveen or not spamming Frostbite on the dragon. (I suppose if you don't have the rope and enough points in Agility or any in Magic and Calm you have to as a Fighter though, unless you dishonourably cutscene cheat your way out) - and VGA Khaveen on Hard is tough enough that I actually LOST my first try with a fully-statted Devon, including wishes for Strength and Vitality.

So honestly, I kinda disagree. Unless you're a Wages of War Paladin or spamming Frostbite, the fights are challenging enough even with good stats. As for my list? That's tough, but... assuming VGA versions here.

1. Trial by Fire

This remake came out a decade after the series ended, and it SHOWS. Quality of life improvements, a great combat system, extra jokes alluding to the future of the series, you name it. There's even a blue frog! Devon isn't fond of sucking it, though. Heroine's Quest should have copied this game's homework more closely. (Hero-U is godawful in all respects so don't even) Getting past the cool remake stuff, the core game itself oozes charm, and is reminiscent of a simpler time where you wouldn't get cancelled by making tawdry jokes or having foreign cultures in your setting. X-ray specs anyone? Kind of a shame Devon didn't keep them.

Also, Uhura and Rakeesh. One named after an important Star Trek character from back when it really, REALLY wasn't so woke to have a black character in your prime TV series, the other being Aslan with six limbs and a sword that really is comically small compared to his body. And a bum leg. Uhura's speech patterns were also inspired by a Jamaican that the Coles knew, for double cancellation points.

2. Dragon Fire

I promise this isn't just "newer is better" here. I genuinely liked Dragon Fire's "this is the ending" feel. It reminded me strongly of Mass Effect 3, and in particular the Citadel DLC in that regard. Especially if you have magic, you can feel the vast difference in Devon's power compared to when you first wandered into Spielberg as an untrained raw talent. Everyone knows what you're capable of (except perhaps Magnum, but I still think his supposed overconfidence is just him hamming for the citizens) amd you can even marry up with Erana in the end!... or Katrina, Nawar, or Elsa, I guess. Criticism of the game for being 3D is unfair, honestly. It looked better than FFVII, which came out at about the same time. It's like calling Atari 2600 games ugly for having three sprites. Not having hardware acceleration or scaling to higher resolutions, on the other hand? That would be fair.

I admit that Elsa is incredibly boring in this game though. The generic cliché "strong wahman" was dull even in 1998 - Lara Croft was popular mainly due to avoiding that cliché. It's nice on the rare instance that Magnum manages to kick her backside in the Arena, but not so nice that the Hydra fight actually crashes if you solo it. I really would have preferred Rakeesh to be in her spot, as an established character with more than three lines.

My main criticism is that you don't get to spend any real time with a happy Erana. Even just a eensy weensy postgame date would have been nice. Maybe if the expansion had come out. Sigh. Not even much art of her out there - doesn't help that she looks different in every game either. I don't really care about the lack of nudity for the waifus, because early 3D nudity would have been more laughable than lovable.

3. Wages of War

Sure, this game has significant pacing problems, barrelling right from act one to endgame without a real midgame, but the land of Tarna is pretty great, representing both a quasi-ancient Egypt, and modern African tribes (people have been cancelled as "racist" for doing the same in recent years) while allowing Paladins to run rampant with the power of Soulforge, and Wizards to get their first staves, and use the full kit of spells to win a puzzling duel. Also, Uhura again! Named after an important Star Trek character, and charming as all get out, but I repeat myself. Rakeesh too, but aside from the intro, he's easy to miss now. A little too easy.

Do I need to mention how adorable Manu is? I don't.

The game does kind of suck for Thieves, though. No chance to creep into the rest of Tarna to burglarise some stuffy liontaurs, or help Harami pull off his initial heist to gain his friendship another way. And not a lot was done with the two canonically confirmed good gods, either. Sekmet and Anubis just arrange to slip Devon some LSD. Cool dream sequence, but inconsequential.

4. So You Want To Be A Hero

The beginning of an adventure that, judging by the changing of the seasons from game to game, probably took a year to finish. One of the reaaons I like to play a hybrid is because you actually start as the weakling you're supposed to be, rather than being able to reliably take out the early game daytime enemies. The boxart of both versions of this game is the only boxart where you see Devon losing, after all. There isn't much worldbuilding here, but a good number of characters make multiple appearances, so it's not all bad. If you treat the whole series as one big game, this eases you into the adventure just as it eases Devon into the life of a hero. This game also deserves credit for beating out The Elder Scrolls and Final Fantasy in implementing a good stat-based levelling system.

5. Shadows of Darkness

This game does a lot right, but the breaking bugs and combat system lose it far too many points to come anywhere but last. Inspired by Street Fighter II without any idea what made Street Fighter II good, you hold X to win if you have magic and aren't fighting a rabbit. (Seriously, Devon can guard crush immortal Chernovy wizards with his fireballs and frame trap them on top of eating their projectiles? At least give them Reversal to punish you for not levelling Frostbite!) There are no combos. Stamina costs are exorbitant. The mouse controls are terrible, and you can't do physical specials on keyboard. You can't spend health in place of stamina in close combat. The best way to grind is to fight a bunny and keep running away for stamina regeneration. You can let the game fight for you, which while technically impressive, is boring, and ate development time better served on playtesting.

As for what it does well? The story, the puzzles, the characters, and the atmosphere are pretty good. When my biggest complaint is that you can't use Communication to maintain your dignity in the interrogation scene, that's a good sign. The Rusalks quest is a nice Paladin quest, and while Ad Avis was still somewhat bland (a weakness of this series in general is the villains) he did get some development. I would have included an option (a dishonourable one, but still an option nonetheless) to kill Baba Yaga to get the ritual and humour bar, but I can see why the option to have her in 5 was kept open. The mystery of Erana's identity and fate ate at people who played the games as they came out, and it was a nice payoff - definitely improved by the existence of Wages of War, the one unplanned game.

Wasn't overly fond of Katrina though, but at least there's a good reason (vampire eyes!) that Devon goes along with her blatant manipulations like a lovesick kitten, so that gives her plus points. Would have been nice to see kindness towards Elyssa pay off in making Katrina appreciate our hero's compassion for even undead things - as it is, her infatuation is really just a plot point to bail Devon out and try to add cheap tension to the final encounter, and is completely unearned. It doesn't help that Jennifer Hale is overrated, and really can't sell important moments like that.

This completely contrasts Toby's death and Tanya's genuine, heartwrenching anguish that still makes me cry. Toby doesn't need to earn his meaning to Tanya like how Devon needed to earn his meaning to Katrina - he's not the protagonist, so the bonding can happen offscreen. Damn, that hits as hard as moments in games twenty years younger, and it's why I wish that Erana's joy especially was sold better in Dragon Fire. Still a great game, even if it loses to its sequel and predecessors.

4 > 2 > 1 > 5 > 3